Saturday 14 July 2012

Book ~ "Titanic: The Canadian Story" (1998) Alan Hustak

From Amazon ~ This is the untold saga of the 130 Canadian passengers aboard the ill-fated luxury liner bound for Canada, the Titanic. Drawn from interviews across Canada with direct descendants and relatives of Canadians who sailed on the Titanic's maiden voyage, this book unearths historic photographs and stories that contribute another dimension to the familiar tale. Chronicled are the poignant takes of passengers like Quigg Baxter, the young Montreal hockey player who risked all to smuggle his Belgian fiancee aboard; the Fortune family from Winnipeg, who failed to heed a clairvoyant's warning; and Harry Markland Molson, the richest Canadian aboard, who was persuaded by Toronto millionaire Arthur Peuchen to extend his stay in England and sail home with him on the Titanic. The scandalous behavior of passenger Joseph Fynney is disclosed, as is the story of the young honeymooners Bert and Vera Dick of Calgary, who started an enduring legend about the disaster. Some books insist the Titanic's last victim, found in a lifeboat a month after the disaster, was from New Jersey; others say he was from Chicago. In fact he was Thomson Beattie of Winnipeg. These stories and others have been overlooked or ignored by American and British historians and enthusiasts who have written about the Titanic.

With it being the 100th anniversary, there has been lots of attention this year to the sinking of the Titanic.

This is an interesting book because it tells the stories of the 130 Canadians who were on board.  There isn't a lot of detail about them, just enough so you know who they were and why they were on the Titanic.

The book starts with the building and launch of the Titanic, then tells us who the Canadians on board were, what happened when the Titanic hit the iceberg and started sinking, and what happened to the bodies when they were brought to Halifax.

It is a high level coverage of the story with just the right amount of detail for me.

1 comment:

Perogyo said...

I never realized there were that many Canadians onboard!