[fantasyfan]

For my second choice, I'll nominate The Night Lives On by Walter Lord.

It has sometimes been called a sequel to Lord's justly famous A Night To Remember But that is not what it really is.

The Night Lives On is a series of chapters on new approaches to the disaster which Lord felt had developed in the thirty years since he wrote his great book. The separate chapters are really individual essays on a number of different topics. Some, of course are better than others--but they are all interesting. As an example, Lord explores the third "mystery" ship which some feel was in the area. But, of course, he isn't able to really come to a definitive conclusion. He personally feels that the only other ship very close to Titanic was The Californian. and the mysterious lights seen by the passengers on the life boats came from it. But that explanation, while logical and believable, is by no means definitive and to this day, 27 years after Lord's book, the controversy rages on.

He also deals with myths that have developed since. Most significant is his analysis of the last tune played by the band. Most people believe it was "Nearer My God To Thee" but Lord shows that this is quite unlikely. First, the hymn uses very different melodies in America and in Britain. Hartley, the band leader, preferred a Methodist arrangement by the English composer Sullivan. Yet those who claimed the hymn was played were from both sides of the Atlantic. Colonel Gracie--a very dependable witness said that it was not played by the band, nor did they go down playing. Shortly after the survivors landed in New York, the surviving wireless operator said that the last song played by the band was "Autumn". He left them when they were playing it and when he returned they were gone. Now there is a little known Episcopal hymn called that, but it was eventually removed from the hymnbook--or so Lord says. And I should mention here that Lord consulted with expert hymnologists to work out these conclusions. It seems likely that MacBride was not referring to a little-known hymn but to an enormously popular piece called "Songe d'Automne" which, in fact was usually simply called "Autumn". Lord is probably correct in saying that it is the main contender for being the last piece played.

Finally, one last problem. Lord notes that there were two musical groups. As well as Hartley's band there was also a string trio that played in the Parisian cafe. Did the two join up for the final songs? Did some passengers remember what one group played rather than the other?

It's available in Kindle and epub formats and is available in Overdrive.