Titanic Captain The Life of Edward John Smith

Well done, Gary. I have the p.o.d. version, and the book's margins are cluttered with notes from cover to cover. I found your work to be invaluable as I researched my own book, a YA novel in verse, due out next week from Candlewick Press. I mention both you and your book in my author's notes. Your book contains information I'd never heard before from the small (E.J.'s habit of chewing on a toothpick) to the not-so-small (E.J. wasn't actually on hand during Titanic's Belfast trials and delivery trip). Good luck with this latest version. It's truly impressive.
 
Thanks Allan, I've been keeping tabs on your book for a while, plus Ann Roberts' book The Master's Tale, just out, that used my book as reference. I'll be buying a copy of yours too. Glad my book was of use to you, though I have to eat humble pie here and apologise. I later found out via a discussion with Mark Baber and others that Smith was most likely the one who took the Titanic for her sea trials - there is evidence - and I later altered what was in earlier versions of 'E.J'. Sorry about that, just a case of idleness and poor research on my part.
 
Ah, ha! I'll have to mention the error on the page I plan on adding to my website. No harm, no foul, Gary. I should have followed up on it myself and just asked you about it a year ago! Lesson learned. I'll also be sure to make note that you were the one who brought the error to my attention and that your wonderful book's revised edition contains the updated story. Thanks again for everything.
 
Well, I got my complimentary copies a couple of days ago and am pleased with them and Amazon uk says they are now in stock, so it looks as though the book is finally due out. It's been a wait but it got there. I hope you all find it useful.
 
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Inger Sheil reviews a fully revised biography of Titanic's Captain...
 
Hi Sam,

It's also on my wish list, among other books that have been released or will be this year, including Inger's.

Hope you're keeping well.
 
Does the book say much about Captain Smith's daughter Helen Melville Russell Cooke, who lived a very full life, which included service as a special police constable during World War II. She died at Leafield, near Witney, on 18th August 1973, but local people still talk of “The Titanic’s Captain’s Daughter”, whose father, mother, husband, son and daughter all died in tragic circumstances (thus helping to perpetuate the Titanic myth). Her son Simon Russell Cooke (whose aircraft went down over the sea in WWII) is commemorated on the Leafield war memorial, and a copy of the instructions for ringing the bells at Helen's funeral have been framed and displayed within the Parish Church.
 
>>>Does the book say much about Captain Smith's daughter Helen Melville Russell Cooke<<<<

Yes it does Stanley. Gary devotes three pages to what happened to Eleanor, Melville and her family.
 
I'll have to have a look at the book!

I was talking the other day to someone who knew Mrs Russell Cooke, and my informant said that, despite her cheerful exterior, "she carried a burden of guilt to the grave". It was particularly sad that, although her son was serving in the air force, he should have been lost at sea.
 

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