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Wilful Murder: The Sinking of the Lusitania
Not yet published
Expected 31 Dec 35The sinking of the Lusitania — the compelling story behind the human tragedy.On May 7, 1915 a passenger ship crossing the Atlantic sank with the loss of 1200 lives. On board were some world famous figures, including multimillionaire Alfred Vanderbilt. But this wasn’t the Titanic and there was no iceberg. The liner was the Lusitania and it was torpedoed by a German U-boat.Wilful Murder is the compelling story of the sinking of the Lusitania, placing the events both in their historical context, and their human dimension at its heart. Using first-hand accounts of the tragedy Diana Preston brings the tragedy to life, recreating the splendour of the liner as it set sail and the horror of its final moments. Then, using British, American and German research material, she answers many of the controversial questions surrounding the why didn’t Cunard listen to warnings that the ship would be a German target? Was the Lusitania sacrificed to bring the Americans into the War? What was really in the Lusitania’s hold? Had Cunard’s offices been infiltrated by German agents? And, finally, did the Kaiser’s decision to restrict U-boat warfare in response to international outrage over the sinking change the outcome of the First World War?Highly readable, highly researched Wilful Murder casts dramatic new light on one of the world’s most famous maritime disasters.
608 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2002
110 people are currently reading
1882 people want to read
About the author
Diana Preston
42 books116 followersBorn and raised in London, Diana Preston studied Modern History at Oxford University, where she first became involved in journalism. After earning her degree, she became a freelance writer of feature and travel articles for national UK newspapers and magazines and has subsequently reviewed books for a number of publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. She has also been a broadcaster for the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and has been featured in various television documentaries.
Eight years ago, her decision to write "popular" history led her to The Road to Culloden Moor: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the '45 Rebellion (Constable UK, 1995). It was followed by A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), The Boxer Rebellion (Walker & Company, 2000), Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy (Walker & Company, 2002) and now, Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima.
In choosing her topics, Preston looks for stories and events which are both compelling in their own right and also help readers gain a wider understanding of the past. She is fascinated by the human experience-what motivates people to think and act as they do‹and the individual stories that comprise the larger historical picture. Preston spent over two years researching Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. She did a remarkable amount of original research for the book, and is the first author to make full use of the German archives and newly discovered papers that illuminate both the human tragedy and subsequent plots to cover up what really happened. Preston traveled to all the key locations of the tragedy, experiencing firsthand how cold the water off the Irish coast near Cobh would have been in early May when the Lusitania sank, and how eerie it was to stand inside what remains of the U-20 (now at the Strandingsmuseum in West Jutland, Denmark) where the U-boat captain watched the Lusitania through his periscope and gave the order to fire. Of the many artifacts she reviewed, it was her extensive reading of the diaries and memoirs of survivors that had the biggest impact on her. The experience of looking at photographs and touching the scraps of clothing of both survivors and those who died when the Lusitania sank provided her with chilling pictures: The heartbreaking image of a young girl whose sister's hand slipped away from her was one that kept Preston up at night.
When not writing, Preston is an avid traveler with her husband, Michael. Together, they have sojourned throughout India, Asia, Africa, and Antarctica, and have climbed Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Mount Roraima in Venezuela. Their adventures have also included gorilla-tracking in Zaire and camping their way across the Namibian desert.
Diana and Michael Preston live in London, England.
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November 17, 2022
When asked about the world's most horrific shipwreck, most people immediately say "the Titanic". That is understandable since the sinking of the Titanic has generated several films and printed material which had kept it in the public eye for over a century. But what about the Lusitania?...........where actions and decisions not only influenced its fate but, as a consequence, the outcome of the First World War and the conduct of warfare in general.
This excellently written history of the Lusitania follows her from her birth until her death and the legal/political/human effects of her sinking. It was the gilded age of the luxury liner and she was the pride of the Cunard Line. But this book is more than just about the actual ship. The author details the environment of the time, when the US was still neutral in WWI but was sending supplies (and maybe more) to Britain.......when the U-boats were the terror of the seas.......when ships from neutral countries were still fairly safe from German attack. We see the behind-the-scenes politics which were seething that finally led to unrestricted U-boat attacks, thus the fate of the Lusitania.
And then there were the people upon the ship; the captain, crew, and passengers. A good portrait of those individuals is provided and how they reacted when the ship was torpedoed as well as afterward. It is very disturbing and heartbreaking.
There is much more that I could mention but read the book instead! I highly recommend it.
This excellently written history of the Lusitania follows her from her birth until her death and the legal/political/human effects of her sinking. It was the gilded age of the luxury liner and she was the pride of the Cunard Line. But this book is more than just about the actual ship. The author details the environment of the time, when the US was still neutral in WWI but was sending supplies (and maybe more) to Britain.......when the U-boats were the terror of the seas.......when ships from neutral countries were still fairly safe from German attack. We see the behind-the-scenes politics which were seething that finally led to unrestricted U-boat attacks, thus the fate of the Lusitania.
And then there were the people upon the ship; the captain, crew, and passengers. A good portrait of those individuals is provided and how they reacted when the ship was torpedoed as well as afterward. It is very disturbing and heartbreaking.
There is much more that I could mention but read the book instead! I highly recommend it.
April 26, 2016
I first read this book five years ago. In honor of the upcoming centenary of the Lusitania's sinking, I reread it. Instead of redoing my review, or revising it, I've decided to annotate it in bold to reflect my second look, especially in light of the heavy WWI reading I've engaged in.
World War One is in many ways staggeringly complex to understand. It's a Balkan war gone bad, very bad. To get a feel for it, to understand the various ententes and alliances, you need to know a lot history. Teachers have cut this Gordian knot by giving us landmark moments to which causation can be attributed. Chief among these moments is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His death didn't cause World War One; it was just one stop along doom's highway. Still, it's just easier to pretend it all started in Sarajevo. The same thing for the sinking of the Lusitania; it didn't immediately drag America into the conflict, but it's sure helpful to explain what we were doing "over there."
When I first read this book, I knew two things about WWI. It started with an assassination, and it ended with AMERICA saving the day. The complexity of the war always scared me off. It took me a couple (or dozen) books, but I'm finally starting to get the gist of it. The lesson, I suppose, is to study. It is a lesson I learned far to late too become a doctor. But just in time to annoy my friends and family with WWI minutiae.
The Lusitania was torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, on May 7, 1915. She sank quickly, killing 1,198 men, women, and children. The sinking immediately became one of the great propaganda tools in history, used by the British to turn world opinion against the Germans. The ship was made into a symbol, and along the way, the truth was obscured. Diana Preston's Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy removes the ship from the subjective, hyperbolic realm of war hysteria and returns it to its place as an artifact of history. Her real achievement, though, is to always remember that the core of the story is human.
Preston's book starts methodically, placing a great deal of value on context. She devotes considerable space to discussing the outbreak of war, the history of the submarine, and America's strained relationship with Germany (America was technically neutral, but as in World War II, her neutrality was shot-through with Anglophilia.) There is also a chapter on the Lusitania's specifications, complete with the obligatory comparison to a skyscraper. (I would like an author with the boldness to compare an ocean liner to something other than a skyscraper or a city block. Come on! I'd love a measurement that gave me cargo capacity in terms of the number of penguins that could fill her hold, or the length of the ship as compared to New York City hot dog carts).
There is an awful lot of build-up to the sinking. Indeed, some of these early chapters weren't strictly necessary, or they could have been shortened. However, I liked them. I'm a completist, with a weird thing for factoids. I was continually fascinated with the tiny details peppering the narrative. I liked knowing that 100 detectives watching for pickpockets were present in New York when Lusitania arrived on her maiden voyage. I also liked learning that the passengers had eaten 1,000 pineapples. Does this broaden my understanding of the sinking? Maybe, maybe not. Will I eventually get drunk at a bar and tell someone about this? Certainly.
In the five years since I first learned those facts, I have yet to pull them out at a bar, though I have been drunk approximately 5,000 times since then. Even with a better knowledge of World War I, I still appreciated Preston's early chapters. Others might find them soporific. I found them helpful. Preston is aiming high with her take on the Lusitania. She is aiming to be definitive.
Of course, the comparisons to that other shipwreck are inevitable:
The marvel of this book is that all these details don't overwhelm the story. When I noted Preston's methodical structuring, I don't mean to imply that it is plodding or pedestrian. Rather, each chapter has its own arc while also building and connecting with all that has come before. The Lusitania's sinking is not a simple tale of ship meeting torpedo; it is a culmination of a thousand different forces. There's Britain's blockade; Germany's response (unrestricted submarine warfare); Britain's decision to register the Lusitania as an reserve auxiliary cruiser; Germany's warning to America's passengers; and finally, Walther Schwieger's decision to fire U-20's torpedoes. Preston's great realization is that the thread tying all these events together is the people. And so there is a chapter devoted to the passengers and crew of the Lusitania, where you meet the lowly Morton brothers, who washed the decks, as well as Alfred Vanderbilt, who'd inherited his father's millions. There is also a good deal of space devoted to U-20, and the men who sailed her (in an oddly-humanizing touch, Preston writes how the men rescued a dachshund from a Portuguese merchant vessel they sunk).
When the torpedo strikes, Preston goes into Walter Lord mode. Though she doesn't rise to Lord's level from A Night To Remember (and seriously, who can?), she utilizes his technique of cross-cutting and quoting, so as to present a number of experiences from all around the ship.
Unlike the sinking of the Titanic, which up until the final minutes unfolded with the stately pace of a tragic opera, the Lusitania sank fast and dirty. Shortly after the torpedo struck:
Captain Turner ordered the lifeboats away. Here, all the lessons of Titanic became moot, for the ship listed so heavily to starboard that the lifeboats on the port side soon slammed against the deck, and couldn't be launched. In the haste to get the other boats away, crewmen lost their grip on the falls, sending the boats crashing into the sea. Only 6 boats managed to launch clean.
The book reaches its dramatic peak in these pages, as stories both heroic and pathetic emerge. There is a drunk stoker, stumbling around on deck with "the crown of his head torn open like a spongy, bloody pudding." There are three butchers who get stuck in an elevator between decks, left to their fate. Because there is no public address system, the crew has to shout its orders, but in the terrified crush, no one can hear them.
Strangely enough, the sinking scenes did not strike me the same way upon rereading. I found the sinking, in fact, to be confusingly told. This is partially due to the chaotic nature of the sinking. As I mentioned in my original review, the Titanic took 2 hours 40 minutes to sink on a relatively even keel on an ocean described as a "mill pond." The Lusitania suffered a series of violent explosions, kept plowing through the ocean on a forward heading, heeled over so badly she almost capsized, and had disappeared in less time than it takes to watch a commercial-free sitcom. So yes, the narrative is going to be a bit fractured. Still, Preston, who does such a good job contextualizing the lead-up to the sinking, does not do a great job contextualizing the stories of the people struggling to survive. It's hard to place them in the ship. It's hard to remember who they are. Moreover, Preston makes the odd choice to place all the "technical" details in an appendix that concludes her book. A lot of these details could easily have been woven into the sinking chapter, to ensure a more complete presentation that combines first-person accounts with the actual mechanics of the ship's failure.
For me, the test of whether a book is truly working on the human dimension is if I get chills. This is rare enough in novels, and rarer still in non-fiction. Here, it happened several times. Indeed, I challenge you to read about the last moments of Alfred Vanderbilt - the scion of a ruthless capitalist who was handing out life jackets to women and children before he was washed away by the sea - without at least a little shiver. Yes, some of this is testament to the inherent drama in the event. On the other hand, a story isn't a story until it's told. Facts, no matter how dramatic, require the talents of an author to make them live.
I found this even truer the second time around. In the five years since I first picked this up, I've had two daughters, and it has made me into a miserable sap in many ways. Accordingly, I was profoundly struck by the number of children lost. Fifty-six kids died on the Titanic, all but one of those youngsters - Lorraine Allison - from third class. The order on the Titanic was women and children first, and the children who died died because of geography. They were in steerage, and the crew did a poor job of getting the steerage passengers to the boat deck. On the Lusitania, 94 children, including 31 infants, were lost. They died because they had no chance.
The journalist William Langewiesche once wrote an epic piece on the sinking of the ferry Estonia. In memorable prose, he noted the cruel Darwinian nature of survival. "There was no God to turn to for mercy," he wrote. "There was no government to provide order." And in his starkest observation, he noted: "Love only slowed people down." On a heeling ship, wracked by internal explosions, with half the lifeboats unable to be lowered, and the crew a dismal mess, the children were lambs to the slaughter. There was no "women and children" first, there was only swim or drown. Preston tells the story of six year-old Helen Smith, who survived the sinking while both her parents died. There is a picture of her in the book that shows her holding an armful of dolls given to her by the people of Queenstown while she'd been taken around looking for her mom and dad. I started bawling. Swear to God. (She lived to the age of 84, by the way, and she had a daughter she named for her mom).
Post-sinking, Preston explores the implications the Lusitania had on America's entry into World War One. She also includes an extended discussion of various myths, such as whether the British admiralty offered up the Lusitania as a sacrificial lamb to nudge the United States toward war. After the fever pitch of the actual sinking - an ocean turned red, bodies in the surf, all within sight of the green hills of Ireland - all this is necessarily a bit of a let-down, one which goes on for quite a while. This is not to say the final sections are not informative, because they are. They do a good job clarifying the muddle of myths, lies, and half-truths that surround the Lusitania. (And for you burgeoning naval architects out there, Preston provides an appendix which gives a detailed "technical account" of the sinking).
I can see people frustrated with these chapters. I was emotionally involved in the immediate aftermath, the search for survivors, the burial of the dead. I also liked the chapter on the Lusitania inquiry, presided over by the same Lord Mersey who whitewashed the Titanic inquiry. Other discussions, however, such as the moral quibbling of William Jennings Bryan, failed to keep my full attention.
Preston also presents the argument over whether the Lusitania was a legitimate target. I was a little disappointed in this section, because after marshaling all the facts, Preston comes to the rather bland conclusion that Britain, America and Germany were all to blame. I would've liked something a little more daring. In my opinion, World War One is the ultimate example of Victor's history. As a result, we are all caught in this kind of pre-Nazi mindset, in which we blame the Germans for World War One because we are certain they later started World War Two.
The reality, though, is that Germany wasn't all at fault, either in starting the war or in their conduct at sea. True, the Germans unleashed unrestricted submarine warfare. And true, they sank an ocean liner. However, that ocean liner - the Lusitania - was included on the rolls as an auxiliary merchant cruiser. Even though she had never been called into active service, she was undoubtedly carrying weapons and other contraband. Moreover, in violation of international law, Britain had blockaded Germany and prohibited neutral nations from trading with her. Thus, while Britain made hay out of babies snatched from their mother's arms as the Lusitania plunged beneath the waves, hundreds of thousands of German children were starving on land. I would've liked Preston to have made a stronger argument for British culpability.
When I first wrote that, I knew nothing about World War I. Now, having read a great deal on the topic - in order to fully appreciate the centenary - I know next to nothing. I still think the Germans get too much blame for starting the war. But they certainly deserve all the moral condemnation in the world for the sinking. Moreover, the Germans were stupid for doing so. Their technical excuses pale in comparison to the worldwide outrage. I want to act surprised at the inept German diplomatic response, but this was par for the course. Their diplomacy stunk, and when you start to look at their failures, from the initial "blank check" to Austria-Hungary, to unrestricted submarine warfare, to the Zimmerman Telegram, it becomes patently obvious why they found the entire world against them. The sinking did not plunge America into the war. It did ensure that when America finally entered, it wasn't going to be hard to come up with reasons. The loss of the Lusitania was a massive propaganda tool. Hanging in my office, is an "ENLIST" poster I purchased from the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. The poster shows a woman clutching a baby sinking into the deep. It came out after the Lusitania went down.
This is a big book, and it encompasses a lot. Despite the sweep of its scope, it is also intimate, striking that magic Tolstoyan balance between the epic movement of History and the lives of those who lived through it.
I have some other Lusitania books lined up. I'm willing to wager, however, that they will not be as fully or richly detailed as this.
World War One is in many ways staggeringly complex to understand. It's a Balkan war gone bad, very bad. To get a feel for it, to understand the various ententes and alliances, you need to know a lot history. Teachers have cut this Gordian knot by giving us landmark moments to which causation can be attributed. Chief among these moments is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His death didn't cause World War One; it was just one stop along doom's highway. Still, it's just easier to pretend it all started in Sarajevo. The same thing for the sinking of the Lusitania; it didn't immediately drag America into the conflict, but it's sure helpful to explain what we were doing "over there."
When I first read this book, I knew two things about WWI. It started with an assassination, and it ended with AMERICA saving the day. The complexity of the war always scared me off. It took me a couple (or dozen) books, but I'm finally starting to get the gist of it. The lesson, I suppose, is to study. It is a lesson I learned far to late too become a doctor. But just in time to annoy my friends and family with WWI minutiae.
The Lusitania was torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, on May 7, 1915. She sank quickly, killing 1,198 men, women, and children. The sinking immediately became one of the great propaganda tools in history, used by the British to turn world opinion against the Germans. The ship was made into a symbol, and along the way, the truth was obscured. Diana Preston's Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy removes the ship from the subjective, hyperbolic realm of war hysteria and returns it to its place as an artifact of history. Her real achievement, though, is to always remember that the core of the story is human.
Preston's book starts methodically, placing a great deal of value on context. She devotes considerable space to discussing the outbreak of war, the history of the submarine, and America's strained relationship with Germany (America was technically neutral, but as in World War II, her neutrality was shot-through with Anglophilia.) There is also a chapter on the Lusitania's specifications, complete with the obligatory comparison to a skyscraper. (I would like an author with the boldness to compare an ocean liner to something other than a skyscraper or a city block. Come on! I'd love a measurement that gave me cargo capacity in terms of the number of penguins that could fill her hold, or the length of the ship as compared to New York City hot dog carts).
There is an awful lot of build-up to the sinking. Indeed, some of these early chapters weren't strictly necessary, or they could have been shortened. However, I liked them. I'm a completist, with a weird thing for factoids. I was continually fascinated with the tiny details peppering the narrative. I liked knowing that 100 detectives watching for pickpockets were present in New York when Lusitania arrived on her maiden voyage. I also liked learning that the passengers had eaten 1,000 pineapples. Does this broaden my understanding of the sinking? Maybe, maybe not. Will I eventually get drunk at a bar and tell someone about this? Certainly.
In the five years since I first learned those facts, I have yet to pull them out at a bar, though I have been drunk approximately 5,000 times since then. Even with a better knowledge of World War I, I still appreciated Preston's early chapters. Others might find them soporific. I found them helpful. Preston is aiming high with her take on the Lusitania. She is aiming to be definitive.
Of course, the comparisons to that other shipwreck are inevitable:
There were...plenty of life preservers - big, bulky Boddy's Patent Jackets filled with fiber. They made their wearers look like 'a padded football player, especially around the shoulders.' The Lusitania carried life jackets for all 1,959 aboard, with 1,228 to spare and 175 for children. Knowing they would soon be sailing into the war zone and conscious of the terrible lessons of the Titanic disaster, passengers quizzed the crew about the provision of lifeboats. As a result of the Titanic inquiry, Cunard had doubled the number of lifeboats on the Lusitania. She was carrying twenty-two open wooden lifeboats capable of carrying 1,322 people and twenty-six collapsible boats that could hold another 1,283. The collapsibles were boats with shallow, rigid wooden keels and folding canvas sides that could be raised and held in position by wooden pins and iron or steel stays. The action of raising the sides also pulled the seats into position.
The marvel of this book is that all these details don't overwhelm the story. When I noted Preston's methodical structuring, I don't mean to imply that it is plodding or pedestrian. Rather, each chapter has its own arc while also building and connecting with all that has come before. The Lusitania's sinking is not a simple tale of ship meeting torpedo; it is a culmination of a thousand different forces. There's Britain's blockade; Germany's response (unrestricted submarine warfare); Britain's decision to register the Lusitania as an reserve auxiliary cruiser; Germany's warning to America's passengers; and finally, Walther Schwieger's decision to fire U-20's torpedoes. Preston's great realization is that the thread tying all these events together is the people. And so there is a chapter devoted to the passengers and crew of the Lusitania, where you meet the lowly Morton brothers, who washed the decks, as well as Alfred Vanderbilt, who'd inherited his father's millions. There is also a good deal of space devoted to U-20, and the men who sailed her (in an oddly-humanizing touch, Preston writes how the men rescued a dachshund from a Portuguese merchant vessel they sunk).
When the torpedo strikes, Preston goes into Walter Lord mode. Though she doesn't rise to Lord's level from A Night To Remember (and seriously, who can?), she utilizes his technique of cross-cutting and quoting, so as to present a number of experiences from all around the ship.
Unlike the sinking of the Titanic, which up until the final minutes unfolded with the stately pace of a tragic opera, the Lusitania sank fast and dirty. Shortly after the torpedo struck:
[Captain:] Turner ordered Johnson to steer 'hard-a-starboard the helm,' intending to make for the shore. Johnson wrenched the wheel thirty-five degrees to starboard and shouted the stock response, 'helm hard-a-starboard.' The captain shouted to him to hold the ship steady and 'keep her head into Kinsale.' Johnson tried to steady the helm but found he could not...Johnson turned the wheel again, but this time the ship would not respond. The steering mechanism had locked. A despairing Turner tried to check the Lusitania's speed by reversing the engines...Down in the engine room Senior Third Engineer George Little heard the bell ring with the order, but there was nothing he could do. Second Engineer Smith was shouting to him in despair that the steam pressure had plunged from 195 pounds to 50. The engines were out of commission. The Lusitania was out of control, arcing helplessly into the wide blue sea...
Captain Turner ordered the lifeboats away. Here, all the lessons of Titanic became moot, for the ship listed so heavily to starboard that the lifeboats on the port side soon slammed against the deck, and couldn't be launched. In the haste to get the other boats away, crewmen lost their grip on the falls, sending the boats crashing into the sea. Only 6 boats managed to launch clean.
The book reaches its dramatic peak in these pages, as stories both heroic and pathetic emerge. There is a drunk stoker, stumbling around on deck with "the crown of his head torn open like a spongy, bloody pudding." There are three butchers who get stuck in an elevator between decks, left to their fate. Because there is no public address system, the crew has to shout its orders, but in the terrified crush, no one can hear them.
Strangely enough, the sinking scenes did not strike me the same way upon rereading. I found the sinking, in fact, to be confusingly told. This is partially due to the chaotic nature of the sinking. As I mentioned in my original review, the Titanic took 2 hours 40 minutes to sink on a relatively even keel on an ocean described as a "mill pond." The Lusitania suffered a series of violent explosions, kept plowing through the ocean on a forward heading, heeled over so badly she almost capsized, and had disappeared in less time than it takes to watch a commercial-free sitcom. So yes, the narrative is going to be a bit fractured. Still, Preston, who does such a good job contextualizing the lead-up to the sinking, does not do a great job contextualizing the stories of the people struggling to survive. It's hard to place them in the ship. It's hard to remember who they are. Moreover, Preston makes the odd choice to place all the "technical" details in an appendix that concludes her book. A lot of these details could easily have been woven into the sinking chapter, to ensure a more complete presentation that combines first-person accounts with the actual mechanics of the ship's failure.
For me, the test of whether a book is truly working on the human dimension is if I get chills. This is rare enough in novels, and rarer still in non-fiction. Here, it happened several times. Indeed, I challenge you to read about the last moments of Alfred Vanderbilt - the scion of a ruthless capitalist who was handing out life jackets to women and children before he was washed away by the sea - without at least a little shiver. Yes, some of this is testament to the inherent drama in the event. On the other hand, a story isn't a story until it's told. Facts, no matter how dramatic, require the talents of an author to make them live.
I found this even truer the second time around. In the five years since I first picked this up, I've had two daughters, and it has made me into a miserable sap in many ways. Accordingly, I was profoundly struck by the number of children lost. Fifty-six kids died on the Titanic, all but one of those youngsters - Lorraine Allison - from third class. The order on the Titanic was women and children first, and the children who died died because of geography. They were in steerage, and the crew did a poor job of getting the steerage passengers to the boat deck. On the Lusitania, 94 children, including 31 infants, were lost. They died because they had no chance.
The journalist William Langewiesche once wrote an epic piece on the sinking of the ferry Estonia. In memorable prose, he noted the cruel Darwinian nature of survival. "There was no God to turn to for mercy," he wrote. "There was no government to provide order." And in his starkest observation, he noted: "Love only slowed people down." On a heeling ship, wracked by internal explosions, with half the lifeboats unable to be lowered, and the crew a dismal mess, the children were lambs to the slaughter. There was no "women and children" first, there was only swim or drown. Preston tells the story of six year-old Helen Smith, who survived the sinking while both her parents died. There is a picture of her in the book that shows her holding an armful of dolls given to her by the people of Queenstown while she'd been taken around looking for her mom and dad. I started bawling. Swear to God. (She lived to the age of 84, by the way, and she had a daughter she named for her mom).
Post-sinking, Preston explores the implications the Lusitania had on America's entry into World War One. She also includes an extended discussion of various myths, such as whether the British admiralty offered up the Lusitania as a sacrificial lamb to nudge the United States toward war. After the fever pitch of the actual sinking - an ocean turned red, bodies in the surf, all within sight of the green hills of Ireland - all this is necessarily a bit of a let-down, one which goes on for quite a while. This is not to say the final sections are not informative, because they are. They do a good job clarifying the muddle of myths, lies, and half-truths that surround the Lusitania. (And for you burgeoning naval architects out there, Preston provides an appendix which gives a detailed "technical account" of the sinking).
I can see people frustrated with these chapters. I was emotionally involved in the immediate aftermath, the search for survivors, the burial of the dead. I also liked the chapter on the Lusitania inquiry, presided over by the same Lord Mersey who whitewashed the Titanic inquiry. Other discussions, however, such as the moral quibbling of William Jennings Bryan, failed to keep my full attention.
Preston also presents the argument over whether the Lusitania was a legitimate target. I was a little disappointed in this section, because after marshaling all the facts, Preston comes to the rather bland conclusion that Britain, America and Germany were all to blame. I would've liked something a little more daring. In my opinion, World War One is the ultimate example of Victor's history. As a result, we are all caught in this kind of pre-Nazi mindset, in which we blame the Germans for World War One because we are certain they later started World War Two.
The reality, though, is that Germany wasn't all at fault, either in starting the war or in their conduct at sea. True, the Germans unleashed unrestricted submarine warfare. And true, they sank an ocean liner. However, that ocean liner - the Lusitania - was included on the rolls as an auxiliary merchant cruiser. Even though she had never been called into active service, she was undoubtedly carrying weapons and other contraband. Moreover, in violation of international law, Britain had blockaded Germany and prohibited neutral nations from trading with her. Thus, while Britain made hay out of babies snatched from their mother's arms as the Lusitania plunged beneath the waves, hundreds of thousands of German children were starving on land. I would've liked Preston to have made a stronger argument for British culpability.
When I first wrote that, I knew nothing about World War I. Now, having read a great deal on the topic - in order to fully appreciate the centenary - I know next to nothing. I still think the Germans get too much blame for starting the war. But they certainly deserve all the moral condemnation in the world for the sinking. Moreover, the Germans were stupid for doing so. Their technical excuses pale in comparison to the worldwide outrage. I want to act surprised at the inept German diplomatic response, but this was par for the course. Their diplomacy stunk, and when you start to look at their failures, from the initial "blank check" to Austria-Hungary, to unrestricted submarine warfare, to the Zimmerman Telegram, it becomes patently obvious why they found the entire world against them. The sinking did not plunge America into the war. It did ensure that when America finally entered, it wasn't going to be hard to come up with reasons. The loss of the Lusitania was a massive propaganda tool. Hanging in my office, is an "ENLIST" poster I purchased from the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. The poster shows a woman clutching a baby sinking into the deep. It came out after the Lusitania went down.
This is a big book, and it encompasses a lot. Despite the sweep of its scope, it is also intimate, striking that magic Tolstoyan balance between the epic movement of History and the lives of those who lived through it.
I have some other Lusitania books lined up. I'm willing to wager, however, that they will not be as fully or richly detailed as this.
April 24, 2015
Before I read this book I knew very little about the sinking of the Lusitania. However, this excellent book certainly answers any questions I may have had. I knew the basic facts that on May 7th 1915 the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German u-boat in the Atlantic and over 1,200 people died. I was, though, unsure of why a passenger ship was a target. The author answers that question and more - why didn't Cunard heed the warnings that the ship was a target? Was the ship armed? Did international outrage change the outcome of WWI? Was she even sacrificed with the hope that American would come into the war?
The author begins with background on the war and American neutrality. German submarines disrupted transatlantic trade and challenged the accepted rules of war. The Germans issued a warning about the danger to shipping just before the Lusitania travelled, but most passengers ignored the warning, feeling the ship could easily outrun submarines and would be protected when she neared England and escorted to safety. There are excellent chapters about the passengers and life on board and, of course, as we are told about the various people on board, you cannot help but feel empathy for them. It seems almost inconceivable that a ship of passengers was seen as a viable target, but this was the beginning of war coming to the lives of ordinary people. Within eighteen minutes of being torpedoed, the ship had gone down. We follow the stories of chaos, of people unsure what to do, of the ship listing so badly lifeboats could not be lowered, of the horrible loss of life. Some passengers thought the efforts to launch the boats disgraceful, yet there are also stories of immense bravery and courage.
The stories of the survivors and the reaction of the press are also given great detail and make fascinating reading. The German press applauded the attack, but were surprised at the worlds reaction. The book shows the far reaching political and propaganda implications of the sinking of the Lusitania and how the Americans reacted to the attack. Overall, this is a wonderfully written, in-depth, yet readable, account of the disaster. Lastly, I read the kindle edition of this book and it included illustrations.
The author begins with background on the war and American neutrality. German submarines disrupted transatlantic trade and challenged the accepted rules of war. The Germans issued a warning about the danger to shipping just before the Lusitania travelled, but most passengers ignored the warning, feeling the ship could easily outrun submarines and would be protected when she neared England and escorted to safety. There are excellent chapters about the passengers and life on board and, of course, as we are told about the various people on board, you cannot help but feel empathy for them. It seems almost inconceivable that a ship of passengers was seen as a viable target, but this was the beginning of war coming to the lives of ordinary people. Within eighteen minutes of being torpedoed, the ship had gone down. We follow the stories of chaos, of people unsure what to do, of the ship listing so badly lifeboats could not be lowered, of the horrible loss of life. Some passengers thought the efforts to launch the boats disgraceful, yet there are also stories of immense bravery and courage.
The stories of the survivors and the reaction of the press are also given great detail and make fascinating reading. The German press applauded the attack, but were surprised at the worlds reaction. The book shows the far reaching political and propaganda implications of the sinking of the Lusitania and how the Americans reacted to the attack. Overall, this is a wonderfully written, in-depth, yet readable, account of the disaster. Lastly, I read the kindle edition of this book and it included illustrations.
October 10, 2016
This was fantastic. Preston follows the trail of both the Lusitania and the U-20, the submarine which attacked her on May 7, 1915. She also reviews the situation with all of the German agents in New York, there are many and they keep falling all over each other. One of my favorites is the one who left his briefcase, with all his documents, on the bus only for it to be picked up by a secret service agent who was following him. Some of them just struck me like they were the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
We learn about a lot of the passengers and the crew (not the best, but Britain was already at war, so they had to take what they could get, including spies).
We also learn about the people on the sub, the captain and much of the crew. We all know what happens. They torpedo the ship. But the question arises: how many torpedoes did they shoot? Was it one, as the Germans alleged. If so, what was the second explosion that everyone felt? Did they have armaments on board, as the Germans have alleged. After the Customs people did their inspection there could have been secret armaments loaded.
I do find troubling the maneuvering by the British Admiralty to spin the story, in today's parlance. Whatever instructions Captain Turner received they didn't want it to come out. They were spinning like crazy. And why did they pull ships back from saving the people when the ship did go down? And why did it go down so fast? Why did no one know what to do about their life jackets or why didn't they crew know how to launch the life boats? Preston points out that after the Titanic went down, Cunard was making sure there were enough lifeboats to accommodate every passenger. Except that some of the collapsible life boats were painted to the deck. Looks good, but makes them unusable. And many of the people had their life jackets upside down or backwards. People who knew better tried to get the situation corrected but they couldn't get to everyone. And not everyone could find their life jacket. People had apparently gone into their cabins and taken them.
I thought Preston really made this come alive. And I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'll have to get going on Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson now.
We learn about a lot of the passengers and the crew (not the best, but Britain was already at war, so they had to take what they could get, including spies).
We also learn about the people on the sub, the captain and much of the crew. We all know what happens. They torpedo the ship. But the question arises: how many torpedoes did they shoot? Was it one, as the Germans alleged. If so, what was the second explosion that everyone felt? Did they have armaments on board, as the Germans have alleged. After the Customs people did their inspection there could have been secret armaments loaded.
I do find troubling the maneuvering by the British Admiralty to spin the story, in today's parlance. Whatever instructions Captain Turner received they didn't want it to come out. They were spinning like crazy. And why did they pull ships back from saving the people when the ship did go down? And why did it go down so fast? Why did no one know what to do about their life jackets or why didn't they crew know how to launch the life boats? Preston points out that after the Titanic went down, Cunard was making sure there were enough lifeboats to accommodate every passenger. Except that some of the collapsible life boats were painted to the deck. Looks good, but makes them unusable. And many of the people had their life jackets upside down or backwards. People who knew better tried to get the situation corrected but they couldn't get to everyone. And not everyone could find their life jacket. People had apparently gone into their cabins and taken them.
I thought Preston really made this come alive. And I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'll have to get going on Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson now.
April 17, 2021
The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 by a German U-boat has been on my reading list for decades, inspired by a friend now long gone who introduced me to a number of fascinating topics including maritime adventures. This book certainly had me captivated early on and I was very comfortable with the format of various aspects of the time, such as the political scene of World War I and the history of submarines.
For sheer horror, the accounts of the travelers as the ship sank and the aftermath were the stuff of nightmares. For example, one woman was sucked into a funnel as the ship quickly dove under the waves, and then before she even had any awareness, was spit out in spectacular fashion into the sea. A male passenger also experienced this and they both lived to tell of it.
This copy fell into my hands recently and I am happy that I waited to read this epic tragedy by Diana Preston, who provided a very readable account of the luxury liner’s final voyage.
For sheer horror, the accounts of the travelers as the ship sank and the aftermath were the stuff of nightmares. For example, one woman was sucked into a funnel as the ship quickly dove under the waves, and then before she even had any awareness, was spit out in spectacular fashion into the sea. A male passenger also experienced this and they both lived to tell of it.
This copy fell into my hands recently and I am happy that I waited to read this epic tragedy by Diana Preston, who provided a very readable account of the luxury liner’s final voyage.
March 17, 2015
Kindle Singles obviously vary in quality, but many of them are extremely good indeed and this is one of them. The sinking of the Lusitania in WWI had enormous repercussions; helping bring the US into the war and inflaming popular opinion against German civilians and businesses. With war on land at a stalemate by late 1914, both England and Germany looked to their navy’s to help gain an advantage. In 1915, when Germany issued a declaration stating that the water surrounding Great Britain and Ireland was considered a military area, neutral and passenger shipping were in danger.
RMS Lusitania was the largest, most luxurious vessel still making the transatlantic passenger run. Despite warnings in the newspapers from the Imperial German Embassy, before the ship sailed, Cunard reassured passengers that the ship was too fast for any submarine. Yet, as Lusitania sailed closer to land, submarines were lying in wait and ready to attack. This is a fascinating read, explaining what happened and why and the aftermath of events.
RMS Lusitania was the largest, most luxurious vessel still making the transatlantic passenger run. Despite warnings in the newspapers from the Imperial German Embassy, before the ship sailed, Cunard reassured passengers that the ship was too fast for any submarine. Yet, as Lusitania sailed closer to land, submarines were lying in wait and ready to attack. This is a fascinating read, explaining what happened and why and the aftermath of events.
July 9, 2016
We Americans tend to forget WWI. There still isn't a memorial for it in DC yet, for instance. While the Lusitania may have gotten a bump from Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Preston's book places the sinking into the narrative of WW I. In many ways, her book is better than Larson's, though she lacks his narrative style, which is engrossing. Preston presents a more complete picture. If you liked reading Larson, you might want to give this a try.
January 7, 2019
I liked this a lot better than Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania and if you are like "Hrm...which one should I read to get the full scoop of the Lusitania?" and get tempted by the shininess of Erik Larson..resist and get this much more stodgy and boring looking one. There's no weird parallel romance going on--this book instead parallels the goings on of the Lusitania and the U-Boat stalking the coast of Ireland. There are literally oodles of photographs and maps and blueprints, heavily sourced and annotated.
For starters, death by shipwreck was totally demystified to me--not that I thought it looked great on the Titanic, but I guess there are worse ways to go than hypothermia--Lusitania showed me that this is not the case. Having your eyes pecked out by birds while still alive or to all the people trapped in the elevators (the Lusitania was tragically a big adopter of elevators in lieu of stairs) or the fact that while at least a lot of children made it off the Titanic, extremely few children, across all the classes, survived the Lusitania--which seems crazy since they were in sight of friendly land, but very few of the lifeboats made it off--since they did not have drills and a lot of them got painted to the deck and/or very few knew how to lower them down without killing everyone in the lifeboat.
Coupled I guess with there wasn't really a tragically solemn band playing while the employees nobly tried to save the passengers like there is with in retelling the Titanic story--here it seems like it was a free-for-all scramble, with a few examples of nobility--and whatever sympathy I had for the captain after reading Dead Wake, I had very little in this version--if anything the lack of drills or just knowing how to use the lifejackets and boats ensured the carnage that happened and his dithering and countermanding orders after the strike also led to mass casualties, leaving aside how they got hit to begin with since he was slowly taking multiple measurements and conserving coal at the lowest speed after being warned about U-Boat activity.
Should the Lusitania have had an escort and been warned a bit harder? Probably, but I don't think there was a cover up either. Book actually does a great job of laying out the various conspiracies and debunking a lot of them, while showing the lax security around the docks to begin with as well as the German espionage and saboteurs in the area (with the warnings posted in advance in the papers). Also, people from the past are surprising--in regards to Admiral Lord Charles Beresford: "He was rumored to have been the lover of the murdered Empress Elizabeth of Austria. He shared her passion for riding to hounds, surpassing it to the extent of having a hunting scene tattooed across his buttocks with the fox disappearing into the cleft. In naval matters he had a high opinion of his own abilities and a low one of Fisher's."
For starters, death by shipwreck was totally demystified to me--not that I thought it looked great on the Titanic, but I guess there are worse ways to go than hypothermia--Lusitania showed me that this is not the case. Having your eyes pecked out by birds while still alive or to all the people trapped in the elevators (the Lusitania was tragically a big adopter of elevators in lieu of stairs) or the fact that while at least a lot of children made it off the Titanic, extremely few children, across all the classes, survived the Lusitania--which seems crazy since they were in sight of friendly land, but very few of the lifeboats made it off--since they did not have drills and a lot of them got painted to the deck and/or very few knew how to lower them down without killing everyone in the lifeboat.
Coupled I guess with there wasn't really a tragically solemn band playing while the employees nobly tried to save the passengers like there is with in retelling the Titanic story--here it seems like it was a free-for-all scramble, with a few examples of nobility--and whatever sympathy I had for the captain after reading Dead Wake, I had very little in this version--if anything the lack of drills or just knowing how to use the lifejackets and boats ensured the carnage that happened and his dithering and countermanding orders after the strike also led to mass casualties, leaving aside how they got hit to begin with since he was slowly taking multiple measurements and conserving coal at the lowest speed after being warned about U-Boat activity.
Should the Lusitania have had an escort and been warned a bit harder? Probably, but I don't think there was a cover up either. Book actually does a great job of laying out the various conspiracies and debunking a lot of them, while showing the lax security around the docks to begin with as well as the German espionage and saboteurs in the area (with the warnings posted in advance in the papers). Also, people from the past are surprising--in regards to Admiral Lord Charles Beresford: "He was rumored to have been the lover of the murdered Empress Elizabeth of Austria. He shared her passion for riding to hounds, surpassing it to the extent of having a hunting scene tattooed across his buttocks with the fox disappearing into the cleft. In naval matters he had a high opinion of his own abilities and a low one of Fisher's."
August 16, 2021
A crisp, balanced and well-written work.
Preston does a good job telling and analyzing the sinking of the ship and the events leading up to it. She also looks at the passengers and crew in a way that makes the tragedy more personal. Preston looks at the decisions made by the British, German and American governments that all led up to the tragedy and argues that none were entirely free of blame for the incident, and shows how all later twisted the facts to suit their agendas. Preston also looks at how German submarine warfare developed, and how open the Germans were about their intentions to target civilian vessels.
The narrative is thorough, vivid and lively. Some of the coverage seems a bit one-dimensional, though (Churchill, for example) Also, the narrative can get a bit tiresome as Preston throws out fact after fact.
Still, a well-researched, thoughtful and very readable work.
Preston does a good job telling and analyzing the sinking of the ship and the events leading up to it. She also looks at the passengers and crew in a way that makes the tragedy more personal. Preston looks at the decisions made by the British, German and American governments that all led up to the tragedy and argues that none were entirely free of blame for the incident, and shows how all later twisted the facts to suit their agendas. Preston also looks at how German submarine warfare developed, and how open the Germans were about their intentions to target civilian vessels.
The narrative is thorough, vivid and lively. Some of the coverage seems a bit one-dimensional, though (Churchill, for example) Also, the narrative can get a bit tiresome as Preston throws out fact after fact.
Still, a well-researched, thoughtful and very readable work.
August 5, 2018
Without a doubt, this is one of the best history books I have ever read. The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in May of 1915, during World War I, off the coast of Ireland after sailing from New York, killing about 1200 passengers and crew, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2000 on board. The ship was completely underwater only 18 minutes after the torpedo struck.
Of course, I expected some background, details of the sinking, and some followup, but this book delivers so much more. First, there was an unexpected chapter on the history of trans-Atlantic passenger travel, culminating in the race to build the finest luxury liners that included White Star's Titanic and Cunard's Lusitania. But then, the author introduces the reader to dozens of passengers by name, and follows them through the entire story from the departure to the sinking to the ever-changed lives of the survivors. I felt that I knew many of these passengers by the end of the book. And there was no need for a made-up Rose and Jack romance to make the story personal.
The political situation is not ignored by any means. The German government had published a strong warning not to travel on British ships, regardless of their nature, and the passengers were aware of it, although most thought they were not really in danger of attack. The Kaiser was not enthusiastic about the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, but was not forceful enough to prevent it. The result of the sinking, however, was a public relations nightmare for Germany, basically turning all neutral and Allied-leaning countries against her. Britain and America both exploited the propaganda value to the fullest extent.
While only three years since the sinking of the Titanic, passenger preparation for the possibility of sinking was sorely inadequate. Rich travelers do not wish to be alarmed by lifejacket instruction and lifeboat drills. With the ship listing at 30 degrees after the attack, lifeboats more often than not spilled their passengers into the sea or capsized upon hitting the water, often after landing directly on passengers already swimming. The descriptions of the dead and dying, especially mothers losing their babies, are heart-wrenching.
But the author goes further. There were hearings and trials, of course, because blame has to be assigned. She nicely summarizes the evidence and the actions, including conspiracy theories (such as Churchill and the British government suppressing warnings to the Lusitania and luring the Germans into attacking, thus bringing the US into the war earlier). She concludes wisely that the Lusitania was, rather, "the victim of complacency and neglect".
For me to finish a 430+ page book in two weeks (given the number of other activities I'm involved in) is unusual, but I have been looking forward to every stretch of spare time, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
Of course, I expected some background, details of the sinking, and some followup, but this book delivers so much more. First, there was an unexpected chapter on the history of trans-Atlantic passenger travel, culminating in the race to build the finest luxury liners that included White Star's Titanic and Cunard's Lusitania. But then, the author introduces the reader to dozens of passengers by name, and follows them through the entire story from the departure to the sinking to the ever-changed lives of the survivors. I felt that I knew many of these passengers by the end of the book. And there was no need for a made-up Rose and Jack romance to make the story personal.
The political situation is not ignored by any means. The German government had published a strong warning not to travel on British ships, regardless of their nature, and the passengers were aware of it, although most thought they were not really in danger of attack. The Kaiser was not enthusiastic about the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, but was not forceful enough to prevent it. The result of the sinking, however, was a public relations nightmare for Germany, basically turning all neutral and Allied-leaning countries against her. Britain and America both exploited the propaganda value to the fullest extent.
While only three years since the sinking of the Titanic, passenger preparation for the possibility of sinking was sorely inadequate. Rich travelers do not wish to be alarmed by lifejacket instruction and lifeboat drills. With the ship listing at 30 degrees after the attack, lifeboats more often than not spilled their passengers into the sea or capsized upon hitting the water, often after landing directly on passengers already swimming. The descriptions of the dead and dying, especially mothers losing their babies, are heart-wrenching.
But the author goes further. There were hearings and trials, of course, because blame has to be assigned. She nicely summarizes the evidence and the actions, including conspiracy theories (such as Churchill and the British government suppressing warnings to the Lusitania and luring the Germans into attacking, thus bringing the US into the war earlier). She concludes wisely that the Lusitania was, rather, "the victim of complacency and neglect".
For me to finish a 430+ page book in two weeks (given the number of other activities I'm involved in) is unusual, but I have been looking forward to every stretch of spare time, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
June 1, 2014
Over the past 100 years there have been three ships that have sunk to the bottom of the ocean floor, for which controversy over their sinkings still exist today. Two ocean liners, The Titanic, The Lusitania, and one battleship the Bismarck. In the cases of the Titanic and the Lusitania, The actions of their captains is still in question today. The Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat on her way to England during WW I. WWI has been overshadowed by WWII and is unfairly over looked by historians and readers alike, this book is a really great book to read, it is well researched and well written. The author has given the reader A thorough foundation of the war, the passengers and the ship itself. This is the story of senseless death and The horrifying accounts of dying and drowning of women, children and infants. After researching and reviewing the facts I have come to the conclusion that the German U-boat commander should not shoulder all the blame for this tragedy, The Cunard Company and Capt. Turner of the RMS Lusitania and the British Admiralty should be charged with murder and criminal neglect. The Cunard company and Capt. Turner were over confident in the invincibility and speed of the ship. Capt. Turner should shoulder a majority of the blame for not taking the necessary precautions in the most obvious and simple details, especially after being warned that an attack was threatened while in New York harbor. Why did he not use the ships greatest asset, her speed, and why did he not take precautions and preparations to have the ship in a higher state of readiness for a potential torpedo attack. The description of cowardice by some of the crew and the male passengers causing a greater loss of life. As in the sinking of the Titanic there was great heroism by the ships officers and it's crew, and certain of the men passengers, especially Mr. Vanderbilt.
I have always had a love affair for the beauty and grander of the luxury liners of the early 1900's, especially the RMS Titanic and the RMS Lusitania. They are a beauty to watch as slice through the ocean waves, and the outline of the ships with the four smoke stacks flying bye, compared to the ugly floating hotels that calls themselves luxury liners of today. Those days are lost forever. As we progress in our technology we endanger our future and we make the world not a safer place but a real potential of ruin and damnation of human race as we knew it then. Progress is not always good when you use that technology for evil and death and destruction. Fear is not a way to live.
I have always had a love affair for the beauty and grander of the luxury liners of the early 1900's, especially the RMS Titanic and the RMS Lusitania. They are a beauty to watch as slice through the ocean waves, and the outline of the ships with the four smoke stacks flying bye, compared to the ugly floating hotels that calls themselves luxury liners of today. Those days are lost forever. As we progress in our technology we endanger our future and we make the world not a safer place but a real potential of ruin and damnation of human race as we knew it then. Progress is not always good when you use that technology for evil and death and destruction. Fear is not a way to live.
July 6, 2025
Diana Preston’s Lusitania has it all: Set-up, passenger and crew stories, tragedy, war, politics, propaganda, exploration, and investigation. It truly is an epic examination of the sinking of the British passenger liner.
That said, this is not the novel-like story that readers of Erik Larson’s Dead Wake encounter. Rather, this is a biography of a tragedy—one that features many villains at multiple levels of responsibility.
The book begins with a look at the leaders of nations who would have the fates of thousands in their hands. It also places some culpability on the travelers themselves, with wartime warnings thrust into their hands but whose hubris outweighed any caution.
Details are offered on many of the passengers and crew, as well as some valuable cargo aboard the ship. Were guns and ammunition among that cargo? The answer remains debated today despite strong evidence. The reader gets to know Captain Turner, Staff Captain Anderson, and other crew members, while becoming invested in the lives of several passengers. Who lived? Who did not? Who was to blame?
Facts in history are often elusive—even harder to come by from times of crisis. Preston thoroughly presents differing perceptions and perspectives, and takes to task the official views of Britain, the United States, and Germany. Each was desperate to save face; one ultimately had the most to lose.
The last parts of the book are analytical, including an appendix taking a scientific look at each hypothesis about the attack and ensuing sinking. It can be a tedious read at times but is very effective in reaching its conclusions. The Lusitania rises again in this excellent book.
That said, this is not the novel-like story that readers of Erik Larson’s Dead Wake encounter. Rather, this is a biography of a tragedy—one that features many villains at multiple levels of responsibility.
The book begins with a look at the leaders of nations who would have the fates of thousands in their hands. It also places some culpability on the travelers themselves, with wartime warnings thrust into their hands but whose hubris outweighed any caution.
Details are offered on many of the passengers and crew, as well as some valuable cargo aboard the ship. Were guns and ammunition among that cargo? The answer remains debated today despite strong evidence. The reader gets to know Captain Turner, Staff Captain Anderson, and other crew members, while becoming invested in the lives of several passengers. Who lived? Who did not? Who was to blame?
Facts in history are often elusive—even harder to come by from times of crisis. Preston thoroughly presents differing perceptions and perspectives, and takes to task the official views of Britain, the United States, and Germany. Each was desperate to save face; one ultimately had the most to lose.
The last parts of the book are analytical, including an appendix taking a scientific look at each hypothesis about the attack and ensuing sinking. It can be a tedious read at times but is very effective in reaching its conclusions. The Lusitania rises again in this excellent book.
December 15, 2010
This was a very interesting book. I liked that the writer was able to provide us with details of the survivors but also that we got to know the people that died. So many. The way Britain, America and Germany played a role in all of this is also an eye opener.
I do not understand why there is always so much talk about The Titanic. To me this tragedy was even worse. All the babies that died, and the boats that they tried to pull to the sea but in the meantime crashing and killing people. It was not a quick read for me (I although i admit I must guess when i finished it, did not keep track of my reading lately)
I do not understand why there is always so much talk about The Titanic. To me this tragedy was even worse. All the babies that died, and the boats that they tried to pull to the sea but in the meantime crashing and killing people. It was not a quick read for me (I although i admit I must guess when i finished it, did not keep track of my reading lately)
January 11, 2022
During World War I, in May 1915 the British passenger ship Lusitania, then one of the largest and most luxurious in the world, was attacked without warning by a German U-Boat submarine that fired a single torpedo. Despite being nearly 800 feet long and with more watertight compartments than the Titanic, the Lusitania went down in less than 20 minutes, in sight of the Irish coast, with nearly 1200 fatalities, including nearly 200 Americans. This incident was one of the major contributors to America joining the Great War, resulting in the German defeat in the fall of 1918.
But more than 100 years later, many mysteries continue to surround the Lusitania sinking. The German embassy actually printed a newspaper advertisement stating passenger vessels entering the war zone were subject to being sunk by u-boats as an act of war. There seemed to be common knowledge the Lusitania would be targeted. Yet many people chose to board her anyway.
The Lusitania's saving grace was her speed; at full speed she could easily outdistance a u-boat. Yet due to a coal strike shortage and a shortage of workers due to the war, one of her boiler rooms was not used on the final voyage, reducing her speed. Her traditional captain then made a number of errors. He reduced speed further in fog, then he insisted on a time-consuming "4 point" position determination when he emerged close to the Irish coast after the fog lifted. This fix required steaming in a straight line for an extended period, precisely the opposite of the "zig zag" course steamers were to follow to avoid submarines. Even worse the Lusitania had been warned just previous that a submarine was seen in the area that had already sunk some ships. Captain Turner's decisions seem to mock common sense in war though they were the sign of a good peacetime navigator.
The huge Lusitania was struck by only 1 torpedo which did serious but not necessarily fatal damage. But a few minutes later an even larger explosion ensued that did cause fatal damage. The cause of the larger second explosion was never determined and remains fiercely debated more than a century later. The Germans said ammunition being illegally transported in wartime in a passenger vessel was the cause making Lusitania a genuine target. The Bristish claimed a boiler or coal dust explosion. What is clear is the Lusitania quickly developed a steep side list that made launching the lifeboats almost impossible because the ones on the listing side swung way out from the deck and the ones on the high port side swung in to strike the side of the ship. Even worse, the Lusitania went out of control after the second explosion; her rudder would not turn and the engines could not be stopped evidently because of damage so the ship plunged forward, driving huge amounts of water into her ripped open side and preventing the lifeboats that could be lowered from safely reaching the water. The result was a huge loss of life.
While Titanic lasted over 2 hours and Brittanic lasted over an hour, Lusitania sank so quickly because her forward motion drove water into the hull and the almost immediate failure of internal power and explosion damage prevented most of her watertight doors from being closed. Also contravening Admirality orders, many open portholes allowed even more water in.
In her final moments, the Lusitania actually crashed into the seafloor, only 300 feet below. Her 4 huge smokestacks toppled. The rigging wires crashed into the sea, striking swimmers and lifeboats. It took several hours for rescue vessels to arrive, and by then most swimmers had frozen to death.
After the incident, the British Admirality led by uber-politician Winston Churchill, went to huge lengths to shift blame from itself to Captain Turner, who while certainly at some fault, clearly was not totally at fault. Churchill himself realized that the tragic sinking was a good thing for the war effort--causing worldwide anger at Germany and making it more likely the USA would come to help the British and French against the Germans.
Were there illegal munitions aboard Lusitania? To this day files are missing and answers not coming from the British Admirality, who also went to lengths for years to prevent diving on the wreck and even going so far as to bomb and depth charge the wreck. Today the Lusitania is little more than a pile of rubble on the seafloor, if there were munitions there the proof is likely gone.
I have read many books on the Lusitania incident and I feel this one is the best. I only found 2 minor mistakes in the book-- the author incorrectly assets Lusitania was the largest ship until Titanic--actually Titanic's earlier sister ship Olympic pushed Lusitania aside in side if not speed and the author obviously watched the 1997 movie Titanic too many times because she relates the fable told therein that Macy Department store owners senior citizens Ida and Isador Strauss went back to their cabin and layed in bed rather than entering a lifeboat-- all testimony about them says no such thing but they were last seen on the boat deck of the Titanic quietly awaiting their fate.
If you read only 1 book on the important role the sinking of Lusitania played in World War One make it this one!
But more than 100 years later, many mysteries continue to surround the Lusitania sinking. The German embassy actually printed a newspaper advertisement stating passenger vessels entering the war zone were subject to being sunk by u-boats as an act of war. There seemed to be common knowledge the Lusitania would be targeted. Yet many people chose to board her anyway.
The Lusitania's saving grace was her speed; at full speed she could easily outdistance a u-boat. Yet due to a coal strike shortage and a shortage of workers due to the war, one of her boiler rooms was not used on the final voyage, reducing her speed. Her traditional captain then made a number of errors. He reduced speed further in fog, then he insisted on a time-consuming "4 point" position determination when he emerged close to the Irish coast after the fog lifted. This fix required steaming in a straight line for an extended period, precisely the opposite of the "zig zag" course steamers were to follow to avoid submarines. Even worse the Lusitania had been warned just previous that a submarine was seen in the area that had already sunk some ships. Captain Turner's decisions seem to mock common sense in war though they were the sign of a good peacetime navigator.
The huge Lusitania was struck by only 1 torpedo which did serious but not necessarily fatal damage. But a few minutes later an even larger explosion ensued that did cause fatal damage. The cause of the larger second explosion was never determined and remains fiercely debated more than a century later. The Germans said ammunition being illegally transported in wartime in a passenger vessel was the cause making Lusitania a genuine target. The Bristish claimed a boiler or coal dust explosion. What is clear is the Lusitania quickly developed a steep side list that made launching the lifeboats almost impossible because the ones on the listing side swung way out from the deck and the ones on the high port side swung in to strike the side of the ship. Even worse, the Lusitania went out of control after the second explosion; her rudder would not turn and the engines could not be stopped evidently because of damage so the ship plunged forward, driving huge amounts of water into her ripped open side and preventing the lifeboats that could be lowered from safely reaching the water. The result was a huge loss of life.
While Titanic lasted over 2 hours and Brittanic lasted over an hour, Lusitania sank so quickly because her forward motion drove water into the hull and the almost immediate failure of internal power and explosion damage prevented most of her watertight doors from being closed. Also contravening Admirality orders, many open portholes allowed even more water in.
In her final moments, the Lusitania actually crashed into the seafloor, only 300 feet below. Her 4 huge smokestacks toppled. The rigging wires crashed into the sea, striking swimmers and lifeboats. It took several hours for rescue vessels to arrive, and by then most swimmers had frozen to death.
After the incident, the British Admirality led by uber-politician Winston Churchill, went to huge lengths to shift blame from itself to Captain Turner, who while certainly at some fault, clearly was not totally at fault. Churchill himself realized that the tragic sinking was a good thing for the war effort--causing worldwide anger at Germany and making it more likely the USA would come to help the British and French against the Germans.
Were there illegal munitions aboard Lusitania? To this day files are missing and answers not coming from the British Admirality, who also went to lengths for years to prevent diving on the wreck and even going so far as to bomb and depth charge the wreck. Today the Lusitania is little more than a pile of rubble on the seafloor, if there were munitions there the proof is likely gone.
I have read many books on the Lusitania incident and I feel this one is the best. I only found 2 minor mistakes in the book-- the author incorrectly assets Lusitania was the largest ship until Titanic--actually Titanic's earlier sister ship Olympic pushed Lusitania aside in side if not speed and the author obviously watched the 1997 movie Titanic too many times because she relates the fable told therein that Macy Department store owners senior citizens Ida and Isador Strauss went back to their cabin and layed in bed rather than entering a lifeboat-- all testimony about them says no such thing but they were last seen on the boat deck of the Titanic quietly awaiting their fate.
If you read only 1 book on the important role the sinking of Lusitania played in World War One make it this one!
June 26, 2018
An harrowing account of the last voyage and sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, filled with evocative details that bring the passengers to life. There is a newlywed couple departing on their honeymoon who still have confetti in the folds of their clothes, children in sailor dresses who want to help the crew paint the lifeboats and a talent contest for the passengers on the last evening of the voyage. The book is difficult to put down during the scenes concerning the sinking of the ship and the rescue of the few survivors. What is striking throughout the book is how disaster was anticipated by many of the passengers and the press from the beginning of the voyage, in contrast to the confidence of the passengers on the Titanic a few years earlier. Also, safety precautions recommended by the Titanic inquiry were not uniformly implemented by the First World War, contributing to the death toll on the Lusitania. A tragic and compelling book about a disaster that informed the American entry into the First World War in 1917.
July 5, 2023
I’ve really only learned about the Lusitania in high school history, and with that being said it was summarized as a lot of people died, notably Americans, and it caused the US to join WWI. This book showed the complexities of the whole situation, and that the story of the Lusitania is not simple at all.
Being a massive Titanic junkie, I always viewed the Lusitania as a similar event as the Titanic sinking, but I’ve clearly been thinking about this entirely wrong. Learning about the political complexities was definitely eye opening, and new to me. The beginning of the book is a bit loaded as it goes into general WWI history which was very confusing to me (and still is). Once it focuses more on the Lusitania and adjacent events it gets a bit easier to follow, but the background that was given definitely does aid in your understanding.
The most interesting part to me was learning of passenger attitudes before, during and after the sinking. It was fascinating and heartbreaking to read of their perspectives during this all, and to read of the brutality and chaos of the sinking, in general. Due to how fast the ship sank it produced a grim shadow of what actions some took to keep themselves alive, but it also showed actions of immense heroism by some to keep others alive.
Being a massive Titanic junkie, I always viewed the Lusitania as a similar event as the Titanic sinking, but I’ve clearly been thinking about this entirely wrong. Learning about the political complexities was definitely eye opening, and new to me. The beginning of the book is a bit loaded as it goes into general WWI history which was very confusing to me (and still is). Once it focuses more on the Lusitania and adjacent events it gets a bit easier to follow, but the background that was given definitely does aid in your understanding.
The most interesting part to me was learning of passenger attitudes before, during and after the sinking. It was fascinating and heartbreaking to read of their perspectives during this all, and to read of the brutality and chaos of the sinking, in general. Due to how fast the ship sank it produced a grim shadow of what actions some took to keep themselves alive, but it also showed actions of immense heroism by some to keep others alive.
May 11, 2018
A detailed, objective and thorough history of the sinking. Part One deals with the history of U-boats and the state of the world at the beginning of WWI which proved interesting to me, but may come off as a bit of a dry read to some. Persevere. The rest of the book is quite enthralling as Preston takes the reader aboard the Lusitania on her final voyage.
The only thing missing was a list of passengers, victims and survivors, at the end, a nice sort of memoriam I have in a book about the Titanic disaster.
The only thing missing was a list of passengers, victims and survivors, at the end, a nice sort of memoriam I have in a book about the Titanic disaster.
August 7, 2020
Thought provoking.
Enjoyed this book. It was a quick, factual read. It walks the line well, it’s fact based reporting but not dry or boring. The summary at the end makes you think, while also mourning the possibilities of what the world could have been like without the loss of life on both sides of WW1.
Enjoyed this book. It was a quick, factual read. It walks the line well, it’s fact based reporting but not dry or boring. The summary at the end makes you think, while also mourning the possibilities of what the world could have been like without the loss of life on both sides of WW1.
March 16, 2010
Years ago I remember reading a National Geopgraphic magazine that told all about the Lusitania. Ever since I have meant to read up on the whole story. I came across this book while I was at the library, and I couldn't put it down for two weeks. It was so surprising to hear how this one event altered history forever. Reading about how the decisions people made days before the sinking of this ship eventually impacted the outcome of WWI was both frustrating and fascinating. I kept thinking of how things could have been different, if individuals involved would have been more proactive. Anway--I am still thinking about it all the time which means that it must have made a big impact on me.
October 19, 2017
This is the second book on Lusitania I have read and I suspect will be the last. The story of the sinking and the aftermath is just so depressing - and makes you in comparison realize what an organized and fairly "glamorous" the sinking of the Titanic was. Just the length (Titanic 2 hours, Lusitania 20 minutes) gives you an idea. (Naturally both the tragedies were equally as painful and I am not saying one was worse than the other when it comes to loss of life). Diana Preston gives a lot of information on all the events surrounding the ship, not merely the tragedy itself, and I have to admit some of it I skimmed. Still, a vivid and touching book that made me rather depressed.
December 31, 2015
Actually 3 1/2 stars.
Driving me back to read the book this was derived from, Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. Want to get back and read the real deal.
She came out with this Kindle single around the time of the anniversary, I guess. She had "what ifs" in her Epilogue. I don't really like "what ifs" because there are just too many variables. If one event changes, 1,000 unforeseen other events also change.
Driving me back to read the book this was derived from, Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. Want to get back and read the real deal.
She came out with this Kindle single around the time of the anniversary, I guess. She had "what ifs" in her Epilogue. I don't really like "what ifs" because there are just too many variables. If one event changes, 1,000 unforeseen other events also change.
October 6, 2009
The Lusitania disaster is so often overshadowed by the Titanic. One wonders if James Cameron had of placed Jack and Rose on the Lusitania would more people know of it. This is a well written and well researched account of this disaster that saw such a terrible loss life so close the the end of the ships journey and helped convince the United Sates of America to join the war effort.
May 4, 2015
Interesting book which tells the story of the illfated Lusitania, which was sunk after being torpedoed a 100 years ago.
At the time the German government claimed that as it was carrying arms and troops it was a legitimate target.
This book explains the politics as well as introducing the human element of the crew and passengers caught up in the tragedy.
At the time the German government claimed that as it was carrying arms and troops it was a legitimate target.
This book explains the politics as well as introducing the human element of the crew and passengers caught up in the tragedy.
June 9, 2015
I was inspired to read this book after reading Max Alan Collins' "disaster mystery" novel The Lusitania Murders, and was rewarded by a well-written history of the mystery of the disaster. The author categorizes and clearly deflates the conspiracy theories with well-reasoned and -researched arguments phrased in well-written, engrossing, and entertaining prose.
April 5, 2011
A great story. With so much fame given to the horror of the Titanic this ship has been overlooked and is not nearly A's well known! This book filled in all the missing info in my brain...and did it well. I am very glad that i have read this book is now in my library.
December 10, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It covers not only the ship and her sinking, but the events leading to WWI, building submarines, and events following the sinking. Very well-researched and written, the book included information I had not read elsewhere.
December 14, 2020
A story I've heard about, but never knew. I love a good "biography". Superb story telling.
April 8, 2018
Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy
This book is my introduction to Diana Preston and she has caught my attention with this heavy book of sorrows.
The majority of this book is written with life woven through it. Narratives of real people come alive on the page, with pictures and their personal stories as told by themselves and by others. Unlike other books about disasters such as this, it does not follow a check-list format, but rather takes on it’s own path and makes it about the people that were involved and not merely the politics of the after effects. Preston is gifted at making the reader feel as if they are watching the event happen in front of their eyes, following each human being through the excitement of being on board such a luxurious vessel, and the horror of their desperation as it starts to sink in record time.
Eighteen minutes is spanned between multiple chapters, so the reader does not miss a thing. People who are introduced towards the beginning of the voyage are followed and thus no one gets left out. You are left hoping and praying that ones you may have grown attached to (Avis Dolphin for me personally) have managed to escape and their stories are not being told just through loved ones and witnesses.
When something such as this happens, it’s hard not to focus solely on the event but read on into the aftermath. And sometimes it’s even harder to get through reading about what had happened afterwards because it’s frustrating to go through the trials and the pain. The worst part of it all, if you are not knowledgable or interested in the subject, is the politics.
The book does grow a bit dry throughout the last couple of chapters when it goes, in my opinion, too much into the politics aspect, but the significance is still there since it was a world changing event. Regardless, I find the ending to be a bit dry.
The writing of the book seems to be like the lives of the victims. It starts off with the beginning of life - the boat being built, the background of the war - and then goes through the ups and downs of life including the fun acticivies that were on the boat and then the sinking. Then the last sections, Remember the Lusitania and Willful Murder? is the bloated corpse, just bobbing along until it itself decays and becomes dry and foetid.
All in all, enjoyable throughout most of it. The parts that I did not like, I understand their meaning. It’s a personal distaste.
7/10.
This book is my introduction to Diana Preston and she has caught my attention with this heavy book of sorrows.
The majority of this book is written with life woven through it. Narratives of real people come alive on the page, with pictures and their personal stories as told by themselves and by others. Unlike other books about disasters such as this, it does not follow a check-list format, but rather takes on it’s own path and makes it about the people that were involved and not merely the politics of the after effects. Preston is gifted at making the reader feel as if they are watching the event happen in front of their eyes, following each human being through the excitement of being on board such a luxurious vessel, and the horror of their desperation as it starts to sink in record time.
Eighteen minutes is spanned between multiple chapters, so the reader does not miss a thing. People who are introduced towards the beginning of the voyage are followed and thus no one gets left out. You are left hoping and praying that ones you may have grown attached to (Avis Dolphin for me personally) have managed to escape and their stories are not being told just through loved ones and witnesses.
When something such as this happens, it’s hard not to focus solely on the event but read on into the aftermath. And sometimes it’s even harder to get through reading about what had happened afterwards because it’s frustrating to go through the trials and the pain. The worst part of it all, if you are not knowledgable or interested in the subject, is the politics.
The book does grow a bit dry throughout the last couple of chapters when it goes, in my opinion, too much into the politics aspect, but the significance is still there since it was a world changing event. Regardless, I find the ending to be a bit dry.
The writing of the book seems to be like the lives of the victims. It starts off with the beginning of life - the boat being built, the background of the war - and then goes through the ups and downs of life including the fun acticivies that were on the boat and then the sinking. Then the last sections, Remember the Lusitania and Willful Murder? is the bloated corpse, just bobbing along until it itself decays and becomes dry and foetid.
All in all, enjoyable throughout most of it. The parts that I did not like, I understand their meaning. It’s a personal distaste.
7/10.
May 6, 2017
A really good book about the sinking of the Lusitania.
It covers a lot of ground. The strategic and tactical advantage/disadvantages of Britain and Germany and the political will behind “unrestricted submarine warfare” was particularly interesting as was the “neutral” relationship between USA and Britain. I enjoyed reading about the politics of Wilson’s administration. Also, the weakness of the Kaiser was interesting. I had thought that the Kaiser was strong and decisive. The author portrays him as anything but that. Finally, the politics in Britain were interesting, the fact that so many individuals were in completion with each other for political future, the potential for sinking of the Lusitania was just another political crisis to be taken advantage of.
The politics around the Lusitania being sunk were reprehensible. That it was allowed to be sunk in order to swing public opinion overwhelmingly to the side of Britain and to bring the USA into the war, much like war itself, terrible and unnecessary.
I really appreciated the back stories of some of the passengers. (Actually, I skipped some of this,) but appreciated the author’s respect for the passengers. Obviously it is the rich who’s stories get told. It is unfortunate that we don’t know anything about most of the men working on the ship.
I also really appreciated the excruciating detail and effort the author put into describing passenger’s attempts to board life boats, the chaos on deck, and the survival in the water. The author describes about how cold the water was, human physiology, how difficult it is to survive in cold water for any length of time, and just the violence that a sinking ship inflicts on fragile bodies.
Finally, I thought that the author’s analysis of the U-Boat captain was interesting. She didn’t paint Schwieger as a monster or a cold-blooded killer. She could have but she didn’t. The author doesn’t give Schwieger any sympathy; he made the choice to shoot. But she does spend some time analyzing his reasons, the lack of direction he had, and his possible regrets after the sinking.
The only topics/details I wanted to learn more about was the actual construction of the ship. Was it a typical ocean liner or was it considered to be a cutting-edge ship? Also, Turner’s four-point bearing is discussed, but why would Turner have wanted a four-point bearing? Were ships still navigating on charts, speeds, bearings, polar observations, etc? I think the answer is generally yes, but it would have been nice to learn a little more about the construction, operation and control of the ship.
It covers a lot of ground. The strategic and tactical advantage/disadvantages of Britain and Germany and the political will behind “unrestricted submarine warfare” was particularly interesting as was the “neutral” relationship between USA and Britain. I enjoyed reading about the politics of Wilson’s administration. Also, the weakness of the Kaiser was interesting. I had thought that the Kaiser was strong and decisive. The author portrays him as anything but that. Finally, the politics in Britain were interesting, the fact that so many individuals were in completion with each other for political future, the potential for sinking of the Lusitania was just another political crisis to be taken advantage of.
The politics around the Lusitania being sunk were reprehensible. That it was allowed to be sunk in order to swing public opinion overwhelmingly to the side of Britain and to bring the USA into the war, much like war itself, terrible and unnecessary.
I really appreciated the back stories of some of the passengers. (Actually, I skipped some of this,) but appreciated the author’s respect for the passengers. Obviously it is the rich who’s stories get told. It is unfortunate that we don’t know anything about most of the men working on the ship.
I also really appreciated the excruciating detail and effort the author put into describing passenger’s attempts to board life boats, the chaos on deck, and the survival in the water. The author describes about how cold the water was, human physiology, how difficult it is to survive in cold water for any length of time, and just the violence that a sinking ship inflicts on fragile bodies.
Finally, I thought that the author’s analysis of the U-Boat captain was interesting. She didn’t paint Schwieger as a monster or a cold-blooded killer. She could have but she didn’t. The author doesn’t give Schwieger any sympathy; he made the choice to shoot. But she does spend some time analyzing his reasons, the lack of direction he had, and his possible regrets after the sinking.
The only topics/details I wanted to learn more about was the actual construction of the ship. Was it a typical ocean liner or was it considered to be a cutting-edge ship? Also, Turner’s four-point bearing is discussed, but why would Turner have wanted a four-point bearing? Were ships still navigating on charts, speeds, bearings, polar observations, etc? I think the answer is generally yes, but it would have been nice to learn a little more about the construction, operation and control of the ship.
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November 8, 2025Got through the first five chapters, it's a bit tedious and she doesn't explain things very well, or very much. If the entire book has been like this, final review would have been 2 or 3 stars, depending on how well she presented the sinking.
Page 75 was the straw for this camel's back:
Page was soon unreservedly pro-British, seeing the conflict as one between British democracy and German autocracy. [...] His wholehearted advocacy of the British cause slowly lost him Wilson's trust.
She doesn't explain why, and I have no idea what about that would erode trust, with the few details she gives - unless she means from a purely professional standpoint. Maybe the president realized he sent the wrong ambassador to do the job, and though he trusts Page as a friend, he no longer trusts his effectiveness as ambassador?
I wish she'd explained more, especially since this is background information that are used to explain the politics behind the sinking of the Lusitania. So it would seem imperative that she explain things clearly and in-depth.
Because she fails to make choices and the notices behind them clear, it made reading these things seem useless. I could have skipped straight to the sinking of the ship and been none the worse for lack of knowledge.
Life is too short, and books are too numerous, to force myself through a book that is mid, so I'm dnf'ing.
Page 75 was the straw for this camel's back:
Page was soon unreservedly pro-British, seeing the conflict as one between British democracy and German autocracy. [...] His wholehearted advocacy of the British cause slowly lost him Wilson's trust.
She doesn't explain why, and I have no idea what about that would erode trust, with the few details she gives - unless she means from a purely professional standpoint. Maybe the president realized he sent the wrong ambassador to do the job, and though he trusts Page as a friend, he no longer trusts his effectiveness as ambassador?
I wish she'd explained more, especially since this is background information that are used to explain the politics behind the sinking of the Lusitania. So it would seem imperative that she explain things clearly and in-depth.
Because she fails to make choices and the notices behind them clear, it made reading these things seem useless. I could have skipped straight to the sinking of the ship and been none the worse for lack of knowledge.
Life is too short, and books are too numerous, to force myself through a book that is mid, so I'm dnf'ing.
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