Worth reading...

      When the download of Erik Larson's The Splendid and the File wouldn't play  on Kindle, Larson's Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania was immediately available. Copious archival material was available to Larson much of which had been long classified.

     There's plenty of blame to go around in this tragedy of the sinking of a passenger liner on May 7, 1915.  The German government had posted ads in American papers warning that sea travel to The British Isles was not safe becasue the waters around the Isles were a war zone. Almost no one paid heed to those warnings. The British Navy knew that a German submarine was operating in the area that the Lusitania was to cross. Yet, the Navy only gave a general warning to the ship and provided no destroyer escort for protection. Winston Churchill had spoken of his hope that the sinking of a ship carrying Americans would bring America into the war. British knowledge of the submarine's location, the one that fired the fateful torpedo, was kept secret so that Germany would not learn that Britain had broken Germany's secret code. After the fact the British Navy tried to blame Captain Turner, skipper of the Lusitania, for the sinking. Turner faced three enquiries and was found blameless in all three.

     The ship was sunk by one torpedo from the German submarine U 20, skippered by Schwieger, who died later in the war. The torpedo struck a vulnerable spot, broadside, and killed many of crew who were in that area sorting baggage for their landing at Liverpool. A second explosion, likely caused by the rupture of the steam lines, rendered all systems inoperative. Because the ship was moving fast lifeboats could not be immediately lowered. It could not quickly stop because the propellers could not be reversed. The ship quickly listed so severely that few lifeboats could be successfully lowered. Many of the crew who would have lowered the boats were killed in the initial explosion.The ship sank eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck. There were 1959 passengers and crew, plus 3 German stowaways,  1198, which included the stowaways, died and 123 were Americans. 600 were never found. The dead include many children becasue this was a passenger ship. Many drowned because they incorrectly used their life jackets.  Given the communications of 1915 many families did not learn for months the fate of their family members. Many who could not be identified are buried in a common grave in Ireland. 

     Larson spends much of the book presenting biographical data on passengers and crew.  Then he follows many of them through the sinking, in the water, rescue if they were, and some much later in life. A helpful factor was that it was sunny with calm seas, though if it had been foggy they wouldn't have been torpedoed, because it took rescue boats two hours to reach the survivors. Water temperature was 55 degrees so hypothermia was an issue.

   America did not join the war for two more years. It took the sinking of many more ships, and a purported German plan to involve Mexico in a war against the U.S., before America declared war. Larson includes some fascinating detail about President Wilson's status and thinking during this time. 

While it's morbid it is also a fascinating read.  

   On a much more mundane subject: it rained last night with precipitation in the .6" to .75" range. Very welcome!

Takk for alt,

Al