Mark Chirnside
Member
My copy of Simon Mills’ work ‘Hostage to Fortune’ arrived this morning. It’s 224 pages, but it is a smaller book than expected and its pages are smaller than those of his first works on Britannic and Olympic.
Overall I must say that the book is impressive. Fine copies of the ship’s plans, combined with exclusive colour photos of the wreck add to its appearance. Mills has also corrected a number of errors that were in his first work, ‘HMHS Britannic: the Last Titan’ from 1992.
The book is not quite as comprehensive as I would have hoped, but it is at a stroke the most comprehensive work ever published on Britannic so far. Interest in the ship truly appears to be gathering momentum, much as it did in Titanic from the late 1950s. Whether or not Britannic will ever gain the interest she deserves is debatable.
There is a vast array of new information compared to the first work, and even those deep-routed Britannic enthusiasts will surely find new facts. Interestingly, the book publishes a complete version of the enquiry report into the ship’s loss, which totals barely two pages and was hurriedly written in 1916. There are new accounts as to the ship, her voyages and sinking, which have not been published; but there were also some that appear to have been left out. You cannot publish everything ever written about a ship in one volume, so it was probably expected.
Some juicy details of the ship’s design and of some of the earlier expeditions to the wreck seem to be missing, which is a disappointment. However, I am very pleased that Mills has revised his sinking chronology, compared to that which appeared beforehand.
Perhaps the finest part of the book is that discussing the wreck; much new information came out of the 1997, 1998 and 1999 expeditions which was not well publicised. Simon Mills is the owner of the wreck and presumably has access to practically everything ever discovered at the site. One could almost wonder if that was due to the book’s schedule. It seems strange that some of these findings were not more widely known beforehand; it is after all three years since the last-mentioned expedition. Also, quotes or summaries are from the report of 1998 that was done into Britannic by a American Research Panel in Marine Forensics. This is especially valuable since Britannic enthusiasts seem to be at a loss to obtain copies of this report, compared to the publicity Titanic reports received.
I heartily recommend this work and we can only hope that Britannic gains the interest she deserves.
Best regards,
Mark.
Overall I must say that the book is impressive. Fine copies of the ship’s plans, combined with exclusive colour photos of the wreck add to its appearance. Mills has also corrected a number of errors that were in his first work, ‘HMHS Britannic: the Last Titan’ from 1992.
The book is not quite as comprehensive as I would have hoped, but it is at a stroke the most comprehensive work ever published on Britannic so far. Interest in the ship truly appears to be gathering momentum, much as it did in Titanic from the late 1950s. Whether or not Britannic will ever gain the interest she deserves is debatable.
There is a vast array of new information compared to the first work, and even those deep-routed Britannic enthusiasts will surely find new facts. Interestingly, the book publishes a complete version of the enquiry report into the ship’s loss, which totals barely two pages and was hurriedly written in 1916. There are new accounts as to the ship, her voyages and sinking, which have not been published; but there were also some that appear to have been left out. You cannot publish everything ever written about a ship in one volume, so it was probably expected.
Some juicy details of the ship’s design and of some of the earlier expeditions to the wreck seem to be missing, which is a disappointment. However, I am very pleased that Mills has revised his sinking chronology, compared to that which appeared beforehand.
Perhaps the finest part of the book is that discussing the wreck; much new information came out of the 1997, 1998 and 1999 expeditions which was not well publicised. Simon Mills is the owner of the wreck and presumably has access to practically everything ever discovered at the site. One could almost wonder if that was due to the book’s schedule. It seems strange that some of these findings were not more widely known beforehand; it is after all three years since the last-mentioned expedition. Also, quotes or summaries are from the report of 1998 that was done into Britannic by a American Research Panel in Marine Forensics. This is especially valuable since Britannic enthusiasts seem to be at a loss to obtain copies of this report, compared to the publicity Titanic reports received.
I heartily recommend this work and we can only hope that Britannic gains the interest she deserves.
Best regards,
Mark.
