Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler | 
| Author: Brad Matsen
Publisher: Twelve
Category: Book
List Price: $27.99
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Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 100049
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0446582050
EAN: 9780446582056
ASIN: 0446582050
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
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Product Description
After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, legendary divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler decided to investigate the great enduring mystery of history's most notorious shipwreck: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as it did?
To answer the question, Chatterton and Kohler assemble a team of experts to explore Titanic, study its engineering, and dive to the wreck of its sister ship, Brittanic, where Titanic's last secrets may be revealed.
Titanic's Last Secrets is a rollercoaster ride through the shipbuilding history, the transatlantic luxury liner business, and shipwreck forensics. Chatterton and Kohler weave their way through a labyrinth of clues to discover that Titanic was not the strong, heroic ship the world thought she was and that the men who built her covered up her flaws when disaster struck. If Titanic had remained afloat for just two hours longer than she did, more than two thousand people would have lived instead of died, and the myth of the great ship would be one of rescue instead of tragedy.
Titanic's Last Secrets is the never-before-told story of the Ship of Dreams, a contemporary adventure that solves a historical mystery.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Titantic's Last Secrets Review January 6, 2009
The book was received in a timely manner. It was a gift and the recipient was pleased with it.
 What Really Happened? January 5, 2009
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Who would have thought it possible a hundred years after the fact to write another engrossing book about the loss of SS Titanic? Not only has noted northwestern maritime writer Brad Matsen pulled it off, he has also documented an entirely new the final chapter to the Titanic story.
The book begins with an account of a dive to the Titanic on the Mir submersibles. The dives on the famed Russian submersibles are mostly expensive tourist excursions, but the revenues from the tourism supports some oceanographic science and also some exploration. My friend Don Walsh helped get these going about ten years ago, and they have been a staple of expensive adventure tourism ever since.
The protagonists in this section of the book are Atlantic wreck divers. They have been lured to the Titanic by David Concannon, a "Philadelphia lawyer and member of the Explorer's Club. Dave (whom I have met) believes that the real story of the Titanic is "In the steel" and he wants to take detailed photographs of tension and compression. Another acquaintance of mine lured along on the trip is Bob Blumberg, State Department official and author of the international treaty declaring the Titanic a memorial. Bob was not exactly an adventurer; he died in his sleep shortly before the book was published.
The climax of the exploration is the discovery of two sections of the boat's bottom. Close examination reveals that the Titanic did not ground on an iceberg.
The second section of the book recounts the famous story of the design and construction of the largest ships of their time, their sea trials, and the fateful voyage and sinking. Matsen has available to him records of both the Harland and Wolff company and also the White Star Lines. These archival materials have not heretofore been available to researchers, so the book is replete with new information and details. An important finding from this section of the book is that Harland and Wolff lightened up on the steel hull sections and as a result the first vessel of the class, the Olympic panted so severely that she returned to the shipyard for more steel. The Titanic should have returned to the shipyard, but the pressure of schedule did not permit that and she carried her first transatlantic load to the fateful end. Changes to the design were made because of the problems with the Olympic. The third vessel, the Brittanic wsas constructed with a complete double hull so that it would be stiffer.
The problems with the Titanic's steel were analyzed in a paper published in the Journal of the Society of Naval Architects while I was director of public affairs for the Society. The paper made quite a splash, but its ultimate conclusion, that the vessel sank while it was in one piece, have proved wrong.
Everyone knows that the Titanic's sinking was blamed on a reckless captain traveling at high speed through iceberg alley. Shades of Joe Hazelwood. Through careful forensic analysis of the newly found bottom sections and also close reading of the archives, Matsen reports that there was a successful cover up. It was easy to blame the captain because he wasn't around to defend himself.
The proximate cause of the accident was the encounter with ice, which carved a 3-6 in gash in the hull over a length of nearly 300' or over one-third of the vessel's length. The large number of casualties was due to the rapid sinking of the vessel, and not to the encounter with the ice berg. The vessel sank before rescue ships could reach it. If the vessel had stayed afloat longer, the passengers and crew could easily have been saved by ships in the area, which reached the site of the calamity about 2 hrs late.
Why did the ship sink so fast? Harland and Wolff, in its own internal investigation concluded that the vessel broke up on the surface because of inadequate steel plate thickness in the hull. The hull did not have the stiffness to withstand the stresses following the collision with the iceberg.
Matsen provides an interesting sidelight on the lifeboats. Everyone knows there were not enough to carry the number of passengers. The number of lifeboats was fixed at the number necessary to ferry passengers to a rescue vessel, not the much larger number needed to rescue everyone at once. If the vessel had stayed afloat long enough for the rescue vessels to arrive, then there would have been enough lifeboats. Interestingly, we have a similar situation with the ferries here on Puget Sound. There are only enough life rafts to ferry people to another ferry, not to save the 3,000 commuters crammed onto one boat on a busy morning.
This is a profoundly interesting book and a rollicking good read. Take Titanic's Last Secrets to the beach.
 Worst Titanic Book I've Ever Read - Save Your Money January 4, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading this book, I will agree that it begins with an interesting premise - the shipbuilders made grave compromises in the building materials of the White Star Line ship that led to its destruction and accelerated its sinking upon its collision with the iceberg. Most presumptively, the book asserts Harland and Wolff conspired to cover up any tracks and made some deliberate structural changes to the Olympic and Britannic. It is another conspiracy theory presented using the information you already know to support new elements of the tale.
I have read and agree with the reviews of others who state that it is a quick and interesting read with a lack of strong evidence to support many of the findings. I was also incredibly troubled by the downplay of the historical role of Robert Ballard (perhaps in support of Billy Lange- the Ballard team member on watch in '85 and the one who spotted initial wreckage with Stu Harris - Lange was a contributor to this expedition and book) and the seemingly odd ways the expedition was plagued on the path to discovery - no David Concannon photos - limited time spent on Titanic - original film confiscated during the Britannic dive. The Concannon catalyst - a Philadelphia lawyer who believed he saw "ribbons of steel" on a previous Titanic dive and contacts Chatterton - is quickly unproven and dismissed. Concannon is portrayed as a conman, not an excited guy who possibly made a mistake. He doesn't even get a true thank you by the author after the fact.
If you want a truly "experty written account" as Publishers Weekly touts on the back cover, you would be best to read Wyn Craig Wade's "Titanic: End of A Dream" as Matsen suggests and obviously recounts in his support material. I would also recommend the classic recounting of the tale by Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" and the "Night Lives On". As a Titanic enthusiast, I feel that John Chatterton and Richie Kohler were used primarily as a branding tactic. They are not part of the majority of this book and many of the "historical" bits that reflect the cover-up are heresay.
Miserable. January 2, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm just a reader who has a general interest in things technical, and diving and the Titanic; unlike several other reviewers here, I have no financial interest in any of this other than as a dissappointed reader (and purchaser!) of this book....
The first part of this book, relating the missteps and successes of a mission to find out something new about Titanic, is relatively interesting and definitely well told: it's a fun and engaging read. Unfortunately, while lots of space is devoted to the tale of the expedition, the new theory regarding the sinking is poorly explained, and there are no illustrations to help with conceptualizing the new theory. The two drawings of the newly imaged wreckage are interesting, but lack context and are barely discussed in the text; most importantly, the key attributes of the wreckage that lead to and support the new theory are not identified on the drawings. (In fact, key landmarks such as the all-important keel and bilge keels are not identified, either.) It's not clear where this wreckage originated on the ship; for that matter, this book is woefully short of plans/drawings of the Titanic and her wreckage.
The second part of the book, the historic re-telling, is downright annoying. This section is presented in narative form, explained in the notes as having been reconstructed from a large number of sources, with some liberty taken with the dialog. But many things presented as key facts (such as decisions about design changes and observations on sea trials) are only supported by, and fully derrived from, the uncorroborated recollections of a possibly bitter ex-employee of the shipbuilder. Other elements presented as facts (such as who made the decision as to number of life boats and the materials specifications) are contrary to sworn testimony, though in line with the recollections of the ex-employee. Further, there are unexplained inconsistencies, or at least changes through time: at some points, the owner of the shipbuilding firm has the head of White Star in his pocket, while at other points, the head of White Star is making the key decisions, decisions which would be counter to the interest of the shipbuilder. The relationship between these two men is key to the charges brought in this book, yet the change over time -- or even if there was a change -- is not addressed.
Lastly, this book just sort of ends without putting the new theory into any sort of context; most importantly, existing factual analysis (such as the behavior of Titanic's steel in cold water and the slag in her rivets) is completely ignored and not even mentioned. Very little space is allocated to discussing the implications of the new theory regarding loss of life in the disaster: there is a great deal of disagreement in the professional community over whether the core issue of the new theory contributed to greater loss of life, and the author completely ignores this disagreement and presents a very one-sided conclusion.
As I wrap up this review, something else occurs to me: in the early part of the mission, the team is steered wrong by someone they actually know, and know to have impeccable credentials. This person gave the team actionable information which was investigated and proved inaccurate. However, later in the mission, the team (and author) rely completely on the word of the ex-employee -- a person they do not have any prior relationship with -- and there is no indication that either the team or author took any effort to verify this person's information. Could the team have been steered wrong by a second person, a person who they didn't know, and who's information is unverifiable? Hmmmm.
Overall, this is a very dissappointing book: it's a quick read, definitely engaging, but built on a poor foundation with the key parts being devoid of sufficient support to label this non-fiction.
Holes in ship and story December 30, 2008
After the first chapter, I thought this story would be unsinkable. Two independent, self-financed adventurers achieve the extraordinary feat of not only discovering new Titanic wreckage, but rewriting the story of the wreck - what could be more compelling? The story initially moves along with the briskness and dramatic tension of a teleplay; perhaps this is not a coincidence, considering their previous exploits culminated in a documentary and television show. The narrative hits the ground running as the author recreates the experience of searching the wreck from within a claustrophobic submersible more than two miles beneath the ocean. Enough back-story about the controversy regarding the speed of the Titanic's sinking is given that the reader shares their excitement when they find evidence that the Titanic's bottom had basically fallen out. Amazingly, this observation seems to have been missed by every other previous explorer of the wreck. Then, inexplicably, the next 150 pages jump back in time to recreate the characters and events surrounding the building of the Titanic. While interesting and well-written, it completely halts the momentum of the story, which subsequently degenerates into a retrospective whistle-blowing regarding the construction of Titanic's hull. Not only did I find the evidence for this unconvincing, but following this approach detracted from what could otherwise have been an exciting, informative and inspiring example of archeological adventure.
An admittedly disgruntled former employee of Harland & Wolff, the ship's builder, is the sole source for the claim that there was awareness of the hull's weakness before the disaster. Primary supporting documentation for this appears nowhere in the book. They then claim to support their hypothesis by diving to the wreck of Titanic's younger sister ship, Britannic. Improvements in the construction of the latter's hull are interpreted as evidence of negligence in the construction of Titanic. The more likely explanation that it represented sincere effort to avoid repeating a tragic accident is never considered. Like so many recountings of historic tragedies, this one seems determined to find a conspiracy to blame. I would have much preferred to focus on the considerable present-day exploits of Chatterton and Kholer, whose characters and background are never fully revealed. Perhaps this is to encourage the reader to consult their previous book, Shadow Divers. If so, it is a lame marketing technique, just like trumping up a conspiracy theory when it's far too late to do any good. A good story, sold a little too hard. Still, four stars for a well-written update to this enduring saga.
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