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July 2010 | nautilusint.org | telegraph | 35
books
OFFWATCH
Titanic: hit or myth?
101 Things You Thought You Knew
about the Titanic… but didn’t
by Tim Maltin
Beautiful Books, £12.99
ISBN 978-190-563-6686
There’s still two years to go
Kbefore the centenary of the
Titanic disaster, but the flow of
books about the ship is already in
overdrive. And for those who
thought everything that has been
said comes the ambitiously titled
101 Things You Thought You
Knew About the Titanic… but
didn’t.
Author Tim Maltin, who claims
to have studied the subject for
more than 25 years, is promising a
‘magnum opus’ on the Titanic in
2012 but in the meantime has
produced this work in the hope of
encouraging people to ‘think
differently’ about the incident.
Tackling such hoary chestnuts
as whether all the engineers died
at their posts below deck, whether
there were sufficient lifeboats on
the ship, whether owner Bruce
Ismay had ordered the ship to go
faster than normal, and whether
the band went down playing
Nearer My God to Thee, the book
demolishes many of the myths
that have grown up around the
circumstances of the loss.
In particular, he firmly rejects
the contention that all the lives
could have been saved had the
nearby vessel Californian gone
to the aid of the Titanic
immediately.
However, he puts forward an
equally controversial theory —
arguing that the Titanic delayed
sending a distress call by more
than three-quarters of an hour
and that the eventual message
gave the wrong position for the
ship.
The book also suggests that
Titanic’s master, Captain Edward
Smith, despite being regarded as a
highly skilled and experienced
ship handler, was unfamiliar with
the characteristics of a vessel of
Titanic’s size and was
consequently accident-prone —
narrowly missing another ship
while leaving Southampton.
Particularly interesting is Mr
Maltin’s take on the British
inquiry into the loss. It was a
whitewash, he argues, because it
was conducted by the Board of
Trade — the very body that had
been ‘lulled into a false sense of
security by the shipowners who
advised it’. Despite that, the book
concludes, it did yield some
useful recommendations on
matters such as lifeboats, radio
watches, the frequency of boat
drills and improved standards of
watertight integrity.
Also of interest — and of
particular relevance to today — is
a section dealing with the claims
that the Titanic was ‘unsinkable’.
The book quotes Bruce Ismay’s
evidence to the British inquiry, in
which he stated that the vessel
‘was looked upon as being a
lifeboat in herself’. Given that this
philosophy continues to underpin
the approach to the safety of
contemporary cruiseships, there’s
probably scope for a whole other
book examining such parallels.
In his introduction, the author
suggests that one of the reasons
why the Titanic continues to exert
such a grip upon the public (and
publishers!) is because its loss had
been as shocking to the world as
the destruction of the ‘twin
towers’ in 2001. As a reflection
upon the way in which this
disaster will loom even larger over
the next 18 months, this is of note
and is worthy of further
exploration — if only to observe
the changing public perception
of shipping over the period.
Expletive-filled
stories from
yachting world
Superyacht X-Rated
by Marc Wilder
John Blake Publishing, £7.99
ISBN 978-1844-549702
The marketing material
Kbreathlessly informs us that
this book ‘lifts the lid on the most
exclusive sun, sea and sex holidays in
the world’.
It’s written by a qualified master
mariner who, wisely, has not used his
real name in this action-packed
account of life working as a chief
officer onboard a large private motor
yacht cruising the Mediterranean.
X-rated it most certainly is —
opening with a stream of expletives
that sets the tone for what’s to come.
With copious servings of f-words,
c-words, sex, crime, booze and drugs,
it’s certainly not for the sensitive
reader.
In his introduction, Marc Wilder
describes how he first went to sea —
inspired by a statue of Captain Cook
in Whitby — and served a cadetship
with the Ministry of Defence before
going on to work on ships including
government-owned vessels, squarerigged
sailing ships taking disabled
people to sea and cruise ships.
His book draws from his recent
time spent working as chief officer on
a superyacht based in Monte Carlo.
His job as second in command was to
run the deck department and
manage the crew for the captain.
Every story in Superyacht X-Rated
is based on true events, Mr Wilder
assures us, but many readers will
recognise the familiar maritime
themes of getting back at unpopular
masters, winding up first-trip cadets
and playing practical jokes (boot
polish on the binoculars, to take one
example).
Quite what his colleagues in the
superyacht sector will make of the
book remains to be seen, and quite
what it would do for recruitment into
the industry might be interesting.
As a read, it fairly rattles along but
the constant barrage of profanities
and pranks can get a bit wearing. A
few more changes of tone and a bit
more depth about colleagues
onboard would be welcome.
However, if the book does capture the
reality of working life then perhaps it
is no surprise when one of the main
characters decides he had had
enough of his lifestyle: ‘It’s fun when
you’re growing up because it’s
exciting and you never know what’s
going to happen,’ he reflects.
Loss account
with lessons
for sailors
Sunk Without Trace
Paul Gelder (ed)
Adlard Coles Nautical, £8.99
ISBN 978-1-4081-1200-7
Yachting Monthly editor Paul
KGelder’s Sunk Without Trace
features 30 dramatic true life
accounts of yachts lost at sea, and the
safety lessons that can be learned
from them.
It is a follow-up to his best seller
Total Loss, and covers incidents across
the globe, including in Dutch and UK
waters, involving a wide variety of
craft from cruising yachts to oceanracers,
multihulls, sloops, gaff-cutters,
a yawl-rigged boeier (also known as a
‘Dutchman’) and a barge yacht.
These stories are collected from
various sources spanning from 1935
to February this year. Some chapters
are Gelder’s own write-ups of
yachting incidents, some are derived
from other authors, including firsthand
accounts, and many from
articles in motley yachting
publications (including an undated
piece from The Old Gaffers’
Association Newsletter).
All are vividly ‘squeaky bum’-
inducing. One survivor, whose 32ft
cutter struck something hard south of
Barbados — possibly wreckage or a
large tree trunk just below the surface
— causing serious leakage, recounts:
‘To realise suddenly that one is on a
sinking ship, far from land, outside of
any shipping lane and with no
equipment on board is most
depressing, and perhaps even more
so on a pitch dark night, windy and
with frequent rain squalls. But
however unhappy I was, I never
stopped trying to figure out how to
save my own life.’
Yachties would do well to
diligently study the safety tips,
although all bar the most
superstitious may choose to ignore
the quirky: ‘Never change the colour
of your boat — it’s considered
unlucky.’
Even if one’s boat is in tip-top
condition and best practice safety
measures are observed, yachting can
be perilous. But as one hardy survivor
in the book imperturbably puts it: ‘If
you can’t cope with this, then don’t
go to sea. But don’t get in a car
either, and don’t cross the road to get
your morning paper!’
Enjoyable tales
of messing on
the Thames
Mudlarking: Thames Estuary
Cruising Yarns
by Nick Ardley
Amberley Publishing, Cirencester
Road, Chalford, GL6 8PE
£16.99
ISBN 9-781848-684928
f www.amberley-books.com
Retired Nautilus member Nick
KArdley (profiled on page 28)
makes a welcome return to the world
of publishing with Mudlarking — a
whimsical account of his voyages of
exploration in his wooden clinker sloop
Whimbrel around the rivers, creeks and
islands of the Thames Estuary.
Each place on the journey is
described in detail, with observations
on the natural phenomena to be
found there and well-researched
information about local history. The
joys of sailing are also a major theme
of the book, and there are many
lighthearted tales of life onboard the
Whimbrel with the skipper and his
mate (his wife Christobel).
Mr Ardley won a strong local
following with his previous book of
sailing yarns, Salt Marsh and Mud,
and word is now spreading via the
internet. The follow-up, Mudlarking,
is likely to have wide appeal at a time
when the British public are wearying
of airport security and flight
cancellations and looking to spend
their holidays closer to home. Nick
Ardley could soon find his favourite
haunts a little busier, thanks to the
people he has inspired to visit.
Memories
of Bristol
Looking Back at Bristol Channel Shipping
by Andrew Wiltshire
Bernard McCall, £16.00
ISBN 978-1-902953-46-5
The Bristol Channel once abounded with
Ktraffic, and Andrew Wiltshire’s book captures
many of the vessels that sailed its waters in full
glossy colour.
Looking Back at Bristol Channel Shipping is a
sequel to a 2006 book on the same theme, and
covers additional locations including the former
small port of Watchet (now a marina), Gloucester,
Sharpness on the Severn estuary, and the tidal
harbour at Port Talbot.
Five hundred photographs, many spanning the
entire width of a page, are featured, showing a wide
variety of vessels — paddlesteamers, tugs,
dredgers, general cargo ships, tankers, colliers,
tramp ships, barges, bulkers, ore carriers, passenger
excursion vessels, cable layers, naval craft and
more. Each image is accompanied by a detailed
caption.
The book will delight ship-spotters; one is
repeatedly struck by how handsome and beautifully
proportioned many of these ships were.
However, a chapter giving an historical overview
of Bristol shipping would have been useful.
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