Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatteron and Richie Kohler
by: Brad Matsen
Published by: Twelve
Buy From Amazon.com
Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
Titanic. All one has to do is utter the name of the world’s most infamous unsinkable ship and imagery, myth, and legend–sans James Cameron–pops into mind.
The world was mesmerized when Dr. Robert Ballard and his team located the wreckage in 1985. And not since Charles Pellegrino’s 1990 classic, Her Name Titanic: The Untold Story of the Sinking and Finding of the Unsinkable Ship, has there been a great book about the Olympic-class ship. On the other hand, since Ballard et al., first glimpsed the rusting wreckage there had been nothing thing new to report. Until now. Get ready to unearth one of the greatest historical cover-ups of the twentieth century.
It’s not clear how author Brad Matsen came to be involved with writing a completely absorbing narrative of the divers’ adventures and findings. Regardless, Matsen’s new book, Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatteron and Richie Kohler can take its place as the definitive answer to the world’s most unanswerable question: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as she did?
In 2005, Deep Sea Detectives John Chatteron and Richie Kohler stacked their finances and reputations on the report of one man who claimed to have seen new evidence that the majestic ship’s last hours were not at all what we had imagined and that it did not sink exactly as we have come to believe. David Concannon had seen “ribbons of steel that looked like they had been peeled from the ship” in Titan’s debris field. He had no real proof, only what he had seen. Chatteron and Kohler took a plunge (no pun intended) in an effort to discover, once and for all, how and why Titanic sunk.
The book’s subtitle is a little misleading. Chatteron and Kohler almost take a back seat to Titanic’s mesmerizing personality. The book is divided into three sections: “Shipwreck,” “Dreams,” and “Secrets.” From what Chatteron and Kohler discover, Martsen weaves the mystery effortlessly that results in an amazing work.
I’m dying to tell you what they learned, but I hate reviewers who spoil an ending. A little hint though: the biggest scene in the movie is wrong.
Armchair Interviews says: If the Titanic has always intrigued you, this is a must-read.
From our armchair to yours...
