THE TITANIC AND THE CALIFORNIAN

by Peter Padfield ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 1966

Something of a detective story, the titanic examines the records of a U.S. Senate hearing and of a British formal investigation into the famous disaster. The object of the examination is to exonerate Captain Stanley Lord of the monstrous charge that his ship, the Californian, knew of the Titanic's plight but did nothing to aid the victims. Captain Lord was actually found guilty of such negligence by members of the British board of enquiry. And yet all the hard evidence proves just the contrary, that he could not possibly have known that the Titanic was sinking. At the time Captain Lord attempted to clear his name, but the war wiped him out of the news. Then, in 1957, when he read Walter Lord's A Night to Remember, which repeated the canard, Lord --at 81--petitioned to have his case reopened. When Peter Padfield discovered the false charge's flimsy support, and the evident fact that the original enquiry was rigged to offer the howling public a scapegoat, his ""blood bubbled"" and he began to look back in anger--and ""not manufactured, literary anger."" The narrative is implemented with court quotations and even though it is interesting, thoughts about a readership do not surface readily.

Pub Date: April 14, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION