Lee, Sue. “‘They Called Him the Coward of the Titanic but I Can Tell You the Real Story.’” Liverpool Echo, December 30, 2025. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/they-called-him-coward-titanic-33110286.
It was other people’s reactions to his surname which later set him off on a quest for the truth about what really happened the night the magnificent ocean liner sank on her maiden voyage with the loss of 1,500 passengers and crew. “I used to meet people, on a business or social level, introduce myself and they’d often ask me: ‘Are you related to the coward of the Titanic?’ ” That’s how he’s been portrayed down the years in films and books – as a villain – but I wanted to know the truth,” says Cliff, who has written a book on his ancestor. “I don’t think he was a hero but he was no coward either. During my own research I found he was responsible for actually saving lives as he patrolled the boat deck boats, both starboard and port sides, encouraging women and children to get into the lifeboats.
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Davies, Hannah J. “Titanic Sinks Tonight Review – It’s Like You’re Reliving That Terrifying Night.” The Guardian, December 28, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/dec/28/titanic-sinks-tonight-review-its-like-youre-reliving-that-terrifying-night.
Titanic Sinks Tonight is a part-documentary, part-drama series playing across four nights, its episodes constructed from letters and diaries written by those on board, as well as interviews the survivors would give in the decades after. On the strength of the two episodes released for review, there’s no denying that it sates our appetite for Titanic-themed content. However, in centring the words and memories of those who lived through the terror of that night, it restores much-needed agency to those people. It also does well to bring a sense of reality to events that can sometimes feel unreal on account of their ubiquity, and that uncanny valley of Titanic-themed media. Central to its success is the presence of experts such as historian Suzannah Lipscomb and former Royal Navy admiral Lord West, to sharpen the corners of the story that Hollywood has sanded down.
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Lloyd, Howard. “The Man From Cornwall Who Was at Titanic’s Wheel When Disaster Struck.” Cornwall Live, December 22, 2025. https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/man-cornwall-who-titanics-wheel-10719329.
When Robert Hichens, the quartermaster, took over the helm of RMS Titanic at 10pm on 14 April 1912, he had no inkling that in a few hours, he would be at the heart of one of the most catastrophic maritime disasters in history. Less than two hours into his shift, the 29 year old found himself wrestling with the wheel of the colossal ocean liner as it desperately tried to evade an iceberg in the icy North Atlantic. Hichens’ legacy has been marred by controversy. Post the sinking, he faced accusations ranging from steering in the wrong direction to avoid the iceberg, to being intoxicated in his lifeboat. He also declined to return to the site of the sinking to search for survivors – despite his lifeboat only being half-full – and later served time in prison for attempted murder.
Suggested Reading
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Behe, G. (2012). On board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press.
Ballard, Robert D. Exploring the Titanic. Reprint. Madison Press Books, 2014.
Ballard, Robert D., and Rick Archbold. The Discovery of the Titanic. New York, N.Y.?: Warner Books, 1987.
Ballard, Robert D., Lost Liners: From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria the Ocean Floor Reveals Its Greatest Lost Ships(Hyperion, 1998).
Brewster, H. (2013). Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World. National Geographic Books.
Eaton John P. & Haas Charles, TITANIC TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, SECOND EDITION, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 1995 First American Edition
Fitch, Tad, J. Kent Layton, and Bill Wormstedt. On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic. Reprint. Amberley Publishing, 2015.
Lord, Walter, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, New York, 1955. Multiple revisions and reprints, notably Illustrated editions (1976,1977,1978 etc.)
Lord, Walter, THE NIGHT LIVES ON, Willian Morrow and Company, New York, New York, 1986 (First Edition)
Lynch, Don & Marshall Ken, TITANIC AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, Madison Press Books, Toronto, Ontario Canada, 1992
Marshall, L. (2019). Sinking of the Titanic: The Greatest Disaster At Sea – Special Edition with Additional Photographs. Independently Published.
Rossignol, K. (2012). Titanic 1912: The Original News Reporting of the Sinking of the Titanic. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Wilson, A. (2012). Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived. Simon and Schuster.