TITANIC An Illustrated History <i> By Donald Lynch Paintings by Ken Marschall Introduction by Robert D. Ballard (Hyperion/Madison Press: $60; 227 pp.) </i>

This is the book Titanic buffs have been waiting for. “Titanic: An Illustrated History” is likely to command the best berth in the library, even if one already has a shelf full of ill-fated-liner lore.

The lavishly wide format is ideal for Marschall’s dramatic paintings, which sweep across page-spreads so vividly you can almost hear the four-funneled ghost gliding through the waves.

Writer Don Lynch (historian for the Titanic Historical Society) weaves together strands of the lives of passengers and crew during the superliner’s April, 1912, maiden voyage, which ended (as everyone knows) when the world’s largest passenger liner collided with a North Atlantic iceberg. Lynch’s narrative of the midnight drama, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 lives, amply details the disaster’s heroic and cowardly characters and its awe-inspiring and grisly impressions as well.

There is enough textual detail for the most obsessive reader, from diagrams and charts to human-interest subplots, all fitted out with photographs. Like a treasure map, the center fold-out reveals the original cutaway diagram of public rooms and staterooms. Memorabilia provide a frisson of eeriness, like the menu from April 14--the last meal--and wireless messages warning of dangerous ice conditions.

A final chapter spotlights the 1986 rediscovery of the Titanic under the auspices of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and offers photographs and paintings capturing the bizarre beauty of the Titanic in her deep Atlantic resting place.