Her Name, Titanic

Although this book is supposedly about the sinking and finding of the Titanic the true story in this book is about the effect the Titanic has had on all those who have been in contact with her. Charles Pellegrino's emotional narrative on both the sinking and the discovery of this special ship keep this from being just another dry documentary. Of special intrest (especially in retrospect) is his description of how anyone who has come in contact with her (Titanic) has had their life altered by the experience. Remember this book was written BEFORE the James Cameron blockbuster and look at the effect Titanic has had on his life. Recommended for anyone who is a Titanic buff.

This unique and fascinating book goes beyond any TITANIC bookthat has ever been written. It is perhaps the most dramatic account of the sinking of the legendary "unsinkable" Cunard liner -- and of the incredible, science fiction-like finding of the ship."As ropes were unhooked and boat number fourteen struck out, portholes still glowed below the surface. From five feet under, in a room that was still unflooded, a man was peering out into the ocean. Adjacent portholes illumunated the white bottom of a lifeboat. Looking up, he watched it cast away..."Time seemed to have come unstuck the day the TITANIC's grave was discovered. An empty lifeboat davit turned up on the robot ARGO's tv screens, and suddenly it was 1912 again, suddenly the horrors came spewing out like a nightmare from the past. Scientiests burst into tears, and many who saw those first pictures suffered what they later called minor nervous breakdowns. The world looked on, dumbfounded by the fallibility of man's suppsedly most invincible creations.HER NAME, TITANIC includes a vivid portrait of explorer Robert Ballard, the brilliant leader of the expedition that discovered the TITANIC's remains. The author portrays Ballard and his crew in a compelling style unlike that of any other book on the subject. Charles Pellegrino is a scientist as well as an author, and he describes in riveting detail the scientific aspects of the machines and the processes involved in the expeditions.But more than that, this is the first book to go beyond the headlines. By delving deep into the meaning of the TITANIC, which has evolved slowly from tragedy to symbol, and by putting himself into the minds of the people who play the characters in the drama. Charles Pellegrino has created a spellbinding work of oceanography that succeeds in illuminating new truths about the meaning of science -- and about the tragedies and joys of the human adventure.

Because many of the stories Pellegrino told appeared in no other books, including the British and American Inquiries into the sinking, I and other Titanic Historical Society members bought into the widely-voiced notion that Pellegrino's facts were "all made up." As it turns out, he and Walter Lord have over the years assembled an entire library of unpublished expedition logs and survivors' accounts, the full contents of which were recently reproduced for THS and Earthship tv. Referring to the accounts as "a real eye-opener," THS historian Don Lynch, who recently sailed with Pellegrino on James Cameron's 3-D Imax filming expedition to the Titanic, found the author to be a true seeker, blessed with hyper-energy and an undying sense of wonder that makes him seem at times like an overgrown child, "if not occasionally like a class 1-A pain in the neck... but a lovable pain in the neck". As for the availability of the library, Pellegrino has begun to post it on his web site, fully annotated, and downloadable by an "honor system" by which readers will hopefully send donations to the Michael J. Fox organization for Parkinson's disease research (where Fox makes sure that every dime goes directly to research). This tells me everything I need to know about Pellegrino and the Titanic.

I came to this book through a rather round-about path, first introduced to the author through some papers he had written on advanced nuclear propulsion systems for rockets. Then some of my colleagues at the Air and Space Museum told me that the guy wrote mind-bending techno-thrillers on the side (and he does!), and finally I came to his non-fiction. I happen to be a hard-core engineer/test pilot and have always considered myself about as hard-boiled as they come. But when I read about Thomas Andrews and his men in the engine room - and about Rosa Abott and her two boys, I was really overcome and I just had to put the book down and leave the room before my wife and the kids saw that my eyes were full of tears.

I have noticed that Paul Quinn's excellent books have been sharply criticized as being based on no new information. Nevermind that he is one of the few people who really does the hard and much required work of studying the details of the British and American inquiries into the loss of the Titanic. Then, when Pellegrino comes along with books based on actual expedition research combined with nearly a half century of unpublished letters and collected diaries - the collection being the life's work of Walter Lord (one of America's most respected historians) - these same Quinn critics attack Pellegrino specifically because he presents information they have not read before. They claim, without investigating any further, that because it's not in the British or American inquiries it must be all made up. So you're damned if you do present new information, damned if you don't. It seems to me that new writers on the subject of Titanic just can't win for losing.When I wrote to Pellegrino for information on Titanic survivors Edith Russell and Alfred White, he sent me copies of letters and memoirs. This does not seem to me like someone who is "making it all up." The stories may seem unbelievable, but that is precisely why the titanic stirs so many emotions. It is, as Pellegrino writes, "all the wondrous horror of a Greek tragedy penned by God with Shakespeare as his muse."