Brad MatsenBesprekingen

I actually thought I knew about Cousteau because of my background before I read this. I knew what the general public knows I guess but that really isn't that much apparently. I was suprised by a lot of things about Cousteau. I was even more suprised by the fact that France has a navy :)
The end of his life and the mess of a family he left behind was sad. I do finally understand now why PBS always makes sure to use Jean Michel's whole name on his series. I always thought it was strange but now I know he isn't allowed to just use Cousteau

I had a hard time keeping track of who was who and what was going on. I will try this again some other time.

Continuing adventures of the Shadow Divers. Not very much of their story this time, but interesting history of the Titanic.

Interesting but not very deep outline of Cousteau's life. He did so much in his life, it probably would have been fairer to him to highlight one time in his life, for example his time in WWII and the invention of the Aqualung, and then dealt with that in more detail.

I would recommend this book for fourth through around eighth grade levels. It is a very interesting look at all of the different natural elements to New York City and also makes comparisons to other large cities. It looks at aspects of wildlife in the city such as wild animals, rocks, water, food, plants, air, etc. The book has great colorful illustrations and pictures that are sure to captivate children.
The book is organized as a bunch of mini-lessons on each of the different aspects of the wildlife going on in the city. It has inserts and diagrams that are very eye catching and would allow for children to skim pages to find the things they are most interested in. I would have liked to see a little more detail in the explanations of certain things, such as life cycles of trees and plants, but the book goes into enough detail to make it relevant for the students in science classes. And the subject area is so varied that it would surely draw in a wide variety of readers. The cover itself shows a squirrel looking like it is holding the banner that lists the author and illustrator. And it also shows various things such as a strawberry, a raccoon and even a cartoon of a little girl holding a Dr. Sues type umbrella. It was an interesting read, and I would definitely recommend it to elementary teachers to use as an option for a science project or book report.

This book is about the people who discovered the Titanic. They decide to go back for a second look to find out why the Titanic really sunk. Did you ever wonder why the titanic sink without more of a warning? I think that this book is a must read for all!
This audio book was loaned to me by a friend

I didn't grow up watch Cousteau's films or television series. In fact, my first introduction to him was via Bill Murray's character in Wes Anderson's A Life Aquatic, which was inspired by Cousteau.

Matsen portrays Cousteau as a flawed explorer, environmentalist and philosopher who inspired a generation to look beyond land's limits and under the water. His work to focus the world's attention on the health of the oceans and the need for sustainable practices cannot be underestimated. Nor can his contribution to the invention of the Aqua-Lung and advancing water-based technologies.

Far from idolising Cousteau, Matsen's writing feels authentic and provides the reader with a character study that looks beyond his lengthy achievements.½

The slightly long-winded subtitle of this book reveals its biggest conceptual problem: Matson's desire to make it "about" celebrity wreck divers Chatterton and Kohler. The long opening and closing sections of the book, which follow the divers, are engagingly written but not really worth the space Matson gives them Had the divers in question been John Doe and Bob Smith, their discoveries could have been covered in a handful of pages without diminishing the central narrative of the story in the slightest.

And make no mistake about it: Matson's central narrative is both readable and fascinating. He covers the Titanic disaster from a perspective that I've not encountered in the six or eight books I've read on the subject: that of the builders. He tells the story of the White Star Lines (the company that ordered Titanic and her sisters), of Harland and Wolff (the yard that built them), and of the men who did the actual work. Matson has a nice eye for detail, and he uses it to convey some of the feel of working in a turn-of-the-century shipyard. It's not a book about ship design or labor history, but you learn a lot about both in the course of following the construction of the Titanic. You also get one of the most lucid explanations I've ever read of the reason why the big ship had only 16 lifeboats -- enough for less than half of those on board. (It had little to do with arrogance or over-confidence, and much to do with the price of coal.)

All this fascinating detail and well-written narrative is deployed in the service of a new interpretation of how (and why) the Titanic sank: She was insufficiently stiff, and as her bows filled with water after hitting the iceberg the weight of the water stressed her hull in ways she had no hope of withstanding. She "broke deep and took water," as Gordon Lightfoot once sang of the Great Lakes iron-ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, slipping beneath the waves well before (almost) anyone aboard expected her to. Matson's theory undoes a lot of what we thought we knew about the Titanic, but it accounts, plausibly, for a number of details that seemed inexplicable before. Whether you, the reader, ultimately buy his explanation or not, exploring it is a fascinating exercise.

Believe the title, not the subtitle: Chatterton and Kohler are just supporting characters in this always well-written, often gripping book. The central figures are the Titanic and those who built and ran her.

A good read and a must for every Titanic buff but you'll have to push yourself through the first few chapters where Matsen tries to "get real" by quoting (without quotation marks by the way) the "manly banter" between John Chatterton and Richie Kholer, the so-called Shadow Divers. They add virtually nothing to the story except to mention the Shadow Divers and lend a "they got me" (to buy another self-aggrandizing Titanic book) aura to an otherwise well written book. Once Matsen gets into the history, the book is hard to put down, but as the fates would have it, he eventually returns to those rascally Shadow Divers and ends on a somewhat down note. As a Titanic buff, my one criticism is Matsen's conclusion that not only was Titanic a fatally flawed ship but was intentionally so. Not true. The world was learning how to build big ships and, yes, they made mistakes, fatal ones, but not intentionally. It's easy to criticize nearly 100 years after the fact. By that measure, we should indict NASA for purposely sending Apollo 13 into orbit with a fatally flawed power cells. Nevertheless, a good read and a recommendation.

This historical nonfiction title is another in a series by author, Brad Matsen who chronicles the adventures of two scuba divers/treasure hunters, John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. The storyline is unique, in that the emphasis is on discovering why Titanic sank so quickly while being a brand new steel icon of the time.
Intense writing portrays situations during present day and in the past in a historically accurate and detailed view. While multiple flashbacks set the quick tone, dialogue moves the the story along in present day, in which vast details are revealed about ship building to help understand and quicken the pace. The dangerous underwater setting and flashbacks to 1912 set the tone for a "nail-biting" discovery on both fronts with many of the original, historical figures who were on the fateful liner that night.
Prominent characters, from the present day divers who make some startling discoveries about Titanic, to the actual seamen and ship builders during the Industrial Age, draw an accurate picture of the time they lived in and help make them "relatable" to any lover of history or adventure. The reader is draw into the story with this sympathetic yet accurate depiction of why the Titanic sunk in a little over hours on April 14, 1912.

This is about the people who discovered the Titanic go back for a second look to find out why the Titanic really sunk Did you ever wonder why the titanic sink without more of a warning? I think that this book is a must read for all!
This audio book was loaned to me by a friend

Author Brad Matsen tells the story of divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler who learn of a tantalizing new clue to the sinking of the Titanic and set out to explore the famous wreck. When the clue turns out to be a red herring, they seek to salvage their expedition by searching unexamined areas of the Titanic site. They make a discovery that they feel finally explains why the ship sank so quickly, despite all the safety measures in place.

Titanic’s Last Secrets goes back and forth between the modern-day expedition and an account of the building and sinking of the ship, as well as the turn of the century investigation of the disaster. Even for those familiar with that story, there are interesting details in the chapters focusing on the birth and death of the Titanic. Matsen’s narrative zips along and is an easy read. He saves the discovery for the end of the book, so I’ll explain the new theory as a spoiler for those who want to follow the path of Titanic’s Last Secrests without knowing its conclusion.

SPOILER FOLLOWS

Chatterton and Kohler find two massive sections of the Titanic’s hull on the ocean floor far from the rest of the wreck. After analysis, they conclude that the design of the ship was inherently weak and that parts of its double-hulled bottom section broke off while the boat was still on the surface. They state that the Titanic’s design was simply a scaled up version of smaller boats and that at the ship’s huge size it was fundamentally unstable. When the bow of the ship began to fill with water after being damaged by the iceberg it struck, that weight put tremendous stress on the middle of the boat. Parts of the hull cracked and fell away under the pressure, allowing water to rush in. A ship that should have floated for hours -- time that would have allowed the Carpathia to reach the Titanic and rescue all its passengers and crew -- soon plummeted under the water. They also speak with the long-time archivist of the ship's manufacturer, Harland and Wolff, who says the company's own belief about why ship sank (kept secret since the disaster) was exactly the same as Chatterton and Kohler's.

Their thesis ignores the prevailing theory that substandard rivets caused the ship’s hull to open like a zipper on impact with the iceberg. Personally I find that a much more compelling explanation and much better supported by the evidence we have. None-the-less, I found Titanic’s Last Secrets thoroughly enjoyable – although I remain unconvinced of its assertions.

Nature in New York City is sometimes hard to find, but no longer. The author uses real life photos and diagrams to explore the wonderful world that is New York City and the nature that lives in it.

I found this book quite interesting, both the parts regarding the divers in the present day, and the biographies of the historical personages. It presented information I hadn't known and changed my understanding of the Titanic tragedy significantly. Definitely worth the read, and worth adding to one's collection of popular history.

Full disclosure time - I am a borderline "Titaniac". I find the story of the Titanic to be even more fascinating than other maritime disasters like the Lusitania, the Bismark, and the Edmund Fitzgerald. I enjoyed reading this book, which brought new information to the table about how the great ship went down so quickly, mixed with the history of the ship, its construction, launch and ultimately its end and the aftermath. I would have preferred to have seen documentary evidence claimed to be seen by the previous archivist of the shipyard that built Titanic, but it's a thought provoking book all the same. Worth the read.

If you thought you knew everything there was about the Titanic then think again. Titanic’s Last Secrets gives readers a new; clean prospective on a famous tragedy that has captivated us all.

The dynamic team of Brad Matsen and deep sea divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler have teamed up to share their wealth of knowledge as well as in depth research on this well-known ship and in doing so they produced a wonderful book. John Chatterton and Richie Kohler travel to the wreckage of the Titanic to disprove a myth about what really happened that day.

Titanic’s Last Secrets is like a history lesson is supposed to be like… fun and exciting. From the first page, I got caught up in the anticipation as well as excitement to when Chatterton and Kohler first discovered something new about the Titanic that no one else had ever laid eyes on before. With Brad Matsen’s writing style, he made it so real that it was like I was there every step of the way. I appreciate the risks Chatterton and Kohler went though by risking their lives to bring truth and justice for all those innocent souls that perished for greed. For anyone that is fascinated with the history of the Titanic then this is the book for you, so pick up a copy of Titanic’s Last Secrets today. This is one book that will have people talking.

joint review of this book and [Diving Into Darkness] in The Miami Herald: http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/arts/books/story/702939.html½