Reading kicks have taken me to some fun places over the years.
What’s putting the wind in my sails of late is all things TITANIC.
This binge kicked off after reading a historical novel titled THE MIDNIGHT WATCH.
It hooked me from first page to last, like a ship’s anchor embedding itself in the ocean floor – martime-y lingo if you please!
THE MIDNIGHT WATCH is the story of two ships – the TITANIC and the CALIFORNIAN.
Most everyone knows the story of the TITANIC. The SS CALIFORNIAN was the British cargo ship that was closest to the TITANIC when it sank. It is the ship accused of ghosting the TITANIC by ignoring its distress signals and refusing to come to its aid when needed.
The CALIORNIAN did eventually arrive at the sight of the tragedy in the North Atlantic Ocean, some 6 hours after the TITANIC had already descended to it’s watery grave.
By that time it could render no assistance. That job had already been done by the passenger steamship RMS CARPATHIA, which raced to the scene from 96 kilometers away to rescue 705 survivors from lifeboats.
The writing in THE MIDNIGHT WATCH is intricately, superbly, not to mention engrossingly detailed.
The nuts ‘n bolts (and rivets) minutiae of early 20th century ships and life at sea – things which for me had previously held little curiosity – came alive and kept me glued to the pages every bit as much as a captain staying with his ship (mari-timey!)
Upon (not to be confused with ‘a pond’ – which is more or less what the North Atlantic Ocean is a gi-normous version of) finishing the novel, I read a little about the author.
That’s when I understood why the story was threaded the way it was, with so many thousands of ship ‘n sea interesting specifics and technicalities (which I loved!).
Before becoming a writer, David Dyer was a lawyer at the London legal practice whose parent firm represented the TITANIC‘s owners in 1912. As well, he has also worked as a cadet and ship’s officer on a wide range of merchant vessels, having graduated with distinction from the Australian Maritime College.
Anyone remember those DUMMIES books from back in the late 90’s?
For someone on a TITANIC reading kick, naturally that was my next port of call. Jeepers! Am I crushing some interesting morsels and factoids with this one!
And after that? After that arrives in the post tomorrow. It’s the newly released (April 2026) story of the lone Aussie survivor of the TITANIC, Evelyn Marsden. Yep, this latest reading kick of mine looks to be currently unsinkable.
I absolutely love Titanic!
Diana Louise Webb
USA
Whoa! What was up with the Californian?! Why DID they take so long? Sounds like they ghosted the Titanic to me. Can you imagine how many less people might have died if they hadn’t? How detailed early ship life was back then sounds fascinating too, but with a life like the author’s, I’m not surprised he did such a good job.
There’s 11 decades of controversy about why the CALIFORNIAN didn’t go (straight away) to the assistance of the TITANIC. It really is a story unto itself and very worthy to be the subject of a historical novel like THE MIDNIGHT WATCH.
The heart of it, as you wrote, is the question of how many more people would have been saved had the CALIFORNIAN heeded the distress signals sent from the TITANIC and sped to the disaster site directly.
i visited the titanic museum in ireland and it was stunning
That’s so interesting Beth.
We had an exhibition called TITANIC: THE HUMAN STORY visit Brisbane (Australia) last year. I missed it but… next time.
thanks for sharing