The Sinking of the Titanic & Great Sea Disasters

A few years ago, I met Bob Garner, executive producer at Focus on the Family Films. When he was a boy, his grandmother had shown him a copy of an old, illustrated book about the Titanic. He told me that the book left a deep impression on his seven-year-old heart. One image in particular haunted him: that of the hand of God holding the Titanic with a quote from Scripture, "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?" (Isaiah 40:12). That illustration reminded Bob that God was sovereign. Years later, while working with Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, God used the memory of that book and the story of the Titanic to bring him closer to the Lord. Intrigued, I asked my staff to track down an original copy. What I found fascinated me: the true account of men who gave up their lives for women and children because they grew up in a culture of Christian family values. We reproduced The Sinking of the Titanic to give you the look and feel of a vintage classic. We have received hundreds of testimonies from families that have used it for devotionals, and from boys and girls who just can't put it down.

Excerpt from Chapter XIV ("Thrilling Account by L. Beasley," page 188):
"I had been in my berth for about ten minutes, when, at about 11:15 p.m., I felt a slight jar, and then soon after a second one, but not sufficiently violent to cause any anxiety to anyone, however nervous they may have been. However, the engines stopped immediately afterward, and my first thought was, 'She has lost a propeller.'

"I went up on the top (boat) deck in a dressing gown, and found only a few persons there, who had come up similarly to inquire why we had stopped, but there was no sort of anxiety in the minds of anyone.

"We saw through the smoking room window a game of cards going on, and went in to inquire if they knew anything; it seems they felt more of the jar, and, looking through the window, had seen a huge iceberg go by close to the side of the boat. They thought we had just grazed it with a glancing blow, and that the engines had been stopped to see if any damage had been done. No one, of course, had any conception that the vessel had been pierced below by part of the submerged iceberg."