The author has been a professional astrologer since 1990. In this book she takes a look at the ship’s builders, her passengers and crew, and some of the major authors and moviemakers whose works have retold the Titanic story to later generations. After studying over 1,000 of their birth charts, she claims to have discovered Titanic’s astrological signature, apparently shared by over 80% of these individuals.

Whether or not you are going to get a lot from this book really depends on your views about astrology. If you are a believer, the amount of synchronicity is going to be very impressive. If you are a skeptic (and many of you know, I am), you might be left with the nagging suspicion that with a large enough number of variables (11 planets, 12 zodiac signs and 12 houses) compared with a large enough sample size (over 1,000 people’s charts), an amazing number of seemingly related events can be achieved.

There is little doubt that Grimes has put an enormous effort in compiling the background information for the book. Her description of the years or work she put into this project is impressive. There is no doubt in my mind that she believes that she is onto something extraordinary; her enthusiasm and sincerity shines through every page of the book. Judging whether her theories are valid or not is a somewhat more complicated issue.

For one thing, this is definitely not a beginner’s astrology book. Grimes gives the basics of astrology in her introduction, but it is nowhere near enough information to aid the lay person in understanding the complex charts or the author’s astrological conclusions. There are numerous illustrations of different people’s charts, for example, but they are a meaningless jumble of lines and symbols to the uninitiated.

The text can be equally difficult to fathom. As an example here is an excerpt from her chapter on Bruce Ismay:

“If we look at Ismay’s personal horoscope at the time of the Titanic disaster, Neptune was coming into a formation with Ismay’s natal Jupiter. This put Neptune at 21 Cancer to Ismay’s Jupiter at 22 Libra (his Venus in Sagittarius echoes this, in mutual reception), the major Titanic degree point in his birth chart. It makes sense, given this placement, that Bruce Ismay was instrumental in conceiving the “great ships” that became known for their luxury, aesthetics, and comfort”.

Admittedly, this is a lone paragraph taken out of context from the rest of the chapter, yet much of the text is similar. My complete lack of experience with astrology leaves me scratching my head about what she is trying to say, and, more critically, gives me no ruler against which I can qualify her conclusions.

If astrology is a science, it appears to me to be a somewhat inexact one. At times, the author has not had the full details for certain people’s charts. For some of them, she could not find the person’s exact time of birth, for example, or exact location of their birth. In these instances she plugs in a number based on her intuition. If her guestimates are significantly off, would this seriously affect the outcome of that person’s chart?

An even more serious issue arises with the chart the author uses as Titanic’s master chart. This is the dominant chart by which every other chart in the book is compared. Grimes uses as her master chart the moment that Titanic hit the iceberg. Fair enough. But the coordinates she uses as the foundation of the chart are 41N46 / 50W14, the famous CQD position Titanic messaged to the world as she was sinking.

The problem is that since the late 1980’s, we have known that that is not where Titanic hit the iceberg at all. In actuality the fateful blow was some 13 miles east and south of those coordinates. Does this error in distance significantly skew the results of the master chart? Or is a ballpark figure good enough? Again, my lack of knowledge in astrology leaves me unable to answer these important questions. However, a friend of mine conversant with astrology assures me that this discrepancy of a few miles does not significantly affect Grimes’ charts.

Ultimately, each reader must decide for themselves if the evidence presented in this book justifies the author’s conclusions. Because of the reasons described in this review, I am left with serious doubts.