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Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Rich Kohler

Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Rich Kohler

6 Ratings: 3.5

2008 non-fiction book by Brad Matsen

"In this expertly written account, Matsen does what would seem impossible: he tells us something new about the Titanic disaster." — Publishers Weekly After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, … see full wiki

Tags: Books, Nonfiction, History, Disasters, Titanic, Ships And Shipwrecks

Author: Brad Matsen

Genre: Ships & Shipwrecks

Publisher: Thorndike Press

Date Published: November 21, 2008

1 review about Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures...

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Mystery solved once and for all!!!,

Dec 1, 2008

by drifter51

Rating:

Being a big fan of the History Channel's "Deep Sea Detectives" series, I was already quite familiar with the work of divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. The weekly television series, which aired from 2003-2006, offered viewers a brief synopsis of the circumstances surrounding the sinking of a particular vessel and chronicled Chatterton and Kohler's painstaking efforts to resolve various questions surrounding that incident. For nearly a century now, people across America and around the world have been fascinated by the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland in April of 1912. In 2005, an extraordinary team of 17 individuals, including Chatterton and Kohler,was assembled with the expressed purpose of determining once and for all the answer to this question: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as it did? For everyone involved, determining the answer to this simple question would be the biggest challenge of their professional lives. Utilizing Russia's unique MIR-2 submersible vehicle the team was able to accomplish miraculous things with very severe time contraints. What they discovered on the ocean floor astonished them and will likely jolt you as well. But what the divers, scientists and engineers strongly suspected could not be proven without one more perilous dive. Forget everything you thought you knew about why this tragedy took place. Brad Matsen has chronicled it all in "Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Rich Kohler". This is a riveting book that will hold your attention from cover-to-cover. Guaranteed!

While Matsen certainly does a workmanlike job of chronicling the exploration of the wreck of the Titanic in 2005 and the subsequent dive to its sister ship "Britannic" about a year later, "Titanic's Last Secrets" is about so much more. Through painstaking research, Matsen has been able to piece together the facts about how this ship was constructed. You will be introduced to some of the men who actually designed Titanic including Thomas Andrews who tragically lost his life on Titanic that night and to Bruce Ismay who at the time of the tragedy was CEO of the White Star Lines, the company that owned the doomed vessel. Mr. Ismay was also on board but managed to survive by jumping into one of the 16 available lifeboats. You will also discover quite a bit about Harland and Wolff, the shipyard where Titanic was built and become privy to some of the decisions that were made regarding the materials used in the construction of this ship. Therein lies a clue to what happened that night. Now as is so often the case in situations like this a person turns up seemingly out of nowhere with irrefutable evidence that confirms without a shadow of a doubt the facts of what really took place on that frigid April night so many moons ago. Brad Matsen will tell you all about Tom McCluskie and just what it was that he brought to the table. The sad reality is that had Titanic remained afloat for just two hours longer than she did as many as two thousand more people may have been saved.

I found "Titanic's Last Secrets" to be among the best written and most enjoyable books I have read this year. This is a story of courage and tenacity on the part of those so determined to discover the truth about this tragedy. Much like the assassination of JFK, the mystery surrounding Titanic seems to hold almost an universal appeal to audiences of all ages. As such, I think "Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Rich Kohler" would be a terrific gift idea. Highly recommended!

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robertrogoff April 14, 2009

I will say that the original "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson was an amazing tale and a great gift for divers. By the way, to circumcise a whale, you need four skin divers.

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