Book review: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson - sunk in 18 minutes
They had been warned. With war raging across the ocean, a group of passengers gathered in New York City in May 1915 for a transatlantic voyage aboard the Lusitania, a majestic, swift and towering vessel that catered to the pampered classes and was the pride of the safety-conscious Cunard shipping line.
by Erik Larson
Crown
They had been warned. With war raging across the ocean, a group of passengers gathered in New York City in May 1915 for a transatlantic voyage aboard the Lusitania, a majestic, swift and towering vessel that catered to the pampered classes and was the pride of the safety-conscious Cunard shipping line.
Everyone knew the risks. En route to Liverpool, the Lusitania would be passing through a German-declared war zone off the coast of Ireland during an era in which submarine warfare was ascendant. The German embassy in Washington, DC, had placed an ad on the shipping pages of New York's newspapers that levelled a veiled yet unmistakable threat at the Lusitania.
Many shrugged off the peril. Built sturdily - a "passenger liner, but with the hull of a battleship" - the Lusitania also found protection in the hubris of man. Its experienced captain, William Thomas Turner, was sceptical that a German submarine could match his vessel's speed. His bosses felt the same.
Yet a U-boat's single torpedo sank her in 18 minutes.
In the hands of a lesser craftsman, the fascinating story of the last crossing of the Lusitania might risk being bogged down by dull character portraits, painstaking technical analyses of submarine tactics or the minutiae of first-world-war-era global politics.