Thewanderingjew

The reader will learn that a dead wake is the wake a torpedo leaves behind as it speeds toward its target. On May 1, 1915, a torpedo fired from a German U-boat captained by Walther Schwieger, found its target, a passenger ship, the Lusitania. Innocent citizens were condemned to death for nothing more than crossing the ocean on an ocean liner. It was an act of barbarism that was inconceivable for most civilized nations, but not, apparently, for Germany. During WWI and WWII, acts of brutality never before imagined were crimes that were committed by the Germans.

In the book, Erik Larson follows the lives of some of the victims and some of the survivors of this tragedy. Through their conversations and their letters, a lost art today, the events of the voyage and that fateful day are revealed in great detail. Larson provides a detailed description of the luggage and backgrounds of several of the passengers, and it is through their correspondence that this story took its shape. Their reasons for travel, perhaps their faith in the humanity of all leaders, perhaps their artlessness influenced their decision to travel the dangerous waters during wartime. To be fair, not all the passengers knew that Germany had declared the ocean a war zone.

The description of the actual strike on the ship and its sinking is gripping. Larson skillfully describes the actual torpedo hit and its aftermath. He creates visual images of the victims as they made every effort to survive, some paralyzed with fear, some energized into brave actions they never thought themselves capable. The reader will feel as if they, too, are forced to jump into the sea to save themselves or perhaps to die. The ship was sinking fast, actually, it sunk in about 18 minutes, barely enough time to assemble on deck, put on a life vest or launch lifeboats from an injured ship. From letters written during the voyage and letters written afterwards, a diary-like description has been collected, assembled and presented for the fateful journey encompassing less than two weeks at sea.

The explanation for why the event took place is comprehensive. Exhaustive research must have gone into this project. After all is said and done, could the sinking of this massive, magnificent floating estate have been avoided? Was it simply a capricious coordination of events that caused the tragedy? If the weather had been different, the communication between nations had been more open, if the cables to the boat about U-boat locations had been clearer and more organized, if an escort had been provided or a different route had been chosen, if Churchill had not demanded that the war room remain so secret, and President Wilson had not been preoccupied with Edith Gault, would they have been more engaged and provided Captain Turner, on the Lusitania, with the tools to have made a different decision that would have serendipitously avoided the attack? One will never know but Larson sheds a greater light on these questions in his book, and the reader can decide the answers for themselves.

After this horrific incident with so many dead, the authorities tried to blame the Captain for the ship’s demise. It was traveling in a field of war, unprotected, with mixed messages coming over the wireless about the location of the U-boats which were Germany’s super weapon on the sea, and it is difficult to think he was at fault. What decision would any of us have made with the faulty information to which he was privy. His journey was ill-fated once Germany declared all vessels on the water fair game. Perhaps Cunard LIne, in the interest of safety, should have canceled all crossings. Germany attacked anything that moved upon the sea to prevent supplies from reaching their enemy. Churchill said, civilized countries boarded the ships and confiscated the contraband, they did not sink them. Germany’s behavior was far from civilized.

After reading the book, I felt that gross incompetence was responsible for the sinking of the ship and also the great number of victims. Lifeboats could not be deployed, there were no practice drills, those supposed to help release and man the lifeboats were killed in the attack, fear of additional torpedo attacks prevented a speedy rescue, and the location of the U-boats was never communicated to the Captain properly. Most of the victims never had a chance.

I found the reader’s voice on the audio to be a bit too emotive when presenting facts. His tone and presentation was more appropriate when he described the disaster.