The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler
by Brad Matsen
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2008
336 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, legendary divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler decided to investigate the great enduring mystery of history's most notorious shipwreck: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as it did?
To answer the question, Chatterton and Kohler assemble a team of experts to explore Titanic, study its engineering, and dive to the wreck of its sister ship, Brittanic, where Titanic's last secrets may be revealed.
Titanic's Last Secrets is a rollercoaster ride through the shipbuilding history, the transatlantic luxury liner business, and shipwreck forensics. Chatterton and Kohler weave their way through a labyrinth of clues to discover that Titanic was not the strong, heroic ship the world thought she was and that the men who built her covered up her flaws when disaster struck. If Titanic had remained afloat for just two hours longer than she did, more than two thousand people would have lived instead of died, and the myth of the great ship would be one of rescue instead of tragedy.
"In this expertly written account, Matsen (Descent) does what would seem impossible: he tells us something new about the Titanic disaster." - Publishers Weekly.
"Matsen... incorporates much intimate detail about the builders of the ship, reconstructing conversations from 1912 via secondary sources" - Library Journal.
Wholly engrossing narrative of a crowning example of catastrophic hubris." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about Titanic's Last Secrets was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bradford Matsen is the author of Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss as well as many other books abou the sea and its inhabitants. He was a creative producer for the television series The Shape of Life, and his articles have appeared in Mother Jones, Audubon, and Nature, among other publications. He divides his time between Seattle and New York City.
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