First time in paperback: A New York Times best seller and "a masterful treatment of the Titanic disaster" -Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember This passionate yet balanced narrative explores every facet of the Titanic's history, including her spectacular conception in an Irish shipyard and the ambitious modern-day attempts to salvage her. The familiar story of the RMS Titanic-from her encounter with an iceberg to her demise some three hours later, taking with her more than fifteen hundred people-still looms large in the popular imagination, and in Daniel Butler's as well. He studied the Titanic's history for thirty years, intensively compiling facts about the disaster and the players involved (from Captain Smith and his crew to the ill-fated third-class passengers). He even made the startling discovery of a nearby ship that ignored the Titanic's distress call because the shipmates were afraid to awaken their captain. Drawn from primary sources and period accounts, this new narrative puts the disaster into historical context and will serve as an essential historical resource for scholars of Titanic lore.