Cunningham, Anthony John. The Titanic Diaries: Dramatic Accounts of Shipwreck Survival. 1st printing. Silver Link Publishing. August, 2005. wraps. isbn: 1857942310. scarcity: fairly common.

Although called The Titanic Diaries, that shipwreck is but one chapter in what is essentially an anthology of episodes about people who have survived various maritime disasters. See the press release below for more details. With thanks to Pat Cook for information about this book.

The book can also be found on-line under two alternate titles, which were being considered before it was published, Orphans of the Titanic and Saved from the Titanic. Both of these alternate titles ended up not being used; the only available version is The Titanic Diaries. With thanks to the author for clearing up this issue for me.

From the publisher’s press release:
An insightful collection of tales which touch on an aspect of shipwrecks that is often overlooked - that of the survivors themselves. Stories of 'how and why' have long been told and questions have been answered, which render these first hand recollections all the more intriguing and fascinating A childhood fascination of shipwrecks and a meeting with Millvina Dean, the youngest Titanic survivor, inspired the author to meet more survivors of both the Titanic and other disasters. Disasters which may not be as well documented as the Titanic but ones which claimed more lives and which had a similarly profound effect on those who survived them. They are the people that tell their stories here - all tales of overcoming adversity and personal loss and living and moving on in the aftermath.

The author gives a brief background to each disaster and then the reader can become absorbed in the first hand account given by the survivors. As well as the tragedies they recall, their stories tell of an age which is becoming ever more distant. Times of Edwardian gilded splendour, war time privation and the 'women and children first' attitude. With accompanying photographs of the subjects, the disasters covered are: RMS Titanic, 15th April 1912 * RMS Lusitania, 7th May 1915 * Athenia, 3rd September 1939 * Rawalpindi, 23rd November 1939 * HMT Lancastria, 17th June 1940 * City of Benares, 17th September 1940 * City of Simla, 21st September 1940 * Empress of Britain, 26th October 1940 * City of Nagpur, 29th April 1941 * Empress of Asia, 5th February 1942 * Laconia, 12th September 1942 * Lakonia, 22nd December 1963.