| "The Blue Island" is a 68-page ebook written in London, England in 1922. This book was dictated by William Thomas Stead, (who perished in the great Titanic disaster in 1912) to Pardoe Woodman and his daughter, Estelle.
William approached Estelle 2 weeks after his passing and was in regular communication with her. Estelle says:
From that day to this, I have been in constant touch with my father. I have had many talks with him and communications from him containing very definite proof of his continued presence amongst us. I can truly say that the link between us is even stronger to-day than in 1912, when he threw off his physical body and passed on to the spirit world. There has never been a feeling of parting, although at first the absence of his physical presence was naturally a source of very great sadness.
"The Blue Island" was dictated to Pardoe Woodman by automatic writing. With Estelle by his side at all times, she explains the procedure like this:
...Mr. Woodman found that he himself had the power of automatic writing, and father and others were soon able to write through him. Father always prefers me to be present, as if I am not, he seems to have more difficulty, and very rarely will attempt writing. He explains the necessity of my presence in this way: he and I are so much en rapport, and so closely in touch with each other, that he is able to draw much power from me; I act as the connecting link and form a sort of battery between him and Mr. Woodman. I merely sit passively by whilst Mr. Woodman writes. Certainly I see a light around us, and a strong ray of light concentrating on Mr. Woodman's arm. Sometimes I am able to see father himself, and always, when he is writing, I feel his presence very distinctly.
We have received many messages in this way. For a while in 1918 we sat regularly every week, and were kept in touch with much that was going on at the Front and about what was about to happen, and were advised of occurrences often days before the news came through in the ordinary way. In one case, father gave us the actual headlines which would (and did) appear in the papers the following week. - Estelle Stead
About The Recorder
Little is known about Pardoe Woodman, however Estelle does mention in her letter within this book a few details:
A young man named Pardoe Woodman, who on the very Sunday of the disaster, foretold it as we sat talking after tea. He did not name the boat or my father, but he got so much that pointed to disaster at sea and the passing on of an elderly man intimately connected with me, that when the sad news came through, we realized he must have been closely in touch with what was about to happen.
In 1917, Mr. Woodman was invalided out of the Army and came to stay with us at our country cottage at Cobham. Whilst with us, the news came to him that his great friend had been killed at the front, and his interest in the possibility of communication with the next world, which had been indifferent till then, became intense, and he set out to find out for himself. It is ever the passing of a loved one that gives the necessary stimulus for eager inquiry.
Mr. Woodman also writes with his eyes closed, and often holds a handkerchief over them. Some of the best messages were given in the twilight, when it was impossible for me to follow what was being written, and yet the words were never overwritten.
It is interesting, also of importance to note that Mr. Woodman and my father met only once before his passing. I introduced Mr. Woodman to him not long before he left England in the Titanic, and they only exchanged two or three words. Therefore, Mr. Woodman never knew my father personally, nor has he come into touch with his writings or with his work in any way, and yet the wording and the phrasing of the messages are my father's, and even the manner of writing is typical of him. | 
