Home From The Sea by A Rostron

[Fiona Nitschke]

Tarn,

I would dearly love to get my mitts on a copy of this book, but it continues to elude me...

My experiences are different to yours: Lightoller's book seems to fall from the heavens with persistent regularity. Maybe the Rostron book was easier for you to find than the Lightoller, as there was an American edition of Home From the Sea?

Anyway, as I’ve just looked that up, I’ll continue my search with fresh hope as now I know there’s more copies out there than I’d originally thought. Yay! (I’ve got all the excerpts pertaining to Titanic, but it’s just not the same is it?)

As for Bissett’s books, I suspect he had larger print runs as well as being published in several countries — then there was, as you wrote, the reprint in the 1980s. That, and his book (1959) is more recent so there’s not so much natural attrition to account for.

Cheers,
F

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Michael,
check this Rostron being sold on Ebay- Mike, note the blue binding- we seem to have the one with the tan binding. Could this be an earlier edition? I had a blue edition years back, but foolishly sold it. I havent seen one until now.
Its being sold by Richard Foster, the dealer from whom i purchased my dust jacketed Lightoller...

Regards

Tarn Stephanos




http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2122526690

 

[Michael Tennaro]

Hi Tarn,
thanks for pointing out the Rostron on eBay. the blue version is not an earlier edition, it is the British edition which came out the same year as the American edition, 1931. near as I can tell, both versions were published more or less simultaneously. I have no clue why the blue Cassell (British) edition is so much more scarce than the grey Macmillan (American) edition. but it surely is. I have not seen a copy of the British edition in quite a while.

I see Richard Foster was the seller. he does have the knack for turning up some great titles. he has had some truly spectacular stuff over the years. the one he had that I most covetted was a first printing of Titanic & Other Ships signed by Lightoller! what a gem! but well beyond my pocketbook. :-(

all the best, Michael (TheManInBlack) T

 

[Patty Miller]

About 6 months ago, I won an auction for "Home
from the Sea" for $147.00. It was the tan copy
not the Bristish version. I was shocked to get
it for that price, because I have seen it a selling for a lot more. WWW.ABEBOOKS.COM has it,
Richard Foster is selling it, but I think he
wants about $400.00 for it. I usually don't pay
that much for a book, but it is very difficult
to find anything that Sir Arthur Rostron wrote.
I also had purchased a book "Scribner's Magazine"
that was bounded in a hardback book, that had
a chapter by Rostron. If you have any version of
the book ........KEEP IT......... it is a very
scarce book and took me 8 years to find it-Patty

 

[Mike Herbold]

Patty:
Great to see you posting here. We can always use another good bookaholic. I look forward to learning more about the scarcity or availability of good Titanic literature from you.

 

[Fiona Nitschke]

Oh Patty! Thanks for that story, it's restored my faith in my own quest. I've had some good book luck like that, but was starting to give up on a Rostron. I have found a few copies that were more than affordable, but was always just that fraction too late to be the successful buyer/bidder. Your bound magazine is a lovely thing too. I'm afraid I've only got the repro booklets. It's just not the same, is it.

Nice to meet you.

 

[Michael Tennaro]

Hey Patty, good to see you posting, and great buy on the Rostron. you got it for a bargain, although I know many people cringe at the concept that $150 is a bargain for a book!

Fiona, keep the faith. the neat thing about the used book market is that there are still real bargains to be had, with a little luck. you just have to be in the right place at the right time. now if only I could figure out how to do that consistently!

 

[Patty Miller]

Hi, Michael and Mike...good hearing from you.
And Fiona, it is nice meeting you too. If I find
Rostron anywhere, Fiona, I will let you and Mike
H. know. I had put a search out one time, with
an antiquarian book search and they found me
another copy, but it was $300.00 and since I
already had one...I am not rich enough to buy
another one at that price. I did not even know
about this web site, until I read JR Nolan's book
"The Search for Uncle Pat". I purchased it from
him, he signed it....and that is how I found
about this site, it was mentioned in his book.
What a great site, and I was tickled to see I
knew some people here...Again , Mike,Michael and
Fiona, good talking with you. If you need me
to help search for a particular book...feel
free to email me At [email protected]

 

[Chris Gregory]

My grandmother was a childhood friend of Sir Arthur living only three doors away in Bolton and he gave a signed first edition to my father. It is quite remarkable that Sir Arthur and also Captain Lord should come from the Bolton area which was nothing more than a smokey mill town with no seafaring tradition at all.

 

[Tracy Smith]

Captain Lord's older brother, James Lord, was the same age as Arthur Rostron, so he and Arthur Rostron no doubt knew each other from school. However, I don't know if Captain Rostron later remembered Captain Lord as being the little brother of his former schoolmate.

 

[Chris Gregory]

Captain Rostron went to the prestigious Bolton School and I believe Captain Lord went to a more local school. They lived about three or four miles apart. They may have been at the same training school for seamen in Liverpool but I dont know.

 

[Tracy Smith]

Captain Lord was eight years younger than Captain Rostron, and I know that they did not attend navigational school together, nor did they apprentice together. Captain Lord, however, did attend navigation school with future Titanic Chief Officer Wilde and the two were acquainted.

It would have been Captain Lord's older brother, James, that Arthur Rostron might have known before going to sea, not Stanley Lord himself, with Stanley being so much younger. Captain Lord's father was a businessman, so it is not entirely impossible to have sent any or all of his six surviving sons to the Bolton School, but I don't know where Captain Lord went to school. At the time of the 1881 Census, Captain Lord's family lived at 9 Hampden St.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Both Lord and Rostron attended HMS Conway (though not at the same time), a training ship anchored in the Mersey that produced both Merchant Service and RN Officers. I have some photos somewhere here that I took on the weekend of one of the Conway's anchors. James Moody also finished up his conventional education and began his maritime education in this venerable institution.

 

[John M. Feeney]

Inger: The 1962 MMSA publication, "The Californian Incident: An Echo of the Titanic Disaster" (Captain Lord's affidavit and supporting exhibits) contradicts the assertion of a Lord/Rostron HMS Conway connection.

In Exhibit R -- the August 6, 1912, letter from W.H. Baker to Lord concerning the alleged proximity of the Mount Temple to the sinking Titanic -- Leslie Harrison responds (via footnote) to Baker's opening comments about Lord remembering him from "Old Conway" with the following observation:

"Mr. baker was under a misapprehension, as Captain Lord was not on 'Old Conway'."

While I'd normally be somewhat hesitatant to accept Harrison as a source, this particular "interjection" is as trivial to Lord's defense as it is unexpected. (Plus, Harrison's fervor on Lord's behalf was far more restrained in those early days.) That being the case, I see little reason to suspect the authenticity of the claim.

Have you located subsequent information that supersedes this?

 

[Tracy Smith]

I'd be curious to know that too, as I'd read the same things John has....