The Company of the Dead
question
Misspelled name on purpose?
Brittany
Jul 25, 2012 06:30AM
Let me preface this by saying that I am only 3 chapters in, but this is bothering me enough to try to find an answer and I've been unsuccessful on Google. Did Kowalski misspell Lightoller's name on purpose? I've been interested in the Titanic story/event/disaster/whatever you want to call it since 1994 and have read quite a few books and watched countless documentaries on it. The only time I ever saw Lightoller's name spelled with an 'h' was in a newspaper article. His autobiography lacks an h in the spelling of his name. I would have guessed he could spell his own name. However, this could also just be something that got past the editors, because on the first page of my copy the word "strFJains" appears instead of "strains" so maybe I just have a copy with leftover mistakes? It just bothers me because it feels like someone is trying to talk about something I love but I can't take them seriously because they didn't research well enough to spell a name correctly.
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Thank you!!
I felt the exact same thing. I too have wondered about whether there could be a reason for the name to be misspelled on purpose. However, as he identifies the man beyond any doubt (after all, the Titanic only had one second officer ever), I don't see what role could an intentional typo serve.
And then I noticed that the real name of the Lightholler in the book is said to be John Jacob Astor II (while the Astor that died in the Titanic was John Jacob Astor IV), which cast a doubt on the author's research even more.
I felt the exact same thing. I too have wondered about whether there could be a reason for the name to be misspelled on purpose. However, as he identifies the man beyond any doubt (after all, the Titanic only had one second officer ever), I don't see what role could an intentional typo serve.
And then I noticed that the real name of the Lightholler in the book is said to be John Jacob Astor II (while the Astor that died in the Titanic was John Jacob Astor IV), which cast a doubt on the author's research even more.
deleted member
Apr 06, 2015 08:03PM
0 votes
Glad somebody pointed this out. This bothered me through the entire book.
Keep reading. It all comes together as you will see. I just finished this yesterday and my one comment is that it was too damn long.
It just kept going on and on and one. He could have cut about 200 pages and it would have made an even better book
It just kept going on and on and one. He could have cut about 200 pages and it would have made an even better book
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