Titanic Children: Eyewitnesses to History

This is the story of the Titanic through the eyes of the children and teenagers who saw her and who sailed on her.

For some of those who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the ramifications of the disaster were to be long-lasting.

Many of the young people were mentally scarred by the events of that terrible night and effectively became victims of the Titanic after the fact, plagued by nightmares for years afterwards well into adulthood. Others tried their best to put the whole affair behind them. But it wasn’t always easy. The world, it seemed was insatiable for the Titanic – and interest in the disaster has grown and grown.

As child survivor Lillian Asplund confessed ruefully in an interview before her death, she wanted to forget it all, ‘But people always want to remind me…’However, Titanic Children seeks to answer other questions.

• What did young people think about the mighty ship being built and later launched in Belfast?
• What was it like to wave the new liner off on her maiden voyage from Southampton almost a year later?
• Moreover, how did it feel when she never returned?

It is clear that over the last hundred years, the Titanic has cast a long shadow over children who had never even set foot on the famous ship. What is their story?

In Titanic Children Anthony Cunningham has edited together dozens of fascinating accounts which tell the story of the doomed liner from its construction to its untimely end and beyond.