Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating and utterly unique book
Review: I hate to disagree with the New York Times, but I found this book to be utterly fascinating. It is a remarkable mix of history, archeology, and even biology. Pellegrino brings the night of the sinking to life in a remarkable way.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but it could be much better.
Review: I have been fascinated by the Titanic disaster for many years, and although this book is very interesting and informative, he seems to have completely neglected to do a bit of historical research on the subject. My first example is how much stock he puts into Morgan Robertson's "Futility", which is supposed to have predicted the Titanic disaster a full fourteen years before it happened. The way he tells it, Morgan Robertson was right in every single respect about the death of Titanic. However, if he had read the first edition of the book, published in 1898, he would see that the ship described in "Futility" actually bears very little resemblance to the Titanic. First of all, the Titan was on her third voyage going BACK to England from New York. Second, only 13 people survived the sinking of the Titan. Third, the Titan did not hit the iceberg a glancing blow, but instead plowed into it and actually rolled up over it, sinking in less than a half hour. Also, absolutely no mention of a sister ship is made in either version of Morgan Robertson's "Futility". The true story of this bizarre book is that Robertson and a publisher rewrote it immediately after the disaster with the intention of cashing in on it. Unfortunately, copies of the first edition are incredibly rare, so it is extremely easy to mistake Robertson's work of fiction for a prediction of disaster. In the first edition, a person couldn't tell the Titan from the Mauretania or even the Great Eastern. Mr. Pellegrino also seems to spend a great deal of time praising RMS Titanic, Inc for it's efforts to "keep the spirit of the great ship alive". I'd say that the Titanic Historical Society does a much better job of this than any two-bit treasure hunter's association. All in all, however, I could find few faults with his book. He seems to spend very little time on research in relation to the Titanic's sister ships, but his theories are interesting and thought-provoking.
Rating:
Summary: great but with some flaws
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Dr. Pellegrino has touched on and explained aspects about the "Titanic" and her sinking not covered or investigated before. For the most part, it is an excellent resource.However, I noticed some glaring errors: It's Lord MerSey, not MerCey. Dr. Pellegrino lists the "Minia" as the ship sent to recover the "Titanc's" dead. She was the second ship sent out. The cable ship "Mackay-Bennett" was the first ship sent out and she recovered most of the bodies that were retrieved. The good doctor also writes of Walter Lord interviewing or talking to Second Officer Lightoller in 1956. Then Walter Lord must have known a good medium as Lightoller died in 1952.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best book I've read in 3 Summers
Review: I think that tihs book is cool! I had to read a book for my book club, and I usally don't like long books, but something about this book made me want to read it!! I got so much information about all of the things that went on in those last few hours on the TITANIC that I mad me sad to relize that more than half of the people were not rescude!!
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I felt it was well-written, and it appeared that Pellegrino did his homework. I was most fascinated by the survivor accounts. I've read several books on the Titanic, and this book - above all the others - kept me rapt for days.
Rating:
Summary: Favorite of my 59 title Titanic library!
Review: I was glued to every word! I am currently doing my own research for an article for the Titanic Historical Society. I have been reading and visiting museums, and searching the web for everything I can find on the subject. Charles Pellegrino knows how to weave perfectly, the threads of scientific, archiological, historical, and humanistic truth of this puzzling and sad event. He tells of his intuitive thoughts, his experiences, his personal research, cross referenced with facts from Walter Lord, eyewhitness accounts, data from his many dives to the wreck site, and analysis of the debris field. He gives you every layer possible to this complex story. Many very interesting tidbits, and staggering revelations! Truely and enthralling read!!! Thank you Mr. Pellegrino!
Rating:
Summary: Totally New to Me
Review: I've been interested in the story of the people on the ship for 40 years and have watched all the shows and read the books, but this is what I'd been looking for and not finding. I knew there were more third-class children who died than first-class men, but here are direct quotes and examples that show how the class system worked and how little value was placed on the lives of the great mass of people in the early 1900's, the non-wealthy. I'd never heard of the thefts, opinion on the head injuries of the people trying to get into collapsible A, what happened to the the a la carte workers, the rusticles (how great is this?) or the exact way/speed the bow and stern went down that I could plow through. I vaguely heard that the band members' families were billed, but didn't realize how callous the White Star Line really was. The book also confirmed my feeling that Captain Smith didn't make any effort at coordination and seemed to be in shock - no sending the stewards to shut the portholes, maintaining contact with Anderson or his own staff, etc. Maybe there are disagreements over the scientific facts, but I found them credible and explained pretty clearly to a layman. Theories have been frequently overturned in my lifetime and minor errors in facts of names or dates occur in every book. I liked this book much more than I thought I would and if you're interested in the human story, you can skip the technical one altogether.
Rating:
Summary: Totally New to Me
Review: I've been interested in the story of the people on the ship for 40 years and have watched all the shows and read the books, but this is what I'd been looking for and not finding. I knew there were more third-class children who died than first-class men, but here are direct quotes and examples that show how the class system worked and how little value was placed on the lives of the great mass of people in the early 1900's, the non-wealthy. I'd never heard of the thefts, opinion on the head injuries of the people trying to get into collapsible A, what happened to the the a la carte workers, the rusticles (how great is this?) or the exact way/speed the bow and stern went down that I could plow through. I vaguely heard that the band members' families were billed, but didn't realize how callous the White Star Line really was. The book also confirmed my feeling that Captain Smith didn't make any effort at coordination and seemed to be in shock - no sending the stewards to shut the portholes, maintaining contact with Anderson or his own staff, etc. Maybe there are disagreements over the scientific facts, but I found them credible and explained pretty clearly to a layman. Theories have been frequently overturned in my lifetime and minor errors in facts of names or dates occur in every book. I liked this book much more than I thought I would and if you're interested in the human story, you can skip the technical one altogether.
Rating:
Summary: Magificent book
Review: I've read many books on the Titanic but never one quite like "Ghosts of the Titanic". Dr Charles Pellegrini's magnificent book had me spellbound from the very first chapter as the author presents the events of the night of April 14th/15th 1912 in a totally fresh and compelling manner. Be warned: This book grips the reader like a steel trap! In "Ghosts of the Titanic" you will learn of: The very first victims of the Titanic's collision with the iceberg. The steward who set a new world record for the high dive. How Major Peuchen's wallet came to be lying where it was in Titanic's debris field and the importance of finding the wallet. Why Thomas Andrews, Titanic's designer, stayed on board the stricken liner and made no attempt to leave the ship. What damage the iceberg inflicted on the Titanic and then what Titanic did to the iceberg. The words whispered by Captain Smith when he saw the flooded mail room. How close the iceberg was to Titanic when it was first sighted. Where the California really was in relation to the Titanic. The meaning of the very last message transmitted from Titanic's radio room. This list is only a portion of the startling revelations to be found in this book. There have been many fine books written on the Titanic distaster. In this writers humble opinion "Ghosts of the Titanic" is the best, the winner in a photo-finish from the excellent works of Walter Lord. A "must read" for any lover of history and science and an "absolute must read" for those fascinated by the Titanic disaster.
Rating:
Summary: Titanic still has many lessons to teach
Review: James Cameron asks in the Foreward to this book,"...Titanic ranks third on the list of events about which the mosthas been written, behind the life of Christ and the death of JFK...as I gaze over the rows of shelves stuffed full of my own research materials, what is there to say that hasn't been said? Plenty. And this book is proof." Pellegrino takes the reader through the Titanic expeditions since his previous book, "Her Name, Titanic," including the 1996 RMS Titanic expedition the author participated in as biopaleontologist and marine archaeologist. He also introduces readers to more never before published survivor accounts, including Chief Baker Charles Joughin (whose survival despite more time spent in the water than any other survivor is still a mystery), Michel Navatril ("The Titanic Waif") and stoker Jim Mulolland (who reports on the fate of the ship's cat). The reader is also treated to detailed pencil sketches of the wreck as he saw it, an archaeological map of the Stern debris field, the diagrams of the new consortial life form dubbed "Rusticalus Titanics" by Pellegrino and Cullimore on the '96 expedition, and for the first time anywhere, annotated drawings of the actual deck plans of the Titanic drawn in India ink (one of the many Titanic myths debunked by Pellegrino in this book is that the plans went down with Andrews - at the advice of their lawyers the White Star Line led authorities to believe that in order to shut down the design defect argument). Among the forensic reconstructions in the book are a complete reconstruction on the sequence of events on the the Titanic and the Californian from eyewitness accounts, showing at each stage how the Californian was viewing the lights and distress rockets of the Titanic, and likewise the lifeboats on the Titanic were viewing the lights of the Californian. Pellegrino notes that even Captain Stanley Lord of The Californian finally admitted during his libel law suit against the account of his ship in "A Night To Remember," that it was the lights of the Titanic his crew saw that night of April 12th (its amazing that some authors *still* refer to the "mystery ship"). But Pellegrino further damns Captain Lord by showing that under the atmospheric conditions and due to the immutable laws of curvature of the earth, the lights observed on both sides bracket the distance between the ships as between 5 and 7.5 miles (instead of the 20 miles the captain claimed to american investigators or the 30 miles he later claimed to british investigators or the 40 miles he claimed to reporters after that), which meant the Californian could have reached the titanic, allowing for caution, less than one hour after seeing the first distress rockets, a time when lifeboats were still lowering, well in time to save hundreds at least from freezing to death in the cold waters, possibly all 1500! Pellegrino even adds a new indictment from Third Officer Groves of the Californian, during the brief search the Californian did that morning, Groves saw moving figures on the ice which he believed to be human beings, only to have this dismissed by the Captain as Seals as he ordered the ship to turn around and head for Boston! Pellegrio also describes the scientific discoveries Pellegrino participated in on the '96 RMS Titanic expedition. He and microbiologist Roy Cullimore discovered that Bob Ballard's "Rusticles" are a new consortial life form, Rusticalus Titanicus, a 3.5 billion year evolutionary throwback that could provide new antibiotics and other medicines. Pellegrino and Cullimore also noted a tremendous increase in deep-ocean "sea snow" between Titanic expeditions which is evidence of "The Zooplankton Crisis," a massive bloom of animal plankton caused by reductions in the North Atlantic fish population, which threatens the phytoplankton population in the top few inches of the ocean, which are responsible for converting more far carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than rain forests. The reader is reminded of the warning Titanic survivor Eva Hart gives to Pellegrino in this book, "...if you scientists, engineers and industrial geniuses don't learn to temper arrogance with wisdom, and to pay very close attention, then I'm afraid there will be an even bigger Titanic in your future - for the whole world, maybe. And next time there may be no lifeboats - for anybody." I'd rate this book as a great read for any reader interested in history or science, and a must-have for any true Titanic enthusiast, no matter how many books you own!
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