The Sting of the Hawke: Collision in the Solent Paperback – Import, 10 January 2015

Stubbled across this book while looking at the recommended list under a Britannic title I bought, and figured it would be interesting. Not something I would usually dig into, and not sure I made the right decision after reading. The first couple chapters cover the incident and immediate findings, which I quite enjoyed, but the middle section of the book covering the legal battle and search for answers was very heavy in looking into times, speeds, headings and other very specific information that made for outright dry reading as far as I’m concerned. Also not being someone who is super familiar with these headings and such didn’t help, but it was impossible to really get what was happing all the time other than they disputed every detail. The last third of the book covering the Titanic’s similar mishap in Southhampton as well as more scientific talk of how the suction occurs was interesting and enjoyed again however. In the end I can’t take any marks off for most of the writing as it was all very well informed and extremely deeply researched and I’m sure it’s more understandable to someone who’s more into the subject than myself, but I’ll probably have a hard time picking it up again, and when I do I’ll skip a lot of the middle of the book I’m sure

The Hawke/Olympic collision has been one of the "big" stories of the "Olympic" class liners - still causes debate - I think this book will finally let the circumstances come to light - the book is quite technical - but the authors fully explain the events so all can understand what is going on - the only problem I had with this book was the title - a "Hawk" doesn't sting - a wasp, bee, hornet, etc. sting - but Hawks dive - and grab their victim - and fly off - with the damage that was suffered on both sides of this collision - nobody was going anywhere.Peter Padfield years ago wrote a book called: "The Agony of Collisions" - and a chapter in this book covered this collision - nice book - but I think "The Sting of the Hawke" will be the definitive book on the subject.

Super researched book!

Intricate analysis of a mystifying event. Must remain focused to follow the discussion and not become lost in the reasoning.