A Night to Remember Quotes

“The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the "unsinkable ship" -- perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement -- going down the first time it sailed.

But it went beyond that. If this supreme achievement was so terribly fragile, what about everything else? If wealth mean so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“The night was a magnificent confirmation of "women and children first," yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than First Class men.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward all was tumult. That is why, to anybody who lived at the time, the Titanic more than any other single event marks the end of the old days, and the beginning of a new, uneasy era.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“But legends are part of great events, and if they help keep alive the memory of gallant self-sacrifice, they serve their purpose.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“The clock in the wireless shack said 12:45 A.M. when the Titanic sent the first SOS call in history.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“This was the era when gentlemen formally offered their services to "unprotected ladies" at the start of an Atlantic voyage.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“But along with the prejudices, some nobler instincts also were lost. Men would go on being brave, but never again would they be brave in quite the same way. These men on the Titanic had a touch--there was something about Ben Guggenheim changing to evening dress . . . about Howard Case flicking his cigarette as he waved to Mrs. Graham . . . or even about Colonel Gracie panting along the decks, gallantly if ineffectually searching for Mrs. Candee. Today nobody could carry off these little gestures of chivalry, but they did that night.
An air of noblesse oblige has vanished too.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Try and get off with Major Butt”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“What troubled people especially was not just the tragedy—or even its needlessness—but the element of fate in it all. If the Titanic had heeded any of the six ice messages on Sunday … if ice conditions had been normal … if the night had been rough or moonlit … if she had seen the berg 15 seconds sooner—or 15 seconds later … if she had hit the ice any other way … if her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher … if she had carried enough boats … if the Californian had only come. Had any one of these “ifs” turned out right, every life might have been saved. But they all went against her—a classic Greek tragedy.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“It is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on all that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“If wealth meant so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“He understood ships the way some men are supposed to understand horses.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“In the case of the living, the Register carefully ran the phrase, 'Arrived Titan-Carpath, April 18, 1912.' The hyphen represented history's greatest sea disaster.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember.

“Perhaps her most arresting feature was her watertight construction. She had a double bottom and was divided into 16 watertight compartments. These were formed by 15 watertight bulkheads running clear across the ship. Curiously, they didn’t extend very far up. The first two and the last five went only as high as D Deck, while the middle eight were carried only up to E Deck. Nevertheless, she could float with any two compartments flooded, and since no one could imagine anything worse than a collision at the juncture of two compartments, she was labeled “unsinkable.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Her weight—46,328 gross tons … 66,000 tons displacement. Her dimensions—882.5 feet long … 92.5 feet wide … 60.5 feet from waterline to Boat Deck, or 175 feet from keel to the top of her four huge funnels. She was, in short, 11 stories high and four city blocks long. Triple screw, the Titanic had two sets of four-cylinder reciprocating engines, each driving a wing propeller, and a turbine driving the center propeller. This combination gave her 50,000 registered horsepower, but she could easily develop at least 55,000 horsepower. At full speed she could make 24 to 25 knots.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Lowe arrived just in time … took them all aboard No. 14 … then set sail again for the Carpathia, still towing D.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“The Titanic somehow lowered the curtain on this way of living. It never was the same again. First the war, then the income tax, made sure of that.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence. Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady, orderly, civilized life. For 100 years the Western world had been at peace. For 100 years technology had steadily improved. For 100 years the benefits of peace and industry seemed to be filtering satisfactorily through society. In retrospect, there may seem less grounds for confidence, but at the time most articulate people felt life was all right. The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the “unsinkable ship”—perhaps man’s greatest engineering achievement—going down the first time it sailed.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Never again would men fling a ship into an ice field, heedless of warnings, putting their whole trust in a few thousand tons of steel and rivets. From then on Atlantic liners took ice messages seriously, steered clear, or slowed down. Nobody believed in the “unsinkable ship.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“But most of the women entered the boats--wives escorted by their husbands, single ladies by the men who had volunteered to look out for them. This was the era when gentlemen formally offered their services to "unprotected ladies" at the start of an Atlantic voyage. Tonight the courtesy came in handy.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“They were dining-saloon stewards, indulging in the time-honored pastime of all stewards off duty--they were gossiping about their passengers." ”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Why the others didn't is part of the mystery why trained men in identical situations should react so differently.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“The bulkhead between the fifth and sixth compartments went only as high as E Deck. If the first five compartments were flooded, the bow would sink so low that water in the fifth compartment must overflow into the sixth. When this was full, it would overflow into the seventh, and so on. It was a mathematical certainty, pure and simple. There was no way out.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Seen and unseen, the great and the unknown tumbled together in a writhing heap as the bow plunged deeper and the stern rose higher.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Mrs. George Widener was met not by automobile but by a special train—consisting of a private Pullman, another car for ballast, and a locomotive.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Suddenly he was amazed to see a lifeboat floating near the starboard side. He phoned the bridge—did they know there was a boat afloat? An incredulous voice asked who he was. Rowe explained, and the bridge then realized he had been overlooked. They told him to come to the bridge right away and bring some rockets with him.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Possession of the ice didn’t remain a Third Class monopoly for long.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

“Robertson called his ship the Titan; the White Star Line called its ship the Titanic. This is the story of her last night.”
― Walter Lord, A Night to Remember