Titanic: The Last Great Images

£35.97

Dead men tell no tales. Dead ships, however, do.

Over seventy years after the great ocean liner sank, marine geologist Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic 12,500 feet beneath the surface of the icy North Atlantic. Now Ballard presents the world with an opportunity to live the story of the famous ship through his amazing last great images, before Titanic’s remains are gone forever. This is a story told in rusted, twisted metal and debris, but it is also a human story told in a porcelain doll’s face, an empty shoe, and an abandoned derby hat.

Titanic: The Last Great Images maps the wreck of the ship from a variety of perspectives to give a completely new picture of the triumph and tragedy that was Titanic.

This illustrated volume—and a National Geographic special—weave the strands of the ocean liner’s story together in renderings done by the ship’s original designers, charts of the debris field, and period illustrations.

Robert Ballard provides the clearest, most accurate view of the ship we have ever seen. In crisply detailed underwater photography, disintegrating ruins and shattered pieces reveal pride of workmanship, a rigidly defined class system, and indelible images of terror and courage.

This book shows what makes the Titanic worthy of the world’s undying fascination.

Description

Nearly twenty years after his famous 1985 discovery of the shipwrecked Titanic, the remote viewing technology developed by oceanographer Ballard and his team had progressed such that Ballard could capture the dream he was “just starting to realize” in ’85, deep-sea remote viewing with the “cleanest, clearest images… all in high definition.”

Despite (or because of) decay and ghostly lighting, the submarine images are strangely vivid and colorful, with the power and credence to support one of Ballard’s major endeavors, declaring the wreck site an international marine museum (one chapter documents damage caused by private expeditions since ’86, another imagines a visit to the museum of 2062).

Chapters on the ship’s construction and sinking include historical photos of the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic, juxtaposed with those same features from their Atlantic grave. Accompanied by commentary from colleagues Dwight Coleman and Jeremy Weirich, this book is a satisfying read with mesmerizing images for armchair voyagers, and a significant excursion into submarine technology and archeology for the more science-minded. — Publisher’s Weekly

Ballard, a marine geologist, discovered the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic in 1985 and has penned a number of popular books about his search for the ship, among them, The Discovery of the Titanic (1987). Here he revisits the wreck in text and photos, maintaining that memories of the tragedy are fading away as the last survivors die and that the wreck itself has been badly damaged by salvagers. He not only attempts to re-create the splendor of the original ship and the time it sailed but also account for the factors that led to the ship’s sinking. The book is filled with Ballard’s color photographs, along with black-and-white photos and illustrations done in color. The black-and-white photos include images of survivors, passengers who died, sailors pulling bodies from the water, an embalmer at work, and the ship standing ready for launching. A haunting tribute to the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic. –George Cohen, Booklist

About the Author

Dr. Robert Ballard was the first to discover the wreck of the Titanic, on September 1, 1985, seventy-three years after the great vessel sank. He is one of the world’s leading marine geologists and has been instrumental in the development of new underwater exploration technology. Dr. Ballard is a passionate advocate for the preservation of the Titanic as it lies, arguing that salvaging and looting are desecrating the historical wreck. He resides in Connecticut between expeditions.
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Additional information

Publisher ‏

Running Press Adult; First Edition (September 2, 2008)

Language ‏

Hardcover ‏

192 pages

ISBN-10 ‏

0762435046

ISBN-13 ‏

978-0762435043

Item Weight
Dimensions ‏
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