Titanic

Stuart Robertson is a Naval and maritime expert and editor and is the author of The War at Sea and The Pirate's Pocket Book. He is also the author of one of the best-selling Amazing and Extraordinary Fact's series books, "Titanic", published by Rydon Publishing.

Introduction
Harland and Wolff: Belfast's steely identity - The birthplace of Titanic
From Liverpool to Southampton via bankruptcy - The White Star Line's chequered history
Building for comfort not speed - Blue Riband takes a back seat
American-financed, American-owned... - How British was Titanic?
Heavy metal - The Olympic class on the stocks
Slip sliding away - Launch day
It's big - Largest moving man-made object on Earth
Ill-starred sister? - The Olympic and the origins of the `unsinkable' description
The epitome of safety at sea - Titanic's state of the art design philosophy
The eerie foresight of Robertson and Stead - Predictions of the disaster?
A doomed ship? - Nonsense or truth?
A quick jaunt down the lough - Titanic's trials - and a baptism of fire?
`Not very good material for a story' - The confident Captain Smith
The embodiment of luxury afloat - Titanic's unique selling points
Who sailed on the Titanic? - And where did they come from?
How many? - And in what class?
Proud point of departure - Southampton for the first and last time
Biscuit and grog of the highest quality - Provisioning the world's most luxurious ship
A room of one's own - Accommodation aboard Titanic
The points of no return - Getting on at Cherbourg and Queenstown
Unusual ways of boarding - Stories of stowaways and kidnappings
Rearranging the deckchairs... - Pastimes aboard ship
Fit to bust - What's for dinner? And where?
Morse, Marconi and messaging - The value of wireless aboard ship
Flags and call-signs - How Titanic identified herself at sea
You have been warned - Ice warnings received - and ignored?
`Ice, right ahead' - Up in the crow's nest with the lookouts
The gash that was actually a buckle - What's the real damage?
The chief designer of the Titanic, Thomas Andrews - There at the beginning, there at the end
Bad tidings - The men in the mail room
Binoculars and searchlights - Would they have made a difference?
That iceberg - Where is it now?
CQD or SOS? - Titanic's distress calls
The show must go on - The Titanic's stoic musicians
Signalling to the end - The scene in the wireless room
Make that the last verse... - The musicians' last hurrah
`Be British, boys, be British!' - The last words and deeds of Captain Smith
`A queer feeling' - The unsettled chief officer, Henry Wilde
The evacuation under way - The scandal of the half-filled lifeboats
Women, children... - And Americans first?
Titanic's last hour - The giant slips under the waves
The Strauses - Together forever
You can't take it with you... - John Jacob Astor IV
From steerage to dressing Guggenheim - Bedroom steward Henry Etches
Hypothermia or drowning? - Life expectancy in the North Atlantic
The Carpathia to the rescue - Cunard collects the casualties
The tragic inactivity of the Californian - What was she doing?
The news spreads... - Inaccurately
The Mackay-Bennett and Halifax - Bringing the dead back to shore
Titanic's grim statistics - Who lived and who died
The authorities investigate - The US and British inquiries
Taking the rough with the smooth - How did White Star treat Third class passengers?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing - The question of Captain Smith's negligence
Anyone seen my Marmalade Machine? - The curious possessions lost aboard Titanic
The tangled bureaucracy of death - Why the official tolls don't match up
Southampton mourns - A fitting maritime memorial
Cold steel - Was the Titanic's hull too brittle in cold water?
It's all a question of luck - The indomitable Violet Jessop
On the silver screen - Titanic in the cinema
Titanic back under the hammer - The trade in memorabilia
Secret assignment for Ballard - Cold War casualties are proving ground for Titanic search
Scattered across the sea-bed - The resting places of the wreck
The slumbering giant disturbed - The ethical questions of visiting the wreck
The last survivors of the Titanic - Lillian Asplund and Millvina Dean
Titanic sails up the Thames - Tragedy, tourism and trade
`Rusticles' - What's eating the Titanic?
Bibliography
Web resources
Index