On April 15th, 1912, the RMS Titanic slipped beneath the waters of the North Atlantic, taking 1500 people to their deaths. Only about 700 people survived, one of whom was 1st class passenger John B "Jack" Thayer Jr, who was on the ship till nearly the end, and then spent an unforgettable night, huddled on top of an overturned lifeboat waiting for rescue with over two dozen others. Although his mother survived, his father perished in the frigid waters.Jack described his experiences in various writings from 1912 to1940. For the first time, these are compiled into one volume, with footnotes and analysis, allowing us to witness his own experiences that night.

'A vivid account of how the TITANIC sank by survivor Jack Thayer' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH. 'A dramatic first-hand account... TITANIC survivor reveals the horrifying cries of the luxury liner's dying victims' THE DAILY MAIL. On April 14, 1912, John B. 'Jack' Thayer III the 17-year-old heir to a Pennsylvania railroad fortune, was riding in first class with his mother, father and their maid on the most spectacular ship of its era - the TITANIC. Jack was one of only a handful of survivors who escaped by jumping into the freezing Atlantic as the TITANIC sank and spent the next five hours clinging onto the last lifeboat that was swept off the ship's boat deck upturned. He barely survived the disaster, and his detailed and shocking account of that fateful night has riveted those he recounted it to in the following decades. Finally, in 1940, he wrote down what happened, printing 500 copies for his family. Five years later, after the tragic loss of his son in the Second World War, Jack Thayer committed suicide, and his story was mostly forgotten. This new edition published in 2018 includes the historically important series of six drawings by Lewis Skidmore a young art teacher aboard the CARPATHIA (which saved the TITANIC survivors). Jack described to Lewis the stages of the TITANIC'S demise, which Skidmore drew. Critically it shows the ship breaking in two as she sank. Many survivors refuted this assessment but seventy years later Jack and others was proved right when the wreck was discovered resting on the seabed in two halves. It also includes other bonus material, Jack's earlier, much shorter accounts of his amazing escape published in 1912 and 1913.ABOUT THE AUTHOR John 'Jack' B. Thayer III, was born in Philadelphia on 24 December 1894 into the wealthy and aristocratic Thayer family. His father was John Thayer II who ran the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, his mother, socialite Marian Thayer. After surviving the disaster he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, served as an artillery officer in the First World War, went into banking and was later financial vice president of the University of Pennsylvania. He committed suicide on September 20, 1945 following several years of depression, he was found in a car in Philadelphia his throat and wrists cut. He was survived by his wife Lois Cassatt, son John, and three daughters, Lois, Julie and Pauline.

A cloth bag containing eight copies of the title.

This original and “meticulously researched retelling of history’s most infamous voyage” (Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author) uses the sinking of the Titanic as a prism through which to examine the end of the Edwardian era and the seismic shift modernity brought to the Western world. “While there are many Titanic books, this is one readers will consider a favorite” (Voyage). In April 1912, six notable people were among those privileged to experience the height of luxury—first class passage on “the ship of dreams,” the RMS Titanic: Lucy Leslie, Countess of Rothes; son of the British Empire Tommy Andrews; American captain of industry John Thayer and his son Jack; Jewish-American immigrant Ida Straus; and American model and movie star Dorothy Gibson. Within a week of setting sail, they were all caught up in the horrifying disaster of the Titanic’s sinking, one of the biggest news stories of the century. Today, we can see their stories and the Titanic’s voyage as the beginning of the end of the established hierarchy of the Edwardian era. Writing in his signature elegant prose and using previously unpublished sources, deck plans, journal entries, and surviving artifacts, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of these first-class travelers to immerse us in a time of unprecedented change in British and American history. Through their intertwining lives, he examines social, technological, political, and economic forces such as the nuances of the British class system, the explosion of competition in the shipping trade, the birth of the movie industry, the Irish Home Rule Crisis, and the Jewish-American immigrant experience while also recounting their intimate stories of bravery, tragedy, and selflessness. Lavishly illustrated with color and black and white photographs, this is “a beautiful requiem” (The Wall Street Journal) in which “readers get the story of this particular floating Tower of Babel in riveting detail, and with all the wider context they could want” (Christian Science Monitor).

IN the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the icy waters of the North Atlantic reverberated with the desperate screams of more than 1,500 men, women, and children—passengers of the once majestic liner Titanic. Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, an even more awful silence settled over the sea. The sights and sounds of that night would haunt each of the vessel’s 705 survivors for the rest of their days. Although we think we know the story of Titanic—the famously luxurious and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—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, award-winning journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so racked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanic’s shadow. Some reputations were destroyed, and some survivors were so psychologically damaged that they took their own lives in the years that followed. Andrew Wilson brings to life the colorful voices of many of those who lived to tell the tale, from famous survivors like Madeleine Astor (who became a bride, a widow, an heiress, and a mother all within a year), Lady Duff Gordon, and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, to lesser known second- and third-class passengers such as the Navratil brothers—who were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father. Today, one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to our understanding of this enduringly fascinating story.

Violet Jessop's life is an inspiring story of survival. Born in 1887 in Argentina, the eldest child of Irish immigrants, at the age of 21 she became the breadwinner for her widowed mother and five siblings when she commenced a career as a stewardess and nurse on some of the most famous ocean going vessels of the day. Throughout her 40 year time at sea she survived an unbelievable series of events including the sinking of the TITANIC. “One awful moment of empty, misty blackness enveloped us in its loneliness, then an unforgettable, agonizing cry went up from 1500 despairing throats, a long wail and then silence and our tiny craft tossing about at the mercy of the ice field.” For most people one sinking would be enough. But four years later Violet, now a nurse with the British Red Cross, was on board the World War I hospital ship BRITANNIC when it struck a mine and sank to the bottom of the Aegean. To her, this disaster was even more horrifying-- “Just as life seeming nothing but a whirling, choking ache, I rose to the light of day, my nose barely above the little lapping waves. I opened my eyes on an indescribable scene of slaughter, which made me shut them again to keep it out." By the end of her story we have a met a woman who could handle whatever life threw at her with determination and good humor. She knew that only by her own strength of character would she survive. But Titanic Survivor is much more. A unique autobiography for those who want to know how it really felt, a story that could be told only by a Titanic Survivor.

Through her diary, found after her death, much more is learned about things that Rose Dawson (formerly Rose DeWitt Bukater) had kept in her heart during her life. After being rescued at sea, Rose lives in New York several years, goes to California, then to Wisconsin where she meets Jack Dawson's relatives, learns much more about Jack, and marries his cousin Jeremy, who is apparently murdered by her ex-fiance Caledon's men. Rose moves to Milwaukee and marries Darrell Calvert. Rose dreams often of Jack and feels his presence in her life. Jack helps Rose in various mysterious ways during her life, but most importantly by inspiring her to sacrifice herself for others and by gradually helping her to forgive the survivors of the Titanic for their failure to return and rescue those in the water. Other facts about Rose's life are revealed at her funeral. Story continues with events in the life of Rose's granddaughter Lizzy and her husband Brock. Authenticity of various paranormal experiences of Rose involving Jack, at first uncertain, seems to be gradually confirmed.