Real Stories from My Time: Titanic

Published: 2018 Author: Emma Carlson Berne. Illstrator: Kelley McMorris

Summary

On April 14, 1912, Samantha, Jenny, and Bridget are at their New York City boarding school when they learn that the Titanic has sunk. Aunt Cornelia, Nelly, and baby William were on it, heading home from Ireland. Samantha is reminded of her time on the Queen Caroline, when Grandmary thought it unwise for boat owners to obsess over who could make a crossing the fastest. Was speed a factor? Sick with worry, they return home to be with Uncle Gard while waiting to hear if any of three survived. All they know is that most of the passengers made it, but they can't help worrying that their family wasn't among them. On April 17, they learn that the death toll has risen significantly: only 868 of the 2,200 people on the Titanic survived. Samantha and Uncle Gard are now more worried than ever that they've lost more loved ones to drowning, but they try to stay brave for Jenny and Bridget. It's not until the next that a telegram finally arrives from Aunt Cornelia, with the information that she, Nellie, and William are safe on the Carpathia and due to dock in New York that afternoon at three. A few days later, Samantha and her sisters walk the few blocks to the just-founded Titanic Relief Fund office: Samantha's family is intact, but there are many orphans and widows and other survivors who need help.

Misc

Dedicated to "Oscar, my sunshine-faced little boy--and my last baby."

Nellie has really been through a lot of childhood trauma.

I knew the Titanic had a pool (thanks to the joke about how even today, its pool has water in it) but I didn't know it was heated!

The book includes several anecdotes and photographs (due to lack of cameras, there are drawings but not photographs in the books set earlier) of Titanic passengers, crew, construction, and more; really giving it a nice historical context. There is a lot of great information, from the three-year construction of the ship to where different people were billeted on the boat to how the disaster happened to the aftermath.

The epilogue mentions Robert Ballard's expedition which found the remains of the Titanic in the 1980s and answered many questions about the disaster. I think the book was remiss in not mentioning the further work that James Cameron did in his research for his movie. His team discovered a lot of information as well.