" 3.5. This non-fiction account was written by an American, who was returning to NY on the Titanic from a European vacation. Gracie was a Civil War buff, and he had just finished writing a book about a battle his father had fought in. Gracie helped load the lifeboats as the Titanic sank. He essentially sank with the ship, and survived by clinging to an overturned lifeboat until the Carpathia picked up the survivors the next day. Gracie spent the next months of his life gathering information and corresponding with survivors. His book includes excerpts from inquiries launched by both the US and British governments. There are some references to people in terms of their racial profile, but Gracie wrote this book at a different time in history so I did not find that so offensive. I did think the book was oddly restrained in emotion, given that it was written by one who experienced the full horror of the event. After I finished the book, I read a little about Gracie, and was sad to learn he never really recovered from the hypothermia and other effects of that night. He died within a year of the sinking, and was in fact the first survivor of the sinking of the Titanic to die. "
— Lynne, 1/23/2014