ANALYZING PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES | Jennifer Casey last updated April 8, 2014

Experiencing the Titanic Disaster

Analyzing Primary & Secondary Sources

Directions:
For this assignment read the following excerpts from primary and secondary sources. Complete a table
identifying the author, audience, format, and purpose of each excerpt. Remember that primary sources
are first-hand, original accounts, records, or evidence about a person, place, object, or an event.
Secondary sources are accounts, records, or evidence derived from an original or primary source. In
other words, you could ask yourself the question, Was this person there? If the person was there, it is
a primary source, if they were not there, it is a secondary source. You will need to use your book,
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster to figure out the answers. Once you complete the table, copy and paste
the table into the Analysis page you created on your Titanic project website. This is the second of two
tables that you will include on your websites Analysis page.

Analyzing Primary & Secondary Sources
Excerpt Source Author Audience Purpose
EXAMPLE:
The final docking in New York
at Pier No. 54 North River, when
all our friends and relations
learned the truth about the
extent of the loss, was the last
nerve-shattering blow for many
peopleit marked the end of all
hope. (Hopkinson, p. 195
quoting Jack Thayer)
Primary Jack Thayer
People not on
board the
Titanic
Informing someone
about the moment
when the reality of
what had happened
actually began to
sink in

I didnt even feel the shock
Bride said. There was no jolt
whatever. (Hopkinson, p. 76
quoting Harold Bride)





ANALYZING PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES | Jennifer Casey last updated April 8, 2014
Survivor Lawrence Beesley was
very glad to see land again. It
seemed to him that eight weeks
rather than eight days had
passed since hed left England.
He could barely remember those
first peaceful, uneventful hours
of the voyage.(Hopkinson, p.
197)


Mother then released me, and
now beginning to be fearful
about my father, I lifted myself
to look past her shoulder and
saw the tail end of our ship
aimed straight up toward the
stars in the sky, said Frankie.
(Hopkinson, p. 150 quoting
Frankie Goldsmith)


When Colonel Archibald Gracie
turned around to look for the
ship, he realized that the Titanic
was nowhere to be found. The
strange sound he had heard
must have been the water
closing over the stern in those
last seconds. (Hopkinson, p.
151)


Works Cited
Hopkinson, D., 2012. Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Scholastic Press.