The Loss of the S.S. Titanic

by Laurence Beesley

Overview

The Loss of the S.S. Titanic is a classic Titanic biography and a fascinating and gripping actual account from a survivor of the R.M.S. Titanic, Laurence Beesley. His words bring you as close as you can possibly be to that great disaster at sea.

"The circumstances in which this book came to be written are as follows. Some five weeks after the survivors from the Titanic landed in New York, I was the guest at luncheon of Hon. Samuel J. Elder and Hon. Charles T. Gallagher, both well-known lawyers in Boston. After luncheon I was asked to relate to those present the experiences of the survivors in leaving the Titanic and reaching the Carpathia.

When I had done so, Mr. Robert Lincoln O'Brien, the editor of the Boston Herald, urged me as a matter of public interest to write a correct history of the Titanic disaster, his reason being that he knew several publications were in preparation by people who had not been present at the disaster, but from newspaper accounts were piecing together a description of it. He said that these publications would probably be erroneous, full of highly coloured details, and generally calculated to disturb public thought on the matter. He was supported in his request by all present, and under this general pressure I accompanied him to Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company, where we discussed the question of publication."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162577164
Publisher:	Whispering Pines Press
Publication date:	07/08/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	443 KB

About the Author

Lawrence Beesley (31 December 1877 - 14 February 1967) was an English science teacher, journalist and author who was a survivor of the sinking of RMS Titanic.

One of the survivors of the sinking of Titanic in April 1912, Beesley wrote a successful book about his experience, The Loss of the SS Titanic (June 1912), published just nine weeks after the disaster. He saw two second class women who tried to get on a lifeboat being instructed to go back to their own deck, and that their lifeboats were waiting there.
As Lifeboat No. 13 was being launched on the Boat Deck, no women or children were in immediate sight, but it seemed there was room for more. As a result, Beesley was instructed to jump into the lifeboat just before it launched. He managed to survive a subsequent incident where Lifeboat No. 15 nearly landed on top of No. 13. The leading stoker of boiler room No.6, Fred Barrett, managed to cut the ropes connecting the boat to the falls at the last minute, and those in both boats emerged unharmed. Beesley and the rest of the survivors were picked up by RMS Carpathia in the early morning of 15 April.
During the filming of A Night to Remember inpooduring the sinking scene, hoping to 'go down with the ship'. But he was spotted by the director, Roy Ward Baker, who vetoed this unscheduled appearance due to actors' union rules. These events are parodied in Julian Barnes' novel A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters, where Beesley makes a brief appearance as a fictional character.
Beesley was portrayed by actor David Warner (who later played fictional character Lovejoy in James Cameron's 1997 Titanic film) in the 1979 dramatisation of the voyage and sinking, S.O.S. Titanic. He is the grandfather of New York Times science editor Nicholas Wade. Beesley was also portrayed by Lawrence Bennett in 1999 musical stage adaptation Titanic.