In this large and lavish volume, Dr. Robert Ballard takes the reader on a guided tour from the beginnings of the Atlantic express liner through its heyday to its sudden demise with the advent of the passenger jet. The book also revisits some of the most famous of the great liners that escaped the Titanic's fate, including the fabulous Normandie and the stately Queen Mary. Featured throughout the book are the specially commissioned paintings of Ken Marschall, the world's leading painter of the Titanic and her contemporaries. In astonishingly accurate detail, he depicts the great liners in their polished prime and then descends to the ocean floor to show them in ghostly repose. Complementing Ken Marschall's paintings is a vast selection of archival photographs, illustrations and memorabilia that recalls the splendor that once was. Maps, charts and diagrams make this handsome volume a valuable reference tool as well as a compelling evocation of that glorious era when floating palaces ruled the sea lanes.

Lost Liners: The Video
Video for Educational Use

This special examines four of the greatest lost liners in maritime history -- the Titanic, the famous doomed ship found by Robert Ballard; the Empress of Ireland, which sank off the Canadian coast in 1914, taking 1,012 people with her; the Lusitania, sunk by a German U-boat, outraging the Allied world and changing the course of World War I; and the hospital ship Britannic, the Titanic's younger sister, destroyed by a German mine as she sailed through the Aegean to retrieve wounded soldiers in 1916. The program weaves never-before-seen underwater images with historical footage from the turn of the last century, evoking a time of haves and have-nots, of luxury and opulence, poverty and class. Historians tell of a time of hope, change and adventure, of shipping rivals and the battle for speed. Survivors tell personal tales of shock and loss.

Lost Liners: The Music