Iceberg

The Titanic was a passenger liner and cargo ship that was built by White Star shipping company during the early 1900s when immigration via sea was a booming and profitable business. The Titanic weighed more than 52,000 tons and was about 900 feet long and 90 feet wide. An estimated total of 2,224 people were aboard the Titanic on its first voyage, and about 1,500 died when it sank. Most of the deaths were among the crew and third-class passengers. The crew members were mostly men and were expected to do whatever was necessary to help the passengers. Third-class passengers were treated as secondary citizens, and many were left trapped below when the chaos erupted above. In addition, the ship carried fewer than half the lifeboats it was designed to carry, though the number it did carry was well within regulations at the time. The presumption was that lifeboats would ferry people to a rescuing ship, not hold the ship’s entire population for hours while awaiting rescue. Lifeboats weren’t even completely filled before they were launched. Thus, poor evacuation preparation and management contributed to the high death toll.

Numerous related factors also contributed to the death toll, including the captain’s ignorance of radio warnings about icebergs, inappropriately high speed for the conditions, insufficient time to turn the ship to avoid a hit, ship design limitations, extreme cold, and the remote location. The historical and cultural impact of the Titanic’s sinking has extended into the next century, and the story of this great ship, which was promoted as “unsinkable,” continues to serve as a crucial and devastating warning regarding the importance of caution and safety, as well as humanity’s vulnerability to the powers of nature. The incident significantly affected ship design and the regulations governing disaster preparedness and procedures at sea.

Many publications are available about the Titanic disaster, including Walter Lord’s 1955 nonfiction book A Night to Remember, Mark Twain’s 1912 poem “The Convergence of the Twain: Lines on the Loss of the Titanic,” and Shana Abe’s 2021 adult novel The Second Mrs. Astor: A Heartbreaking Historical Novel of the Titanic. Titanic’s story has been adapted into several films, the most well-known of which was released in 1997 and was directed by James Cameron. The release of the 1997 film saw a massive resurgence in interest about the ship, and ocean exploration crews still visit the wreckage to study it. Today, the Titanic’s wreckage is decomposing, but its frame and many of its contents still sit on the ocean floor. Nielsen’s novel is a semi-accurate depiction of the Titanic and its sinking, including both fictional and nonfictional characters, actual photographs and advertisements from the Titanic, and a fictionalized plotline involving Hazel and the Mollisons. Significant incidents, like the coal fire and the telegraph operator ignoring later warnings, are entirely factual.