Details about Titanic emerge at library


By Edward Hirst
Rowan Public Library
After striking an iceberg in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the frigid waters of the North Atlantic echoed with the desperate pleas for help from more than 1,500 passengers of the ocean liner Titanic.
As what was just hours earlier the crown jewel of the White Star Line began to sink towards the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from the effects of hypothermia, an even more awful silence settled over the sea. The sights and sounds from that night would haunt each of the vessel’s 705 survivors for the rest of their days.
In “Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage,” the historian Hugh Brewster weaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with an account of the fateful maiden crossing. Through research he accurately depicts the ship’s brief history, presenting the latest thoughts on everything from when and how the lifeboats were loaded to the last tune played by the orchestra.
Although we may think we know the story of Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable and luxurious ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America in 1912, very little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope in the aftermath of this horrific event? How did they come to remember that night, a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town?
Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs and diaries as well as interviews with survivors’ family members, journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals in “Shadow of the Titanic” how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so wracked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanic’s shadow.
Of the families that boarded the unsinkable Titanic in 1912, only a fourth stayed together during the sinking and arrived safely in New York. Albert and Sylvia Caldwell and their 10-month-old son, Alden, were one of those rare Titanic families. Author Julie Williams draws on first-person accounts from her great-uncle Albert and extensive research to tell the fascinating story of the young family who were saved by a combination of luck, pluck, Albert’s outgoing nature, Sylvia’s illness, and Alden’s helplessness in “A Rare Titanic Family.” Their detailed story of the short life of the Titanic and their lucky rescue aboard the ill-starred Lifeboat 13 has never been fully told in Titanic literature.
You may also visit the library’s Stanback Auditorium on Monday, July 30, at 7 p.m. when Julie Williams brings the story of her great-uncle, Albert Caldwell, who survived the Titanic, along with his wife and baby.

Summer reading programs: This summer, Rowan Public Library invites kids to join the library for exciting programs and great reads with Dream Big, Read!