The death of Walter Lord in 2002 deprived the Titanic community of its greatest, and possibly its best loved author. In over
five decades he had amassed an enormous resource of interviews, letters, newspapers, paraphernalia, many of them rare and unique.
Fortunately, his collection was bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Lord, as well as the Titanic related
items of his friend, Bill Macquitty, who had seen the ship launched, and then, as Arthur C. Clarke once said "sank her again
a second time" for the 1958 film adaptation of his friend's book, "A Night To Remember." Now, these files which
helped to generate "A Night To Remember" and "The Night Lives On" are indexed
and open for perusal ... at least for those of us for whom a trip to Greenwich is no problem. But what about the rest of us?
Very few seem to have seen his private files, and it is the opinion of this author that the priceless information should be
available to everyone, free. Hence, the purpose of this section: a transcription of Lord's, and Macquitty's, notes and letters.
Although fasincating, the usual caveat should apply, viz. that the information given contemporaneously in 1912 should be regarded
as more accurate than tainted or faded recollections more than 40 years after the event. Still, this does not necessarily mean that the information
contained in these documents should be dismissed! They also show how some survivors were less than candid and open in
their recollections, and, in a few cases, how Lord himself missed golden opportunities to further his knowledge ( see
his correspondence with Sylvia Lightoller as an example ).
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The Titanic-Californian debate gets quite heated, and often results in insults and personal attacks being tossed
back and forth (witness Senan Molony's postings on the Encyclopedia-Titanica message board). Their tactics are obvious - avoid discussions of the case, describe dissenters and their work as "trash" with no justification,
besmirch their reputation (and what has that got to do with the quality of their research or conclusions?), refuse to admit when they are wrong, or launch legal
action to get skeptic's works suppressed. Heres a good example, courtesy of Mr.Rob Kamps from the Netherlands.
