“I’m here because of what Bobby did for me. Bobby gave a great gift to me and I shall forever be grateful … he gave me his lifejacket and he has given me sixty–five years of life which he didn’t have.” —John Baker, child survivor, of his brother Bobby “There was nothing for us to do except hang on to this rope. So we were facing each other on the side of the lifeboat with this rope between us. And we never let go of that rope in all the time that followed – which turned out to be nineteen hours in all … we knew if we did let go, that would be the end of us. The waves were terrible. We were being thrown one way and then dragged back again. Then there would be a huge wave coming right over us. You couldn’t see and you would be coughing and spluttering … next thing you were up in the air and back again … We were just two schoolgirls fighting the north Atlantic … There is nothing more lonely than being in mid–Atlantic on a boat upside down … Nothing alive except us three.” —Beth and...