Book Review: Farewell Titanic by Charles Pellegrino

The author states there are three eras to the exploration of the Titanic wreck: The Ballard Era, The Tulloch Era, and the Cameron Era. As a member of the Ghosts of the Abyss Expedition in 2001, Pellegrino focuses primarily on the the last era.

Anyone who has seen Disney's GotA documentary knows that one of the dives took place on September 11, 2001. Pellegrino had family members who were killed during the attacks, so the attacks naturally hit close to home. The natural comparisons that arose between the two disasters, and how they both shocked the world in their respective times, fits within the narrative.

Interweaving current dives to the wreck with a period story derived from studied accounts from the sinking of the great ship, the narrative flows nicely for the most part. The author, on occasion interjects his religious views (or lack thereof) into the text. In my opinion, this does not have a place in the book. If he were actually trying to illustrate his journey from one end of the spectrum to the other, and how his visit to the stern as well as the 9/11 aftermath affected said journey, that would be one thing. However, Pellegrino states at the end of the book that his views have not changed, making me ask, "then why was there a need to include this?"

The book also describes finds that I didn't know about. One of which was in 2001, when video footage from inside the wreck off of one of the Grand Staircase landings reveals what appears to be a piece of a human skull. Another incident was in the mid-nineties during one Tulloch's salvage operations, a piece of bone that had a gold band around it accidentally was brought up from the depths. I had no idea until I read this book that any human remains had ever been found at the wreck sight.

Overall, the book is engaging and a relatively short read. It contains plenty of information that I wasn't aware of, from the human remains to the belligerent Harland and Wolff employee at the wreck site. The only real problem I had with the book was the inclusion of the author's religious views, thus I marked it down a couple of points.

Rating: 6.5/10

As always, thanks for reading.