Joseph Chipperfield, author of Dark Fury and other animal stories, in telling the story of the Titanic creates an atmosphere of suspense, pathos and tragedy. Using a young Irish ship worker as a central character, he follows the career of the ship from its construction, through its sensational launching, to its violently concluded maiden voyage. Forebodings of disaster haunt the wake of the Titanic despite its reputation of being the ""unsinkable ship"", and Joseph Chipperfield's portrayal of her final hour, poised, stern at a ninety degree angle to the Northern Sea, stark against a cold, brilliant sky, is a gripping climax to this vivid and penetrating book.