Lusitania

This well written history was quite a roller coaster ride! First I was totally bored, then heavyhearted and somber, and finally was left tediously wearisome. Don't get me wrong. I liked the book. It's just that the first part of the book informs the reader endlessly about the origin of submarines and the reasons the British figured the Germans would not use them in World War I. Diana Preston, who is a Londoner, seems to be dedicated to detail in the extreme. The reader has to understand that this is a pure history book, not like the newly written non-fiction books that read like fiction. This is the story of the sinking of the Cunard ship Lusitania about three years after the accidental sinking of the TITANIC.

The Lusitania's final voyage and the passenger movements aboard was very interesting. The ship had many famous Americans on board: millionaire Alfred Vanderbilt, whose body was never recovered; theatrical bigwigs; Oliver Bernard, who sketched the disaster; and Charles Frohman, who perished. The relationship between twelve year old Avis Dolphin and traveling Professor Holbourn was gratifying (both survived). The bewildering fact is that the travellers were warned in a 4/22/1915 newspaper ad that war existed between Germany and England. The American passengers were cautioned that they were traveling at their own risk. The question was whether or not the Germans would actually torpedo a luxury liner. Nobody believed a ocean liner would be attacked without a warning shot over her bow and a boarding to inspect for any contraband. One wonders why the British and Cunard luxury liners would take that kind of chance. Were the Germans right in their opinion that Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time, wanted Kaiser Wilhelm II to sink the Lusitania, thus drawing the Americans into the war? If so, it worked two years later!

The disaster happened on 5/7/1915 just eleven miles off shore of Ireland. The Lusitania's Captain Turner made many mistakes, such as traveling too slowly and closely to shore. The German Commander of sub U20, Walther Schwieger, had a unexpectedly easy target and had the unconscionable baroque to murder 1,201 people, including 94 children. Where was the British Navy? They were supposed to escort the ship home. There are many other questions. Why was the luxury liner carrying nearly all contraband in her cargo hold, including 4,200 cases of rifle bullets and 1,250 cases of 3.3" shrapnel shells? If the U.S.A. was a neutral country, why were we supplying arms to Great Britain and not to the Germans? Diana Preston excellently sums up the epic tragedy by saying on page 393, "The truth was that no government, British, German, or American, was entirely free of blame for the situation leading up to the attack. Nor, in its wake, was any government hesitant to twist the facts, or use the disaster, to its own political ends."

The reason that I said this book was wearisome is that I'm not used to being bombarded with fact after fact and going over political motives for 532 pages. I know it was necessary to tell the entire story, but the fact is nobody to this date knows the full truth of the catastrophe. I highly recommend this book to any pure history buff out there. I also applaud Diana Preston's effort to painstakingly document this tragedy.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: The Lusitania could convert to a auxiliary cruiser for the British Navy if needed, but it never happened due to her high cost of fuel. The luxury liner only took 18 minutes to sink after being torpedoed by the U20. She listed heavily to the left after the hit, making it very difficult for the life boats to be lowered. Diana Preston's current book is The Dark Defile and is the author of The Boxer Rebellion.