ALSOBYERIKLARSON

IntheGardenofBeasts

Thunderstruck

TheDevilintheWhiteCity

Isaac’sStorm

LethalPassage

TheNakedConsumer

Copyright©2015byErikLarson

Allrightsreserved.PublishedintheUnitedStatesbyCrownPublishers,animprintoftheCrownPublishingGroup,adivisionofRandomHouseLLC,aPenguinRandomHouseCompany,New

York.www.crownpublishing.com

CROWNisaregisteredtrademarkandtheCrowncolophonisa

trademarkofRandomHouseLLC.

LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataLarson,Erik,1954–

Deadwake:thelastcrossingoftheLusitania/byErikLarson.—First

edition.p.cm.

Includesbibliographicalreferences.1.Lusitania(Steamship)2.WorldWar,1914–1918—Naval

operations,German.3.Shipping—

Governmentpolicy—GreatBritain—History—20thcentury.I.Title.II.Title:LastcrossingoftheLusitania.

D592.L8L282015940.4′514—dc232014034182

ISBN978-0-307-40886-0eBookISBN978-0-553-44675-3

Maps:JeffreyL.WardFrontispiece:MaryEvans/Epic/Tallandier

Jacketdesign:DarrenHaggarJacketphotography:Stefano

Oppo/GettyImages

v3.1

ForChris,Kristen,Lauren,andErin(andMollyandRalphie,absent,but

notforgotten)

CONTENTS

CoverOtherBooksbyThisAuthorTitlePageCopyrightDedicationMap

MININGSUSPENSE

Epigraph

A WORD FROM THECAPTAIN

PARTI“BLOODYMONKEYS”Lusitania:TheOldSailormanWashington:TheLonelyPlaceLusitania:SuckingTubesandThackeray

U-20:TheHappiestU-Boat

Lusitania:MenagerieRoom40:“TheMystery”

Lusitania:ACavalcadeofPassengers

Room40:Blinker’sRuseWashington:LostLusitania:UnderWayU-20:TowardFairIsleLusitania:RendezvousRoom40:Cadence

PARTIIJUMPROPEANDCAVIARU-20:“TheBlindMoment”Lusitania:ASundayatSeaRoom40;Queenstown;London:ProtectingOrionU-20:APerilousLineLusitania:HalibutU-20:TheTroubleWithTorpedoes

Lusitania:SunshineandHappiness

Room40:TheOrionSails

U-20:FrustrationLondon;Berlin;Washington:ComfortDenied

Lusitania:TheManifestU-20:AtLastSightingRoom40:SchwiegerRevealed

Lusitania:HelpfulYoungLadies

U-20:SpectacleLusitania:LifeAfterDeath

U-20:ChangeofPlanLusitania:MessagesLondon;Washington;Berlin:Tension

U-20:Fog

PARTIIIDEADWAKETheIrishSea:Engines

AboveLondon;Washington:TheKing’sQuestion

TheIrishSea:FunnelsonTheHorizon

Lusitania:BeautyU-20:“Treff!”

PARTIVTHEBLACKSOULLusitania:ImpactFirstWordLusitania:Decisions

U-20:Schwieger’sViewLusitania:TheLittleArmy

TelegramLusitania:AQueen’sEnd

AllPoints:RumorLusitania:AdriftU-20:PartingShotLusitania:SeagullsQueenstown:TheLost

PARTVTHESEAOF

SECRETSLondon:BlameWashington;Berlin;London:TheLastBlunder

EPILOGUE:PERSONAL

EFFECTS

SOURCES ANDACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTESBIBLIOGRAPHY

AbouttheAuthor

MININGSUSPENSE

(ANotetoReaders)

I FIRST STARTED READING aboutthe Lusitania on a whim,following my between-books strategy of readingvoraciously andpromiscuously. What I

learnedboth charmedandhorrified me. I thought Ikneweverythingtherewasto know about theincident, but, as so oftenhappens when I do deepresearch on a subject, Iquickly realized howwrong I was. Above all, Idiscovered that buried inthemuddleddetailsof theaffair—deliberatelymuddled, in certain

aspects—was somethingsimple and satisfying: averygoodstory.I hasten to add, as

always,thatthisisaworkof nonfiction. Anythingbetween quotation markscomes from a memoir,letter, telegram, or otherhistorical document. Mygoalwastotrytomarshalthemanynodesofreal-lifesuspense and, yes,

romance that marked theLusitania episode, in amanner that would allowreaders toexperience it asdid people who livedthrough it at the time(although squeamishreaders may wish to skipthe details of a certainautopsy that appears lateinthenarrative).Inanyevent, Igiveyounow the saga of the

Lusitania, and the myriadforces, large and achinglysmall, that converged onelovelydayinMay1915toproduce a tragedy ofmonumental scale, whosetrue character and importhave long been obscuredinthemistsofhistory.

ERIKLARSONSEATTLE

A WORD ABOUT TIME: To avoidconfusing myself and readers, I’veconverted German submarine time toGreenwichMeanTime.ThusanentryinKptlt.WaltherSchwieger’sWarLogfor 3:00 P.M. becomes 2:00 P.M.instead.

AS FOR BRITAIN’S ADMIRALTY: It isimportantalwaystokeepinmindthatthe Admiralty’s top official was the“FirstLord,”whoservedasakindofchief executive officer; his second-in-

command was “First Sea Lord,”essentially the chief operating officer,in charge of day-to-day navaloperations.

TheCaptainsaretorememberthat,whilsttheyareexpectedtouseeverydiligencetosecureaspeedyvoyage,theymustrunnoriskwhichbyanypossibilitymightresultinaccidenttotheirships.Theywilleverbearinmindthatthesafetyofthelivesandpropertyentrustedtotheircareistherulingprinciplewhichshouldgoverntheminthenavigationoftheirships,andnosupposedgaininexpedition,orsavingoftimeonthe

voyage,istobepurchasedattheriskofaccident.

“RULESTOBEOBSERVEDINTHECOMPANY’SSERVICE,”THECUNARDSTEAM-SHIPCOMPANYLIMITED,

MARCH1913

ThefirstconsiderationisthesafetyoftheU-boat.

ADM.REINHARDSCHEER,

Germany’sHighSeaFleetintheWorldWar,1919

AWORDFROMTHECAPTAIN

ONTHENIGHTOFMAY6,1915,AS HIS SHIP APPROACHED thecoast of Ireland, Capt.William Thomas Turnerleft the bridge and madehis way to the first-classlounge, where passengers

were taking part in aconcertandtalentshow,acustomary feature ofCunard crossings. Theroomwaslargeandwarm,paneled in mahogany andcarpeted in green andyellow,withtwofourteen-foot-tall fireplaces in thefront and rear walls.Ordinarily Turner avoidedevents of this kind aboardship, because he disliked

the social obligations ofcaptaincy,but tonightwasno ordinary night, and hehadnewstoconvey.There was already a

gooddealoftensionintheroom, despite the singingand piano playing andclumsy magic tricks, andthis became morepronounced when Turnerstepped forward atintermission. His presence

had the perverse effect ofaffirming everything thepassengers had beenfearing since theirdeparture fromNewYork,in the way that a priest’sarrivaltendstounderminethe cheery smile of anurse.It was Turner’sintention, however, toprovide reassurance. Hislooks helped. With the

physiqueofabanksafe,hewas the embodiment ofquiet strength. He hadblue eyes and a kind andgentle smile, and hisgrayinghair—hewasfifty-eight years old—conveyedwisdomandexperience,asdid the mere fact of hisbeingaCunardcaptain.Inaccord with Cunard’spractice of rotatingcaptainsfromshiptoship,

this was his third stint asthe Lusitania’s master, hisfirstinwartime.Turner now told his

audiencethatthenextday,Friday, May 7, the shipwouldenterwatersoffthesouthern coast of Irelandthat were part of a “zoneof war” designated byGermany.Thisinitselfwasanythingbutnews.Onthemorning of the ship’s

departure fromNewYork,a notice had appeared ontheshippingpagesofNewYork’s newspapers. PlacedbytheGermanEmbassyinWashington, it remindedreadersof theexistenceofthe war zone andcautioned that “vesselsflying the flag of GreatBritain, or of any of herallies, are liable todestruction” and that

travelers sailing on suchships “do so at their ownrisk.”Though thewarningdid not name a particularvessel, it was widelyinterpretedasbeingaimedat Turner’s ship, theLusitania, and indeed inatleast one prominentnewspaper, the New YorkWorld, it was positionedadjacent to Cunard’s ownadvertisementfortheship.

Ever since, about all thepassengershadbeendoingwas “thinking, dreaming,sleeping, and eatingsubmarines,” according toOliver Bernard, a theater-set designer traveling infirstclass.Turner now revealed to

theaudiencethatearlierinthe evening the ship hadreceived a warning bywireless of fresh

submarine activity off theIrishcoast.Heassuredtheaudience there was noneedforalarm.Coming from another

man, this might havesounded like a baselesspalliative, but Turnerbelieved it. He wasskeptical of the threatposed by Germansubmarines, especiallywhen it came to his ship,

one of the greattransatlantic“greyhounds,” so namedfor the speeds they couldachieve. His superiors atCunard shared hisskepticism.Thecompany’sNew Yorkmanager issuedan official response to theGerman warning. “ThetruthisthattheLusitaniaisthe safestboaton the sea.She is too fast for any

submarine. No Germanwar vessel can get her ornear her.” Turner’spersonal experienceaffirmed this: on twoprevious occasions, whilecaptainofadifferentship,he had encountered whathe believed weresubmarines and hadsuccessfully eluded themby ordering full speedahead.

He said nothing aboutthese incidents to hisaudience. Now he offereda different sort ofreassurance:uponenteringthewarzonethenextday,theshipwouldbesecurelyin the care of the RoyalNavy.He bade the audiencegoodnightandreturnedtothe bridge. The talentshow continued. A few

passengers slept fullyclothed in the diningroom, for fear of beingtrapped below decks intheir cabins if an attackwere to occur. Oneespeciallyanxioustraveler,a Greek carpet merchant,put on a life jacket andclimbed into a lifeboat tospend the night. Anotherpassenger, a New Yorkbusinessman named Isaac

Lehmann, took a certaincomfort from the revolverthat he carried with himalwaysandthatwould,alltoo soon, bring him ameasure of fame, andinfamy.Withallbutafewlights

extinguished and allshadespulledandcurtainsdrawn, the great liner slidforward through the sea,at times in fog, at times

under a lacework of stars.But even in darkness, inmoonlight and mist, theship stood out. At oneo’clock in the morning,Friday,May7,theofficersof a New York–boundvesselspottedtheLusitaniaand recognized itimmediately as it passedsome two miles off. “Youcould see the shapeof thefour funnels,” said the

captain, Thomas M.Taylor; “she was the onlyshipwithfourfunnels.”Unmistakable and

invulnerable, a floatingvillage in steel, theLusitania glided by in thenight as a giant blackshadowcastuponthesea.

PARTI

“BLOODYMONKEYS”

LUSITANIA

THEOLDSAILORMAN

THE SMOKE FROM SHIPS AND THEEXHALATIONSOFTHEriverleftahaze that blurred theworld and made the big

liner seem even bigger,less theproduct of humanendeavor than anescarpment rising from aplain. The hullwas black;seagulls flew past inslashes of white, prettynow,notyettheobjectsofhorrortheywouldbecome,later,forthemanstandingontheship’sbridge,sevenstories above the wharf.The linerwas edged bow-

first intoa slipatPier54,on the Hudson, off thewestern endof FourteenthStreet in Manhattan, oneof a row of four piersoperated by the CunardSteam-Ship Company ofLiverpool, England. Fromthe two catwalks thatjutted outward from theship’s bridge, its “wings,”the captain could get agood look along the full

length of the hull, and itwas here that he wouldstandonSaturday,May1,1915, a few days hence,when the ship was to setoff on yet another voyageacrosstheAtlantic.Despite the war inEurope,bynowinitstenthmonth—longer thananyone had expected it tolast—the shipwas bookedto capacity, set to carry

nearly 2,000 people, or“souls,” of whom 1,265werepassengers, includingan unexpectedly largenumber of children andbabies. This was,accordingtotheNewYorkTimes,thegreatestnumberof Europe-bound travelersonasinglevesselsincetheyear began. When fullyloaded with crew,passengers, luggage,

stores, andcargo, the shipweighed, or displaced,over 44,000 tons andcould sustain a top speedof more than 25 knots,about 30 miles an hour.Withmanypassengershipswithdrawnfromserviceorconverted to military use,thismadetheLusitaniathefastest civilian vesselafloat. Only destroyers,and Britain’s latest oil-

fueled QueenElizabeth–class battleships,could move faster. That aship of such size couldachieve so great a speedwas consideredoneof themiracles of the modernage. During an early trialvoyage—acircumnavigation ofIreland in July 1907—apassenger from RhodeIsland sought to capture

the larger meaning of theship and its place in thenew century. “TheLusitania,” he told theCunard Daily Bulletin,published aboard ship, “isin itself a perfect epitomeof all that man knows orhasdiscoveredorinventedup to this moment oftime.”The paper reported that

the passengers had taken

“avoteofcensure”againstCunard “for two flagrantomissions from the ship.She has neither a grousemoor nor a deer forestaboard.” One passengernotedthatiftheneedforanewNoah’sarkeverarose,he would skip the bitabout building the boatand just charter theLusitania, “for I calculatethat there is room on her

for two of every animalextantandmore.”TheBulletin devoted the

lastparagraphtowagglingCunard’s fingers atGermany, claiming thatthe ship had just receivednews, by wireless, thatKaiser Wilhelm himselfhadsentatelegramtotheship’s builders: “Pleasedelivermewithoutdelayadozen—baker’s measure

—Lusitanias.”From the first, the ship

became an object ofnational pride andaffection. In keeping withCunard’s custom ofnaming its ships forancient lands, thecompany had selectedLusitania, after a Romanprovince on the IberianPeninsula that occupiedroughly the same ground

as modern-day Portugal.“The inhabitants werewarlike, and the Romansconqueredthemwithgreatdifficulty,” said amemorandum in Cunard’sfiles on thenamingof theship.“Theylivedgenerallyupon plunder and wererude and unpolished intheirmanners.”Inpopularusage, the name wasforeshortenedto“Lucy.”

There was nothing rudeor unpolished about theshipitself.AstheLusitaniadeparted Liverpool on itsfirst transatlantic run in1907, some one hundredthousand spectatorsgathered at various pointsalong the Mersey(pronounced Merzey)River to watch, manysinging “Rule, Britannia!”andwavinghandkerchiefs.

PassengerC.R.Minnitt,ina letter he wrote aboardship, toldhiswifehowhehadclimbedtothehighestdeckandstoodnearoneofthe ship’s four toweringfunnelstobestcapturethemoment. “You do not getanyideaofhersizetillyougetrightontopandthenitis like being on LincolnCathedral,”Minnitt wrote.“I went over parts of the

1st class and it is reallyimpossibletodescribe,itissobeautiful.”Theship’sbeautybelied

its complexity. From thestart, it needed a lot ofattention. In its firstwinter, woodwork in thefirst-class writing roomand dining saloon and invariouspassagewaysbeganto shrink and had to berebuilt. Excess vibration

forced Cunard to pull theship from service so thatextra bracing could beinstalled. Something wasalways breaking ormalfunctioning. A bakingoven exploded, injuring acrew member. Boilersneeded to be scaled andcleaned. During crossingsin winter, pipes froze andruptured. The ship’slightbulbs failed at an

alarmingrate.Thiswasnosmall problem: theLusitania had six thousandlamps.Theshipendured.Itwas

fast, comfortable, andbelovedand,asoftheendof April 1915, hadcompleted201crossingsoftheAtlantic.

TO READY the ship for its

Saturday, May 1,departure,muchhadtobedone, with speed andefficiency, and at thisCapt. William ThomasTurner excelled. Withinthe Cunard empire, therewere none better than heat handling large ships.Whileservingarotationascaptain of Cunard’sAquitania, Turner hadachieved a measure of

fame during an arrival inNew York by fitting theship into its slip andsnugging it to itswharf injust nineteen minutes. Heheld the record for a“round” voyage, meaninground-trip, which heachieved in December1910,when, as captain ofthe Lusitania’s twin, theMauretania, he piloted theshiptoNewYorkandback

in just fourteen days.CunardrewardedhimwithaSilverSalver.Hefoundit“very gratifying” but alsosurprising. “I did notexpecttoreceiveanysuchrecognition of my part inthematter,”hewrote,inathank-you letter. “We allon board simply tried todo our duty as under anyordinarycircumstances.”Complex, detailed, and

messy, this process ofreadying the Lusitaniainvolved a degree ofphysical labor that wasmasked by the ship’soutward grace. Anyonelooking up from the docksaw only beauty, on amonumental scale, whileon the far sideof theshipmen turned black withdustas they shoveledcoal—5,690 tons in all—into

the ship through openingsin the hull called “sidepockets.” The ship burnedcoal at all times. Evenwhen docked it consumed140 tons a day to keepfurnaces hot and boilersprimed and to provideelectricity from the ship’sdynamo to power lights,elevators, and, veryimportant, the Marconitransmitter, whose

antennastretchedbetweenits two masts. When theLusitania was under way,its appetite for coal wasenormous. Its 300 stokers,trimmers, and firemen,working 100 per shift,wouldshovel1,000tonsofcoal a day into its 192furnaces to heat its 25boilers and generateenough superheated steamto spin the immense

turbinesofitsengines.Themenwerecalled“theblackgang,” a reference not totheir race but to the coaldust that coated theirbodies. The boilersoccupied the bottom deckof the ship and weregigantic, like wheellesslocomotives, each 22 feetlong and 18 feet indiameter. They neededcloseattentionatalltimes,

forwhen fully pressurizedeach stored enoughexplosive energy to tear asmall ship in half. Fiftyyears earlier, explodingboilers had causedAmerica’s worst-evermaritime disaster—thedestruction of theMississippi RiversteamboatSultanaatacostof1,800lives.No matter what

measures the crew took,coal dust migratedeverywhere, understateroom doors, throughkeyholes, and upcompanionways,compelling stewards to gothroughtheshipwithdustcloths to clean rails, doorhandles, table tops, deckchairs, plates, pans, andanyother surface likely tocollect falling soot. The

dustposeditsownhazard.Incertainconcentrationsitwas highly explosive andraised the possibility of acataclysmwithintheship’shull. Cunard barred crewmembers from bringingtheir own matches onboard and provided theminstead with safetymatches, which ignitedonlywhenscrapedagainsta chemically treated

surface on the outside ofthe box. Anyone caughtbringing his own matchesaboardwas tobereportedtoCaptainTurner.Theshipwasbuilttobefast. It was conceived outofhubrisandanxiety,atatime—1903—whenBritainfeared it was losing therace for dominance of thepassenger-shipindustry. InAmerica,J.P.Morganwas

buyingupshippinglinesinhopes of creating amonopoly; in Europe,Germanyhadsucceededinbuildingtheworld’sfastestocean liners and therebywinning the “BlueRiband,” awarded to theliner that crossed theAtlantic in the shortesttime. By 1903 Germanshipshadheld theRibandfor six years, to the

sustained mortification ofBritain. With the empire’shonorandCunard’s futureboth at stake, the Britishgovernment and thecompany agreed to aunique deal. TheAdmiralty would lendCunardupto£2.4million,or nearly $2 billion intoday’s dollars, at aninterest rate of only 2.75percent, to build two

gigantic liners—theLusitania and Mauretania.In return, however,Cunard had to makecertainconcessions.First and foremost, theAdmiralty required thatthe Lusitania be able tomaintainanaveragespeedacross the Atlantic of atleast 24.5 knots. In earlytrials, it topped 26 knots.There were other, more

problematic conditions.The Admiralty alsorequiredthatthetwoshipsbe built so that in theeventofwartheycouldbereadily equipped withnavalartilleryandbroughtinto service as “armedauxiliary cruisers.” TheAdmiraltywentsofarastodirect the Lusitania’sbuilders to installmounts,or “holding-down” rings,

in its decks, capable ofaccepting a dozen largeguns. Moreover, theLusitania’s hull was to bedesigned to battleshipspecifications, whichrequired the use of“longitudinal” coalbunkers—essentiallytunnelsalongbothsidesofthehull tostore theship’scoal and speed itsdistribution among the

boiler rooms. At the time,when naval warfare tookplace at or above thewaterline, this wasconsidered smart warshipdesign. To navalshipbuilders, coal was aform of armor, andlongitudinal bunkers werethought to provide anadditional level ofprotection. A navalengineering journal, in

1907, stated that the coalin these bunkers wouldlimithowfarenemyshellscould penetrate the hulland thus would“counteract, as far aspossible, the effect of theenemy’s fire at the waterline.”When the war began,

the Admiralty, exercisingrights granted by its dealwith Cunard, took

possession of the Lusitaniabut soon determined theshipwouldnotbeeffectiveas an armed cruiserbecause the rate at whichit consumed coal made ittoo expensive to operateunder battle conditions.The Admiralty retainedcontrol of the Mauretaniafor conversion to atroopship,aroleforwhichits size and speed were

well suited, but restoredtheLusitaniatoCunardforcommercial service. Thegunswere never installed,and only the most astutepassenger would havenoticedthemountingringsembeddedinthedecking.TheLusitaniaremainedapassenger liner, but withthehullofabattleship.

A STICKLER for detail anddiscipline, Captain Turnercalled himself “an old-fashioned sailorman.” Hehadbeenborn in1856, intheageofsailandempire.His father had been a seacaptainbuthadhopedhisson would choose adifferent path and enterthechurch.Turnerrefusedto become a “devil-dodger,” his term, and at

the age of eight somehowmanaged to win hisparents’ permission to goto sea. He wantedadventure and found it inabundance.Hefirstservedasacabinboyonasailingship, the Grasmere, whichran aground off northernIrelandonaclear,moonlitnight. Turner swam forshore. All the other crewand all passengers aboard

were rescued, though oneinfant died of bronchitis.“Had itbeen stormy,”onepassengerwrote,“Ibelievenotasoulcouldhavebeensaved.”Turnermovedfromshipto ship and at one pointsailed under his father’scommand, aboard asquare-rigger. “I was thequickest man aloft in asailing ship,” Turner said.

His adventures continued.Whilehewassecondmateof a clipper ship, theThunderbolt, a waveknocked him into the sea.Hehadbeenfishingatthetime. A fellow crewmansaw him fall and threwhim a life buoy, but hefloated for over an houramong circling sharksbeforetheshipcouldfightits way back to his

position.HejoinedCunardon October 4, 1877, at asalary of £5 per month,andtwoweekslatersailedas third officer of theCherbourg, his firststeamship. He againproved himself a sailor ofmore than usual braveryand agility. One day inheavyfog,astheCherbourgwas leavingLiverpool, theship struck a small bark,

whichbegan to sink. Fourcrew and a harbor pilotdrowned. The Cherbourgdispatched a rescue party,which included Turner,who himself pulled acrewman and a boy fromtherigging.Turner served as third

officer on two otherCunard ships but resignedon June 28, 1880, afterlearning that thecompany

never promoted a man tocaptain unless he’d beenmaster of a ship beforejoining the company.Turner built hiscredentials, earned hismaster’s certificate, andbecame captain of aclippership,andalongtheway found yet anotheropportunity todemonstrate his courage.InFebruary1883,aboyof

fourteen fell from a dockintoLiverpoolHarbor,intowater so cold it could killa man in minutes. Turnerwas a strong swimmer, ata time when most sailorsstill held the belief thatthere was no point inknowing how to swim,since it would onlyprolong your suffering.Turner leapt in andrescued the boy. The

Liverpool Shipwreck andHumane Society gave himasilvermedalforheroism.ThatsameyearherejoinedCunard and married acousin, Alice Hitching.They had two sons, thefirst, Percy, in 1885, andNormaneightyearslater.Evennow,asa certified

ship’s master, Turner’sadvance within Cunardtook time. The delay,

according to his best andlongtime friend, GeorgeBall, caused him greatfrustration, but, Balladded,“never,atanytime,didherelaxindevotiontoduty nor waver in theloyalty he always bore tohis ship and his Captain.”Overthenexttwodecades,Turner worked his wayupward from third officerto chief officer, through

eighteendifferentpostings,until on March 19, 1903,Cunard at last awardedhimhisowncommand.Hebecame master of a smallsteamship, the Aleppo,which servedMediterraneanports.His home life did notfare as well. His wife lefthim, took the boys, andmoved to Australia.Turner’s sisters hired a

young woman, MabelEvery, to care for him.Miss Every and Turnerlivedneareachother,inasuburb of Liverpool calledGreat Crosby. At first sheserved as a housekeeper,but over time she becamemoreofa companion.Shesaw a side of Turner thathis officers and crew didnot. He liked smoking hispipeandtellingstories.He

loved dogs and cats andhad a fascination withbees. He liked to laugh.“On the ships he was avery strict disciplinarian,”Miss Every wrote, “but atHome hewas a very kindjolly man and fond ofchildrenandanimals.”

DESPITE THE SORROW thatshaded his personal life,

his career gainedmomentum. After twoyears as master of theAleppo, he moved on tocommand the Carpathia,theshipthatlater,inApril1912, under a differentcaptain, would becomefamous for rescuingsurvivors of the Titanic.Next came the Ivernia, theCaronia, and the Umbria.His advance was all the

more remarkable giventhat he lacked the charmand polish that Cunardexpected its commandersto display. A Cunardcaptain was supposed tobemuchmorethanamerenavigator. Resplendent inhis uniform and cap, hewas expected to exudeassurance, competence,andgravitas.Butacaptainalsoservedarolelesseasy

to define. He was threeparts mariner, one partclubdirector.Hewastobea willing guide for first-classpassengerswishingtolearn more about themysteries of the ship; hewas to preside overdinners with prominentpassengers;hewastowalkthe ship and engagepassengers inconversationabout the weather, their

reasons for crossing theAtlantic, the books theywerereading.Turner would sooner

bathe in bilge. Accordingto Mabel Every, hedescribedpassengers as “aload of bloody monkeyswho are constantlychattering.” He preferreddining in his quarters toholding court at thecaptain’s table in the first-

class dining room. Hespokelittleanddidsowithaparsimony that couldbemaddening;healsotendedto be blunt. On onevoyage,whileincommandof the Carpathia, he ranafoul of two priests, whofelt moved to write toCunard “complaining ofcertain remarks” thatTurner had made whenthey asked permission to

hold a Roman Catholicservice for third-classpassengers. Exactly whatTurner said cannot beknown, but his remarkswere sufficient to causeCunard to demand aformalreportandtomakethe incident a subject ofdeliberation at a meetingof the company’s boardofdirectors.At the start of another

voyage, while he was inchargeoftheMauretania,awoman traveling in firstclass told Turner that shewantedtobeonthebridgeas the ship moved alongthe Mersey River out tosea. Turner explained thatthis would be impossible,for Cunard rules expresslyprohibited anyone otherthannecessaryofficersandcrew from being on the

bridgein“narrowwaters.”She asked, what wouldhedoifaladyhappenedtoinsist?Turnerreplied,“Madam,doyouthinkthatwouldbealady?”Turner’s social burdenwas eased in 1913 whenCunard, acknowledgingthe complexity of runningthe Lusitania and theMauretania, created a new

officer’s position for both,that of “staff captain,”secondincommandoftheship. Not only did thisallow Turner toconcentrateonnavigation;it largely eliminated hisobligationtobecharming.The Lusitania’s staffcaptain as of May 1915was James “Jock”Anderson, whom Turnerdescribed as more

“clubbable.”The crew respectedTurner and for the mostpart liked him. “I think Ispeak for all the crew if Isaywe all had theutmostconfidence in CaptainTurner,” said one of theship’s waiters. “He was agood, and conscientiousskipper.” But one officer,Albert Arthur Bestic,observed that Turner was

popular only “up to apoint.” Bestic noted thatTurnerstillseemedtohaveone foot on the deck of asailing ship, as becameevidentatoddmoments.One evening, whileBestic and other crewmenwere off duty and playingbridge, the ship’squartermaster appeared atthe door carrying a knotcalled a Turk’s head.

Complex to begin with,this was a four-strandedvariant, the mostcomplicatedofall.“Captain’s

compliments,” thequartermaster said, “andhe says he wants anotherofthesemade.”The bridge game

stopped, Bestic recalled,“and we spent the rest ofthe 2nd. dog”—the watch

from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M.—“trying to rememberhow it was made.” Thiswas not easy. The knotwas typically used fordecoration, and none ofthemenhad tiedone inalong while. Wrote Bestic,“It was Turner’s idea ofhumor.”

UNDER TURNER, the Lusitania

brokeallrecordsforspeed,tothedismayofGermany.In a 1909 voyage fromLiverpooltoNewYork,theship covered the distancefrom Daunt Rock offIreland to New York’sAmbrose Channel in fourdays, eleven hours, andforty-two minutes, at anaverage speed of 25.85knots.Untilthenthatkindof speed had seemed an

impossibility. As the shippassed the Nantucketlightship,itwasclockedat26knots.Turner attributed the

speed to new propellersinstalled the precedingJulyandtotheprowessofhisengineersand firemen.Hetoldareportertheshipwould have made it evenfaster if not for foulweatherandahead-onsea

at the beginning of thevoyage and a gale thatarose at the end. Thereporternoted thatTurnerlooked“bronzed”fromthesun.By May 1915 Turnerwas the most seasonedcaptain at Cunard, thecommodoreoftheline.Hehadconfrontedallmannerof shipboard crises,including mechanical

mishaps, fires, crackedfurnaces,open-searescues,andextremeweatherofallkinds. He was said to befearless. One seamanaboard the Lusitania,Thomas Mahoney, calledhim “one of the bravestCaptainsIsailedunder.”It was Turner whoexperienced what mayhave been the mostfrightening threat to the

Lusitania, this during avoyage to New York inJanuary 1910, when heencountered aphenomenonhehadneverpreviously met in his halfcenturyatsea.Soon after leaving

Liverpool,theshipentereda gale, with a powerfulheadwind and tall seasthat required Turner toreduce speed to 14 knots.

Byitselftheweatherposednoparticularchallenge.Hehad seen worse, and theship handled the heavyseaswithgrace.Andso,onMonday evening, January11, at 6:00, soon afterleavingthecoastofIrelandbehind,Turnerwentdownonedecktohisquarterstohave dinner. He left hischiefofficerincharge.“Thewave,”Turnersaid,

“cameasasurprise.”Itwasnotjustanywave,but an “accumulative”wave,knowninlatertimesas a rogue, formed whenwaves pile one uponanother to form a singlepalisadeofwater.The Lusitania had justclimbeda lesserwaveandwas descending into thetroughbeyonditwhentheseaaheadroseinawallso

high it blocked thehelmsman’s view of thehorizon. The ship plungedthrough it.Water came tothetopofthewheelhouse,80 feet above thewaterline.The wave struck thefront of the bridge like agiant hammer and bentsteel plates inward. Woodshutterssplintered.Alargespear of broken teak

pierced a hardwoodcabinet to a depth of twoinches. Water filled thebridge and wheelhouseand tore the wheel loose,along with the helmsman.The ship began to “falloff,” so that its bow wasnolongerperpendiculartothe oncoming waves, adangerous condition inrough weather. The lightsof the bridge and on the

masthead above short-circuited and went out.Theofficersandhelmsmanstruggled to their feet,initially in waist-highwater.Theyreattachedthewheel and corrected theship’sheading.Thewave’simpact had broken doors,bent internal bulkheads,and shattered twolifeboats.Bysheerest luck,no one was seriously

injured.Turner rushed to the

bridge and found waterand chaos, but once heassured himself that theship had endured theassault withoutcatastrophic damage andthat no passengers hadbeen hurt, he simplyadded it tohis long listofexperiencesatsea.Fogwas one of the few

phenomena that worriedhim.Therewasnowaytopredictitsoccurrence,and,once in fog, one had noway to know whetheranother vessel was thirtymiles ahead or thirtyyards.TheCunardmanual,“Rules to Be Observed inthe Company’s Service,”required that whenencounteringfogacaptainhadtopostextralookouts,

reduce speed, and turnonhisship’sfoghorn.Therestof it was luck and carefulnavigation. A captain hadtoknowhispositionatalltimes as precisely aspossible,becausefogcouldarise quickly. One instantthere’d be clear sky, thenext obliteration. Thedangersoffoghadbecomegrotesquely evident oneyear earlier, also in May,

when the Empress ofIreland, of the CanadianPacific line,was struckbya collier—a coal-carryingfreighter—inafogbankinthe Saint Lawrence River.The Empress sank infourteenminutes with thelossof1,012lives.Turner knew the

importance of precisenavigation and wasconsideredtobeespecially

good at it, careful to theextreme, especially in thenarrow waters close to aport.

COME SATURDAY morning,May1,Turnerwouldmakeadetailedinspectionoftheship, accompanied by hispurser and chief steward.All preparations for thevoyage had to be

completed by then, roomscleaned, beds made, allstores—gin,Scotch,cigars,peas,mutton,beef,ham—loadedaboard,allcargoinplace, and the ship’ssupply of drinking watertested for freshness andclarity. Special attentionwas always to be paid tolavatories and bilges, andto maintaining properlevels of ventilation, lest

thelinerstarttostink.Thegoal, in official Cunardparlance,was“tokeeptheshipsweet.”Everything had to be

done in such a mannerthat none of thepassengers, whether infirst class or third, wouldbeawareofthenatureandextent of the week’stravail. The needs ofpassengers were

paramount, as the Cunardmanual made clear. “Theutmost courtesy andattentionareatalltimestobe shown to passengerswhilst they are on boardthe Company’s ships, anditisthespecialdutyoftheCaptain to see that thisregulation is observed bythe officers and othersserving under him.” Onone previous voyage, this

duty included allowingtwobig-gamehunters,Mr.andMrs.D.SaundersonofCounty Cavan, Ireland, tobring two four-month-oldlion cubs aboard, whichthey had captured inBritish East Africa andplanned to give to theBronx Zoo. The couple’stwo-year-old daughter,Lydia, played with thecubsondeck,“muchtothe

amusement of the otherpassengers,” according totheNew York Times. Mrs.Saunderson attracted agood deal of attentionherself. She had killed anelephant. “No, I was notafraid,”shetoldtheTimes.“IthinkIneveram.”Complaints had to be

taken seriously, and therewere always complaints.Passengers grumbled that

foodfromtheKitchenGrillcame to their tables cold.This issue was at leastpartly resolved bychangingtheroutewaitershad to walk. Thetypewriters in the typingroom were too noisy andannoyed the occupants ofadjacent staterooms. Thehours for typing wereshortened. Ventilation insome roomswas less than

ideal,astubbornflawthatdrove passengers to opentheir portholes. Therewasa problem, too, with theupper-leveldiningroominfirst class. Its windowsopened onto a promenadeused by third-classpassengers, who had anannoying habit of peeringinthroughthewindowsatthe posh diners within.And there were always

those passengers whocame aboard bearingmoral grudges against themodern age. A second-class passenger on a 1910voyage complained thatthe ship’s decks “shouldnot be made a marketplace for the sale of IrishShawls,etc.,”andalsothat“card playing for moneygoes on incessantly in thesmoking rooms on board

theCompany’ssteamers.”Cunard’s foremostpriority, however, was toprotectitspassengersfromharm.Thecompanyhadaremarkable safety record:not a single passengerdeath from sinking,collision,ice,weather,fire,or any other circumstancewhereblamecouldbelaidupon captain or company,though of course deaths

from natural causesoccurred with regularity,especially among elderlypassengers. The shipcarried the latest in safetyequipment. Owing to theepidemic of “Boat Fever”that swept the shippingindustry after the Titanicdisaster, the Lusitania hadmore than enoughlifeboats for passengersand crew. The ship also

had been recentlyequippedwiththelatestinlife jackets, thesemadebythe Boddy LifesavingAppliances Company.Unlike the older vests,made of cloth-coveredpanels of cork, theseresembled actual jackets.Saidonepassenger,“Whenyou have it on you lookand feel like a paddedfootball player, especially

aroundtheshoulders.”Thenew Boddy jackets wereplaced in the first- andsecond-class staterooms;third-class passengers andcrewweretousetheolderkind.No safety issue escaped

the notice of Cunard’sboard.Ononecrossing,asthe Lusitania movedthrough heavy seas,crewmendiscoveredthata

section of third class was“fullofwater.”Theculpritwas a single openporthole. The incidentunderscored the dangersposed by portholes inroughweather. The boardvoted to reprimand thestewards responsible forthatsectionoftheship.For all the respect

affordedTurnerbyCunardand by the officers and

crew who served underhim, his own record wasfar from impeccable. InJuly 1905, four monthsafter he took command ofthe Ivernia, the shipcollided with another, theCarlingford Lough. Aninvestigation by Cunardfound Turner to be atfault, for going too fast infog. The company’sdirectors resolved,

according to boardminutes, that he was “tobe severely reprimanded.”Three years later, a shipunder his command, theCaronia, “touchedground”intheAmbroseChannelinNewYorkandearnedhimanother reprimand: “TheCaronia should not haveleft the dock at such astateoftide.”The winter of 1914–15

was particularly hard onTurner. One of his ships,the newly launchedTransylvania,caughtagustof wind while undockingin Liverpool and bumpedagainstaWhiteStar liner,causing minor damage. Ina second incident thatwinter, the ship collidedwith another large liner,theTeutonic,andinathirdgotbumpedbyatugboat.

But these thingshappened to all captains.Cunard’s confidence inTurnerwasmade clear bythe fact that the companyconsistently put him incharge of its newest andbiggest liners and madehimmasteroftheLusitaniaforthreedifferentcycles.The war had made the

matter of passenger safetyall the more pressing. For

Turner’s immediatepredecessor, Capt. DanielDow, it had become toogreat a burden. On aMarch voyage toLiverpool,Dowhadguidedthe Lusitania throughwaters in which twofreighters had just beensunk.Afterwardhetoldhissuperiors at Cunard thathe could no longer acceptthe responsibility of

commanding a passengership under suchconditions, especially ifthe ship carriedmunitionsintended for Britain’smilitary. The practice oftransporting such cargohad become common andmadeanyshipthatcarriedit a legitimate target forattack. Cowardice hadnothing to do with Dow’sdecision. What troubled

himwasnotthedangertohimself but rather havingtoworryaboutthelivesoftwo thousand civilianpassengers and crew. Hisnerves could not take it.Cunard decided he was“tired and really ill” andrelievedhimofcommand.

WASHINGTON

THELONELYPLACE

THE TRAIN CARRYING THE BODY OFELLEN AXSON Wilson pulledinto the station at Rome,Georgia, at 2:30 in theafternoon, Tuesday,

August 11, 1914, undergunmetal skies, amid thepeal of bells. The casketwas placed in a hearse,and soon the cortegebegan making its waythrough town to thechurch in which thefuneral servicewould takeplace, the FirstPresbyterian, where Mrs.Wilson’sfatherhadbeenapastor. The streets were

thronged with men andwomen come to pay theirlast respects toher and toshow support for herhusband, PresidentWoodrow Wilson. They’dbeen married twenty-nineyears. Family memberscarried thecasket into thechurch as the organistplayed Chopin’s FuneralMarch,thatdour,trudgingstaple of death scenes

everywhere. The servicewasbrief; the chorus sangtwo hymns that had beenher favorites. Next theprocession made its wayup to the cemetery onMyrtle Hill, and the rainbegan. The hearse rolledpastgirls inwhiteholdingboughs of myrtle. Behindthe girls stoodtownspeople and visitors,their hats off despite the

rain.An awning had been

erected over the gravesiteto shelter Wilson and thefriends and family whomadeupthefuneralparty.The rain became heavyand thudded against thecloth. Onlookers saw thepresident tremble as hewept; those near at handsawtearsonhischeeks.Afterward,themourners

moved back to their cars,and the spectators—athousand of them—dispersed. Wilson stoodalone beside the grave,neither speaking normoving, until the coffinwasfullycovered.With the death of his

wife,Wilsonenteredanewprovince of solitude, andthe burden of leadershipbore on him as never

before. His wife had diedonThursday,August 6, ofa kidney illness thenknown as Bright’s disease,two days after Britainentered the new war inEuropeandjustayearandahalfintohisfirstterm.Inlosing her he lost notmerely hismain source ofcompanionship but alsohisprimaryadviser,whoseobservationshehad found

so useful in helping shapehis own thinking. TheWhite House became forhim a lonely place,haunted not by the ghostof Lincoln, as someWhiteHouse servants believed,but bymemories of Ellen.Foratimehisgriefseemedincapacitating. Hisphysician and frequentgolf companion, Dr. CaryGrayson, grew concerned.

“For several days he hasnot been well,” Graysonwrote, on August 25,1914, in a letter to afriend, Edith Bolling Galt.“I persuaded himyesterdaytoremaininbedduringtheforenoon.WhenI went to see him, tearswere streaming down hisface. It was a heart-breaking scene, a sadderpicture no one could

imagine.Agreatmanwithhishearttornout.”Later that August,

Wilson managed to getawaytoacountryhomeinCornish, New Hampshire,calledHarlakendenHouse,alargeGeorgianresidenceoverlooking theConnecticut River onwhich he held a two-summer lease. Wilson’sfriend Col. Edward House

came to joinhimandwasstruck by the depth of hissorrow. At one point asthey talked about Ellen,the president, his eyeswelling,toldHousethathe“felt like a machine thathad run down, and therewasnothing inhimworthwhile.” The president,House wrote in his diary,“looked forward to thenext two and a half years

withdread.Hedidnotseehow he could go throughwithit.”Therewere crises on all

fronts. The United Stateswas still in the grip of arecessionnowinitssecondyear. The South inparticularsuffered.Cotton,itsmainproduct,hadbeentransported mainly onforeign vessels, but thewar had brought an acute

shortage of ships, whoseowners, fearing submarineattack, kept them in port;the belligerents,meanwhile,commandeered their ownmerchantshipsformilitaryuse.Nowmillionsofbalesof cotton piled up onsouthern wharves. Therewas labor trouble as well.The United Mine Workersof Americawere on strike

inColorado.TheprecedingApril, the statehad sent aforce of National Guardtroops to break the strike,resulting in a massacre atLudlow,Colorado,thatlefttwo dozen men, women,and children dead.Meanwhile, south of theborder, violence andunrestcontinuedtoplagueMexico.Wilson’s great fear,

however,wasthatAmericamight somehow find itselfdrawn into the war inEurope. That the war hadbegun at all was a darkamazement, for it hadseemed to come fromnowhere. At the start ofthat beautiful summer of1914, one of the sunniestEurope would ever see,there had been no sign ofwar and no obvious wish

forit.OnJune27,thedaybefore Europe began itsslide into chaos,newspaper readers inAmerica found only theblandestofnews.Theleadstory on the front page ofthe New York Times wasaboutColumbiaUniversityat last winning theintercollegiate rowingregatta, after nineteenyears of failure. A Grape-

Nuts ad dealt withwarfare, but of theschoolyard variety,extollingthecereal’svalueinhelpingchildrenprevailinfistfights:“Huskybodiesandstoutnervesdepend—more often than we think—on the foodeaten.”Andthe Times’ society pagenamed dozens of NewYorksocialites,includingaGuggenheim and a

Wanamaker, who werescheduled to sail forEurope that day, on theMinneapolis, theCaledonia,the Zeeland, and twoGerman-owned ships, thePrinzFriedrichWilhelmandthe gigantic Imperator, 24feet longer than theTitanic.In Europe, kings and

high officials set off fortheir country homes.

Kaiser Wilhelm wouldsoon board his yacht, theHohenzollern, to begin acruise of the fjords ofNorway. The president ofFrance, RaymondPoincaré, and his foreignminister departed by shipfor a state visit to TsarNicholas II ofRussia,whohadmoved to his summerpalace.Winston Churchill,fortyyearsoldandalready

Britain’s topnavalofficial,First Lord of theAdmiralty, went to thebeach, a home in Cromeron the North Sea, 100miles north of London,where he joined his wife,Clementine, and hischildren.In England, the laypublic was transfixed, notby any prospect of war,but by Sir Ernest

Shackleton’s plannedexpeditiontotheAntarcticin the square-riggerEndurance, set to departAugust 8 from Plymouth,on Britain’s southeastcoast. In Paris, the bigfascinationwasthetrialofHenrietteCaillaux,wifeofformer prime ministerJoseph Caillaux, arrestedforkillingtheeditoroftheParis newspaper Le Figaro

after the newspaper hadpublished an intimateletter that the primeministerhadwrittentoherbefore their marriage,whentheywerehavinganadulterousaffair.Enraged,Mrs. Caillaux bought agun, practiced with it atthe gunsmith’s shop, thenwent to the editor’s officeand fired six times. Inhertestimony, offering an

unintended metaphor forwhat was soon to befallEurope, she said, “Thesepistols are terrible things.They go off bythemselves.” She wasacquitted,afterpersuadingthe court that the murderwasacrimeofpassion.Far from a clamor for

war, there existed awidespread,ifnaive,beliefthat war of the kind that

had convulsed Europe inpastcenturieshadbecomeobsolete—that theeconomiesofnationswereso closely connected withoneanother thateven ifawar were to begin, itwouldendquickly.Capitalflowed across borders.Belgium had the sixth-largest economy in theworld, not because ofmanufactures, but because

of the money coursingthrough its banks.Enhanced communications—telephone, telegraph,cable, and most recentlywireless—furtherentwinednations, as did theincreasing capacity andspeed of steamships andtheexpansionofrailroads.Tourism grew as well. Nolonger just for the rich, itbecame a passion of the

middle class. Populationsincreased, marketsexpanded. In the UnitedStates, despite recession,the Ford Motor Companyannouncedplanstodoublethe size of itsmanufacturingplant.But old tensions and

enmities persisted.Britain’s King George Vloathed his cousin KaiserWilhelm II, Germany’s

supreme ruler; andWilhelm, in turn, enviedBritain’s expansivecollection of colonies andits command of the seas,so much so that in 1900Germany began acampaign to buildwarships in enoughquantity and of largeenough scale to take onthe British navy. This inturndroveBritaintobegin

an extensivemodernization of its ownnavy, forwhich it createdanewclassofwarship,theDreadnought,whichcarriedguns of a size and powernever before deployed atsea.Armiesswelledinsizeaswell.Tokeeppacewitheach other, France andGermany introducedconscription. Nationalistfervor was on the rise.

Austria-Hungary andSerbiasharedasimmeringmutual resentment. TheSerbs nurtured pan-Slavicambitions that threatenedtheskeinofterritoriesandethnicities that made upthe Austro-Hungarianempire (typically referredto simply as Austria).These included suchrestive lands asHerzegovina, Bosnia, and

Croatia. As one historianput it, “Europe had toomany frontiers, too many—and too well-remembered—histories,too many soldiers forsafety.”And secretly, nations

beganplanningforhowtouse these soldiers shouldtheneedarise.Asearlyas1912, Britain’s Committeeof Imperial Defence had

planned that in the eventofwarwith Germany, thefirst act would be to cutGermany’s transoceanictelegraph cables. InGermany, meanwhile,generals tinkered with adetailed plan crafted byField Marshal Alfred vonSchlieffen, the centerpieceof which was a vastmaneuver that wouldbring German forces

through neutral Belgiumand down into France,thus skirting defensesarrayed along the Frenchfrontier. That Britainmight object—indeed,would be compelled tointervene, as a co-guarantor of Belgianneutrality—seemed not toweighheavilyonanyone’smind.Schlieffencalculatedthat the war in France

wouldbeoverinforty-twodays, after which Germanforces would reversecourse and march towardRussia. What he failed totake into account waswhat would happen ifGerman forces did notprevailinthetimeallottedand if Britain did join thefray.Thewarbeganwith the

geopoliticalequivalentofa

brush fire. In late June,ArchdukeFranzFerdinand,inspector general of theAustro-Hungarian army,traveled to Bosnia, whichAustria had annexed in1908. While drivingthrough Sarajevo, he wasshot dead by an assassinsponsored by the BlackHand, a group devoted tounifying Serbia andBosnia. On July 28,

Austria stunned the worldby declaring war onSerbia.“It’s incredible—

incredible,” Wilson said,during lunch with hisdaughter, Nell, and herhusband,WilliamMcAdoo,secretary of the Treasury.Wilson could give theincident only scantattention,however.At thetime, his wife lay gravely

ill, and this aloneconsumed his heart andmind. He cautioned hisdaughter, “Don’t tell yourmotheranythingaboutit.”The dispute betweenAustria and Serbia couldhave ended there: a smallwar against a disruptiveBalkancountry.Butwithina week, the brush firegusted into a firestorm,spiking fears, resurrecting

animosities, triggeringalliances andunderstandings, andsetting long-laid plans inmotion. On Tuesday,August 4, following theSchlieffen plan, Germanforces entered Belgium,dragging behind themgiant fortress-busting gunscapableoflaunchingshellsweighing 2,000 poundsapiece. Britain declared

war, siding with Russiaand France, the “Allies”;Germany and Austria-Hungary linked arms asthe“CentralPowers.”Thatsameday,WilsondeclaredAmerica to be neutral inan executive proclamationthatbarredthewarshipsofGermany and Britain andall other belligerents fromentering U.S. ports. Later,a week after his wife’s

funeral, struggling againsthis personal grief toaddress the larger traumaof the world, Wilson toldthe nation, “We must beimpartial in thought aswellasinaction,mustputa curb upon oursentimentsaswellasuponevery transaction thatmight be construed as apreferenceof oneparty tothe struggle before

another.”He had the full supportof the American public. ABritish journalist, SydneyBrooks, writing in theNorth American Review,gaugedAmerica tobe justasisolationistasever.Andwhy not, he asked? “TheUnited States is remote,unconquerable, huge,without hostile neighborsor any neighbors at all of

anything like her ownstrength, and lives exemptin an almost unvexedtranquility from thecontentions andanimosities and theceaseless pressure andcounter-pressure thatdistract the close-packedolderworld.”While easy in concept,neutralityinpracticewasafragile thing. As the fire

grew,other allianceswereforged. Turkey joined theCentral Powers; Japan theAllies. Soon fighting wasunder way in far-flungcorners of the world, onland,intheair,andonthesea, and even under thesea, with Germansubmarines ranging as faras the waters off Britain’swesternshores.Anisolateddispute over a murder in

theBalkanshadbecomeaworldconflagration.The main arena,

however,wasEurope, andthereGermanymadeclearthat this would be a warlikenoother, inwhichnopartywouldbe spared.AsWilson mourned his wife,German forces in Belgiumentered quiet towns andvillages, took civilianhostages, and executed

them to discourageresistance. In the town ofDinant, German soldiersshot612men,women,andchildren. The Americanpresscalledsuchatrocitiesacts of “frightfulness,” thewordthenusedtodescribewhat later generationswould call terrorism. OnAugust 25, German forcesbegan an assault on theBelgian city of Louvain,

the“OxfordofBelgium,”auniversity town that washome to an importantlibrary. Three days ofshelling and murder left209 civilians dead, 1,100buildings incinerated, andthe library destroyed,along with its 230,000books, pricelessmanuscripts, and artifacts.TheassaultwasdeemedanaffrontnotjusttoBelgium

buttotheworld.Wilson,apastpresidentofPrincetonUniversity,“feltdeeplythedestruction of Louvain,”according to his friendColonel House; thepresident feared “the warwould throw the worldback three or fourcenturies.”Each side had been

confident of a victorywithinmonths, but by the

end of 1914 the war hadturned into a macabrestalemate marked bybattles in which tens ofthousandsofmendiedandneither side gainedground. The first of thegreat named battles werefought that autumn andwinter—the Frontiers,Mons,Marne,andtheFirstBattleofYpres.Bytheendof November, after four

months of fighting, theFrench army had suffered306,000 fatalities, roughlyequivalent to the 1910population ofWashington,D.C. The German toll was241,000. By year’s end aline of parallel trenches,constituting the westernfront, ran nearly fivehundred miles from theNorth Sea to Switzerland,separated in places by a

no-man’s-land of as littleas25yards.For Wilson, alreadysufferingdepression,itwasall deeply troubling. HewrotetoColonelHouse,“Ifeel the burden of thething almost intolerablyfrom day to day.” Heexpressed a similarsentimentinalettertohisambassador to Britain,Walter Hines Page. “The

whole thing is very vividin my mind, painfullyvivid,andhasbeenalmostever since the strugglebegan,”hewrote. “I thinkmy thought andimagination contain thepicture and perceive itssignificance from everypoint of view. I have toforce myself not to dwelluponittoavoidthesortofnumbnessthatcomesfrom

deep apprehension anddwelling upon elementstoo vast to be yetcomprehended or in anyway controlled bycounsel.”There was at least one

moment, however, whenhisgrief seemed to lessen.In November 1914, hetraveled to Manhattan tovisit Colonel House. Thatevening, at about nine

o’clock, the two men setout for a walk fromHouse’s apartment, not indisguise, but also notadvertising the fact thatthepresidentoftheUnitedStates was now strollingthe streets of Manhattan.They walked along Fifty-third Street, to SeventhAvenue, to Broadway,somehowmanagingnot todraw the attention of

passersby.Theystoppedtolisten to a couple ofsidewalk orators, but hereWilson was recognized,and a crowd gathered.WilsonandColonelHousemoved on, now followedby a trailing sea of NewYorkers. The two menentered the lobby of theWaldorf Astoria, steppedup to the elevator, anddirected the startled

operator to stop at a highfloor.Theygotoff,walkedto the opposite endof thehotel, found another bankof elevators, and returnedto the lobby, then exitedthroughasidedoor.After abriefwalk along

Fifth Avenue, they caughta city bus and rode ituptown to House’sbuilding. As exhilaratingas this escape may have

been, it was no cure forWilson’smalaise. On theirreturn,WilsonconfessedtoHouse that as they wereoutwalking he had foundhimself wishing thatsomeonewouldkillhim.In the midst of thisdarkness, Wilson stillmanagedtoseeAmericaastheworld’slastgreathope.“We are at peace with allthe world,” he said in

December 1914 in hisannual address toCongress. In January, hedispatched Colonel HouseonanunofficialmissiontoEurope to attempt todiscover the conditionsunderwhichtheAlliesandthe Central Powers mightbe willing to begin peacenegotiations.House booked passageon the largest, fastest

passenger ship then inservice, the Lusitania, andtraveled under a falsename. On entering watersoffIreland,theship’sthen-captain, Daniel Dow,following a traditionaccepted in times of war,raisedanAmericanflagasa ruse de guerre to protectthe ship from attack byGerman submarines. Theact startled House and

causedasensationaboard,butasameansofdisguiseit had questionable value:America did not operateanylinersofthatsize,withthatdistinctivefour-funnelsilhouette.Theincidenthighlightedthe press of forcesthreatening to undermineAmerican neutrality. ThebattlesinEuropeposednogreat worry, with the

United States so distantand secure within itsoceanic moat. It wasGermany’s new andaggressive submarine warthat posed the greatestdanger.

AT THE beginning of thewar, neither Germany norBritainunderstoodthetruenatureofthesubmarineor

realized that it mightproduce what Churchillcalled“thisstrangeformofwarfare hitherto unknowntohumanexperience.”Only a few prescientsoulsseemedtograspthatthe design of thesubmarine would force atransformation in navalstrategy.Oneof thesewasSir Arthur Conan Doyle,who, a year and a half

before the war, wrote ashort story (not publisheduntil July 1914) in whichhe envisioned a conflictbetween England and afictional country,Norland,“one of the smallestPowers in Europe.” In thestory, entitled “Danger!,”Norland at first seemshopelessly overmatched,butthelittlecountryhasasecret weapon—a fleet of

eightsubmarines,whichitdeploys off the coast ofEngland to attackincoming merchant ships,both cargo and passenger.At the time Doyleconceived his plot,submarines did exist, butBritish and German navalcommanders saw them ashaving little value.Norland’s submarines,however,bringEnglandto

thevergeof starvation.Atone point, withoutwarning, the commanderof the submarine fleet,Capt. John Sirius, uses asingle torpedo to sink aWhiteStarpassengerliner,the Olympic. Englandeventually surrenders.Readers found that lastattack particularlyshocking because theOlympicwasarealship.Its

twin had been theTitanic,lost well before Doylewrotehisstory.Intended to sound thealarm and raise England’slevel of navalpreparedness, the storywas entertaining, andfrightening, but waswidely deemed too far-fetched to be believable,for Captain Sirius’sbehavior would have

breached a fundamentalmaritime code, the cruiserrules, or prize law,established in thenineteenth century togovern warfare againstcivilian shipping. Obeyedever since by all seagoingpowers,therulesheldthata warship could stop amerchant vessel andsearch it but had to keepitscrewsafeandbringthe

ship to a nearby port,where a “prize court”would determine its fate.The rules forbade attacksagainstpassengervessels.In the story, Doyle’snarrator dismisses as adelusion England’s beliefthatnonationwouldstoopto such levels. “Commonsense,”CaptainSiriussays,“shouldhave toldher thather enemy will play the

game that suits them best—that they will notinquirewhattheymaydo,buttheywilldoitfirstandtalk about it afterwards.”Doyle’s forecast wasdismissed as too fantastictocontemplate.But Britain’s own Adm.JackyFisher,creditedwithreforming andmodernizing the Britishnavy—it was he who had

conceived the firstDreadnought—had alsobecome concerned abouthow submarines mighttransfigure naval warfare.In a memorandumcomposed seven monthsbefore the war, Fisherforecast that Germanywould deploy submarinesto sinkunarmedmerchantships and would make noeffort to save the ships’

crews. The strengths andlimitations of thesubmarine made thisoutcome inescapable, heargued. A submarine hadno room to bring aboardthe crew of a merchantship and did not haveenoughmen of its own toputaprizecrewaboard.What’s more, Fisher

wrote, the logic of warrequired that if such a

strategy were adopted itwould have to be pursuedto the fullest extentpossible. “The essence ofwarisviolence,”hewrote,“andmoderation inwar isimbecility.”Churchill rejectedFisher’s vision. The use ofsubmarines to attackunarmed merchant shipswithout warning, hewrote, would be

“abhorrent to theimmemorial law andpracticeofthesea.”Even he acknowledged,however, that such tacticswhen deployed againstnaval targets constituted“fair war,” but early onneitherhenorhisGermancounterparts expected thesubmarinetoplaymuchofaroleindeep-oceanbattle.The strategic thinking of

both sides centered ontheir main fleets, theBritish “Grand Fleet” andthe German “High SeasFleet,” and bothanticipated an all-or-nothing, Trafalgar-esquenaval duel using their bigbattleships. But neithersidewaswilling to be thefirst to come out in directchallenge of the other.Britainhadmorefirepower

—twenty-sevenDreadnought-classbattleships to Germany’ssixteen—but Churchillrecognized that chanceevents could nullify thatadvantage“ifsomeghastlynovelty or blundersupervened.” For addedsafety, the Admiraltybased the fleet in ScapaFlow, a kind of islandfortress formed by the

Orkney Islands, north ofScotland. ChurchillexpectedGermanytomakethefirstmove,earlyandinfull strength, for theGerman fleet would neverbe stronger than at thewar’sbeginning.German strategists, on

theotherhand,recognizedBritain’s superiority andcrafted a plan wherebyGermanshipswouldmake

limited raids against theBritish fleet to graduallyerode its power, acampaign that Germany’sAdm. Reinhard Scheercalled “guerrilla warfare,”borrowing a Spanish termfor small-scale warfare inuse since the earlynineteenth century. OncetheBritish fleetwaspareddown, Scheer wrote, theGermanfleetwouldseeka

“favorable” opportunityfortheclimacticbattle.“So we waited,” wroteChurchill; “and nothinghappened. No great eventimmediately occurred. Nobattlewasfought.”At the start of the war,the submarine barelyfigured in the strategicplanningofeitherside.“Inthose early days,” wroteHereward Hook, a young

British sailor, “I do notthink that anyone realizedthatasubmarinecoulddoanydamage.”Hewassoonto learn otherwise, in anincidentthatdemonstratedin vivid fashion the truedestructive power ofsubmarinesandrevealedagraveflawinthedesignofBritain’sbigwarships.At dawn, on the

morning of Tuesday,

September22,1914,threelargeBritishcruisers,HMSAboukir,Hogue,andCressy,werepatrollingaswathofthe North Sea off Hollandknown as the “BroadFourteens,” moving ateight knots, a leisurelyand, as it happened,foolhardy pace. The shipswere full of cadets. Hook,one of them, was fifteenyears old and assigned to

theHogue. The shipswereold and slow, and soclearly at risk that withinBritain’s Grand Fleet theybore the nickname “thelive-bait squadron.” Hook—who in later life wouldindeed be promoted toCaptain Hook—was in hisbunk,asleep,whenat6:20A.M. he was awakened by“a violent shaking” of hishammock. A midshipman

was trying to wake himand other cadets, to alertthem to the fact that oneof the big cruisers, theAboukir, had beentorpedoed and wassinking.Hook sprinted to the

deck, and watched theAboukir begin to list.Within minutes the shipheeledanddisappeared. Itwas, he wrote, “my first

sightofmenstrugglingfortheirlives.”His ship and the otherintact cruiser, the Cressy,maneuvered to rescue thesailors in the water, eachcoming to a dead stop afewhundredyardsawaytolaunchboats.Hookandhisfellow crewmen wereordered to throwoverboard anything thatcouldfloattohelpthemen

in the water. Momentslater,twotorpedoesstruckhis own ship, the Hogue,and in six or sevenminutes“shewasquiteoutofsight,”hewrote.Hewaspulled into one of theHogue’s previouslylaunched lifeboats. Afterpickingupmoresurvivors,the lifeboat beganmakingits way toward the thirdcruiser, the Cressy. But

another torpedo was nowtearing through thewater.The torpedo struck theCressy on its starboardside. Like the two othercruisers, the Cressyimmediately began to list.Unlike the others,however, the list halted,andtheshipseemedasifitmightstayafloat.Butthena second torpedo struckand hit themagazine that

storedammunition for theship’s heavy guns. TheCressy exploded and sank.Wherejustanhourearliertherehadbeenthreelargecruisers, there were nowonly men, a few smallboats, and wreckage. Asingle German submarine,Unterseeboot-9—U-9, forshort—commanded byKptlt.OttoWeddigen, hadsunkallthreeships,killing

1,459Britishsailors,manyof them young men intheirteens.Weddigen and his U-

boat were of course toblame, but the design ofthe ships—theirlongitudinal coal bunkers—contributed greatly tothespeedwithwhichtheysankand thus thenumberof lives lost. Onceruptured, the bunkers

caused one side of eachship’s hull to fill quickly,creating a catastrophicimbalance.The disaster had animportant secondaryeffect: because two of thecruisers had stopped tohelpsurvivorsoftheinitialattack and thus madethemselves easy targets,the Admiralty issuedorders forbidding large

British warships fromgoing to theaidofU-boatvictims.

THROUGHTHE fallandwinterof 1914, Germany’ssubmarines came tooccupymore andmore ofWilson’s attention, owingto a new shift in Germannavalstrategythatbroughtwith it the steadily

worsening threat ofentanglement.TheAboukirincident, and othersuccessful attacks againstBritish ships, causedGermanstrategiststoviewsubmarinesinanewlight.The boats had proved tobe hardier and deadlierthan expected,well suitedto Germany’s guerrillaeffort to abrade thestrengthofBritain’sGrand

Fleet. But theirperformance alsosuggested another use. Byyear’s end, Germany hadmade the interception ofmerchant shipping anincreasinglyimportantroleforthenavy,tostanchtheflow of munitions andsupplies to Allied forces.This task originally hadfallen to the navy’s bigauxiliary cruisers—former

ocean liners converted towarships—but thesecruisers had been largelyswept from the seas byBritain’s powerful navy.Submarinesbytheirnatureofferedaneffectivemeansof continuing thecampaign.Theyalsoraisedtherisk

that an American shipmightbesunkbyaccident,or that U.S. citizens

traveling on Allied vesselsmightbeharmed.Early in1915, this risk seemed toincrease sharply. OnFebruary 4, Germanyissued a proclamationdesignating the watersaroundtheBritish Islesan“areaofwar” inwhichallenemy ships would besubject to attack withoutwarning. This posed aparticularlyacutethreatto

Britain,which,asanislandnation that imported two-thirds of its food, wasutterly dependent onseaborne trade. Neutralships were at risk also,Germany cautioned,because Britain’swillingness to fly falseflags had made itimpossible for U-boatcommanders to rely on aship’s markings to

determinewhetherit trulywas neutral. Germanyjustifiedthenewcampaignasaresponsetoablockadebegun previously byBritain, in which theBritish navy sought tointercept all cargoesheaded to Germany.(Britain had more thantwice asmany submarinesasGermanybutusedthemmainlyforcoastaldefense,

not to stop merchantships.) German officialscomplained that Britainmade no attempt todistinguish whether thecargoes were meant forhostileorpeacefuluseandcharged that Britain’s truegoalwastostarveciviliansand thereby “doom theentire population ofGermanytodestruction.”What Germany never

acknowledged was thatBritain merely confiscatedcargoes, whereas U-boatssankshipsandkilledmen.German commandersseemed blind to thedistinction. Germany’sAdmiral Scheer wrote,“Does it really make anydifference,purelyfromthehumane point of view,whether those thousandsof men who drown wear

naval uniforms or belongto a merchant shipbringing food andmunitions to the enemy,thus prolonging the warand augmenting thenumber of women andchildrenwhosufferduringthewar?”Germany’s proclamation

outragedPresidentWilson;on February 10, 1915, hecabledhisformalresponse,

in which he expressedincredulity that Germanywould even think to usesubmarinesagainstneutralmerchant ships andwarnedthathewouldholdGermany “to a strictaccountability” for anyincident in which anAmericanshipwassunkorAmericanswereinjuredorkilled. He stated, further,that America would “take

any steps it might benecessary to take tosafeguard American livesandpropertyandtosecureto American citizens thefull enjoyment of theiracknowledged rights onthehighseas.”The force of his prosetook German leaders bysurprise. Outwardly,Germany seemed a fiercemonolith, united in

carrying out its waragainst merchant ships.But in fact, the newsubmarine campaign hadcausedariftatthehighestlevels of Germany’smilitary and civilianleadership. Itsmostardentsupporters were seniornaval officials; itsopponents included thecommander of Germany’smilitary forces in Europe,

Gen. Erich vonFalkenhayn, and thenation’s top politicalleader, ChancellorTheobald von BethmannHollweg. Moral scruplehad nothing to do withtheiropposition.Bothmenfeared that Germany’sundersea war could onlylead todisasterbydrivingAmerica to shed itsneutrality and side with

Britain.Wilson’s protest,

however, did not impressGermany’s submarinezealots. They argued thatif anything Germanyshould intensify itscampaign and destroy allshipping in the war zone.They promised to bringBritain toheelwellbeforeAmericacouldmobilizeanarmy and transport it to

thebattlefield.Bothcampsmaneuvered

towintheendorsementofKaiser Wilhelm, who, asthe nation’s suprememilitary leader, had thefinalsay.HeauthorizedU-boat commanders to sinkanyship,regardlessofflagor markings, if they hadreason to believe it wasBritish or French. Moreimportantly, he gave the

captains permission to doso while submerged,withoutwarning.The most importanteffect of all this was toleavethedeterminationastowhich shipswere to bespared, which to be sunk,to the discretion ofindividual U-boatcommanders. Thus a lonesubmarine captain,typically a young man in

his twenties or thirties,ambitious, driven toaccumulate as much sunktonnage as possible, farfrom his base and unableto make wireless contactwith superiors, his visionlimited to the small anddistantviewaffordedbyaperiscope, now held thepower to make a mistakethat could change theoutcomeoftheentirewar.

As Chancellor Bethmannwould later put it,“Unhappily, it dependsupon the attitude of asingle submarinecommander whetherAmerica will or will notdeclarewar.”No one had any

illusions. Mistakes wouldhappen. One of KaiserWilhelm’s orders includedanacknowledgmentof the

risk: “If in spite of theexercise of great caremistakes should be made,thecommanderwillnotbemaderesponsible.”

WILSON’SGRIEFandlonelinesspersisted into the newyear,but inMarch1915achance encounter causedthat curtain of gray topart.

His cousin, HelenWoodrow Bones, lived inthe White House, wheresheservedasaproxyFirstLady. Often, she wentwalking with a goodfriend, Edith Bolling Galt,forty-three years old, whohappened also to be afriend of Wilson’sphysician,Dr.Grayson.Atfive feet nine inches tall,with a full and shapely

figure and a taste for fineclothes, including thosedesigned in the Parisfashion house of CharlesFrederickWorth,shewasastriking woman, with acomplexion and mannersaid togleam,andeyesofa violet blue. One daywhileridinginalimousinewith Wilson, Dr. Graysonspotted Galt and bowedtowardher,atwhichpoint

the president exclaimed,“Who is that beautifullady?”BorninOctober1872asthe seventh of elevensiblings, Edith claimedfamily roots that datedback to Pocahontas andCapt.JohnRolfe.Shegrewup in a small Virginiatown, Wytheville, in alandscape still warm withresidual passions of the

Civil War. While ateenager, she beganmaking periodic visits toWashington, D.C., to visither eldest sister, who hadmarried into a family thatowned one ofWashington’s finestjewelrystores,Galt&Bro.Jewelers,situatedneartheWhite House. (The storewas repairing AbrahamLincoln’swatchatthetime

the Civil War began.) Onone visit, when Edithwasin her twenties, she metNorman Galt—a cousin ofher sister’s husband—whosharedmanagementofthestore with other membersof the family. Theymarriedin1896.Eventually Norman

boughtouthis relatives tobecome sole owner of thebusiness. Edith bore a son

in1903,butthebabydiedwithin days. Five yearslater,Normandiedaswell,suddenly, leavingsubstantial debts from hisacquisition of the store. Itwas a difficult time, Edithwrote. “I had noexperience in businessaffairsandhardlyknewanassetfromaliability.”Sheplaced the store’s day-to-dayoperations in the care

of a seasoned employee,and with his help thebusiness began again toprosper so that Edith,whileretainingownership,wasabletowithdrawfromdaily management. Shebecame a skilled golferandwasthefirstwomaninWashington to acquire adriver’slicense.Shetooledaround the city in anelectriccar.

Her walks with HelenBones usually began withEdith driving herself andHelen to Rock Creek Parkinhercar.Afterward,theyinvariably returned toEdith’s house in DupontCircle for tea. But oneafternoon in March 1915,Helen arrived at Edith’shome in a White Housecar, which took them tothepark.Attheendofthe

walk,Helensuggestedthatthis time they have tea ather place, the WhiteHouse.Edith resisted.Thewalkhadbeenamessyone.Hershoes were muddy, andshe did not want to beseen by the president ofthe United States in thiscondition. As she toldHelen, she feared being“taken for a tramp.” In

fact, shoes aside, shelookedprettygood,assheherselflaternoted,with“asmart black tailored suitwhichWorthhadmadeforme in Paris, and a tricothat which I thoughtcompleted a very-good-lookingensemble.”Heleninsisted.“Thereis

nota soul there,” she toldEdith.“CousinWoodrowisplaying golf with Dr.

Grayson and we will goright upstairs in theelevator and you shall seenoone.”Theyrodetothesecond

floor. As they emerged,theyranheadlongintothepresident and Grayson,both of whom were intheir golf clothes.Graysonand Wilson joined thewomenfortea.Edith wrote later, “This

wastheaccidentalmeetingwhich carried out the oldadageof‘turnacornerandmeet your fate.’ ” Shenoted, however, that thegolf clothes Wilson hadbeen wearing “were notsmart.”Soon afterward Helen

invitedEdithtoadinneratthe White House, set forMarch 23.Wilson sent hisPierce-Arrow to pick her

up and to collect Dr.Grayson as well. Edithwore a purple orchid andsatatWilson’sright.“Heisperfectly charming,” shewrote later, “and one ofthe easiest and mostdelightfulhostsIhaveeverknown.”After dinner, the groupwent upstairs to thesecond-floor Oval Roomfor coffee and a fire, “and

all sorts of interestingconversation.”Wilsonreadthree poems by Englishauthors, prompting Edithto observe that “as areaderheisunequalled.”The evening had aprofoundeffectonWilson.He was entranced. Edith,sixteen years his junior,was an attractive andcompelling woman. WhiteHouse usher Irwin “Ike”

Hoover called her an“impressive widow.” Thatevening, Wilson’s spiritssoared.He had little time to

dwell in this new hopefulstate, however. Five dayslater, onMarch 28, 1915,a British merchant ship,the Falaba, encountered aU-boat commanded byGeorg-Günther Freiherrvon Forstner, one of

Germany’ssubmarineaces.The ship was small, lessthan five thousand tons,and carried cargo andpassengers bound forAfrica. A sharp-eyedlookout first saw thesubmarine when it wasthreemilesoffandalertedthe Falaba’s captain,Frederick Davies, whoturned his ship full awayand ordered maximum

speed, just over thirteenknots.Forstner gave chase. He

ordered his gun crew tofireawarningshot.TheFalabakeptrunning.

Now Forstner, using flags,signaled,“StoporIfire.”TheFalabastopped.The

U-boat approached, andForstner,shoutingthrougha megaphone, notifiedCaptain Davies that he

plannedtosinkthevessel.He orderedDavies and allaboard—242 souls—toabandon ship. He gavethemfiveminutes.Forstner maneuvered to

withinonehundredyards.The last lifeboat was stillbeing lowered when hefiredatorpedo.TheFalabasank in eight minutes,killing 104 peopleincluding Captain Davies.

A passenger by the nameof Leon C. Thrasher wasbelieved among the lost,though his body was notrecovered. Thrasherwas acitizen of the UnitedStates.The incident,condemned as the latestexample of Germanfrightfulness, was exactlythe kind of thing Wilsonhad feared, for it held the

potential toraiseacry forwar. “I do not like thiscase,”hetoldhissecretaryof state, William JenningsBryan. “It is full ofdisturbingpossibilities.”Wilson’s first instinctwastoissueanimmediatedenunciationoftheattack,in sharp language, butsubsequentdiscussionwithhis cabinet and withSecretary Bryan caused

him to hold off. Bryan, astaunch pacifist, proposedthat the death of anAmerican who knowinglytraveled aboard a Britishship through a declaredwar zone might not evenmerit protest. To him itseemed the equivalent ofanAmericantakingastrollacross the battlefield inFrance.In a note to Bryan on

Wednesday, April 28, theday after a cabinetmeeting at which theFalaba incident wasdiscussed, Wilson wrote,“Perhaps it is notnecessary to make formalrepresentations in thematteratall.”

LEON THRASHER, theAmerican passenger, was

still missing, his bodypresumably adrift in theIrishSea. Itwasonemorebeat in a cadence thatseemed to be growingfasterandlouder.

LUSITANIA

SUCKINGTUBESANDTHACKERAY

THROUGHOUT THE WEEK BEFOREDEPARTURE, PASSENGERS wholived in New York startedpacking in earnest, while

themanywho came fromelsewhere began arrivingin the city by train, ferry,and automobile. Theyfoundacitysteamingwithheat—91 degrees onTuesday, April 27, withfour days yet to go until“Straw Hat Day,”Saturday, May 1, when aman could at last breakout his summer hats.Menfollowedthisrule.ATimes

reporterdidanimpromptuvisual surveyofBroadwayandspottedonlytwostrawhats. “Thousands ofsweltering, uncomfortablemen plodded along withtheir winter headgear atall angles on theiruncomfortable heads orcarried in their hot,moisthands.”The city seemed

untroubled by the war.

Broadway—“the GreatWhiteWay,”sodubbedforits bright electric lighting—came brilliantly alightand alive each night, asalways,althoughnowwithunexpectedcompetition.Anumberof restaurantshadbegun providing lavishentertainment along withmeals, even though theylacked theater licenses.Thecitywasthreateninga

crackdown on thesemaverick “cabarets.” Oneoperator, the manager ofReisenweber’s at EighthAvenue and ColumbusCircle, said he wouldwelcome a ban. Thecompetition was wearinghimout.Hisestablishmentwas running a musicalrevue called “Too MuchMustard,” featuring “aHost of BEAUTIFUL

GIRLS,” and a separate“Whirlwind Cabaret” witha quintet ofminstrels anda full lunch—table d’hôte—forabuck,withdancingbetween courses. “Thepublic,”hecomplained,“ismaking such ridiculousdemands for elaborateentertainment with mealsthat it is really dangerousfor everybody in therestaurantbusiness.”

Incaseanyofthenewlyarrived passengers neededsome last-minute clothingfor the voyage, there wasNew York’s perennialattraction: shopping.Spring sales were underway or about to begin.Lord and Taylor on FifthAvenue was advertisingmen’s raincoats for $6.75,less than half their usualprice. B. Altman, a few

blocks south, didn’t deignto list actual prices butassured female shoppersthey would find “decidedreductions” in the cost ofgowns and suits fromParis,thesetobefoundonits third floor in thedepartment of “SpecialCostumes.”And,strangely,a tailor of Germanheritage, House ofKuppenheimer, was

advertising a special suit,“the British.” Thecompany’sadsproclaimed,“All men are young inthesestirringdays.”Thecity’seconomy, like

that of the nation as awhole, had by nowimproved dramatically,owing to the wartimeboost in demand forAmericanwares,especiallymunitions. The lull in

shipping had ended; byyear’s end, the UnitedStates would report arecord trade surplus of$1.5 billion, or $35.9billion today. Real estate,ever an obsession in NewYork, was booming, withlarge buildings underconstruction on the EastandWestSides.Workwasabout to begin on a newtwelve-story apartment

building at the corner ofEighty-eighth andBroadway. Expected cost:$500,000. There wereextravagant displays ofspending. It’spossible thatsome of the Lusitania’sfirst-class passengersattended a big party atDelmonico’s the Fridaynight before departure,thrown by Lady GraceMackenzie,“thehuntress,”

astheTimesdescribedher.The party had a jungletheme, with fifty guests,among them explorers,hunters, zoologists, twocheetahs, and “a blackape.” Delmonico’s hadfilled the banquet roomwith palm trees andlayered the walls withpalm fronds to create theeffect of dining in anAfrican glade. Black men

in tights and white tunicskeptwatchontheanimals,though in fact the blackpigment proved to be theeffect of burned cork andlow lighting. The list ofappetizersincludedstuffedeagles’eggs.Although the city’snewspaperscarriedalotofwar news, politics andcrime tended to dominatethefrontpage.Murderwas

a fascination, as always.On Thursday, April 29, inthemidstoftheheatwave,a city produce merchantwho had recently lost hisjob sent his wife to themovies, thenshothis five-year-old son to death andkilled himself. ABridgeport, Connecticut,man presented hisgirlfriend with anengagement ring and

handed her one end of aribbon; the other enddisappeared into hispocket. “A surprise,” hesaid,andurgedhertopullit.Sheobliged.Theribbonwasattachedtothetriggerof a revolver. The mandied instantly. And onFriday, April 30, fourcriminalsescapedfromthedrug ward at BellevueHospital, wearing pink

pajamas.Threeofthemenwere found, “after athorough search of theneighborhood bypolicemen, hospitalattendants, and smallboys,” theTimes said. Thefourth man was at large,presumablystilldressedinpink.And there was this: a

reportthatplanshadbeencompleted for a ceremony

to dedicate a memorialfountain to Jack Phillips,wireless operator aboardthe Titanic, and to eightother Marconi operatorslikewisekilledinmaritimedisasters. The articlenoted,“Spaceisleftfortheadditionofothernamesinthefuture.”

THE LUSITANIA’S roster of

passengers included 949British citizens (includingresidents of Canada), 71Russians, 15 Persians, 8French, 6 Greeks, 5Swedes, 3 Belgians, 3Dutch, 2 Italians, 2Mexicans, 2 Finns, and 1traveler each fromDenmark, Spain,Argentina, Switzerland,Norway,andIndia.The American

complement, by Cunard’sofficial tally, totaled 189.They came from localesthroughout the country.Two men from Virginiawere officials of ashipbuilding company ontheir way to Europe toexplore the acquisition ofsubmarines. At least fivepassengers hailed fromPhiladelphia, others fromTuckahoe, New York;

Braceville,Ohio;Seymour,Indiana;Pawtucket,RhodeIsland; Hancock,Maryland;andLakeForest,Illinois. A number camefrom Los Angeles: theBlickes,husbandandwife,travelinginfirst,andthreemembersoftheBrethertonfamily, in third. Christtraveled among them aswell: Christ Garry, ofCleveland,Ohio,insecond

class.They stayed in hotelsand boardinghouses orwithfamilyandfriends,ataddresses in all parts ofthecity.AtleastsixstayedattheHotelAstor,anothersix at the Biltmore. Theyarrived at intervals duringthe week, bearingmountains of luggage.Cunard allowed eachpassenger 20 cubic feet.

Theybroughttrunks,somebrightly colored—red,yellow, blue, green—andothers with surfaces ofleather embossed withcheckerboard andherringbone patterns,braced with wood. Theybrought “extensionsuitcases” for transportingdresses, gowns, tuxedos,and business suits. Thelargestofthesecouldhold

forty men’s suits. Theybrought large boxes builtespecially for footwear,and these smelledpleasantly of polish andleather. They carriedsmaller luggage as well,mindful of what theywould need while aboardand of what could be leftintheship’sbaggagehold.Passengers arriving bytraincouldcheckthemost

cumbersome bags straightthroughfromtheircitiesoforigin to their stateroomsor to the baggage hold ofthe ship, with confidencethat their belongingswouldbe therewhentheyboarded.They brought their bestclothes,andinsomecases,their only clothes. Thedominant palette wasblack and gray, but there

were cheerier items aswell. A heliotrope-and-white-checked frock. Aboy’s red knitted jacket,with white buttons. Agreen velveteen belt.Babies complicated things.Their clothing wasintricate.Asingleoutfitforoneinfantboyconsistedofa white wool wrapper; awhitecottonbodiceedgedwith red and blue piping;

overalls of blue cottonembroidered with dottedsquares, plaited down thefront, fastened in backwithwhitebuttons;agraywooljacketwithfourivorybuttons; black stockings;and shoes with straps. Hetopped this off with a“suckingtube,”orpacifier,tied around his neck withcord.The wealthiest

passengers carried rings,brooches, pendants,necklaces, and necklets,embeddedwith diamonds,sapphires, rubies, andonyx (and sardonyx, itsred sister). They broughtbonds and notes andlettersof introduction,butalso cash. A thirty-five-year-old woman broughtfive one-hundred-dollarbills; another, eleven

fifties.Everyoneseemedtocarry a watch, invariablyinagoldcase.Onewomanbrought her Geneva-made“Remontoir Cylindre 10Rubis Medaille D’Or, No.220063,” gold but with aface the color of blood.Later, the serial numbersof these watches wouldproveinvaluable.Passengers broughtdiaries, books, pens, ink,

and other devices withwhich to kill time. IanHolbourn, the famedwriter and lecturer nowreturning from a speakingtour of America, broughtalong the manuscript of abookhehadbeenworkingon for two decades, abouthis theory of beauty,whose pages nownumbered in thethousands. Itwas his only

copy. Dwight Harris, athirty-one-year-old NewYorker from a wealthyfamily, brought with himan engagement ring. Hehad plans. He also hadconcerns.OnFriday,April30, he went to the JohnWanamaker departmentstore in New York andboughtacustomlifebelt.Another man packed a

goldsealforstampingwax

on the back of anenvelope, with the LatinmottoTuta Tenebo, “I willkeepyousafe.”

FIRST-CLASS PASSENGER CharlesEmelius Lauriat Jr., aBoston bookseller, carriedseveral items of particularvalue.Lauriat,forty,wasagood-lookingman,withanattentive gaze and well-

trimmedbrownhair.Since1894 he had beenpresident of one of thecountry’s best-knownbookstores, Charles E.Lauriat Company, at 385Washington Street inBoston, several blocksfromBostonCommon,thisat a time when a bookdealer could achievenational recognition. Itwas “the golden age of

Americanbookcollecting,”accordingtoonehistorian,whensomeof thenation’sgreat private collectionswere amassed, later tobecometreasuredlibraries,suchastheMorganinNewYork and the Folger inWashington. Lauriat wasan accomplished swimmerand yachtsman whoplayed water polo andregularlyracedhis18-foot

sailboat and served as ajudgeinregattasthattookplaceofftheNewEnglandcoast each summer. TheBoston Globe called him a“born boat sailor.”Something of a celebrityhimself,at least in literarycircles, he dined regularlyat the city’s Player’s Club,often with one of theforemost critics and poetsoftheage,WilliamStanley

Braithwaite.The store, originally

situated directly oppositeBoston’s Old SouthChurch,hadbeen foundedby Lauriat’s father and apartner, Dana Estes, in1872, under the nameEstes&Lauriat,whichalsopublished books. Threeyears later, the twopartners divided thebusiness into two

companies, with Lauriattakingovertheretailside.Bythetimeofthesplitthestore had already becomea Boston institution, “asmuchadebatingsocietyasit was a bookshop,”according to one account.It served as a meetingplace for writers, readers,intellectuals, and artistsand included among itsregular customers Ralph

WaldoEmersonandOliverWendellHolmes.TheelderLauriat was said to seehimself as a “guide,counselor and friend” tohis customers andproduced in the store anatmosphere that onenewspaper writer called“homeness.”The store was long andnarrow and jutted farinward from the street,

more mineshaft thanshowroom, with booksshoring the walls all theway to the high ceilingsand stacked on countersdown the center. A flightof stairs led to a balconyfull of collectors’ booksand “association books,”those made valuablebecause their owners hadbeen famous or otherwisenoteworthy.Oneattraction

for book aficionados wasthestore’sOldBookRoom,in the basement, filledwith “great gems” that,according to a privatelypublished history of thestore, had come into themarketplace mainly“through the breaking upof old English countryhouse libraries.” Thedisplay windows onWashington Street drew

crowds of onlookers atlunch hour. Rare bookswere displayed in thewindows on one side ofthe front door, newbookson the other, includingthosewiththemostgarishcoversknowneventhenas“bestsellers.”(OnepopularAmerican author whoturned out a bestsellerevery year was named,oddly enough, Winston

Churchill.) The store wasone of the first to sell“Remainders,” stocks ofonce-popular books thatremained unsold after theinitial surge of sales andthat publishers werewillingtoselltoLauriatatadeepdiscount.Heinturnsoldthemtocustomersfora fractionof their originalprice, a side of thebusiness that grew so

popular the store beganprinting a “RemainderCatalog,” released eachfall.But the thing that setLauriat apart from otherbooksellers, from thebeginning, was the elderLauriat’s decision tomakean annual trip to Londonto buy up old books andsell them in America forfar higher prices,

leveraging the differentialindemand that existedonopposite sides of theAtlantic,while also takingadvantage of the fallingpricesand fasterspeedsofshipping brought by theadvent of transatlanticsteamships. Lauriat madehis first trip in 1873 onone of Cunard’s earlieststeamers, the Atlas. Hispurchases routinely made

news.Oneacquisition,ofaBible dating to 1599, aGeneva, or “Breeches,”Bible—so named becauseit used the word breechesto describe what Adamand Eve wore—drewnearlyafullcolumnintheNew York Times. Bycentury’s end, the storehad become one of thecountry’s leading sellersand importers of rare

books, manuscripts, andillustrations,itsbookplatesdestinedtobetreasuredbyfuturebibliophiles.Charles Lauriat Jr.continued his father’stransatlantic harvest andin that last week of April1915waspreparing to setout on his next buyingtrip. As always, Lauriatplanned to stay inLondonfor several months while

he hunted for books andwriterly artifacts toacquire,thesetobecratedandshippedbackbyseatoBoston.Hetransportedhismost valuable finds in hispersonal baggage andnever thought to insurethemagainst loss,“for therisk,” as he put it, “ispractically nil.” Nor didthe war prompt him tochange his practice. “We

considered the passengersteamers immune fromsubmarine attack,” hewrote.Heboughthisticket,No.1297,fromaCunardagentinBoston,andwhiledoingsoaskedwhetherthelinerwould be “convoyedthrough the war zone.”Theclerkreplied,“Ohyes!every precaution will betaken.”

Lauriat chose theLusitania specificallybecause of its speed.Ordinarily he preferredsmall,slowboats,“butthisyear,”hewrote,“Iwantedto make my business tripas short as possible.” AttheLusitania’stopspeedof25 knots, he expected toarrive in Liverpool onFriday, May 7, and reachLondon in time to start

work on Saturdaymorning, May 8. Heplanned to travel with afriend, LothropWithington, an authorityon genealogy who had aparticular expertise in theold records of Salem,Massachusetts, andCanterbury, England. Bothmenweremarried,butforthistripwereleavingtheirwives behind. Lauriat had

four children, one a baby,whose picture he plannedtobringalong.Hepackedfivepiecesofluggage: a leatherbriefcase, a small valise,an extension suitcase, alarge shoe case, and hissteamer trunk. Dinnerrequired formal wear andall that went with it. Hisvarious day suits requiredshoes of differing styles.

There were braces andsocks, ties and cufflinks.HealsopackedhisfavoriteKnickerbocker suit, withits characteristic knickers,whichheplanned towearwhilestrollingthedeck.HeandWithingtonwere

set to take the midnighttrain to New York, onThursday, April 29, butfirstLauriatstoppedathisbookstore. There a

colleague opened thestore’s safe and handedhim two volumes, eachwith a cover thatmeasured12by14inches.These were scrapbooks,but of a high order. Onecontained fifty-four linedrawings, the other sixty-fourdrawings,alldonebythe Victorian authorWilliam MakepeaceThackeray to illustrate his

own works. At one time,Thackeray, who died in1863 and whose best-known work was VanityFair, had been nearly aspopular as CharlesDickens, and his satiricalstories, essays, andserialized novels werewidely and avidly read insuchmagazines asFraser’sand Punch. His drawingsand books and just about

anyotherartifactfromhislife—all known as“Thackerayana”—werecoveted by collectors onboth sides of the Atlantic,butespeciallyinAmerica.Lauriat took the

scrapbooks back to hishomeinCambridge,wherehe inspected them in thecompany of his wife,Marian. He then packedthem, carefully, in his

extension suitcase, andlocked it. At the stationlater that night, hecheckedhistrunkandshoebox for transport direct totheLusitaniabutheldbackhis other three pieces. Hekeptthesewithhimintherailcar.He and Withingtonreached New York earlythe next morning, Friday,April 30, the day before

the Lusitania wasscheduledtosail,andherethey temporarily partedcompany. Lauriat took ataxi to the home of hissister, Blanche, and herhusband, George W.Chandler, at 235 WestSeventy-first Street inManhattan. Lauriat hadonemoretasktocompletebeforedeparture.

AT THE Waldorf Astoria, atFifth Avenue and Thirty-third Street, first-classpassenger MargaretMackworth, thirty-one,packedher things ina fogof gloom and depression.She dreaded her return toEngland. It meant goingbacktoadeadmarriageofseven years and a lifeoppressedbywar.She had arrived inNew

York the previous month,alone, after a tedious ten-day crossing, to join herfather, D. A. Thomas, aprominent businessman,who was already in thecity for discussions onventures ranging frommines to Mississippibarges. She was delightedand relieved to find himwaiting for her on thedock. “In 1915, to come

out into sunlit April NewYork,care-freeandhappy,after being under theheavy cloud of war athome,wasanunspeakablerelief,”sherecalled.The city charmed her.“In the evenings—almostevery evening—we wentout, either to the theatreor to dinner parties,” shewrote.Sheboughtdresses,paid for by her father,

including a long blackvelvet gown that sheloved. She saw hercustomary shyness—an“annihilating” shyness—begin to subside, and shebegan for the first time inherlifetofeellikeasocialasset to her father, ratherthan a liability. (Hershyness,however,hadnotkept her from fighting forwomen’s suffrage back in

England, in the course ofwhich she jumped on therunning board of a primeminister’scarandblewupa mailbox with a bomb.)“Those weeks ofopenhearted Americanhospitality and forth-comingness, of franklyexpressed pleasure inmeeting one, didsomething for me thatmade a difference to the

whole of the rest of mylife,”shewrote.Shedroppedhershyness

“overboard” on thatholiday. “I have alwaysbeengratefultoNewYorkforthat,”shewrote.“And,finally, it was one of thelast times when Iconsciously felt quiteyoung.”Although she and her

father would be traveling

in firstclassononeof themost luxurious vessels theworld had known, all shefelt now was sorrow andregret.

THAT FRIDAY morning,Captain Turner left theship and made his waysouthtoWallStreet,totheCity Investing Building at165 Broadway, an

immense, ungainlystructurethathappenedtostand beside one of thecity’s most belovedlandmarks, the SingerTower,builtby theSingerSewingMachineCompany.HereTurnermadehiswayup to the law offices ofHunt,Hill&Betts,where,at11:00A.M.,hesatbeforeeight lawyers for adeposition in one of the

most compelling cases ofthe day, the attempt inU.S. Federal Court by theWhiteStarLine,ownersofthe Titanic, to limit theirfinancial liability in theface of claims by familiesof dead Americanpassengers, who chargedthat the disaster hadresulted from thecompany’s “fault andnegligence.”

Turner, testifying onbehalfof the families,hadbeen summoned as anexpert witness, anacknowledgment of hismany years as captain oflarge passenger ships andoftherespectaffordedhimby other mariners, but itbecame quickly evident tothose present that beingquestionedbylawyerswasnot somethingheenjoyed.

He offered only abrupt,clipped answers—seldommore than a singlesentence or phrase—butnonethelessprovedtobeadamningwitness.Thelawyersmanagedtopry from him his accountof being at sea when hefirst learned of theTitanicdisaster.He’dbeencaptainof the Mauretania at thetime. The Titanic had

departed on April 11,1912, and theMauretaniaonApril 13, a factTurnerremembered because thedate posed a problem forsuperstitious passengers,even though in seafaringlore the number 13presents no particularhazard. It is sailing on aFriday that causes sailorsdread. Upon receivingreports by wireless of ice

along his course, Turnerdecidedtoveerwellsouth.His wireless man broughthim first word of theTitanic’s collision with aniceberg.Asked now whether he

thought it had beenprudent for the Titanic totravelat20knotsormorewithicelikelytobeinthevicinity, Turner offeredone of his most energetic

replies: “Certainly not; 20knots through ice! Myconscience!”The best way toproceed,Turnerexplained,wasveryslowly,orsimplyto stop. He allowed thatwireless had become aneffective tool for alertingcaptainstothepresenceofice but dismissed seastudiesthatsuggestedthatcaptains might derive

warning by carefullymonitoring thetemperature of air andwater as they sailed. Thiswas useless, Turnerexplained:“Nomoreeffectthanablisteronawoodenleg.”Turner also expressedambivalence about thevalue of lookouts. TheCunard manual requiredtwo in the crow’s nest at

all times. “I call themBoard of Tradeornaments,” Turner said;“all they think about ishome and counting theirmoney.”Asked whether he gave

lookouts binoculars,Turner replied: “Certainlynot; might as well givethemsodawaterbottles.”Still, he said, when

traveling through waters

where ice might appear,he always doubled thelookout, adding two menatthebow.Turner warned that no

matter what precautionswere taken, what studieswere made, ice wouldalways be a hazard.Startledbythis,oneoftheattorneys asked Turner,“Haveyoulearnednothingbythataccident?”

“Not the slightest,”Turner said. “It willhappenagain.”Atvariouspointsduring

thedeposition,thelawyersfocused on Turner’s ownship,withemphasisontheLusitania’swatertightdecksand doors, and inparticular its longitudinalbunkers.“Which is very unusual

withmerchantvessels,but

common enough withnavalvessels,isn’tit?”“Yes,” Turner said, “aprotection.”Further questioningtaughtthelawyersthatthecaptain had little interestin the structural design ofships,includinghisown.“You are not amechanical man,” oneasked,but“anavigator.”“Yes.”

“You don’t pay muchattention to theconstructionofships?”“No, as long as theyfloat; if they sink, I getout.”Asked if there wasanything “peculiarlyextraordinary” about thewatertight doors on theLusitania and her sistership, the Mauretania,Turner answered: “Don’t

know.”A few moments later,

the lawyer asked, “Beforethe ‘Titanic,’ it wassupposed thesegreat shipswerenon-sinkable?”“Who told you that?”

Turnersnapped.“NobodyIever went to sea withprovedit.”The deposition

concludedwithaquestionas towhether a shipwith

five flooded compartmentscouldcontinuetofloat.Turnerreplied,“Mydear

sir, I don’t know anythingat all about it; it alldependsonthesizeof thecompartments,theamountof buoyancy; if she hasbuoyancy,shewillfloat;ifshe has not, she will godown.”Turner returned to his

ship.

U-20

THEHAPPIESTU-BOAT

THAT SAME DAY, FRIDAY, APRIL30,AVESSELOFADIFFERENTsortbegan making its waytoward the British Isles,

the German submarineUnterseeboot-20, travelingunder orders that gave itsnew patrol a heightenedurgency. The boat slippedfrom its harbor at Emden,on the northwest coast ofGermany, at 6:00 A.M.,withnofanfare.Thecrewsof U-boats nicknamed theNorth Sea “Bright Hans,”but today the sea and sky

were gray, aswas the flatterrainthatsurroundedtheharbor. Submarines stoodside by side at theirmoorage, roped to oneanother, their conningtowers like distant castles.Thewindcameonshoreat4knots.U-20 moved seaward

along the Ems River, insilence,and leftalmostnowake. Atop its conning

towerstoodKptlt.WaltherSchwieger, the boat’scaptain, inhis peaked capand waterproof leathers.The tower was a squatchamber jutting up fromthe boat’s midsection thathoused an array ofcontrols and twoperiscopes, one hisprimary battle periscope,the other an auxiliary.Duringunderwaterattacks,

Schwieger would stationhimself here within thetower’s thick carbon-steelwalls and use the mainperiscope to direct hiscrew in launchingtorpedoes.When surfaced,the small deck on top ofthe tower gave him apromontoryfromwhichtoscan the seascape aroundhim but provided littleshelter from the weather.

Themorningwascold;thescent of coffee rosethroughthehatchbelow.Schwieger guided the

submarine along the riverand on into the shallowsoutside the harbor. Theboatmoved duewest andby about 9:30 A.M. passedthelighthouseandwirelessstationonBorkum,asmallbarrier island that servedas an important landmark

for departing andreturningsubmarines.Schwieger had justturnedthirty-twoyearsoldbutalreadywasconsideredone of the German navy’smost knowledgeablecommanders, so much sothat he was consulted onsubmarine matters by hissuperiors,andhisboatwasused to try out newsubmarine tactics. He was

one of the few captainswho had been in thesubmarine service beforethewarbegan.Hewastalland slender, with broadshoulders. “A particularlyfine-looking fellow,” oneofhis crewmembers said.His eyes were pale blueandconveyedcoolnessandgoodhumor.Around noon,

Schwieger’s boat entered

the deep waters beyondBorkum, in a portion ofthe North Sea knownvariously as the GermanBight orHeligolandBight.Here the sea bottom fellaway and on bright daysthe water turned a deepcobalt. In his War Log,kept for every patrol,Schwieger noted that thesea was running a three-foot swell from the west

and that visibility wasgood.Althoughhewas free to

submerge the vessel if hewished, he kept it on thesurface, where he couldtravel farther and faster.His twin diesel enginescould generate up to 15knots, enough to overtakemost conventionalmerchantships.Atroutinecruising speeds, say 8

knots, he could travel upto 5,200 nautical miles.Oncesubmerged,however,Schwiegerhadtoswitchtotwo battery-poweredengines, lest the dieselsconsumeall theoxygen inthe boat. These enginescould deliver 9 knots atbest, and only for a briefperiod. Even at half thatpace, a submerged U-boatcouldtravelonlyabout80

nautical miles. Thesespeeds were so slow thatsometimes U-boats tryingtomake theirwayagainstthe fast currents of theStrait of Dover, betweenEngland and France, wereunabletoadvance.U-boatsinfacttraveledunderwateras little as possible,typically only in extremeweatherorwhenattackingships or dodging

destroyers.Formuchofhisfirstdayatsea,Schwiegerwasableto maintain wirelesscontactwiththestationonBorkum Island andwith anaval vessel in EmdenHarbor,theAncona,whichwas equipped withwireless apparatus thatcould communicate overlong distances. Schwiegernoted in his log that his

ability to trade messageswith the Borkumtransmitter ceased whenhis U-boat was 45 seamiles out but that hemaintained a goodconnection with theAncona.Alongthewayhiswireless operatorrepeatedly sent testsignals, something U-boatwireless operators oftendid, as if to postpone the

inevitable moment whenthe boat would be out ofrange of all friendlysources and utterly on itsown.This isolation made the

U-boat distinct amongGermany’s naval forces.Surface ships usuallytraveled in groups and,given the height of theirmasts, could stay incontact with their bases;

U-boats traveled solo andlost contact sooner,typically after sailing onlyacoupleofhundredmiles.Once at sea, a U-boatcaptain was free toconduct his patrol inwhatever manner suitedhim, without supervisionfrom above. He alonedetermined when andwhethertoattack,whentoascend or dive, and when

to return to base. He hadabsolute control over theboat’s periscope. “I wantto stress that thesubmarine is only a one-eyedvessel,”saidaU-boatcommander, Baron Edgarvon Spiegel von und zuPeckelsheim, who knewSchwieger well. “Thatmeans,onlytheonewhoisat the periscope with oneeye has the whole

responsibilityforattackingor the safety of his shipandcrew.”The view it provided

wasacrabbedoneatbest.Acaptaingotonlyabrief,platelike glimpse at theworld around him, duringwhich he had to makedecisions about a ship’snature, its nationality,whether it was armed ornot, and whether the

markings it bore werelegitimate or fake. And ifhe decided to attack, itwashealonewhoboretheresponsibility, like pullingthe trigger on a gun, butwithout having to see orlisten to the result. All heheardwasthesoundoftheexploding torpedo astransmitted through thesea. If he chose to watchthetragedyunfold,hesaw

only a silentworld of fireand terror. Once, Spiegelattacked a transportcarrying horses andwatched one of theanimals—“a splendid,dapple-gray horse with along tail”—leap from theship into an overloadedlifeboat. After that, hewrote,“Icouldnotendurethe spectacle any longer.”He pulled down his

periscope and ordered hisboatintoadeepdive.“Itwasaveryhardtaskandentirelydifferentfromthe fighting in the army,”said Spiegel. “If you werebombarded by artilleryand you had orders toleave your trenches andattack you were in fullexcitement personally. Inthesubmarineperhapsyouwere sitting in your small

cabin drinking yourmorning coffee and[eating] ham and eggswhen the whistle or thephone rang and told you,‘ship in sight.’ ” Thecaptain gave the order tofire. “And the results ofthese damn torpedoeswere certainly very oftenheartbreaking.” One ship,struck in the bow, sank“likeanairplane,”hesaid.

“In two minutes the10,000 ton shipdisappeared from thesurface.”Such authority could be

thrillingbutcarriedwithita certain loneliness,amplified by the fact thatGermany had very fewsubmarines at sea at anyonetime.AsofMay1915,Schwieger’s U-boat wasone of only twenty-five in

Germany’s fleet that werecapable of traveling longdistances.Onlysevenwereinserviceatatime,owingto the fact that after eachcruise the boats oftenneeded several weeks forrepairandoverhaul.Whenon patrol, Schwieger’s U-boat occupied a pinpointinavastsea.On this cruise,Schwieger carried with

him a set of orders thathadbeendelivered tohimby hand. These were theresultofanewlyrisenfearthat Britain was about tolaunch an invasion ofGermany itself, from theNorth Sea at Schleswig-Holstein, and that theshipscarryingtheinvadingtroops would depart fromports different from thosecustomarily used to

resupply British forces inFrance.Intelligencereportshad long suggested suchan invasion might be inthe works, but Germannavalofficialswereatfirstskeptical. Now, however,they had come to believethe reportsmight be true.Schwieger’s ordersdirected him to hunt andattackthesetransportsinadesignated square of sea

off Liverpool, betweenEngland and Ireland, andtosailthere“onthefastestpossible route aroundScotland.”Once there, theorderssaid,hewastoholdthat position “as long assuppliespermit.”The mission must havebeen urgent indeed tocausethenavytooverridethe maritime superstitionaboutFridaydepartures.

THE SUBMARINE as a weaponhad come a long way bythis time, certainly to thepoint where it killed itsowncrewsonlyrarely.Thefirst submarine evercredited with sinking anenemy ship was theConfederate navy’s H. L.Hunley, which, during theAmerican Civil War, sankthe Union navy’s frigate,the Housatonic. The

Hunley, propelled by acrew of eight using handcranks to turn itspropeller, approached theHousatonic after dark,carrying a large cache ofexplosives at the end of athirty-foot spar juttingfrom its bow. Theexplosion destroyed thefrigate; it also sank theHunley,whichdisappearedwith all hands. This fate

wasmore or less foretold,however. During trialsbefore its launch, theHunley had founderedthree times, killing threecrews, twenty-three menin all. Although inventorsinmanydifferentcountriescontributed to thedevelopment of thesubmarine, the man mostoften lauded for turning itinto something other than

a suicidal novelty—an“iron coffin,” as membersof the German navy werefond of saying—was anIrishman named JohnPhilip Holland, whoemigrated to America andbegan designing underseavessels with the goal ofhelping Ireland defeat theBritish navy. A famous1898 cartoon, based on aphotograph taken inPerth

Amboy,NewJersey,showsHolland emerging in tophat from the hatch of oneofhissubmarines,withthecaption, “What? Meworry?” Holland was firstto incorporate electricengines for underseacruising and gasoline forsurface running, thoughgasoline, with its fumesand volatility andpropensity for suffocating

crews, was eventuallyreplaced by diesel fuel. ASpaniardnamedRaimondoLorenzo D’Equevilley-Montjustin, employed bythe German arms makerKrupp,wasresponsiblefordesigning Germany’s firstsubmarines,thoughhedidso by incorporating theideas of Holland andothers.Hisboatspromptedthe German navy to

establish, in 1904, adivision devoted to theirconstruction, theUnterseebootkonstruktionsbüro,though thenavyremainedskepticalabouttheirvalue.By the start of the war,submarine disasters stilloccurred, but not at sohigh a frequency as todeter young men likeSchwieger from joiningGermany’sU-boatservice.

Schwieger’s boat was210 feet long, 20 feetwide, and 27 feet tall.Viewed head-on, it mighthave seemed to offer itscrew a comfortableamount of living space,but in fact the portionoccupied by the men wasonly a cylinder down thecenter.Muchof theboat’sapparentbulk consistedofgiant tanks on both sides

of the hull, to be filledwithseawaterwhendivingand to be emptied whensurfacing. The space inbetween was crammedwithberthsforthreedozenmen, a kitchen, a messroom, a cubicle for thewirelessoperator,acentralcontrol room, two 850-horsepowerdieselengines,tanks for76 tonsofdieselfuel, two 600-horsepower

electric engines and themassive array of batteriesthat powered them, plusstorage for 250 shells fortheU-boat’s soledeckgunand space for storing andhandling seven torpedoes,known formally as“automobile torpedoes.”Theboathad two torpedotubes in the bow, two inthe stern. Linking all thisapparatuswas an array of

pipesandcablesasdenselypackedasthetendonsinahuman leg. “More dialsandgaugesthanonemightordinarily see in alifetime,” one crewmember said. Schwiegerhad his own tiny cabin,with an electric light overhisbed.Unlike large surfacecraft, a U-boat came toreflect the character and

personality of itscommander,asthoughtheboat were a suit of steeltailored just for him. Thisarose from the fact thatwhileondistantpatrolthecaptainreceivednoordersfrom superiors and hadmore direct control overhis own men than would,say, an admiral aboard aflagship, with a fleet ofships and thousands of

men under his command.Therewerecruelboatsandchivalrous boats, lazyboats and energetic boats.Some captains made noattempttosavethelivesofmerchant seamen; otherswent so far as to towlifeboatstowardland.OneU-boat commander sentthecaptainofatorpedoedship three bottles of wineto ease the long row

ashore.Under U-20’s previouscommander, OttoDroescher, the boatattained a reputation fordaring. On one cruise, inSeptember 1914,Droescher and anothercommander took theirsubmarines into the Firthof Forth, the estuary offEdinburgh, Scotland, andsailed as far inland as the

Forth Bridge, hoping toattack British warshipsanchoredat thenavybaseatRosyth, justbeyond thebridge. The boats werespotted,however,andfledbacktotheNorthSea.On another patrol, thenext month, Droescherbecame the first U-boatcaptain to circle all ofBritain.Hehadsailedfirstinto the English Channel,

via the Strait of Dover,wherehehadencounteredvigorous antisubmarinepatrols. Gauging the straitas too dangerous for hisreturnvoyage,he travelednorth instead, along thewestcoastsofEnglandandIreland and around thenorthern tip of Scotland,thusfurtherdemonstratingthe range and enduranceof U-boats. Germany kept

thefeatasecret.Schwieger becamecaptain of U-20 inDecember 1914, andwithin a short time theboat gained furthernotoriety, now forruthlessness. On January30, 1915,while patrollingoff the coast of France,Schwieger sank threemerchantsteamerswithoutwarning.Duringthatsame

cruise, he took his boatinto the estuary of theSeine itself, though badweather and fog forcedhim to remain submergedfor 111 of 137 hours. OnFebruary 1, he fired atorpedo at a large shippaintedwhite andmarkedwith large redcrosses, thehospital ship Asturias. Hemissed. But the attemptwasconsideredanewlow

in German callousness.Even his superiors seemedsurprised.Yetamonghispeersand

crew Schwieger wasknown for his kindnessand good humor and formaintaining a cheerfulatmosphere aboard hissubmarine. “She was ajollyboat,theU-20,andakindlyboat,”saidRudolphZentner, one of U-20’s

junior officers, in aninterview with LowellThomas, for his 1928book, Raiders of the Deep.Zentner attributed thiswholly to Schwieger. “Ifyou want a good andpleasant boat, you musthave a good and pleasantskipper.” Schwieger wasthe son of a long-established Berlin family,well educated, poised,

urbane. “He was the soulof kindness toward theofficers and men underhim,” Zentner said. “Histemperament was joyousand his talk full of gaietyandpointedwit.”Baron von Spiegel,Schwieger’s friend, said ofhim,“Hewasawonderfulman. He couldn’t kill afly.”Schwieger set the tone

for life aboard U-20 earlyinhistenure.Theboatwasordered to leaveonpatrolonChristmasEve,1914,adepressing time to begoingtoseaandtowar.Itwas Zentner’s first cruise.The boat was assigned topatrol the HeligolandBight. The next day,Christmas—the firstChristmas of thewar—thecrew awoke to a brilliant

December morning, withbright sun, “frosty air,”and a calm sea in itswinter hue of blue-black.U-20 remained on thesurface throughout theday, the better to watchfor targets. In clearweather like this, thesmoke from a steamer’sfunnels could be spottedtwenty miles off. Thelookouts saw nothing all

day. “Apparently theenemy was at homespending Christmas as aChristian should,” saidZentner.That night, Schwieger

ordered a dive to the seabottom, 60 feet below thesurface. He chose a spotwherehis charts indicatedsand,not rock.Fora timeeveryone was silent,listening as always for

sounds of dripping orflowing water. The crewmonitored gauges thatmeasured interiorpressure, keeping watchfor the kind of suddenincrease that mightindicate a high volume ofwaterpenetratingthecrewcompartment. The refrain“All is tight” was relayedfrombowtostern.Spending the night on

the ocean floor wascommon practice for U-boats in the North Sea,where depths rarelyexceeded the maximumallowable for submarines.On the bottom, Schwiegerand his crew could sleepwithout fear of being runover in the dark by asteamer or stumblingacross a British destroyer.It was the one time a U-

boatcaptaindaredundressfor bed. But on thisparticularnight,Schwiegerhad something in mindother than sleep. “Andnow,”Schwiegersaid,“wecancelebrateChristmas.”A wreath was hung at

oneendofthemessroom.Themenpiledfoodonthetable. “It all came out ofcans, but we didn’t mindthat,” Zentner said.

Schwieger and U-20’sthreeotherofficersusuallydined by themselves in asmallofficer’sdiningarea,but now they joined thecrew,thirty-sixmeninall.Theyspiked their teawithrum. “I lost count of thenumberoftoaststhatweredrunk,”Zentnersaid.Schwieger stood andgavealittlespeech,“andajolly ovation it was,” said

Zentner.Thencamemusic.“Yes,” Zentner said, “wehad an orchestra.” Oneman played a violin,another a mandolin. Athird—a squat fishermanwith a giant flaring redbeard—brought out hisaccordion. He looked likeagnomeandcouldneitherread nor write butapparently had a certainappealtotheoppositesex,

for twice Schwiegerreceived letters fromwomendemandingthatheallow the sailor to go onleave to marry them. Noeffectivemeansyetexistedthat allowed surface shipsto track a submarineunderwater, so no oneaboard took much careabout noise. The trio“played with soul,”Zentnersaid,especiallythe

accordionist. “His littleeyeswerehalfclosedwithecstasy, and his beardedmouth was curved with agrin that was like thecrescentofthemoon.”Themusic and drinkingwentonintothenight;thesea outside was cold,black,andimpenetrable.

UNDER SCHWIEGER, U-20 had

atleastonedogaboard.Atonetime,ithadsix,fourofthem puppies, alldachshunds, theunexpected product of anattack off the coast ofIreland.On that occasion,following cruiser rules,Schwieger chased andstoppedaPortugueseship,theMariadeMolenos.Afterwaiting until its crew got

away, he ordered his guncrew to sink the vessel.Thiswashisfavoredmodeofattack.Hesavedhisfewtorpedoes for thebestandbiggesttargets.His gun crew was fastand accurate, and fired aseries of shells into thefreighter’s waterline. Soonthe ship disappeared fromview,or,asZentnerputit,“settleddownforherbitof

verticalnavigation.”Amid the usual debrisleft adrift on the surface,the men spotted a cow,swimming, and somethingelse. The beardedaccordion player saw itfirst and shouted, “AchHimmel,derkleineHund!”He pointed to a box. Atiny head and two pawsprotrudedover its edge.Ablackdachshund.

U-20 approached; thecrewliftedthedogaboard.TheynameditMaria,afterthesunken freighter.Theycould do nothing for thecow,however.U-20 already had a dog

aboard, a male, and inshort order Maria becamepregnant. She bore fourpuppies. The accordionplayer became the dogs’caretaker. Deeming six

dogs too many for a U-boat, the crew gave threepuppies away to otherboats but kept one.Zentner slept with one inhis bunk, next to atorpedo. “So every night,”he said, “I slept with atorpedoandapuppy.”ThatSchwiegerwasableto conjure so humane anenvironment was atestament to his skill at

managing men, becauseconditions in a U-boatwere harsh. The boatswere cramped, especiallywhen first setting out onpatrol,withfoodstoredinevery possible location,including the latrine.Vegetablesandmeatswerekept in the coolest places,among the boat’smunitions. Water wasrationed. Ifyouwanted to

shave,youdidsousingtheremains of the morning’stea. No one bathed. Freshfood quickly spoiled.Whenever possible crewsscavenged. One U-boatdispatchedahuntingpartyto a Scottish island andkilled a goat. Crewsroutinelypillagedshipsforjam,eggs,bacon,andfruit.An attack by a Britishaircraft gave one U-boat’s

crew an unexpected treatwhenthebombitdroppedmissedandexplodedinthesea. The concussionbrought to the surface aschoolofstunnedfish.The crew of U-20 oncescavengedanentirebarrelofbutter,butbythatpointin the patrol the boat’scook had nothing suitableon hand to fry. Schwiegerwent shopping. Through

his periscope he spotted afleet of fishing boats andsurfaced U-20 right intheirmidst.Thefishermen,surprised and terrified,were certain their boatswould now be sunk. Butall Schwieger wanted wasfish. The fishermen,relieved,gavehis crewallthefishtheycouldcarry.Schwieger ordered thesubmarine to the bottom

so his crew could dine inpeace. “And now,” saidZentner, “there was freshfish,friedinbutter,grilledin butter, sautéed inbutter, all that we couldeat.”These fish and their

residual odors, however,could only haveworsenedthesinglemostunpleasantaspect of U-boat life: theair within the boat. First

therewasthebasalreekofthree dozen men whoneverbathed,woreleatherclothes that did notbreathe, and shared onesmall lavatory. The toiletfrom time to timeimparted to the boat thescentofacholerahospitaland could be flushed onlywhen the U-boat was onthe surface or at shallowdepths, lest the undersea

pressure blow materialback into the vessel. Thistended to happen tonovice officers and crew,and was called a “U-boatbaptism.” The odor ofdiesel fuel infiltrated allcorners of the boat,ensuring thateverycupofcocoa and piece of breadtasted of oil. Then camethe fragrances thatemanatedfromthekitchen

long after meals werecooked, most notably thatclose cousin tomale bodyodor,day-oldfriedonions.Allthiswasmadeworseby a phenomenon uniqueto submarines thatoccurred while they weresubmerged. U-boatscarried only limitedamounts of oxygen, incylinders, which injectedairintotheboatinaratio

that varied depending onthe number of menaboard. Expended air wascirculated over apotassium compound tocleanseitofcarbonicacid,then reinjected into theboat’s atmosphere. Off-duty crew wereencouraged to sleepbecause sleeping menconsumed less oxygen.When deep underwater,

the boat developed aninterior atmosphere akinto that of a tropicalswamp. The air becamehumid and dense to anunpleasant degree, thiscaused by the fact thatheatgeneratedbythemenand by the still-hot dieselengines and the boat’selectrical apparatuswarmed the hull. As theboat descended through

ever colder waters, thecontrastbetweenthewarminterior and cold exteriorcaused condensation,whichsoakedclothingandbred colonies of mold.Submarine crews called it“U-boatsweat.”Itdrewoilfrom the atmosphere anddeposited it in coffee andsoup, leaving a miniatureoil slick. The longer theboat stayed submerged,

the worse conditionsbecame. Temperatureswithin could rise to over100 degrees Fahrenheit.“You can have noconception of theatmospherethatisevolvedby degrees under thesecircumstances,” wrote onecommander, Paul Koenig,“nor of the hellishtemperature which brewswithintheshellofsteel.”

The men lived for themomenttheboatascendedto the surface and thehatchintheconningtowerwas opened. “The firstbreath of fresh air, theopen conning-tower hatchand the springing into lifeoftheDiesels,afterfifteenhoursonthebottom,isanexperience to be livedthrough,” said anothercommander, Martin

Niemöller. “Everythingcomes to life and not asoul thinks of sleep. Allhands seekabreathof airand a cigarette undershelter of the bridgescreen.”All these discomforts

were borne, moreover,against a backdrop ofalways present danger,with everyone aware theyfaced the worst kind of

death imaginable: slowsuffocation in a darkenedsteeltubeatthebottomofthesea.OnoneofU-20’spatrols,

thisprospectcametoseemalltooreal.

IT WAS EARLY in the war,when U-boat commandersandBritishdefendersalikewere developing new

tactics to deploy againsteachother.Schwiegerwasscanning the sea throughhis periscope when hespotted two buoys ahead,spacedfarapart.Theyhadno obvious purpose, andtheirpresence in thatareaofseawasunexpected.Schwieger saw no

danger. He called out,“Two buoys sighted. Keepexact depth.” The boat

continued forward at“periscope depth,” 11meters below the surface,about 36 feet, deepenough that only the topof the periscope showedabovethewater.Something banged

against the exterior, andthencameagratingsound,likesteelmovingalongthehull.“Itsoundedasifhugechains were banging

against the boat andwerebeing dragged over it,”saidRudolphZentner,thenon duty in the boat’scontrolroom.The men operating theship’s horizontal rudders,thediveplanes,calledoutin alarm. The ruddersweren’t responding.Zentner checked thegauges that monitoreddepthandspeed.Theboat

wasslowingandsinking.Itheaved and lurched fromsidetoside.Zentner watched thedepth gauge and calledeachchange toSchwieger.The boat sank deeper anddeeper.At a depth of 100feet, U-20 struck bottom.At this depth the pressureposed no threat, but theboatnow seemed fused totheoceanfloor.

Zentner climbed theladder into the conningtower, and there lookedout through one of thesmall windows of thickglass, the only means ofobserving the surroundingocean while submerged.Whathesawstunnedhim:a crosshatch of chain andcable. “Nowwe knew themeaning of those buoys,”he said. A giant steel net

had been suspendedbetween them, asubmarine trap, and U-20had run right into it. Theboat lay on the bottom,not just ensnared butpinned down by theweightofthenet.And now, something

else: through the walls ofthehullthecrewheardthethrum of propellersoverhead.Theyknewfrom

experience that thisparticularpatternofsoundwas generated bydestroyers—“a shrill,angry buzz.” Depthcharges did not yet exist,but the presence ofdestroyers waiting abovewas anything butreassuring.Theseweretheships that U-boatcommanders most feared.A destroyer—a

Donnerwetter—could moveat35knots,or40milesanhour,andfirealethalshotfromamileaway.Itcouldalso kill a submarine byramming. With a bowedgedlikeacarvingknife,a fast-moving destroyercould slice a U-boat inhalf.The interior grewwarmandclose.Fearsettledoverthemen like silt ina tide.

“Youcanbettherewasnolaughing and singing onboard now,” Zentner said.“Each man thought of hishomeinGermanyandhowhe would never see itagain.”These were the hardmoments of command.Schwieger was notpermitted to show fear,though he undoubtedlyfelt it. In such close

quarters, to act withanything other thanconfidence andreassurance would haveamplified the fear alreadyatplay.Schwieger ordered,

“Reverseengines.”The engines responded.

The boat strained. Steelrasped against the hull.Meanwhile, the propellersounds above grew more

distinct.Zentner watched the

dials and indicators in thecontrolroom.“Thegaugeswere the whole world tous now,” he said. “I hadnevergazedatanythingsoeagerlybefore.”The boat began slowly

backing,amidtheshriekofsteel outside. And then, itwasfree.Schwieger ordered

ascent to cruising depth,22meters, or72 feet, andfull speed ahead. Therewas relief, until the menrealized the propellersounds above were notfading. The destroyersseemedtoknowtheboat’sexact location. Schwiegerordered a zigzag course,wide to rightand left,butthe destroyers alwaysfollowed.

Schwieger traveledblind. He could notattempt to use hisperiscope because thedestroyers would spot itimmediately and beginshootingorattempttoramthe boat, or both.Schwieger ordered thehelmsmen at the diveplanestomaintainasdeepa depth as the charts forthese seas allowed. The

pursuit continued “hourafter hour,” Zentner said,with U-20 following “awild, weird course, goingasfastaswecould.”The best hope nowwasnight. As darkness fell onthe seas above, thepropeller sounds began tofall away until they fadedto nothing. Schwiegerbrought the boat back toperiscopedepthandtooka

fast look around, 360degrees, to make sure nothreat was near. This wasastrenuousmaneuver.Thefittings on the periscope,whereitjuttedthroughtheexterior of the conningtower above, had to betight to keep water outand to withstand thepressures of a deep dive.Turning the apparatusrequired strength. The

snugness of the fit wasnever perfect, however: acertainamountofoil-lacedwater inevitably drippedonto Schwieger’s cap andface.Once confident that the

destroyers were gone,SchwiegerorderedU-20tothesurface.And there the final

mystery was solved. Inbacking from the net, the

boat had snagged a cableattached to one of thebuoys. The buoy hadfollowedon the sea abovelike a fisherman’s bobber,revealingtothedestroyers’lookouts every change ofcourse, until darkness atlast made the buoyinvisible.Schwiegerwas lucky. In

comingmonths,theBritishwouldbeginhangingpods

of explosives off theirsubmarinenets.

THROUGHOUTFRIDAY,April30,as U-20 passed from theHeligoland Bight,Schwieger’s wireless mancontinued to sendmessages reporting thesubmarine’s position,apparently in an effort todetermine the maximum

range for sending andreceiving signals. The lastsuccessful exchange waswith the Ancona at adistanceof235seamiles.By seven that eveningthe U-boat was well intothe North Sea, traversingtheDoggerBank, a seven-thousand-square-milefishing ground offEngland.Thewindspickedup, as did the seas.

Visibilitydiminished.The submarine passedseveral fishing boats thatflew Dutch flags.Schwiegerleftthemalone.He signedhis log, therebymarkingtheofficialendofthefirstdayofthecruise.

LUSITANIA

MENAGERIE

THAT FRIDAY, CHARLES LAURIATLEFT HIS SISTER’S apartmentand traveled crosstown to645 Fifth Avenue to pickup the final component of

the collection of items hewas bringing to London.Hewent to thehomeof aclient named WilliamField, who, despite hisaddress, described himselfasa“gentlemanfarmer.”A few months earlier,Lauriat had sold Field arare volume of CharlesDickens’s A ChristmasCarol, first published inDecember1843.Thiscopy

had belonged to Dickenshimselfandwastheoneheentered into evidence in aseries of legal actions hebrought in early 1844against “literary pirates”who had republished thestory without hispermission. On the insideof the book’s front andbackcovers,andelsewherewithin, were notes aboutthelawsuitsthathadbeen

jotted by Dickens himself.It was an irreplaceablework.Lauriat wanted toborrow it. Earlier in theyear he had correspondedwith a London solicitorwho had written anaccountofDickens’spiracylitigation.Thesolicitorhadasked Lauriat to bring thebookwithhimonhisnextvisit to London so that he

could copy the variousnotations within. Its newowner, Field, “agreedrather unwillingly to dothis,” Lauriat wrote, andonly after Lauriatpromised to guarantee itssafety.Lauriat met Field at his

apartment,andthereFieldhanded over the book, ahandsome volume boundinclothandpackagedina

“fullLevantbox,”meaningacontainer covered in thetextured goatskin used inmorocco bindings. Lauriatplacedthisinhisbriefcaseandreturnedtohissister’sapartment.

AT PIER 54, on Fridaymorning,Turnerorderedalifeboat drill. The shipcarriedforty-eightboatsin

all, of two varieties.Twenty-two were Class Aboats of conventionaldesign—open boats hungover the deck fromcranelike arms, or davits,strung with block andtackle. The smallest ofthese boats could seatfifty-one people; thelargest, sixty-nine. In anemergency,theboatswereto be swung out over the

sea and lowered to thedeck rails so thatpassengers could climb in.Oncetheboatswerefilled,two crewmen wouldmanage the ropes—the“falls”—at the bow andstern of each boat andthrough carefulcoordination lower theboat in suchaway that itwouldenterthewateronalevel keel. This was like

being lowered down thefaceofasix-storybuilding.Given that a fully loadedlifeboat weighed close toten tons, the process tookskill and coordination,especially in roughweather. But even in thebest conditions it was ahair-raisingoperation.The other twenty-six

boats were “collapsibles,”whichlookedlikeflattened

versions of the regularboats. Capable of holdingforty-three to fifty-fourpeople each, these hadcanvassidesthathadtoberaised and snapped intoplace to make the boatsseaworthy.Thedesignwasthe product of acompromise. After theTitanic disaster, oceanliners were required tohave enough lifeboats for

everyone aboard. But inthecaseofa shipas largeas the Lusitania, theresimply was not enoughroom for all the Class Aboats that would benecessary. Thecollapsibles, however,could be tuckedunderneath and loweredfromthesamedavitsafterthe regular boats werelaunched; in theory, they

could also float freewhenashipsank.Thedesigners,however, seemed not tohave taken intoconsideration thepossibility that the boatsmightendupinthewaterbefore being properlyrigged, with scores ofpanicked passengershanging on and blockingall efforts to raise thesides. Taken together, the

Lusitania’s lifeboats couldseat as many as 2,605people,more than enoughcapacity for all the ship’spassengersandcrew.For the Friday drill, theship’s men weremusteredon the boat deck, and theconventional boats wereswung out from the hull.Theboatsonthestarboardside were swung out overthe wharf, but ten on the

port side were lowered tothe water, and severalwere rowed a distancefrom the ship. All werethen raised back to thedeckandreturnedto theirpositions.ItwasTurner’sbelief,as

he told his questionersduring that morning’sTitanic deposition, that anexperienced andcompetentcrew,operating

in calm weather, couldlaunch a boat in threeminutes. But as he wellknew, mustering such acrew was by now a nearimpossibility.Thewarhadcreated shortages of laborin every industry, butespecially shipping, withthe Royal Navy drawingoff thousands of able-bodied seamen. Whatmade raising a crew even

harder for Turnerwas thefact that Cunard’s originaldeal with the Admiraltyrequiredthatall theship’sofficers andat least three-quartersofitscrewhadtobeBritishsubjects.The unskilled character

of Britain’s wartimemerchant crews wassufficiently pronouncedthat it drew the attentionof U-boat commander

Forstner,themanwhohadsunk theFalaba.He noted“the awkward way themen usually handled thelifeboats.” Passengers alsotook notice. James Baker,a trader of orientalcarpets,cametoNewYorkaboardtheLusitaniaearlierin the year, the firstcrossing with CaptainTurner back in command.Bakeridledawayaportion

of the first day of thevoyage just watching thecrew at work. Hisconclusion: “Some ofthem,Idonotthinkcouldhave been to sea before.”He was struck by thehaphazardwaymostofthemen dressed. “The crew,withtheexceptionof4or5 … were in all sorts ofcostumes, confirming myfirst impression that

outside of a fewpermanent men thebalance of the crew werethe type one sees on atramp,adisgracetosuchaship.”Turner acknowledged

the problem. His wartimecrews bore no semblanceto the sturdy and capable“sailormen” he hadencountered earlier in hiscareer. “The old-fashioned

able seaman who couldknot, reef, splice or steerdisappeared with thesailingships,”Turnersaid.As to the crew’s ability tohandlelifeboats:“Theyarecompetent enough—theywantpractice.Theydonotget practice enough, andthey do not get theexperience.”For this upcomingvoyage, however, Turner

did manage to hire anumber of handswho notonly were experiencedmariners but had gone toseaashehaddone,aboardlarge square-rigged sailingvessels. One such wasLeslie “Gertie” Morton,eighteenyearsold,closetoachieving his second-mate’s certificate, or“ticket.” According to hisofficial seaman’s record,

hewasfivefeet,tenandahalf inches tall, with fairhairandblueeyes.Healsohad two tattoos: crossedflagsandafaceonhisleftarm, a butterfly on hisright. These wereimportant details, shouldhe be lost at sea and hisbody later recovered. Heand his brother, Cliff, hadsigned aboard a square-rigger, the Naiad, as

apprentice seamen, eachunder a formal agreementthat bound them to theship’s owner for fouryears. Cliff’s “indenture”was still pending; Lesliehad completed his onMarch28,1915.Sailingshipswerestillin

wide use in commercialtrade, even thoughvoyagesaboardthemwereinevitably slow and

tedious. The brothers hadarrived in New York afterwhatLeslieMortontermeda “particularly viciouspassage” from Liverpoolthat took sixty-three dayswiththeshipallthewhilein ballast, meaning emptyofcargo.Theyfacedworsetocome.InNewYorktheywere to pick up a load ofkerosene in 5-galloncontainers and haul it to

Australia, then collect aload of grain in Sydneyand bring it back toLiverpool. The wholejourneypromisedtotakeafullyear.The brothers decided tojump ship, despite Cliff’sobligation to serveouthisindenture. Bothwanted toget home to take part inthe war, which they, likemost people, expected

wouldendsoon.“Wewerestill looking upon war inthe light of Victorian andprevious wars,” Mortonwrotelater,addingthatheandhis brotherhad failedto appreciate that the“natureandmethodofwarhadchangedforalltimeinAugust 1914 and that nowar in the future wouldexcludeanybody,civilians,men,womenorchildren.”

They planned to travelto England as payingpassengers and wiredhome to ask formoney tobuy second-class tickets.Their father arranged atransferoffundsbyreturncable.The Mortons learnedthat the next ship homewas the Lusitania andbought tickets. They hadheard so much about the

liner that they felt theyhad to go to thewharf tosee it. “What a sight shepresented to our eyes,”LeslieMorton wrote. “Sheseemed as large as amountain. She had fourfunnels and tremendouslength and, knowing thatshe could really movealong, we were quitethrilled at the thought oftravelingonher.”

As they were standingon the wharf, staring attheship,theyrealizedthatone of the ship’s officerswas staring at them. Thisproved tobeChiefOfficerJohn Preston Piper, whohad just come down thegangplank to the wharf.“What are you boyslookingat?”heasked.They told him they had

booked passage for the

ship’s upcoming voyageandjustwantedtoseeit.He watched them a

moment,andasked,“Whatshipareyouoff?”Morton, hedging the

truth, told him they hadjust fulfilled theirindentures and wereheading back to Liverpoolto take their certificationexams.“I thought you looked

like seamen,” Piper said.Heaskedthetwowhytheywanted to pay for theirvoyage when they couldworktheirwayacross.TheLusitania had just lost tendeckhands who had quitthe ship, apparently toavoid having to serve inthe British army. “I coulduse two boys like you,”Pipersaid.“I think there could be

more, Sir,” Morton said.“Some of our othershipmateshavepaidoff.”Chief Piper told thebrotherstobeatthewharfFriday morning, “with asmanyasyoucanget.”The boys congratulatedthemselves. Now theycould refund their ticketsand devote their father’smoney to other pursuits.“We blew every penny”

and spent Thursday night“in luxurious if doubtfulsurroundings,” Mortonwrote.Inall, eightmembersof

the Naiad’s crew plannedto jump to the Lusitania.History is silent on howthe Naiad’s captain feltaboutthis.CaptainTurner,however, had noreservations about takingthe men on and probably

did not ask manyquestions. He needed allthecrewhecouldfind.

THE WAR RAISED otherchallenges as well. Turnerreadied the ship in amilieu suffused with fearand suspicion. Everymerchant ship that leftNew York Harbor had tobe inspected before

departuretomakesure,totheextentpossible,thatallcargo in its holds wasidentified on its shippingmanifest, and that itwasn’t armed, in violationof American neutralitylaws. Turner received avisit from the port’s“Neutrality Squad,” underthe supervision ofCollector of CustomsDudley Field Malone,

whose office wasempowered to search allships.Malone was said tobe a dead ringer forWinston Churchill, somuchsothatyearslaterhewouldbecastasChurchillin a film, Mission toMoscow. The squadconducted its inspectionquickly,andMaloneissuedto Captain Turner a“Certificate of Loading,”

whichallowedhimtotakethe ship to sea, thoughMalone later conceded itwas a “physicalimpossibility” to checkeveryparcelofcargo.Malone’s office releasedthe Lusitania’s preliminarymanifest, a single sheet ofpaperthatlistedthirty-fiveinnocuousshipments.Asithappened,theseshipmentswere just a fractionof the

consignments that werealready aboard theLusitania.Amorecompletelist would be releasedlater, well after the shiphad departed, the ideabeing to keep theinformationoutofGermanhands as long as possible.For German spies andsaboteurs, under theguidance of the GermanEmbassy, were known to

be at work along NewYork’swharves.These spies seemed tohave a particular interestin the Lusitania and hadlongmonitoredtheship.Areport from the GermannavalattachéinNewYork,datedApril27,1915, fourdays before the Lusitania’sdeparture, stated, “ThecrewoftheLusitaniaisinavery depressed mood and

hopes thiswill be the lastAtlantic crossing duringthewar.”Thereportnotedaswell that the crewwasincomplete. “It is difficultto service the machinesadequately. Fear of theU-boatsistoostrong.”Arealpossibilityexistedthat German saboteursmightattempttoharmtheLusitania. Cunard took thedanger seriously enough

that it placed a Liverpoolpolice detective, WilliamJohn Pierpoint, on boardto keep watch duringvoyages. He occupiedstateroomA-1,ontheboatdeck, and kept to himself.Captain Turner took tocallinghim“Inspector.”

THROUGHOUT the day andnight, the Lusitania’s crew

came aboard, in varyingstates of sobriety. LeslieMorton and his brotherand the other refugeesfrom the Naiad climbedthegangway,stillsufferingthe effects of theirprevious night on thetown. If Morton expectedluxurious accommodationsaboard the Lusitania, hedidn’t get them. He wasdirected to a bunk three

decksdown, ina chamberhe likened to a“workhouse dormitory.”Hewas heartened to find,however, that his bunkwas right beside aporthole.Ajuniorcrewmember—

a bellboy, or “steward’sboy,” named FrancisBurrows,age fifteenandahalf—was met at theterminal gate by a guard,

whotoldhim,“You’re notgoing to get back thistime,sonny.They’regoingtogetyouthistime.”Burrows laughed andcontinuedontohisberth.Thateveningagroupofsteward’s boys, underorders not to leave theship for any reason,decided on a diversion toease their boredom. Theboys,includingoneRobert

James Clark, made theirway to a small cargocompartment, known innautical parlance as alazaret, and there “begandoing something weshouldn’t have beendoing,”accordingtoClark.Clark and hisaccomplices found someelectrical wires, thenstripped off the insulationand spread the wires on

the floor. The boys laydownandwaited.Theshiphadmanyrats.

In fact, exactly one yearearlier rats had caused asmall fire in one of theship’s public rooms bychewing away theinsulationonelectricwiresrunning through a wall,therebyallowing twobarewirestotouch.The boys waited with

delight. The rats soonemerged and beganfollowing their usualroutes through thechamber, unaware of thewiresintheirpaths.“Theygot electrocuted ofcourse,” Clark said, “thatwasourpastime.ThatwasFridaynight.”Inlater life,Clark would becomeReverendClark.Whether out of

professionalpiqueorsomeinstinct of fear, the ship’smascot—a cat namedDowie, after CaptainTurner’s predecessor—fledthe ship that night, forpointsunknown.

CAPTAIN TURNER also left theship that evening. Hemade his way toBroadway, to the Harris

Theater on Forty-secondStreet, and there caught aplay,TheLie, inwhichhisniece, a rising actressnamedMercedesDesmore,hadastarringrole.Turneralsoindulgedhispassion for German food.He went to Lüchow’s at110EastFourteenthStreet,an easy walk from theCunard docks, and dinedin its Nibelungen Room,

where an eight-pieceorchestra played a briskaccompaniment ofViennesewaltzes.

THAT EVENING, back at hissister’s apartment, CharlesLauriat showed her andher husband the Dickensbook and the Thackeraydrawings and explainedwhy he was bringing the

drawingstoEngland.Whenheboughtthemin

1914, from Thackeray’sdaughter andgranddaughter, LadyRitchieandHesterRitchie,of London, he paid abargain price of $4,500,fully aware that he couldsell them in America forfive or six times asmuch.To get the best price,however, he had come to

realizethathewouldneedtopresent thedrawings inamore appealingmanner.At the moment they werepasted into the twoscrapbooks, one drawingper page. He planned tohavemostofthedrawingsmounted individually andframed, but some hewanted to bind incombinations of three orfour, in books with full

Levant bindings. Hismainreason for bringing themback to England was sothatLadyRitchiecouldseethem one more time andwrite a small note abouteach, thereby providingauthentication and anextraelementofinterest.He felt no guilt aboutpaying Lady Ritchie solittle for the drawings.That was the way the art

business worked,especially if a sellerwanted discretion, as theRitchiesdid.They insistedthathekeepthesaleofthedrawings as quiet aspossible and barred himfrom attempting to sellthem in Britain. He couldoffer them only inAmerica,andeventhenhehad to do so quietly,without advertising. Lady

Ritchie was still smartingfrom the unexpectedsequelaeofaprevioussaleof drawings through aLondon dealer who hadmarketed them in amanner that the familyfound offensive and thathad drawn unpleasantpublicityandcomment.Lauriat’s sister and herhusband inspected thedrawings “with a great

deal of interest andadmiration,” Lauriatrecalled. The husband,George,confessedtolikingin particular a drawingentitled The Caricature ofThackerayHimselfStretchedOut on a Sofa in the OldGarrick Club, and a seriesofsixsketches“ofnegroesand their children”on theporch of a small house,which Thackeray had

drawn while visiting theAmerican South in the1850s.Afterward, Lauriat

packed the book anddrawings back into hisextension suitcase andlockedit.

ELSEWHERE in the city, ascheduled passengernamedAltaPiperstruggled

througha restlessnight inher hotel room. She wasthe daughter of LeonoraPiper, the famed spiritmediumknownuniversallyas “Mrs. Piper,” the onlymedium that WilliamJames, the pioneeringHarvard psychologist andsometime psychicinvestigator,believedtobeauthentic.Altaseemedtoshareher

mother’s gift, forthroughout that Fridaynight,assheclaimedlater,she heard a voice tellingher, “If you get into yourberth, you’ll never getout.”

ROOM40

“THEMYSTERY”

THE DEPARTURE OF WALTHERSCHWIEGER’S U-20 WAS

watched closely—fromafar.In London, two blocks

from the Thames andadjacent to the paradeground of the HorseGuards, stood a five-storybuilding with a facade ofpale stone and whiskey-colored brick. Familiar toeveryoneintheAdmiralty,the structure was known,for short, as the OldBuilding, or, for shorter,O.B.Farlessfamiliarwasasecret operation located

along one of its corridorsin a group of officescentered on Room 40.Hereresided“theMystery”or“theHolyofHolies,”itsfunction manifest only toits staff and to a coven ofnine senior officials,including First LordChurchill and Adm. JackyFisher,whobyApril1915had reentered theAdmiralty as First Sea

Lord, Churchill’s numbertwo. Fisher was seventy-four years old, threedecades older than hischief.Every day, thewatchkeepers in Room 40received hundreds ofcoded and encipheredGermanmessagesthathadbeen intercepted by anarray of wireless stationserected on the British

coast,andthensenttotheOld Building by landtelegraph. Germany hadbeen forced to relyalmostexclusively on wirelesscommunication afterBritain,inthefirstdaysofthe war, had followedthrough on its 1912 plantocutGermany’sunderseacables. The interceptedmessages arrived in thebasementoftheAdmiralty

building and were thenrelayedtoRoom40.Itwas the taskofRoom

40 to translate thesemessages into the King’sEnglish, a process madepossible by a series ofnearly miraculous eventsthat occurred in theclosing months of 1914and put the Admiralty inpossession of threecodebooks governing

German naval anddiplomaticcommunications. By farthe most important, andsecret, was the Germannavy’sSKMcode,shortforSignalbuch der KaiserlichenMarine. In August 1914, aGerman destroyer, theMagdeburg, ran agroundand was cornered byRussian ships. Exactlywhat happened next

remains unclear, but onestory holds that theRussians found a copy ofthecodebookstillclutchedin the arms of a deadGerman signalman whosebody had washed ashoreafter the attack. If so, itwas probably thecodebook that killed him:itwaslargeandheavy,15inches by 12 inches by 6inches, and contained

34,304 three-letter groupsused to encode messages.The letters MUD, forexample, stood forNantucket; Liverpool wasFCJ. The Russians in factrecovered three copies ofthe codebook, presumablynot from the same body,and inOctober 1914 gaveonetotheAdmiralty.The codebooks were

invaluable but did not by

themselves reveal thecontentsoftheinterceptedmessages. Their Germanauthors used the volumesto obscure the originalplain-text messages butthensubjectedtheencodedversions to a furtherscrambling through theuse of a cipher. Onlyholders of a cipher “key”could divine theunderlying text, but

possessing the codebooksmadethewholeprocessofsolving the messages farsimpler.To exploit these

treasures the AdmiraltyestablishedRoom40. In ahandwritten directive,Churchill set out itsprimary mission, “topenetrate the Germanmind,” or, as one of thegroup’skeyofficersput it,

“to extract the juice.”From the start, Churchilland Fisher resolved tokeep the operation sosecretthatonlytheyandafew other Admiraltyofficials would ever knowitexisted.Equally mysterious—

though unintentionally so—was the matter of whoactually managed thegroup. On paper, at least,

it reported toAdm.HenryFrancis Oliver, theAdmiralty’schiefofstaff,aman so tight-lipped andreticent he could seemalmost mute, and this—given the British navy’spredilection fornicknames—ensured that he wouldbe known forever after as“Dummy”Oliver.Within Room 40 itself,however, management of

day-to-day operations felllargely, if informally, toCdr. Herbert Hope,recruited in November1914 to bring navalexpertise to theinterpretation ofintercepted messages. Hissavvy was badly needed,for the group’s staff werenot navy officers butciviliansrecruitedfortheirskill at mathematics and

Germanandwhateverelseit was that made a mangood at breaking codesand ciphers. The rostercame to include a pianist,a furniture expert, aparson from northernIreland, awealthy Londonfinancier, a past memberof the Scottish Olympichockeyteam,andadapperoperative named C.Somers Cocks, who,

according to one earlymember, William F.Clarke, was “chieflyremarkable for his spats.”Theunit’swomen—knownas “the fair ladies inforty”—served in clericalroles and included oneLady Hambro, wife of aprominent financier, whoaccording to Clarkestartledeveryoneatoneofthegroup’sannualdinners

by smoking a large cigar.Wrote Clarke, “It was thebestofjobsandwewereahappy band in those dayswith the best possible ofchiefs in the person ofHope.” Hope was modestand retiring, and a skilledmanager, Clarke recalled,and “all of us becamedeeplyattachedtohim.”Hope’s authority was

recognized outside Room

40 as well, much to thedispleasure of DummyOliver,whowassaidtobeobsessed with controllingwho saw the decipheredintercepts and what wasdonewith the informationthey revealed. When FirstSea Lord Fisher made hisinitial visit to Room 40andsawfirsthandwhatthegroup was doing, heorderedHopetobringhim

the latest intercepts inperson,twiceaday.Hope also provided

intercepts directly toanotherofficialwho,ofallthose privy to “theMystery,”hadperhaps thegreatest appreciation forthe value of its secrets:Capt. William ReginaldHall, director of navalintelligence. It was Hallwho had recommended

that Commander Hope,then a member of hisintelligence division,should be transferred toRoom 40. Despite beingchiefofnaval intelligence,CaptainHallhadnodirectcontrol over Room 40—asof early 1915 hisintelligence division andRoom 40 were separateentities—but his namemore than any other

would come to beassociated with itsachievements.Hallwasforty-fouryearsold, anda formerwarshipcaptain. He becamedirector of navalintelligence in November1914, filling a post onceheldbyhisfather.Hewasshort and brisk, with aface full of points andangles and a prominent

bill-likenose, all ofwhichgave him the look of awoodpecker in a captain’scap. This was reinforcedby a neurological quirkthat caused him to blinkrapidly all day long andthat earned him his ownnavalnickname,“Blinker.”One of his most ardentadmirers was America’sAmbassador Page, inLondon,whoina letterto

President Wilson heapedpraise like aman in love.“Ishallnevermeetanotherman like him,” Pagewrote; “that were toomuch to expect. For Hallcan look through you andsee the very muscularmovements of yourimmortal soul while he istalking to you. Such eyesthemanhas!MyLord!”Hall delighted in the

gamesmanship ofwar andwas said to be utterlyruthless, albeit in anengaging way. Hissecretary, Ruth Skrine—latertomarryandbearthewedded name Mrs.Hotblack—recalled howone acquaintance haddescribed Hall as beingpart Machiavelli, partschoolboy. TheMachiavelli side“couldbe

cruel,” she said, “but theschoolboy was alwaysround the corner, and hislove of the dangerousgame he, and all of us,wereplayingwouldbubbleout, and the fun andhazard of it all would fillhim with infectiousdelight.”Hewas,shesaid,“uncannily quick at sizingup a man.” Whencontemplating some new

escapade, she recalled,Hall would rub his handstogether, “grinning like acraftylittleFrenchAbbé.”

IT WAS A vital game, inwhich Room 40 gaveBritain an edge ofinestimablevalueatatimewhen the war, far fromconcluding quickly, wasexpanding everywhere,

with Germany ascendant.Battles raged in Russia,Austria, Serbia, Turkey,and Asia. In the SouthChina Sea a Germantorpedo boat sank aJapanese cruiser, killing271men.InthePacific,offChile, German warshipssank two British cruisers,drowning 1,600 men anddelivering a blow toBritain’sprideandmorale,

theempire’s firstdefeat ina naval battle since theWar of 1812, when aBritishnavalforceonLakeChamplain had beendefeated by the fledglingU.S.Navy.OnNewYear’sDay, 1915, a GermansubmarinesanktheBritishbattleshipHMSFormidable,for a loss of 547 men.British warships nearbywere forbidden to rescue

survivors, in accord withthepolicy set up after theAboukirdisaster.The war had grown

darker and had sired newtactics for killing. Germanwarships shelled theEnglish coastal towns ofScarborough, Whitby, andHartlepool, injuring overfive hundred people andkilling more than onehundred, most of them

civilians. The dead inScarborough included twonine-year-old boys and afourteen-month-oldbaby.On January 19, 1915,

Germanylauncheditsfirst-ever air raid againstBritain, sending two giantzeppelins across theChannel—“zeps,” innewlycoined British slang,progeny of CountFerdinand von Zeppelin.

The raid caused minimaldamage but killed fourcivilians. Another raidfollowed on January 31,duringwhichnineairshipsflew as far as Liverpool,along the way sendingterrifying shadowsscudding across thelandscapeofJaneAusten’sPrideandPrejudice.AndthencameApril22,1915.Lateafternoon,near

Ypres; bright sunshine; alight breeze blowing fromeast to west. The Alliedtrenches in this sector, or“salient,” were occupiedby Canadian and Frenchforces,includingadivisionof Algerian soldiers. Theopposing Germanslaunched an offensive,whichasusualbeganwithshelling by distantartillery. This was

terrifying enough, and theFrench and Canadiansknewbyexperienceitwasa prelude to a head-oninfantry attack across no-man’s-land, but at about5:00 P.M. the look of thebattlefield abruptlychanged. A gray-greencloud rose from theGerman side and begandrifting across the blastedterrainasGerman soldiers

opened the valves on sixthousand tanks filledwithover 160 tons of chlorinegas arrayed along a four-mile stretchof the front—the first ever use of lethalgasonabattlefield.Asthegas reached the Alliedside, its effects wereimmediate and terrible.Hundreds died at once;thousands ran from theirtrenches in a panic,many

having experiencedexposure that would killthem later. Their flightopenedaneight-thousand-yard hole in the Alliedline, but the effect of thegas attack seemed tosurpriseevenitsarchitects.German soldiers wearingrespirators followed thegas cloud, but, instead ofsurging through thenewlyopened gap for a decisive

victory, dug a new trenchline and stayed put. Theircommanders, intendingmainlytotestthegas,hadnot assembled thenecessaryreserveforcestotake advantage of theopening in the line. Twothousand Canadiansoldiers were killed,suffocated as fluid filledtheir lungs. Wrote onegeneral, “I saw some

hundred poor fellows laidout in the open, in theforecourt of a church, togive them all the air theycouldget, slowlydrowningwithwaterintheirlungs—amost horrible sight, andthe doctors quitepowerless.”But these cataclysmsplayedoutonland.WhereRoom40promisedtogiveBritain the clearest

advantage was in thebattle for control of theseas, and there Britain’sstrategy had undergone achange. Its centerpieceremained the destructionof Germany’s fleet inbattle, but the Admiraltygave new weight tointerrupting the flow ofwar matériel to Germanyand to combating thegrowing U-boat threat to

British commerce. TheAdmiralty also harboredthe persistent fear thatGermany might attempt afull-scale invasion ofBritain. Clearly anyadvance warning ofGerman naval actionswould be of criticalimportance.Room 40 beganprovidingsuchintelligencealmost at once. From

November 1914 until theend of thewar, accordingto the group’s WilliamClarke, “no majormovement of the GermanFleet could take placewithout the Admiraltyknowing about it sometime in advance.” Theinformation was detailed,right down to themovements of individualships and submarines. But

such detail raised aquandary. If the Britishnavy acted in response toevery foretold movementof the German fleet, itrisked revealing toGermany that its codeshad been broken. In asecret internalmemorandum, AdmiralOliverwrotethat“theriskofcompromisingthecodesought only to be taken

when the result would beworthit.”Butwhatdid “worth it”mean? Some of the menwithinRoom40contendedthat much usefulinformationwasstockpiledand never used becausethe Admiralty staff—meaning Dummy Oliver—had an obsessive fear ofrevealing theMystery. Forthe first two years of the

war, even the commanderinchiefoftheBritishfleet,Sir John Jellicoe, wasdenied direct access toRoom 40’s decryptedintercepts, although hewould seem to have beentheoneofficer in the fleetmostlikelytobenefitfromthe intelligence theyconveyed. In fact, Jellicoewould not be formallyintroducedtothesecretof

Room 40, let alone givenregular access to itsintelligence, untilNovember1916,whentheAdmiralty, sensingbruisedfeelings, agreed to let himsee a daily summary,whichhewastoburnafterreading.The tight control overintercepts exercised byChief of Staff Oliver wasalso a source of irritation

forRoom40’sCommanderHope.“Had we been calledupon by the Staff to doso,” Hopewrote, referringto Oliver, “we could havefurnished valuableinformation as tomovementsof submarines,minefields, minesweepingetc. But the Staff wasobsessed with the idea ofsecrecy; they realized that

they held a trump cardand they worked on theprinciple that every effortmustbemadetokeepourknowledgetoourselves,soastobeabletokeepitupour sleeves for a reallygreat occasion suchas theGerman Fleet coming outin all their strength tothrow down the gage inbattle. In other words theStaff determined to make

use of our informationdefensively and notoffensively.” CommanderHope applied theunderlines.

IT WAS tedious work.Hundreds of interceptedmessages came chatteringinto the building’sbasement every day,wheretheywereplacedin

dumbbell-shapedcanisters,whichinturnwereshovedinto vacuum tubes and,with a satisfying fwump,launched up through thebuilding. Upon reachingRoom 40, the containerstumbled into ametal traywith a clatter that “shookthenerveofanyunwittingvisitor,” according to oneof the group’s codebreakers. The noise of

these arriving messageswasespeciallyhardonthemen assigned to the nightwatch, who took turnssleepinginabedroomthatconnected two largeroffices. They endured anadditional hardship: mice.The rodents infested thebedroomand late at nighttrotted over the faces ofthesleepingmen.“Tubists” took the

messagesfromthevacuumcanisters and passed themon to the code breakers.The tubists were officerswho had been injuredbadly enough in the warthat they could no longerfight. This cadre includeda one-legged man namedHaggard and a one-eyedBritish officer namedEdward Molyneux, whowouldgoontobecomean

acclaimed designer ofclothinginParis.Themosttediouspartof

the job was writing thecomplete text of eachmessage into a daily log.Churchill insisted thatevery intercept berecorded, no matter howroutine. As the number ofintercepts multiplied, thistask became “souldestroying,” according to

oneRoom40member;thelog “became an object ofhatred.”ButChurchillpaidclose attention. In March1915, for example, hescrawledononeofHope’sdecrypts, “Watch thiscarefully.”The group learned overtimethatevenaseeminglyinnocuous change in thecharacter of routinemessages could signal an

important new action bythe German navy. WroteCommander Hope, “Anymessages which were notaccording to routine,weretobelookedonwithgreatsuspicion, and in thiswaywewereabletobuildupalarge number of signs andportents.” The Britishwireless operators wholistened in on Germancommunications came to

know justby the soundofa transmission whether itcame from a submarine.They found that U-boatsfirst took a few momentsto tune their systems andthen began eachtransmissionwithakindofelectrical throat-clearing,five Morse signals: dashdash dot dash dash. “Thefinal note,” CommanderHope said, “is high-

pitched … and has awailing or whiningcharacterwhensending.”Thanks to capturedcharts,Room40alsoknewthat theGermannavyhaddivided the seas aroundEngland into a grid tobetterdirect the travelsofsurface ships andsubmarines.TheNorthSeahad been broken intosquaressixmilesonaside,

with each square assigneda number, according toHope. “Whenever any oftheir vessels was at sea,she was continuallysignaling her position bysaying what square shewas in.” By plotting theseon a chart, Hope wrote,Room 40 learned whichroutes German ships andU-boats followed. Somesquares were consistently

empty: “It was onlyreasonabletosupposethatthese blank spaces wereminedareas.”Over time, thanks to

Room 40’s intercepts andinformation gleaned frominterrogations of capturedsubmariners, both Room40andCapt.BlinkerHall’sintelligence divisiondeveloped a sense of theflesh-and-blood men who

commanded Germany’s U-boats. A few, likeKapitänleutnantWeddigen, the man whosank the cruisers Aboukir,Cressy, and Hogue, weredaring and pushed theircrews to the limit. Acaptain of this kind wascalled a Draufganger, ordashing commander.Anothercommander,ClausRücker, was said to be “a

bully and a coward.” Incontrast, WaltherSchwieger was describedin several intelligencereports as a good-naturedsoulwhowaswelllikedbyhiscrewandpeers,“averypopular and pleasantofficer,” as one report putit.Some U-boat captainswere cold-blooded killers,like Schwieger’s friend

Max Valentiner. “He issaid to be the mostpowerfully built officer inthe German Navy,” aBritish interrogatorreported, and “one of themost ruthless submarinecommanders.”Butanothercaptain, Robert Moraht,saved lives “wheneverpossible.” After his boatwas sunk andhe and fourmembersofhiscrewwere

captured, interrogatorslearned through him andtheothersthatthelifeofaU-boat commander wasnot all discomfort.Morahtwoke each day at 10:00A.M., and climbed to thedeck “for a short stroll.”He ate lunch by himselfand afterward read in hiscabin, “always keeping astock of good books onboard.”At4:00hehadtea,

andat7:00,supper,“afterwhich he remained in thewardroom,talking,playinggames, or listening to thegramophone.” He went tobedat11:00P.M.“Hemadeahabitofdrinkingaglassofwinejustbeforeturningin.”Room 40 and Hall’s

divisionalsogainedinsightinto the finer points ofU-boatculture.Theylearned,

for example, that U-boatcommanders did not careabout the number of shipsthey sank but rather theirtonnage, because tonnagewas what their superiorslooked to when decidingto award honors. Theylearned, too, that theGerman navy had its owntradition of assigningnicknames. One very tallcommander was

nicknamed Seestiefel, orsea boot. Another had areputationforsmellingbadand thus was nicknamedHeinSchniefelig,or stinkyperson.Athirdwassaidtobe “very childish andgood-natured” and wascommonlycalledDasKind,thechild.TheU-boatcommandershadonethingincommon,however.Whenitcameto

wireless,allweretalkative,as Room 40 and BlinkerHall were delighted tolearn. They used theirwireless systemsincessantly. In the courseof the war, Room 40would receive twentythousand interceptedmessages that had beensent by U-boats. This“extreme garrulity,” asRoom 40’s Clarke put it,

allowed thegroup tokeepclose watch over U-boattravels, all duly recordedin a ledger kept byCommanderHope.In January 1915, Room40 was able to pinpointthe first time a U-boattraveledas faras the IrishSea,thebodyofwaterthatseparates England andIreland. The group evenidentified the particular

zonetowhichtheU-boat’scaptain had been ordered—a square of sea nearLiverpool. On thatoccasion, the value of theintelligence wasimmediatelyapparent,andthe Admiralty acted atonce. It sent awarning tothehomefleet, identifyingthe source of itsinformation only as a“reliable authority.”

Destroyers converged onthe U-boat’s patrol zonefromnorthandsouth.Twolarge Cunard liners, theAusonia and Transylvania,wereenroutetoLiverpoolatthetime,carryingnavalgun barrels made byBethlehem Steel. TheTransylvania, then underthe command of CaptainTurner, also carriedpassengers, among them

forty-nine Americans. TheAdmiralty ordered bothships to change courseimmediately and speed asfast as possible toQueenstown, on the southcoast of Ireland, and waitthere until destroyerscouldarrivetoescortthemto Liverpool. Uponarriving safely, Turnerexpressed his relief athaving evaded attack. “I

fooled ’em that time,” hesaid.Room 40 had longfollowed Kptlt. WaltherSchwieger’sU-20andkepta running record of hispatrols: when he left,which route he took,wherehewasheaded,andwhat he was supposed todo once he got there. Inearly March 1915,Commander Hope

monitored a voyageSchwieger made to theIrish Sea that coincidedwith a disturbingmessagebroadcast from a Germannaval transmitter locatedat Norddeich, onGermany’sNorthSeacoastjust below Holland.Addressed to all Germanwarships and submarines,themessagemade specificreference to the Lusitania,

announcing that the shipwas en route to Liverpooland would arrive onMarch4or5.Themeaningwas obvious: the Germannavy considered theLusitaniafairgame.TheAdmiraltyfoundthe

message disconcertingenough that it dispatchedtwo destroyers torendezvous with the shipand escort it to port. One

destroyer sent an uncodedmessage asking the ship’sthen captain, Daniel Dow,to report his position inorder to arrange themeeting. Dow refused togive it, fearing that a U-boathadsentthemessage.The rendezvous nevercame off, but Dowsucceeded in reachingLiverpool on his own. Itwassoonafterthisthathe

asked to be relieved, andCaptain Turner took hisplace.As that spring of 1915

advanced,thecodesolversin Room 40 honed theirskills, delighted and a bitastonishedbythefactthatthe German navy still didnot revise its codebooks.The Mystery remainedsecure and continued toyieldrevelationsaboutthe

travelsofGermanU-boats.

TOWARDTHE endofApril, asCaptainTurnerreadiedtheLusitania for its May 1departure, Room 40learned of a new surge ofU-boat activity. Interceptsshowed that on Friday,April 30, fourU-boats lefttheir bases. In response,war-staff chief Dummy

Oliver sent an urgent,ultrasecret message toJellicoe at Scapa Flow.“Four submarines sailedyesterday fromHeligoland,” the messageread. It identified theirexpected destinations.“Theyappeartobemakinggood 12½ knots. Do notdivulge exact source ofinformation in any stepsyou take.” Within hours,

Room 40 got word thattwomoreU-boatsalsohaddeparted, these from abase at Emden, onGermany’s North Seacoast. One of these wasSchwieger’s U-20.Considering that theGermannavytypicallyhadonlyanaverageof twoU-boats in the North Sea orthe Atlantic at any onetime, this was an

extraordinarydevelopment.Room40’scodebreakers

founditasimplemattertofollow U-20 through thefirst day or so of itsvoyage: Schwieger’swirelessman repeated theboat’s position fourteentimesintwenty-fourhours.Room40didnothaveto

lookfartofindthereasonforthisnewanddangerous

assault by Germany’s U-boats. As it happened, itwas the German navy’sresponse to a ruseconcocted by intelligencechief BlinkerHall himself,in the application ofwhathedescribedasoneof thefirst principles of theprofession, “that ofmystifying and misleadingtheenemy.”

LUSITANIA

ACAVALCADEOFPASSENGERS

BYSATURDAY,MAY1,THEHEATWAVE HAD DISSIPATED. Themorningwascold, theskypewter. The temperature

made it easier forpassengers arriving atCunard’s Pier 54 totransport their belongings,fornowtheycouldsimplywear their heavy coats,rather than bearing themdraped over their armsalong with all the otherthings they carried, theircanes, umbrellas, valises,parcels,books,andbabies,all in evidence on the

sidewalk outside theterminal, as a long blackline of taximeter cabsemerged from EleventhAvenueandpulledclosetothe curb. Large bagstraveled on the floorbeside the drivers andwerehauledfromthecabsby squat, strong-lookingmen in open jackets andbullycaps.All these things were

captured on film by amotion-picture camerastationed just outside theentrance to the terminal.Passengers crossed itsplane of view: men intopcoats, fedoras, andsnap-brim caps; womenwith large hats moundedwith sewn-on flowers;toddlers bundled as if fortheArctic,onewithaknitcap pulled low over the

ears.Nowand thena faceappeared in startlingcloseup, with that looktravelers have always hadover time, stern,concentrating, trying topay the cabbie, hold thecane and gloves—theemptyglovefingersflexinglike a cow’s udder—andstill keep track of thesuitcase and trunkreceding into the Cunard

terminal.At the far side of the

building, the Lusitania’shull rose high above thewharf in a black wall ofsteel and rivets. The shipseemedasindestructibleasanything that could beimagined, even for an agethat imagined well andplaced so much trust inimmensityandinvention.Thefurnacesinitsboiler

rooms flared as firemenraisedsteamfordeparture;its funnels exhaustedbraids of gray smoke intothemistabove.

AS ALWAYS there werepassengers who hadachieved fame, and theirarrival created a stiramong the thousands ofwell-wishers, kin, and

spectators now gatheredalongthewharftoseetheship off. Cunard had builtgrandstands to honor thecustom, and these werefull as always; theyaffordedaviewnotjustoftheshipbutofaportionofLower Manhattan and thewharves and vesselsjutting from the shore onboth sides of the Hudson.Just north stood the piers

of the White Star Line,which three years earlier,almosttothemonth,wereto have received theTitanic. Among thespectators the attentiongiven to the Lusitania andits passengers was moreacutethanusual,giventheGermanwarningpublishedin the city’s papers thatmorning.Here came Charles

Frohman, the theaterimpresario,whohadmadeEthelBarrymoreastarandhadbroughttheplayPeterPan toAmerica, forwhichhe dressed Maude Adamsin a woodsy tunic with abroad collar, and in sodoing forever engraved aparticularimageoftheboyintheworld’simagination.Frohman also producedthe stage show Sherlock

Holmes, with WilliamGillette as its namesakehero,with deerstalker capand meerschaum pipe.Frohman, wearing a bluedouble-breasted suit,walked with a markedlimp and used a cane. Afriend of his also cameaboard, Marguerite LucileJolivet, twenty-five yearsold, known universally byher stage and film name,

Rita Jolivet. Though shehad already performed inShakespearean plays inLondon, including a turnas Juliet, and hadappeared in several silentfilms made in Italy, shewas still only a fledglingstar, but Frohman likedher, and his interestvirtually assured her avibrant career. She wastravelingnowtoEuropeto

act in severalmore Italianfilms.Another arrival wasGeorge Kessler, a wealthywine importer known theworld over as the“Champagne King.”Bearded and spectacled,evokingacertainViennesepsychoanalyst, he wasknown for throwingelaborate parties, knownas “freak dinners”—

perhaps most notably the“GondolaParty”hehostedin1905attheSavoyHotelinLondon,wherehefilledthe hotel’s courtyard withwater,dressedeveryoneinVenetian garb, and serveddinner to guests aboard agiantgondola.Lestthisbedeemed insufficient, hearranged to have abirthday cake—five feettall—brought in on the

backofababyelephant.By far the most

glamorous passenger wasAlfred Gwynne VanderbiltI, son andprimaryheir ofthe late Cornelius, whosedeath in 1899 had leftAlfred a rich man.Something of a rake,Alfred was tall and lean,with dark eyes and hair,and a taste for expensivesuits. He was a welcome

presence on board,especially among thewomen, despite the factthat he was married andcarriedwithhimahistoryof scandal. His first wife,EllenFrench,haddivorcedhim in 1908, charginghim,astheNewYorkTimesput it, with“misconducting himselfwithanunknownwoman”in his private railcar. The

woman turned out to beMary Ruiz, wife of aCuban diplomat. Thescandal drove Ruiz tocommitsuicide.Vanderbiltremarried, this timewedding MargaretEmerson,heiresstoatroveof money that owed itsexistence to America’sawful diet and its gastricconsequences, the Bromo-Seltzer fortune. She was

not on board. Vanderbiltwas also a member ofwhat a Minnesotanewspapercalledthe“JustMissedIt”club,afortunategroup whose rosterincludedTheodoreDreiser,GuglielmoMarconi,andJ.P. Morgan, all of whomhadplannedtosailontheTitanic but for one reasonor another had changedtheir minds. Needless to

say,Vanderbilt traveled instyle, booking one of theLusitania’s “Parlor Suites.”He lodged his valet twodoors down the corridor,in an interior room withneither porthole nor bath.Vanderbilt paid for bothtickets in cash, $1,001.50,equivalenttoover$22,000intoday’sdollars.Reporters came aboard,

as usual, looking to

interview famous ornotorious passengers, onlytoday their interest wasmorefocusedthanusual.Itwas a mark of theimportance of shippingand the frequency withwhich transatlantic linerscalled at New York thatevery newspaper had a“shipnews”reporter.Eachpaper devoted a page tothearrivalsanddepartures

of the great liners and toadvertisements andschedules for the manyshippinglineswithpiersinthe city. It was on thesepages that the Germanwarninghadappearedinanumber of Saturdaymorningeditions.The ship-news reportersworked out of a shedlikestructure near BatteryPark,inLowerManhattan,

adjacent to the terminalfortheStatenIslandFerry,where a battered greendoor gave way to a roomfull of worn desks andtelephones used byreporters for a dozennewspapers and one wireservice. The reporterstended to favor certainships, often for intangiblereasons. “Ships do havepersonalities,” wrote Jack

Lawrence, the shippingwriter for the New YorkEvening Mail. Some ships“have character and awarm,friendlyatmospherewhileothersareonlysteelplates riveted aroundthrobbing turbines.” Oneofthefavoriteswasalwaysthe Lusitania. The shipinvariably provided news,because as the fastest andmost luxuriousoceanliner

still inserviceit tendedtodraw the richest, mostprominentpassengers.Partof the ship’s appeal wasalsoduetothefactthatitslongtime chief purser,James McCubbin, sixty-two, welcomed thereporters’ attention anddirected them topassengers likely to be ofinterest. As purser,McCubbin had the

responsibilitytomakesureallpassengersweretuckedinto their cabins andberths as quickly aspossible, to store theirvaluables, and—no smallthing—to compile theirbar bills at the endof thevoyage. In the words ofthe Cunard officers’manual, he was “to givesatisfactiontoallclassesofpassengers.”

The reporters met theLusitania just before itsdepartures, but also uponarrival, when they wouldsail out to the quarantinestation in New YorkHarbor. A ritual followed.They gathered inMcCubbin’s cabin. Hewouldorderacabinboytobring some ice, club soda,and a couple of bottles ofCunard Line Scotch. He

shut the door and handedout passenger lists. Thelastsuchsessionhadtakenplace the previous week,when theLusitania arrivedfrom Liverpool, and hadbroughtthereporterssomeunwelcome news.McCubbin announced thathisnextvoyage,thereturnto Liverpool departingSaturday,May1,wouldbehis lastcrossing.Company

rules required that heretire. “I’m about tobecome the most uselessmortal on earth,” he toldthe reporters—“the sailorhome from the sea.” Hecalled it a joke. “Sailorsdon’t have homes,” hesaid, and added, “When asailor gets so old he can’tworkanymoretheyoughttosewhimupinastaysailrag and heave him over

theside.”On Saturday morning,

reporter Jack Lawrencewent aboard as usual, butnow with a particularstory in mind. He carriedwith him a copy of theGerman Embassy’swarning.Lawrencestoppedbythe

cabin of Alfred Vanderbiltand knocked on the door.Vanderbilt himself opened

it,wearinganelegant suitwith a pink carnation inone lapel. In the roombeyond,hisvaletwashardatworkunpackingasmallmountain of baggage.Lawrence had tried tointerviewVanderbiltinthepast and had typicallyfound it a pointlessexercise because the manrarely had much to say.“Alfred Vanderbilt may

have been a riot amongthe ladies,” Lawrencewrote,“butinthepresenceofnewspapermenhewasashyandshrinkingviolet.”Vanderbilt commentedthatthereseemedtobeanunusual amount ofexcitement aboard. “Lotsof talk about submarines,torpedoes and suddendeath,”Vanderbilt said. “Idon’ttakemuchstockinit

myself. What would theygain by sinking theLusitania?”He showed Lawrence atelegram he had receivedafter boarding. “TheLusitania is doomed,” itread.“Donotsailonher.”It was signed “Mort.”Vanderbilt said he didn’tknow anyone namedMortbut wondered if it mighthave been an allusion to

death. “Probablysomebodytryingtohavealittlefunatmyexpense.”Out on deck, Lawrence

came across ElbertHubbard,atthispointoneofthemostfamousmeninAmerica—the soapsalesman turned authorwho had founded acollective in East Aurora,New York, called theRoycrofters, where men

andwomenbuiltfurniture,boundbooks,madeprints,and produced finelycrafted goods of leatherand metal. As an author,hewasbestknownforhisinspirational book, AMessage to Garcia, aboutthe value of personalinitiative, and for anaccount of the Titanicdisaster that centered onone woman’s refusal to

enter a lifeboat withouther husband; he washeaded now to Europewith the goal ofinterviewing KaiserWilhelm. Hubbard wasfamousaswell forcoiningcrisp aphorisms, including“A friend is someonewhoknows all about you andstilllovesyou.”HeworeaStetson hat and aflamboyant black cravat—

more like a large giftribbon—and had longflowing hair. WhenLawrenceapproachedhim,Hubbard was standingbesidehiswife and eatingalargeredapple.Hubbardhadn’tseenthewarning. “When I showedit to him he merelyglanced at it and wentright on chewing hisapple,” Lawrence wrote.

Hubbard took anotherappleoutofhispocketandgaveittoLawrence.“Here,have an apple and don’tbother your head aboutthose Potsdam maniacs.They’reallcrazy.”Lawrence pressed him.What if the German navyreally was planning anattack?“What’ll Ido?”Hubbardsaid.“Why,I’llstayonthe

ship. I’m too old to gochasingafter lifeboats andI never was much of ahand at swimming. No,we’llstaybytheship.”Heturned tohiswife. “Won’tweMa?”ItwasLawrence’simpression that Mrs.Hubbarddidnot sharehisview.Lawrence discoveredthat very few passengershad read the German

warning. He did not findthissurprising.“Whenyouaregettingreadytosailona transatlantic liner atnoon,” he wrote, “youseldom have time to sitdown and peruse themorningpapers.”Even those who hadseen the warning paidlittle attention. The ideathat Germany would dareattempt to sink a fully

loaded civilian passengership seemed beyondrational consideration.And even if a U-boat didtry, commonwisdomheldthat it would inevitablyfail. The Lusitania wassimply too big and toofast, and once in Britishwaterswoulddoubtlessbetoo well protected by theBritishnavy.Only two passengers

canceled because of thewarning itself, a wealthyshoe dealer from Boston,named Edward B. Bowen,and his wife. They did soat the last minute. “Afeelinggrewuponmethatsomething was going tohappen to the Lusitania,”Edward said, later. “Italked it over with Mrs.Bowen andwe decided tocancel our passage—

although I had animportant businessengagementinLondon.”A few others canceledfor reasons of illness andaltered plans, or becausetheyhadresolved,warningaside, that sailing on aBritish ship in wartimewasn’tprudent.ThefamedShakespearean actressEllen Terry plannedinitially to travel with

producer Frohman on theLusitania, but well beforethe warning appeared shecanceled her booking andswitched to an Americanship, the New York. SheencouragedRita Jolivet todo likewise, but Jolivetkept her original booking.Oneofthosewhocanceledciting illness was LadyCosmo Duff-Gordon, afashion designer who had

survivedthesinkingoftheTitanic. Another designer,Philip Mangone, canceledfor unspecified reasons.Years later he would findhimself aboard the airshipHindenburg,onitsfatallastflight; he survived, albeitbadly burned. Otherwise,the Lusitania was heavilybooked, especially in thelesserclasses.Secondclasswas so full that a number

of passengers learned totheirdelightthattheyhadbeen given first-classrooms.For those passengerswho did feel unsettled bythe German warning,Cunard offered comfortingwords. Wrote passengerAmbrose B. Cross, “Fromthe very first the ship’speopleasseveratedthatweran no danger, that we

should run right awayfrom any submarine, orramher,andsoon,sothatthe idea came to beregardedasamildjokeforlunchanddinnertables.”Moreover, a conviction

existed among passengersthat upon entering thewaters off Britain’s westcoast, the so-calledWestern Approaches, theshipwould bemet by the

Royal Navy and escortedto Liverpool. Cunardencouragedthisbelief,andmay have believed it aswell, on the basis of theRoyal Navy’s past effortsto direct and escort thecompany’s ships. Longbefore the sailing, OscarGrab, twenty-eight, anewly married clothingimporter from New York,made an appointment to

talk with a Cunardrepresentative aboutsubmarinesandtheoverallsafety of transatlanticcrossings. Grab’s wife ofthirty-nine days hadbegged him to take anAmerican ship. Grab andthe Cunard official had along talk, during whichGrab was told that stepswould be taken to protectthe ship during the

crossing.He felt reassuredenoughtobuya first-classticket, although hewaitedto do so until the daybeforedeparture.Anypassengerwhoreadthat morning’s edition oftheNewYorkTimeswouldhave found explicitreassurance. In an articleabout the warning, thepaper quoted Cunard’sNew York manager,

Charles Sumner, as sayingthat in the danger zone“there is a general systemofconvoyingBritishships.The British Navy isresponsible for all Britishships, and especially forCunarders.”TheTimes reporter said,“Your speed, too, is asafeguard,isitnot?”“Yes,” Sumner replied;“as for submarines, I have

nofearofthemwhatever.”Passenger Ogden

Hammond, a real-estatedeveloper and a memberof the State Assembly ofNew Jersey, asked aCunard official if it wassafe to cross on the shipand got the reply,“Perfectly safe; safer thanthe trolley cars in NewYork City”—a possibly ill-advised answer, given the

high frequency of fataltrolley accidents in thecity.Aboard the Lusitania,there was a good deal ofgallowshumor, but itwasspoken from a position ofcomfort and confidence.“Of course we heardrumors in New York thattheyweregoingtotorpedous,butwedidn’tbelieveitforonemoment,”saidMay

Walker, one of the ship’sstewardesses. “We justlaughed it off, and saidthey would never get us,we were too quick, toospeedy. It was just thesamekindoftripasitwasanyothertrip.”One of her taskswas tohelp manage passengers’children. “There was allsorts of deck games.Quoits. And they had

fancy dress parades forthem,” Walker said.Children whose birthdayshappened to fall during avoyageweregivenaparty—“a little private party,”Walker said—and abirthday cake, with theirnamesonit.“Theyhadthetimeoftheirlives,andtherunoftheship.”On this voyage, she

wouldhaveherhandsfull.

ManyBritishfamilieswerenowreturninghometodotheirpartinsupportingthenationintimeofwar,andthe ship’s size and speedprovided a degree ofreassurance.Thepassengermanifest listed ninety-fivechildren and thirty-nineinfants.Whole families cameaboard.Cunardsetasideagroup of first-class

staterooms for PaulCrompton of Philadelphiaand his wife and their sixchildren—one “infant”included—and theirnanny, twenty-nine-year-old Dorothy Allen.(Cunard tickets did notidentify babies by name,possibly out of quietresentment that theytraveled free.) Cromptonwas a cousin of Cunard’s

chairman, Alfred AllenBooth,whoseBoothGroupowned the steamship line.Crompton headed thegroup’s leather-goodssubsidiary. Cunard’s NewYork manager, Sumner,greeted the family justbefore boarding and“looked personally aftertheir comfort for thevoyage.” On the oppositeside of the ship, one deck

down, the Pearl family ofNewYork took three first-class staterooms, E-51, E-59, and E-67. FredericPearl was headed toLondonforapostingattheAmerican Embassy, andbrought his wife and fourchildren: a five-year-oldson, two daughters underthe age of three, and oneinfant. The Pearls broughtalong two nannies. The

children, including thebaby, stayed with theirnannies in E-59 and E-67;the parents lounged incomparative bliss bythemselves in E-51. Mrs.Pearlwaspregnant.William S. Hodges, enroute to Europe to takeover management of theParisofficeoftheBaldwinLocomotive Works, wastravelingwithhiswifeand

two young sons. When aTimes reporter on thewharfaskedMrs.Hodgesifshe was afraid of makingthe trip, she merelylaughed and said, “If wegodown,we’llallgodowntogether.”There were parentssailing to rejoin theirchildren, and children torejoin their parents, andwives and fathers hoping

to get back to their ownfamilies, as was the casewith Mrs. Arthur Luck ofWorcester, Massachusetts,traveling with her twosons, Kenneth Luck andElbridge Luck, ages eightand nine, to rejoin herhusband, a miningengineer who awaitedthem in England. Why inthe midst of great eventstherealwaysseemstobea

familysomisnamedisoneof the imponderables ofhistory.

AMONGTHE lesswell-known,but still prominent,passengers who cameaboard Saturday morningwas a forty-eight-year-oldwoman from Farmington,Connecticut, by the nameofTheodatePope,Theoto

her friends. She wasaccompanied by hermother, who came to seeher off, and by a mantwenty years her junior,Edwin Friend,withwhomshe was traveling toLondon. Prone to wearinga velvet turban, Theodatewas an imposing figure,though she stood only alittleoverfivefeettall.Shehad blond hair, a blunt

chin, and vivid blue eyes.Her gaze was frank anddirect, reflecting theindependencethatshehadshown throughout her lifeandthathadcausedhertorejectthepathexpectedofwomen raised in highsociety. Her mother oncescolded,“Youneveractasother girls do”; hercontemporaries referred toher by that newly coined

descriptivelabelfeminist.Theodate counted

among her friends thepainter Mary Cassatt,William James, and hisbrother, author HenryJames, with whom shedeveloped a particularlyclose friendship, to thepoint where she named anewpuppyafterhim,Jim-Jam. She was one ofAmerica’s few female

architects of stature,designer of a reveredhouse in Farmington,which she named Hill-Stead.WhenHenry Jamesfirst saw the house, evenbefore he came to knowTheodate, he crafted oneof the more novelanalogies of architecturalcriticism, likening the joyhe felt to “themomentaryeffect of a large slippery

sweet inserted, without awarning, between thecompressed lips of half-conscious inanition.”Theodatehadacompetingpassion,however.Shewasa spiritualist and servedfrom time to time as aninvestigatorofparanormalphenomena.Belief in suchthings was widespread inAmericaandBritainatthestart of the twentieth

century, when an Ouijaboardwasaregularfixturein drawing rooms, to bebrought out after dinnerfor impromptu séances.With the advent of war,belief in an afterlife waspoisedforaresurgence,asBritons sought comfort inthe idea that their deadsonsmightstillbepresent,in some way, somewherein the ether. It was

Theodate’s interest in“psychical” research thatexplained why she andEdwin Friendwere sailingtoLondon.As the sole child of a

wealthy Cleveland couple,shehadspentherearlylifemostly alone. Her father,Alfred,wasanirontycoon;her mother, Ada, asocialite.Theylivedonthecity’s Euclid Avenue,

better known asMillionaire’s Row. “I haveno memory at all of eversitting in my mother’slap,”Theodatewrote.“Myfather was so occupiedwith[business]affairsthatI was fifteen years oldbefore he realized he waslosing his child.” Shedescribed her youth “asthe extreme of what thelives of only children

usually are” but creditedthis solitary time—punctuated by bouts ofcrushing boredom anddepression—asinstillinginher a strong sense ofindependence. From theage of ten on, she drewplans for houses andsketchedtheirfacades,anddreamed of one daybuilding and living in afarmhouse of her own

design.Toherparents,tunedto

the high-society mores ofthe day, Theodate wasdoubtless a chore. Atnineteen she changed herbirth name, Effie, toTheodate, hergrandmother’s name, outofrespectforthewoman’sdevout belief in theQuaker principle ofemphasizing the spiritual

overthematerial.Shehadlittle interest in “comingout” as a debutante, andnone in marriage, whichsheperceivedtobeawallthat foreclosed any futureambitions shemighthave.She called it the “goldcollar.” Her parents senther to a private school inFarmington, Miss Porter’sSchool for Young Ladies,expecting that once her

education was completedshe would return to takeher place amongCleveland’s upper crust.TheodatelikedFarmingtonso much, however, thatshe decided to stay. Shebecameasuffragist;atonepoint she also joined theSocialist Party, and shelovedrilingherfatherwithhertalkofsocialism.On a lengthy journey

through Europe in 1888,when shewas twenty-one,she grew closer to herfather. Hewas devoted totravelandtocollectingartand was among the firstcollectorstofullyembracethe impressionists, at atimewhentheirworkwaswidely deemed eccentric,even radical. It was hewho suggested sheconsider architecture as a

profession. They spenttime together scouring artgalleries and artists’studios forworks to bringback to Cleveland; theybought two paintings byClaude Monet. Theodatesketched elements ofstructures she foundappealing, a pilaster here,a chimney there. She hadlittle interest in Paris,which she described as

“the greatest blot on thefaceof theearth,”but sheadored England, inparticular its cozy countryhomeswith sagging roofs,half-timbered walls, andwelcoming doorways. Shedrewsketchesofhervisionoftheidealfarmhouse.Architecture being a

fieldthenlargelybarredtowomen, Theodate createdan architectural education

for herself, first throughprivate studies withmembers of PrincetonUniversity’s artdepartment. With herfather’ssupportsheboughta house in Farmingtonwith42acres.Herparents,at her urging, resolved toretire to Farmington andbuild a house that wouldshowcase Alfred’s artcollection, which, in

addition to the twoMonets,includedworksbyWhistler and Degas. Herfather suggested shedesign the house, underthe supervision of apracticing architect. Shechose the firm of McKim,Mead &White, which, nodoubt because of Alfred’swealth,agreedtotheplan.Theodate’s subsequentletter to founding partner

William Rutherford Meadrevealed her to be awoman of strong if notimperious character. Shewrote,“As it ismyplan, Iexpect todecide inall thedetails aswell as allmoreimportant questions ofplan that may arise.… Inother words, it will be aPope house instead of aMcKim,MeadandWhite.”The design and

construction of the housebecame for Theodate anarchitecturalapprenticeship. But theproject, completed in1900, exhausted her. Thatfallshewroteinherdiary,“I have wrung my souldry … over father’shouse.”By 1910 shewas a full-fledged architect, soon tobecome the first female

architect licensed inConnecticut. Three yearslater, in August 1913, herfather died of a cerebralhemorrhage. It was ashatteringblow,andinhergrief she resolved tobuilda preparatory school forboys in his memory—aschool, however, thatwould be very differentfromanytheninexistence.She envisioned a campus

structured to mimic asmall New England town,withshops,townhall,postoffice,andaworkingfarm.Herplanwastoemphasizethe building of characterby requiring that studentsdevote a significantportion of their days to“community service,”helping out on the farmand in the shops, wheretheywouldlearnsucharts

as carpentry andprintmaking. In this shewas very much in stepwith the Arts and Craftsmovement, then in fullsway, which held thatcraftsmanship providedboth satisfaction andrescue from the perceiveddehumanization of theindustrial revolution. By1910 the movement hadswept America, yielding

collectives, like fellowpassengerElbertHubbard’sRoycrofters, and a newand simple approach todesign, evident in thefurniture of GustavStickleyandinthesimple,well-made homes of theso-called Craftsman style.It inspired as well thefoundingofmagazineslikeHouseBeautiful andLadies’HomeJournal.

By Saturday morning,May 1, 1915, Theodatewasagain in thegripof aprofound weariness. Thepast winter had beendifficult, professionallyand emotionally. Oneincident in particularunderscored the challengeof being a woman in amale profession: apublisher, thinking thename Theodate was a

man’s, asked to includeher photograph in a bookon leading architects inNew York. Upon learningin a phone call that shewas female, he withdrewtheoffer.Shealsosufferedone of her periodicdescents into depression,thisonesufficientlyseverethat she needed theassistanceofahomenurse.In February 1915, she

wrote, “I am having suchpersistent insomnia thatmy nights are wakingnightmares.”She believed, however,

in the regenerative powerofsettingoffonajourney.“There is nothing like thediversionof travel for onewhoismentallyfagged.”Once aboard the

Lusitania, Theodate wasled by a steward to her

cabin, a stateroom on DDeck on the starboardside. She deposited herhand luggage and madesure her cabin bags hadarrived. If she hoped tosleep well that night, shewas soon to bedisappointed.

CHARLES LAURIAT, the Bostonbookseller, now climbed

thegangway,accompaniedbyhis sister,Blanche,andher husband, GeorgeChandler.“Iwas surprisedthat access to the steamerwas allowed so freely,”Lauriatwrote.He found itodd that his sister andbrother-in-law “wereallowed to pass aboardwithout question.” Otherpassengers likewise notedthe ease of access for

friends and family whocame aboard to see themoff.Chandler carried

Lauriat’s briefcase andvalise; Lauriat carried theextension suitcasecontaining the drawingsand Dickens’s Carol.Chandler joked that thecontents of that one wereso valuable he “preferrednottotouchit.”

The three walked toLauriat’s room, B-5, thecabinclosesttothebowonthe starboard side of BDeck.Though seeminglyaprime location, it was aninteriorstateroom,withnoportholes. Lauriat wasaccustomed to travelinglike this. One of the firstthings he did was place amatchbox in his roomwithin easy reach, in case

the ship’s electric dynamofailed.He had crossed theAtlantic twenty-threetimes so far, mostly onCunard ships, but thiswould be his first voyageon one of the celebrated“greyhounds.”Lauriat saw that thetrunk and shoe case thathe had checked at thestation in Boston werealready in his room. He

tested the locks on hisvariousbags,andthenhe,Blanche, and Chandlerwent back out on deck,wheretheyremaineduntilall visitors were asked toleave the ship. WhenLauriat returned to hisroom, he took thedrawings from theextension case and puttheminthetoptrayofhisshoebox,whichwaseasier

to lock; he put Dickens’sCarolinhisbriefcase.Beforeboarding,Lauriat

had read about theGerman Embassy’swarningbuthadpaidlittleattention; the idea ofcanceling never enteredhis mind. He wore hisKnickerbocker suit, andthat new innovation, astem-winding wristwatch,which he kept set to

Boston time, always, nomatter where he was; itwas his way of groundinghimself in the world. Hetold no one about thedrawings.

DWIGHT HARRIS, the NewYorker with theengagement ring andcustom life belt, took hisvaluables to the purser’s

office for safekeeping.Theseincludedadiamond-and-pearl pendant, adiamond-and-emeraldring, a large diamondbrooch, $500 in gold, andof course the engagementring. He took a fewmoments before sailing towrite a thank-you note tohisgrandparents,whohadgiven him a bon voyagepresent. He used Lusitania

stationery. The Germanwarning seemed not tohavegivenhimpause.Hismood was full ofexclamationpoints.“A thousand thanks forthe delicious Jelly CakeandPeppermintPaste!”hewrote. “I can hardly waitfor tea time to come!”Henotedthattheweatherhadbegun to improve. “I amglad it has cleared!—my

cabin is most comfortable—and I shall proceed tounpack after lunch!” Headded that his CousinSalliehadsentabasketoffruit and that anotherfamilymember, Dick, hadsent a large supply ofgrapefruit. “So I am wellsupplied!”His note was among

thosethatmadeitintothelast bag of mail to leave

the ship before departure.The envelope waspostmarked “HudsonTerminalStation.”

THE STEWARDS announcedthat all visitors had todisembark. Ship reporterJackLawrenceleftwithouteven trying to talk toCaptain Turner. Thecaptain,hewrote,“wasof

that brand of deep seaskipper who believes thatanewspaperman’splace isathisdeskonParkRoworin Fleet Street and thatthereoughttobealawtopreventhimfromprowlingaroundthedecksofships.”On every prior encounter,Turner had been cold andunfriendly. “He seemed tome tobeanaustere,aloofsort of a man who knew

his business and didn’twish to discuss it withanybody.”Lawrence admired

Turner, however. He sawhim on the ship’s mainstairway, talking toanother officer, andnoticed “what a splendidfigure he made.” Hisuniform was dark blue,double-breasted, withthree-inch lapels and five

buttons on each breast,only four to be actuallybuttoned, as specified inthe Cunard officers’manual.Thejacketcuffs—the real show—were eachedged with “four rows ofgoldwirenavylace½-inchwide,” according to themanual.Turner’s cap, alsodarkblue,wastrimmedinleather and black mohairbraid, fronted with the

Cunardbadge: theCunardlion, mocked gently bycrew as the Cunard“monkey,” surrounded byawreathofgoldstitching.“When a British skipperknows how to dress, andhe usually does, he is theverylastwordinwhatthewell-dressed merchantcaptain should wear,”Lawrence wrote. “Heknows not only what to

wear but how to wear it.He achieves a jauntinessthat is incomparable.Turner, that day, wasmasterofoneof thegreatgreyhounds of the NorthAtlantic—and looked thepart.”

ROOM40

BLINKER’SRUSE

IN LONDON, CAPTAIN HALL SAWTHAT HIS NEW SCHEME for“mystifying andmisleading the enemy”was beginning to have an

effect.It was a prime exampleof the kind ofgamesmanshipatwhichheexcelled. His goal was toconvince German militarycommanders that aBritishinvasion of Schleswig-Holstein,ontheNorthSea,was imminent, andtherebycausetheGermansto divert forces from themainbattlefield inFrance.

TeamingwithanofficerofBritain’s domesticcounterintelligenceservice, MI-5, Hall hadsupplied Germanespionage channels withdetailed, but false,information, including areport that over onehundred warships andtransports were beingmassed in harbors onBritain’s west and south

coasts, rather than theeast-coast ports that weretypically used to resupplyBritain’s continentalforces. As a final touch,Hall persuaded theAdmiralty to order a haltto all ship traffic betweenEngland and Hollandstarting on April 21, thekind of order that mightprecede the launch of aninvasion.

Germanmilitary leaderswereat first skeptical,butthis new announcementproved persuasive. Room40 listened in on wirelessmessagessentonApril24,from a German station atAntwerp. “An untriedagent reports fromEngland: Large transportof troops from south andwest coast of England toContinent. Large numbers

of troops at Liverpool,Grimsby,Hull.”Thencametheordersto

Schwieger andcommanders of the otherfive U-boats instructingthem to depart and todestroy anything thatresembled a trooptransport.Room 40 kept close

watchonU-20.Theboat’sfrequent use of wireless

provided rich detail aboutits course and speed. At2:00 P.M. on Friday, April30,thesubmarinereportedits location. Two hourslater,itdidsoagain,anditcontinued making reportseveryhouruntilmidnight,and every two hoursthereafter until eighto’clock the next morning,Saturday,May1.

THEDISCOVERYof thenewU-boat foray came against abackdrop of mountingthreat.The Admiralty received

dozens of messagesreporting submarinesightings, most false, butstill unsettling. An Irishpolicemanclaimedtohavespotted three U-boatstraveling together up theRiverShannon,anunlikely

scenario. Off England’seastcoastasteamerpickedupanunexploded torpedofloating in the sea, withmarkings that identified itas belonging to U-22, asister to Schwieger’ssubmarine. Off thesoutheast tip of Italy ayoung Austrian U-boatcommander named Georgvon Trapp, later to gaineternal renown when

played by ChristopherPlummer in the film TheSound of Music, fired twotorpedoes into a largeFrench cruiser, the LeonGambetta.Theshipsankinnine minutes, killing 684sailors. “So that’s whatwarlookslike!”vonTrappwrote in a later memoir.He told his chief officer,“Wearelikehighwaymen,sneaking up on an

unsuspecting ship in sucha cowardly fashion.”Fighting in a trench oraboard a torpedo boatwouldhavebeenbetter,hesaid. “There you hearshooting, hear yourcomradesfall,youhearthewounded groaning—youbecome filled with rageand can shootmen in selfdefense or fear; at anassault you can even yell!

But we! Simply cold-blooded to drown a massofmeninanambush!”

ON SATURDAY,May 1, citingthenewsortiebyU-20andthe other U-boats, theAdmiralty postponed thedeparturesoftwowarshipsthat were scheduled tohold gunnery practice intheopensea.

At some point that day,through Captain Hall, theAdmiralty learned of theGerman Embassy’sadvertisementpublishedinNew York that morningthat seemed to warnpassengers againsttraveling on the Lusitania.Byday’sendthenewswasknown to every Briton orAmerican who happenedto read a newspaper. The

ship’s date of departureand its expectedarrival inLiverpool a week laterwere now in theforeground of publicawareness.But Room 40 and those

officials privy to theMysteryknewmuchmore:that the German wirelessstation at Norddeich wasbroadcasting theLusitania’s schedule and

that the six newlydispatched U-boats werenow en route. Room 40also knew that one ofthose boats was U-20, aprolific killer of ships andmen, and that it wasmaking its way toward apatrol zone in watersvisited by every Cunardfreighter and liner boundfor Liverpool, and soon tobe traversed by the

Lusitaniaitself.Although this

accumulation of facts—afresh swarm ofsubmarines, a grand linerunderwayinthefaceofapublic warning—wouldseem a stimulus forsleeplessnightsamongthetopmenof theAdmiralty,neither the new surge inU-boat activity nor theimminent arrival of U-20

was communicated toCaptain Turner. Nor wasany effort made to escortthe Lusitania or divert itfrom its course, as theAdmiralty had done forthe ship the precedingMarch and for theTransylvania and AusoniainJanuary.Like everyone else at

Cunard, Captain TurnerhadnoideaRoom40even

existed.

THE ADMIRALTY’S focus waselsewhere, on a differentship that it deemed farmorevaluable.

WASHINGTON

LOST

IN WASHINGTON, EDITH GALTCAME INCREASINGLY TO OCCUPY

President Wilson’sthoughts and imagination.Throughout April she was

a regular dinner guest attheWhiteHouse,althoughfor the sake of proprietyshe and Wilson alwaysdinedwith others present.At one point theydiscussed a book thatWilson particularly liked,called Round My House:NotesofRuralLifeinFranceinPeaceandWar,byPhilipGilbert Hamerton. Wilsonorderedheracopyfroma

bookseller, but in themeantime he sent over acopy from the Library ofCongress. “I hope it willgiveyoualittlepleasure,”he wrote, on Wednesday,April 28. “I covet nothingmore than to give youpleasure,—you have givenmesomuch!”He added, “If it rains

this evening, would it beany fun for you to come

around [and] have a littlereading—and, if it doesnotrain,areyougameforanother ride?” By “ride,”hemeantoneofthedrivesthathe so liked to take inthe White House Pierce-Arrow.She declined theinvitation, gently, havingpromised to spend theevening with her mother,but thanked him for his

personalnoteandtoldhimhow it helped “fill mygoblet of happiness.” Herhandwritingmadea sharpcontrast to Wilson’s.Where his leaned forwardandproceededinperfectlyhorizontal phalanxes onthe page, hers leanedbackward and veered andbunched, in a crossbetween block printingand cursive, with random

curls here and there, as ifshewroteallherlettersina carriage rolling overcobblestones. She thankedhim for the way he hadclosed his note, “Yoursincereandgratefulfriend,Woodrow Wilson.” It hadbeen particularlywelcomeon that Wednesdayevening, after a day ofgloom caused bydepression, to which she

appeared prone. “Such apledge of friendship,” shewrote, “blots out theshadows that have chasedmetoday,andmakesAprilTwentyEightharedletterdayonmycalendar.”ThenewlyorderedbookarrivedattheWhiteHousesoon afterward, and onFriday, April 30, Wilsonsent it along to Edith’shouse near Dupont Circle,

with a brief note. “It’s agreat privilege to bepermitted to share anypart of your thought andconfidence. It puts me inspiritsagainandmakesmefeel as if my private lifehad been recreated. But,better than that, it makesmehope that Imay be ofsomeusetoyou,tolightenthe days with whole-hearted sympathy and

complete understanding.That will be a happinessindeed.” He also sentflowers.In seeking to brighten

herdays,hebrightenedhisown.Here inEdith, in themidst of world chaos, hefound a purpose to whichhe could devote himselfthat took him, if onlytemporarily, out of hisapprehension about the

wideningwarandthefateof the larger world. Shewas, to him, “a heaven—haven—sanctuary.” Morethan this, her presencehelped him clarify histhoughts about thenation’s trials. On theireveningridesintheWhiteHouse Pierce-Arrow, hespoke to her of the warand his concerns as heprobably would have

spoken to his late wife,Ellen,therebyhelpinghimorder his own thoughts.“From the first,” Edithwrote, “he knew he couldrely onmy prudence, andwhat he said went nofurther.”Edith, meanwhile, had

begun to look at her ownlife through a new lens.Wilson’s interest, and thedash and charm of the

world into which he hadbrought her, had causedher own days to seememptier and less worthy.Thoughherowneducationhad been haphazard, shelongedfor lifeonahigherplane, for good talk aboutart,books,andthetectonicupheavalsofworldevents.Afriendofhers,NathanielWilson, no relation to thepresident, once told her

that he sensed she mightone day influence greatevents—“perhapsthewealorwoe of a country.” Butshe had to be open to it,hewarned.“Inordertofityourself forthisthingthatI feel will come to you,you must work, read,study,think!”Edith saw her driveswith President Wilson as“life giving.” She felt an

immediate bond. Theytraded recollections of theold South, the hard daysthat followed the CivilWar.Shehadnevermetaman like Wilson—intensely bright, but alsowarmandsolicitousofherfeelings. It was all veryunexpected.What Edith did not yet

appreciatewasthatWilsonwas now a man in love,

andasWhiteHouseusherIke Hoover observed,Wilsonwas“nomeanmanin love-makingwhenoncethe germ has found itsrestingplace.”The president’s valet,

Arthur Brooks, put itsuccinctly:“He’sagoner.”

AS DISTRACTED as he was bythe charms of Mrs. Galt,

Wilson also grewincreasingly concernedabout the drift of worldevents. The western fronthad become areciprocating engine ofblood and gore, each sideadvancing then retreatingacross a no-man’s-landlaced with barbed wire,gouged with shell holes,and mounded with deadmen.OnSaturday,May1,

theGermansbeganaseriesof assaults in the YpresSalient, in what wouldbecome known as theSecondBattleofYpres,andonce again used poisongas. Neither side hadgained any ground sincethe “first” battle theprevious fall, despitecombined casualty countsin the tens of thousands.On this day, however, the

German offensivesucceeded in pushing theBritish back almost to thetownofYpres.ACanadianphysician caring for thewounded at a nearby aidstation in Boezinge, inWest Flanders, Belgium,wouldlaterwritethemostfamouspoemtoarisefromthewar:“InFlandersfieldsthe poppies blow /Between the crosses, row

on row.…” By the end ofthe month, the Britishwould regain their lostground and advanceanotherthousandyards,ata cost of sixteen thousanddead and wounded, orsixteen men per yardgained. The Germans lostfivethousand.Onesoldier intheYpres

Salient, at Messines,Belgium, wrote of the

frustration of the trenchstalemate. “We are still inouroldpositions,andkeepannoying the English andFrench. The weather ismiserable and we oftenspend days on end knee-deepinwaterand,whatismore, under heavy fire.We are greatly lookingforward to a brief respite.Let’s hope that soonafterwardsthewholefront

will startmoving forward.Thingscan’tgoonlikethisfor ever.” The author wasa German infantryman ofAustrian descent namedAdolfHitler.Elsewhere,awhollynewfront was about to open.Hoping to break theimpasse in Europe,Churchill orchestrated amassive navalbombardment and

amphibious landingagainst Turkey in theDardanelles. The ideawasto force the strait andbreak through to the Seaof Marmara, and fromtheretolinkarmswiththeRussian navy in the BlackSea, and through amassive show of navalforce off Constantinoplecompel Turkey tosurrender.Anoffensiveup

the Danube River toAustria-Hungary was tofollow.Itlookedeasy.Theplanners even imaginedthey might be able tocomplete the drive to theBlackSeawithshipsalone.An old saying applied:Man plans, God laughs.The result was disaster—lost ships, thousands ofmen dead, and anotherimmobile front, this one

ontheGallipoliPeninsula.Meanwhile, in theCaucasus, a Russianadvance against Turkishforces steadily gainedground.TheTurksblamedtheir losses on localpopulations of Armenians,whom they suspected ofassisting theRussians,andbegan a systematicslaughter of Armeniancivilians. By May 1, the

Turkshadkilledover fiftythousand Armenian men,women, and children inVan Province, in easternTurkey. The head of theArmenian church sent aplea for help directly toWilson;hedemurred.America, secure in itsfortress of neutrality,watched the war at aremove and found it allunfathomable.

Undersecretary of StateRobert Lansing, numbertwo man in the StateDepartment, tried to putthis phenomenon intowords in a privatememorandum. “It isdifficult, ifnot impossible,for us here in the UnitedStates to appreciate in allits fullness the greatEuropeanWar,” he wrote.“We have come to read

almostwithindifferenceofvastmilitaryoperations,ofbattle lines extending forhundreds of miles, of thethousandsofdyingmen,ofthe millions suffering allmannerofprivation,ofthewide-spread waste anddestruction.” The nationhad become inured to itall, he wrote. “Theslaughter of a thousandmen between the trenches

in northern France or ofanother thousand on afoundering cruiser hasbecomecommonplace.Weread the headlines in thenewspapersandletitgoatthat. The details have losttheirinterest.”But the tendrils ofconflict seemed to reachmore andmore insistentlytoward America’s shores.On April 30, five weeks

after the sinking of theFalaba and the loss ofAmerican passenger LeonThrasher, first detailsarrived in Washingtonabout another attack, inwhich a German aircrafthad bombed a U.S.merchant ship, theCushing,asittraversedtheNorth Sea. Three bombsfell, but only one struck.No one was hurt and the

damage was minor. Justthedaybefore, in anotherprivate memorandum,Lansing had written, “Aneutral in time ofinternational war mustalways show forbearance,but never in the course ofhistory have the patienceand forbearance ofneutrals been put to sosevereatestastoday.”He saw grave meaning

in the attack on theCushing. “German navalpolicy is one of wantonand indiscriminatedestruction of vesselsregardless of nationality,”he wrote to SecretaryBryan, on Saturday, May1. But Wilson and Bryan,though troubled by theincident, resolved to treatit with morecircumspection, as

indicated in a report bythe New York Times: “Itwasnotthoughtinofficialquarters that any seriousissue would be raised,because it isaccepted thatthe bombs were notdropped deliberately, butunder the impression thata hostile vessel was beingattacked.” This was agenerous appraisal: at thetime, the Cushing was

flying an American flag,anditsownershadpaintedtheship’snameonitshullinsix-footletters.Another piece of news,

more troubling in nature,had not yet reached theTimesor theWhiteHouse.ThatSaturday—thedayoftheLusitania’s departure—a German U-boattorpedoedanAmericanoiltanker, the Gulflight, near

the Isles of Scilly offEngland’s Cornish coast,killing two men andcausingthedeathbyheartattack of its captain. Theship remained afloat, ifbarely, and was beingtowedtoSt.Mary’sIsland,the largest of the Scillies,45mileswestofCornwall.InWashingtonthedawn

brought only a lovelyspring Saturday, with

temperatures destined torise into the seventiesandsend men to theirhaberdashersfortheirfirststraw“lids” of the season.The crowns of hats wereexpectedtobeshorterthisyear, the brims broader;gentlemen of course wereexpected to wear summergloves made of silk, tokeep their hands, as oneadputit,“coolandclean.”

The day promised to beoneinwhichWilsoncouldindulge his dream, hishope, of love and an endtoloneliness.

LUSITANIA

UNDERWAY

THE SHIP WAS SCHEDULED TODEPART AT 10:00 A.M., butnow came a delay. Inwartime, Britain’sAdmiralty held the power

to requisition for militaryservice any ship underBritish flag. At verymuchthe last minute, theAdmiralty commandeeredapassengershipdockedatNew York, the Cameronia,which provided service toLiverpool and Glasgow.The Cameronia’s captainreceived his orders just ashis ship was about todepart. Now some forty

passengers and theirbelongings, and fivefemale crew, were to betransferred to theLusitania. Exactly howthese passengers all feltabout it, given themorning’s news about theGerman warning, cannotbe known, though at leastoneaccountholdsthatthepassengers were pleased,for the Lusitania

representedthepinnacleofseaborne luxury andwould, they believed, getthem to Liverpool muchfasterthanthesmallerandslowerCameronia.Aboard the Lusitania,one passenger, RichardPreston Prichard, tookadvantage of this delay tounpack one of his twocamerasandbringitupondecksothathecouldtake

photographs of the cityand harbor. This camerawasaKodakNo.1,whichcollapsed into a formcompactenoughtofitintoacoatpocket.Prichard was twenty-

nine years old, and stoodfive feet ten inches tall.His mother and brothercalled him Preston,possibly to avoid theunfortunate rhythm

inherent insayingRichardPrichard.Theyofferedthisdescription of him: “Darkbrown hair, with highforehead, blue eyes, andprominent features. VeryDeepdimpleinchin.” Theunderlining was theirs,and indeed the cleft inPrichard’s chin was asalient landmark. Inanothermanitmighthavebeen disfiguring, but for

him it was one feature inan indisputably handsomeface, otherwise graced byfull lips, dark eyebrows,pale skin, and rich darkhaircombedup inawavefrom his forehead, allanchored by those blueeyes, so striking in amanwith dark hair and brows—“a most interestingface,” one passenger said,“with marked features

whichanyoneonceseeingcouldscarcelyforget.”Prichard was a medical

student at McGillUniversity in Montreal,Canada, where he hadenrolled after trying hishand at various jobs,including lumberjack andfarmer. He had moved toCanada after the death ofhis father, to earn moneytosendbacktohismother

in England. He wastraveling in second class,room D-90, an interiorcabin opposite theLusitania’sbarbershop,andshared the room withthree other men, allstrangers to one another.Hehadanupperberthandcarried with him three“grips,” or suitcases. Heoftenworeatieclipwithagold ring inlaid with tiny

red and white “lavaheads,” decorative facescarved from the kind oflava rock often used forcameos and brooches. Hehad packed two suits forthe crossing, one darkblue, the other a morecasualsuitingreen.Ondeck,heencountered

another young man,Thomas Sumner, ofAtherton, England, who

also had a camera.(Sumner bore no relationto Cunard’s New Yorkmanager,CharlesSumner.)Both hoped to takephotographsoftheharbor.Thedaywascoolandgray—“ratherdull,”asSumnerputit—andthiscausedthetwo to wonder whatexposurestouse.Theyfellto talking aboutphotography.

Sumner liked Prichardimmediately. He saw himas“suchanother fellowasmyself.” Both weretraveling solo, and theyweredestinedtoencountereach other often duringthe voyage. Sumner likedPrichard’s ability to takegreat delight in life butwithout intruding onothers. He “seemed verypleasant and enjoyed

himself in a very quietmanner,” Sumner wrote,“—you will understandwhat I mean, [he] didn’tgo about in a rowdyfashion like lotsof fellowsdo having a time.” Afellow second-classpassenger, HenryNeedham,saidofPrichard,“He was a great favoriteonboard,he arranged thewhist drives & seemed to

do most of the work.” Awhist drive was a socialevent during whichpassengers groupedthemselves in pairs andplayedgameaftergameofwhistuntiloneteamwon.NowPrichardwasonhis

waybacktoEnglandforavisit,andaccordingtooneofhis cabinmates,ArthurGadsden, he was veryexcited to be doing so

—“counting the time”until his arrival, Gadsdensaid.

THE TRANSFER of theCameronia’s passengerstook two hours. Althoughlater this delay wouldprove significant to adegree far greater than itsbrevity might suggest, fornow it was merely

maddening. CaptainTurner prided himself onhisskillatdeftlymanagingtheLusitania’s arrivalsanddepartures, which meantcasting off precisely onschedule.Turner had no concern

about the Germanwarning. Shortly beforedeparture,hewasstandingon the ship’s promenadedeck, talking with Alfred

Vanderbilt and CharlesFrohman,whenoneoftheship-news men—apparently not JackLawrence—approachedandaskedVanderbilt ifhethought he’d be as luckythistimeashehadbeenindecidingnottosailontheTitanic. Vanderbilt smiledbutsaidnothing.Turner put his hand on

Vanderbilt’s shoulder and

said to the reporter, “Doyou think all these peoplewould be booking passageon board the Lusitania ifthey thought she couldbecaught by a Germansubmarine? Why it’s thebest joke I’ve heard inmany days, this talk oftorpedoingtheLusitania.”Both Vanderbilt and

Turnerlaughed.

ANOTHERDELAYoccurred,butforthisoneCaptainTurnerwas at least partlyresponsible. His niece, theactressMercedesDesmore,had come aboard for aquick tour andwasnearlystranded when the crew,having boarded all theextra Cameroniapassengers, removed thegangway. Turner angrilyordereditreplacedsothat

hisniececouldgetoff.Theprocess further postponedtheship’sdeparture.One passenger, setdesigner Oliver Bernard,took note. “CaptainTurner,” he wrote, later,“neglected his duty at thewharf in New York at atime when the vesselshouldhavebeensailing—by having a relative onboard.” By the time

Bernardmade this charge,hehadcometounderstandwhatfewothersseemedtograsp, which was that onthis particular voyage,given the convergence ofdisparate forces, timingwas everything. Even thebriefest delay could shapehistory.

THE MEN operating the

motion-picture cameraoutside the Cunardterminal moved it to ahigher prospect,apparently the building’sroof,until thecamerawasat about the height of theship’s bridge,with its lensaimed downward tocapture scenes on thedecks below. In the film,passengers crowd thestarboard side, many

waving whitehandkerchiefs the size ofcloth diapers. One manflourishes an Americanflag, while nearby awomanpropsherbabyonadeckrail.A few moments later, a

young sailor climbs astairway to the dockingbridge, an elevated,narrow platform spanningthe deck near the ship’s

stern. He raises a whiteflagonapoleon theportside,thensprintsacrosstoraise a duplicate flag onthestarboardside,avisualsignal that departure isimminent.Soonafterward,just past noon, theLusitania begins to easebackward. The cameraremainsstationary,buttheslow, smooth motion ofthe ship produces the

illusion that it is thecamera that is moving,panning across the ship’sfulllength.A crewman standingatopalifeboatworksonitsropes. A first-cabinsteward steps smartly outof a doorway and walksdirectly to a malepassenger, as if deliveringamessage.At thetopofastairway, staring directly

atthecamera,isamanthefilmmakers instantlyrecognize,ElbertHubbard,in his Stetson, though hiscravat is barely visibleunder the buttoned frontofhisovercoat.The ship’s bridge now

passesby,atcameralevel,and there is Turner, inframe 289. He stands atthe starboard end of thebridge wing. As the ship

slidespastthecamera,thecaptain, smiling, turnstoward the lens andremoveshishat,once,inabrief wave, then leanscomfortably against therail.Once the ship hasbacked fully into theHudson, two tugboatsgingerly nudge its bowtoward the south,downstream, and the ship

begins to move under itsown power. As theLusitania at last exits theframe, the wharves ofHobokenbecomevisibleinthedistance,heavilyhazedwithsmokeandmist.Thefilmends.

WHILE MOVING downriverTurner kept his speedslow, as freighters,

lighters, tugs, and ferriesof all sizes adjusted theirowncoursestomakeway.The Hudson here wasbusy. A 1909 sea chartshows the shore ofManhattan so closelypacked with piers as toevoke a piano keyboard.The river was alsosurprisingly shallow, justdeepenoughtoaccepttheLusitania’s nearly 36-foot

draft. Turner’s crew hadbalancedthevesselsowellthat at the time ofdeparture the draft at thebow, as indicated bymarkings on the hull,wasjust 4 inches deeper thanatthestern.The river was lined on

both sides with piers andterminals; on the NewJersey flank—the rightside as the ship moved

down the river—lay thevasttrack-coveredwharvesof various railroads,among them the Erie, thePennsylvania,andtheNewJerseyCentral.Onthe leftwas a succession of piers,bearing, in order ofdescentdowntheHudson,names that spoke to theubiquityofseatravel:

SouthPacificCo.

ColonialLineAlbanyLineClydeLineSavannahLinePeople’sLineOldDominionLineBenFranklinLineFallRiverLineProvidenceLine

Heretoowerethemanyferries that carried goodsand people between New

Jersey and the city, withterminals at Desbrosses,Chambers, Barclay,Cortland, and LibertyStreets. The ferry to theStatue of Liberty operatedfrom the southernmost tipofManhattan.AstheLusitaniamadeits

way through the harbor,signs of the war becameevident. The ship passedone of Germany’s crack

liners, the giantVaterland,tied to a Hoboken wharf.Over 60 percent larger ingross tonnage than theLusitania, the Vaterlandhad once held the BlueRiband, but on the firstday of the war the shiphadducked forsafety intoNewYorkHarbor,toavoidbeing captured and put touse by the British navy, averyrealpossibility,asthe

passengersof theLusitaniasoon would discover. TheVaterlandanditscrewhadbeen effectively internedinNewYorkeversince.Atleast seventeen otherGerman liners werelikewisestranded.Below the Battery,

where the Hudson andEast Rivers met to formNewYorkBay, thewatersgrew deeper and more

spacious. Here Turnerencountered familiarlandmarks. To the right,Ellis Island and next, ofcourse, Miss Liberty onBedloe’sIsland;onhisleft,Governors Island with itscircular fortress-prison,Castle Williams, followedby Red Hook in Brooklynand the breakwater of theErieBasin. In thedistancesprawled the Black Tom

wharves, a vastmunitionsdepot, which before thewar’s end would bedestroyed in an apparentact of sabotage. Evermindful of traffic, Turnermaintained a slow speed,especially in the Narrows,which were alwaysclogged with ocean linersand freighters, andperilous in fog. Bellspeeled in the haze as

random wakes tippedbuoys, evoking the soundsof churches on Sundaymorning.Meanwhile, theLusitania’s purser andstewards conducted theirusual inspection to detectstowaways. This beingwartime, they did sowithextra care and soon hadthreemen incustody.Themen appeared to speak

only German; one carriedacamera.The discovery wasreported to Staff CaptainAnderson. He in turnrequestedtheassistanceofPierpoint, the Liverpooldetective, and called aswell for the ship’sinterpreter. They learnedlittle, other than that thethree men were indeedGerman. What the

stowaways intended toaccomplish was unclear,but later speculation heldthat they hoped to findand photograph evidencethattheshipwasarmedorcarried contrabandmunitions.The three were lockedbelowdecksinamakeshiftbrig, pending arrival inLiverpool, at which pointthey were to be turned

over toBritish authorities.News of the arrests waskeptfromthepassengers.

ALTA PIPER, the daughter ofthefamousmedium,nevermade it aboard; neitherdid she refund her ticket.Unable to ignore thenight’s voices, but alsoapparently unable to stepforth and just cancel, she

chose the path taken byindecisive peoplethroughout history andspent the morning ofdeparture packing andrepacking her bags, overandover, letting theclockrun out, until at last sheheard the distant hornmarking the ship’sdeparture.

U-20

TOWARDFAIRISLE

ATDAWN,SATURDAY,ABOARDU-20, THERE WAS COFFEE, bread,marmalade, cocoa. Theboat’s ventilators issued amonotonous buzz.

Schwieger, atop theconning tower, noted thatthe sea was calm, “hereandthererainandfog.”Asteamship appeared upaheadbutwassoobscuredby mist and gray that hechose not to attack.Membersof thecrew tookturns smoking on deck, apastime forbidden withintheboatitself.The fog grew dense, so

much so that at 7:15 A.M.Schwieger ordered a diveto U-20’s customarycruising depth, 72 feet.The depth was greatenough to ensure that U-20wouldpassunderneathvesselsofeventhedeepestdraft. This was prudentpractice, for U-boats,despite their fearsomereputation, were fragilevessels, complex and

primitiveatthesametime.Menservedasballast.Inorder to quickly level or“dress”hisboat,orspeedadive, Schwieger wouldorder crewmen to run tothe bow or the stern. Thechaos might at first seemfunny,likesomethingfromone of the new KeystoneCops films, except for thefact that these maneuverswere executed typically at

moments of peril. U-boatswere so sensitive tochanges in load that themere launch of a torpedorequired men to shiftlocationtocompensateforthesuddenlossofweight.Theboatswereproneto

accident. They werepacked with complicatedmechanical systems forsteering,diving,ascending,and regulating pressure.

Amidallthiswerewedgedtorpedoes, grenades, andartillery shells. Along thebottomof thehull lay theboat’s array of batteries,filled with sulfuric acid,which upon contact withseawater produced deadlychlorine gas. In thisenvironment,simpleerrorscould, and did, lead tocatastrophe.One boat, U-3, sank on

its maiden voyage. Whenit was about two milesfrom the naval yard, itscaptain ordered a trialdive. Everything seemedfine, until the deck of theU-boat passed below thesurface and water beganpouring into the boatthrough a pipe used forventilation.The boat sank by thestern.The captainordered

all the crew, twenty-ninemen,intothebow;heandtwo other men stayed inthe conning tower. As thecrew squeezed forward,water filled the boatbehind them, causing airpressuretobuildtopainfullevels.All thisoccurred inabsolutedarkness.The batteries began

generating chlorine gas,which rose in a greenish

mist.Somegasenteredthebowcompartment,buttheboat’s air purificationsystem kept it fromreaching deadlyconcentrations. The airsupplydwindled.Onshore,navalofficials

did not learn of the crisisfor two hours and thendispatched two floatingcranes anda salvage ship,the Vulcan. The rescuers

devisedaplantoraisethebowto the surface so thatthe men within couldclimboutthroughthetwoforwardtorpedotubes.It took eleven hours for

divers to place thenecessary cables aroundthebow.Thecranesbeganlifting the boat. The bowbecamevisible.Thecablesbroke.The boat fell backward

into the sea. The diverstried again. This attempttook fourteenmore hours.By then the twenty-ninecrewmen had been sittingcrammed into the bow innearly airless darkness formore than twenty-sevenhours. But this attemptworked.Themenemergedthrough the tubes, tiredand gasping for air, butalive.

The conning towercontainingthecaptainandthe two other menremainedunderwater.Fivemore hours passed beforetheVulcanatlastmanagedtobringtheentireboat tothe surface. When therescuers opened theconning-tower hatch, theyfound its interior to benearly dry, but the threemen within were dead.

Chlorine gas had seepedupward into the towerthrough speaking tubesdesigned to allow officersto communicate with thecontrolroombelow.A subsequentinvestigation found thatthe indicator governingthe ventilation valvethrough which the waterentered theboathadbeeninstalled incorrectly. It

showed the valve wasclosedwhen in fact itwasopen.This outcome, though,

was still better than whatbefell a training U-boatthat sank with all aboardandcouldnotberaisedforfour months. Divers whoparticipated in an early,failed attempt at rescueheardtappingfromwithin.When theboatwas finally

raised, the cause of thedisaster was obvious. Ithad struck a mine. As towhathadoccurredwithin,aseamanpresentwhenthehatch was forced openfound vivid evidence ofthe kind of deathsubmariners most feared.He wrote, “The scratcheson the steel walls, thecorpses’ torn finger-nails,the blood-stains on their

clothes and on the walls,bore all too dreadfulwitness.”

THE FOG remained denseuntil about eleven o’clockSaturday morning, whenSchwieger gaugedvisibility to be goodenough to allow him tosurfaceandcontinueunderdiesel power. It was

always important torecharge the batteries, incaseofachanceencounterwith a destroyer or thesudden appearance of achoicetarget.Soon after surfacing,

Schwieger’s wireless manattemptedtocommunicatewith the Ancona, back atU-20’s base in Germany.There was no response.Thewirelessmanreported,

however, that he hadpicked up “strong enemywireless activity” nearby,at 500 meters. Schwiegertoldhimtostopsignaling,to avoid revealing theboat’spresence.U-20 continued north,

well off the eastern coastof England, following acourse that would take itover the top of Scotland,then south along

Scotland’s west coast.From there Schwiegerwould make his wayfarther south to Irelandand sail down Ireland’swest coast, then turn leftto enter the Celtic andIrish Seas between Irelandand England and proceedto his destination,Liverpool Bay. This routewas far longer, certainly,than traveling through the

English Channel but alsomuchsafer.Theboatmovedthrough4-foot swells, againstwindsthatnowcamefromthe northeast. Schwieger’slookoutswatchedforotherships,butinsuchgrayanddreary conditions it washardtospottheplumesofsmoke exhausted bysteamers.Visibility remained poor

throughouttheday,andinlate afternoon againworsened, until Schwiegeronce more found himselfenclosed in fog. By thistime, U-20 was crossingthe sea-lanes offEdinburgh, Scotland, thatfunneled into the Firth ofForth. On a sunny day,withsomanyshipscomingand going, the possibilityoffindingatargetinthese

waters would have beenhigh; but now, in the fog,attackwas impossible andthe risk of collision great.At fouro’clockheorderedthe boat to submerge anddescend again to cruisingdepth.That night the skies

cleared, and stars arcedfrom horizon to horizon.U-20 surfaced andSchwieger set a course

toward Fair Isle, in theShetland Islands, astridethe imaginary line thatdivided theNorthSeaandtheNorthAtlantic.Two days out, and no

longer able tocommunicate with hissuperiors, Schwieger wasnowwhollyonhisown.

LUSITANIA

RENDEZVOUS

ONCE OUTSIDE NEW YORKHARBOR, THE LUSITANIAaccelerated, but CaptainTurner did not yet orderits cruising speed.He first

hadarendezvoustomake,after the ship exitedAmerican territorialwaters, and it waspointlesstowastethecoalnecessary to reach topspeedwhenhesoonwouldhavetobringtheshiptoacompletestop.The ship’s decks grewmarkedly cooler, subjectnow to the winds of theopen Atlantic and the

breeze generated by theship’s own forwardmotion. Some passengersstilllingeredattherailstowatchthecoastlinerecede,but most went inside tosettle into theiraccommodations andunpack their belongings.Olderchildrenroamed thedecks,making friends andtesting out various meansof recreation, including,

yes, shuffleboard on thetopdeck.Youngerchildren—atleastthoseinfirstandsecond class—met thestewardesses who wouldtend to them during thevoyage and occupy themwhile their parents dinedin their respective diningrooms.Theodate Pope, thearchitect-spiritualist, andher companion, Edwin

Friend, went to the ship’sfirst-class reading andwriting room, part ofwhich was reserved forwomen, but which alsoservedastheship’slibrary,to which men also hadaccess. It was a large butcomfortable place thatspanned the width of ADeck, the ship’s topmostlevel, and was fitted withwriting desks and chairs.

Its walls were coveredwith pale silk in soft grayandcream.Silkcurtainsina pinkish hue called Rosedu Barry hung at itswindows.Thecarpetwasasoft rose. Men hadexclusiveuseofaseparatesimilarly sized chamberfarther back on A Deck,called the SmokingRoom,paneledinwalnut.Theodate found a copy

of that morning’s Sun, aNewYork newspaper, andbegantoread.The paper devoted agooddealofattentiontoavisitthatSecretaryofStateWilliam Jennings BryanhadmadetoNewYorktheprevious day. He hadtakentimeofffromforeignconcerns to speak at arally at Carnegie Hall, insupport of a campaign by

evangelist Billy Sunday topersuade people torenounce alcohol, and tosign a pledge of “totalabstinence.”Foraprevioustalk on the subject, inPhiladelphia, SecretaryBryan had drawn anoverflow crowd of 16,000people. The organizers inNew York expected asimilarcrushatthehall.Itdidn’t happen.Only about

2,500 people showed up,leaving about a third ofthe house empty. Bryanwore a black suit, a blackalpaca coat, and his blackstringtie.Attheendofhistalk,toastingtheaudience,he raised a glass—of icewater. Booker T.Washington, newly turnedfifty-nine, got up to speakas well and signed one ofBilly Sunday’s pledge

cards.Anotheritem,thisoutof

Washington, reportedPresident Wilson’sunhappiness at the factthat critics continued totake him to task forallowing the film TheClansman, by D. W.Griffith, to be screened atthe White House. It wasMay now; the screeninghad taken place on

February 18,withWilson,his daughters, andmembersof thecabinet inattendance. Based on thenovel The Clansman, byThomasDixon,whichwassubtitled An HistoricalRomance of the Ku KluxKlan, the film describedthe purported evils of theReconstruction era andpainted the Klan as theheroic savior of newly

oppressed whitesoutherners. The film, or“photoplay,” as it wascalled,hadbecomeahugehit nationwide, though itscritics, in particular thesix-year-old NationalAssociation for theAdvancement of ColoredPeople,decried itscontentand held protests outsidemovie theaters, promptingGriffith to give the film a

more palatable name, TheBirth of a Nation. OnFriday, April 30, thepresident’s personalsecretary,JosephTumulty,had issued a statementsaying,“ThePresidentwasentirely unaware of thecharacter of the playbefore it was presentedand has at no timeexpressed his approbationof it.” Wilson had agreed

to the showing, Tumultysaid, as a “courtesyextended to an oldacquaintance.”Andofcourse,therewas

thelatestnewsofthewar.A German drive againstthe Russians along theBaltic Sea had gainedground; back-and-forthfightinginChampagneandalong the Meuse hadgained nothing. German

troops reinforced theirposition in the YpresSalient. In Van Province,the Turks renewed theirattacks against Armeniancivilians; far to the west,Allied forces on theGallipoli Peninsula weresaid to have routed theTurks,thoughthisaccountwould shortly be proveninaccurate.Therewasalsoa brief report about the

bombing of the AmericanshipCushing.

THEODATE LOATHED the war.She saw Germany aswholly at fault andrejected German attemptsto shift blame to Britain.“Whatever else could theyexpect when they haveinsultedEnglandforyears,andsheisnowsimplyand

honorably keeping heragreementwith the TripleAlliance?”Theodatewrote,referring to England’sintervention in defense ofBelgian neutrality. Shelonged for a crushingAllied victory that wouldleave Germany blasted“beyond recognition.” Shedid not want the UnitedStates to get involved,however. The preceding

October she had heardfrom a spirit medium, anacquaintance,whoclaimedtohavereceivedamessagefrom the beyond: “Underno circumstances,whatever, should theUnited States participatebelligerently in theEuropean conflict.”Theodate had forwardedthe message to PresidentWilson.

What most caughtTheodate’s attention inSaturday’sSunwasanitematthetopofpage1,aboutthe German Embassy’swarning.Thiswasthefirstshe had heard of it. Theonly warning of any kindthat shehad seen thus farwas in the “Informationfor Passengers” brochureshe had received fromCunard after buying her

ticket, which named herfellow first-class travelersand included this notice:“Passengers are informedthatProfessionalGamblersare reported as frequentlycrossing on AtlanticSteamers, and are warnedto take precautionsaccordingly.”TheSuncasttheGermanannouncement in benignterms, under the headline

“Germany Moves to StopTours Abroad.” The itemincluded the text of thewarning,callingitthefirststep in a campaign byGermany “to head offAmerican travel toEuropeduring the comingsummer.”Theodate told Friendabout it and said, “Thatmeans of course that theyintendtogetus.”Shewas

certain, however, thatwhentheLusitaniareachedBritish waters it wouldreceive an escort. Theprospectgavehercomfort.

NELLIE HUSTON, thirty-oneyears old and on herwayback to England afternearlyayear stayingwithher aunt and uncle inChicago, began a long

letter to a woman namedRuth, which she plannedto continue writingthroughout the voyage. Itwas full of chatty details.She was traveling insecond class and notedhow crowded it wasbecause of the additionalpassengers from theCameronia—so crowdedthat the breakfast servicehadbeendividedintotwo

sittings. She complainedthatshehadbeenassignedto the first, at 7:30 A.M.,which meant she wouldhave to get up eachmorningat7:00.Shenotedas well that the day wassurprisingly cold and thatshe was glad she hadbroughtherheavycoat.A lot of her friends andfamily knew she wassailing that day on the

Lusitania.“My!”shewrote.“ThemailIgottoday.Thestewardwhowasgiving itoutwasamused.Hesaiditmight be my birthday.”Friends and relatives hadsentherlettersandgifts.“Ihadapairofsilkstockingsfrom Prue and a piece ofsilk fromAuntRuthandarose. I had cards fromNellie Casson, WillHobson, Tom, Edith Klaas

and a nice letter from Luwhich I’m going toanswer.”Some were concerned

about her voyage. “I’m sosurprisedtohearthatWilland Bee cried, I didn’tthink it would worrythem.”Sheherselfhatedtocry, but, she wrote, “I’vefeltlikedoingitquitealotsinceI’veleft.”

UPON ENTERING internationalwaters, Turner slowed theship.Inthedistance,threelarge vessels materializedfromthehaze.ThesewereBritish warships, stationedtheretokeeptheVaterlandand the other Germanliners locked inNewYorkHarbor. Turner ordered“full astern” to bring theLusitania to a completestop.

Two of the three shipswere cruisers, HMS Bristoland Essex; the third wastheCaronia,aCunardlinerconverted to military useand now heavily armed.Turner had once been itscaptain. The two cruiserslay off the Lusitania’sstarboardside,theCaroniaoff the port, each at adistance of about a“cable’s length,”

equivalent to a tenth of anautical mile, or roughly600 feet. All threewarships lowered a smallboat, and the sailors ineachbeganrowingtowardthe Lusitania, through“swirling mist-veils,” asCapt. James Bisset, theCaronia’s master, recalled.The boats carried mailboundforEngland.“Therewas scarcely a breeze to

ruffle the surface of theocean,” Bisset wrote. “Alightmistclungaroundtheships,likeashroud.”Bisset spotted Captain

Turner on the bridge, andStaffCaptainAnderson.Heknew the two men well.Some years earlier Bissethad served under both asjunior third officer on theUmbria,anolderpassengerliner.

Turner and Andersonsteppedoutonto theport-side wing of the bridgeand waved to the officerson the Caronia’s bridge.Everyone seemed to knowoneanother,havingservedunder,beside,oroveroneanotherthroughtheyears.AfterTurnerandAndersonwent back inside thebridge, the Lusitania’ssecond officer, Percy

Hefford, appeared on theport wing. “He was aspecial friend of mine,”Bissetrecalled.Beforebothjoined Cunard, they hadserved together on anancient tramp steamer.The thing Hefford hadwantedmostwas to serveaboard the Lusitania.“Now, there he was,”Bissetwrote.The twomenused their

arms to semaphoregreetingsandgood-byes.“Cheerio!”“Goodluck!”“Goodvoyage!”After the boats pulled

away to return to theirrespective ships, CaptainTurner gave the order formaximum speed. Fullahead. The Lusitania’sgiant propellers raised aNiagara of water at the

stern, and the ship beganto move. Turner soundedhis foghorn three times,the“Sailor’sFarewell.”Ordinarily, all the

Lusitania’s furnaces andboilers would be fullyengagedduringacrossing,with all four funnelsbelching smoke, but thewar had caused a declinein travel so dramatic thatCunard had been

compelled to seek costreductions wherever itcould find them. Turnerwas under orders issuedtheprecedingNovembertorun the ship using onlythree of its four boilerrooms, for a savings of1,600tonsofcoalpertrip.But this also reduced theship’s maximum speed by16 percent, from25 knotsto 21, ironic considering

the ship’s originalmandate. Thoughseemingly a modestreduction, it nonethelesscut the distance theLusitania could traveleachdayby100nauticalmiles,adding one full day to atransatlanticcrossing.Amanaboardoneofthewarships took aphotograph,believedtobethe last ever taken of the

Lusitania, which showedthe ship steaming off intothemist-shroudedAtlantic,smoke pouring from justthree funnels. Cunard didnot publicize the change,andfew,ifany,passengersknewithadbeenmade.

ROOM40

CADENCE

INTERCEPTEDPOSITIONREPORTS:U-20SATURDAY,MAY1,1915

2:00A.M.:“IN25DAREA

7(55.21N[LATITUDE]3.15E[LONGITUDE])”

4:00A.M.:“IN157AAREA5(55.39N2.45E)”

6:00A.M.:“IN124AAREA5(55.51N2.15E)”

8:00A.M.:“IN59AAREA5(56.15N1.18E)”

REPORTSCEASE.

PARTII

JUMPROPEANDCAVIAR

U-20

“THEBLINDMOMENT”

BY 8:25 A.M., SUNDAY, FAIRISLE WAS VISIBLE 3 SEA MILESahead, to starboard, butSchwieger could not yet

make out the “Mainland”of the Orkneysarchipelago, off thenorthernmost tip ofScotland,whichbynowheexpectedtoseeoffhisportside. The Mainland wasthe largest island in theOrkneys and had thehighestelevation.On this thirddayof thecruise, there was newtension in the boat. U-20

wasabouttoleave“BrightHans” behind and enterthecloselywatchedwatersof the North Atlantic,north of Scotland, in thevicinity of the big Britishbase at Scapa Flow.Schwieger could not havebeen surprised, therefore,whenjustafterlogginghislocation, he spotted twodestroyers in the distance,movingwithadeliberation

that suggested they wereonpatrol.He ordered a fast dive,climbed down into theconning tower, and closedthehatchbehindhim.

SIMPLE ENOUGH in concept,diving was in fact acomplex and perilousprocessthattooktimeandleft a U-boat exposed to

attack.Withawell-trainedcrew, a submarine of U-20’s class could descendfrom a fully surfacedcondition to a level deepenough to clear the hullsof the largest ships in aslittle as seventy-fiveseconds. In a crisis,however, each of thoseseconds could seem verylong. Certain older boatsneeded from two and a

halfminutestoasmanyasfive. Their crewsnicknamed them “suicideboats.”While diving, aU-boat was at its mostvulnerable, subject torammingbywarships,andto gunfire from longdistances away.Penetration by a singleshell would prevent a U-boat from submerging,thus eliminating its one

advantage and its solemeansofescape.The men controlling U-20’s bow and sternhydroplanes—horizontalrudders—now adjustedthem for maximum dive,bow planes down, sternplanesup.To submerge,asubmarine did not simplyfill its dive tanks withwater and sink. As theboatmovedforwardunder

power, water flowed overtheplanesinthesamewaythat air passes over thewings and flaps of anaircraft, driving the boatbelow the surface.Seawater would bepumped into the tanksonly to the degreenecessary to achieve aparticular depth. Findingthis point took skill, for itvaried from day to day,

even moment to moment,as sea conditions changedandtheweightoftheboatsteadily declined. ThefiringofatorpedomadeaU-boat suddenly 3,000pounds lighter. Even theconsumption of fooddiminished the boat’sweight by a perceptibleamount. The boxes andcrates in which food wasstoredwentoverboard;the

supply of fresh water, asignificant source ofweight,felldaily.The buoyancy of

seawater changed inaccord with shifts intemperature and salinity.In the Baltic, boatsdescended much morereadily than in the moreheavily salted waters ofthe North Sea. Asubmarine passing the

mouth of a river mightsuddenly find itselfdropping because of theoutrushoffreshwater,likean airplane passingthrough an air pocket.Changes in watertemperatureduetocurrentand depth also affectedbuoyancy. Amiscalculationcouldcausecatastrophe. A submarinemightbobunexpectedlyto

the surfacewithinviewofadestroyer.Bad weather further

complicated things. Highwaves could prevent thehydroplanes from diggingfully into the sea.Commander Paul Koenigrecalled one terrifyingmorning when, aftersurfacing into a storm, hespotted the smoke plumeof a nearby destroyer and

ordered an emergencydive. The men in thecontrol room belowopened vents to admitwater into the tanks atboth sides of the bow toreducebuoyancy.Theboatstayed on the surface.Koenig watched throughoneofthetinywindowsinthe conning tower withincreasing anxiety as eachnew wave lifted the bow

intotheair.Koenig ordered the

hydroplanes tilted to theirmaximum angles andcalledforfullspeedahead,hoping the accelerationwould increase thedownward drive of theplanes. Still the boatstayed on the surface,rising and falling in thewaves.Atlasttheplanesdugin,

and the boat began todescend. But now a newproblem presented itself.The boat plummeteddownward at an angle sosteep that Koenig had tograsp the periscopeeyepiece to keep fromfalling. The “manometer,”which registered depth,showed a startling rate ofdescent. Then came animpact. Men were

propelled forward, alongwitheverythingelseintheboat that wasn’t bolted inplace.There was silence. The

faceofthemanometercastareddishlightthroughthecontrol room. One officerbroke the tension. “Well,we seem tohavearrived,”hesaid.Theboatstoodatasteep

angle, about 36 degrees.

Thesternoscillatedupanddown. The enginescontinuedrunning,“ravingat intervals in a way thatmade thewhole boat roarfrom stem to stern,”Koenig wrote. The chiefengineerwasfirsttograspwhat was happening. Heorderedfullstop.Koenig understood. The

submarine’s bow waslodged in the seabed,

which here, according tohis charts, was 31 metersbelow the surface, about100 feet. His boat wastwice that in length.Withthe action of the waves,the stern at intervalsprotruded from thesurface,andthepropellersspuninopenair,stirringageyser of foam visible along way off. Koenigfeared—expected—that at

any moment a shell fromthe destroyer would comecrashingthroughthehull.Now, with the problem

defined, Koenig directedthe crew to fill the sterndiving tanks and blowwater from the bow.Gradually the submarinerose and righted butstayed safely submerged.Koenig ordered full speedandaway.

IN DIVING, timing wascrucial. As U-20 began itsdescent, its engineers shutdown the diesel enginesand engaged the electric.Allventsandexhaustportsleading to the exterior ofthe hull had to be closedand hatches sealed. Oncethis was done, Schwiegergave the order to beginadmitting water to the

dive tanks.Airwas forcedout through valves at thetop, and seawater enteredthrough valves below.Suction engines helpeddraw the water in. Tospeed the process,Schwieger sent acontingentofmenintothebow.Just as U-20 neared itscruising depth, Schwiegerordered air pumped back

into the tanks to halt theboat’s descent. The crewalways knew when thispointwasreachedbecausethe pumps would engagewithanangrygrowl.In thecontrol room, the

helmsmen maintaineddepth by adjusting thehydroplanes. To ascend toperiscope depth, theymaneuveredonlywith theplanes, not by filling the

dive tanks with air. Thisallowed more precisionandreducedthepossibilitythat the boat mightunexpectedly surface.Whilesubmerged,aU-boathad to keepmoving at alltimes, held trim andsteadybythehydroplanes.The only exception waswhen a boat was inshallow waters, where itcouldsitonthebottom.In

deep seas like the NorthAtlantic, this wasimpossible, for thepressures at the seabedwould crush a boat’s hull.The constant forwardmotion caused a problem.When the periscope wasup, itproducedawakeonthe surface, a whitefeatherofwatervisibleformiles.As U-20 descended, all

activity ceased for a fewmoments, save for thosetasks that made no noise.As always, the crewlistened for leaks andmonitored internal airpressure.Then came the momentcrews found so thrilling,when the boat was fullysubmerged and movingforwardthroughtheseaina way unlike that of any

other vessel, not grindingthroughwaveslikesurfaceships, but gliding, like abirdinair.A sightless bird,

however. The windows intheconningtoweraffordedaviewonlyof thingsnearat hand and in any casewere usually covered bysteel shutters. Travelinglike this required a greatdeal of confidence,

because Schwieger nowhad no way of knowingwhatlayahead.Inthisdaybefore sonar, a submarinetraveled utterly blind,trusting entirely in theaccuracyofseacharts.Onegreat fear of all U-boatmen was that a half-sunkderelict or an unchartedrock might lie in theirpath.

SHORTLY AFTER NOON onSunday, Schwieger gaveorders to ascend. Nowcame“theblindmoment,”as commanders called it,that dismayingly longinterval just before theperiscope broke thesurface. Everyone listenedcarefully for thesoundsofships transmitted throughthehull—therushofwaterpast a prow, the thrumof

propellers. There was nootherway to tellwhat layabove.AsSchwiegerstaredthrough the eyepiece, thewaterbecamebrighterandmore clear. These secondswere, according to onecommander, “some of themost nerve-racking that amancanendure.”The biggest fear for

Schwieger and fellowcommanders was that the

periscope would emergewithin close range of adestroyer,orworse, inthedestroyer’s path. One U-boatsurfacedsoclosetoashipthatthevessel’sblackhull filled the lens. Thecommander at firstthoughthewas looking ata particularly dark stormcloud.The instant Schwieger’s

periscope cleared the

surface, he made a fast360-degree sweep of thesurrounding seascape. Hesaw nothing of concern.Here a U-boat had asignificant advantage oversurface ships. Schwiegercould see the smokecomingfromthefunnelsofsteamships at a greatdistance, but the lookoutsaboard those ships had tobe much closer to spot

him.Schwieger gave theorder to bring thesubmarine fully to thesurface. Now, in additionto using the hydroplanes,the crew adjusted the air-water mix in the divetanks to increasebuoyancy. Within U-20,the crew heard a roar ascompressedairwasblastedinto the tanks to force

seawaterout.Sometimesacommanderchosetocomeall the way up, exposingthe boat’s deck; at othertimesheran“awash,”withjust the conning towerabove the surface,impartingasensationakintowalkingonwater.

U-20 EMERGED, but nowSchwieger found a

situation very differentthan his initial viewthrough the periscope hadledhimtoexpect.Theseaahead was swarming withBritish patrol vessels—sixof them—strung in a linebetween Fair Isle and thenorthernmost islandoftheOrkneys,NorthRonaldsay,whose lighthouse wasfamiliar to any marinertraversingthesewaters.

And behind him,Schwieger spotted twomore destroyers. He hadseen these earlier in theday but believed he hadoutdistanced them. In hislog hewrote, “they heavein sight again, coursetowards ‘U20’; one of thepatrolboats turns towardsus.”

LUSITANIA

ASUNDAYATSEA

AFTER HIS RENDEZVOUS WITH THETHREE BRITISH warships,Captain Turner broughtthe Lusitania to the speedhe hoped to maintain

throughoutthevoyage,21knots. He set anortheasterly bearing tobegina“circlecourse”thatwould takehimacross theAtlantic. This being May,when icebergs calved innorthern seas, Turnerchose the “long course,”whichveeredfarthersouththantheroute followed inlate summer and fall.Assuming all went well,

TurnerwouldarriveattheMersey Bar outsideLiverpool Harbor shortlybefore dawn on Saturday,May8.Timingwascrucial.Largeshipscouldcrossthebar only at high tide.Before the war, this hadposed no particularproblem. If a captainarrived too early or toolatehecouldjuststopandloiter awhile in the Irish

Sea.Butnowthatanysuchpause could prove fatal,captains timed theirarrivals to cross the barwithoutstopping.Throughout Sunday,May 2, the shipencountered rain and fog,and seas just turbulentenough to causeseasickness. Manypassengers retreated totheir rooms, but hardier

souls walked the decks,played cards, engaged theship’s typists for theircorrespondence, andsippedteaintheVerandahCafe,acalminggardenlikeplace with five hangingbaskets, six shrubs incontainers,andfortyotherplantsinboxesaroundtheroom. Some passengersread books on C Deck—also called the Shelter

Deck—protected fromrainby the underside of thedeck above. Passengerscould rent deck chairs fora dollar per voyage;another dollar got them ablanket, known in theship’s vernacular as a“rug.”At 10:30 Sunday

morning, church servicesbegan for twodenominations: Church of

England, in the first-classsaloon;RomanCatholic insecond. Many passengersslept late, planning towake at about eleven, intimeforlunch.

THEODATEPOPEawokeafteradifficult night. Her cabinhad been noisy, owing toits proximity to the threestaterooms booked by the

Crompton family, whoproved to be a boisterousgroup, as families of six,including an infant, tendto be. Always prone toinsomnia, she found thenoiseintolerableandaskedthe purser, McCubbin, tofind her a more suitablestateroom. Changingaccommodations whileunder way could be atricky business, but

McCubbin obliged andplaced her in a newstateroomthreedecksup.

SECOND-CLASS PASSENGER

William Uno Meriheina, atwenty-six-year-old race-car driver fromNew Yorktraveling to South Africaasa“specialagent”fortheGeneral Motors ExportCompany,gotupearlyand

took “a dandy salt waterbath.” The tubs on boardweresuppliedwithheatedseawater. Afterward, hedressed and went tobreakfast. “Plenty ofseasickness on board,” henoted, in a long day-by-day letter he was writingto his wife, Esther, “but Ifeelsplendid.”Meriheina—who, except

when traveling, went by

the name William MerryHeina—had been born inRussia, in the Duchy ofFinland (which wouldbecome independent in1917), and emigrated toNewYorkin1893.Hehada fascination with speedand by 1909 was racingcars in Brighton Beach,Brooklyn, including onerace that lasted twenty-four hours. He was also

one of the first drivers torace at the IndianapolisMotor Speedway after itopened in 1909. Hesurvived two crashes, oneinwhichhiscar,aLozier,rolled over twice, but lefthim unhurt. He also triedhis hand at flying andsurvived a collision at anairfield in Garden City,Long Island, in whichanother aircraft settled on

topof his inmidair.Onceagain he emergedunscathed. Said his wife,“A braver man neverlived.”He had chosen theLusitania because hebelieved it to be the“safest”ship.Intherushtoboardandsaygood-byetohis wife and theirdaughter, Charlotte, hehad not had a chance to

open the newspaper hehad bought beforeboarding. It was onlywhen the ship was aboutfiftymiles fromNewYorkthat he read about theGermanwarning.Hewasn’tworried.Now

and then the shipencountered French andBritish warships. OneFrench dreadnoughtturned around and

followed,but theLusitanialeftitbehind.Like other passengers,

he was unaware that theliner was traveling atreduced speed with oneboilerroomclosed,despitethe obvious visible clueprovided by the lack ofsmoke coming from thefourth funnel.Hebelievedtheshipwasmovingat itstop speedof25knots and

took pride in the pace.“We have passed quite afew vessels bound bothways,” he wrote. “Owingto our great speed wedon’t stay in sight of anyoneshipverylong.”He was also under the

impression the ship wasbeing watched over byBritish naval forces.“Evidently,”hewrote,“weare being carefully

convoyed all the wayacross.”

THAT MORNING CharlesLauriatgotupat8:00A.M.,called back toconsciousness by hissteward.Healsotookaseabath. Once dressed, hestrolled the first-classpromenade, stopping tochat with the Hubbards

and other acquaintances.He dined with histraveling companion,Lothrop Withington. Theytook their meals togetherin the opulent first-classdining room at the centerof D Deck, where some470 passengers at a timedinedat tablesarrayedontwo levels under a domefrescoed with cherubs,amid palm trees, potted

plants,whiteplasterwalls,and fluted Corinthiancolumns with gildedcapitals. Gold leaf seemedto coat every raisedsurface, from plasterwreaths and vines tobalustraderails.Lauriat was sufficiently

well known to Cunardofficers and crew that onsome past voyages he hadbeen allowed to climb up

intothecrow’snestontheship’s forward wirelessmast and stay therethroughout the day. Thiswas not, however,something Captain Turnerwas likely to let him do.Dealing with bloodymonkeysondeckwasonething; having themclimbingthewirelessmastwasanother.Lauriat knew well the

routines of shipboard life,including the daily poolswhere passengers placedbets on how many milesthe shipwould travel in agiven day. Places in thepool denoted a particulardistance and wereauctioned by a ship’sofficer. Passengers basedtheirbetsontheirsenseofhow the ship would faregiven theweatherand sea

conditionslikelytoprevailover the next twenty-fourhours. The mostunpredictable factor wasfog, which if it persistedwould sharply limit aship’s progress, for theonly safe way of copingwith fogwas to cut speedand start blowing theship’s foghorn. Themileage pool and itsassociatedstrategizingand

arguingandthecigarsandwhiskey consumed bythose present invariablyhelped spark friendshipsandbreakdownbarriersofformal courtesy andconvention.On Sunday, the ship’s

first full day at sea, ittraveled 501 miles,according to Lauriat’srecollection.Hefoundthissurprising.Hetooassumed

theshipwasmovingat25knots. At that rate,equivalent to about 29miles an hour, it shouldhave covered 700 miles.Theperiodicfogaccountedfor part of thissluggishness, he gauged,but certainly not all. Atnoonthenextday,Lauriatand Withington woulddiscover the ship wastraveling even more

slowly. “At this rate,”Lauriat told Withington,“we’re not going to makeLiverpoolontime.”Lauriat retired to hisstateroom to examine theThackeray drawings. Helooked themover,mullingwhat he would ask LadyRitchie to write andplanning how eachdrawing would bemounted.

FOR CAPTAIN TURNER, thevoyage thus far wasroutine, and it was likelyto remain so for at leastthe next four days. Theweather was peaceful, forthe most part, and therewas little likelihood ofencountering a Germansubmarine in mid-ocean.When the ship nearedIreland, however, the

danger of attack wouldgrow. While Turnerhimself expressed littleanxiety about submarines,withinCunardtherewasagrowing sense that thethreat they posed wasbecomingmoreacute.Beforeeachcrossing,thecompany gave Turnerconfidentialadvisoriesandnotices about conditionsthat might affect the

voyage. Lately these hadincluded Admiraltymemoranda thatdelineated the growingsubmarine threat andoffered advice onwhat todo if confronted by a U-boat. Cunard’s managersstillsharedthewidelyheldbelief that no U-boatcommander would daresink a passenger liner; atthe same time, they had

watched as Germanybegan conducting attacksagainst other merchantships without scruple. U-boats now ventured as faras Liverpool. Onemerchant victim, thePrincess Victoria, wastorpedoed just off theMerseyBar.These attacks prompted

theAdmiraltytoissuenewadvisories to address the

danger. Cunard relayed toTurner orders to halt allwireless transmissionsfrom the ship’s Marconiroom except when“absolutely necessary.” Itswireless operators wereexpressly prohibited from“gossiping.” Passengerscouldreceivemessagesbutcould not send them.Another Admiraltyadvisorywarned,initalics,

“Shipsshouldgiveprominentheadlandsawideberth.”TheAdmiraltyissueditsmostcomprehensivesetofinstructions in February1915, in a secretmemorandum thatcaptains were to store “ina place where it can bedestroyed at a moment’snotice.” The documentrevealed a mixture ofnaïveté and sophistication

about the nature of thesubmarine threat. It calledthe deck gun of asubmarine “an inferiorweapon”andstated,“Gun-fire frommost submarinesis not dangerous.” Theinstructions also advisedthatifavesselgothitwitha torpedo, there was noneedtoworry:“Therewillgenerally be ample timefor the crew to escape in

the boats, if the latter arekept ready for service.”The memorandum evadedentirely the matter ofpassengers and how theymightfareunderthesamecircumstances.But it also embodied a

realistic appraisal of thevulnerabilities of U-boatsand urged captains toexploit these at everyopportunity. “If a

submarine comes upsuddenly close ahead ofyou with obvious hostileintention,steerstraightforher at your utmost speed,altering course asnecessary to keep herahead.” In short, theAdmiralty was askingmerchant captains totransform their ships intooffensiveweaponsandramtheir attackers. This was

an effective maneuvergiventheinherentfragilityofsubmarines,aswouldbeprovedamonthlaterwhenthe HMS Dreadnoughtrammed and sankKapitänleutnantWeddigen’s U-29, therebyavenging the dead crewsof theAboukir, theCressy,and the Hogue. Thememorandumrecommended that British

ships disguise themselvesas neutrals wheneverpossible and fly falsecolors. “It is not in anyway dishonorable.Ownersandmasterswill thereforebe within their rights ifthey use every device tomislead the enemy andinduce him to confuseBritish vessels withneutrals.”The memorandum also

includedastrictorder,thecodified effect of theAboukir disaster: “Noocean-going Britishmerchant vessel ispermitted to go to theassistance of a shipwhichhas been torpedoed by asubmarine.”

THEADMIRALTY later claimedthat Turner possessed still

another advisory, datedApril 16, which reported,“War experience hasshown that fast steamerscan considerably reducethe chance of successfulsurprise submarine attackbyzigzaggingthatistosayalteringthecourseatshortand regular intervals sayin ten minutes to half anhour.” The memo notedthatthistacticwasusedby

warships in waters likelyto be patrolled bysubmarines.TheAdmiraltymayhaveerred, however, inpresuming Turner reallydid have this particularmemoamonghispapersatthe time the ship sailedfromNewYork. (Cunard’slawyers laterwouldhedgethepointwithaheroicbitof legal prose in which

they stated that whileCunard believed such anotice had been given tothe captain, the companyhadnoknowledgeofwhatthe delivered memoactually said.) Whethersuchacommuniquéhadinfact been delivered toTurnerbecameamatterofdebate. The Admiralty’sBoardofTradehadindeedcrafted a statement on

zigzagging, but oneprominent naval historianasserted that the advisorywasnot approvedbyFirstLord Churchill until April25 and was not actuallydistributedtocaptainsandshipping companies untilMay 13, long after theLusitania’s May 1departure.Even had this memobeen in Turner’s

possession, it probablywould have made littleimpression. For one thing,the memo did not ordercaptains to zigzag; itmerely described thepractice. For another,zigzaggingatthetimewasa proposition thatmerchant captainsconsidered worthy ofridicule,andthatnonewaslikely to endorse,

especially not the masterofagrandoceanliner.Theidea of subjectingpassengers, many of themprominent souls in firstclass, to the hard andirregular turns of a zigzagcourse was beyondcontemplation.

NOW, IN open seas, theLusitania maintained an

averagespeedof21knots,6 knots faster than themaximum speed a U-boatcouldattainwhilesurfacedandmorethantwicewhatitcouldachievewhilefullysubmerged.Thiswasalsofasterthananyothercivilianshipstillin service. On Sundayafternoon the Lusitaniaquickly overtook andpassed the American liner

New York, with theShakespearean actressEllenTerryaboard.

THATSUNDAY,DwightHarris,the New Yorker travelingtoEnglandtogetmarried,plannedwhathewoulddoifinfacttheLusitaniaweretorpedoed. He wrote, “Itook a look around anddecided that if anything

did happen in the ‘WarZone’ I would go to thebow if possible.” First,however, he planned tograb the custom life belthe had bought atWanamaker’sinNewYork.

ROOM40;QUEENSTOWN;LONDON

PROTECTINGORION

THE GERMAN WIRELESS MESSAGES

INTERCEPTED BY ROOM 40causeddeepanxietywithinthe Admiralty. But it wasnot the Lusitania theAdmiralty was concernedabout. It was the HMSOrion, one of Britain’slargest andmost powerfulbattleships, a“superdreadnought.” Theship had undergone arefitting in Devonport, on

England’s southwest coast,andwasnowreadytosailnorth to rejoin the GrandFleetatScapaFlow.On Sunday, May 2,

Admiralty Chief of Staff“Dummy” Oliver sent anote to First Sea LordJacky Fisher, in which herecommended that theOrion’s departure bepostponed. “There will belessmoon&lessriskevery

night now that we wait,”hewrote.Fisher agreed, and at1:20 P.M. Oliver sent atelegram to thecommanderinchiefofthefleet, Admiral Jellicoe,ordering him to hold theOrioninDevonportawhilelonger. That sameafternoon the Admiraltyalso urged Jellicoe, “inview of the submarine

menace West of the WestCoast of Ireland,” to takeprecautions to protectlesser ships, such ascolliersandtenders.Over the next several

days, Oliver would sendexplicit warnings to twoother warships, HMSGloucester and HMS Dukeof Edinburgh, and woulddirectathird,HMSJupiter,to take a newly opened

route, the so-called NorthChannel, deemed far saferthanalternativepaths.TheAdmiralty had closed theroute previously becauseof German mines but haddeclared it clear on April15 and promptly made itavailabletonavyshipsbutnot merchant vessels. Theroute passed betweenScotland and Ireland,through waters bracketed

by friendly shores andheavily patrolled by theRoyalNavy.Despite the NorthChannel’s safety, AdmiralOliver issued orders tohave the Jupiter escortedbydestroyers.

THATSUNDAYtherewasmorenews of the NorthChannel. Adm. Richard

Webb, head of theAdmiralty’s TradeDivision,whichinwartimeheld dominion over allBritishmerchant shipping,received notice that thenew route would now infactbeopentoallvessels,merchant and militaryalike. This meant thatcivilian freighters andliners sailing to Liverpoolcouldhenceforthavoidthe

Western Approachesaltogether and sail insteadover the top of Ireland,then turn right and gosouthtoLiverpool.Admiral Webb did not

transmit this newinformation to Cunard ortotheLusitania.Through much of

Sunday,theAdmiraltyalsotrackedtheprogressofthewounded American tanker

Gulflight, under tow andescorted by the navy. At4:05 that afternoon theship was reported making“good progress.” TwohourslateritarrivedatSt.Mary’s Island in theScillies, with its foredecknearly submerged, itspropeller visible at thestern.

IN QUEENSTOWN, IRELAND,America’s local consulopened a newspaper andread for the first timeabout the warning theGerman Embassy hadpublished in Americannewspapers the previousday.The consul was Wesley

Frost, now just beginninghis second year of servicein Queenstown. The town

was still a major port,although Cunard’s largestliners no longer stoppedthere, having “touchedbottom”initsharboroncetoo often. Although Frostknew the Lusitania was atthismomentonitswaytoLiverpool, he felt noparticular concern. “Thereference to the Lusitaniawas obvious enough,” herecalled later, “but

personallyitneverenteredmy mind for a momentthat the Germans wouldactually perpetrate anattack upon her. Theculpability of such an actseemed too blatant andraw for an intelligentpeople to take uponthemselves.”

THAT SAME SUNDAY, well to

the south in London, U.S.ambassador Walter Page,Frost’s chief, took a fewmoments to write a letterto his son, Arthur, aneditor at the New Yorkpublishing company thatthe ambassador and hispartner, Frank Doubleday,hadfoundedin1899.Pagewas an Anglophile

through and through. Hisdispatches consistently

favored Britain and timeandagainstruckPresidentWilson as being decidedlyun-neutral. In fact,Wilsonhad by now lostconfidenceinPage,thoughtheambassadordidnotyetseem to know it. Thepresident had left enoughhints, however, oftenfailingtorespondtoPage’scommuniqués. ThepresenceofColonelHouse

in London as Wilson’spersonal emissary should,by itself, have beenevidence enoughofPage’sdiminished influence, butthe ambassador stillseemed not to grasp justhowlittleWilsoncaredforhim and the informationhesupplied.Page wrote often to his

son and now, in hisSunday letter, told him of

his concern that Americamight be drawn into thewar. Later this letterwould seem prescient toanuncannydegree.“The blowing up of a

liner with Americanpassengers may be theprelude,” the ambassadorwrote. “I almost expectsuchathing.”He added, “If a British

liner full of Americans be

blownup,whatwillUncleSam do? What’s going tohappen?”

U-20

APERILOUSLINE

AT12:30P.M.SUNDAY,FINDINGHIMSELF BRACKETED by patrolboats and destroyers,Schwiegerorderedanotherfast dive. The line of

vesselsaheadseemedtobean antisubmarine cordon,with Fair Isle at the topand North Ronaldsay intheOrkneysatthebottom.Schwieger suspected thecordon might be apermanent presence inthese waters. If so, hewroteinhislog,bywayofwarningothercaptains,“itwould not seem advisabletopassthislineduringthe

day, especially whenvisibilityisverygood.”U-20 traveled

submerged for the nextfour hours. At 4:30 P.M.,Schwieger ascended toperiscope depth andimmediately spotted apatrol boat off tostarboard.Hedovebacktocruisingdepth.So much underwater

travel was taxing for his

crew. The atmospheregrewclose andwarm.Butitwasespeciallytaxingforthe submarine’s batteries.Even moving at a mere 5knots, a boat of U-20’sclass could cover amaximum of only 80nautical miles before thebatteriesfailed.Schwiegerkept theboatsubmergedforanothertwoandahalfhours.Henoted

inhislogthathisbatterieswere making a cracklingnoise. By this point U-20had traveled 50 nauticalmilesonelectricpower.At 7:00 P.M. Schwieger

again tried his periscopeand to his relief saw noimminent threat.“Emerged,”hewrote,“andsteered towards the opensea in order to get awayfrom the patrol boats

whosesmokeisstillvisibleastern.”In an addendum to his

log, he noted that if stillmore destroyers had beenposted beyond this FairIsle–Ronaldsay line, thusforcing his boat to staysubmerged even longer,“our situation could havebeencriticalasourbatterywas pretty nearly gone.”Thesewere deepwaters—

too deep for U-20 to hideon the bottom. Had thebatteries failed here,Schwiegerwouldhavehadno choice but to come tothe surface and run untilhis diesel enginessucceeded in rechargingthesystem.Butdestroyers,capable of moving atspeedsmorethantwiceU-20’s maximum, wouldhave had no difficulty

overtakinghimandwouldhave begun firing longbefore.Once safely out to sea

and past the northern lipof Scotland, Schwieger seta course that would takehim down the west flankof the Outer Hebrides, abulwarkofislandssituatedoff Scotland’s northwestcoast. His patrol zone offLiverpoolwasstillathree-

dayvoyageaway.Theheaveoftheseahad

lessened, producing swellsof only 3 feet. Schwiegerkept the boat on thesurface. At 9:30 P.M. hesignedhis log to close thethirddayofhispatrol.Three days out, and he

had sunk nothing—hadnot even fired his deckgun.

LATER THAT NIGHT, Schwiegerwas summoned into theshelter atop the conningtower. A lookout hadspotted a potential target.In his log Schwiegerdescribed it as a “hugeneutral steamer, its namelighted.”Hejudgedittobea Danish passenger lineroutofCopenhagen,boundforMontreal.Todeterminethis, Schwieger may have

reliedonhis“WarPilot,”amerchant officer namedLanz, who served aboardU-20tohelpidentifyships.Between Lanz’s expertiseand an immense bookcarried aboard everysubmarine that providedsilhouettes anddescriptions of nearly allships afloat, Schwiegercould be reasonablycertain of the identities of

anylargevesselthatcameintoview.Though it’s clear

Schwieger considered theDanish ship a potentialtarget,hemadenoattempttoattack.Theshipwastoofar ahead andmoving toofast;heestimateditsspeedtobeatleast12knots.“Anattack on this shipimpossible,” he wrote inhislog.

This entry revealedmuch about Schwieger. Itshowed that he wouldhave been more thanwilling to attack ifcircumstances had beenbetter, even though herecognized the ship wasneutral—and not justneutral but heading awayfrom Britain and thusunlikelytobecarryinganycontraband for Germany’s

enemies. The entryrevealed as well that hehad no misgivings abouttorpedoing a liner full ofcivilians.

LUSITANIA

HALIBUT

THE WEATHER REMAINED GLOOMYTHROUGHOUT SUNDAY and intoMonday. Rain and windmade the decks cold, andfor the second day in a

rowpassengers inclinedtoseasickness withdrew totheircabins.EachdayCaptainTurnerordered lifeboat and firedrills and tests of thebulkhead doors betweenthe ship’s waterproofcompartments. Duringlifeboat drills at sea thecrew did not actuallylaunch any boats, as theyhad at the wharf in New

York, because to do sowhiletheshipwasmovingwould likely have fatalconsequences for anyoneinthe lifeboat.Ashiphadto be fully stopped beforethe crew could lower aboatsafely.These daily drills

involved only the ship’stwo “emergency boats,”which were kept swungoutatalltimesinorderto

be ready should apassengerfalloverboardorsome other incident arise.These were boats 13 and14, on opposite sides ofthe ship. Everymorning asquad of crewmen wouldgather at whichever boatwason the lee sideof thedeck, meaning away fromthe wind. John Lewis,seniorthirdmate,directedthe drills. The men stood

at attention. At Lewis’scommand—“Man theboats!”—they climbed in,put on their life jackets,and sat in their assignedplaces. Lewis thendismissedthecrew.Lewis also participated

in Staff Captain JockAnderson’s dailyinspections of the entireship, which began everymorning at 10:30. Four

other men typically wentalong as well: the ship’ssenior surgeon, theassistant surgeon, thepurser, and the chiefsteward. They gatheredoutside thepurser’s office,or “Purser’s Bureau,” atthe center of B Deck,opposite the ship’s twoelectric elevators, then setoff to tour the ship. Theycheckedasampleofcabins

and the ship’s diningrooms, lounges, lavatories,boilers,andpassages,fromADecktosteerage,to“seethat everything was cleanand in order,” Lewis said.They paid particularattention to whether anyportholes—“air ports,”Lewis called them—hadbeen left open, especiallyinthelowerdecks.The inspections, drills,

and other activities of thecrew provided an elementofdiversionforpassengers.Seaman Leslie Mortonbecame something of anattraction aboard shipbecauseofhisskillattyingcomplex knots. “Iremember putting an eyespliceinaneightstrandedwire hawser on the foredeck, with a crowd ofadmiring passengers

watchingme,whichcalledforth all my latenthistrionic abilities,”Morton wrote. Theperformance, at leastaccording to his ownrecollection, drew “ ‘Oos’and‘Ahs’andgasps.”

NOONEABOARDknew,asyet,about the May 1torpedoing of the

American oil tankerGulflight or that inWashington the incidenthad sparked concern as tothe safety of the Lusitaniaitself. The attack, comingas it did on the same dayas publication ofGermany’s advisoryagainst travel through thewar zone, suggested thatthe warning was morethan mere bluff. The

Washington Times, withoutidentifyingsources,stated,“The liner Lusitania, withseveralhundredprominentAmericans on board, issteaming toward Englanddespite anonymouswarnings to individualpassengers and a formallysigned warning publishedintheadvertisingcolumnsofAmericannewspapers—warnings, which, in view

oflatedevelopmentsinthesea war zone, it isbeginning to be feared,may prove far fromempty.” The article notedfurther that “hundreds ofAmericans are holdingtheir breaths lest relativeson board such vessels godown.”It reported that federal

officials were perplexedabout Germany’s

intentions. One questionseemed to be oneveryone’smind: “What isthe German governmentdriving at? Is it bent onincurring war with theUnitedStates?”No one had any doubtsthat the Gulflight incidentwouldberesolvedthroughdiplomacy,thearticlesaid.“But what is worryingeverybody is the

accumulation of evidencethat Germany is eitherlooking for trouble withthe United States or thatherauthoritiesarerecklessof the possibilities ofincurringtrouble.”

ASTHELUSITANIAsteamedon,the usual shipboardtedium began to set in,and meals became

increasingly important. Inthese first days of thevoyage, passengersadapted themselves totheirassignedtablemates.For Charles Lauriat, thiswas simple: his friendWithingtonwashisdiningcompanion. For Liverpoolpolice detective Pierpoint,it was even simpler: hedined alone.Unaccompanied travelers,

however, faced thepotential of being seatedamongtiresomesoulswithwhomtheyhadnothingincommon. Invariably oneencountered charmers andboors, sheep andbraggarts; one youngwoman found herselfseated beside “a verydyspeptic sort of fellow.”Sparks flew, or gotdamped. Romances got

kindled.Butthefoodwasalways

goodandplentiful,eveninthird class, where bluemarrowfat peas were astaple, as were Wiltshirecheeses and tinned pears,peaches, apricots, andpineapples. In first class,thefoodwasbeyondgood.Lavish. First-classpassengers were offeredsoups,horsd’oeuvres, and

a multitude of entrées ateachmeal.Ononevoyagethe menu for a singledinner included halibut ina sauce Orleans, mignonsde sole souchet, andbroiledseabassChoron(asauce of white wine,shallots, tarragon, tomatopaste, and eggs); vealcutlets, tournedos of beefBordelaise, baked Virginiaham, saddle of mutton,

roast teal duck, celery-fedduckling, roast guineachicken,sirloinandribsofbeef; and five desserts—aTyrollean soufflé,chocolate cake, apple tart,Bavaroise au citron, andice cream, two kinds:strawberry andNeapolitan. Therewere somany items on the menuthatCunardfeltobligedtoprintaseparatesheetwith

suggested combinations,lest one starve frombefuddlement.Passengers drank andsmoked. Both; a lot. Thiswasasignificantsourceofprofit for Cunard. Thecompany laid in a supplyof 150 cases of Black &White Whiskey, 50 casesofCanadianClubWhiskey,and 50 of Plymouth Gin;also, 15 cases each of an

eleven-year-oldFrenchredwine, a Chambertin, andan eleven-year-old Frenchwhite, a Chablis, andtwelvebarrelsofstoutandten of ale. Cunardstockpiled thirty thousand“Three Castles” cigarettesand ten thousand Manilacigars. The ship also soldcigars from Havana andAmerican cigarettes madeby Phillip Morris. For the

many passengers whobrought pipes, Cunardacquired 560 pounds ofloose Capstan tobacco—“navy cut”—and 200pounds of Lord NelsonFlake, both in 4-ouncetins. Passengers alsobrought their own.Michael Byrne, a retiredNew York merchant andformer deputy sherifftraveling in first class,

apparently planned tospend a good deal of thevoyage smoking. Hepacked 11 pounds of OldRover Tobacco and threehundredcigars.Duringthevoyage, the scent ofcombusted tobacco wasever present, especiallyafterdinner.The dominant topic of

conversation, according topassenger Harold

Smethurst, was “war, andsubmarines.”

FOR THEODATE POPE, therewas tedium, but alsodepression. Ever sincechildhood she hadstruggledwithit.Theodatedescribed herself once asbeing afflicted with “overconsciousness.”Duringhertime at Miss Porter’s

School in Farmington shehad often becomedepressed and washobbled by fatigue. In1887, when she wastwenty, she wrote in herdiary,“Tearscomewithoutany provocation.Headache all day.” Theschool’s headmistress andfounder, Sarah Porter,offered therapeuticcounsel. “Cheer up,” she

toldTheodate. “Alwaysbehappy.” It did not work.The next year, in March1888,herparentssentherto Philadelphia, to beexaminedandcaredforbyDr. Silas Weir Mitchell, aphysician famous fortreating patients, mainlywomen, suffering fromneurasthenia, or nervousexhaustion.Mitchell’s solution for

Theodate was his then-famous “Rest Cure,” aperiod of forced inactivitylasting up to twomonths.“Atfirst,andinsomecasesforfourorfiveweeks,Idonot permit the patient tosituportoseworwriteorread,” Mitchell wrote, inhis book Fat and Blood.“The only action allowedisthatneededtocleantheteeth.” He forbade some

patients from rolling overon their own, insistingthey do so only with thehelp of a nurse. “In suchcasesIarrangetohavethebowels and water passedwhile lyingdown,andthepatient is lifted on to alounge at bedtime andsponged, and then liftedbackagainintothenewly-made bed.” For stubborncases, he reserved mild

electrical shock, deliveredwhile thepatientwas inafilledbathtub.Hismethodreflectedhisowndimviewof women. In his bookWearandTear;or,Hintsforthe Overworked, he wrotethatwomen“woulddofarbetter if the brain wereverylightlytasked.”Theodate compliedwith

the rules ofMitchell’s restcure, even though she

believedresttobethelastthing she needed. Shewrote,“IamalwayshappywhenIkeepsobusythatIcannotstoptothinkofthesadness of life.” The curedidn’t help. And in fact,Dr. Mitchell’s approachwas soon to undergo anationwide reevaluation.In 1892 a writer namedCharlotte Perkins Gilmanpublished a popular short

story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” in which sheattacked Mitchell’s restcure. Gilman had becomeapatientofhis in1887,ayear before Theodate’streatment, suffering fromwhat a later generationwould describe aspostpartum depression.Gilman spent a month atDr. Mitchell’s clinic.Afterward, hewrote out a

prescription for how shewas to proceed aftertreatment: “Live asdomesticalifeaspossible.Have your child with youall the time. Lie down anhouraftereachmeal.Havebut two hours intellectuallifeaday.”And this: “Never touchpen,brush,orpencilagainaslongasyoulive.”Gilman claimed that

Mitchell’s cure drove her“to the edge of insanity.”She wrote the story, shesaid, to warn would-bepatients of the dangers ofthisdoctor“whosonearlydrovememad.”Theodate continued

fighting depressionthroughoutherthirties.Bytheautumnof1900,whenshe was thirty-three, itthreatenedeventodeaden

her love of art andarchitecture. “I find thatmy material world islosing its power to pleaseorharmme—itisnotvitaltomeanymore,”shewroteinherdiary.“Iamturningin on myself and amfindingmypleasureintheinnerworldwhichwasmyconstant retreat when Iwas a child.” Even herinterest inpaintingsbegan

to wane. She wrote,“Pictures have been deadlong ago to me—the onesthat pleaseme, pleasemeonly at first sight—afterthat they are paint andnothing more; to use avulgar expression, ‘suckedlemons.’ ” Architecturecontinued to engage her,butwithlessferocity.“Myinterestinarchitecturehasalways been more intense

than my interest in anyother art manifestation.AndonmywordIthinkitis not dead yet—notquite.”Shewas,shewrote,“tired of seeing thesefluted flimsy highlycolored hen houses goingup—and am gnashing myteethoverthem.”She and Edwin Frienddined together, and atleast for a time shared

their table with a youngdoctor from SaratogaSprings,NewYork,namedJamesHoughton,andwithone of the ship’s morefamous personages, MarieDepage, a nurse who,along with her physician-husband, Antoine, hadgained fame for tendingBelgians wounded in thewar.Depagehadspenttheprevious two months

raising money to supporttheir work, but was nowonherwaybacktoEuropeto see her son, Lucien,before he was sent to thefront. Dr. Houghton, enroute to Belgium to helpDepage’s husband, at onepoint revealed that on thenightbeforetheLusitania’sdeparturehehad signedanewwill.Such talk did not move

Theodate. She wrote, “Itrulybelieve therewasnoone on the ship whovalued life as little as Ido.”

MARGARET MACKWORTH andher father, D. A. Thomas,were seated at a table inthe first-class dining roomwith an American doctorand his sister-in-law,

Dorothy Conner, twenty-five, from Medford,Oregon. Conner was awoman of energy andcandor.Shewasalsoboredand given to impetuousremarks. At one point,Conner said, “I can’t helphoping that we get somesort of thrill going up theChannel.”Margaret took note ofthecuriouslyhighnumber

of children on thepassengerlist.“Wenoticedthis with much surprise,”she wrote. She attributedthis to families movingfromCanadatoEnglandtobe near husbands andfathersfightinginthewar.She took the GermanEmbassy’s warningseriously and told herselfthat incaseof trouble shewouldhavetooverrideher

instincttorunimmediatelyto the boat deck andinstead go first to hercabin and get her lifejacket.

PRESTONPRICHARD, theyoungmedical student headinghome from Canada, foundhimself seated at a longtable in the second-classdining hall directly

opposite a young womannamed Grace French, ofRenton,England,whowasamong those passengerstransferred to the shipfrom the Cameronia. Sheseemed to takean interestin Prichard or at leastfound him worthexamining in some detail.She saw that he had anarrow tie with a redstripe, and she paid close

enoughattentiontorealizethathehadonlytwosuits,“oneverysmartnavyblueserge and a green suit;more for knock-aboutwear.” She also noted hislava-headtieclasp.“Aboutthe heads I rememberthemdistinctlybecausemyfather once had onessimilar and they took myeye, and so far as I canremember he wore it all

thetime.”Prichard was kind andfunny and full of stories.And very good looking.“Hekeptusingoodspiritsrelating differentexperienceshehadduringhis travels and was verynice to everybody,” shewrote. “I appreciated hisefforts as I was verysick”—seasick—“duringthe whole journey, and

[he]wasespeciallynicetome.”Shealsotooknoteofthe

lucky young woman, alsoEnglish, who’d beenassignedtheseatrightnextto Prichard. With a whiffof a meow, Miss Frenchdescribed this potentialrival as “very short,”with“light brown hair, blueeyes, lots of color in herface, and I think she was

visiting in California, atleast she talked a greatdealaboutitsbeautiesandadvantage.” She added:“They were great friendsatthediningtable.”In addition to playingwhist, Prichard took partin the mileage bettingpools and in various decksports, including tug-of-war and an improvisedobstacle course. “A party

ofususedtohaveagameof skipping every day,”one young womanrecalled.Atacertainpointanother participant, ayoung man, tried to usethejumpropetolassoherbut failed. Prichardstepped forward andshowed the group how todo it.He seemed tobeanexpert at lassoing andropedmanyoftheplayers.

“I never saw him againafter this,” the womansaid.She touched on apeculiar aspect of lifeaboard such a large ship:you might meet someonewho interestedyou inonewayoranother,butunlessthat person happened tobe assigned to your tableoryourroom,oroccupiedthe deck chair next to

yours, you had littleopportunity to build acloser association. Theshipwastoobig.GertrudeAdams, a passenger insecondclasstravelingwithher two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, wrote later,“There were so many onthe ship that it reallywaslike living in a town, onesawfreshpeopleeveryday& never knew who they

were.”It was a mark of

Prichard’s popularity thatso many casualacquaintancesrememberedhimatall.

IN THE EVENING, select guestswouldbeinvitedtositatatable presided over byStaffCaptainAnderson,orat Captain Turner’s table,

on those occasions whenTurner was willing tosuppress his antipathytowardsocialengagement.As a rule, he preferred totakehismealsinhiscabinor on the bridge. He wasparticularly fond ofchicken and during onemealdrovehisfirstofficernearlymadwithhiseffortto gnaw every lastmorseloffachickenleg.

U-20

THETROUBLEWITHTORPEDOES

EARLY ON MONDAY MORNING U-20 WAS SAILING THROUGH aworld of cobalt andcantaloupe. “Very

beautiful weather,”Schwiegernoted,ina4:00A.M. entry in his log. Theboat was abreast of SuleSkerry,asmallislandwestoftheOrkneyswithan88-foot lighthouse, said tobethe most remote andisolatedlightintheBritishIsles.Schwieger sailed asouthwesterly course. Hesawnotargetsbutalsono

threats and was able tostay on the surface theentire day. Towardnightfall,at6:50P.M.,heatlast spotted a potentialtarget, a steamer of abouttwo thousand tons. It flewaDanish flag off its stern,but Schwieger’s war pilot,Lanz,believedtheflagwasaruse,thattheshipwasinfact aBritishvesseloutofEdinburgh. Itwasheading

toward U-20. Schwiegerordered a fast dive, toperiscopedepth.Nowbegan the complexchoreography that woulddetermine whether hecould add this ship to hispersonal tally of sunktonnage.Menranbackandforth under the directionof the ship’s chiefengineer, tohelpkeep theboat level, as the

helmsmen adjusted thehorizontal and verticalplanes. Schwieger raisedand lowered theperiscopeat brief intervals to keepthe steamer in sight butminimize the amount oftime the periscope and itswake were visible on thesurface.With his rangefinder,

Schwieger gauged theship’s distance and speed.

Another indicator ofvelocitywas the height towhich water rose on thetarget’s bow. The higherand whiter, the faster. Ifthis had been a Frenchbattleship, Schwiegerwould have had to watchespecially closely, for theFrench navy painted falsewakes on the bows of itswarships, in an effort toconfusethecalculationsof

U-boatcommanders.Schwiegerhadtwokindsof torpedoes aboard—anold bronzemodel and thenewest G6 torpedoes. TheG6,or“gyro,”torpedowasbigger and more reliable,butSchwiegerselectedoneof the bronze models,presumably in order toconserve the bettertorpedoes for moreimportant targets, like the

troop transports he wouldbe hunting in LiverpoolBay. The crew armed itand flooded its launchingtube,oneofthetwotubesin U-20’s bow. The boathadtwoothersinitsstern.The men at the

hydroplanes worked tokeep the boat as steadyand level as possible, lesttheconningtowerrisetoohigh and betray the

submarine’s presence, orthe periscope sink belowthe surface and makeaimingimpossible.The freighter

approached, clearlyunaware that U-20 wasahead. Schwiegerpositioned his boat at aright angle to the ship’scourse and advancedslowly to maintain“steerage,” just enough

forward motion to keepthe hydroplanes andrudder engaged. Thesubmarinewas,ineffect,agun barrel and had to bepointed in the rightdirection at the time thetorpedowaslaunched.From the bow a

crewman called, “Torpedoready.”

TORPEDOES WERE weapons ofgreat power—when theyworked. Schwiegerdistrusted them, and withgood reason.According toaGerman tally60percentof attempted torpedofirings resulted in failure.Torpedoes veered offcourse. They traveled toodeep and passed undertheirtargets.Theirtriggersbroke; their warheads

failedtoexplode.Aimingthemwasanart.

Through the restrictedview afforded by theperiscope,acaptainhadtoestimatetheforwardspeedof the target, its course,and its distance away. Heaimed not at the targetitself but at a point wellahead,asifshootingskeet.Stories of torpedo

mishaps were rife among

crews. One U-boatexperienced three torpedofailures in twenty-fourhours. In the third ofthese, the torpedo turnedunexpectedly and traveledinacirclebacktowardtheboat, and nearly hit it.Another submarine, UB-109, of a class usedprimarily for coastalpatrols, tried launchinganattackwhile surfaced.The

firsttorpedo,firedfromitsstern, left the tube andimmediately sank. Thecaptain maneuvered theboat so thathecould takeanother shot, this timefrom the bow. But,according to a Britishintelligence report, “Thistorpedobrokesurface5or6 times, described acomplete circle, and alsomissedthetarget.”

Torpedoes wereexpensive, and heavy.Each cost up to $5,000—over$100,000today—andweighed over threethousand pounds, twicetheweightofaFordModelT. Schwieger’s boat hadroom only for seven, twoof which were to be heldin reserve for thehomewardvoyage.If the performance

measured by the GermannavyweretoholdtrueforSchwiegeronthispatrol,itwould mean that if hefired all seven of historpedoes, only threewould succeed in strikingashipandexploding.

SCHWIEGER’S TARGET—thepresumed British ship,flying Danish colors—

continued its approach. Itwas300meters away, theU-boatequivalentofpoint-blank range, whenSchwieger gave the orderto fire.The commandwasrepeated throughout theboat.What should have come

next was a whoosh and atremor as the torpedo leftits tube, followed by asudden,perceptible riseof

the bow due to the lostweight, this immediatelysuppressed by the men atthehydroplanes.But Schwieger heard

nothing and felt nothing.Therewasonlysilence.The torpedo never left

the tube. A misfire—alocking mechanism hadfailedtorelease.The target continuedon

itswayintothesafe,deep

waters of the NorthAtlantic, its crewapparently unaware ofhow close they had cometodisaster.

LUSITANIA

SUNSHINEANDHAPPINESS

WILLIAMMERIHEINA,OFGENERALMOTORS: “TUESDAY—Resumption of games ondeck today. Dandy

sunshineweather.”

NELLIE HUSTON, thirty-one,second class, headinghome to England:“Tuesday: I didn’t write aletter each day you willnotice. On Saturday nightafter I’d written to you Iwenttobedandhadafinenight. I’ve got the topbunk and really I don’t

knowif Iwassupposedtobeabletospringrightintoit but I tried and couldn’tso had to ring for thesteward to bringme somesteps. They seem to beshort of everything so Ihad towaitquiteawhile.HetriedtopersuademetojumpinbutI’mtooheavybehind.”

JANE MACFARQUHAR, ofStratford, Connecticut,traveling with herdaughter, Grace, sixteen;second class: “I think ahappier company ofpassengers would beimpossible to find. Theywere of all ages: a largenumber of babies in theirmothers’ arms, childrenofvarious ages andmenandwomen up to the age of

seventy.“Games were heartily

enjoyed on the decksduring the daytime andconcerts were enjoyed inthe evenings—sunshineand happiness makingthoughts of danger almostimpossible.”

CHARLES LAURIAT: “As thedayspassedthepassengers

seemed to enjoy themmore and more, andformed thoseacquaintances such as onedoes on an oceancrossing.”

DOROTHY CONNER, twenty-five, of Medford, Oregon,in first class: “I’d neverseenamoreuneventfulorstupidvoyage.”

ROOM40

THEORIONSAILS

ON TUESDAY, MAY 4, THEADMIRALTYDECIDEDITcouldnolongerholdtheHMSOrionat Devonport but tookprecautions to make sure

the superdreadnoughtmadeitsafelytothefleet’sbaseatScapaFlow.Admiral Oliver orderedthe ship to depart thatnight, under cover ofdarkness, and gave strictinstructions that it sail 50miles west past the ScillyIslands before turningnorth and then keep atleast 100miles out to seafor the remainder of the

voyage up the Irish coast.He also assigned fourdestroyers—HMS Laertes,Moorsom, Myngs, andBoyne—to provide anescort until the Orionreacheddeepocean.A succession of reports

to the Admiralty provideda step-by-step account ofthe Orion’s progress,including changes inspeed. It was the most

closely watched ship onthehighseas.The Admiralty’stelegraphic records shownoreferencemadeatalltotheLusitania, by now fourdays into its voyage andhalfway across theAtlantic.

IN LONDON, at theAdmiralty’s War Room,

messagesarrivedreportingfresh submarine sightingsand new attacks. On themorningofSunday,May2,a French ship, the Europe,was torpedoed and sunkoff the Scillies. Alighthouse keeperelsewhere reportedspottinga“steamerchasedby submarine.” AnAdmiralty collier, theFulgent, was torpedoed off

theSkellingRockswestofIreland; nine members ofits crewwere rescued andlanded at Galway onMonday evening. Early onthe morning of Tuesday,May 4, an observerreported spotting asubmarine on the surfacenorthwest of Frenchman’sRock in the Scillies. Hewatcheditmoveeast,thendive. That same morning,

at 3:15 A.M., a coastwatcher reported a “largesheetofflame”risingfromtheseaoffCountyMayo.But in Room 40,Commander Hope and hiscode breakers heardnothing new from Kptlt.Walther Schwieger. Thesubmarine was too farfrom Germany to attemptwireless communication.Room 40 could only

presume that Schwiegerwasstillonhiswaytohispatrol zone in the IrishSea.Itwasacuriousmoment

in the history of navalwarfare. Room 40 knew aU-boat was heading southto Liverpool—knew theboat’shistory;knewthatitwasnowsomewhereintheNorth Atlantic underorders to sink troop

transports and any otherBritish vessel itencountered; and knew aswell that the submarinewas armed with enoughshells and torpedoes tosink a dozen ships. Itwaslike knowing that aparticular killer was looseon the streets of London,armed with a particularweapon, and certain tostrike in a particular

neighborhood within thenext few days, the onlyunknown being exactlywhen.The quiet meant

nothing.At somepointU-20 would make itspresenceknown.

U-20

FRUSTRATION

AT 7:40 P.M., TUESDAY,SCHWIEGER AT LAST SIGHTED thecoast of Ireland. Alighthouse lay on thehorizon, barely visible in

therisingmist.The day had been adisappointment. Strongswellshadmadethegoinguncomfortable for thecrew below, andSchwieger had found notargets worthy of attack.An armed trawler brieflyhad come into view, butherealizeditsdraftwassoshallow that a torpedowould likely run

underneath its keel.Visibility had been poorfor most of the day,though by evening itimproved to the pointwherehecouldseedistantobjects. The gatheringhaze, however, foretold anightoffog.Fifteen minutes later, a

steamship appeared,heading in U-20’sdirection. It was still far

off but looked to be avessel of significanttonnage. Schwiegerorderedadivetoperiscopedepth and prepared hisattack.HeplacedU-20ata90-degree angle to theship’s course, to set upwhat he called a “cleanbowshot,”andonceagainselectedabronzetorpedo.As the ship approached,however, it seemed to

shrink in size. Somethingabout the fading lightandmist had produced anoptical illusion that madethe vessel at first looklarge,butthecloseritgot,the smaller it got.Schwieger estimated itstonnage at a mere 1,500tons. Still, it wassomething. Hemaneuvered so that whenthe ship’s course

intersected his, he wouldbe just 300 meters away.The targetwas stillamileoff.Andthen,ashewatched

through theperiscope, theship sheered from itscourse. At that distance,there was no chance forhimtocatchup.Even in the spare prose

of his log, Schwieger’sfrustrationwasevident.“It

was impossible that thesteamer could have seenus,” he wrote. Heidentified the ship as aSwedish vessel, theHibernia, “with neutralsigns,withoutflag.”Schwieger broughtU-20back to the surface, andcontinuedsouth,throughanight he described asbeingexceptionallydark.

LONDON;BERLIN;WASHINGTON

COMFORTDENIED

ON THAT WEDNESDAY, MAY 5,BRITAIN’S TOP NAVAL official,Winston Churchill, FirstLordoftheAdmiralty, left

LondonforParis.Hecoulddo so with relative safetybecause a combination ofprotective measures—seamines and submarine netsat the eastern end of theEnglishChannelandheavypatrols along its length—hadmade the channel toodangerous for submarinesto traverse on a routinebasis. Although Churchilltraveled incognito and

checked into his hotelunder a false name, therewas little mystery abouthis visit. He was to meetwith Italian and Frenchofficials to determine howthe Italiannavy shouldbeused in theMediterraneanSea, now that Italy—onApril 26—had joined thewaronthesideofBritain,France, and Russia.Afterward,ashehaddone

on previous occasions,Churchillplannedtotravelto the front to spend timewith Field Marshal SirJohn French—Sir JohnDenton Pinkstone French—commander of theBritish ExpeditionaryForceinFrance.With Churchill absent,the Admiralty became amuch quieter place.Ordinarily, he kept a very

close hand on navalmatters, including detailsof day-to-day operationsthat, at least in theory,weresupposedtobelefttothenumbertwoAdmiraltyofficial,theFirstSeaLord.Thisput the forty-year-oldChurchill indirectconflictwiththeseventy-four-year-old occupant of that post,Adm.JackyFisher.IfChurchill resembleda

bulldog,Fisherwasalargebulb-eyed toad, deadringer for a future actornamed László Löwenstein,better knownby the stagename Peter Lorre. LikeChurchill, Fisher wasstrong-willed and tendedto consume himself withtheminutedetailsofnavaloperations. When bothmenwerepresent, tensionwas the order of the day.

Onenavalofficialwrotetohis wife, “The situation iscurious—two very strongand clever men, one old,wily and of vastexperience, one young,self-assertive,with a greatself-satisfaction butunstable. They cannotworktogether,theycannotboth run the show.”Churchill seemed bent onusurping Fisher’s role.

Churchill’s “energy andcapacity for work werealmost frightening,” wroteintelligence chief BlinkerHall. “Notes andmemoranda on everyconceivable subject wouldstreamforthfromhisroomatallhoursofthedayandnight.Whatwasworse,hewould demandinformation which wouldordinarily and properly

havegoneonlytotheFirstSeaLordorChiefof Staff,a fact which more thanonceledtosomeconfusionandanunmeritedwordofrebuke.”What made their

relationship still moreturbulentwasthefactthatFisher seemed to betottering on the verge ofmadness. Wrote Hall,“Gradually we in the

Admiralty could not helpbecoming aware that theFisherwe had knownwasno longer with us. In hisplace was a sorelyharassed and disillusionedman who was overtaxinghisstrengthintheattempttocarryon.Hemight stillon occasion show the oldflashes of brilliance, but,beneath the surface, allwas far from being well.

…Atanymoment,wefelt,the breaking-point wouldcome.” Admiral Jellicoe,commander of the GrandFleet, likewise grewconcerned. “The state ofaffairs at Head Quarters,”he wrote, in an April 26letter to a fellow officer,“isasbadorworse than Ifeared. It is lamentablethat things should be asthey are, and there is no

doubt whatever that theFleet is rapidly losingconfidence in theadministration.”Churchill acknowledged

Fisher’s energy and priorgenius. “But he wasseventy-four years old,”Churchill wrote, in anoblique evisceration. “Asinagreatcastlewhichhaslong contendedwith time,themightycentralmassof

the donjon towered upintact and seeminglyeverlasting. But theoutworks and thebattlements had fallenaway, and its imperiousruler dwelt only in thespecial apartments andcorridors with which hehadalifelongfamiliarity.”This,however,wasexactlywhat Churchill had hopedforinbringingFisherback

as First Sea Lord. “I tookhim because I knew hewas old and weak, andthat I should be able tokeep things in my ownhands.”ByMay 1915, Churchill

wrote,Fisherwassufferingfrom “great nervousexhaustion.” WithChurchill gone to Paris,Fisher was in charge andseemed barely up to the

task. “He had evincedunconcealed distress andanxietyatbeing leftalonein sole charge of theadmiralty,” Churchillwrote. “There is no doubtthat the old Admiral wasworried almost out of hiswits by the immensepressure of the times andby the course events hadtaken.”In Churchill’s absence,

anincidenttookplacethatseemed to reinforce hisconcerns about Fisher’ssanity. Before leaving forFrance, Churchill had toldhiswife,Clementine,“Justlookafter ‘theoldboy’forme,” and so Clementineinvited Fisher to come tolunch. She neither likednor trusted Fisher anddoubted he couldwithstand the stress of

having to run theAdmiraltyinherhusband’sabsence. The lunch wentwell, however, and Fisherdeparted. Or soClementinethought.Soon afterward, she too

left the sitting room, andfound that Fisherwas stillin the house, “lurking inthe passage,” according toan account by theChurchills’daughterMary.

Clementine was startled,Mary recalled. “She askedhim what he wanted,whereupon, in a brusqueand somewhat incoherentmanner he told her that,while she no doubt wasunder the impression thatWinston was conferringwith Sir John French, hewas in fact frolickingwithamistressinParis!”ToClementine, thiswas

a ludicrous charge. Shesnapped, “Be quiet, yousillyoldman,andgetout.”With Churchill in Paris,

the torrent of notes andtelegrams he generateddaily—“the constantbombardment ofmemoranda and minuteson every conceivablesubject, technical orotherwise,” as Fisher’sassistant described it—

abruptlysubsided.Relativeto the turmoil thatordinarily existed in itshalls, the Admiralty nowbecamequiescent,ifnottosayinattentive.

AT THE U.S. EMBASSY inBerlin, Ambassador JamesW.Gerardreceivedacurt,two-paragraph note fromtheGermanForeignOffice.

The message, datedWednesday, May 5, citedthe fact that in precedingweeks “it has repeatedlyoccurred” that neutralships had been sunk byGerman submarines in thedesignated war zone. Inone case, the note said, aU-boatsankaneutralship“on account of theinadequate illumination ofitsneutralmarkingsinthe

darkness.”The note urged Gerard

to convey these facts toWashington and torecommend that theUnited States “againwarnAmerican shipping circlesagainst traversing thewarzone without taking dueprecautions.” Ships, thenote said, should be sureto make their neutralmarkings “as plain as

possible and especially tohave them illuminatedpromptly at nightfall andthroughoutthenight.”Gerard relayed this to

the State Department thenextday.

IN WASHINGTON, PresidentWilson found himself inemotional turmoil, forreasons unrelated to ships

andwar.By now he had fallenever more deeply in lovewith Edith Galt, and withthe prospect of no longerbeing alone. On theevening of Tuesday, May4, Wilson sent his Pierce-Arrow to pick up EdithandbringhertotheWhiteHouse for dinner. Shewore a white satin gownwith “creamy lace, and

just a touch of emerald-greenvelvetattheedgeofthedeep squareneck,andgreen slippers to match,”she recalled. Afterward,Wilson led her out ontothe South Portico, wherethey sat by themselves,without chaperone. Theeveningwaswarm,theairfragrant with the richperfume of a Washingtonspring. He told her he

lovedher.She was stunned. “Oh,

you can’t love me,” shesaid, “for you don’t reallyknow me; and it is lessthanayearsinceyourwifedied.”Wilson,unfazed,said,“I

was afraid, knowing you,that I would shock you,”he said, “but I would beless than a gentleman if Icontinued to make

opportunities to see youwithout tellingyouwhat Ihave told my daughtersandHelen:thatIwantyoutobemywife.”Sonot just love, itself astriking declaration—butmarriage.Edith turned himdown.She leavenedher rejectionwith a note she composedlater that night, afterWilsondroppedherather

apartment. “It is longpastmidnight,” she wrote,earlyWednesdaymorning,May5.“Ihavebeensittingin the big chair by thewindow, looking out intothe night, ever since youwent away, my wholebeing is awake andvibrant!”She told him that hisexpression of love andconfession of loneliness

had left her anguished.“HowIwanttohelp!Whatan unspeakable pleasureand privilege I deem it tobe allowed to share thesetense, terrible days ofresponsibility, how I thrillto my very finger tipswhen I remember thetremendousthingyousaidto me tonight, and howpitifullypoorIam,tohavenothing to offer you in

return.Nothing—Imean—inproportion toyourowngreatgift!”Here she joined the

universal struggle sharedby men and womenthroughout time, totemper rejection so as nottoloseafriendforever.“I am a woman—and

the thought that youhaveneedofme—issweet!”shewrote. “But, dear kindred

spirit,canyounottrustmeand let me lead you fromthe thought that youhaveforfeitedanythingbyyourfearless honesty to theconviction that, with suchfrankness between us,there is nothing to fear—we will help and hearteneachother.”She added, “You havebeenhonestwithme,and,perhaps, I was too frank

withyou—butifsoforgiveme!”Laterthatmorning,withthe sun up and the dayunder way, Edith andHelen Bones went foranother walk in RockCreek Park. They sat onsome rocks to rest. Helenglared at Edith and said,“Cousin Woodrow looksreally ill this morning.”Helen loved her cousin

andwasprotectiveofhim.She nicknamed him“Tiger,” not because ofsome lascivious bent, butbecause,asEdithlatertoldthe story, “he was sopatheticcagedthereintheWhite House, longing tocome and go, as she did,that he reminded her of asplendid Bengal tiger shehadonceseen—neverstill,moving, restless, resentful

of his bars that shut outthe larger life God hadmade for him.” Now, inthe park, Helen burst intotears. “Just as I thoughtsome happiness wascoming into his life!” shesaid. “And now you arebreakinghisheart.”In a strangely cinematic

intervention, Dr. Graysonsuddenly appeared from anearby stand of trees,

riding a horse—a largewhite horse no less. Heasked Helen what hadhappened,andshequicklyanswered that she hadtrippedandfallen.“Idon’tthink he believed her,”Edith wrote, “but hepretendedtoandrodeon.”His arrivalwas a timely

thing, she added, “for Iwas starting to feel like acriminal, and guilty of

base ingratitude.” Shetried to explain to Helenthat she wasn’t being an“ogre”; rather, she simplycould not “consent tosomething I did not feel.”She told Helen that sheunderstood she was“playing with fire where[Wilson] was concerned,for his whole nature wasintense and did notwillingly wait; but that I

must have time really toknowmyownheart.”Edith’s rejection causedWilson great sorrow andleft him feeling almostdisoriented as worldevents clamored for hisattention.EvenBritainhadbecome a growing sourceofirritation.Initsdrivetohalt the flow of warmatériel to Germany,British warships had

stopped American shipsand seized Americancargoes. Early in the warWilson had grownconcerned that Britain’sactions might so outragethe American public as tocause serious conflictbetween the two nations.Diplomacy eased tensions,for a time. But then onMarch 11, 1915, inresponse to Germany’s

“war zone” declaration ofthe preceding month, theBritish government issueda new, and startling,“Order in Council”proclaiming its formalintent to stop every shipsailing to or fromGermany, whether neutralor not, and to stop shipsbound even for neutralports, to determinewhether their cargoes

mightultimatelyendupinGermanhands.Britainalsosharply increased the listof products it wouldhenceforth view ascontraband. The orderoutragedWilson,whosenta formal protest in whichhedescribedBritain’splanas “an almost unqualifieddenial of the sovereignrights of the nations nowatpeace.”

The note achievednothing. Complaintspoured in from Americanshippers whose cargoeshad been detained orconfiscated, although theState Department didsucceed in securing theprompt release of anautomobile shipped by anAmericansocialite.FortheBritish the stakes weresimply too high to allow

compromise. As Britain’sambassador to America,Cecil Spring Rice, hadwritten the previous fall,“In the life and deathstruggle in which we arenowengageditisessentialto prevent war suppliesreaching the Germanarmiesandfactories.”America’s neutralityseemedharder and hardertomaintain.Inalettertoa

female friend, MaryHulbert, Wilson wrote,“Together England andGermany are likely todrive us crazy, because itlooksoftentimesas if theywerecrazythemselves,theunnecessary provocationstheyinvent.”Still, Wilson recognized

thefundamentaldifferencethat existed between howthe two sides executed

their campaigns againstmerchant traffic. TheRoyal Navy behaved incivil fashion and oftenpaid for the contraband itseized; Germany, on theother hand, seemedincreasinglywillingtosinkmerchant ships withoutwarning, even thosebearing neutral markings.The torpedo attack on theGulflight was a case in

point. Within the StateDepartment,Undersecretary RobertLansing warned that inlightoftheGulflightattacktheUnitedStateswasdutybound to adhere toWilson’s FebruarydeclarationvowingtoholdGermany “to a strictaccountability” for itsactions. Wilson made nopublic comment, but he

and Secretary of StateBryan, in backgroundconversations withreporters,signaledthattheadministrationwouldtreatthe incident in judiciousfashion. “No formaldiplomatic action will betakenbytheUnitedStatesGovernment … until allthe facts have beenascertained and adetermination reached,”

the New York Timesreported in a front-pagestory on Wednesday, May5.Infact,WilsonfoundtheGulflight incidentdisquieting. This was anAmerican ship; the attackhad killed three men.What’s more, it hadoccurredwithoutwarning.While the incident didn’tstrikeWilsonashavingthe

magnitude to draw thenation into war, it diddemand some kind ofprotest. That Wednesday,he cabled his friendColonel House, still inLondon, to ask his adviceon what kind of responsetosendtoGermany.House recommended “asharp note” but added, “Iam afraid a more seriousbreach may at any time

occur, for they seem tohave no regard forconsequences.”

LUSITANIA

THEMANIFEST

ABOARD THE LUSITANIA, THECUNARD DAILY BULLETIN keptpassengers abreast of warnews but, like itscounterparts on land,

reported only broadmovements of forces, as ifwar were a game playedwith tiles and dice, notflesh-and-blood men.These reports did notbegintocapturetherealityof the fighting thenunfolding on the ground,particularly in theDardanelles, where theAllied naval and groundoffensive had stalled and

British and French forceshad dug trenches thatmimicked those on thewesternfront.Themost terrifying part

ofbattlewastheexitfromatrench—standingupandclimbingout,knowingthatthe opposing force wouldat that moment unleash afusillade that wouldcontinue until theoffensiveconcluded,either

with victory, meaning afew yards gained, ordefeat, a few yards lost,but invariably with halfone’s battalion dead,wounded, or missing. “Ishall never forget themoment when we had toleave the shelter of thetrenches,” wrote Britishprivate Ridley Sheldon, ofcombat at Helles, at thesouthwest tip of the

Gallipoli Peninsula. “It isindeed terrible, the firststep you take—right intothefaceofthemostdeadlyfire,andtorealizethatanymoment you may be shotdown; but if you are nothit, then you seem togather courage.Andwhenyou see on either side ofyou men like yourself, itinspires you with adetermination to press

forward. Away we wentovertheparapetwithfixedbayonets—one line of uslike the wind. But it wasabsolute murder, for menfell like corn before thesickle.”Thewounded lay in the

open or in shell holesawaiting stretcher bearerswho might not come forhours, or even days.Injuriesrangedfromminor

penetrations by shrapnelto grotesquedisfigurements.“Igotbackinto the trench, and sawwhat I had not seenbefore, for the smoke hadcleared now,”wrote Capt.Albert Mure, also onHelles. A shell had justlandedinhistrench,inthespot where momentsearlierhehadbeenwritingmessages to be delivered

by two orderlies. Oneorderlysurvived,theotherdidnot.“Hisbodyandhisheadlay4or5feetapart.Two ofmy signalers werekilled also, and mutilatedsohorriblythattodescribetheir condition would beinexcusable.”ElsewhereatHelles,Sgt.

Denis Moriarty and hisFirst Royal MunsterFusiliers fought off a

Turkishassault thatbeganat ten o’clock at night.“Theycreptrightuptoourtrenches, they were inthousands, and theymadethe night hideous withyells and shouting, ‘Allah,Allah!’ We could not helpmowing them down.”Some managed to reachMoriarty’s trench. “Whenthe Turks got to closequarters the devils used

hand grenades and youcould only recognize ourdead by their identitydiscs. My God, what asight met us when daybroke this morning.” Bythe time the Alliedinvading force wouldfinally be evacuated, inJanuary 1916, some265,000 Allied troops and300,000 Turks would bedead, wounded, or

missing.Menintheshipsmassed

offshore fared littlebetter.The armada was animpressive one—hundredsof vessels, ranging fromminesweepers to giantdreadnoughts. But manywere in easy range ofTurkishartilleryembeddedin high ground, whichdropped thousandsof tonsof high explosives onto

their decks. The Frenchbattleship Suffren wasstruck by a shell thatdestroyedagunturretandignited a fire deep withinits hull; another shelldestroyed its forwardfunnel. Rear Adm. ÉmileGuépratte descended fromthe bridge to survey thedamage and bolster themoraleofhis sailors.“Thescene,” he wrote, “was

tragically macabre: theimage of desolation, theflames spared nothing. Asfor our youngmen, a fewminutes ago, so alert, soself-confident, all now[lay] dead on the baredeck, blackened burntskeletons, twisted in alldirections,no traceofanyclothing, the fire havingdevouredall.”Aboard the Lusitania,

there was quiet. Therewere books, and cigars,and fine foods, afternoontea, and the easy cadenceof shipboard life: strollingthe deck, chatting at therails, doing crochet, andjust sitting still in a deckchair in the sea breeze.Now and then a shipappeared in the distance;closerathand,whales.

BACK IN New York, onWednesday, May 5,Cunard at last providedthecustomsofficewiththeLusitania’s full cargomanifest.Unliketheinitialone-page version filed byCaptain Turner beforedeparture, this“Supplemental Manifest”was twenty-four pageslong and listed over threehundredconsignments.

Here were muskratskins, nuts, beeswax,bacon, salt brick, dentalgoods, cases of lard, andbarrels of beef tongues;machinery from the OtisElevator Company; andenough candy—157barrels of it—to populatethe fantasies of all theschoolchildren inLiverpool. The manifestalsolistedonecaseof“Oil

Paintings,” theseaccompanying first-classpassengerSirHughLane,aDublin art collector. Toidentify this consignmentmerelyasoilpaintingswasan understatement. Thepaintingswere insured for$4 million (about $92million today) and wererumored to have includedworks by Rubens, Monet,Titian,andRembrandt.

More problematic, butentirely legal under U.S.neutrality laws, were the50barrelsand94casesofaluminum powder and 50cases of bronze powder,both highly flammableunder certain conditions,as well as 1,250 cases ofshrapnel-laden artilleryshells made by theBethlehemSteelCompany,bound for the British

army,andbadlyneededonthe western front, whereBritish forces werehampered by a severeshortage of artilleryammunition. (WroteChurchill, “The army inFrance was firing awayshells at a rate which nomilitary administrationhad ever been asked tosustain.”) The shrapnelshells were essentially

inert.Theycontainedonlya minimum burstingcharge; their associatedfuses were packedseparately and storedelsewhere. The cartridgesthat held the powerfulexplosives needed topropel the shells from agun were not among theship’s cargo; these wouldbe attached later, at anarsenalinBritain.

Also aboard, accordingto the manifest, were4,200 cases of Remingtonrifle ammunition,amountingto170tons.

U-20

ATLAST

THROUGHOUT THE MORNING OFWEDNESDAY, MAY 5, heavyfog lingered over the seaoff Ireland.From4:00A.M.on, every time Schwieger

checked on the weatherthrough his periscope allhesawwasadarkopacity.He held U-20 on asoutherly course and keptits speed slow, probablyabout5knots, toconservebatterypower.At8:25A.M.Schwieger gaugedvisibility as good enoughto bring the boat to thesurface, though banks of

fog persisted all aroundhim.Hiscrewnowdecoupled

the two electric enginesandengagedthedieselstobring U-20 to cruisingspeed and recharge thebatteries. Somewhere offto his left, in the murk,wasthesouthwestcoastofIreland, here a phalanx ofstonecliffsjuttingintotheNorth Atlantic. He would

soon pass Valentia Island,wheretheBritishhadbuilta powerful wirelesstransmitter. Schwieger’sown wireless man wouldby now be picking upstrong signals from theValentia tower, but couldnot read the codes inwhichtheyweresent.U-20 moved throughcurtains of fog. By 12:50P.M. Schwieger believed

himselftobeabreastoftheFastnet Rock, though hecould not see it. The rockwas one of Britain’s mostprominent maritimelandmarks, a road sign tothe Western Approaches.Irish immigrants in thenineteenthcenturyknewitas “Ireland’s Teardrop”because itwas the lastbitof Irelandtheysawbeforetheir ships entered the

NorthAtlantic en route toAmerica. Here Schwiegerordered a left turn, tobegin sailing alongIreland’s south coasttowardLiverpool.Thiswasthe upper edge of a greatfunnel of ocean called theCeltic Sea,where inboundships converged fromnorth, west, and south. Itwas the perfect huntingground for a U-boat, but

Schwiegersawnothing.He wrote, “During thewhole afternoon nosteamersightedinspiteofthe clearing weather,although we foundourselveswithinoneofthemainshippinglanes.”Visibility improved.Soon Schwieger was ableto see the Irish coast, butonly for a few moments.Overthenextthreehours,

U-20 cruised on thesurface and encounteredno ships of any kind. Theevening haze began togatheronceagain.Just before five o’clock,

while off the coast ofCounty Cork, Schwiegerspotted what at firstseemed to be a largesquare-rigged sailing ship.Inthehaze,itcutalovelyfigure, its three masts

billowing with canvas.Unlike other U-boatcommanders, who sanksuchshipswithreluctance,Schwieger was unmoved.He saw a target. U-20turned toward the ship,and Schwieger’s menloadedandaimed itsdeckgun.AsSchwiegergotcloser,

hesawthatonceagainthelight and haze had

deceivedhim.Theshipdidhave three masts, but itwasonlyasmallschooner.He signaled the vessel tostop. Although he hadfired on shipsmany timeswithout warning, here hereturned,briefly,tocruiserrules. “As no dangerexisted for our boat inapproaching,” he wrote,“wemade for the stern ofthesailer.”

He ordered theschooner’s captain andfour-mancrewtoabandonship and bring its registryandcargomanifestovertoU-20.Theschoonerprovedto be the Earl of Lathom,out of Liverpool, carryingrocks from Limerick. Itweighedallof99tons.As the schooner’s crew

began rowing away,Schwiegerorderedhismen

at the gun to begin firingat the schooner’swaterline.Despiteitssmallsize and decidedlynonbuoyant cargo, thevessel proved a stubborntarget. Shot after shotboomedacrosstheseaandexploded against its hull.Schwieger’s gun crewneeded twelve shells tosinkit.

SEVERAL HOURS later, as duskand fog gathered,Schwieger found anothertarget. A steamshipemergedfromthefog,verynear—too close to allowSchwieger to prepare anattack. He turned U-20away, to gain sea room,but kept the boat on thesurface. The steamshipstopped, apparentlyexpecting an examination

undercruiserrules.Outwardly, the vessel

weighed about 3,000 tonsand seemed to beNorwegian, but Schwiegerandhispilot,Lanz,sensedsomething amiss. Themarkings were unusuallyhigh on the hull, andSchwieger suspected theymight have been paintedontotarpaulins.Schwieger maneuvered

for a torpedo attack. Heordered a bronze torpedo,set to run at a depth of 8feet.WhenU-20wasabout330 yards away from thesteamer, Schwieger gavetheordertofire.Hemissed.Thebubblesrisingtothe

surface from the torpedo’scompressed-air enginerevealed its path. As thetorpedo track moved

towardthetarget,theshipbegan a suddenacceleration and veeredaway. As best Schwiegercould tell, the torpedowent past or under thestern.Now it was Schwieger’s

turnto flee.He fearedtheship might be armed.“After the shot I turnedaroundhardandranawayin order to avoid the

danger of being firedupon,”hewrote. “For thisreasonIdidnotconsiderasecond attack. Steamerdisappearedquickly in thefog.”In his log entry at 8:10

that night, hecontemplated what hadoccurred.Thetorpedohadseemed to lose speedas itapproached the target, hewrote.“Ihadconsidereda

miss out of the question,evenafterthetorpedohadbeenfired,consideringourfavorable position and thefact that [the] steamercould not make muchheadway.”Remarkablytheshiphad thenmanaged toaccelerate from a deadstoptomakeitsescape.Over the next hour the

dense fog returned andonce again forced

Schwieger to submerge.This was the end of hissixthdayatsea,andallhehad sunk was a 99-tonsailboat.

SIGHTING

FROM:HEADOFKINSALETO:ADMIRALTY

MAY5,1915

SENT7:55P.M.RECEIVED8:52P.M.

SMALLBOATCONTAININGFIVEMENSOUTHEASTONEMILEHOISTEDOARWITHA

GARMENTATTACHED.STEAMDRIFTERD145TOOKCREWONBOARDMAKINGKINSALE.COASTGUARDKINSALEINFORMED.

ROOM40

SCHWIEGERREVEALED

FIRSTCAMEAREPORTOFGUNFIREINTHE FOG,SENTON the eveningof Wednesday, May 5,from a station perched on

theOldHeadofKinsale,apromontory that juttedinto the Celtic Sea nearQueenstown, Ireland. TheOldHeadwaswellknownto mariners, who oftenused it to fix theirlocations.Kinsale followed thismessagewithareportthata schooner, the Earl ofLathom,hadbeensunkoffthe Old Head. This was

relayedtoBlinkerHallandFirst Sea Lord Fisher,temporarily in charge ofthe Admiralty. Churchillwas expected to arrive inParis by midnight. Thenew message, received inLondon at 10:46 P.M. andnotedinarecordofU-20’stravels compiled by Room40, stated that theschooner’s crew had beenrescued and brought to

Kinsale.Thecrewreportedthat when they had lastseen the submarine itwasheading southeast towardalargesteamer.At about the same timeanother telegram reachedthe Admiralty, this fromthe Naval Center atQueenstown. The captainofaBritish ship, theCayoRomano, was reportingthat a torpedo had been

fired at his vessel offFastnet Rock. He neversaw the submarine thatfiredit.ThistoowasnotedinRoom40andrelayedtoHallandFisher.Now came a fourth

message, also circulated,thatasubmarinehadbeensighted 12 miles south ofthe Daunt Rock Light, alightship anchored outsidethe entrance to

Queenstown Harbor. Thetime of the sighting was9:30P.M.By comparing the

locations of these attackswith previouslyintercepted wirelessreports, it should havebecome obvious tosomeone—toChiefofStaffOliver, Captain Hall, orFisher—that the U-boatinvolved was Kptlt.

Walther Schwieger’s U-20and that Schwieger wasnowoperatingintheheartofoneofBritain’sprimarysea-lanes. A detailedrecord of U-20’s travelskeptbyRoom40includeda precise location for thatevening, “51.32 N, 8.22W.”These coordinatesputthe U-boat just south-southeast of theOldHeadofKinsale.

The Admiraltywaswellaware the Lusitania wouldsoon traverse these samewaters butmade no effortto provide specifics of thenight’s events directly toCaptain Turner.Meanwhile, the closelywatched HMS Orioncontinued on its course toScapa Flow, guarded allthe while by the fourdestroyers assigned as

escorts.Theyaccompaniedthe dreadnought until itwas safely in the Atlanticand heading north beforebeginningtheirownreturnvoyages.At that point thefour destroyers werewithinrangeofU-20’slastposition and the path theLusitania soon wouldfollow on its way toLiverpool.Noattemptwasmade to divert the

destroyers. One, the HMSBoyne, went directly backto Devonport; the otherthree returned via theScillyIslands.The Orion continued

north on a zigzag course,at 18 knots, a speeddeemed more thansufficient to outrun a U-boat.

NOW FIVE DAYS into itsvoyage,theLusitaniamadeits way toward Britainalone, with no escortofferedorplanned,andnoinstruction to take thenewly opened and saferNorth Channel route—thisdespite the fact that theship carried a valuablecache of rifle cartridgesand desperately neededshrapnelshells.

The absence of anyprotective measures maysimply have been theresult of a lapse ofattention, with Churchilloff in France and Fisherconsumedbyothermattersand seemingly driftingtoward madness. It wouldtake on a more sinistercast,however,inlightofaletter that Churchill hadsent earlier in the year to

the head of England’sBoard of Trade, WalterRunciman, in whichChurchillwrotethatitwas“most important to attractneutral shipping to ourshores, in the hopesespecially of embroilingthe United States withGermany.”Though no one said itexplicitly, Britain hopedtheUnitedStateswouldat

some point feel moved tojoin the Allies, and in sodoing tip the balanceirrevocablyintheirfavor.After noting that

Germany’s submarinecampaign had sharplyreduced traffic fromAmerica, Churchill toldRunciman: “For our part,we want the traffic—themore the better; and ifsome of it gets into

trouble,betterstill.”

LUSITANIA

HELPFULYOUNGLADIES

AT5:30A.M.,THURSDAY,MAY6, PASSENGERS IN FIRST-CLASSstaterooms arrayed alongthe port side of the

Lusitania’s boat deck—ADeck—heardacommotionoutside.TheodatePope, inA-10, recalled being“wakened by shouts andthe scuffling of feet.”Metal clanked againstmetal; ropes movedthrough squealing tackle.All this was mingled withmuffled curses and thesounds ofmenworking ata task requiring strength,

which the crewpossessed,andcoordination,whichitdidnot.With the ship about a

day away from enteringthe Celtic Sea, CaptainTurner had ordered thecrewtouncoverandswingout all the ship’sconventional lifeboats,meaning those that hungfrom davits along bothsidesoftheboatdeck.The

twoemergencyboatswerealreadyinposition.Turner was beingprudent. If an emergencywere to occur, the boatscould be launched fromthispositionmorequickly,andwithlesshazard,thaniftheywerestill lockedintheirdeep-seapositions.Atthis hour, few passengerswouldbeoutondeckandthuswouldbelesslikelyto

interferewiththeeffortor,worse, be injured, thoughTurner risked causingannoyance by awakeningthem so early—and thesewere some of the mostexpensive staterooms ontheship.Third Officer John

Lewis, who ran the dailylifeboat drills, alsodirected this operation.First, he said, “we

mustered the cooks, thestewards, the watch ofsailors on deck, and anyother day men that wecould raise.” The crewbegan with the boats onthe port side. Lewisclimbed to the navigationdeck and positionedhimself at its midpoint,outsidetheMarconiroom,so that he could monitorthe entire operation at

once. Six to eight menwere assigned to eachboat. To avoid tangledfalls andguy lines, all theboatshadtobeswungoutat once, according toLewis. Next, the men—someeightyinall—shiftedto the starboard side andrepeated the process.Lewis then dismissed thecooks and stewards, butordered the deck crew to

secure the guy lines andpile the falls in tidy“Flemish” coils. Last, hehad the men make surethat each boat containeditsrequiredcomplementofsurvival gear, includingoars, mast, sails, matches,sea anchor, lamp,provisions, and drinkingwater.The process did not go

smoothly. First-class

passenger Joseph Myers,upearly,watchedthecrewwork. “The men were notefficient,” he said. “I sawthem trying to throw outthe boats, trying to breakaway the boats from thedavits, and it seemed tome that they were notequal to it. They wereclumsyhandlingtheropes.Theywerebossedbysomepettyofficer; Idon’tknow

who it was but the mendid not look to me as ifthey had been handlingthe boats before. Theyhandledtheropesandfallslikemenbuildingahouse;they lookedmore likedaylaborersthanseamen.”Passengers who awoke

later that morning weregreetedby the sight of allthe boats swung out anduncovered, with no

explanation posted. Formost the change was ofminor interest; some maynotevenhavenoticed.Forothers, it wasdisconcerting. “OnThursday morning I feltrather uneasy when Idiscovered that thelifeboats were hung overthesideoftheship,”wroteJane MacFarquhar, ofStratford,Connecticut.“On

inquiry, I was informedthat it was essential thatthey should be so—accordingtolaw.Ithoughtit rather strange that theyhad not been put readyafter clearing New Yorkinsteadofwaitinguntilwewere so near the otherside. I noticed the otherpassengersdidnotseemtobother, so I also began toforgetthelifeboats.”

Nellie Huston, adding afew more paragraphs toherdiary-likeletter,wrote,“Thismorningwehaveallthe lifeboats swung outready for emergencies. It’sawful to thinkaboutbut Iguess there is somedanger.” She noted thatshe and fellow passengersexpected British navalvesselstorendezvouswiththe ship that day, to

provideescort.Sheswitchedtocheerier

observations. “What acrowd there are in theboatandallEnglish.IwassopleasedtoseetheUnionJacks on this boat whenwe were in New York,there are quite a lot ofdistinguishedpeopleinthe1stclassbutofcourseyoucouldn’ttouchthemwithasoft pole! There is a

Vanderbilt, one or twobankers. I have made lotsof friends and if it wasn’tfor the worry I could saywe’vehadalovelytrip.”

THE DECK MEN did the usual“sailoring”tomaintaintheship, a process that neverended. Every morning agroup of sailors cleanedthe brass and glass in the

portholesthatopenedontothe decks. There wasalways a peekof rust thatneeded sanding andpainting; the brine anddried mist that collectedonthedeckrailsovernighthadtoberaggedoffinthemorning, so that the railsshoneanddidnotspoilthedresses and suits ofpassengers. All the ship’splants had to be watered,

including the twenty-onelargepalmtreesthatstoodat the heads of stairwells.Deck chairs had to bestraightened, to avoid thehaphazard look of awedding after all theguestshadleft.Seaman Morton was

assigned to touch up thepaintonthehullofoneofthe lifeboats. The crewmusthaveswungtheboat

back in for this, becauseMorton had to lieunderneath to administerthe paint. The paint wasgray and was known as“crab fat.” Itwas amessytask. “Wewere not issuedwithpaintbrushes,wehadinsteadaswabofwaste”—meaning a rag—“and thepaint pot into which wedippedthewasteandthenappliedittothehullofthe

lifeboat.”Morton was hard at

work when he heard thesound of small shoescharging toward him, andlookedoutfromundertheboat to see two girlsintently watching. ThesewereAnnaandGwendolynAllan, ages fifteen andsixteen, the twodaughtersof Lady Hugh MontaguAllan, ofMontreal, one of

the ship’s most prominentpassengers. The threeoccupied a Regal Suite onB Deck, which includedtwo bedrooms, bathroom,dining room, and parlor.The Allans traveled withtwomaids, who stayed ina tiny room squeezedbetween one of the ship’sfunnels and the dome ofthefirst-classdiningsalon.Thegirlswereapopular

andvividpresenceaboard.“I could not help thinkingwhat lovely children theywere and how beautifullydressed,”Mortonwrote.“Iseem to remember theeldest one was wearing awhite accordion pleatedskirtandsailorblouse.”One girl asked, “Whatareyoudoing,sailor?”Mortonanswered,“Iampaintingthelifeboat.”

“Maywehelpyou?”Morton noted again the

girls’clothingandalsothesound of heavier stepsquickly approaching—these the footfalls of awoman who appeared tobe a nanny. The womandidnotlookpleased.Morton said, “I don’t

thinkthisisajobforlittlegirls.”The eldest girl, clearly

accustomed to having herway, grabbed theimprovised brush, whichwassoakedwithpaint,andstarted applying it to theboat and in the processapplied it to her clothingaswell.“I was horrified,”

Morton wrote. He heardthe still heavier footstepsof his approachingsupervisor, the bosun, or

senior deckman, “comingalongatthedouble.”Thegirlsfled,andsodidMorton.Heeasedoutfromundertheboat,towardthewater, and climbed overthesidetothedeckbelow.“I did not feel there wasanypurposeinstoppingtoarguethepointwitheitherthe irate bosun or theextremely angry lookingNannie.”

A BOY NAMED Robert Kaymissed all the morning’sexcitement. Kay, sevenyears old, was anAmerican citizen from theBronx, in New York City,traveling to England withhis British mother,Marguerita Belsher Kay,who was in an advancedphase of pregnancy. Shewanted badly to return toher parents’ home in

England to have the babyand was willing to bravethe passage, despite theGerman warning and herown tendency to getseasick.By midweek Robert

himself had begun to feelpoorly. The ship’s surgeonexamined him anddiagnosed a full-blowncase of measles. The boy,he said, would have to

spend the rest of thevoyage in quarantine, twodecks down. The Kayswere traveling in secondclass,buthismotherchoseto go below as well, toroomwithherson.The monotony wascrushing,buttherewas,atleast, a porthole throughwhichtheboycouldwatchthesea.

CAPTAIN TURNER ordered theusualmidmorning lifeboatdrill.Theteamof“picked”crewmenclimbedintooneof the emergency boats asan audience of passengerslooked on. One witnesswas George Kessler, the“Champagne King,” whowent up to the sailor incharge,and toldhim, “It’salright drilling your crew,but why don’t you drill

yourpassengers?”The man replied, “Why

not tell Captain Turner,sir?”Kessler resolved to do

so.

U-20

SPECTACLE

THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 6,FOUNDU-20ADVANCINGslowlyalong the southwest coastof Ireland, into watersmariners knew as the St.

George’s Channel. Thoughthe term channel connotesa narrow body of water,the St. George’s at itsbroadest was about 90mileswide, tapering to45miles between CarnsorePoint on the Irish coastand St. David’s Head inWales. A lightship wasanchored at the Irish sidetosteershipsawayfromanotorious hazard, the

ConingbegRock, routinelymisspelled by telegraphand wireless operators asConingberg or Koninbeg.Beyond this point, thewatersbroadenedagaintoform the Irish Sea, MuirÉireann, with Liverpoolanother250nauticalmilestothenorthandeast.Evenat Schwieger’s best speedof15knots,hewouldneedanother sixteen hours to

reach his assigned patrolzone.Buttheweatherwasnotcooperating. Persistent foghad forced him to remainsubmerged throughout thenight. Just before 8:00A.M., he found signs ofclearing and brought theboattothesurface,butdidso using only itshydroplanes. He kept thediving tanks filled with

seawater in case ofemergency. The boatmoved through striationsofheavyfog.A steamship appeared

ahead, off to starboard. Itflew no flag and showedno other indicator ofregistry. Schwiegerordered his gun crew ondeck for a surface attack.Despite thepoorvisibility,some sharp-eyed soul

aboardthesteamerspottedthe submarine. The shipturnedhardandfledatfullspeed.Schwiegerracedafterit,

his gun crew firing roundafterround.Twoshellshitthe steamer, but itcontinuedtorun.Theshipentered a fog bank anddisappeared from view.Schwiegerfollowed.Clarity returned.

Schwieger’s men resumedfire. U-20 was making 15knots; the steamerprobablyonly8to10.Theattack went on for nearlytwo hours, with U-20gradually gaining, untilone shell struck thetarget’s bridge. Thisproved persuasive. Thesteamship stopped andlowered its boats. Onefoundered,Schwiegersaw,

but three others pulledaway,“fulltocapacity.”Schwieger brought the

submarine closer.He fireda bronze torpedo into thehull, from a distance of500meters (550yards). Itexploded at a pointopposite what Schwiegerbelieved to be the ship’sengine room. “Effectslight,”hewrote.Theshipsaggedatthesternbutdid

notsink.Schwieger’s gun crew

began firing at the ship’swaterlineashebroughtU-20 slowly around to itsstern.Theship’snamehadbeen painted over, but upclose Schwieger was ableto read it: Candidate. Hisship-identification bookshowed it to be a Britishfreighter of about 5,000tons, owned by the

HarrisonLineofLiverpool,acompanypronetogivingshipssuchromanticnamesas Auditor, Administrator,andElectrician.Schwieger’s men

continued firing until theship’sbowrosehighoutofthe water and the sternbegantosink.Herecordedthe latitude and longitudeof thewreck,whichput it20 miles south of the

Coningbeg lightship, atabout the middle of thenarrowest portion of theSaint George’s Channel.Thetimewas10:30A.M.Ten minutes later, he

sighted another potentialtarget coming over thehorizon, this one thebiggest yet, on a coursethat would converge withhis.Fogobscuredtheship.Schwieger ordered full

speedandsetacoursethathe anticipated would putU-20aheadoftheshipandin position to fire atorpedo.The big steamer burst

from the fog,moving fast.Schwiegersawnowthat itwas a passenger liner ofabout 14,000 tons. A trueprize. He ordered a fastdive and raced at thehighest speed his battery-

powered engines couldmuster, 9 knots, but thisprovednotnearlyenough.The ship was still 2milesoff and moving at fullspeed. Schwieger realizedthat the best he could dowouldbe topositionU-20so that a torpedo wouldstrike the liner at aglancing 20-degree angle—too oblique to besuccessful. He called off

theattack.Althoughhedidn’tname

the ship in his log, thelinerwastheArabic,oftheWhiteStarLine,whichhadownedtheTitanic.

ANHOURLATER,shortlybeforeone o’clock, Schwiegerspottedyetanothertarget,aheadandtoport.He set up his attack.

This time he chose one ofthe newer G6 torpedoesand ordered its depth setat3meters,about10feet.Hefiredfromadistanceof300 meters. The torpedostruck the ship at a pointbelow its forward mast.The bow took on water,but the ship stayedafloat.Its crew fled in boats.Schwiegersurfaced.He determined that the

vessel was an Englishfreighter, the Centurion,about 6,000 tons, ownedby the same line thatownedthefreighterhehadsunkearlierintheday.The fog again began to

build. Schwieger did notwanttotakeachancethatthe Centurion wouldsurvive.He fired a secondtorpedo, “to makefoundering sure.” This too

exploded on contact, andSchwieger heard thetelltalehissofairthatfledthe shipaswater filled itshull. U-boat commandersalways found this asatisfying moment.Kapitänleutnant Forstner,in his memoir, describedhow the air “escapeswithashrillwhistlefromeverypossible aperture, and thesoundresemblestheshriek

of a steam siren. This is awonderful spectacle tobehold!” Often at thispoint stricken ships gaveone last exhalation aswater filled their boilerrooms, causing a finalexplosion and releasing acloud of black smoke andsoot, known to U-boatcommanders as “the blacksoul.”Schwieger did not wait

to see the ship disappearbelowthesurface.Thefoghad grown too thick. At2:15 p.m., he submergedand set a course thatwould take U-20 well outto sea so that he couldrecharge its batteries insafety and consider hownexttoproceed.Schwieger faced a

decision. His fuel wasrunning low—surprisingly

so—and he had yet toreachhisassignedhuntingzone off Liverpool, stillnearly a day’s voyageaway.

LUSITANIA

LIFEAFTERDEATH

THAT THURSDAY AFTERNOON,THEODATE POPE AND EdwinFriend sat in their deckchairs enjoying the fineweather and blue vista.

Theywere not lovers, butTheodatespentmostofhertime in Friend’s company.Whileondeck,Friendreadaloud toher fromabook,Henri Bergson’sMatière etmémoire, or Matter andMemory, published in1896. Broadly, it dealtwith the relationshipbetween mind and body.Bergson, a past presidentof Britain’s Society for

Psychical Research, wassympathetic to the ideathat some element of anindividual persisted afterdeath.Theodate too was a

member of the society, anorganization founded inLondon in 1882, not bycrackpots or would-bemediums, but byphilosophers, writers,scientists, and journalists

who sought to bring theprinciples of scientificrigor to the investigationofparanormalphenomena.Its membership includeddozens of scientific andliterary notables, amongthem H. G. Wells, MarkTwain,WilliamJames,andOliver Lodge, a leadingBritish physicist whowould losehisownsontothewarinSeptember1915

and spend the rest of hislife trying to reach himbeyondtheveil.Fromtimeto time Theodate hadassisted Lodge and Jamesinan investigationofMrs.Piper, the medium, forwhich James convenedseventy-five séances. Themedium’s apparent talentsso resisted his attempts todebunk her skills thatJamescametobelieveshe

might be legitimate. “Ifyouwish toupset the lawthat all crows are black,”he wrote, famously, “youmustnotseektoshowthatnocrowsare, it is enoughif you prove the singlecrowtobewhite.MyownwhitecrowisMrs.Piper.”Theodate also

participated in séancesindependently of WilliamJames and in an

unpublished memoirdescribed a 1909 sittingwith another famedmedium, EusapiaPalladino, during whichTheodateclaimedherownturban levitated from herscalp and settled on thetable in front of her.Palladino wassubsequently proven to beaverytalentedfraud.Theodate began serious

studyofthepowersofthemindandtheoccultinherthirties. In1900,atthirty-three, she read her firstissuesofProceedingsof theSociety for PsychicalResearch, which includedinvestigations of supposedhauntings and incidencesof “survival,” the society’spreferredtermforlifeafterdeath;theProceedingswerealsowhereSigmundFreud

in1912publishedhis firstdetailedarticulationofhistheory of subconsciousthought. Theodate joinedthe society in 1904 andsoon afterward beganhelping William Jameswith his investigation ofMrs. Piper. (James’sbrotherHenry, though theauthorof tenghost storiesincluding Turn of theScrew,scornedspiritualism

andparanormaldabbling.)In1907,theyearTheodateturned forty, she helpedfound a new institute forpsychical research in NewYork and contributed$25,000, over $600,000today. Her travelingcompanion, Edwin Friend,had been editor of theinstitute’s journal until adecidedly non-astralconflictoverwhat sortsof

articles to publish led tohis removal. Though onlyinhistwenties,Friendhadalreadyreceivedbachelor’sandmaster’s degrees fromHarvard and had taughtclassics at Princeton,Harvard, and theUniversity of Berlin.Theodate, angered by hisremoval,resignedfromtheinstitute’s board. Herreason for traveling with

him now on the Lusitaniawas to visit Oliver Lodgeand others in London toseek support for thefounding of a wholly newAmericansociety.Bergson’s book was in

French, but Friendtranslatedasheread.Thiswas no mean feat.Matterand Memory was astupefying read in anylanguage. Yet there they

sat, contentedly filling thewarm afternoon air withmurmured language andknowing smiles, graspingtheungraspable.“There were passagesthat illustrated sowonderfully some of thecommon difficulties incommunication,”Theodatewrote—and bycommunication she meantcontact with the dead.

“They were mostilluminating and I couldsee the vividness of theinspiration they were toMr. Friend; and aswe satside by side in our deckchairsImarveledtomyselfthat such a man as Mr.Friend had been found tocarryontheinvestigations.I felt very deeply thequality of my respect andadmiration for him. He

was endowed so richly inheartandmind.”She saw Friend as an

intellectual helpmate andbelieved that in comingyears he would be animportant, albeit platonic,presenceinherlife.

AMONG THE younger crowd,shipboard life gained anewintensitywiththeend

of the voyage so near.New-made friends askedeach other to signmementobooks.Flirtationsbecame more flirty; theongoing sportingcompetitions more zesty,with prizes offered at theship’s barbershop. Theboundaries betweenfamilies began to blur.Children roamed the deckin packs, led by

stewardesses. Onestewardess had charge oftwenty-two children,whom she watched whiletheir parents dined. EthelMoore Lamping Lines,thirty-four, traveling withher husband, Stanley,befriendedayoungcouplefromTorontowhowereontheir way home toScotland with their threechildren: a toddler and a

pair of one-and-a-half-year-oldtwins.“Allarounduswerenicelittlegrowingfamilies,” Mrs. Lineswrote,“andallsohappy.”She and a friend joked

about what to do if theship were attacked. “Ourstewardess laughed,” Mrs.Lines recalled, “and saidwe would not go down,but up, as we were wellloadedwithmunitions.”

THAT AFTERNOON, CaptainTurner and Staff CaptainAnderson toured the shipto make sure all thelifeboats were in factswung out and ready forlowering. Turner alsoordered Anderson to seethatalltheship’sportholeswereclosed,uptoBDeck,and that all bulkheaddoors likewise were

closed.As of noon Thursday,the ship was 465 mileswest of Ireland’s FastnetRock, and moving at 21knots.

U-20

CHANGEOFPLAN

ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON, WITHU-20SUBMERGED andheadedout to sea, Schwiegermade his decision: heresolved to abandon his

effort to reach Liverpool,despite his orders. Withinthe culture of U-boatleadership, this was hisprerogative. Out of touchwithsuperiorsandfriendlyvessels,onlyacommandercouldknowhowhispatrolwas unfolding and whatthreats or challenges hefaced. Still, Schwiegerdevotednearly a full pageof his War Log to his

rationale.The weather was the

biggest factor in hisdecision. The barometer,and the fog that haddogged his course all dayand the previous night,and the strangely calmweather—hereheusedthelovely German wordWindstille—suggested tohim that the fog wouldlinger for days. “The poor

visibility,” he wrote,“makes it impossible tosight thenumerousenemypatrols, trawlers anddestroyers, which may beexpected in the St.George[’s] Channel andtheIrishSea;thereforewewill be in constantdangerand compelled to travelsubmerged.”He assumed that anytroop transports leaving

Liverpool would do so atnight, with destroyerescorts. The only way tospot these ships was toremain on the surface, hewrote,butdoingso in fogand darkness was toodangerous,bothbecauseofthe risk of being run overandbecausethedestroyers—fast and heavily armed—could not be spotted intime for him to evade

attack.Also, he had only three

torpedoesleft,ofwhichhewanted to hold two inreserve for his returnjourney, standard practiceforU-boatcommanders.And then there was the

fuel problem. If hecontinued forward toLiverpool, his supplywould run so low that hewouldbeunable to return

bythesameroutethathadbrought him here. Hewould be forced to takethe North Channel,between Scotland andIreland. While the routehadbecomemuchsaferforBritishmerchant ships, forU-boats it had becomeincreasingly dangerous.The last timehehadgonethat way he hadencountered heavy patrols

and unceasing danger. Hevowed not do it again“under anycircumstances.”He planned to continue

attacking ships, he wrote,butinwaterswellshortofLiverpool, at the entrancetoadifferentpassage—theBristol Channel—throughwhich ships traveled toreach the English portcities of Swansea, Cardiff,

andBristol,“sincechancesfor favorable attacks arebetter here and enemydefensive measures lesserthan in the Irish Sea nearLiverpool.”Thoughhehadonlyonetorpedoavailablefor immediate use, apartfromhistwoinreserve,hehad plenty of shells. Heresolved to continueattacks until two-fifths ofhis remaining fuel was

usedup.But once again he was

stymiedbytheweather.At6:10 that evening helooked through hisperiscopeandagain foundonly fog, with visibilitylimited to30yards inanydirection. He continuedout to sea, beyond theheaviestlanesoftraffic,tospend the night. Heplannedtosurfacethenext

morning,Friday,torunhisdiesels and recharge hisbatteries, in preparationfortheday’shunting.

LUSITANIA

MESSAGES

THEREWASDINNER,OFCOURSE,ASELABORATE AND filling asusual, though now moreappreciated, given thatthiswas the second-to-last

dinner of the voyagebeforearrival inLiverpoolonSaturdaymorning.Asthepassengersdined,one of the ship’s Marconimen picked up a messagechattering through theether. The time was 7:50P.M. The message, sent enclair, meaning in plainEnglish, was from theAdmiralty’s office inQueenstown, Ireland. The

first version must havebeen distorted, for theLusitania’s operator askedQueenstown to send itagain.Therepeatwassentat 7:56. Moments laterCaptain Turner had themessage in hand:“Submarines active offSouthCoastofIreland.”At about the same time

the ship received anothermessage, this one directed

toallBritishshipsandsentinaspecialAdmiraltycodereserved for merchantvessels. Once decoded, ittoo was delivered toTurner. The messagewarned ships in theEnglish Channel to staywithin2milesofEngland’ssoutherncoastbutorderedthose ships en route toLiverpool to avoidheadlands, stay in

midchannel, pass theentrances to harbors athigh speed, and finallytake on a harbor pilot atthe Mersey Bar to guidethem to their wharves inLiverpool. The messageended: “Submarines offFastnet.”Coming one after the

other, the two messageswere disconcerting—andconfusing. The second

seemedtocontradictitself.On the one hand, itadvised ships in theEnglish Channel to stayclose to shore. On theother, it recommendedthat ships on Turner’sroute stay in midchannel.It urged captains to racepast harbors, but at thesame time told them tostopandpickupapilotattheentrancetotheMersey

River. Nor did thesemessagesofferanyclueasto the actual number ofsubmarinesortheirpreciselocations. The waters offthe south coast of Irelandformed an immenseexpanse of ocean. Thephrase “submarines offFastnet”couldmeanhalfamile or a hundred miles.Together, the twomessages suggestedwaters

teemingwithU-boats.For Captain Turner, one

fact was certain: theLusitaniawouldbepassingthe Fastnet Rock the nextmorning andwouldbeoffthe south coast of Irelandfor the remainder of thevoyagetoLiverpool.

AFTER DINNER, PrestonPrichard led the night’s

“whist drive” in thesecond-class lounge, whilein first class the eveningconcert got under way.The night’s program hasvanished fromhistory,butone passenger reportedlydressed up as BonniePrince Charlie, in fullHighlandregalia,andsangsixScottishsongs.Onpastvoyages, passengersrecited poetry, displayed

their skills at“legerdemain,” read aloudfrom books, and gave“comic recitations”; theysang songs like “Down bythe Old Mill Stream,”“Genevieve,”and“TipTopTipperaryMary”;andtheyshowed off theirinstrumental talents, withsolos on the euphoniumand mandolin and cello—Godard’s “Berceuse

d’Jocelyn” andSchumann’s “Traumerei.”There was one regularfeature: each concertended with the audiencestandingtosing“GodSavetheKing”anditsAmericancousin, “My Country ’Tisof Thee.” Same tune, verydifferentlyrics.It was here, during

intermission, that Turnerstepped forward to offer

hissoberingremarksaboutsubmarines and the warzone and assured theaudience theywould soonbesecurelyintheembraceoftheRoyalNavy.While the concert was

under way, a team ofofficers conducted a nightinspection of the ship,anothermeasurepromptedby the submarine threat.In addition to wanting all

portholes closed, CaptainTurner now ordered thatthey all be curtained topreventtheescapeoflight,andthatalldoors that ledtooutsidedecksbeclosed.Turner also turned off theship’srunninglights.Theinspectionteam,ledbySeniorThirdMateJohnLewis, checked all theportholes and windows inpublic rooms throughout

the ship, and those thatcould be examined fromthe decks, but Cunardrules forbade the menfrom entering staterooms.The inspection team left alist of open portholes fortheroomstewards, tuckedinto a corridor lightfixture. Passengers hadbeen instructed to keeptheir portholes closed, butthe weather was so mild

that many opened themforventilation.Book dealer Charles

Lauriat made it hisbusiness to observe theinspections and othershipboard operations. “Iwas keenly interested inall that was done aboardshipasweapproachedtheIrish Coast,” he wrote,“andinfactallthroughthevoyage I kept my eyes

unusually wide open.”ThatThursdaynight,ashewalked to his room on BDeck—which, being aninteriorroom,didnothaveaporthole—hesawthelistof open portholes, “stuckright inthelanternasyouwalk along thepassageway.”Captain Turner’s

concern about openportholes was shared by

all captains, whether inpeace or war. A portholewas just what its nameindicated: a hole in theside of a ship. Undercertainconditions,asingleopenportholecouldadmitwateratarateof3.75tonsaminute.

THAT EVENING a group ofpassengers got together

andformedacommitteetoteach one another how toput on the new “Boddy”lifejackets,“thesebeingofa different pattern fromthe usual cork waistcoat,”said passenger Arthur J.Mitchell, a representativeof the Raleigh CycleCompany. Mitchell hadreasontobeconcerned.Inhis travels thus farhehadsurvivedtwoshipwrecks.

Captain Turnerapproved the idea,Mitchell said, provided“that no suggestionwouldbemadeto thepassengersthat the use of thepreserverswasinanywayimminent.”There was enough

unease as it was. A first-class passenger namedJosephine Brandell,twenty-three years old,

was so frightened shedecided she could notsleep in her own cabin,and asked anotherpassenger, Mabel GardnerCrichton, forty-two, if shecould spend the night inhers.Mrs.Crichtonassented.Wrote Brandell, “Shewas only too happy to beof any assistance to meand did all she could

duringthatwholenighttoquietmynerves.”

THE SHIP’S Marconi roomnow received a newmessage,thisofadifferentsort. It was for AlfredVanderbilt,fromawoman.It read, “Hopeyouhaveasafe crossing lookingforward very much toseeingyousoon.”

LONDON;WASHINGTON;BERLIN

TENSION

NEWS OF THE SINKING OF THECANDIDATE TOOK TIME to reach

the Admiralty. A trawler,the Lord Allendale,stumbled across the ship’sthree lifeboats at aboutthree o’clock Thursdayafternoon. The men hadbeen adrift in the fog forfive hours. The trawlerwas not equipped withwireless and so could notreport the sinking or therescue until it returned toits base atMilfordHaven,

on the English coast, farfrom where the Candidatehadsunk.Thecommanderof naval forces at MilfordHaven notified theAdmiralty of the attack ina telegram sent shortlyaftermidnight.A telegram from the

Queenstown Naval Centercame in that day as well,with another report of asubmarine sighted off

Daunt Rock, this one at9:45 thatmorning.TheU-boat had remained “insight for five minutes”before submerging. Thiswas relayed toDirector ofIntelligenceHallaswellastoFirstSeaLordFisher.AcopyalsowascirculatedtoChurchill’s office, thoughhewasstillinFrance.The HMS Orioncontinued on its way

north, zigzagging in opensea 150 miles west ofIreland.

IN WASHINGTON, PresidentWilson struggled anewwith depression. EdithGalt’s rejection had casthim into a state akin togrief,totheextentthathefound it difficult toconcentrate on world

events, though thesecontinued to press. TheGulflight was still majornews. An inquest by anEnglish coroner hadconfirmed that the ship’scaptain, Alfred Gunter,haddiedof “heart failure,accelerated by shock,caused by the torpedoingoftheship.”TheGulflight’ssecondofficertestifiedthatthesubmarinecaptainhad

to have realized the shipwasAmerican,forthedayhad been clear and thetanker was flying a largeAmerican flag. There wasalso news of fresh U-boatpredations.TheWashingtonTimes reported onWednesdayevening that aGerman submarine,“runningamok,”had sunkeleven unarmed fishingtrawlers in theNorth Sea,

offEngland.That night, however,

Wilson’s attention wasfocusedsolelyonEdith.Heresolved that despite hisnew grief he would not—could not—let her exit hislife. He composed a longletter, reallyaprosepoemof despair, in which he,the man so manyAmericans thought of asdistant and professorial,

wrote, “There are somethings I must try to saybefore the still watchescome again in which thethings unsaid hurt so andcry out in the heart to beuttered.”Hewaswillingtoaccept

friendship, he told her—for now. “If you cannotgive me all that I want—what my heart finds ithard now to breathe

without—it is because Iam not worthy. I knowinstinctively you couldgive it if I were—and ifyou understood,—understoodtheboy’sheartthat is in me and thesimplicity of my need,which you could fill sothatallmydayswouldberadiant.”He made it clear that

she would come to love

him. “Do notmisunderstand,”headded,in one of threeimpassioned postscripts.“What Ihavenowatyourgenerous hands isinfinitelyprecioustome.Itwouldkillmetopartwithit,—IcouldnotandIhopeyou could not. And I willbepatient,patientwithoutend, to see what, ifanything, the future may

have[in]storeforme.”Not so patient, as it

happened, for the nextmorning,Thursday,May6,before sending off thisletter, he added a codicilthatwasfivepageslong.He had read her letter

again, he told her, andnowappraiseditinamorehopefullight.“IcanhardlyseetowriteforthetearsasIliftmyeyesfromit,—the

tears of joy and sweetyearning.”For the time being, hechose to position himselfas her knight. “I seem tohave been put into theworldtoserve,nottotake,and serve I will to theutmost, and demandnothinginreturn.”Edith’s resistance,meanwhile, had begun towaver,butamidacrushof

conflicting anxieties. Thefact Wilson was presidentoftheUnitedStatesplaceda barrier in her thoughtsthat she found hard toovercome. His power, hisever-present detail ofSecret Service men, hisvisibilityinthepubliceye,andcorollary restraintsonhis private behavior allcomplicated matters, asdid the simple fact that

any woman inclined tomarryWilsonwaslikelytohave her motivesquestioned, given his highoffice. “There was thefear,” she wrote, “thatsome might think I lovedhim for that; then theterrible thought of thepublicity inevitablyentailed; and the feelingthat I had no training forthe responsibilities such a

life held.” On the otherhand, she felt deepaffectionfortheman.“Oh,so many things swarmedin my thoughts,” shewrote;“andyeteachtimeIwas with him I felt thecharm of his presence.”Shewasenthralled,too,bythe trust he placed in herand his willingness todiscuss with her “all theproblems which

confronted him and thefears, even then, that thefires of war raging inEurope might leap theAtlantic and involve ourowncountry.”Theycouldnotseeeach

other too often, lest theydraw “unwelcomepublicity,” she wrote; andwhen they did see eachother, it had to be at theWhite House, or during a

drive with a chaperonealways at hand, whetherHelen Bones, or Dr.Grayson, or Wilson’sdaughter Margaret. A carfull of Secret Service meninvariably followed. Theonlywhollyprivatemeansof communication was bymail, and so their letterscontinued, his everpassionate and filled withdeclamations of love, hers

welcoming and warm butatthesametimecuriouslydistant.

IN BERLIN, Germany’sChancellor Bethmann wasgrowing increasinglyperturbed. Thewar in thetrenches was not goingwell, and he feared thatGermany’s U-boats mightmake things much worse.

A month earlier, KaiserWilhelm had issued anorder that permitted U-boat commanders to keeptheir vessels submergedwhen attacking merchantshipsinordertoavoidthedanger inherent insurfacing and approachingsuspectedenemyfreightersto first confirm theiridentity.Theeffectwas togive commanders still

more freedom. Combinedwith improved springweather at sea, this hadled to a startling increaseinattacksonneutrals,likethat against the AmericantankerGulflight.On Thursday, May 6,BethmannwrotealettertoGermany’s top navalofficial, in which hecomplained that over thepreceding week U-boats

hadsunk“moreandmore”neutral ships. “This fact iseminently bound not onlytoalterourgood relationswiththeneutralstatesbutalso to create the gravestcomplications and, finally,to throw those states intothe enemy’s camp.” Theempire’s situation was“tense” enough as it was,he wrote, and warned, “Icannot accept the

responsibilityofseeingourrelations with the neutralstatesfurtherworsened,towhich the pursuit of thesubmarine war in itspresentformwillcertainlylead.”He demanded that the

navalhighcommand“takenecessary measures toguarantee that oursubmarines will in allcircumstances avoid

attackingneutralships.”

THATEVENING,theWashingtonTimes reported that fourmoreshipshadbeensunk,including two neutralsteamers and an Englishschooner.Twooftheshipshad been attacked bysubmarines; the other twowere destroyed by a seamine and shellfire from a

Germanwarship.

THELUSITANIA was now twodays out from Liverpool.AtmidnightthatThursday,May 6, the powerfulGerman transmitter atNorddeich broadcast amessagetoallU-boatsthatthe Lusitania would beginitsreturntriptoNewYorkonMay15.

This message wasinterceptedand relayed toRoom40.

U-20

FOG

SCHWIEGER AND HIS CREW SPENT APEACEFULNIGHT FARoutatsea.At five o’clock Fridaymorning, May 7, heordered the submarine

back to the surface andclimbed into the conningtower.Heshifted todieselpowerandbeganchargingthebatteriesbelow.AtintervalsU-20passedthrough mist and clarity.“From time to time, itclears up a little,”Schwieger wrote. Thesebriefperiodsofclearingatfirst gave hope of bettervisibilitytocome,butsoon

all sunshine disappearedand the fog returned asdenseasever.It was discouraging and

affirmed Schwieger’searlier decision not toproceed to Liverpool. Helaterrecountedthestoryofthatmorning to his friendand fellow U-boatcommander MaxValentiner. The heavy fogallowed “small chance of

sinking anything,”Schwieger told him. “Atthesametime,adestroyersteaming through the fogmight stumble over usbefore we knew anythingaboutit.”Schwieger wrote in hisWar Log, “Since the fogdidn’t subside, decidedalreadytobeginthereturntripnow.”He set a new course for

home. As far as he wasconcerned, this patrolwasover.

PARTIII

DEADWAKE

THEIRISHSEA

ENGINESABOVE

EARLYFRIDAYMORNINGANUMBEROF PASSENGERS awoke anddressedandclimbedtothetopmost decks to watchthesuncomeup.Although

sunrisewouldnotofficiallyoccur until 5:30, alreadythe eastern sky wasbeginning to brighten.Elbridge and MaudeThompson of Seymour,Indiana, both thirty-twoyears old and traveling infirstclass,wereinpositionby 4:30 A.M., as weresecond-cabin passengersBelle, forty-nine, and

TheodoreNaish,fifty-nine,of Kansas City. At aboutfive, the two couplesspotted a warship off theportside,distant,travelingfastonacourseparalleltothe Lusitania. Mrs.Thompson called it a“battleship,”thoughinfactitwastheHMSPartridge,ahigh-speed destroyer withthree funnels. Aboard thePartridge, the officers and

crewof the earlymorningwatch also saw theLusitania.For early risers like theNaishes and Thompsonsthe sight of this robustwarshipwasacomfort. Itspresence affirmed thereassuringremarksCaptainTurner had made at theprevious night’s concert.SaidMrs. Naish, “We hadbeen told that we were

protected all the way bywarships, wireless, andthat submarine destroyerswould escort us in thechannel.”By“channel”shewas referring to the St.George’sChannel.The Partridge had no

suchorders.Thedestroyer,capableofmakingover30knots, continued past at abriskpace.

AT ABOUT 6:00 A.M. theLusitania encounteredheavy fog. Captain Turnerreduced speed to15knotsand ordered the ship’sfoghorn activated. Likeother passengers aboard,the Naishes had apenchantfortimingthings,a function perhaps of thefact that there was littleelse to do aboard ship.They clocked the blasts of

the foghorn at one aminute. Theodore foundthe horn unsettling. “I donot like this,” he told hiswife; “it is too much likecallingfortrouble.”Throughout the ship,passengersawokeabruptlyanduponlookingouttheirportholes and windowssaw only a milky blur.Charles Lauriat stayed inbed until his usual

shipboardwake-uptimeofeight o’clock, then got upand took his usual seabath.Thismorninghehadlittle enthusiasm for theprocess. “As the horn wasblowing and the weatherwasthick,Ireturnedtomyberth for a few hours’extra snooze. I instructedthe steward that if hedidn’thearfrommeby12o’clockhewas to callme,

as that would give meample time to get readyfor lunch at one.” Thefoghorn seemed not tobother Lauriat, possiblybecauseofhisinsideroomanditslackofportholes.Captain Turner placed

extralookoutstowatchforothervessels.Oneofthesewas Leo Thompson, acrewmanassigned“speciallookout”duty for the two-

hour watch that began at10:00 A.M. He climbed theladder to the crow’s nest,about one-third the wayup the forward mast.There he and anothercrewman, George Clinton,weretospendthenexttwohours staring into the fog,sometimes with marineglasses—Thompson owneda pair of his own—sometimes just with the

naked eye. It was tediousbutcrucialwork.Fog was dangerous,

especially in crowdedwaters like these. But italso afforded protectionfromsubmarines.Inheavyfog, only chance couldbring a submarinecommander close enoughtoashiptosee it throughhis periscope or from hisconning tower, and if he

wasthatclose,hewastooclose, at great risk ofcollision. As long as thefog persisted, CaptainTurner had little cause toworryaboutU-boats.At eleven o’clock, the

fogbegantodissipate.

IN THE crow’s nestThompson and Clintonnowhadtheextraordinary

experience of movingthrough thedispersing fogas if flying in an aircraftthrough clouds. Atintervalssunwarmedtheirperch and leavened themorning chill. Sometimebetween eleven and noon,Thompson caught his firstsightoftheIrishcoast.Hewasabletoseeitoverthetop of the fog, but onlywith his binoculars, and

even then the terrain wasobscuredbymist.Whathesaw, he said later, was“just the loomof the landthroughthehaze.”He called out to the

bridgebelow,“Landontheportbeam.”The fog continued to

fade, and soon the deckswerebathedinayellowingmistthatforetoldsunshinetocome.

IN LONDON, a mosaic ofinformation had by nowaccumulated in BlinkerHall’s intelligence divisionand in Room 40 thatshowed that only onesubmarine was in thewaters off County Cork,andthatithadtobeU-20,commanded by Capt.Walther Schwieger, atalented and aggressivecommander.

As the morningprogressed, moreinformationarrived,intheformof twomessages thatprovidedadditionaldetailsabout the demise of theCenturion. The ship hadbeen attacked at 1:00 P.M.Thursday; all forty-four ofitscrewwererescuedafterspending ten hours at seain lifeboats. One messagestated, “Number and

directions of submarineunknown.”Butbythen,newsabout

the attacks on theCenturion, the Candidate,and the schooner Earl ofLathom was already inLiverpool newspapers.Alfred Allen Booth,chairman of Cunard,learned of the attackswhile readinghismorningpaper,overbreakfastathis

home. The meaning wasclear, at least to him. Heknew his company’sflagshipwas due to travelthe samewaters that veryday.Boothquitbreakfastand

rushed to see the seniornaval officer at Liverpool,Capt. Harry Stileman, andpleaded with him to takemeasures to protect theLusitania.Boothurgedthat

a message be sent toTurner,notifyinghim thatthe two Harrison Lineships had been torpedoedandsunk.Underwarrules,Booth was not himselfempowered to send awarning, or any othercommand, directly toTurner.At the startof thewar, all ships of Britishregistry came under thedominion of the

Admiralty’s trade division,to give the Admiraltymaximum flexibility incommandeering ships formilitary use, aswell as toprevent confusion thatmight arise if conflictingorderswere sent toa shipfrom both its owners andthe Admiralty, acircumstance that Cunardchairman Alfred Boothconceded could be “very

dangerous.”Exactly what elseoccurred during Booth’smeeting with AdmiralStileman is unclear, butBooth came awaybelieving that a detailedmessagewouldbesentandthat the Admiralty wouldorder the Lusitania todiverttoQueenstown,wellshort of Liverpool, untilthe immediate U-boat

threatwaspast.

OFF IRELAND, the Lusitaniamoved through pockets offog, but visibilityimproved by the minute,and the threat of collisionrapidly receded. Turnerordered the foghorndeactivated. Now,however, the risk ofdetection by a submarine

increased.Anxiety on the bridge

rose sharply with thearrival, at 11:30 A.M., of awirelessmessage from theAdmiralty, which stated:“Submarines active inSouthern part of Irishchannel last heard of 20miles South of ConingbegLightVessel.”The sender added,

“Make certain ‘Lusitania’

getsthis.”The Coningbeg LightVesselwas dead ahead onTurner’scourse,justbeforethenarrowestexpanse—45miles across—of the St.George’s Channel. Themessage also indicatedthere was more than onesubmarine.Ifthesubmarines,plural,wereinfact20milessouthofthelightship,theywere

positioned about halfwayacross the channel. On aclearday—andbynowthefog was nearly gone—thesmoke from theLusitania’sthree operating funnelswould be visible for 20miles in any direction,meaning a lookout on asubmarineatthecenterofthechannelwouldhaveanexcellent chance ofspotting the ship. The

warning described thesubmarines as being“active,” but what exactlydid“active”mean?The message was

apparently the product ofChairmanBooth’splea,butitfellshortofwhathehadasked for. Only eighteenwordslong,itconveyednodetails about what hadoccurredovertheprevioustwenty-fourhours.Captain

Turner, the one man atthat moment who neededdetails the most, neverlearned of the loss of thetwo Harrison Line vesselsandtheEarlofLathom.With the fog nowdissipated, Turner broughthis speed up to 18 knots.He ordered maximumpressuremaintained inhisthree available boilerrooms in the event a

sudden burst of speedbecamenecessary.

AT NOON, as per CharlesLauriat’s request, thesteward assigned to hiscabin arrived to awakenhim. The steward toldLauriat the ship had“picked up Cape Clear,” afamiliar landmark at thesouthwest tip of Ireland,

and that the ship’s timehad been set ahead toGreenwich Mean Time.Lauriatgotoutofbed,puton his Knickerbocker suit,and was up on deck by12:50. He knew the timebecause he checked hiswristwatch, set as alwaysto Boston time, andcalculated the Greenwichequivalent.Lunch for first-class

passengers began at oneo’clock;hewanted to takeaten-minutestrollfirst.Henotedthattheshipseemedto be “loafing along” andsawaswellthattheresultsofthemileagepool,postedat noon, showed the shiphad traveled only 484miles. Although Lauriatfound this slow, in fact itworked out to an averageof slightly more than 20

knots, and that includedseveral hours through fogat 15. Still, this was wellbelowthe25-knotpacehehad expected the ship tomaintain.“It was a beautiful daythen,lightwind,asmoothsea, and bright sunshine,”Lauriat wrote. Along theport side, he saw “thegoodold IrishCoast.”Thecoast, though, was still a

long way off, merely agreenslashonthehorizon.The fine weather madeLauriat uneasy. “I thoughttomyselfthatifaGermansubmarine really meantbusiness, she would haveto wait weeks for a moreideal chance than thepresent weatherconditions. With a flat,unbrokensea,suchasthataroundus,theperiscopeof

a submarine couldcertainly carry a longdistance.”The smoothness of the

sea was the remarkablething.Lauriat likenedit toa pancake; one of theship’s bellboys said itwas“just flat as a billiardtable.”

CONNECTICUT PASSENGER Jane

MacFarquhar climbed tooneoftheupperdecksandlooked out over theglittering seascape. Sheand her sixteen-year-olddaughter had just finishedsettingouttheclothestheywould wear upon arrivalin Liverpool the nextmorning. They planned toleave their current outfitsbehind, on the ship. “Theview was grand,”

MacFarquhar said, “thesun shining, the watersmoothandlandvisibleoneither side. As I gazedaroundthebeautifulscene,I thought:—‘Where is thisspoken-of danger?’ Theend of our voyage isalmost in view and wehavehadnosignofdangerwhatever.”

ON FRIDAY MORNING,Schwieger kept U-20 onthe surface to continuerechargingitsbatteries.Hestood atop the conningtower.Theseawasquiltedwith fog, but here andthere sunlight gleamedthrough. Visibilityimprovedquickly.The seawas flat, under a 1-knotbreeze.“All of a sudden

visibility has become verygood,”Schwiegerwrote inhis log. While this gavehim a long view of thesurrounding sea, it alsoprovided that view to anyBritish patrol boat ordestroyerthathappenedtobe in the vicinity. Theflatness of the surfaceincreased the danger thatenemy lookouts wouldspot U-20, even when

submerged to periscopedepth, for the featherywhitewakeofSchwieger’speriscopewouldbevisibleformiles.Andinfact,atrawleroffin thedistancenowbeganmoving in U-20’sdirection. Schwiegerordered a fast dive andraised his periscope. Thevessel approached slowly,in a manner he found

unsettling.“Therefore,” he wrote,“wedive to adepthof24meters to get away fromthetrawler.”Thetimewas10:30A.M. “At12 P.M.,”hewrote,“Ishallriseagaintoa depth of 11 meters andtake a periscopicobservation.”But shortly before thatwas to happen, at 11:50A.M.,a surgeofexcitement

passed through thesubmarine. Even 80 feetbelowthesurface,themenin U-20 could hear thesound of a ship overhead,transmitted through thehull. Schwieger wrote inhis log, “A vessel with avery heavy engine passesoverourboat.”From the sound,Schwieger knew it wasneither a destroyer nor a

trawler but something farlarger, moving fast. Itpassed directly above,confirmingtheprudenceofcruising at a depth thatcleared even the largestships’keels.Schwieger waited a fewminutes, then returned toperiscope depth to try toidentifytheship.

WITH THE foghorn off, andthe sun high and bright,the Lusitania’s passengerstook to the open decks toplay shuffleboard, throwmedicine balls, and takepart in other deck games.Older children playedjumprope,asalways.Theyoungest paraded thedecks with nannies andstewardesses,onfootorinprams, with their sucking

tubes hung around theirnecks or affixed to theirclothing. In the shadedportionsofthedeckandinthoseareasexposedtothe18-knot breeze generatedby the ship’s forwardmotion, it was still coolenough to require coats.One woman wore a largeblackfur.This being the last full

day of the voyage, with

the sun so bright and theair so clear, passengersseemed to take a specialeffort to dress well andwithalittleflair.Aseven-year-old girl wore a pink-and-white-striped cottonfrockunderablackvelvetcoat lined with red silk,then added a gold ring, ared coral necklet, and amother-of-pearl brooch.The coat imparted to her

the look of a red-wingedblackbird. Pink seemed tobe a popular color—forboys. One five-year-oldboy tore around in a pinkwool coat over a checkedjacketandknickers.Amaninhislatetwentiesdressedwithclearintenttodazzle.Hewore:

BluesergetrousersStripedcottonshirt

(“AndersonBros.,Makers,27,BridgeStreet,Glasgow”)WhitemerinopantsLightlace-upboots(stampedinsidewith“HoloberBros.,501,West14thStreet,NewYork”)Graysocks,withlight-bluesolesLight-coloredsuspenders

Leatherbeltandnickelbuckle

Andthis:

Apinkmerinovest.

MANY PASSENGERS settled intodeckchairstoread,justasthey’d done over theprecedingsixdays.DwightHarris sat on deck for atimereadingabookabout

the Medicis, then went tothe purser’s office toretrieve his engagementring, his other jewels, andthe $500 in gold that hehad parked there at thestart of the voyage. Hewenttohiscabinanduseda watch chain to hangseveral pieces around hisneck,includingthering.“Ipinned the big diamondbroochinsidethepocketof

my coat,” he wrote, “andbefore leaving my cabinunlocked the camera bagthat held my life belt.”This was the belt he hadbought atWanamaker’s inNew York the day beforesailing.Harris hadnot yetrun out of exclamationpoints. “I put the gold inmy trousers pocket, andthenwentdowntolunch!”Despite the calm

weather, Kansas Citypassenger Theodore Naishwas seasick, as he hadbeen throughout thevoyage.Heurgedhiswife,Belle, to go up on deckwithout him to see theIrish coast and its islandsinsunshine.Heknewfrompastexperiencehowlovelytheviewwas.Belleatfirstdemurred: “I replied thathis word was enough, I

would see them when wereturned, and if fogprevented, pictures wouldsatisfy me.” But Theodoreinsisted, and she obliged;shewasgladthatshehad.“A lovelier day cannot beimagined—the air waswarm,nowind,brightsun,smoothsea.”Throughout the ship

there was that mix ofsorrow and expectation

that always marked theend of a voyage, but nowitwas joined by the reliefof having made it toEnglandsafeandsound.

ON THE BRIDGE, Turnerreceived a new messagefrom the Admiralty thatconfused things further:“Submarines5milessouthof Cape Clear, proceeding

west when sighted at 10A.M.”The Lusitania hadalreadypassedCapeClear.If correct, this messageindicated the threatmightalso be past—thesubmarines, plural again,were behind and headingout to sea.CaptainTurnercongratulated himself onapparently missing thesein the fog. He knew that

even if their commandersnow spotted the smokefromtheship’sfunnelsandturnedaround,theywouldhave no hope of catchingup.While this offered some

comfort,therewasstillthematteroftheearlierreportofsubmarinesactiveintheSt. George’s Channel,south of the ConingbegLightVessel,deadahead.

AT HIS PERISCOPE, Schwiegermade a fast 360-degreesweep of the sea, thenrotatedtheapparatusuntilhefoundtheshipthathadjust passed overhead. Itwas a prize indeed, andnot just in terms oftonnage.Longandnarrow,witharazorbow,itslicedeasilythroughtheflatsea.Its funnels blew thickblack smoke that showed

its engine crew wereworking hard to achievemaximum speed.Schwiegerdidnotneedhiswar pilot, Lanz, to helpidentify this ship. Itwasalarge armored cruiser,British, of about 6,000tons.He let it go. He had nochoice. At his topsubmerged speed of 9knots, Schwieger had no

chance of catching thecruiser. Even his surfacemaximum of 15 knotswouldnothavehelped,forthe cruiser was speedingawayatwhatheestimatedto be 18 knots. And hadSchwiegerforsomereasonbeen foolhardy enough totrysurfacing,thewarship’sgunswould have sunk hisboatwithinminutes.Schwieger followed

anyway, at periscopedepth, in case the cruiserhappened to change itscourse in a manner thatwould allow him toovertake it and launch anattack.But theshipranattopspeed,zigzagging,andsoon was far in thedistance. Schwieger latertold his friend Valentinerhow at this point,exasperated, he unleashed

a torrent of profanity.“Aftertheearlydaysofthewar,” Valentinerexplained,“yourarelyhada chance to loose atorpedo at anywarship asbigasacruiser,andmanya U-boat never caughtsight of one during theentire war.” The Britishnavy, like its Germancounterpart, kept its bigwarships locked safely

away “and did not sendthem roaming around toact as good targets for U-boats.”TheshipwasinfacttheHMS Juno, an old cruisernow serving as a coastalpatrolvessel. Itwasbasedin Queenstown and wasspeeding back to portprecisely because of thelatest submarine alertsissued by the Admiralty.

As it traveled, its crewtook a routinemeasure ofwater temperature andfound it to be 55 degreesFahrenheit.“After I was throughswearing,” Schwieger toldValentiner, “I noticed thatthe fog was lifting.Presently I could see bluesky.”Schwieger recorded theencounter at 12:15 P.M.

Half an hour later, hesurfaced and returned tohis westward course, tocontinuehisvoyagehome.Conservation of fuel wasnow a priority. He couldnot delay—the journeybacktoEmdenwouldtakeanotherweek.Bynowtheweatherhad

cleared to a degree thatwas almost startling.“Unusually good

visibility,” Schwiegernoted; “very beautifulweather.”On the horizon,something new caught hiseye.

LONDON;WASHINGTON

THEKING’SQUESTION

INLONDON,ONFRIDAY,COLONELHOUSE,STILLACTINGinhisrole

as President Wilson’sunofficial emissary, metwith Sir Edward Grey,Britain’s foreign secretary,andthetwotraveledtotheRoyal Botanic Gardens atKewforawalkamongthegarden’s beds of springflowers, its alleys, or“vistas,” of cedars, and itsmost celebrated structure,the Palm House, animmense conservatory

builtofglassandironsaidto have influenced thedesign of London’s CrystalPalace. The two mendiscussed the submarinewar. “We spoke of theprobability of an oceanliner being sunk,” Housewrote, “and I told him ifthisweredone,a flameofindignation would sweepacross America, whichwould in itself probably

carryusintowar.”Oddly enough, thesubject came up again acouple of hours later,when Colonel House paidacallonKingGeorgeVatBuckinghamPalace.The king turned toHouse at one point, andasked, “Suppose theyshould sink the Lusitaniawith American passengersaboard?”

EARLY THAT MORNING,Churchill, havingconcluded his navalnegotiations with hisFrench and Italiancounterparts, left Paris onhis journey to theheadquarters of Britain’sforces in France, at St.Omer, where Sir JohnFrench was planning anoffensive against Germanforces at Aubers despite a

severeshortageofartilleryshells.Seeking to experience

battle firsthand, Churchillhoped to get as close tothefrontaspossible,whilenot,asheputit,“incurringunjustifiablerisks.”Hesawshellfire and smoke butlittle else. “Withoutactually takingpart in theassault it was impossibleto measure the real

conditions,”hewrote. “Tosee them you had to feelthem, and feeling themmight well feel nothingmore. To stand outsidewas to see nothing, toplunge in was to bedominated by personalexperiences of anabsorbingkind.”He received his mostvividsenseofthewarata“casualty clearing station”

in a convent at Merville,about 40 miles east ofheadquarters, where men“sufferingfromeveryformof horrible injury, seared,torn, pierced, choking,dying, were being sortedaccording to theirmiseries.”Ambulanceafterambulance pulled up atthe door. The dead werecarried out the back andburied. As Churchill

passed the operatingtheater, he saw doctors atwork trepanninga soldier,that is, cutting a hole inhisskull.“Everywherewasblood and bloody rags,”Churchillwrote.

ATTHEWhiteHouse,withafresh spring Friday in theoffing,WilsonwroteagaintoEdith.Shehadcome to

dinner the night before,and he was feeling farmore optimistic about thepossibility of one daymarryingher.“In this clear morning

air,” hewrote, “theworldseems less in the way,seems less to standbetweenus.”

THEIRISHSEA

FUNNELSONTHEHORIZON

U-20MOVEDTHROUGHABLUE-ON-BLUE MORNING. THE fog wasgone,theskywasemptyofclouds, the sea was still.

Schwieger trained hisbinoculars—his Zeiss“godseyes”—on a smudgeat the horizon and wasstartled to see “a forest ofmasts and stacks,” as helater described it to MaxValentiner. “At first Ithought they must belongto several ships,” he said.“ThenIsawitwasagreatsteamer coming over thehorizon.Itwascomingour

way. I dived at once,hopingtogetashotatit.”In his log, at 1:20 P.M.,

Schwieger wrote, “Aheadand to starboard fourfunnelsandtwomastsofasteamer with coursetriangulartouscomesintosight(comingfromSSWitsteered towards GalleyHead).Shipismadeouttobe a large passengersteamer.”

Onceatperiscopedepth,Schwieger ordered hismaximum submergedspeed—9knots—and set acourse “converging withthat of the steamer.” Theship was still miles off,however. When the linerwas 2 miles away, itveered onto a new coursethat further widened thegap. Frustrated again,Schwiegerwrote,“Ihadno

hope now, even if wehurried at our best speed,of getting near enough toattackher.”Schwieger followed

anyway, just as he haddone earlier with thecruiser Juno, in case theliner happened to makeanothercoursechangethatwouldbringitbackontoaconvergingtrajectory.He called for his pilot,

Lanz, to come to theperiscope to take a look.Whyhefelttheneedtodosoisunclear.Theshipwasoneofthemostdistinctiveon the high seas, and aprizeofthefirstorder.Hewasneardespair: this oneship,byitself,wouldhavegivenhimhisbestmonthlytonnagecountofthewar.The day remained

startlingly clear and still.

ThismeantthatSchwiegercould not keep theperiscope raised for long,lest it be detected by thetarget’slookoutsor,worse,by a destroyer on patrol.In weather this clear andwith seas this smooththere’dbelittlechanceforescape. On two previousoccasions, the wake castby his periscope on a flatsea had forced him to

abort attacks. One would-be target, a Royal Mailsteamer, had turnedtoward him with obviousintenttoram,causinghimto order a fast dive andfullspeedaway.Lanzenteredthecontrol

room. At about the samemoment, somethinghappened that Schwiegerdeemedtheequivalentofamiracle.

ON THE Lusitania’s bridge,Captain Turner faced adilemma that nothing inhis long experience at seahad prepared him tomanage. If the morning’swireless messages werecorrect,therewereU-boatsdirectlyaheadofhim,andbehind.On topof this, he faced

a timing problem.Liverpoolatthispointstill

lay about 250 nauticalmiles ahead. At theentrance to the city’sharbor lay the notoriousMersey Bar, which hecould pass only at hightide. If Turner acceleratedand proceeded at thehighest speed he couldachieve with only threeboiler rooms in operation,or 21 knots, he wouldarrive far too early. With

stopping out of thequestion, he would beforcedtocircleintheIrishSea,smokebillowingfromthe ship’s three operatingfunnels in open invitationtoanysubmarinewithinaradiusoftwentymiles.There was another

dimension to theproblem.Thetimewasnowjustpastnoon. No matter whatspeed Turner traveled, he

would end up having topass through the St.George’sChannelatnight,with fog an ever-presentdanger. As itwas, the fogthathadenclosed theshipall morning had leftTurner with a less precisesense of his location thanhe would have liked.Compounding thisimprecision was the factthat he was farther from

the coast than usual—about 20 miles, when infine weather he mightcomeascloseas1mile.He called his two mostsenior officers to thebridge, Staff CaptainAndersonandFirstOfficerJohnPrestonPiper, toasktheiradvice,andat lengthreached a decision. First,he would pinpoint hislocation. The Irish coast

was by now visible, butthe ship’s distance fromshore was difficult toreckon precisely. Being asailor of the old school,Turner liked to use aprocedure known as afour-point bearing. Thiswould require him to runparallel to the coast at asteady speed for roughlythirty minutes while FirstOffice Piper took four

bearingsoffa single shorelandmark, in this case thelighthouse atop the OldHead.Once Turner knew his

precise position, heplanned to maintain aspeed of 18 knots so thathe would arrive at theMersey Bar early the nextmorning, at just the righttime to enter the harborwithout pause. Though

slower than the 21 knotshis three operating boilerroomswouldallow,itwasstill faster than any othermerchant ship then inserviceandcertainlyfasterthan any submarine.Turner planned as well toalterhiscourselaterintheday to bring the Lusitaniacloser to shore, so that hewould pass near theConingbeg Light Vessel

before entering thenarrowest portion of theSt. George’s Channel. Heunderstood that thiscontravened theAdmiralty’s advisory thatcaptains pass lightshipsand other navigationalmarkers at “mid-channel.”But the Admiralty hadreported submarines 20miles south of thelightship, a location that

any mariner traversingthat 45-mile-wide stretchwould have described asmidchannel.To follow theAdmiralty’s advisorywould have meant sailingdirectly toward thewaitingsubmarines.At about 1:30 P.M.

Captain Turner orderedthe officer at the helm tomake a turn to starboard,to bring the ship in line

with the coast, so thatPiper could take the firstof the four bearings. Thisturn and several previouscourse changes persuadedsome passengers thatTurner was directing theshipona zigzag course toevade submarines, thoughin fact he was not.Paradoxically, owing totheshapeof the coastline,the turn would have

seemed to passengers likeaturntowardopensea.Measles-wracked RobertKay peered through hisporthole in quarantine.The Bronx boy, nowspotted and enflamed,watched the world pass,hisonlydiversion.Thedayoutside was full ofsunshine and sparkle, theIrish coast a vivid green.But as he watched, the

ship began its turn tostarboard,andtohisgreatdisappointment the landbegantorecede.

THAT MORNING “ChampagneKing” George Kesslerfollowed through on hisdecisiontotalktoCaptainTurner about includingpassengers in the ship’sdrills. The two men

smokedastheytalked.Kessler wrote, “I

suggested that thepassengersshouldbegiventickets with a numberdenoting the number oftheboattheyshouldmakefor in case anythinguntoward happened, andthat it seemed to me thisdetailwouldminimize thedifficulties in the event oftrouble.”

Turnertoldhimthattheidea had come up in thewakeoftheTitanicdisasterbut that Cunard hadrejected it as“impractical.” He addedthat he did not have theauthority to institute thepractice on his ownwithout first gettingapproval from theAdmiralty’s Board ofTrade.

Theconversationshiftedto “the torpedo scarewhich neither of usregarded as of anymoment,”Kessler recalled.Turner may havedownplayed his ownconcerns to put Kessler atease.

JUSTASPilotLanzarrivedatU-20’s periscope,

Schwieger saw the giantsteamer change courseagain, this time tostarboard. “She wascoming directly at us,”Schwieger toldValentiner.“She could not havesteered a more perfectcourse if she haddeliberately tried to giveusadeadshot.”The time was 1:35 P.M.The ship’s new heading

suggesteditwasboundforQueenstown. SchwiegersetacoursethatwouldputU-20 in front of the ship,at a 90-degree angle. Heorderedfullahead,andforthe next twenty-fiveminutes sped forward onan intersecting course, asthe ship grew steadilylargerinhisviewfinder.“Ashort fast run, and wewaited,” he told

Valentiner.Althoughthispatrolhadaffirmed Schwieger’sdistrust of torpedoes, hehad no choice but to useone. His deck gun wouldhave been useless againstsuch a large vessel, anddangerous, for after thefirst couple of shells thebigshiplikelywouldhaveturned and run, or evenattemptedtoramhisboat.

Schwieger selected a G6torpedo.Within the submarinethe tension mounted. Allthe ship had to do wasmake another turn, awayfrom U-20, and the chasewould be over.Queenstown was near.There was also thepossibility the ship’slookouts would spotSchwieger’s periscope and

that its captain wouldsummon a pride ofdestroyers.Strangely, the ship had

no escorts whatsoever.Even stranger, inSchwieger’sview,wasthatthe vessel was in thesewaters at all, especiallyafter his two successfulattacks the day before.That the ship “was notsent through the North

Channel is inexplicable,”hewroteinhislog.Schwieger ordered the

torpedo set to run at adepth of 3 meters, about10 feet. He had not yethadtimetoletLanztakealookatthetarget.Thebigship continued itsapproach, its giant hullblack against theotherwise gleamingseascape.

Schwieger’s firing crewarmed the torpedo andfloodeditstube.

THE LUSITANIA was nowabout sixteen hours fromLiverpool, or, put anotherway,threemealsout—onelunch,onedinner,and,onSaturday, a last breakfastin Liverpool Harbor. Nowcamethe lunch.First-class

passengers had only oneseating, in the diningsaloonatthecenteroftheshipunderthegreatdome;second-class had two, at12:30 and 1:30. Overlunchtherewastalkofthetalent show the nightbefore, and of the latestwarnews,publishedintheship’s daily CunardBulletin, and, of course, ofthe fact that the ship was

now well into the “warzone.”Charles Lauriat went to

lunch with LothropWithington,asalways,andthey sat at their usualtable in the first-classsaloon. Lauriat noted thatportholesoneithersideofthe room were open. Hewascertainofthis,hesaidlater, because the unusualwarmth of the day had

conjured an annoyancethat had plagued the twomen throughout thevoyage. Owing to thewarm weather, thestewards had openedportholes throughout thediningroomandturnedona large electric fanpositioned directly overLauriat’s table, therebycreating a draft that wasstrong enough to be

irritating. The same thinghad happened severaltimes previously duringthevoyage,andeachtime,as now, Lauriat feltcompelled to ask thestewardtoturnthefanoff.Otherwise, the lunch

was a pleasant one. Thetwo men looked forwardto the ship’s arrival. “Wehadajollytimetogether,”Lauriat wrote, “and made

plansforseeingeachotherin London, as his roomswere near our Londonoffice.”Itwasclearnowthattheunexpectedly slowpaceofthe Lusitania would costLauriat a day’s work inLondon, but soon enoughhe’d be handing off theDickens Christmas Caroland meeting withThackeray’s daughter,

Lady Ritchie, to plan thenotes she would write foreach of the 118 drawingsstill locked in the shoecase in his cabin. Next hewould meet with theframers and binders whowould transform thosedrawings into itemsworthfar more than the paltry$4,500 he had paid forthem.

ELSEWHERE IN the diningroom, Theodate Pope andher companion, EdwinFriend, were finishing uptheir lunch. “A youngEnglishman at our tablehad been served with hisicecreamandwaswaitingfor the steward to bringhim a spoon to eat itwith,” Theodate recalled.“He looked ruefully at itandsaidhewouldhate to

have a torpedo get himbefore he ate it. We alllaughed and thencommentedonhowslowlywe were running. Wethought the engines hadstopped.”The ship, however, wasstill moving at a brisk 18knots. This perception ofslownesswaslikelycausedby the fact that the seawas so smooth, which

reduced the level ofvibration transmittedthroughthehull.Dwight Harris, with hisengagement ring hangingsnug under his shirt,joined his usual luncheoncompanions but did notshare the cheerfulanticipation that coloredthe talk around him. Hewas ill at ease, uncannilyso. He wrote, “While at

table Ihadamost intensenervous feeling comeoverme, and I got up and leftwithout finishing mylunch!”He went to hisstateroom, A-9, to get hiscoat and hat, and hisMedici book, and wentbackoutondecktoread.

MEDICAL STUDENT Preston

Prichard and hisroommate, ArthurGadsden, were very muchaware of the ship’s entryintothedangerzone.Theyhadbecomefriendsduringthe voyage and talkedoften, owing to the factthat both had the upperberths in their room. OnFriday, Prichard andGadsden spent part of themorning “talking about

Submarines&wonderingifwe should see one at all,neverhavingtheleastfearbut what we should getawayfromthem,”Gadsdenwrote.Shortly after noon,

Prichard walked to thesmokingloungetojointheother men who hadgathered there to see theresultsofthemileagepooland then set off to the

second-class dining saloonfor lunch. As usual he satoppositeGraceFrench.Today there seemed tobe a certain chargebetweenPrichardandMissFrench.Heworehisgreensuit—not his best blue—but handsome washandsome, and after sixdays in the sun andweatherPrichardwasveryhandsome indeed. He

mentioned to Grace thathe had seen a youngwoman aboard who couldbeherdouble,andthathehad even gone up to thisother woman to start aconversation beforerealizing hismistake. Thiswasnotmerelyaflirtylinemeant to igniteconversation. One or twoof the other men at thetable had encountered the

same woman and haddone likewise. Prichard“volunteered to point herout for me after lunch,”Grace recalled. “I agreedandwentdownformyhatandcoat.”One of the ship’s

stewards noted thatPrichard left the diningroomaround1:20P.M.As Miss French was

making her way back up

thestairstomeetPrichard,sheranintotwoshipboardfriends, who asked whereshe was going. “I repliedthat Mr. Prichard wasgoingtopresentmetomydouble and passed on. Ithen joined him and wewalkedaroundlaughingatthe idea. I said to him, Iwonder if I couldrecognizethisgirlmyself.”They joked as they

hunted. The time passedhappily, and then it was2:09 P.M. The sun shone,theseaglittered.

SCHWIEGER ESTIMATED histarget’s speed at 22 knots—25 miles an hour—andgauged its range at 700meters, just under half amile. If his calculationswere correct, the torpedo

wouldstriketheshipatanidealangleof90degrees.At 2:10 P.M. Schwiegergavetheordertofire.Thetorpedo burst from thesubmarine in whatSchwieger called a “cleanbow shot” and soonreached a speed of about44 miles an hour. At thatrate, it would reach thetarget’s hull in thirty-fiveseconds.

With the sea so smooth,the possibility of thetorpedo’s track beingdiscoveredwashigh.Eachpassingsecondreducedthelikelihood that the shipwouldbeabletoturnhardenoughandfastenoughtoevade it, but still, forSchwieger and his men,those thirty-five secondsconstitutedalonginterval.Schwieger watched

through his periscope. Hedidn’trealizeit,yet,buthehad erred in hiscalculation of the target’sspeed. In fact, it wasmoving more slowly thanhe had gauged—by 4knots, or roughly 5 milesanhour.

LUSITANIA

BEAUTY

SHORTLY BEFORE TWO O’CLOCK,SCORES OF CREWMEN weregathered in the baggageroom at the Lusitania’sbow, on F Deck, half

coming on duty, halfcoming off. The task athand was to get thethousands of pieces ofpassenger luggage readyforarrival.Seaman Morton spenttwo hours helping loadsuitcases and trunks ontothe electric elevator thatprovidedtheonlyaccesstothe room. The shiftschanged at two o’clock

—“four bells”—whenMorton was to begin atwo-hourstintasaspeciallookout, to watch forsubmarines. He wasassigned to the forecastle,or fo’c’sle, the portion ofthemaindeck just behindthebow.“At fiveminutes to four

bells,”he said, “Iwentondeck to put my sweaterand gear ready for going

on the lookout at twoo’clock. My place wasextra lookout right up inthe eyes of the ship ondeck; my responsibilitybeingthestarboardsideofthebowfromaheadtothebeam.”

BY NOW the ship hadexpended about sixthousandtonsofcoal,and

the bunkers that ran thelengthof thehull onboththeportandthestarboardsides were for the mostpartemptytunnels,grimedwithcoaldustandpiercedhere and there by portalsthroughwhichmenknownas trimmers moved thecoaltothefurnaces.On the bridge, Captain

Turner ordered thehelmsmantoholdtheship

on its course parallel toshore so that his firstofficer could continue thefour-point bearing. Theprotective screen of foghad by now whollydissipated.“All lookouts had been

warned to keep a sharplookout and reportanything that appearedsuspicious,” said ThomasMahoney, a seaman who

was sharing the noon to2:00 P.M. watch. “Atapproximately 1:50 p.m.we spotted an object 2points on the starboardbow, conical in shape.” Itlookedtohimlikeabuoy.“We reported it to theofficerof thewatchand itcaused a little commotiononthebridge,overwhatitmightbe.”A seaman named Hugh

Johnston, quartermaster,was at this point justtaking over the helm, his“trick at the wheel.” Thebridge was crowded withofficers, who also werechangingwatch.SoonafterJohnstontook

the wheel, he heard thecry that something hadbeen spotted off thestarboard bow. A numberof officers raised

binoculars and speculatedthat the object mightindeed be a buoy, or aporpoise, or a fragmentofdrifting debris. No oneexpressed concern. “Wecarriedon,”saidJohnston.At two o’clock, Seaman

Leslie Morton took hisposition in the forecastle.He stoodon the starboardside. Another seamanscannedthewatersoff the

port side. Four otherlookouts were stationedelsewhere on the ship,including in the crow’snest.Morton’s brother lay

below decks, sleeping, soastobereadyforhisownshift later in theday.Halfthe ship’s crew was stillgathered in the luggagebay.The ship sliced through

the calm like a razorthroughgelatin.Mortonwassointenton

doing his jobwell that hestarted “seeing a dozenthingseveryfewminutes.”

BY TWO O’CLOCK the second-class passengers assignedtothesecondlunchseatingwere midway throughtheir meals. First-class

passengers rode betweendecks aboard the ship’stwo electric elevators,which were powered bythe ship’s dynamo. Agroup of children wasjumping ropeonanupperdeck with the help of amemberoftheengineeringcrew, John Brennan, atrimmer.Theweatherbynowwas

perfect, the day vividly

clear—so lovely thatfamilies from Queenstownand Kinsale had gatheredon theOldHead topicnicinthebalmyairandwatchthepassageof ships.TheycouldjustseetheLusitania,about 20 miles off, herfunnels pouring smokeintothesky.ForMorton,intheship’s“eyes,” the vista off tostarboardtowardopensea

was clear and bright. “Attenminutes past two,” hesaid, “I looked at mywatch and putting it intomy pocket, I glancedround the starboard sideand, as roughly as I couldjudge,Isawabigburstoffoam about 500 yardsaway, four points on thestarboard bow.” It lookedtohim likeagiantbubbleburstingontothesurface.

An instant later, he sawsomething moving acrosstheflatplaneofthesea,atrack, as clear as if it hadbeenmadeby“aninvisiblehandwithapieceofchalkonablackboard.”He reached for his

megaphone.

CAPTAIN TURNER left thebridge andwent below to

his quarters. At about1:30, QuartermasterJohnston,no longerat thewheel, was sent below togiveTurneramessagethatthe Old Head of Kinsalewasnow“10pointsontheport bow and 20 milesaway.” The ship’s coursewas taking it graduallyclosertothecoast.Johnstonreturnedtothe

bridge.Halfanhour later,

just after two o’clock, heheard the cry, “Here is atorpedocoming.”

AFTER FINISHING lunch andparting from his friendLothrop Withington,CharlesLauriatwentdownto his cabin to get asweater. He put it onunder the jacket of hisKnickerbocker suit, then

headedbackupfor“arealwalk.” He climbed themain companionway andwalked out onto the portside of the ship, with theIrish coast visible in thedistance.Here he ran intoElbertHubbard,thewriter,and his wife, Alice.Hubbard joked that heprobably would not bewelcome in Germany,given a pamphlet he had

written,entitledWhoLiftedtheLidOffHell?, inwhichhe laid blame for thewaronKaiserWilhelm.Hehadgiven Lauriat a copyearlier in the voyage.Lauriat described it as “apieceofvitriolicEnglish.”On B Deck, starboard

side, Theodate Pope stoodbeside her companion,Edwin Friend, leaning onthe rail and admiring the

sea, “which was amarvelous blue and verydazzling in the sunlight.”There was so much glarethat Theodate wonderedaloud, “How could theofficers ever see aperiscope?”Oliver Bernard, the setdesigner, was standing intheVerandahCafeleaning“lazily” against awindow,lookingoutattheview.He

sawwhatseemedtobethetail of a fish, well off thestarboard side. Next “astreak of froth” beganarcing across the surface,towardtheship.An American womancame up beside him, andsaid,“Thatisn’tatorpedo,isit?”“Iwastoospellboundtoanswer,” he said. “I feltabsolutelysick.”

Here it was, this thingeveryone had feared. “Wehad all been thinking,dreaming, eating, sleeping‘submarine’ from the hourweleftNewYork,andyetwith the dreaded dangerupon us, I could hardlybelievetheevidenceofmyowneyes.”There was little fear,

Bernard said. “I did notthink that anybody, even

womenandchildren,wereso much terrified as theywere astounded andstunned by theconsciousness that thefears, cherished half inridicule for five daysprevious, had at last beenrealized. The German‘bluff’ had actually comeoff.”The track continued its

approach.

THAT FIRST TURMOIL, that firstbubble of foam, was theexpulsion of compressedair from the submarine’slaunching tube as thetorpedo exited. Thetorpedo itself was 20 feetlong and 20 inches indiameter; its nose, shapedlike the topofacornsilo,contained 350 pounds ofTNT and an explosivecalled Hexanite. Though

German commanderstypically set the depth at15 feet, this one traveledat 10 feet. It moved atabout 35 knots, or 40milesanhour,poweredbycompressedair stored inatank toward its nose, justbehind the compartmentthat contained theexplosives. The air rushedagainst the pistons in itsengine,gearedtospintwo

propellers, one clockwise,the othercounterclockwise, to keepthe torpedo from rollingand veering. The air wasthen exhausted into thesea, where it bubbled tothe surface.Thesebubblesneeded a few seconds torise, which meant thetorpedo itself was alwayswell ahead of the trackthatappearedabove.

As the torpedoadvanced, the waterrushing past its noseturned a small propeller,which unscrewed a safetydevice that preventeddetonation during storage.Thispropellerslippedfromthenoseandfelltotheseabottom, thereby exposinga triggering mechanismthat upon impact with aship’s hull would fire a

small charge into thelarger body of explosives.A gyroscope kept thetorpedo on course,adjusting for vertical andhorizontaldeflection.The track lingered onthesurfacelikealongpalescar. In maritimevernacular, this trail offading disturbance,whether from ship ortorpedo, was called a

“deadwake.”

THE SMOOTHNESS of the seapresentedsomepassengerswithaviewofthetorpedothat was startling in itsclarity.Dwight Harris, his

Medici book in hand, waswalking toward the stern,along the starboard side,when something caught

his eye. He wrote, “I sawthe torpedo coming!—awhite and greenish streakin the water!—I stoodtransfixed!”PassengerJamesBrooks,

a chain salesman whocame from Connecticut,was walking along theboatdeck,whenfriendsonthe next deck up—theMarconi deck—called tohim to join them for a

round of shuffleboard.ThesefriendswereMr.andMrs. Montagu Grant, ofChicago. He climbed thestairs, and as he walkedtoward them across theupperdeckhesawafoamtrailmovingfastacrossthewater.“Oh, yes, I saw thetorpedo coming, andexclaimed, ‘Torpedo!’ andrushed to the rail just aft

of the staircase and stoodon one foot and leanedforward, over, to watchthe explosion which Iexpected to see occur ontheoutsideoftheship.”Any other man wouldhave found this sceneterrifying. Brooks wasentranced. He saw thebody of the torpedomoving well ahead of thewake, through water he

described as being “abeautiful green.” Thetorpedo“wascoveredwitha silveryphosphorescence,you might term it, whichwas caused by the airescapingfromthemotors.”He said, “It was a

beautifulsight.”

HAD THERE BEEN more time,had the idea of a torpedo

attack against a civilianliner not seemed soincomprehensible, hadsubmarine tactics andevasion stratagems beenbetter understood, therewouldhavebeenachance—a tiny one—that Turnercould have maneuveredthe ship to lessen thedamage or even avoid thetorpedo altogether. Hecould have engaged the

ship’s reverse turbines,thereby slowing the shipand nullifying thecalculations made by thesubmarine commander asto its range and speed,causing the torpedo tomiss. He could also havetaken advantage of theLusitania’s proven agilityand ordered a full turn toportorstarboard,tododgethe oncoming torpedo or

cause it to glance off thehull.In just two months,another Cunard captain,DanielDow,backatwork,woulddoexactlythat,andwin a citation from thecompany’s board. On July15, 1915, at dusk, alookout aboard Dow’sMauretania spotted aperiscopeabouthalfamileout. An instant later two

torpedoes began racingtoward his ship, theirtracks clearly visible. Heordered an immediate fullturn to starboard, towardthe submarine. Bothtorpedoes missed; thesubmarine submerged andfled.

U-20

“TREFF!”

SCHWIEGER’SLOGENTRYFOR2:10P.M.,MAY 7, BEGANwith theGerman word Treff, forimpact. He wrote,“Torpedo hits starboard

side close behind thebridge.Anunusuallygreatdetonation follows with avery strong explosivecloud (cloud reaches farbeyond the forwardfunnel). The explosion ofthe torpedo must havebeen accompanied by asecondone (boiler or coalorpowder?).”By now his pilot, Lanz,was standing next to him

at the periscope.Schwieger stepped asideand let Lanz peer throughthe eyepiece. Lanz couldidentify ships, even smallones, by their silhouettesand deck configurations.This one was easy. Aninstant after lookingthroughtheeyepiece,Lanzsaid, “My God, it’s theLusitania.”Schwieger’slogindicates

that he only now learnedtheship’strueidentity,butthis seems implausible.Theship’sprofile—itssize,its lines, its four funnels—made it one of the mostdistinctivevesselsafloat.Schwieger again tookthe periscope. What hesaw now shocked evenhim.

PARTIV

THEBLACKSOUL

LUSITANIA

IMPACT

ASTHETORPEDOPASSEDFROMVIEWBELOW THE EDGE of the deck,therewasanintervalwhennothinghappenedandonecould indulge the notion

that it had missed ormalfunctioned. “I saw itdisappear,” one passengersaid, “and for a baresecond we all had a kindof hope that maybe itwouldn’texplode.”In the next instant, 350pounds of explosivesdetonated against theplates of the hull, at apoint under the bridgeabout 10 feet below the

waterline.Immediatelythepayload turned from solidto gas. This “phasechange”releasedheatatatemperature exceeding5,000 degrees Centigrade,9,000 Fahrenheit, atimmense pressure. As oneearly-twentieth-centurysubmarine builder put it,“The side of the ship isnothingbuttissuepaperinthe hands of these

enormousforces.”A geyser of seawater,planking, rope,andshardsof steel soared upward totwice the height of theship. Lifeboat No. 5 “wasblown to atoms,” onelookout said. The shipcontinuedforwardthroughthe geyser, which almostimmediately collapsedback onto the decks.Seawater drenched

passengers;debristhuddedofftheshuffleboardcourts.Thechildrenjumpingropeon A Deck stoppedjumping.A hole the size of a

small house now existedbelow the waterline. Itsshapewasmorehorizontalthan vertical, roughly 40feetwide by 15 feet high.The effects of the blastspread well beyond this,

however. Thousands ofrivets and the steel platesthey anchored came looseover an area about fifteentimesgreaterthantheholeitself; the glass in nearbyportholes fractured.Bulkheads were damagedand watertight doorsdislodged. The relativelysmall doors and chambersof passenger ships did notdispel explosive forces as

readily as the open holdsof cargo vessels and thuswereprone todestruction.The Lusitania’s buildershadinstalledthesebarrierswith collisions andgroundings in mind; nonehad imagined that atorpedomight one day bedetonated against the hullfromunderwater.Just inside the hull, atthe point of impact, stood

the starboard end of amajorwatertightbulkheadthat spanned thewidth ofthe hull, one of a dozensuch dividers in the ship.This particular bulkheadalso formed a wallbetween the forward-mostboiler room—Boiler RoomNo. 1—and a large coalstorage chamber justbeyond, toward the bow,called the “cross-bunker,”

theonlycoalbunkerintheshiparrayedacrossthefullwidthofthehull.Therestwere the longitudinalbunkersthatranalongthehullwalls.Atthispoint inthevoyageallthebunkerswerenearlyempty.The forward motion of

theship,initially18knots,caused “forced flooding,”whichdroveseawater intotheshipatarateestimated

at 100 tons a second.Water surged into thecross-bunker and intoBoiler Room No. 1, acavern that housed twoone-endedboilersandtwodouble boilers, and thebeginningofamainsteamline. Water also flowedinto the longitudinalbunkers along thestarboard side,nearest theimpact zone. As these

bunkers filled with water,the ship began to list tostarboard. At the sametime, the water fillingBoilerRoomNo.1andtheforward cross-bunkercaused the bow to beginsinking.Thesternbegantoriseandthehulltotwist.

CAPTAINTURNERwasstandingonADeck,justoutsidethe

entry to his rooms, whenheheard the lookout’s crythatatorpedowascoming.He saw the track andwatched it pass below thestarboardrail.Therewasabrief silence, and then acolumn of water andwreckageeruptedfromthesea. The shock of theexplosion and the suddenlist to starboard threwTurneroffbalance.

With debris andseawater falling behindhim, Turner ran up thestairwaytothebridge.

HOW PASSENGERS experiencedthe blast depended onwhere they were situatedwhen it happened. Theship was so long—nearly800 feet—and so elasticthat those standing or

seatedtowardthestern,inthe second-class smokingand dining rooms and theVerandah Cafe, or on thestern“counter,”where thedeck swept out over therudder, felt it as a dullthud. Oliver Bernardrecalled thinking, “Well,thatwasn’tsobad.”Thoseclosest to the bridge feltthe impact in a mannermore vivid and tactile.

“Water, bits of coal,splinters of wood, etc.,coming down on ourheads!” recalled DwightHarris. “I flattened upagainst the side of theship,butgotsoaked!”Preston Prichard and

GraceFrenchwerehappilysearching forher“double”when they heard theexplosionandfelttheshiplurch to starboard. “The

ship listed so much thatweallscrambleddownthedeck and for a momenteverything was inconfusion,” she recalled.“When I came to myselfagain, I glanced aroundbut could find no trace ofMr. Prichard. He seemedtohavedisappeared.”Too frightened to go to

her own cabin, MissFrenchsetofftolookfora

life jacket on deck,apparently unaware thatall jackets were stored inpassengers’rooms.Out came the watches.

William McMillan Adams,nineteen years old andalways handy with atimepiece,putthemomentofimpactat2:05.“Itimedeverything,”hesaid, later.When asked why, hereplied, “I just did it; I

don’t know why.” CharlesLauriat checked his stem-winding wristwatch andpegged the impactat9:08A.M., Boston time, or 2:08P.M. Greenwich MeanTime.Others put the timeat 2:10; this would laterbecome the agreed-uponbenchmark.Within seconds Lauriat

felt the ship roll to the

right and tilt toward thebow. “You could feel thetwoseparatemotionsverydistinctly,” Lauriat wrote.“It seemed as if she weregoing down at once, butthenshestoppedsuddenlyas if the sea had met thewater-tight bulkheads andsheseemedtorightherselfand even raise her bow alittle. This gave me afeelingofsecurity,andIat

first thought she wouldstayafloat.”Moments later a secondexplosion occurred. (Theever-precise WilliamMcMillan Adams timedthisat thirty secondsafterthefirst.)Itscharacterwasdifferent. Where the firsthad been a single, sharpdetonation, this one,Lauriat said, was “verymuffled.” A shudder

traveled the length of theship and seemed to risefromdeepwithinthehull,“morelikeanexplosionofa boiler, I should think,”said Lauriat. He wasunable to identify thelocation with anyprecision. The sound wasnot “distinct enough,” hesaid.Inthediningrooms,theplants set out on tables

shifted; glassware fell tothefloor.

MARGARET MACKWORTH andher father, D. A. Thomas,having finished lunch,were about to enter theelevator on D Deck whenThomasjoked,“Ithinkwemight stay up on deck to-night to see if we get ourthrill.”

BeforeMackworthcouldanswer, she heard a dullexplosion, not loud, morea heavy thud that rosefromsomewherebelow.“Iturnedandcameoutofthelift; somehow, the stairsseemedsafer.”Her father set off to try

to learn more about whathad happened.Mackworth,inaccordwithher earlier plan, went

straight to her room on BDecktogetherlifejacket.The degree of list madeprogress difficult. Shemoved along the lowerside of the passage in theangle between wall andfloor and collidedwith anoncoming stewardess. Thetwo, Mackworth wrote,“wasted a minute or somakingpoliteapologies toeachother.”

After retrieving her lifejacket, Mackworth ran toher father’s cabin and gotone for him as well. Sheclimbed to the open boatdeck and moved to thehigher side—the port side—judgingitsafertobe“asfar away from thesubmarineaspossible.”There she encounteredher tablemate DorothyConner, and asked if she

couldstandwithherwhileshe waited for her father.Sheputonherlifejacket.A crowd of third-class

passengers emerged frombelow, with great energyandnoise.Mackworth turned to

Connerandsaid,“Ialwaysthoughtashipwreckwasawell-organizedaffair.”“So did I,” Conner

replied, “but I’ve learnt a

devil of a lot in the lastfiveminutes.”

CHARLES LAURIAT wasstanding next to ElbertHubbard and his wife. Heurged them to go to theirroom and get their lifejackets, but the coupleseemed paralyzed. “Mr.Hubbardstayedbytherailaffectionately holding his

arm around his wife’swaist, and both seemedunabletoact.”LauriattoldHubbard,“Ifyou don’t care to come,stay here and I will getthem for you.” Lauriat setoffforhisownquarters.For the many parentsaboard,theblastbroughtaunique sort of terror. TheCromptonsofPhiladelphiahad six children scattered

over the ship; the Pearlfamily of New York hadfour. The ship wasimmense, and olderchildrenhadtherunofitsdecks. Parents werecompelledtohuntfortheirchildren among the ever-growing crowds ofpassengers swarming theboat deck, while at thesame time holding babiesandcorrallingtoddlers.

Norah Bretherton, thethirty-two-year-oldwife ofajournalistinLosAngeles,had booked passageaboard the Lusitania sothat she could bring hertwo children, Paul andElizabeth, to meet herparents in England. Paulwas three years old;Elizabeth—“Betty”—wasoneandahalf.Bretherton,pregnant, was traveling

alone with the childrenbecause her husband hadto stay behind inCaliforniatowork.Hercabinwasasecond-class room toward thesternofCDeck,theshelterdeck.Beforelunchshehaddropped her daughter offat a “play yard” on thedeck above, then placedher son in the cabin for anapandlefthimthere.

When the torpedostruck, she was in astairwell between the twodecks. She froze. She hadnoideawheretogofirst—uponedecktoretrieveherbabygirl, or downadecktogethernappingson?Alllamps went out. Thesudden list of the shipthrewherfromonesideofthestairwelltotheother.Sheranforthebaby.

ON ENTERING the bridge,Captain Turner beganissuing commands. Heordered the engines “fullastern.” The reverseturbines were the ship’sbrakes, the only way tobring it to a stop, and theship had to be stoppedbefore any lifeboats couldbe launched with safety.The engines did notrespond.

Turner told thehelmsman, QuartermasterHughJohnston,toturntheship hard toward thecoast, still a dozen milesoff.Ifworstcametoworst,he would beach the shipand at least eliminate thedangerofsinking.Johnston stood inside

the wheelhouse, a smallenclosure within thebridge. He repeated

Turner’s command toconfirm that heunderstood.Herotatedthewheel to produce whatshould have been a 35-degreeturntowardshore.“All right, boy,” Turner

said.The ship responded,

accordingtoJohnston.Captain Turner now

ordered him to “steady”the ship, that is, to adjust

the wheel to counter thetendency to continueturning once the desiredheading was achieved.Johnstongave theship35degrees helm in theoppositedirection.“Keep her head onKinsale,” Turner said,directing Johnston to aimthe bow toward thelighthouse on the OldHead.Johnstonechoedthe

order and began itsexecution.This time the helmfailed to answer. The shipbegantoveer,“topayoff,”towardopensea.Johnstonattempted to counter thedrift.“IwasdoingallIwassupposed to do, steadyingthe ship,” Johnston said,“but shewas swinging offagain.” Turner repeatedhisorderforaturntoward

shore.Johnston tried. “I putthe wheel round, but shewould not answer herhelmbutkeptonswingingouttowardthesea.”Turner told SecondOfficer Percy Hefford tocheck the ship’s spiritindicator,amarineversionof a carpenter’s level, togauge the severity of thelist.

Hefford called out,“Fifteen degrees tostarboard,sir.”Turnergavetheordertoclose the ship’s watertightdoors,belowthepassengerdecks, which wereoperated with a controlalongthefrontwallofthebridge. To make sure thedoors really did close,Turner told Hefford to godown into the forecastle

andcheck.Hefford stopped at thewheelhouse and toldJohnston to keep his eyeonthespirit indicatorand“sing out if she goes anyfurther.” Hefford left thebridge. He did notreappear.Turner ordered thelifeboats lowered “to therails,” that is, to a levelwheretheycouldbesafely

boarded by passengers.Theboatsstillcouldnotbelaunched, however, forsheer momentumcontinued to propel theLusitania forward, initiallyat 18 knots. Had thereverse turbinesresponded, the ship couldhave been stopped inunder three minutes, butnow only the drag of theseacouldbringittoahalt.

The linermoved ina longarc away from shore. Theforcedfloodingcontinued.At the wheel, Johnstonchecked the spirit gauge.The list held steady at 15degrees.Turner steppedoutontothe bridge wing. Belowhim, the boat deck wasfillingwithpassengersanddeckhands. Firemen blackwith soot worked their

way through the crowdlike shadows. Some ofthem climbed out of theship’svents.

DOWN IN QUARANTINE, RobertKayandhismotherfeltthetorpedo blast, whichRobert described as a“violent explosion.” Thiswas followedbyasecond,more muted eruption that

seemed to come fromwithintheship.Thelightswentout.His mother was tensebut oddly calm, Robertrecalled, though sheexpressed concern that inher condition, so deeplypregnant,theymightneverreach the upper deckssafely.The door to quarantinewasnolongerplumbinits

frame.Theyforceditopen.The corridor outside wasdark, tilted both tostarboard and toward thebow.They moved slowly.Robert tried to help, but“every step was an effort,and our progress waspainfully slow,” he wrote.The combined starboardand forward list madestairways dangerous. The

Kays held tight tohandrails, “but with eachmomentitseemedthatthesurroundingsbecamemoreand more crazilydistorted.”Everyoneelseseemedto

have gone. There wasquiet, though now andthenRoberthearda shoutfromfarabove.Withgreateffort, he and his motherworkedtheirwayupward.

Five minutes hadelapsed since the initialexplosion.

CHARLES LAURIAT returned todeck, carrying all the lifejackets he could. He puthis on first, then helpedothers. These were thenew Boddy life jackets. Ifworn properly, they wereeffective in keeping even

an oversized man afloat,comfortably on his back,butLauriatsawthatnearlyeveryone around him hadput the jackets onincorrectly. Cunard hadnot yet established apolicy of havingpassengers try on lifejackets at the start of avoyage. The only guidewas an illustratedinstructionsheetposted in

eachroom,intheapparentbelief that passengerswould have the time andpresence of mind to readand follow it. The fault inthis logic now becameevident. “In their hurry,they put them on everywayexcepttherightway,”Lauriat wrote. “One manhad his arm through onearmhole and his headthrough the other; others

had them on around thewaist and upside down;butvery fewhad themoncorrectly.”Lauriat was standingwithin earshot of thebridge when he heard awomancallouttoCaptainTurner, her voice steadyand calm, “Captain, whatdoyouwishustodo?”“Stay right where youare, Madam, she’s all

right.”“Wheredoyougetyour

information?”sheasked.“From the engine room,

Madam,” he said. But theengine room clearly hadtold him no such thing.Apparentlyhewasseekingto calm the crowd belowand avoid setting off apanicked race for theboats.ThiswasthelastLauriat

sawofTurner.Lauriatandthe woman now headedbacktowardthestern,andas they walked they toldother passengers what thecaptainhadsaid.Second-class passengerHenryNeedhammayhaveencountered the pair, forhe recalled that apassenger approachingfrom the direction of thebridge had shouted, “The

Captain says the boatwillnotsink.”“The remark,”Needhamwrote, “was greeted withcheers & I noticed manypeople who had beenendeavoringtogetaplacein theboats, turnaway inapparentcontentment.”Turner’s words merelyconfirmed what thepassengers and many ofthe crewalreadybelieved,

orwanted to believe: thatnotorpedocouldcausetheship mortal damage. Theship’s purser and surgeonspent the moments afterthe two explosions calmlystrolling along the boatdeck, smoking cigarettes,assuring passengers theship was not in anydanger. And this seemedentirely plausible. TheLusitania was simply too

big and too well built tosink. What made the ideaeven more incongruouswasthesetting:agleamingMay afternoon, warm andstill, the sea smooth andthe headlands of Irelandvisible in the distance, sogreen they seemed toluminesceinthesunshine.IsaacLehmann,theNewYorkbusinessman,didnotshare this confidence in

theship’sunsinkability.Hewent to his stateroom toget his life jacket andfound that someone hadentered his room andtaken it. A nervous man,Lehmann feared chaos. “Idon’tknowwhatpossessedme,”hesaid,“butIlookedin my dress suit case andgotholdofmyrevolver,asI figured this would comeinhandyincasetherewas

anybody not doing theproperthing.”

THERE WERE shipbuildersamong the Lusitania’spassengers, and at firstthey too believed the shipwould remain afloat. Oneof them, Frederic J.Gauntlett, an executivewith the Newport NewsShip Building and Dry

DockCompany,wasonhisway to Europe to meetwith builders ofsubmarineswithaneyetostarting a venture in theUnited States. He wastraveling with thecompany’s president,AlbertHopkins.Gauntlett was at lunchwithHopkins and anothershipbuilder, aPhiladelphian named

Samuel Knox. (It wasKnox’s company that hadbuilt the Gulflight, theAmerican oil tankertorpedoedaweekearlier.)They sat at their usualtable, the sixth one back,on the starboard side.They wore suits; thetablecloths were white,and each table had clearglass vases with cutflowers.Sunlight streamed

throughthewindows.The room tilted to theright. A vase fell fromGauntlett’stable.“Ileftmycoffee and nuts,” he said,“and rose from the tableand shouted to thestewards to close theports.”Asashipbuilder,heunderstood the dangerposed by open portholes.He shouted half a dozentimes. “The stewards

evidently had businesselsewhere,” he said, “andwhen they left the diningsaloon I followed suit andleftthediningroomalso.”He and his lunchmatesdidnotthemselvesattemptto close the ports, andthese remained open.Gauntlett went to thecoatrack, got his hat, andretrieved Knox’s as well.They walked up three

flightstotheboatdeck.Gauntlett was reassured

that the list seemed tostabilizeat15degrees.Hewas convinced the anglewould not worsen and“never for one momentsupposedshewasgoingtosink.”Hesaidasmuchtoawoman standing nearby,surrounded by herchildren. She asked himwhat to do. “I told her

there was no danger,” hesaid; the ship “was notgoingtosink.”Gauntlett expected thebulkheads and watertightdoors to keep the hullfrom flooding further, butthen he sensed a change.The list became morepronounced,asdidthetilttoward the bow, atwhichpoint,he said, “Imadeupmymindthatitwasupto

me to take a look aroundand see what the troublewas.”Hemadehisway to therailing at the forward endof the deck and lookedover at the bow below.The forecastle waspartiallysubmerged.Hewenttohisroomandputonhislifejacket.

ALLTHEship’ssystemswerenow dead. The rudder nolongeroperated.Themainelectricdynamohadfailed.Alllightswereout;anyonewalking along an interiorcorridor now foundhimself in blackness. Theoperator in the Marconiroomonthe topmostdeckswitched to emergencypower. The two first-classelevators at the center of

theshipstalled.Accordingtooneaccount,passengerswithinbegantoscream.The elevator thatprovidedtheonlyaccesstothe ship’s baggage roomalsostopped.Thescoresofmen working to getpassengers’ luggage readyfor arrival either weredead from the torpedoblast,orwouldbesoon,aswater filled the bow. A

fireman who escapedBoilerRoomNo.2,EugeneMcDermott, described a“rush of water thatknocked me off my feet.”Manyofthedeadcrewmenwere precisely those whowould have been assignedto help launch the ship’slifeboats.Now the sea found anew path into the hull.Water began to flow

through open portholes,many of which werebarely above thewater tobegin with. Those of EDeck, for example,normallyclearedthewaterby only 15 feet. By oneestimate, at least 70portholes had been leftopeninthestarboardside.Multipliedby3.75 tonsofwater per minute perporthole, that meant that

260 tonswas entering theship each minute throughthe starboard portholesalone.It was now about 2:20

P.M., tenminutes since thetorpedo struck. For thenext few moments, asdeckhands and passengerswaitedfortheshiptoslowenough to allow the safelaunching of boats, therewas quiet. “A strange

silence prevailed,” saidAlbert Bestic, junior thirdofficer, “and small,insignificant sounds, suchasthewhimperofachild,thecryofa seagullor thebang of a door, assumedalarmingproportions.”

FIRSTWORD

THETELEGRAMSARRIVEDATTHEADMIRALTY IN LONDON andthe Naval Center inQueenstown in rapidand jarring sequence,sent from variouspoints:

2:15FROMVALENTIASTATIONTOQUEENSTOWN:“‘LUSITANIA’INDISTRESSOFFKINSALE.BELIEVED.”

2:20FROMGALLEYHEADTOADMIRALTY:“‘LUSITANIA’S.E.10MILESSINKINGBOWFIRST

APPARENTLYATTACKEDBY

SUBMARINE.”

2:25FROMQUEENSTOWNTOADMIRALTY:“‘LUSITANIA’TORPEDOEDREPORTEDSINKING10MILESS.OFKINSALE.ALLAVAILABLETUGSANDSMALL

CRAFTBEINGSENTTOHER

ASSISTANCE.ABERDEEN,PEMBROKE,BUNCRANA,DEVONPORT,LIVERPOOLINFORMED.”

LUSITANIA

DECISIONS

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO LAUNCHTHE LUSITANIA’S LIFEBOATS

revealedthetruedegreeofdanger now faced by theship’s passengers and

shattered the illusion ofsafetyprojectedbyhavingsomanyboatsaboard.Thelistwas so severe that theboatsonthestarboardsidenowhungwellaway fromthe hull, leaving a gapbetweentheboatsandthedeck of 5 to 8 feet, withthe sea 60 feet below.Membersofthecrewtriedusing deck chairs to spanthe opening, but most

passengers chose to jump.Parents handed smallchildren across. One boytook a running leap andlandedinaboatfeet-first.Meanwhile,thelifeboats

on the opposite side, theport side, had swunginward over the deck.These were all butunusable. Only a greateffort could move theminto position for launch.

Capt.Turnerorderedthememptied, but as the ship’scondition worsened,passengers and crew triedtolaunchthemanyway.Ogden Hammond, theNew Jersey real-estatedeveloper who’d beenassured the ship was assafeasaNewYorktrolley,walkedalongtheportsideof the boat deck with hiswife, Mary, until they

found themselves at BoatNo. 20, which a group ofcrewmen and malepassengers had somehowmuscledtoapointoutsidethe rail. Women andchildren were climbingaboard.NeitherMarynorOgden

wore a life jacket.Hehadwanted to go down totheir stateroom andretrieve the jackets stored

there, but Mary hadpleaded with him not toleave her. They hadhuntedforjacketsondeckbutfoundnone.At the lifeboat, Ogden

balkedatclimbingaboard,out of respect for themaritimecustomthatgavewomen and childrenpriority. Mary refused togounlessOgdencametoo,so the couple stood aside,

watching the process andwaiting. At last Ogdenagreed to get in. He andMarytookaplacenearthebow. The boat was halffull,with about thirty-fivepeople, when the attempttolaunchitbegan.Men at the bow andstern manipulated theropes—the falls—that ranthrough block and tackleateachendof theboat.A

sailor at the bow lostcontrolofhis rope.Ogdentried to grab it, but theropewasrunningsofastittore the skin from hishands. The bow plunged;the stern rope held.Everyone fell from theboat into the sea, 60 feetbelow.Ogden came to the

surface; his wife did not.He reached for an oar

floatingnearby.

AT THE NEXT port-side boat,No. 18, another launchingattempt had stalled. Thisboat contained fortywomen and children, andwas held in place by arestraining pin. The sailorinchargerefused to lowerit, inaccordwithTurner’sorders, but held an ax,

ready to knock the pinloose should the orderschange. Several dozenpassengers stood betweentheboatandtheouterwallof the first-class smokingroom.IsaacLehmann,theNew

York businessman, wasshockedthatnoeffortwasbeing made to launch theboat. He had managed tofind a life jacket; his

revolverwasinhispocket.He glanced toward theship’s bow and sawwateradvancing along the deck.He demanded to knowwhythesailordidn’tact.“Itisthecaptain’sorders

not to launch any boats,”thesailorreplied.“To hell with the

captain,” Lehmann said.“Don’t you see theboat issinking?” He drew his

revolver. “And the firstman that disobeys myorderstolaunchtheboatIshoottokill!”The sailor complied. He

swunghisaxtoknockoutthe restraining pin. Theboat was heavy to beginwith,butnowloadedwiththree tons of humanity itswung inward, crushingeveryonebetweentheboatand thewall.At least two

passengers, sisters in theirfifties, died instantly, ofinjuries associated withsevere crushing.Lehmann’s right leg wasdamaged,buthemanagedto crawl from themass ofwounded bystanders. Thiswas not easy. He was alarge,roundmanandworea long overcoat and a lifejacket.Passengers and crew

again attempted to launchthe lifeboat. They weremaking progress whensomething went awry andthis boat too dumped itspassengers into the water.At about the same time,Lehmann said, a “terrificexplosion” rose from thedeckinthedirectionofthebow. This new convulsionwaslikelycausedbywaterinfiltrating yet another

boilerroomandcomingincontactwithasuperheatedtank, one of a number ofsuch secondary eruptions.Only about fourteenminutes had passed sincethe torpedo impact, buttheseawasclimbingfast.

MANY PASSENGERS decided toforgotheboatsandtakeamore direct path. Dwight

Harris headed toward thebow, as per his plan. Heclimbed over the port railon A Deck and scuttleddown the sideof the ship,two decks, then wenttoward the bow, whichhad sunk to the pointwhereallhewouldhavetodowasstepintothewater.He took off his shoes anddiscardedhisovercoat,hishat, and his Medici book.

He had no life jacket, noteven his customWanamaker’s belt. He toohad been afraid to go tohis cabin for fearofbeingtrapped. But now, at thewater’s edge and facingthe real prospect ofdrowning, he changed hismind.“I took a look at things

anddecidedImusthavealife belt so I climbed up

again to ‘A’ deck andrushed to my cabin,” hewrote. He put the belt onand returned to the bow.Anofficercalledtohimtocome up to the lifeboats,“but I realized that allavailable space in themwas badly wanted, so Ishookmyhead no!—I gotup on the rail, swung myfeet over, and when thewater got right up to the

deckIjumpedoverboard!”As he swam away, he

looked up, and saw theship’s giant funnels movepastagainstthesky.

THEODATE POPE and EdwinFriendhadplannedthat ifan emergency arose theywould rendezvous on theboat deckwith Theodate’smaid, Emily Robinson.

“Thedecksuddenlylookedverystrangecrowdedwithpeople,” Theodate wrote,“and I remember twowomen were crying in apitifully weak way.”Theodate and Friendlooked over the port sideandwatched a boat beinglowered. One end fell toofast and everyoneplummeted into the sea.This could have been

Ogden Hammond’s boat,or the one Lehmann triedtolaunchatgunpoint.“Welooked at each other,sickenedby the sight, andthen made our waythrough the crowd fordeck B on the starboardside.”Astheystoodattherail,they saw that efforts tolaunchthelifeboatsonthisside were having more

success. Boats came downpastthem,winchedslowlyfrom the deck above. Thetwo feared the ship wassinking so quickly andwith so pronounced a listthat itmight roll onto theboats after they reachedthewater.Theyclimbedbackupto

theboatdeckbutmadenoattempt to board any oftheremaininglifeboats.

“We walked closetogether,sidebyside,eachwith an arm around theother’s waist,” Theodaterecalled. The two met apassenger whom by nowthey knew well, MarieDepage,theBelgiannurse.Depage seemed stunned.“She had aman on eithersideofher,friendsofhers,so I did not speak,”Theodatewrote.“Itwasno

time forwords unless onecouldofferhelp.”Theodate and Friendheaded toward the stern,now an uphill climb. Hermaidcameupbesidethemand Theodate noted thetense smile etched on herface.“Icouldonlyputmyhand on her shoulder andsay,‘OhRobinson.’”They searched for lifejackets. They entered

several cabins and foundthree. Friend helped thewomen put them on; theyallwalked to the rail.Theship’s giant funnelstoweredabove thematanexaggerated slant. Thewaterwasfarbelow.Theodate glanced atFriend. The two lookeddown at the water. Thetime had come. “I askedhimtogofirst,”shewrote.

Friend climbed downonedeck,thenjumped.Hedisappeared briefly, butsoon bobbed to thesurface, and looked up atthe women. The shipcontinued to moveforward;hisformreceded.Theodate said, “Come

Robinson,”andsteppedofftherail.

GRACE FRENCH ran back towhere she and PrestonPrichard had beenstandingatthemomentofimpact. He was nowherein sight. She went to therail,tookoffhercoat,andjumped. She had no lifejacket. Her plan was toswim until she found apiece of floating debris.The jump took her deepunder the surface, where

an eddy caused by thepassing ship held herdown.

BY NOW, Captain Turnerknewtheshipwouldsink.Heputonalifejacketbutremainedonthebridge,asdid fellow officers and hishelmsman, HughJohnston. In the Marconihouse behind the bridge,

the ship’s chief wirelessman, Robert Leith, usedauxiliary power to sendmessage after messageasking all ships in thevicinitytocomeatonce.Turner asked Johnston

foranother readout of thespiritgauge.Johnston called,

“Twenty-fivedegrees.”Turnersaid,“MyGod.”Hisviewfromthebridge

was ofwater surging overthe forecastle below. Hetold Johnston, “Saveyourself.” The time wasabout 2:25 P.M.—fifteenminutessinceimpact.Johnston left the bridge

andfoundoneoftheship’sthirty-five life buoys.Water had reached thestarboard bridge wing.Johnston entered the seaandwaswashedacrossthe

deck. “I simply had to gowherever the tide tookme,”hesaid.Turner remained on thebridge.

U-20

SCHWIEGER’SVIEW

“I TOOK MY POSITION AT THEPERISCOPE AGAIN,” SCHWIEGERtold his friend MaxValentiner. “The ship wassinking with unbelievable

rapidity. There was aterrific panic on her deck.Overcrowded lifeboats,fairly torn from theirpositions,droppedintothewater. Desperate peopleran helplessly up anddown the decks. Men andwomen jumped into thewaterandtriedtoswimtoempty, overturnedlifeboats. It was the mostterrible sight I have ever

seen.Itwasimpossibleforme to give any help. Icould have saved only ahandful. And then thecruiser that had passed uswasnotveryfarawayandmust have picked up thedistresssignals.Shewouldshortly appear, I thought.Thescenewastoohorribletowatch,andIgaveordersto dive to twenty meters,andaway.”

Inhis final logentryonthe attack, at 2:25 P.M.,Schwieger wrote: “Itwould have beenimpossible for me,anyhow, to fire a secondtorpedo into this crushingcrowd of humanity tryingtosavetheirlives.”Schwieger directed hisU-boatouttosea.Hiscrewwas jubilant: they haddestroyedtheLusitania,the

ship that symbolizedBritishmaritimeprowess.

LUSITANIA

THELITTLEARMY

CERTAIN NOW THAT THE SHIPWOULD SINK, CHARLES Lauriatwent back to his cabin attheforwardendofBDecktorescuewhathecouldof

his belongings. As hemoved along the corridortowardhisroom,hefoundvividevidenceof justhowmuch the ship had listed.The floorwas canted to adegree that made itimpossibletowalkwithoutalso stepping on the wall.The awkward bulk of hislifejacketfurtherimpededhis progress. He passedopen staterooms whose

portholes had onceprovidedviewsof skyandhorizon but now lookeddown onto water madedarkbytheshadowoftheleaninghull.Theonlylightin the corridor was ashifting, silvery glowraised by sunlight glintingoff the sea from beyondthe ship’s shadow. Lauriatwas startled to see thatmany of the portholes

wereopen.His room was a blackbox.Hefoundhismatchesand used these to locatehis passport and otheritems he hoped to rescue.He grabbed his leatherbriefcasewith theDickensChristmas Carol inside butleft the Thackeraydrawings in his shoe case.He hurried back onto thedeck,whichnowwasclose

tothewater.A lifeboat containing

women and children wasfloating just off his deck,on the starboard side, buthad not yet been releasedfromthe ropes that tied itto the davits on the boatdeckabove.ThiswasBoatNo.7.Someoneneededtoact, and soon, Lauriatrealized, before the shipdraggedthelifeboatunder.

He climbed into the boatandplacedhisbriefcaseonthebottom,thensetabouttrying to free the stern.The bow remainedtethered. Another man, asteward,was struggling tocut it loose with apocketknife. “The steamerwas all the time rapidlysettling,” Lauriat recalled,“and to look at thetremendous smokestack

hanging out over us onlyadded to the terror of thepeopleintheboat.”Being this close to thehull brought home justhowbigtheLusitania trulywas. Arthur Mitchell, theRaleighBicycleagentwhohad wanted to holdlifeboat drills forpassengers, was in BoatNo. 15, four astern ofLauriat’s. He said, “Never

could one realize the sizeof the ship so well as atthis moment, her greatdeck towering above us,and her enormous funnelsclear against the skybelching forth smokewhich almost blinded thepeopleintheboatsaroundher.”The ship was still

moving but sinking fast,the deck visibly

descending. Lauriat stoodon a seat in the lifeboat,intendingtogoforwardtohelp with the bow. Thecurved arm of adescending davit struckhim from behind andknockedhimdown.Hegotup, this time mindful ofthe davit, and movedforward by stepping fromseat to seat, forcing hisway through the mass of

passengers.The boat seemed to be

full of oars—“an infinitenumber,” he wrote. Hestepped on one. It rolled.Hefell.By the time Lauriat got

to his feet, the nowpartially submergedforwarddavitwaspressingon thebowof the lifeboatand the boat’s stern wasrising.Itwasasthoughthe

shiphad reachedoutwithaclawedhandtodragthelifeboat down. There wasnothing to be done.Lauriat stepped from theboat into the water. Heurged the other occupantsto do likewise, but fewdid.Thedavitgripped thelifeboat and tipped itinward, toward the deck,then pulled it under thewater, with women and

children and the DickensCarolstillaboard.

SHIPBUILDER SAMUEL KNOXcame across PaulCrompton, thePhiladelphian traveling toEnglandwithhiswifeandsixchildren.Cromptonhadcorralled four of thechildrenandwastryingtoput a life jacket on the

youngest, “a mere baby,”Knox said. One ofCrompton’s older girlscould not get her ownjacket adjusted properly.Withnoapparentconcern,she asked Knox, “Pleasewill you showme how tofixthis?”Knoxdidso.Thegirlthankedhim.

NORAH BRETHERTON, the Los

Angeles woman who hadrun to rescue her infantdaughter, Betty, whileleaving her three-year-oldson asleep in her cabin,carried the baby up astairway crammed withpassengers. She forced thegirl into the arms of apassing stranger, a man,thenturnedandwentbackdowntogetherson.The interior stairs were

empty of people. She ran.Smoke came through thefloors of the corridor andthe cabin itself. Shegrabbedtheboy,Paul,andcarriedhimup toBDeck,to the starboard side,which by this point wascanted so steeply thatanother woman, alsoholding a small boy, slidpastalongthedeck,onherback.

Bretherton came to alifeboatinprocessofbeinglowered.Amalepassengertoldher she couldnot getin, that the boat was toofull, but a friend ofBretherton’s,alreadyintheboat, persuaded the otherpassengers to allow heraboard.Bretherton had no idea

where her baby was. Onthewaytothelifeboat,she

hadseenthemantowhomshe had given the child,but the man’s arms wereempty.

THEODATE POPE struggled tocome to the surface butfound herself pressedagainst a barrier of somesort. Something made ofwood. She swallowed saltwater.

“Iopenedmyeyes,” shewrote, “and through thegreen water I could seewhat I was being dashedup against; it looked likethebottomandkeelofoneof the ship’s boats.” Shewas certain death wasnear, she wrote, and“committed myself toGod’s care in thought—aprayer without words.”Then, something struck

her, and she lostconsciousness.She awoke floating on

thesurface,heldupbyherlife jacket. For a fewmoments, everything shesawwasgray.Thelimbsoffrantic people jostled her.There was screaming andshouting.Color returned to her

vision. A man, “insanewith fright,” grabbed her

around the shoulders. Hehadnolifejacket.Hisbulkpushedherdownward.“Oh please don’t,” shesaid. Then she and theman sank below thesurface. She passed outagain.When she regainedconsciousness, the manwas gone and she wasafloat.Therewassunshineandceruleansky.Theship

was well past, and stillmoving. The men andwomen drifting in the seaaround her were spacedmore widely than before,and they were quieter.Some were alive, someclearlydead.Bloodflowedfrom a gash in one man’sforehead.Anoarfloatednear.Herlife jacket kept herbuoyant, but even so she

reached for the oar anddrapedher right foot overthe blade. She raised herhead to see if help wascoming,butsawthatnonewas. “Then I sank back,very relieved inmymind,for I decided it was toohorrible to be true andthat I was dreaming, andagainlostconsciousness.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEA, akindredsoulalsolayadrift—Mary Popham Lobb, aBritish citizen andspiritualist fromthe islandof St. Vincent, in theCaribbean. For her thistime in the water wasmystical and moving. Shefound herself driftingfarther and farther fromthe dense mass of bodiesand wreckage left behind

as the ship slid by. Thecries of survivors becamefaint, as did the clatter ofoarsandtheshoutsofmeninboats.She gaveup all hopeofrescueandtoldherselfthetime to cross over hadcome, but another voicewithin told her, no, thiswasnothermoment.“Thegulls were flyingoverhead,”shewrote,“and

I remember noticing thebeauty of the blueshadows which the seathrows up to their whitefeathers: they were happyand alive and made mefeel rather lonely; mythoughts went to mypeople, lookingforwardtoseeing me, and at thatmoment having tea in thegarden. The idea of theirgriefwasunbearable;Ihad

tocryalittle.”

GRACE FRENCH, havingjumped without a lifejacket, sank deep into thesea. “It got blacker andblacker, until it becamecalm and peaceful and Ithought I must be inheaven,” she wrote. “Thenext thing I saw was thewater getting lighter and

lighter until I popped tothe surface and grabbedhold of a plank of woodand it helped keep meafloat. With that I felt Iwas saved; I grabbedholdofalifejacketwhichhadadeadyoungman in it.Wefloated together for awhile until a big wavewashedhimaway.”

DWIGHT HARRIS swam fromtheship.“Ihadno feelingof fear when I wentoverboard.” He felt ascomfortable as if he hadsimply entered aswimming pool—socomposed that when hecame across a floatingbook, he picked it up andexaminedit.The Lusitania movedpast.“Iwascarriedbythe

whole length of the shipand saw everything thathappened!—The first lifeboat (starboard side) wasinthewaterwithonlytwosailorsinit.Theycalledtome to swim to it, but Ikept on. The second boatwas suspended andhangingstraightdown,theropes at one end havingjammed; the third andfourthboatswerecrowded

withpeople.”Hesawthattheseawas

nowlevelwiththebridge.Astheshippassedhim,itssternroseintotheair.

FOR THE FAMILY of JosephFrankum, of Birmingham,England,travelingwithhiswife, three-year-olddaughter, and two sons,ages five and seven, these

last moments wereterrifying. Frankumgathered them all in alifeboatontheportside,atthe stern. The boat stillhung from its davits, butFrankum hoped it wouldfloat free when the seaarrived.The view downhill wasof chaos and death,punctuatedwith eruptionsof black smoke as boilers

exploded in succession.Themountingairpressurein the hull causedportholes to burst andseams and apertures tohowl.But,strangely,therewasalso singing. First“Tipperary,” then “Rule,Britannia!” Next came“Abide with Me,” but itwassomovingand so sadthat women began to cry,

andthesingersswitchedto“Pull for the Shore,” andthen another round of“Rule,Britannia!”Frankum said, “I clung

to my wife and childrenandheldthemtight.”

MARGARETMACKWORTH stayedwith the ship,on theboatdeck, next to DorothyConner. Conner’s brother-

in-law was somewherebelow, looking for lifejackets. A strange calmsettled over the deck.Peoplemoved “gently andvaguely,” Mackworthrecalled. “They remindedone of a swarm of beeswho do not know wherethequeenhasgone.”For a moment, the ship

seemed about to rightitself. Word spread that

the crew had at last beenabletocloseitswatertightbulkheads and that thedangerofsinkingwaspast.Mackworth and Connershookhands.“Well,you’vehad your thrill all right,”Mackworthsaid.“I never want another,”

Connersaid.Conner’s brother-in-law

returned. He had beenunable to reach his cabin

because of water in thecorridor but hadmanagedto find jackets elsewhere.The three put them on.Mackworth released thehookonherskirt,tomakeiteasiertotakeofflateriftheneedarose.The ship’s list returned,steeper than before.Seventeen minutes hadelapsedsinceimpact.Theyresolvedtojump.Theidea

terrified Mackworth. Shechided herself on this,“telling myself howridiculous I was to havephysical fear of the jumpwhen we stood in suchgravedangeraswedid.”Connerandherbrother-in-law moved to the rail.Mackworthheldback.Connerwrote,“Onegetsverycloseinthreeminutesat such a time, and just

before we jumped Igrabbed her hand andsqueezed to try andencourageher.”But Mackworth stayedbehind. Her lastrecollection was of waterup to her knees, and theship sliding away, pullingherdown.

THEODORE AND Belle Naish,

the Kansas City couplewhojusthoursearlierhadbeen admiring the sunrisefrom the ship’s top deck,alsostoodattherail.Theyworelifejacketsandstoodarm in arm, talkingquietly. Having watchedone lifeboat dump itsoccupants into the sea,theymadenoefforttogetintoanother.Amemberofthecrewtoldthem,“She’s

all right, shewill float foranhour.”ButBelledidnotbelieve him. She’d beenwatching the rail and thehorizonline.Thechangingdifferential told her theship was sinking quickly.Shesaid,“We’llbegoneinaminute.”She took her arm fromTheodore’s, so as not todrag him under. “Wewatched the water, talked

to each other; thereseemedtobeagreatrush,a roar and a splinteringsound,thenthelifeboatorsomethingswungoverourheads.” The boat struckherandcuther scalp.SheheldoutanarmtoprotectTheodore. A sudden shiftin thedeckbroughtwatertoher armpits. “It seemedas if everything in theuniverserippedandtore.”

And then she was deepunderwater—by herestimate, 20 or 30 feet.Shelookedupandsawthebrilliant blue of the skythrough the water. “Ithought about howwondrously beautiful thesunlight and water werefrom below the surface,”she wrote. She was notafraid. “I thought, ‘Why,this is like being in my

grandmother’s featherbed.’ I kicked, and rosefaster.”Her head struck

something, and continuedto bump against it. “I putupmyrighthand,sawtheblueskyand foundmyselfclinging to the bumper oflife boat 22.” A manreached for her. She wasso grateful she asked himto write his name on the

insideofhershoe,“lest inthe experience to follow Imightforget.”ThenamewasHertz,forDouglas Hertz, a youngmanwhowasreturningtoEngland to join the SouthLancashireRegiment,afterliving for a time in St.Louis. The sinkingcrownedatroubledperiodforHertz. In1913,hehadlost his wife in a train

wreck on theirhoneymoon; that sameyear, hismother had diedinahousefire.Bellesawnosignofherhusband.

AFTER HELPING to launch astarboard boat, No. 13,Seaman Leslie Mortonwent to help with asecond, also on the

starboard side. He andanother sailor, under thedirectionofapettyofficer,struggled to helppassengers get across thegap between the ship andtheboat.Thefinalangleoflist, by Morton’s estimate,was 30 degrees. Sixtypassengersmade it. Askedlater how this feat hadbeen achieved, Mortonanswered, “If you had to

jump six or seven feet, orcertainly drown, it issurprisingwhat‘ahellofalong way’ even olderpeoplecanjump.”Mortonworkedthesternfalls, as the petty officerdirectedtheoperation.Theshipwas stillmoving at 4or 5 knots. The menlowered the lifeboat untilitskeelwasjustabovethesurface, and then, in

accordwithproceduresforjust this kind ofcircumstance, they let thelinesplayoutsothatwhenthe boat touched water itwouldslipbackward.Itdriftedbackoneboat’slength. The falls and theforwardmotionoftheshipcaused the boat to rideagainst the ship’s hull.Morton was just about toclimbdownthesternropes

to clear the lifeboat whenagroupoflessexperiencedmen—Morton thoughttheymightbe stewardsorwaiters—began loweringthenextboatbackandlostcontrol of its descent. Theboatdropped30 feetontoMorton’s boat and thepassengerswithin.There was no time “towaste in either horror orsympathy,” Morton wrote.

He looked for his brother,amid mounting confusion,“many people losing theirhold on the deck andslipping down and overthe side, and a gradualcrescendo of noisebuilding up as thehundreds and hundreds ofpeople began to realizethat, not only was shegoing down very fast butin all probability too fast

forthemalltogetaway.”He found his brother at

another lifeboat andhelped him to lower it.The brothers then sliddown and released thefalls and used boat hooksto try shoving the lifeboataway from the hull. Thepassengerswouldn’t letgooftheship.Theyheldtighttovariousropesandtothedeck rails, “in some

mistaken belief,” Mortonwrote,“thattheywouldbesaferhangingontothebigshipratherthanentrustingtheir lives in the smalllifeboat.” The Lusitania’sdeck came steadilydownward.Something snagged thegunnel of the lifeboat andbegan tipping it towardthe ship’s hull. “The timefor heroics was obviously

past,”Mortonwrote, “andmy brother yelled at thetopofhisvoice,‘I’mgoingovertheside,Gertie.’”The brothers waved ateachother,thenbothdoveinto the sea.Neitherworealifejacket.Morton wrote, “As I hitthewater,anditisstrangewhat one thinks about intimes of stress, I suddenlyremembered that my

brother had never beenabletoswim.”Morton came to the

surface and looked for hisbrother, “but seeing theturmoil of bodies, womenand children, deck chairs,lifebelts, lifeboats, andevery describable thingaround me, coupled withnolessthan35,000tonsofLusitania breathing veryheavilydownmyneckand

altogethertoocloseformyliking,”hebegantoswim.Hard.He glanced back. Twoimages became impressedinhismemory.Onewasofa collapsible lifeboatslippingfromtheship,stillsheathed in its protectivecover; the other, ofCaptain Turner in fulldress uniform still on thebridge as the Lusitania

beganitsfinaldive.

LAURIAT SWAM clear of theship—or thought he had.He turned to watch itsfinal moments. The bowwas submerged, andslipping deeper into thesea; the sternwas high inthe air. The list tostarboard had become sopronounced that

passengers could standupright only by proppingthemselves against thestarboard rail, where theyaccumulated three or fourdeep in a long line thatextended up toward thestern. Another witnesscalled this assemblage “alittlearmy.”Ifanyonestillharbored a hope that theLusitania would not sink,thathopenowfailed.

Passengers back towardthe stern, and thereforehigher, watched as thoseaheadinlinelosttheirgripontherail.Thosewearinglife jackets floated, as iflevitated from the deck;the many without jacketsattemptedtoswimorsankfromview.ThirdOfficerBestic,stillaboard, felt the shipmakea “peculiar lurching

movement” and lookeddown the deck. “An all-swallowing wave, notunlike a surf comber on abeach,was rushingup theboat deck, envelopingpassengers, boats, andeverything that lay in itspath,” he wrote. A masswail rose from those itengulfed. “All the despair,terror and anguish ofhundreds of souls passing

into eternity composedthatawfulcry.”

AS MEASLE-POXED Robert Kayand his pregnant motherstruggled to ascend to theboat deck, the sounds ofcommotion above becamemoreandmoreclear.Theyemerged to findthemselves in a crush ofpeople climbing toward

the stern to escape thewater ascending the deck.Robert watched peoplejumpfromtherails.The ship continued tomove;itssternrosehigher.Hismotherheldhimclose.And then the sea seemedto leap forward, and hismother was gone. Theywere separated; he wascast into a roilingturbulence. The ship

disappeared.Later, a passenger

reported seeing a womangiving birth in the water.The idea that this mighthave been his motherwould haunt the boy fortherestofhislife.

AS CHARLES LAURIAT watchedtheshippassanddescend,something struck his head

with shocking force.Whateverthethingwas,itslipped back onto theshouldersofhislifejacket,and caught there, anddragged him under. “Icouldn’timaginewhatwaslanding on me out of thesky,”hewrote.“Iwouldn’thave been as muchsurprised if the submarinehad risenand Ihad foundmyselfonher,buttogeta

bolt from the blue didsurpriseme.”He turned his head andsawthatthethingthathadsnagged him was a wirestretched between theship’s twomasts. This, herealized, was theLusitania’s wirelessantenna.Hetriedtoshakeit off but failed. It turnedhim upside down andpushed him ever deeper

belowthesurface.

TELEGRAM

FRIDAY,MAY7,19152:26P.M.

“S.O.S.FROM‘LUSITANIA.’WETHINKWEAREOFFKINSALE.LATEPOSITION10MILESOFFKINSALECOMEAT

ONCEBIGLISTLATERPLEASE

COMEWITHALLHASTE.”

LUSITANIA

AQUEEN’SEND

ONLY SIX OF THE LUSITANIA’STWENTY-TWO CONVENTIONAL

lifeboats got away beforethe ship made its finalplunge; a seventh, from

the port side, reached thewater, but without acrucial plug. The boatfilled,andfoundered.Those passengers whohad already jumped fromtheshipswamtogetasfaraway as possible, for fearthat the ship’s descentwould generate suctionthat would drag themdownaswell.Thisdidnotoccur, although three

passengers did experiencea kindred effect. Onewoman, Margaret Gwyer,a young newlywed fromSaskatoon, Canada, wassucked into one of theship’s 24-foot-widefunnels. Moments later aneruption of steam frombelow shot her back out,alive but covered in blacksoot.Twootherpassengersaccompanied her into the

funnel—Harold Taylor,twenty-one, also newlymarried, and Liverpoolpolice inspector WilliamPierpoint. They tooemerged alive, withblackened faces andbodies.As the ship’sbownoseddown, its stern rose,exposing its four giantpropellers, which glintedgold in the sun. By now

the Lusitania was 2 milesfrom the point where thetorpedo had struck, andabout 12 miles from theOld Head of Kinsale. Inthese last moments, theangle of starboard listdecreased to only about 5degrees,aswaterfilledtherestofship.Seaman Morton turned

onto his back andwatched. He saw

passengers swept from thedeck and hundreds ofothers struggling to climbtoward the stern. TheLusitania again heeled tostarboardandslippedfromview, in “a slow, almoststately, dive by the head,at an angle of some forty-fiveorfiftydegrees.”DwightHarris,floatinga

gooddistanceasterninhisWanamaker’s life belt,

watched as the ship“plunged forward like aknife blade into thewater—funnels, masts, boats,etc., allbreaking topiecesand falling abouteverywhere! A terriblemassofiron,wood,steam,and water! And worst ofall, human forms!—Agreat swirling greenishwhite bubble formedwheretheshipwentdown,

which was a mass ofstruggling humanity andwreckage! The bubble gotbigger and bigger, andfortunately only came towithin twenty or thirtyyards of me shovingwreckagewithit.”

THISUPHEAVALwasasingularfeature of the ship’sdemise, commented upon

bymanysurvivors.Thesearose as a plateauofwaterthat spread in alldirections. It carriedbodies and masses ofdebris, and wasaccompanied by a strangesound.CharlesLauriat emerged

just as the Lusitaniadisappeared. By kickinghard he somehowmanagedtofreehimselfof

the antenna wire. “As shewent under,” Lauriatwrote, “I was notconsciousofhearing cries;rather it was a long,lingering moan that rose,andwhichlastedformanymoments after shedisappeared.” Lauriat wasovertaken by the wave.“The mass of wreckagewas tremendous,” hewrote. “Aside from the

peoplebroughtoutwithit,there were deck chairs,oars, boxes, and I can’tremember what. I simplyknow that one momentone was jammed betweenlargeobjects,andthenextmomentonewasunderthewater.”Countless souls

struggledintheseaaroundhim. There was little hecould do beyond shoving

anoarorsomeotherpieceof floating debris in theirdirection.Manypassengerswore heavy coats; womenwore multiple layers ofclothing—corsets,camisoles, petticoats,jumpers, furs—and allthese quickly becamesodden and heavy.Passengers without lifejackets sank. Thecomplicated clothing of

children and infants borethemunderaswell.One of the mostdisconcerting sightsreported by survivors wasof hundreds of handswaving above the water,beseeching help. But soontherewas quiet. Survivorsreportedseeingaplumeofsmoke from a steamer tothe south, but it came nocloser. The time that had

elapsedsincetheimpactofthe torpedo was eighteenminutes.Seagulls came now and

movedamong the floatingbodies.

CAPTAIN TURNER was still onthe bridge as thenavigation decksubmerged.Thesea in thedistance was a shimmery

blue, but up close, greenand clear. The sunpenetrating the upperstrata ofwater caught thepaint and brightwork ofthe deck as it fell awaybelowhim.Helmsman Hugh

Johnston saw Turner onthe bridge wing, movingfromporttostarboardandback,wearinga life jacketbut otherwise making no

attempt to dodge thecustomary fate of a seacaptain. Johnston said,later,thathe’d“nevermetanyone as ‘cool’ ” asTurner.The ship at that point

was still moving, butslowly,withawakefullofwreckage and corpsesspreadingbehindit,fedbythe hundreds of men,women, and childrenwho

through accident or fearhadremainedon theship.Theystreamedoff like theknotsinakite’stail.

AT 2:33 P.M., the wirelessstationat theOldHeadofKinsale sent theAdmiraltya two-word message:“‘Lusitania’sunk.”Observers on the Old

Head had seen it happen.

A great ship, present onemoment, gone the next,leavingwhatappearedatadistance to be an emptybluesea.Captain Turner’s pocket

watch, which wouldeventually make its wayinto a Liverpool museum,stoppedat2:36:15.

ALLPOINTS

RUMOR

THE AMERICAN CONSULATE INQUEENSTOWN, IRELAND, waslocatedinasuiteofroomsabove a bar, overlookingthe harbor. Behind the

building stood the greatspire of St. Colman’sCathedral, which dwarfedevery other structure intown. That afternoon,ConsulWesleyFrostwasatwork revising his annualreport on commercialconditions in various Irishcountieswhen,at2:30,hisvice-consulcamepoundingup the stairs to report afast-spreadingrumorthata

submarine had attackedtheLusitania.Frost walked to the

windows and saw anunusualsurgeofactivityinthe harbor below. Everyvessel, of every size,seemed to be leaving,including the big cruiserJuno, which had arrivedonly a shortwhile earlier.Frost counted two dozencraftinall.

Hewenttohistelephoneand called the office ofAdm.CharlesHenryCoke,theseniornavalofficerforQueenstown, and spoke tothe admiral’s secretary.Frostchosehiswordswithcare, not wishing toappear to be a dupe ofsomeone’s practical joke.He said, “I hear there issome sort of street rumorthattheLusitaniahasbeen

attacked.”The secretary replied,

“It’s true, Mr. Frost. Wefearsheisgone.”Frost listened in a daze

as the secretary told himabout the SOS messagesand the report fromeyewitnesses on KinsaleHead confirming thedisappearanceoftheship.After hanging up, Frost

paced his office, trying to

absorbwhat had occurredand thinking about whattodonext.Hetelegraphedthe news to U.S.ambassador Page inLondon.

ADMIRAL COKE haddispatched all the rescuecraft he could, includingthe Juno, and telegraphedtheAdmiralty thathehad

doneso.TheJunowasthefastestship available.Queenstown was twodozen miles from thereportedsiteoftheattack.Mostofthesmallervesselswould be lucky to coverthat distance in three orfourhours;giventhecalmair, sail-powered craftwould take even longer.The Juno, capable of

making 18 knots, or 20milesanhour, coulddo itin just over one hour. Itscrew moved with greathaste, and soon the oldcruiserwasunderway.But the Admiralty fired

back a reply: “Urgent:Recall Juno.” The orderwas a direct offspring ofthe Aboukir, Cressy, andHogue disaster: no largewarship was to go to the

aid of victims of aU-boatattack. The risk was toogreat that the submarinemight still be present,waiting to sink shipscomingtotherescue.Coke apparently had

second thoughts of hisown, for even before theAdmiralty’s messagearrived he ordered theJuno back into port. Hisrationale for deciding to

recall the ship did notconform to theAdmiralty’s, however.AfterdispatchingtheJuno,he explained, “I thenreceivedatelegramstatingthat the Lusitania hadsunk.Theurgentnecessityfor the Juno no longerobtainingIrecalledher.”This was curious logic,

for the “urgent necessity”wasifanythingfargreater,

with hundreds ofpassengers and crew nowadrift in55-degreewaters.It testified to theimportance the Admiraltyplaced on protecting itsbig warships and heedingthe hard lesson taught bythe Aboukir disaster, tonever go to the aid ofsubmarinevictims.

IN LONDON, at four o’clockthat afternoon, U.S.ambassador Walter H.Page learned for the firsttimethattheLusitaniahadbeen attacked and sunk,but,inaneerieechooftheTitanic disaster, initialreports also indicated thatall passengers and crewhad been saved. Since nolives had been lost, thereseemedlittlereasontocall

off a dinner party theambassador and his wifehad scheduled for thateveningtohonorPresidentWilson’s personalemissary,ColonelHouse.By the time Page gothomeatseveno’clockthatnight, the news fromQueenstown had growndarker,butby then itwastoo late to cancel dinner.The guests arrived and

spoke of nothing but thesinking. The telephonerang repeatedly. Each callbroughtfreshreportsfromPage’sstaffattheembassy,which were delivered tothe ambassador on smallslips of yellow paper. Heread each aloud to hisguests. The news grewsteadilymoredire,until itbecameclearthatthiswasa disaster of historic

proportions. The guestsspoke in quiet tones anddebated the potentialconsequences.Colonel House told the

group,“Weshallbeatwarwith Germany within amonth.”

THATMORNING, inNewYork,where the time was farbehind that in London,

Jack Lawrence, the ship-news reporter for theNewYorkEveningMail,wenttoa bar on Whitehall Streetin Lower Manhattanfrequented by sailors,harborpilots, and the likeand ordered a gin daisy,which the bartenderdeliveredtohiminastonemug. Daisy was abastardization of “doozy.”Lawrence saw a harbor

pilot whom he knew. Thepilot, just back fromdocking a small freighterin Hoboken, New Jersey,suggestedtheymovetothequietendofthebar,wherehe told Lawrencesomething he hadoverheardthatmorning.The pilot explained that

he had docked thefreighter next to theVaterland, the big German

ocean liner interned forthe war. Afterdisembarking,hewenttoanearby sidewalk café thatwas full of theVaterland’screwmen, all clearly inhigh spirits, slapping oneanother on the back andspeaking animatedGerman.Awomantendingthebar,whospokeEnglishandGerman,toldthepilotthattheVaterlandhadjust

received a message, viawireless, that theLusitaniahad been torpedoed offIreland and had sunkrapidly.Lawrence set his drink

asideandleftthebar.TheCunard offices were ashortwalk away, on StateStreet. As soon as hewalked in, he concludedthat the pilot’s report hadbeen false. The bureau

operated just as it alwayshad, with typewritersclacking and passengersbuying tickets. A clerkwho knew Lawrencecommented on theweather. The reportercontinued past andclimbed a stairway to thenext floor, where hewalked unannounced intothe office of CharlesSumner, Cunard’s New

York manager. The heavycarpet on Sumner’s floorsuppressed the sound ofhisentry.Sumner was a tall manwho dressed well andalways wore a whitecarnationinhislapel.“Myfirst glimpse of him toldme that something waswrong,” Lawrencerecalled.“Hewasslumpedover his desk. He looked

all caved in.” Lawrencemovedcloserandsawtwotelegrams on Sumner’sdesk, one in code, theother apparently adecoded copy. Lawrenceread it over Sumner’sshoulder.Sumner looked up.

“She’s gone,” he said. Itwas more gasp thandeclaration. “They’vetorpedoed the Lusitania.”

Themessage said the shiphad gone down in fifteenminutes (though thiswould later be revised toeighteen). Sumner had noillusions. “I doubt if theysaved anybody. What inGod’snameamItodo?”Lawrenceagreedtowait

one hour beforetelephoning the news tohis editor. Fifteenminuteslater,hewasonthephone.

This news was too big tohold.

THE FIRST REPORT reachedPresident Wilson inWashington at about oneo’clock,ashewasabouttoleaveforhisdailyroundofgolf. The report bore nomention of casualties, buthe canceled his gameanyway. Hewaited in the

White House, by himself,formorenewstoarrive.Atonepointhe left to takeadrive in the Pierce-Arrow,his tried-and-true way ofeasinginnertension.Thedayhadbegunclearandwarm,butbyeveninga light rain was falling.Wilsonhaddinnerathomeand had just finishedwhen, at 7:55 P.M., hereceived a cable from

Consul Frost inQueenstown warning, forthe first time, that it waslikely that many of theLusitania’s passengers hadlosttheirlives.At this, Wilson left the

White House, on his own,tellingnoone, and took awalk in the rain. “I waspacing the streets to getmy mind in hand,” hewrotelater,toEdithGalt.

He walked acrossLafayette Square past thecannon-surrounded statueof Andrew Jackson on arearing horse, thencontinued up SixteenthStreet toward DupontCircle, Edith’sneighborhood. He passednewsboys hawking fresh“Extra” editions of thecity’s newspapers thatalready carried reports of

the sinking. At CorcoranStreet, Wilson made aright turn, then headedback down Fifteenth toreturntotheWhiteHouse,where he went to hisstudy.At teno’clock theworstnews arrived: an estimatethat the Lusitania attackhad takenasmanyasonethousand lives. That someofthedeadwouldproveto

be Americans seemedcertain. The thing Wilsonhad feared had come topass.

AS U-20 traveled west,Schwieger took a finallook back through hisperiscope.HewroteinhisWarLog:

“Astern in the distance, anumberoflifeboatsactive;

nothing more seen of theLusitania. The wreck musthave sunk.” He gave thelocation as 14 sea milesfrom the Old Head ofKinsale,27seamiles fromQueenstown, in waters 90meters deep, about 300feet.What he did not know

was that among his manyvictims were the threeGerman stowaways

arrested on the firstmorning of the Lusitania’svoyage.Themenwerestilllocked away in the ship’simprovisedbrig.

LUSITANIA

ADRIFT

ALIFE JACKETDIDNOTGUARANTEESURVIVAL.MANYwho enteredthe sea had their jacketson incorrectly and foundthemselves struggling to

keeptheirheadsoutofthewater.Thestruggledidnotlast long, and soonsurvivorswhodidmanageto outfit themselvesproperly found themselvesswimming among bodiesupended in poses theirowners would have foundhumiliating. Able-bodiedseaman E. S. Heighwaywrote, with a degree ofexaggeration, “I saw

myselfhundredsofmen&womendeadwithlifebeltson in the water after theshiphadgone.”Forchildren—thosewho

did not drown outright—the killer washypothermia. Fifty-fivedegrees was not nearly ascold as the waterconfronted by passengersof the Titanic, but it wascold enough to lower the

core temperatures ofpeople large and small todangerous levels. A dropin the body’s internaltemperatureof just3or4degrees, from thenormof98.6degreesFahrenheitto95,wasenoughtokillovertime. Passengers in thewater found that theirlower bodies went numbwithinminutes,despitethewarm sun above. Those

who wore coats undertheir life jackets werebetter off than those whohad stripped down, forcoats and other warmclothing,eventhoughwet,providedinsulationfortheheart. Thin people, oldpeople, women, andchildren, and especiallyinfants, lost bodyheat thefastest, as did anypassenger who had drunk

wineorspiritswithlunch.With the onset ofhypothermia, those in thewater began to shiverseverely; as the dangerrose, the shiveringsubsided. With a watertemperatureof55degrees,adults could be expectedto experience exhaustionand loss of consciousnesswithin one to two hours;after this the skin tookon

a blue-gray pallor, thebody became rigid, andthe heart rate slowed toalmost imperceptiblelevels. Death soonfollowed.

DWIGHTHARRISswamtowardan overturned lifeboat.“The most frightful thingofallwastheinnumerabledeadbodiesfloatingabout

in the water!,” he wrote.“Men, women andchildren.Ihadtopushoneor two aside to reach thelifeboat!”On the way he came

across a little boy, PercyRichards, calling for hisfather.“Iswamtohimandtoldhimnottocry,andtotake hold of my collar,whichhedid.ThebravestlittlechapIeversaw.”

Harris pulled the childwithhimtotheoverturnedboatandpushedhimontoits hull. Nearly exhaustedby the effort, Harrisclimbed on after him. “Icould hardly move, mylimbs were so cold!—Imust have been in thewater about one-half tothreequartersofanhour.”He spotted one of the

ship’s collapsible lifeboats,

mannedbytwosailorsandpartially filled withpassengers. He called tothem. Soon the boat wasnearenoughforHarrisandthe boy to climb aboard.The sailors picked up adozen more survivors buthad to leave others in thewater because thecollapsible was on theverge of being swamped.“The cries for help from

those in the water weremostawful!”Harriswrote.Noshipswereinsight.

AS THE LUSITANIA descended,Margaret Mackworth waspulled along with it. Thewater around her seemedblack, and a fear suffusedher of being trapped bydebris. She becamefrightened when

something snagged herhand,butthensherealizedit was the life jacket shehad been holding for herfather. She swallowedseawater.She surfaced and

grabbed one end of aboard. At first sheimagined itwas thisalonethat kept her afloat, butthen remembered that shewas wearing a life jacket.

“When I came to thesurface I found that Iformed part of a large,round, floating islandcomposed of people anddebrisofallsorts,lyingsoclose together that at firstthere was not very muchwater noticeable inbetween. People, boats,hencoops, chairs, rafts,boards and goodnessknows what besides, all

floatingcheekbyjowl.”People prayed and

called out for rescue. Sheclungtoherboard,despiteher life jacket. She sawone of the ship’s lifeboatsand tried swimmingtowardit,butdidnotwantto letgoof theboardandthus made little progress.She stopped swimming.Shegrewcalmandsettledbackinherlifejacket.She

felt “a little dazed andrather stupid and vague”but was not particularlyafraid. “When Death is asclose as he was then, thesharp agony of fear is notthere; the thing is toooverwhelming andstunningforthat.”At one point, she

thought shemight alreadybe dead: “I wondered,looking round on the sun

andpaleblueskyandcalmsea,whetherIhadreachedheavenwithoutknowingit—and devoutly hoped Ihadn’t.”She was very cold. As

shedrifted,shethoughtupa way to improve lifejackets. Each, sheproposed,shouldincludeasmallbottleofchloroform,“sothatonecouldinhaleitand lose consciousness

whenonewishedto.”Soonhypothermia resolved theissueforher.

CHARLES LAURIAT swam toone of the Lusitania’scollapsible rafts, floatingnearby. This was the onethat Seaman Morton hadseen fall from the ship.Mortonswamtoitalso,asdid shipbuilder Fred

Gauntlett.Mortoncalledit“an oasis in the desert ofbodiesandpeople.”The three men stripped

off its cover. Othersurvivors clamberedaboard. The canvas sidesandseatsweremeanttoberaised and locked intoposition,butwithsomanyterrified people nowclinging to the raft, themen found the task

difficult.“Wewerepickingpeople out of the waterand trying at the sametime to raise these seats,”said Gauntlett; “mosteverybody that came onboardfloppedontheseatsand it was practicallyimpossibletogetthethingto work properly. Wecould not get it up farenough to bring the partshome so that they would

stayso.”They tried to persuadepeopletoletgojustbrieflyso the seats could beraised, “but that wasimpossible,” Lauriat said.“Never have I heard amore distressing cry ofdespair than when I triedto tell one of them thatthat was what we weredoing.”They positioned the

survivors on the floor ofthe raft. To Lauriat’s laterregret,hebecameannoyedwithonemanwhoseemedunwillingtomovefromhisseat. Lauriat “ratherroughly” told him to getoff. The man looked upand said, “I would, oldchap; but did you know Ihave a broken leg andcan’tmoveveryfast?”With a great heave, the

menmanaged to raise theseats and the attachedcanvas sides, but onlypartway. They jammedpieces of wood into themechanism to prop theminplace.The collapsible had no

oars within, but the menfoundfivefloatingnearby.Lauriat used one forsteering while Gauntlett,Morton, and two other

passengers rowed. Lauriatguided the raft throughwreckage and corpses,lookingformoresurvivors.Seagulls by the hundredswheeled and dove. It wasstartling to see men andwomen in the water stillwearing the suits anddresses they had worn atlunch.ThemenpickedupSamuel Knox, thePhiladelphia shipbuilder

who had sharedGauntlett’s table. Theycameacrossawomanwhoappeared to be African.Seaman Morton swam toget her and brought herbacktotheboat.ThiswasMargaret Gwyer, thewoman who had beensucked into a funnel andejected. Lauriat wrote,“The clothes were almostblownoffthepoorwoman,

and there wasn’t a whitespot on her except herteethandthewhitesofhereyes.”Hedescribedherasa“temporarynegress.”She revived quickly andbrightened the spiritsaboard with her optimismand cheer and “her brighttalk,”Lauriatwrote.Theboatwasnearlyfullwhen Lauriat steered itpast a dense jam of

floating debris. “I heard awoman’svoice say, in justas natural a tone of voiceas you would ask foranother sliceofbreadandbutter,‘Won’tyoutakemenext? You know I can’tswim.’ ” Lauriat lookedover and saw a woman’shead protruding from thewreckage, her long hairsplayed over thesurrounding debris. She

waswedgedsotightlythatshe could not raise herarms. Even so, she had a“half smile” on her face,Lauriat recalled, “andwasplacidlychewinggum.”The men pulled her in,and set off rowing towardthe lighthouse on the OldHead of Kinsale, a dozenmilesaway.

EVENTHOUGHthesinkinghadoccurred so near the Irishcoast, there was still nosign that rescuers wereapproaching. Thosepassengers in the watercame to terms with theirsituationsinvaryingways.Rev. Henry WoodSimpson, of Rossland,British Columbia, puthimself in God’s hands,and from time to time

repeated one of hisfavorite phrases, “Come,Holy Ghost, our soulsinspire.” He said later heknew he would survive—“ItistoolongastorytotellhowIknew”—andthatthis gave him a sense ofcalm even when at onepoint he was underwater,asking himself, “What if Idon’tcomeout?”Hedidcomeout.Hislife

jacket held him in apositionofcomfort,“andIwas lying on my backsmilingupat theblue skyandthewhiteclouds,andIhad not swallowed muchseawatereither.”Forhim,these moments in thewater were almostenjoyable—aside from thedead woman who for atimefloatedbesidehim.“Ifound it a most

comfortable position,” hesaid, “and lay there for abitveryhappily.”He pulled the woman’sbody to an overturnedcollapsible andmaneuvered her onto itshull, then swam towardanother collapsible, thisone right-side up andoccupied by survivors.Therewerecorpsesonthisraft as well. An engineer

from the ship startedsinging a hymn, “PraiseGod, from Whom AllBlessings Flow,” Simpsonrecalled, and noted, “Weput a good deal of heartinto it.” But upon itsconclusionnoone tried tosing another. “Then wejust waited, hoping thatthey had been able to getout a wireless for helpbefore she went down. It

was beautifully calm,fortunatelyforus,becausea very little would havewashed us off. We werebetter off than the peoplefloating on planks in thewater or kept up by theirlifebelts, or than thepeopleinthewater-loggedboat [nearby],which keptcapsizing.”A porpoise—Simpson

called it “a monster

porpoise”—surfaced “andplayednearus,comingupwith its shiny black skinandtriangularfinshowingforamoment.”An hour passed, then

two hours. The searemained calm; theafternoonlightshiftedhue.“Itwasabeautifulsunset,”Simpson recalled, “and allsocalmandpeaceful.”

SURVIVORS DRIFTED—in thewater, onboats, onpiecesof wreckage—for threehours, in hopes thatrescuers were on theirway. Had the Juno come,thewaitwould have beenfar shorter, the chances ofsurvival much higher. ButtheAdmiraltyhadadopteda harsh calculus, andindeed no one knewwhether the submarine

was still in the vicinity ornot. Some passengersclaimed to have seen aperiscope after theLusitania sank, and fearedthe U-boat might evennow be among them. Asonesurvivorwrote,“Iwasfully expecting thesubmarinetocomeupandfireontheLucy’sboatsorwaituntil therescueshipscame up and then sink

them.”The first sign of rescuewassmokeonthehorizon,andthencamealong,rag-tag armada of torpedoboats and trawlers andsmall fishingvessels, thesemore expendable than thelarge cruiser Juno. Herewere the Brock, Bradford,Bluebell,Sarba,Heron, andIndian Empire; the Julia,Flying Fish,Stormcock, and

Warrior.In Queenstown,suspense mounted. Noneoftheseshipshadwireless,wrote Consul Frost: “Nonews could be had untiltheyreturned.”

ONCEALIFEBOATwasemptied,the seamen aboard rowedback to look for moresurvivors, but as evening

approachedtheretrievalofcorpses began to outpacethe rescue of living souls.The last vessel to arrivewasashore-basedlifeboat,the Kezia Gwilt, with acrew of fifteen. Ordinarilythemenwouldhaveraisedsail to make the journey,but there was so littlewind that they realizedthey could cover thedistance more quickly if

they rowed. And so theydid—some14miles.“We did everything wecould to reach the place,butittookusatleastthreeand a half hours of hardpullingtogetthereonlyintime to pick up deadbodies,” wrote Rev.William Forde, in chargeof the lifeboat. There, inthat gorgeous dusk, theymoved through the

wreckage. “It was aharrowing sight towitness,” Forde wrote,“the sea was strewn withbodies floating about,some with lifebelts on,someholdingon topiecesofrafts,alldead.”

LAURIAT AND COMPANY rowedtheir collapsible boat 2milesuntiltheycameupon

a small sail-rigged fishingboat, known in thesewatersasafishingsmack.As they approached thevessel, Margaret Gwyer,still coated in soot, sawherhusbandstandingatitsrailandcalledtohim.Hisexpression, Lauriat wrote,was “perfectly blank.” Hehad no idea who thisblackened young womancouldbe.

He recognized her onlywhen thecollapsiblecameright under the smack’srail, and he was able tolookdirectlyintoherface.Hewept.It was now 6:00 P.M.

Lauriat counted thenumber of survivors thatheandhiscompanionshadpicked up along the way:thirty-two. Fifty othersurvivors were already on

thesmack.Beforeclimbingaboard, Lauriat pocketedone of the collapsible’soarlocksasasouvenir.An hour later, he andtherestweretransferredtoa steam side-wheeler, theFlyingFish,which then setout for Queenstown. Thesurvivors crowded into itsengine room, for thewarmth. Here was OgdenHammond,theNewJersey

real-estate developer. Noonehadseenhiswife.Theheat was exquisite, and“and before very long,”reported Arthur Mitchell,the Raleigh Bicycle man,“songs were being sung,indicatingnotonlyaspiritofthankfulnessbutevenofgaiety.”A number of corpseswere on board as well: afive-year-old boy named

DeanWinstonHodges;twounidentified boys, abouttwoandsixyearsold;andthe body of fifteen-year-old Gwendolyn Allan, oneof the girls who hadhelped seaman Mortonpaintalifeboat.

DWIGHT HARRIS helped rowhiscollapsibleboattowarda distant sailboat. The

going was slow anddifficult. Another lifeboatgot there first andunloaded a cache ofsurvivors andbodies, thencame back for Harris andhis companions and putthem aboard the sailboatas well. Next all weretransferred to aminesweeper called theIndianEmpire,whose crewspent the next several

hours searching forsurvivors and bodies.When the ship began itsreturntoQueenstownafterseveno’clock that eveningit carried 170 survivorsandnumerousdead.On board, the little boywhom Harris had rescuednow found his father,mother, and brother—alive and well. His babysister,Dora,waslost.

THEODATE POPE awoke to avision of blazing fire. Asmall fire, in a stove. Shehad no recollection of thesinking. She sawapair oflegs in trousers and thenheard a man say, “She’sconscious.” Despite thewarmth from the stove,tremorsrattledherbody.Shewas in thecaptain’scabin of a ship namedJulia. Another survivor

aboard, Belle Naish, latertold Theodate how shecame to be there. Crewmembers had pulledTheodate aboard usingboathooks.Presumingherto be dead, they had lefther on deck among otherrecovered bodies. NaishandTheodatehadbecomefriends during the voyage,and when Naish sawTheodate lying there she

touched her body andsensed a trace of life.Naishcalledforhelp.TwomenbegantryingtoreviveTheodate. One used acarving knife from theship’s kitchen to cut offher sodden layers ofclothing. Themenworkedonher for twohoursuntilconfidenttheyhadrevivedher—though she remainedunconscious.Aluridbruise

surroundedherrighteye.There was no sign ofTheodate’s companion,Edwin Friend, or of hermaid,EmilyRobinson.

U-20

PARTINGSHOT

LATER,AWOMANWHOCLAIMEDTOBE SCHWIEGER’S FIANCÉE told anewspaper reporter thattheattackon theLusitaniahad left Schwieger a

shattered man. (Thereporter did not discloseher name.) WhenSchwieger visited her inBerlin after his return tobase, she had no idea, atfirst, that it was he whohad torpedoed the ship.“All we thought of wasthatoneof the fastestandbiggest English ships hadbeensunk,andwewereallvery glad,” she said. But

Schwieger seemed not toshare the elation. “Ofcourse, his mother and Isaw right away thatsomething dreadful hadhappened to him. He wasso haggard and so silent,andso—different.”Schwieger told her the

story of the attack. “Ofcourse he couldn’t hearanything,buthecouldsee,and the silenceof it all in

theU-boatwasworsethanifhecouldhaveheardtheshrieks.And,ofcourse,hewastheonlyoneintheU-boat who could even see.He didn’t dare let any ofthe others in the U-boatknow what washappening.” After theattack he took the boatstraight back to Germany,his fiancée said. “Hewanted to get away from

what he had done. Hewanted to get ashore. Hecouldn’t torpedo anothership.”The woman’s account,

while compelling, standsat odds with Schwieger’sownWarLog.IfSchwiegerfelt any sense of remorse,hedidnotexpressitbyhisactions.Just five minutes after

taking his last look at the

Lusitania, he spotted alarge steamer ahead,coming toward him, andpreparedtoattack.Hewassupposed to keep twotorpedoes in reserve forthe voyage home—ideallyoneinthebow,oneinthestern—but this was anirresistibletarget,a9,000-ton tanker. Schwiegerordered full ahead, toposition U-20 in front of

theship,stern-first,sothathe could use one of histwo stern tubes. At 4:08P.M.hewasready.Theshotwas lined up perfectly: a90-degree angle with thetarget’s course, at apoint-blankrangeof500meters,about a third of a mile.“Conditions for ourtorpedo very favorable,”hewroteinhislog;“amiss

outofthequestion.”He gave the order to

fire. The submarineshivered as the torpedoleft its tube. Schwiegerwaited for the sound ofimpact.A long silence followed.

Asthesecondstickedpast,he realized somethinghadgonewrong.“As periscope is

submerged for some time

after torpedo had beenfired, I am sorry to saythat I could not ascertainwhat kind of a miss itwas,” hewrote in his log.“The torpedo came out ofits tube correctly, andeither itdidnot runatallor at a wrong angle.” Hedoubted that anyoneaboard the steamer evennoticed.Schwieger resumed the

voyagehome.He surfacedto increase speed andrecharge his batteries.From atop the conningtower, he saw the smoketrails of at least six largesteamers in the distance,inbound and outbound,butmadenofurthereffortto attack. As it was, thiswouldprovetobehismostsuccessful patrol. In thecourse of traveling a total

of 3,006miles, 250 underwater,hehadsunk42,331tonsofshipping.

THE STEAMER Schwieger hadfireduponwasaBritishoiltanker, the Narragansett,headed for New Jersey,and contrary to what heimagined,everyoneaboardwas very much aware ofthe near miss. The ship’s

firstofficerhadspottedtheperiscope,andthecaptain,Charles Harwood, hadordered a sharp turn andmaximumspeed.Harwood reported the

encounter by wireless. Atthe time of the attack hehadbeenrespondingtoanSOS from the Lusitania,andhadbeenracingtothescene, but now hesuspected the SOS had

been faked by thesubmarine to lurehis shipand other would-berescuers.His telegram, relayed totheAdmiralty’sWarRoomin London, read, “Weproceededwithallpossiblespeed 3:45 p.m. sightedsubmarine about 200yards on our starboardquarter, submarine firedtorpedo which passed ten

yards astern of us,maneuvered ship and gotall clear; submarine wasseen astern 10 minuteslater 4 P.M.… Saw no signofLusitania believe call tobeahoax.”Captain Harwood

changed heading and fledaway from the lastreported location of theLusitania.

LUSITANIA

SEAGULLS

HISLIFEJACKETMADEHIMBUOYANTAND LIFTED HIM from thebridge,butthedescendinghull pulled him under.“Thewholeshipseemedto

be plucked from my feetby a giant hand,” Turnersaid. When he came backto the surface, he foundhimself in an archipelagoof destruction and death.“Hundreds of bodies werebeing whirled aboutamong the wreckage,” hesaid. “Men, women andchildren were driftingbetween planks, lifeboatsand an indescribable

litter.”He had done all he

could, he believed, andnow an instinct to liveignited.Hebegantoswim.He recognized anotherman nearby, WilliamPierpoint, the Liverpoolpolice detective. All atonce, Pierpointdisappeared. Likenewlywed MargaretGwyer, he was dragged

into a funnel. “I thoughthehadgone,”Turnersaid.Butinaburstofsteamandhissing air, Pierpointpoppedbackout,hisbodycoatedwithalayerofwetblack soot that clung tohimlikeenamel.Atwhichpoint, Turner said,Pierpoint “startedswimming for home liketen men, he was soscared.”

The ship was stillmoving at about 4 knots,by Turner’s estimate. Butas he watched, its bowstruck bottom—he wassure of it. “I noticed itbecause the sinkingof thehull stopped for a fewseconds with the stern inthe air, quivering herwhole length of 800 feet,andthendownshewent.”Itwasastrangemoment

for a sea captain. TwentyminutesearlierTurnerhadstood on the bridge incommand of one of thegreatest ocean liners everknown. Now, still inuniform, he floated in theplace where his ship hadbeen, in a calm sea undera brilliant blue sky, nodeck, cabin, or hull insight, not even the ship’stallmasts.

He and Pierpoint swamtogether. Turner saw thebodies of some of theship’s firemen floatingnearby, upside down intheir life jackets—hecounted forty in all.Seagulls dove amongcorpses and survivorsalike.Turner later toldhisson, Norman, that hefound himself fending offattacksbythebirds,which

swoopedfromtheskyandpecked at the eyes offloating corpses. Rescuerslater reported thatwherever they saw spiralsof gulls, they knew theywould find bodies.Turner’s experience lefthim with such a deephatred of seagulls,according to Norman,“that until his retirementheusedtocarrya.22rifle

andshooteveryseagullhecould.”Turnerspentthreehours

in thewater, until hewaspulled aboard a lifeboat,and later was transferredto a fishing trawler, theBluebell.

MARGARET MACKWORTH’S firstrecollection, after havinglost consciousness in the

sea, was of awakening onthe Bluebell’s deck, nakedunder ablanket, her teethchattering,shewrote,“likecastanets.”A sailor appearedabove

her, and said, “That’sbetter.”Shewasmiffed.“Ihada

vague idea that somethinghad happened but Ithought that Iwas stillonthe deck of the Lusitania,

andIwasvaguelyannoyedthat some unknown sailorshouldbeattending tomeinstead of my ownstewardess.”Her confusion cleared;

the sailorbroughther tea.With somewhat lesschivalry, he told her, “Weleft you up here to beginwith as we thought youwere dead, and it did notseem worth while

cumbering up the cabinwithyou.”The sailor and two

others helped her belowdecks,whereshefoundanunexpected giddiness.“The warmth below wasdelicious,” she wrote; “itseemed to make onealmost delirious.”Everyone around herseemed “a little drunkwiththeheatandthelight

and the joy of knowingourselves to be alive. Weweretalkingatthetopsofour voices and laughing agreatdeal.”She recognized thestrangeness of themoment, how itjuxtaposed joy andtragedy. Here she was,giddywithdelight,andyetshe had no idea whetherherfatherwasaliveornot.

Another survivor in thecabin believed her ownhusband to be dead. “Itseemed that his lossprobably meant thebreaking up of her wholelife,” Mackworth wrote,“yet at that moment shewas full of cheerfulnessandlaughter.”Captain Turner did not

shareinthegaiety.Hesatquietly by himself, in his

soddenuniform.As Mackworth watched,

a woman approachedTurner and began tellinghim about the loss of herchild. Her voice was low,almost a monotone. Shehad placed the boy on araft,shesaid.Theraftthencapsized, and her sonwasgone. In the samedispassionate manner, shetold Turner that her son’s

death had beenunnecessary—that it wascaused by the lack oforganizationanddisciplineamongthecrew.

THE RESCUE SHIPS reachedQueenstown long afterdark. The Flying Fish withCharles Lauriat aboardarrived at 9:15, theBluebell at 11:00. The

wharf was lit by gastorches that turned theeveningmistapaleamber.Soldiers, sailors, andtownspeople formed twolines that extended fromthe gangway into town.They applauded assurvivors came ashore.Other soldiers waited ingroups of four, withstretchers. Charles Lauriatcarried one man on his

back—the man with thebroken leg, to whom hehadspokensorudely.ThemanprovedtobeLeonardMcMurray, and this washis second shipwreck. Hehad survived the 1909sinking of the White StarLine’s Republic, after acollision in fog withanotherliner.Lauriat’s Thackeray

drawings and the Dickens

Christmas Carol weresomewhere deep in theIrishSea.Hesenthiswifea telegram. “I saved thebaby’spictures,”hewrote.“Theyweremymascot.”Heclosed:“Iregretyour

hoursofsuspense.”Margaret Mackworth

learnedupondocking thather father was alive. Shewas dressed only in ablanket and asked the

Bluebell’scaptainforsafetypins, but the idea of pinsaboard a ship like hismade him laugh out loud.Asoldiergaveherhiscoat,a “British Warm”; thecaptain gave her hisslippers. She tucked theblanket around her waisttoformamakeshiftskirt.She found her fatherwaiting at the end of thegangplank. The relief and

joy she felt reminded herof that time a monthearlier when she hadarrived in New York andseen him on the dock. AsoneofthefirstsurvivorstoreachQueenstown,hehadwaited for hours as boatafter boat came in, nonecarrying his daughter.With each successivearrival, the number ofdead on board seemed to

increase relative to thenumber of living souls. Afriend said later that for along time after this thefather’s face had seemedlikethatofanelderlyman.Dorothy Conner, the

spunky young Americanwho had sat atMackworth’stableandhadwanted a “thrill,” came tosee her the next morning,Saturday. Conner seemed

unruffled, Mackworthrecalled. “She was stilldressed in the neat fawntweedcoatandskirtwhichshehadhadonwhenIsawher step off the deck theday before, and it lookedas smart andwell tailoredas if it had just come outoftheshop.”Dwight Harris landed

with his engagement ringand other jewelry still

hungaroundhisneck,andhis money in his pocket.Thatnighthefoundashopthat had stayed open forsurvivors and bought anundershirt, socks, slippers,and pajamas. He found aroom inahotel,whichhesharedwithsixothermen,“and took a huge dose ofwhiskey before going tobed.” On Saturdaymorningheboughthimself

a suit, shirt, collar,raincoat, and cap. Whiledoing so he happened tonotice a boy of abouteighteen who was askingtheshopkeeperifhecouldhave some clothes, eventhough he had no moneyto pay for them. The boylooked bereft. Harrisvolunteered to pay. Helearned that the boy hadlost his mother. “Poor

fellow!” Harris wrote tohis own mother. “I thankGod you weren’t withme!!!”When Theodate Pope’s

ship, the Julia, arrived, adoctor was summoned tocome aboard to examineher. Assisted by twosoldiers, thedoctorhelpedherdowntothewharfandinto a motorcar, thenaccompanied her to a

hotel.Asshesteppedfromthecar,shecollapsedontothe sidewalk. The doctorhelped her inside. “I wasleftonaloungeinaroomfull of men in all sorts ofstrangegarmentswhiletheproprietress hurried tobring me brandy,” shewrote.OneofthemenwastheEnglishpassengerwhoat lunch that day hadjoked about not getting

torpedoed before havinghis ice cream. He waswearing a dressing gown.Pink.Theodate drank brandyandwashelpedtoaroom.Her face was swollen anddiscolored. She arrangedto send her mother atelegram, one word:“Saved.”She tried to sleep. “Allnight I kept expectingMr.

Friend to appear, lookingfor me,” she wrote. “Allnight long men keptcoming into our rooms,snapping on the lights,bringingchildrenforustoidentify, taking telegrams,getting our names for thelistofsurvivors,etc.,etc.”ButMr.Friendneverdid

appear,nordidTheodate’smaid,MissRobinson.

TURNER WALKED ashorewrapped in a blanket. Hespent the night at thehome of a local banker.The next morning, in hisuniform, he went for awalk. He had lost hisCunardhatandstoppedata haberdasher’s shop tobuy something to replaceit. A survivor namedBeatrice Williams, whohad also been aboard the

Bluebell, saw him andbristled. “You should beworryingaboutahatwhenso many of us have losteverythingweown.Why—you ought to be ashamedofyourself!”A correspondent for theNew York World alsoencountered Turner thatmorning and conducted abrief interview. In a cableto his editor, the reporter

wrote that the captain“appearedstunned.”The reporter informedTurnerthatthebodiesofanumber of Americans hadbeen recovered, includingthatofBroadwayproducerCharles Frohman, withwhom Turner had spokenon the morning of theship’s departure. Uponhearing this, Turnerseemed to struggle to

controlhisemotions.Tearsfilledhiseyes.

QUEENSTOWN

THELOST

OF THE LUSITANIA’S 1,959PASSENGERSANDCREW,only764survived; the total ofdeaths was 1,195. The 3German stowaways

broughtthetotalto1,198.Of33 infantsaboard,only6 survived. Over 600passengers were neverfound. Among the deadwere123Americans.Families learned of thedeaths of kin mostly bytelegram, but some knewor sensed their loss evenwhennotelegrambroughtthe news. Husbands andwives had promised to

writelettersorsendcablesto announce their safearrival, but these wereneversent.Passengerswhohad arranged to staywithfriends in England andIreland never showed up.The worst were thosesituations where apassengerwas expected tobe on a different ship butfor one reason or anotherhad ended up on the

Lusitania, as was the casewith thepassengersof theCameronia transferred totheshipatthelastminute.The transfers includedpassengers Margaret andJames Shineman,newlyweds from Oil City,Wyoming, who suddenlyfound themselves aboardthe fastest,most luxuriousship in service, for theirjourneytoScotlandtovisit

Margaret’s family. Thevisit was to be a surprise.Both were killed. Of theforty-two passengers andcrew transferred, onlythirteen survived, amongthem Miss Grace French,who breezed through thewholeordealwithaplomb.There was the usual

confusion that followsdisasters. For days dozensof cables shot back and

forth between Cunardoffices in Liverpool,Queenstown, and NewYork. These conveyed asenseofbothurgencyandsurprise,asthoughCunardhadneverexpectedtoloseone of its great ships andto actually have to use itspassenger records to tallythelivinganddead.

MAY10:“DIDGUYLEWIN

ACTUALLYSAILLUSITANIA.”

MAY10:“NAMECHARLESWARMEYAPPEARSONSECONDCLASSSHOULDTHISBE

CHARLESWARINGWHICHDOESNOTAPPEAR—REPLYQUICKLY.”

MAY11:“DIDFATWIGGACTUALLYEMBARKLUSITANIA.”

MAY11:“GIVEUSFULLCHRISTIANNAMESANDCLASSESALLPASSENGERS

NAMEDADAMSWHOSAILEDLUSITANIA—VERYURGENT.”

A few passengersreported to be dead werein fact alive, but moreoften those reported aliveweredead. “ReportofMr.Bilicke as survivor is

erroneous,” U.S. consulFrost wrote in a tersetelegram to AmbassadorPage in London. A five-year-old boy, DeanWinston Hodges, was atfirst said to be safe, butthen came a cable fromCunard to its New Yorkoffice, “Regret no trace ofMaster Dean WinstonHodges.” His body provedto be among those taken

aboard the rescue shipFlying Fish. Names of thedead were misspelled,offering moments of falsehope. Aman identified asFredTynwas in fact FredTyers, who had died;Teresa Desley was in factTeresa Feeley, whoperished along with herhusband, James. ThereweretwoMrs.Hammonds.One lived; the other—

Ogden’s wife—died. Twowaiters were named JohnLeach. One survived, theother did not. A deadpassenger namedGreenfield was in factGreenshields.Timezonesandsluggish

communication made itevenharderonfriendsandkin. Those who couldafford the cost sent cablesto Cunard with detailed

descriptions of their lovedones, down to the serialnumbers stamped on theirwatches, but these cablestook hours to receive,transcribe, and deliver. Inthose first days after thedisaster, thousands ofcables flooded Cunard’soffices. Cunard had littleinformationtoprovide.The dead collected at

Queenstown were placed

in three makeshiftmorgues, including TownHall, where they wereplacedsideby sideon thefloor. Whenever possible,children were placedbeside their mothers.Survivors moved in slow,sad lines looking for lostkin.Therewerereunionsofahappiersortaswell.Seaman Leslie Morton

spentFridaynight lookingforhisbrotherCliffonthelistsofsurvivorsandinthehotels of Queenstown butfound no trace. Early thenext morning he sent atelegram to his father,“Am saved, looking forCliff.” He went to one ofthe morgues. “Laid out inrowsall thewaydownonboth sides were sheetedand shrouded bodies,” he

wrote, “and a largenumber of people invarying states of sorrowand distress were goingfrombodytobody,turningback the sheets to see ifthey could identify lovedoneswhohadnotyetbeenfound.”He worked his way

along, lifting sheets. Justashewasabouttopullyetonemore,hesawthehand

of another searcherreaching for the samesheet.Helookedover,andsaw his brother. Theirreactionwasdeadpan.“Hallo,Cliff,glad tosee

you,”Lesliesaid.“Am I glad to see you

too, Gert,” Cliff said. “Ithink we ought to have adrinkonthis!”As it happened, their

father had not had to

spend very much timeworrying.Hehadreceivedtelegrams from both sons,telling him each waslooking for the other. Thetelegrams, Leslie laterlearned, had arrived fiveminutes apart, “so thatfather knew at home thatwe were both safe beforewedid.”ThatnightLesliehadhis

first-ever Guinness. “I

cannot say that I thoughtmuch of it in those days,butitseemedagoodthinginwhichtocelebratebeingalive, having got togetheragain and being inIreland.”

THE RESCUE SHIPS brought inmany of the bodies, butmany others wererecovered from the coves

and beaches of Ireland, asthe sea brought themashore. One man’s bodywas found on a beachclutching a foot-longfragment of a lifeboat,which laterwould find itsway into the archives ofthe Hoover Institution atStanford University, thewood still bearing thebrandLusitania.Consul Frost took

responsibility formanaging the Americandead. The “important”bodies, meaning those infirstclass,wereembalmedat U.S. expense. “Therewas a curious effacementof social or mentaldistinction by death, andweoftenbelievedacorpseto be important when itturnedouttobedecidedlytheopposite,”Frostwrote.

“The commonestexpression was one ofreassured tranquillity, yetwith an undertone ofpuzzlement oraggrievement as thoughsome trusted friend hadplayed a practical jokewhich the victim did notyet understand.” Theunimportant bodies weresealed inside lead coffins,“so that they could be

returned to Americawheneverdesired.”Cunard went to great

lengths to number,photograph, and catalogtherecoveredbodies.BodyNo. 1 was that ofCatherine Gill, a forty-year-oldwidow; BodyNo.91wasthatofchiefpurserMcCubbin, for whom thiswas to be the last voyagebefore retirement. Nearly

all the dead werephotographed in coffins,though one lies in whatappears to be a largewheelbarrow, and atoddler rests on amakeshift platform. Theystillweartheircoats,suits,dresses, and jewelry. Amother and tinydaughter,presumably foundtogether, share a coffin.The mother is turned

toward her daughter; thechild lies with one armrestingacrosshermother’schest.Theylookasthoughthey could step from thiscoffin and resume theirlives. Others convey thesame restful aspect. Ahandsome clean-shavenman in his thirties, BodyNo.59, liesdressedneatlyin white shirt, tweedjacket, polka-dotted bow

tie,anddarkovercoat.Thetextures are comforting;thebuttonsonhisovercoatareshiny,likenew.These photographs begviewers to imagine lastmoments.HereisBodyNo.165,agirlinawhitedresswithalacytop.Hairflungback,mouthopenasifinascream, her whole aspectis one of fear and pain.Onevictim,identifiedonly

asBodyNo.109,isthatofa stout woman who liesnaked under a roughblanket, her hair stillflecked with sand. Unlikealltheotherbodiesinthiscollection of photographs,her eyes are squeezedtightly shut. Her cheeksare puffed, her lips aretightly clamped. She looksuncannily as if she werestillholdingherbreath.

The most unsettlingimagehereisthatofBodyNo. 156, a girl of aboutthree, slightly chubby,with curly blond hair,wearingapulloversweaterwith overlong sleeves.What is troubling is thechild’s expression. Shelooks perturbed. Someonelaid flowers across herchest and at her side. Butsheseemsunmollified.She

lies on a wood pallet,besidewhat appears tobea life jacket. Herexpression is one of purefury.Consul Frost found thesight of somany drownedchildren difficult toexpunge from histhoughts. He had a youngdaughter of his own.“Several weeks after thedisaster, one night out at

my home, I went into abedroom with a lightedmatch and cameunexpectedly upon thesleeping form of my ownlittle daughter,” he wrote.For an instant, his mindwas jolted back to sceneshe had witnessed in themorgues. “I give you mywordIrecoiledasthoughIhadfoundaserpent.”

THE SEARCH for bodies stilladrift intheseacontinueduntil June, when CunardsuggestedtoFrostthatthetimehadcome tohalt theeffort. He concurred. Thesearch was suspended onJune 4, but bodiescontinued to wash ashorewell intothesummer.Thelater a body wasrecovered, the higher itsassigned number, the

worse its condition. Twomen came ashore inCounty Kerry on July 14and 15, some 200 miles,by sea, from the wreck.One wore a cleric’sclothing and had “perfectteeth,” according to areport on the find, whichnoted, “Much of the bodywas eaten away.” Thesecondhadnohead,arms,or feet, but, like some

tentacled sea creature,draggedbehindhima fullcomplement of clothing—blue serge trousers, black-and-white-striped flannelshirt, woolen undershirt,undershorts, suspenders, abelt, and a keychain withseven keys. To encouragereporting of new arrivals,Cunard offered a one-pound reward. Frostoffered an additional

pound to anyone whorecovered a corpse thatwas demonstrably a U.S.citizen.On July 11, 1915, one

Americandidcomeashore,at Stradbally, Ireland. Atfirst authorities believedhim to be a LusitaniavictimanddesignatedhimBodyNo.248.Hehadnotbeen a passenger,however. His name was

Leon C. Thrasher, theAmerican who had gonemissingonMarch28whenthe SS Falaba wastorpedoed and sunk. Hehadbeeninthewater106days.The people who

discoveredremainstreatedthem with great respect,despite their oftengrotesque condition. Suchwas the case when the

body of a middle-agedman was found onIreland’s Dingle Peninsulaon July 17, seventy-onedaysafterthedisaster.Thecurrents and winds hadtaken him on a longjourney around thesouthwest rim of Irelandbefore depositing him atBrandonBay,adistanceofabout 250 miles fromQueenstown.Hisbodywas

discovered by a localcitizen, who notified theRoyal Irish Constabularyin Castlegregory, 6 milesto the east. A sergeant, J.Regan,promptlysetoutbybicycle, accompaniedbyaconstable, and soonarrived at the scene, anaustere but lovely beach.Heretheyfoundwhatlittleremainedofanapparentlymalecorpse.Thattheman

had come from theLusitaniawasobvious.Partof a life jacket was stillattached to the body, andanother portion laynearby,markedLusitania.Therewaslittlequestionas to his identity. Whenthe officers went throughwhat remained of theman’sclothing,theyfounda watch, with the initialsV.O.E.S. stamped on its

case, and a knife marked“Victor E. Shields,” and aletter addressed to “Mr.Victor Shields, care ofsteamer Lusitania.” Theletter was dated April 30,1915, the day before theshipleftNewYork.Inonepocket the officersdiscovered a copy of anentertainment programfrom the ship. Thedocuments were soaked.

The officers laid them inthesuntodry.Sergeant Regan notedthat the tide was risingquickly, “so I sent for asheetandplaced thebodyon it and carried it fromthe tide to a place ofsafety.” He then cycled toa telegraph office andwired the local coroner,who replied that noinquest would be

necessary. The policeordered a lead casket andwooden shell, and byeveningShieldswasplacedin a “Swansdown” robeand coffined within. Theundertaker took the coffintoaprivatehome,whereitremained until the nextday,whenpoliceburied itin a nearby graveyard.“Everythingwasdonethatcould be done by the

Police,” Sergeant ReganwroteinalettertoConsulFrost, “in fact they coulddo nomore for amemberof their family, and I onbehalfofthePolicetenderMrs. Shields our sinceresympathy in herbereavement.”For disbelievingfamilies,struckbygrief, itwas important to knowprecisely how their loved

oneshaddied,whetherbydrowning, exposure, orphysical trauma. TheShields family took this toextremes and ordered thebody disinterred. Thefamilywantedanautopsy.Thiswaseasieraskedthanachieved. “Needless tosay,” wrote Frost, “itproved virtuallyimpossible to procure aphysician of advanced

yearsandhighstandingtodissect remains seventy-five days after decease.”Frost did manage to findtwo younger doctors whowerewillingtotakeonthetask.The character of thisendeavor was made clearinthereportofoneofthephysicians, Dr. JohnHiggins, acting housesurgeon of Cork’s NorthInfirmary.

The autopsy began at2:30,July23,attheofficeof an undertaker; thesecond doctor was toperform his own autopsythe next day. A plumbernow opened the leadcasket in which VictorShields lay, and soon thescent of heated lead wasjoined by another sort ofodor. Consul Frost waspresent for this, but

Higgins noted that at apoint about halfwaythrough the autopsy heleft, “when he was calledaway.”In life, by Higgins’sestimate, Shields hadweighed14or15stone,orroughly 200 pounds. Hisbody was now in “anadvanced state ofdecomposition,” Higginsnoted. This was an

understatement. “The softparts of his face andheadwere entirely absent,including the scalp,”Higgins wrote. “Themajorityof the teethweremissing, including all thefront teeth. The handswere also absent, and thesoft parts of the upperrightarm.Thebackofthecalf of the right leg waslargely absent, as was a

portionoftheleftcalf.Thegenitals were very muchdecomposed, virtuallymissing.”Mr. Shields lay theresmiling up at them, butnot in an endearingfashion. “I examined theskull,” Dr. Higgins wrote.“Externally it was totallybare as far as the lowerpartoftheoccipitalbone.”The occipital forms the

bottomrearportionof theskull.“Iremovedtheskull-cap; and found that thebrain was too muchdecomposed forexamination, but themembranes were intact.”Heremovedthebrainandexamined the interior ofthe skull. He found noevidence of fracture at itsbase or to the cervicalcanal.Thisruledoutdeath

by falling debris or otherblunt trauma to the head.Nor did he discover anyfractures along the spine,or injury to the back.Shields’s internal organslikewise failed to revealwhat killed him, but theydid provide Dr. Higginswith a look at whatremainedoftheman’slastlunchaboardtheLusitania.“The stomach contained

roughly a pint of a greensemi-solid mass,apparently semi-digestedfood, but contained nowaterassuch.”Thelackofaclearcauseof death was perplexing.“In my opinion,” Higginswrote, “there is no injurypresent which wouldaccountfordeath.Thereisno evidence of drowning;and theprobability is that

death was brought aboutas a result of shock orexposure, probably theformer. From the contentsof the stomach it wouldappear that deathsupervened within a veryfew hours after his lastmeal,possiblyfromtwotothreehours.”Afterallthat,thefinding

wasdeathwithnoobviouscause.Theotherphysician

reached the sameconclusion.The peripatetic Mr.Shieldswasreturnedtohiscoffin and shipped toAmerica.ConsulFrost,inaletter to Washington,praisedtheefforttakenbythe police after thediscovery of Shields’sbody.“Itwouldbeamostgracefulandcommendableact if the estate of Mr.

Shields should forwardfromtwotofivepoundstothe sergeant and hiscolleaguesfortheexcellentspirit in which theydischargedtheirduties.”Themystery as to whatkilled Shields remained,leaving the family towonder what horror hehad endured. This samefate fell to nearly all thekinofthedead.Therecan

benodoubtthatformanypassengers death camesuddenly and utterly bysurprise. The dozens ofcrewmenwhowere in theluggagebayatthetimeofimpact were killedinstantly by the force ofthe torpedo blast, butexactly how many andwho they were was notknown. Passengers werecrushed by descending

boats. Swimmers werestruck by chairs, boxes,potted plants, and otherdebris falling from thedecks high above. Andthentherewerethosemostill-starred of passengers,who had put on their lifepreservers incorrectly andfound themselves floatingwith their headssubmerged, legs up, as insomedevil’scomedy.

One can only imaginethe final minutes of theCrompton parents andtheirchildren.Howdoyousave a child, let alone sixchildren, especially whenone of them is an infantand one is six years old?None of the Cromptonssurvived. Five of thechildrenwereneverfound.The infant, Master PeterRomilly Crompton, about

ninemonthsold,wasBodyNo.214.Cunard chairman Booth

knewthefamilywell.“Myown personal loss is verygreat,”hewrote,inaMay8 letter to Cunard’s NewYork manager, CharlesSumner.“Weareallatoneinourfeelingswithregardto this terrible disaster tothe ‘Lusitania,’ and it isquitehopelesstotrytoput

anything in writing.”Sumner wrote back thatthelossoftheshipandsomany passengers “is sadbeyondexpression.”

THE MANY unidentifiedbodies in the threemorguespresentedCunardofficials with an awkwardpredicament, andone thatneeded to be addressed

quickly.Thebodies—some140 of them—had begunto decompose, at a ratequickened by the warmspring weather. Thecompany decided on amass burial. Each bodywouldhaveitsowncoffin;mothers andbabieswouldshare; but all would beinterred together in threeseparate excavations,letteredA,B,andC,inthe

OldChurchCemeteryonahillside outsideQueenstown.The date was set forMonday, May 10. All theprevious day andthroughout the night,soldiersdugthegravesandundertakers coffined thebodies, leavingthelidsoffas long as possible toencourage last-minuteidentifications.Owingtoa

shortage of vehicles, thecoffinsweretransportedinshifts beginning earlyMonday morning, butthree coffins were heldbackfortheactualfuneralprocession, which was tobeginintheafternoon.Trainsbroughtmournersand the curious. Shopsclosed for the day andpulled their blinds andfastened their shutters.

Shipcaptainsorderedflagshung at half-mast. As theprocession advancedthrough Queenstown, amilitary band playedChopin’s “FuneralMarch.”Clerics led the cortege,among them FatherCowley Clark of London,himself a survivor of thedisaster. Soldiers andmourners followed. U.S.consul Frost walked as

well. Soldiers and citizenslined the entire route,standing bareheaded as ameasure of respect. Theroad they followed passedthrough hills of vividgreen stippled withwildflowers and slashedhere and there by thegarish yellow of bloominggorse. The sky was clearandwithout cloud, and inthe distant harbor boats

dipped and nodded in alight breeze, “a picture ofpeace,” wrote onereporter, “that gave nohintoftherecenttragedy.”The procession bearingthethreecoffinsarrivedatthe cemetery about threeo’clockandstoppedat theedge of the graves. Themany other coffins, eachan elongated diamond ofelm, had been laid neatly

within, arranged in twotiers, the body numbersand locations carefullymapped so that if thephotographs and lists ofpersonal effects catalogedby Cunard led tosubsequent identifications,thefamilieswouldat leastknow the exactwhereaboutsoftheirlovedones.Asthethreecoffinswere

lowered into the graves,the crowd sang “Abidewith Me.” Gunfirefollowed, from aceremonial guard, and asquad of buglers played“TheLastPost,”theBritishmilitary’s equivalent oftaps. Soldiers convergedand began filling thegraves. A photographshowsalineofsmallboysstanding on the hillock of

excavated soil, watchingwith avid interest as thesoldiers below fill thecrevicesbetweencoffins.It was lovely, anddignified, and deeplymoving, but this massburial imposed a psychiccost on kin who learned,belatedly, that their ownloved ones were interredwithin. Cunard’s finalcount found that of these

anonymous dead, abouthalf were later identifiedusing personal effects andphotographs. For somefamilies the idea of theirkin resting alone in thatfar-offterrainwastoohardto bear. The family ofElizabeth A. Seccombe, athirty-eight-year-oldwoman fromPetersborough, NewHampshire, pleaded with

Consul Frost for help inretrievingherandbringingher home. She was thedaughter of a Cunardcaptain who had diedsome years earlier. HerbodywasNo. 164, buriedon May 14 in grave B,sixthrow,uppertier.Frostdidwhathecould.

HearguedthatSeccombe’slocationinthegravemadehercoffinparticularlyeasy

to locate. Though verymuch a miser when itcame to U.S. funds, hewent so far as to offer£100tocovercosts.The British governmentwas willing, but the localcouncil said no, and itsdecision held sway. Inpart, the council wasinfluenced by localsuperstition—“religiousprejudice,” Frost called it

—but mainly it did notwanttosetaprecedent.Atleasttwentyotherfamilieshad sought to disintertheir loved ones and hadbeenrefused.Thecouncil’sstance, Frost wrote, “isincomprehensibletome.”The greatest burden byfar was borne by therelatives of the manypassengers and crewwhose bodies were never

found. Of the 791passengers designated byCunard as missing, only173 bodies, or about 22percent, were eventuallyrecovered, leaving 618soulsunaccountedfor.Thepercentage for the crewwas even more dismal,owing no doubt to themany deaths in theluggage room when thetorpedoexploded.

Alice and ElbertHubbard were neverfound;norwasKansasCitypassengerTheodoreNaish.In Queenstown, his wife,Belle, roomed for a timewithyoungRobertKay,ashe recovered from hismeaslesandwaitedforhisgrandfather to come andclaim him. JosephFrankum, who hadhuddledwithhisfamilyin

anunlaunchedboatduringthe Lusitania’s lastmoments, survived, as didone of his sons, but hiswife, his baby daughter,and his four-year-old sonwere lost. Nellie Hustonnever got to mail thatcharming diary-like letterin which she confessedthat the size of herderrière impeded heraccess to her berth. The

letterwasfoundinapursefloating on the sea. ThethreemembersoftheLuckfamily—thirty-four-year-old Charlotte and her twoyoung sons—disappearedas well. Alfred Vanderbiltwasneverfound,despitea$5,000 reward—a fortune—offered by theVanderbilt family. CharlesLauriat’s friend andtraveling companion,

Lothrop Withington,likewisedisappeared.Theabsenceof somanybodies raised hauntingquestions for families.Weretheirlovedonesnowamong the anonymouscorpses buried atQueenstown? Were theylocked somewhere withinthe hull, owing to an ill-advised last-minute dashfor a personal belonging?

Didchivalrydothemin,orcowardice? Or did theysuffer a fate like that ofone unidentified woman,whose body came to reston Straw Island, offGalway, where she wasfoundbythekeeperoftheisland’s lighthouse? Shewas wearing her Boddylife jacket correctly andhad drifted alone forthirty-sixdays.

Mothers lost childrenand would be left foreverto imagine their finalmoments or to wonder ifsomehow, miraculously,their babies had actuallybeen saved andwere nowin the care of another.Norah Bretherton, the LosAngeles woman who hadhanded her Betty to astranger, was spared thatbrand of haunting. Betty

was Body No. 156. Hermother buried her in thegraveyard at the UrsulineConvent in Cork.Bretherton’ssonsurvived.For families at home,

waiting for news, theabsence of a body leftthem suspendedsomewhere between hopeand grief. Onemother setout to learn as much aspossible about her lost

boy,PrestonPrichard.Shewasaidedbyhersurvivingson,Mostyn,who traveledto Queenstown to searchthemorgues.“Theplaceisalive with miserablecreatures like ourselves,”he wrote. He found notrace of his brother. “It isbewildering toknowwhattodo.”Mrs. Prichard wrote to

dozens of survivors, and,

onthebasisofinformationshe received, shewrote todozens more. She sent aflyerwithPreston’spictureandadetaileddescription.Among those shecontacted was GraceFrench, Prichard’s diningcompanion,who toldMrs.Prichard that she believedherself to be the lastpersonontheshiptohavespokenwithhim.Inoneof

several letters,FrenchtoldMrs.Prichardthatshehadthought of her son oftenand of their interruptedexcursion to find herdouble on board. Frenchwrote, “I can see his faceso clearly in my mind sosunburned and full of lifeandambition.”Themanyrepliesofferedafreshviewofthevoyageand of the trials and

sorrows of the last day.The writers recalledfleeting glimpses ofPrichard, especially hisgregariousness andpopularity, and offeredtheir own stories. Mostly,though, survivors tried tooffer some small bit ofconsolation,despitehavinghad only glancing contactwith Prichard, or none atall. They assured Mrs.

Prichard that her son,givenhisphysicalprowess,must surely have beenhelping women andchildren up to the lastmoment.Theodate Pope, ever

true to her spiritualistbeliefs, wrote to Mrs.Prichard on February 4,1916.“Ibegofyounottodwell on the thought ofwhat has become of the

physical part of the boyyoulove,”sheurged.“Canyounotconstantlykeepinmind that whatever hashappened to his body hasnotinanywayaffectedhisspirit and that surely livesand will await reunionwithyou?”Asecond-classpassenger

named Ruth M.Wordsworth, of Salisbury,England,soughttoaddress

thedisparitybetweenhowthings actually unfoldedon the ship and thenightmarish scenesconjured in the minds ofnextofkin.“I know you must betempted to have mostterrible imaginings; may Itell you that although itwasveryawful,itwasnotso ghastly as you are sureto imagine it. When the

thing really comes, Godgives to each the help heneeds to live or to die.”She described the quietand the lack of panicamong passengers. “Theywere calm, many of themquite cheerful, andeveryonewas trying todothesensiblething,themenwere forgettingthemselves, and seeingafter the women and

children. They could notdo much, because the listpreventedthelaunchingofmostoftheboats,buttheywere doing their best andplayingtheman.”Of the four men in

Preston Prichard’s cabin,D-90, only one survived,hisfriendArthurGadsden.Prichard’s bodywas neverrecovered, yet in the redvolume that now contains

the beautifully archivedreplies to Mrs. Prichard’sletters there exists asurprisingly vivid sense ofhim, as though he residedstill in the peripheralvisionoftheworld.

PARTV

THESEAOFSECRETS

LONDON

BLAME

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT CAME AS ASURPRISE TO CAPTAIN Turner.Even though the cause ofthedisasterwasobvious—an act of war—the

Admiralty moved at oncetoplacetheblameonhim.Anyone privy to theinternal communications,or “minutes,” flungbetween the offices ofsenior Admiralty officialsin the week after thedisastercouldhavehadnodoubt as to the zeal withwhich the Admiraltyintended to forge a caseagainst Turner. In one,

Churchill himself wrote,“We sh’d pursue theCaptainwithoutcheck.”Before the effort could

get started, however, thecoronerinKinsale,Ireland,John J. Horgan, convenedan inquest of his own,much to the Admiralty’sdispleasure. Horganclaimed the responsibilityfell tohimbecause fiveofthe Lusitania’s dead had

beenlandedinhisdistrict.Theinquestbeganthedayafterthesinking,Saturday,May 8. Horgan calledTurner as a witness andafterhearinghistestimonypraised thecaptain forhiscourage in staying withthe ship until the lastmoment. At this, Turnerbegantocry.Horgan, inalater memoir, called thecaptain “a brave but

unluckyman.”OnMonday,May10,the

coroner’s jury issued itsfinding: that thesubmarine’s officers andcrew and the emperor ofGermany had committed“willful and wholesalemurder.”Half an hour later a

message arrived from theAdmiralty, orderingHorgan to block Turner

from testifying. Horganwrote, “That august bodywere however as belatedon this occasion as theyhadbeeninprotectingtheLusitaniaagainstattack.”

THEADMIRALTYwasfarmoreprompt in laying out thecontoursof itsstrategyforassigning fault to Turner.Thedayafter thedisaster,

Richard Webb, director ofthe Admiralty’s TradeDivision, circulateda two-page memorandum,marked “Secret,” inwhichhe charged that Turnerhad ignored theAdmiralty’s instructionsthat called for him tozigzag and to “giveprominent headlands awide berth.” Instead,Webb wrote, Turner had

“proceededalongtheusualtrade route, at a speedapproximately three-quarters of what he wasable to get out of thisvessel. He thus kept hisvaluable vessel for anunnecessarylengthoftimeintheareawhereshewasmost liable to attack,invitingdisaster.”Webb made a formal

request for an

investigation by Britain’sWreck Commission, underLordMersey,whohad ledinquiries into the lossesofmany ships, including theTitanic and the Empress ofIreland.OnWednesday,May12,

Webbintensifiedhisattackon Captain Turner. In anew memorandum, hewrotethatTurner“appearsto have displayed an

almost inconceivablenegligence, and one isforced toconclude thatheis either utterlyincompetent, or that hehas been got at by theGermans.”Intheleft-handmargin, First Sea LordFisher, in his wildfulminating hand, jotted,“I hope Captain Turnerwill be arrestedimmediately after the

inquiry whatever theverdictoffindingmaybe.”The Admiralty took the

unprecedented step ofinsisting that key parts ofthe planned inquiry,especially theexaminationof Turner, be held insecret.

U.S. CONSUL FROST sensedearly on that the

Admiralty’s soul hadhardened against Turner.On Sunday, May 9, Frostpaid a call on AdmiralCoke, senior naval officerin Queenstown,accompanied by two U.S.military attachéswho hadjust arrived from Londontohelp arrange the returnofAmericandead.Admiral Coke openly

criticized Turner for

sailing too close to shoreand too slowly and readaloud the warnings thathad been sent to theLusitania on Friday. ButConsulFrostwassurprisedat how little detail thesemessages contained. “Barefacts only,” Frost noted,later. “No instructions orinterpretation. It is truethat Turner should havekeptfartherout;buttomy

mind it seemed that theAdmiralty had by nomeansdonetheirfulldutybyhim.”One of the American

attachés, Capt. W. A.Castle, wrote his ownaccount of the meetingandnotedthataparticularsubject was glaringlyabsent from theconversation.“Iwasstruckby the fact that the

Admiral while seeming tobe desirous of justifyingthe Admiralty in itsmeasuresofprotection,didnot mention the presenceof any destroyers or otherNaval vessels.” CastleaddedthatduringhistraintripbacktoLondonhehaddiscussed the subject withafellowpassenger,aRoyalNavy lieutenant, “whospoke quite frankly,

although I suppose ofcourse confidentially, andsaid that he could notunderstand nor could hisbrother officers, why somanytorpedoboatsoftheold type, which couldmake 25 knots an hourwithout difficulty, andwouldbe just the thing toprotect an incomingsteamer,areleftatvariouswharves, instead of being

used for this purpose, andsaid that had they placedone of these to starboard,another to port, andanother in front of theLusitania, she could nothavebeentorpedoed.”

WHY THE ADMIRALTY wouldseek to assign fault toTurner defies readyexplanation, given that

isolating Germany as thesoleoffenderwoulddofarmore to engender globalsympathy for Britain andcement animosity towardGermany. By blamingTurner, however, theAdmiralty hoped to divertattention from its ownfailure to safeguard theLusitania. (Questioned onthematterintheHouseofCommons on May 10,

1915, Churchill hadreplied, rather coolly,“Merchant traffic mustlook after itself.”) Buttherewereothersecretstoprotect, not just fromdomesticscrutiny,butalsofrom German watchers—namely the fact that theAdmiralty, through Room40, had known so muchabout U-20’s travelsleading up to the attack.

One way to defend thosesecrets was to drawattentionelsewhere.The Admiralty foundaddedmotivation todosowhen,onMay12,wirelessstations in Britain’slistening networkintercepted a series ofmessages from the thenhomebound U-20, whichupon entering the NorthSea had resumed

communication with itsbase at Emden. At theAdmiralty these messagesdrewanunusualdegreeofattention. Room 40 askedall the stations that hadintercepted them toconfirm that they hadtranscribed them correctlyand toprovide signedandcertifiedcopies.In the first message ofthe series, Schwieger

reported: “Have sunk offtheSouthCoastofIreland,one sailing ship, twosteamers, and LUSITANIA.AmsteeringforthemouthoftheEms.”The Admiralty received

it at 9:49 A.M.; thedecrypted copy wasmarked “Most Secret.”This message confirmedthattheculprithadindeedbeen U-20, the submarine

that Room 40 had beentrackingsinceApril30.That afternoon, Room

40 received the interceptof a reply sent toSchwieger by thecommander of Germany’sHigh Seas Fleet, whichread, “My highestappreciation ofCommander and crew forthe success they haveachieved. Am proud of

their achievement andexpress best wishes fortheirreturn.”Then came a thirdmessage, sent fromSchwieger to his base.AfterdetailingthelatitudeandlongitudeofhisattackontheLusitania,Schwiegernotedthathehadsunktheship “by means of onetorpedo.”This was a surprise. By

nowtheprevailingviewintheworld’s presswas thatthe Lusitania had beensunkbytwotorpedoesandthat these accounted forthe two major explosionsreported by passengers.But now the Room 40cognoscenti knew withoutdoubt that Schwieger hadfiredonlyonetorpedo.And this, theyunderstood, raised

sensitive questions: Howcouldasingletorpedosinka ship the size of theLusitania?Andiftherewasno second torpedo, whatexactly,caused thesecondexplosion?They recognized, also,

that Schwieger’s messagehadtobekeptsecretatallcosts, for it was preciselythis kind of specialknowledge that could tip

Germany to the existenceofRoom40.

BY THE TIME the Merseyinquirybegan,onJune15,1915, the Britishgovernment hadundergone one of itsperiodic upheavals, amidcontroversy over the shellshortage on the westernfront and the failure, at

great cost in lives andships, of Churchill’s planto force the Dardanelles.New men ran theAdmiralty. Fisher hadresigned, and Churchillhadbeenjettisoned.Thesechanges, however, causednoeasingof thecampaignagainstCaptainTurner.After preliminary publictestimony from severalwitnesses, including

Turner, who brieflydescribedhisexperienceinthe disaster, Lord Merseyconvened the first of thesecret sessions and againcalled Turner to thewitness box. TheAdmiralty’s lead attorney,Sir Edward Carson,attorney general,questioned the captain inharsh fashion, as if theproceedingwereamurder

trialwithTurnertheprimesuspect. Carson clearlyhopedtoprovethatTurnerhad ignored theAdmiralty’s directives, inparticular its instructionsto keep to a midchannelcourse.Turner testified that by

his own standards he wasin midchannel. Underordinarycircumstances,hesaid, he passed the Old

Head of Kinsale atdistances as close as amile. Indeed, onephotographoftheLusitaniashowstheshipsteamingatfull speed past the OldHead at the maritimeequivalent of a hair’sbreadth.Atthetimeoftheattack, the ship byTurner’s reckoning hadbeen a dozen miles off,maybe as many as 15.

(Years later adiverwouldpinpoint the wreck’slocationat11¾milesfromKinsaleHead.)Carson also badgeredTurner as to why theLusitania was moving atonly18knotswhenitwastorpedoed and challengedthe wisdom of thecaptain’s plan to reducespeedinordertoarriveatthe Mersey Bar off

Liverpool at a time whenhe could sail into theharbor without stopping.Carson argued that ifTurner had zigzagged attop speed he could haveevadedthesubmarineand,owing to the timeconsumed by the frequentcoursechanges,wouldstillhave made the bar ontime. Carson let pass thefact that although Turner

was not deliberatelyzigzagging, his severalchanges of course thatmorningtosetuphisfour-point bearing did describeazigzagpattern,withfatalresult: the last starboardturnputhimdirectlyinU-20’spath.Turner’s own lawyer,

Butler Aspinall, Britain’sleadingexpertinmaritimelaw, did his best to sculpt

Turner’s story into acoherent account of theLusitania’s last morningand to win for him LordMersey’s sympathy. “Imean to say,we have thevery great advantage ofknowing so much nowwhich was unknown tohim then,” Aspinall said;“we are sitting upon thematter in cool judgment,with an opportunity of

looking at the charts, andthe circumstances underwhichwearedealingwithit were not thecircumstancesunderwhichtheMasterwouldhave anopportunity of dealingwithit.”In all, Lord Merseyheard testimony fromthirty-six witnesses,including passengers,crew, and outside experts.

At the conclusion of theinquiry, he defied theAdmiralty and absolvedTurner of anyresponsibility for the lossof the Lusitania. In hisreport, Mersey wrote thatTurner “exercised hisjudgment for the best. Itwas the judgment of askilled and experiencedman, and although othersmight have acted

differently and perhapsmoresuccessfullyheoughtnot, in my opinion, to beblamed.” Mersey foundCunard’s closure of theship’s fourth boiler roomto be irrelevant. Theresulting reduction inspeed, hewrote, “still leftthe Lusitania aconsiderably faster shipthan any other steamerplyingacrosstheAtlantic.”

MerseylaidblameentirelyontheU-boatcommander.Turner doubtless wasrelieved,but, according tohissonNormanhealsofelthe had been unjustlytreated. “He was verybitter about the way inwhich,attheenquiry…itwas sought to fix theblame on him for thesinking,andparticularlytotry to condemn him for

being on the course hewas.”LordMerseyseemedto share this sentiment.Soon afterward, heresignedhispostaswreckcommissioner, calling theinquiry “a damned dirtybusiness.”CunardretainedTurner on its roster ofcaptains.At no time during thesecret portions of theproceeding did the

Admiralty ever revealwhat it knew about thetravelsofU-20.Nordid itdisclose the measurestaken to protect the HMSOrion and other militaryvessels. Moreover, theAdmiralty made no effortto correct Lord Mersey’sfinding that the Lusitaniahad been struck by twotorpedoes—thisdespitethefact that Room 40 knew

full well that Schwiegerhadfiredonlyone.Nordidtheinquiryeverdelve into why theLusitaniawasn’tdivertedtothe safer North Channelroute, and why no navalescort was provided.Indeed, these are thegreatlingering questions of theLusitaniaaffair:Why,givenall the informationpossessedbytheAdmiralty

about U-20; given theAdmiralty’s pastwillingness to provideescortstoinboundshipsordivert them away fromtrouble;giventhattheshipcarried a vital cargo ofrifle ammunition andartillery shells; given thatRoom 40’s intelligenceprompted the obsessivetracking and protection oftheHMSOrion; given that

U-20 had sunk threevessels in the Lusitania’spath; given CunardchairmanBooth’spanickedFridaymorningvisittothenavy’s Queenstown office;given that the new andsafer North Channel routewas available; and giventhat passengers and crewalike had expected to beconvoyed to Liverpool bythe Royal Navy—the

questionremains,whywasthe ship left on its own,with a proven killer ofmenandshipsdeadaheadinitspath?There is silence on thesubject in the records ofRoom 40 held by theNational Archives of theUnited Kingdom andChurchill College,Cambridge. Nowhere isthere even a hint of

dismayatmissingsoclearan opportunity to use thefruits of Room 40’sintelligence to save athousandlives.The question perplexed

at least one prominentnaval historian, the latePatrick Beesly, who,during World War II, washimself an officer inBritish naval intelligence.Britain’s secrecy laws

prevented him fromwriting about the subjectuntilthe1970sand1980s,whenhepublishedseveralbooks,includingoneaboutRoom 40, said to be aquasi-official account.There he addressed thecontroversy onlyobliquely,statingthatifnodeliberate plan existed toputtheLusitaniaindanger,“one is left only with an

unforgivablecock-upasanexplanation.”However, in a laterinterview, housed in thearchives of the ImperialWar Museum, London,Beesly was less judicious.“As an Englishman and alover of the Royal Navy,”hesaid,“Iwouldprefertoattribute this failure tonegligence, even grossnegligence, rather [than]

to a conspiracydeliberately to endangertheship.”But,hesaid,“onthe basis of theconsiderable volume ofinformation which is nowavailable, I am reluctantlycompelled to state thatonbalance, the most likelyexplanation is that therewas indeed a plot,however imperfect, toendanger the Lusitania in

ordertoinvolvetheUnitedStates in the war.” Somuch was done for theOrion and other warships,he wrote, but nothing fortheLusitania.He struggledwith this. No matter howhe arranged the evidence,he came back toconspiracy. He said, “Ifthat’s unacceptable, willsomeone tell me anotherexplanation to these very

very curiouscircumstances?”Theabsenceofanescort

also surprised Cunard’slawyers. In a lengthyconfidential memorandumon the Mersey inquiry,writtentohelpaNewYorkattorney defend thecompanyagainstdozensofAmerican liability claims,Cunard’s London firmwrote,“Withregardtothe

question of convoy, SirAlfred Booth hoped andexpected that theAdmiralty would senddestroyers to meet &convoy the vessel. Therewere destroyers atQueenstown and noexplanationhasbeengivenas to why there was noconvoy except Mr.Winston Churchill’sstatement that it was

impossible for theAdmiralty to convoyMerchant ships.” Thememo left unsaid the factthat the Admiralty earlierin the year had in factmade provision to escortmerchantships.It was a question thatalso troubled passengersand crew and the citizensof Queenstown. ThirdOfficerAlbertBesticwrote,

later, that in light of theGerman warning in NewYork and the Admiralty’sawareness of newsubmarine activity, somesort of protective forceshould have beendispatched. “Even onedestroyer encircling theliner as she entered thedanger zone would haveminimized the danger, ifindeed have not rendered

theLusitania immunefromattackwitharesultinglossof lives.” One of Cunard’smost prominent captains,James Bisset, who hadserved under Turner andwas captain of the HMSCaronia when it met theLusitania off New Yorkshortly after departure,wrote in a memoir, “Theneglect to provide navalescort for her in the

narrow waters as sheapproached herdestination was all themoreremarkableasnolessthan twenty-three Britishmerchantvesselshadbeentorpedoed and sunk byGerman U-boats near thecoasts of Britain andIreland in the precedingsevendays.”As towhether an escortreally could have

prevented the disaster,Turner himself wasambivalent. “Itmight,” hesaid, during his testimonyat the Kinsale coroner’sinquest, “but it is one ofthose things one neverknows. The submarinewould have probablytorpedoedbothofus.”

ANOTHERMYSTERYcenteredon

the second explosionwithin the Lusitania. Itscause would be debatedforacenturytocome,withdark talk of explodingmunitions and a secretcargo of explosivematerials. There mayindeedhavebeenahiddencache of explosivesaboard,butifso,itdidnotcausethesecondexplosionor contribute to the speed

at which the ship sank.The myriad accounts leftby survivors fail todescribe the kind of vividcataclysm such anexplosion would produce.The rifle ammunition wasnotlikelytohavebeentheculpriteither.Testingdoneseveral years earlier haddetermined that suchammunition did notexplode en masse when

exposed to fire, and thisprompted the U.S.Department of Commerceand Labor to approve theshipping of such cargoesaboardpassengervessels.Amoreplausible theoryheld that when thetorpedo exploded, theconcussion shook the shipwithsuchviolencethatthenearlyemptycoalbunkersbecame clouded with

explosive coaldust,whichthen ignited. There isevidencethatsuchaclouddid arise. One fireman,whohad been standing inthe center of a stokehold,reportedhearing thecrashof the torpedo andsuddenly finding himselfengulfed in dust. But thiscloud apparently did notignite: the firemansurvived. Here too,

survivors’ accounts don’tdepict the kind of fieryconvulsion such anignition would haveproduced. Subsequentinvestigation by forensicengineers concluded thatthe environment in whichthe ship’s coal was storedwas too damp, in partfrom condensation on thehull, to foster the idealconditions necessary for

detonation.Whatmostlikelycausedthe second event was therupture of a main steamline, carrying steamunderextremepressure.ThiswasTurner’s theory from thebeginning. The fracturecouldhavebeencausedbythe direct force of theinitial explosion, or bycold seawater enteringBoiler Room No. 1 and

coming into contact withthesuperheatedpipeoritssurrounding fixtures,causing a potentiallyexplosiveconditionknownas thermalshock.The factis, immediately after thetorpedo exploded, steampressure within the shipplummeted.Anengineerinthe starboard high-pressure turbine roomreported that pressure in

themain line dropped “to50 pounds in a fewseconds,” roughly aquarter of what it shouldhavebeen.

IN THE END, Schwieger’sattack on the Lusitaniasucceeded because of achance confluence offorces. Even the tiniestalteration in a single

vector could have savedtheship.Had Captain Turner nothad towait the extra twohours for the transfer ofpassengers from theCameronia,helikelywouldhave passed Schwieger inthe fog, when U-20 wassubmergedandon itswayhome. For that matter,eventhebriefdelaycausedby the last-minute

disembarkationofTurner’sniece could have placedthe ship in harm’s way.More importantly, hadTurnernotbeencompelledto shut down the fourthboiler room to savemoney,hecouldhavespedacross the Atlantic at 25knots, covering anadditional110milesaday,and been safely toLiverpool before

Schwieger even enteredtheCelticSea.Fog was an important

factortoo.Haditpersistedjust a half hour longer,neither vessel would haveseen the other, andSchwieger would havecontinuedonhisway.Then there was the

almost miraculous factthat Schwieger’s attackeven succeeded. Had

Captain Turner not madethat final turn tostarboard, Schwiegerwould have had no hopeof catching up. What’smore,thetorpedoactuallyworked. Defying his ownexperience and the 60percent failure ratecalculated by the Germannavy,itdidexactlywhatitwassupposedtodo.Not only that, it struck

preciselytherightplaceinthe Lusitania’s hull toguarantee disaster, byallowing seawater to fillthe starboard longitudinalbunkers and therebyproduceafatallist.Noonefamiliar with shipconstruction and torpedodynamics would haveguessed that a singletorpedo could sink a shipas big as the Lusitania, let

alone do so in justeighteen minutes.Schwieger’s earlier attackon the Candidate requireda torpedo and multipleshells from his deck gun;his attack later that sameday on the Centurionrequired two torpedoes.And almost exactly a yearlater, onMay 8, 1916, hewould need threetorpedoes to sink the

White Star liner Cymric,which even then stayedafloat for another twenty-eighthours.Allthreeshipswere a fraction of theLusitania’ssize.Moreover, Schwieger

had overestimated theship’sspeed.Hecalculated22 knotswhen in fact theship was moving at only18. Had he gauged thespeed correctly and timed

his shot accordingly, thetorpedowouldhavestruckthe hull farther back,amidships, possibly withlesscatastrophiceffectandcertainly with the resultthat the many crewmembers killed instantlyintheluggageroomwouldhave survived to assist inlaunching the lifeboats.The steam line might nothave failed. If Turner had

beenabletokeeptheshipunder power, he mighthave made it toQueenstown, or succeededin beaching the ship, oreven leveraged itsextraordinary agility toturnandramU-20.However, it also seems

likely that if the Lusitaniahad not been so visiblycrippled Schwieger mighthave come back for a

secondshot.Really the only goodpiece of luck that Fridaywas the weather. Thewater was preternaturallycalm, the day sunny andwarm. Even a modest seawould have sweptsurvivors from theirfloating oars and boxesand planks of wood, andlikely swampedoverloaded lifeboats. At

one point, survivor OgdenHammond’s boat hadseventy-five peopleaboard; its gunnels wereonly 6 inches above thewater. The benignconditions of the daysavedscoresoflives,ifnothundreds.

WASHINGTON;BERLIN;LONDON

THELASTBLUNDER

FOR SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THESINKING, WILSON SAID nothing

aboutitinpublic.Hestuckto his routines. He golfedon the Saturday morningafter the attack, took adrive that afternoon,wentto church on Sundaymorning. During aconversation in his study,Wilson told his secretary,Joe Tumulty, that heunderstood his coolresponse might troublesome people. “If I

ponderedoverthosetragicitems that daily appear inthe newspapers about theLusitania, I should see redin everything and I amafraid that when I amcalled upon to act withreferencetothissituationIcould not be just toanyone. I dare not actunjustly and cannotindulgemyownpassionatefeelings.”

Sensing that Tumultydidnotagree,Wilsonsaid,“I supposeyou think I amcold and indifferent andlittle less thanhuman,butmy dear fellow, you aremistaken, for I have spentmany sleepless hoursthinking about thistragedy. It has hung overme like a terriblenightmare. InGod’sname,how could any nation

calling itself civilizedpurpose so horrible athing.”Wilson believed that if

he went then to Congresstoask for adeclarationofwar,hewouldlikelygetit.But he did not think thenationwas truly ready forthat kind of commitment.He told Tumulty, “Were Ito advise radical actionnow, we should have

nothing, I am afraid, butregretsandheartbreaks.”In fact, apart from a

noisy pro-war faction ledbyformerpresidentTeddyRoosevelt, much ofAmerica seemed to shareWilson’s reluctance. Therewas anger, yes, but noclearcall towar,notevenfrom such historicallypugnacious newspapers asthe Louisville Courier-

Journal and ChicagoTribune. In Indiana,newspapers servingsmallercommunitiesurgedrestraint and support forthepresident,accordingtoone historian’s study ofIndiana’s reaction to thedisaster. The state’s “six-and eight-page dailies andthe weekly journals werepractically of onemind intheir hope for peace.”

Petitions arrived at theWhite House counselingcaution. The TennesseeState Assembly voted aresolution expressingconfidence in Wilson andurgingthestate’sresidents“to refrain from anyintemperate acts orutterances.” The LouisianaLegislature voted itssupport as well andwarned that the crisis at

hand “calls for coolness,deliberation, firmness andprecision of mind on thepart of those entrustedwith the power ofadministration.” Thestudents of Rush MedicalCollege in Chicagoweighed in, all signing apetition expressing“confidenceinthesagacityand patience of ourPresident” andurginghim

to continue his policy ofneutrality.Dental studentsattheUniversityofIllinoistook time out to dolikewise.German popular

reaction to the sinking oftheLusitaniawas exultant.A Berlin newspaperdeclared May 7 “the daywhich marked the end ofthe epoch of Englishsupremacyoftheseas”and

proclaimed: “The Englishcannolongerprotecttradeandtransportintheirowncoastal waters; its largest,prettiest and fastest linerhasbeensunk.”Germany’smilitary attaché inWashington told reportersthat the deaths of theAmericans aboard wouldatlastshowthenationthetrue nature of the war.“America does not know

what conditions are,” hesaid. “You read ofthousands[of]RussiansorGermans being killed andpass it over withoutqualm. This will bring ithometoyou.”

WILSON KEPT SILENT untilMonday evening, May 10,when he traveled toPhiladelphia to give a

previously scheduledspeech before fourthousand newly mintedcitizens.HehadseenEdiththatafternoon,andby thetime he reachedPhiladelphia was stillroiled in the emotionalafter-seaofthatencounter.In his speech he talked oftheimportanceofAmericaas a force for instillingpeace in theworld and of

theneed for thenation tostandfirmeveninthefaceof the Lusitania tragedy.He used an outline, not afixed text, and improvisedas he went along, not thebest approach given hisemotional state. “There issuch a thing as a manbeing too proud to fight,”he told his audience.“Thereissuchathingasanation being so right that

it does not need toconvince others by forcethatitisright.”These were lofty

sentiments,butthatphrase“tooproudtofight”strucka dull chord. America didnotwanttogotowar,butbeing too proud to fighthadnothing todowith it.A pro-war Republican,Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge,called it “probably the

most unfortunate phrasethat [Wilson] had evercoined.”WilsontoldEdithhehad

spoken while in anemotional haze caused byhisloveforher.Inalettercomposed Tuesdaymorning, he wrote, “I donot know just what I saidat Philadelphia (as I rodealongthestreetintheduskI found myself a little

confused as to whether Iwas in Philadelphia orNew York!) because myheart was in such a whirlfrom that wonderfulinterviewofyesterdayandthe poignant appeal andsweetnessofthelittlenoteyouleftwithme;butmanyother things have grownclearinmymind.”AllthatTuesday,Wilson

worked on a protest he

planned to send toGermany about theLusitania. Typing on hisHammond portable, hesought to find the righttone—firm and direct, butnot bellicose. ByWednesday evening, hewas done. He wrote toEdith,“Ihave justput thefinal touches on our notetoGermany and now turn—with what joy!—to talk

toyou.Iamsureyouhavebeen by my side allevening, for a strangesense of peace and lovehas been on me as Iworked.”Wilson sent the note

over the objection ofSecretary of State Bryan,who felt that to be trulyfair and neutral, theUnited States should alsosend a protest to Britain,

condemning itsinterference in trade.Wilson declined to do so.In his note he mentionednot just the Lusitania butalso the Falaba and thedeath of Leon Thrasher,the bombing of theCushing, and theattackonthe Gulflight. Citing whathe called “the sacredfreedom of the seas,” hedescribedhowsubmarines,

when used againstmerchant vessels, were bytheir nature weapons thatviolated “many sacredprinciples of justice andhumanity.” He askedGermany to disavow theattacks,tomakenecessaryreparations, and to takesteps to ensure that suchthings did not happen inthe future. But he wascareful also to note the

“special tiesof friendship”that had long existedbetween America andGermany.Wilson’sprotest—theso-

called First Lusitania Note—was the initial salvo inwhatwouldbecomeatwo-year war of paper, filledwith U.S. protests andGerman replies, madeagainstabackdropofnewattacks against neutral

ships and revelations thatGermanspieswereatworkinAmerica.Wilsondidallhe could to keep Americaneutral in action and inspirit, but Secretary Bryandidnotthinkhetriedhardenough, and resigned onJune 8, 1915. Hisresignation broughtuniversal condemnation,with editors comparinghim to Judas Iscariot and

Benedict Arnold. TheGoshen, Indiana, News-Timessaid,“TheKaiserhasawardedtheIronCrossforless valuable service thanthat rendered by Mr.Bryan.”InalettertoEdithGalt, Wilson himselfdescribed Bryan as a“traitor.”He replaced himwith the department’snumber two man,Undersecretary Robert

Lansing,who by this timehadcometolongforwar.Wilson had cause forcheer,however. Ina letterdatedJune29,1915,Edithat last agreed to marryhim. They wed onDecember 18, 1915, in asimple ceremony at theWhite House. Late thatnightthecouplesetoutontheir honeymoon,travelingbyprivaterailcar

to Hot Springs, Virginia.Theyhadchickensaladfora late supper.As the trainpulled into the stationearly the next morning,Wilson’s Secret Serviceman Edmund Starlinghappened to look into therailcar’s sitting room and,asStarlinglaterwrote,saw“a figure in top hat,tailcoat,andgraymorningtrousers, standingwithhis

back to me, hands in hispockets,happilydancingajig.”As Starling watched,Wilson, still oblivious tohis presence, clicked hisheels in the air, and sang,“Oh, you beautiful doll!You great big beautifuldoll!”

GERMANY’S U-BOAT campaign

waxedandwaned, in stepwith the rising and fallinginfluence of factionswithinitsgovernmentthatfavored and opposedsubmarinewarfare againstmerchant ships. KaiserWilhelmhimselfexpresseda certain repugnance forattacks on passengerliners. In February 1916,he told fleet commanderAdmiral Scheer, “Were I

the Captain of a U-boat Iwould never torpedo ashipifIknewthatwomenand children wereaboard.” The next month,Germany’s most senioradvocate of unrestrictedwarfare, State SecretaryAlfred von Tirpitz,resigned, in frustration.This brought a sympathynote from an odd quarter—Britain’sformerFirstSea

Lord, Jacky Fisher. “DearOld Tirps,” he wrote. HeurgedTirpitzto“cheerup”and told him, “You’re theone German sailor whounderstandsWar!Killyourenemy without beingkilled yourself. I don’tblameyouforthesubmarinebusiness. I’dhavedone thesame myself, only ouridiots inEnglandwouldn’tbelieveitwhenItold’em.

Well!Solong!”He signed off with hisusual closing, “Yours tillhellfreezes,Fisher.”That June, 1916, theKaiser issued an orderforbidding attacks againstall large passenger ships,even those that wereobviouslyBritish.Hewenton to order so manyrestrictions on how andwhen U-boat commanders

couldattackshipsthattheGerman navy, in protest,suspended all operationsagainstmerchantvesselsinBritishwaters.But the Lusitaniaremained a point ofconflict.PresidentWilson’sprotests failed to generatea response he deemedsatisfactory—much to thedelightofBritain’sdirectorof naval intelligence,

Blinker Hall, who arguedthatanydelayinresolvingtheLusitania situationwas“advantageous to theAlliedcause.”Kapitänleutnant

Schwieger did his part toworsen relations betweenAmericaandGermany.OnSeptember4, 1915, in themidst of a patrol duringwhich he sank tensteamships and one four-

mastedbark,hetorpedoedthe passenger linerHesperian, killing thirty-twopassengersandcrew.The Hesperian was

clearly outbound, on itswaytoNewYork,andthusunlikely to be carryingmunitions or othercontraband. Among itscargowas the corpse of aLusitania victim, FrancesStephens, a wealthy

Canadian at last beingtransported home toMontreal.

WILSON WON reelection in1916. He played golfnearly every day, oftenwiththenewMrs.Wilson.Theyevenplayedinsnow:Secret Service manStarling painted the golfballs red to improve

visibility. They routinelytook drives through thecountryside, a pastimeWilson adored. Marriagebuoyed his spirits andeased his loneliness. Likethe previous Mrs. Wilson,Edith became a trustedcounselor,who listened todrafts of his speeches,critiquedhisvariousnotestoGermany, andnowandthenofferedadvice.

Outside the WhiteHouse, Wilson’s manynotes to Germany andtheir replies became thetarget of wry humor, aswhen one editor wrote:“Dear Kaiser: In spite ofprevious correspondenceonthesubjectanothershipwith American citizens onboard has been sunk.Under the circumstanceswe feel constrained to

inform you, in a spirit ofutmost friendliness, that arepetition of the incidentwill of necessity requirethe dispatch of anothernote to your majesty’smostestimableandpeace-lovinggovernment.”As late as December1916, Wilson believed hecould still keep Americaneutral and, further, thathe might himself be able

to serve as a mediator tobring about a peaceaccord.Hewasheartened,therefore, when thatwinter Germany stated itmight consider seekingpeace with Britain, undercertain conditions. Britaindismissed theovertureoutofhand,describing it as aGermanattempttodeclarevictory, but to Wilson itoffered at least the hope

that future negotiationscould take place.Germany’s ambassador toAmerica, Count Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff,reinforced Wilson’soptimism, signaling thatGermany was indeedwilling to engage indiscussionstowardpeace.ButBernstorff tended tobe more optimistic thanfacts warranted and

possessed only a limitedgrasp of a new anddramatic change in hisown government’sthinking.

IN GERMANY, a paradoxicalshiftwasunderway.Evenasitsleadersseemedtobemaneuvering towardpeace,thecampwithinthegovernment that favored

all-out submarine warfaregainedground.Theseweremilitaryofficialswhonowsoughtauthoritytosinkallmerchant ships enteringthe war zone, neutral orotherwise—evenAmericanvessels. The shift wasdriven in part by theenthusiasmof theGermanpublic, who, dismayed bythe carnage of thetrenches, had come to see

the U-boat as a miracleweapon—aWunderwaffe—that if deployed for totalwar would quickly forceBritain to her knees. Thiscoincided with afundamental change inGermannaval thinking, inwhichSchwiegerandU-20playedanimportantrole.Throughout the fall of

1916, Schwieger hadcontinued his exemplary

performance as asubmarine commander,sinkingshipaftership,butearly that November heran into trouble. Whilereturning from a three-weekpatrolintheWesternApproaches, his boat ranaground, in fog, about 20feetfromtheDanishshore.He radioed for assistance.The response wasoverwhelming. Admiral

Scheer ordered destroyerstothescene,toattempttopull U-20 loose, anddispatchedanentirebattlesquadron—cruisers andbattleships—to provideprotection. Still U-20remained mired.Schwieger was ordered todestroytheboattokeepitfrom falling into enemyhands. He exploded twotorpedoes in the bow. If

hisintentwastoobliteratethe boat, he failed. Thebowwasmangled,buttherest of the boat, and itsgun, remained intact,embeddedinthesandtoadepthofabout15feet,andfully visible from theshore.Meanwhile, in London,

Room 40 began receivingwireless intercepts thatindicated something

extraordinary was takingplace. The Room 40 lognoted,“Greatexcitement&activity.” The Admiraltydispatcheda submarine tothe scene, whosecommander found fourbattleships and managedto torpedo two of them,damaging both, sinkingneither.The episode proved tohave a crystallizing effect

onGermannaval strategy.At first, Kaiser Wilhelmupbraided Admiral Scheerfor putting so many shipsat risk on behalf of onesubmarine. But Scheercountered that the U-boatforce had supplanted theHigh Seas Fleet as theprimary offensive weaponof the German navy. Thefleet, hiding in its baseswhile ostensibly waiting

for the great battle, hadachieved nothing.Henceforth, Scheer toldWilhelm, the fleet “willhavetodevoteitselftoonetask—to get the U-boatssafelyouttoseaandbringthem safely home again.”Scheer argued that U-20was especially important,because if theRoyalNavyhad been allowed todestroy or capture the U-

boat that had sunk theLusitania, “this would beglad tidings for theBritishGovernment.”He told Wilhelm that ifsubmarine crews were tomaintain their daring—their“ardor”—theyneededfull assurance that theywouldnotbeabandonedifthey encountereddifficulties.“Tous,”Scheerdeclared, “every U-boat is

ofsuchimportance,thatitisworthrisking thewholeavailable Fleet to afford itassistanceandsupport.”Bythispoint,Germany’s

U-boat fleet had achieveda level of strength that atlastgaveitthepotentialtobecome a truly imposingforce.Where inMay1915thenavyhadonlythirtyU-boats,by1917ithadmorethan one hundred, many

larger and more powerfulthanSchwieger’sU-20andcarrying more torpedoes.With this robust new fleetnowready,thepressuretodeploy it to the fullestgrewsteadily.A German admiral,HenningvonHoltzendorff,came up with a plan soirresistible it succeeded inbringing agreementbetween supporters and

opponents of unrestrictedwarfare. By turningGermany’s U-boats loose,andallowingtheircaptainsto sink every vessel thatentered the “war zone,”Holtzendorff proposed toendthewarinsixmonths.Not five, not seven, butsix. He calculated that fortheplantosucceed,ithadto begin on February 1,1917, not a day later.

Whether or not thecampaign drew Americaintothewardidn’tmatter,he argued, for the warwould be over beforeAmerican forces could bemobilized. The plan, likeits territorial equivalent,the Schlieffen plan, was amodel of methodicalGerman thinking, thoughno one seemed torecognize that it too

embodieda largemeasureof self-delusion.Holtzendorff bragged, “Iguarantee upon my wordas a naval officer that noAmerican will set foot ontheContinent!”Germany’s top civilianand military leadersconverged on KaiserWilhelm’s castle at Plesson January 8, 1917, toconsider theplan, and the

next evening Wilhelm, inhis role as suprememilitary commander,signed an order to put itintoaction,adecisionthatwould prove one of themostfatefulofthewar.OnJanuary 16, the GermanForeign Office sent anannouncement of the newcampaign to AmbassadorBernstorff in Washington,with instructions that he

deliver it to SecretaryLansingonJanuary31,theday before the newcampaign was to begin.The timingwas an affrontto Wilson: it left noopportunity for protest ornegotiationandcameevenas Bernstorff waspromoting the idea thatGermany really did wantpeace.Wilsonwasoutragedbut

chose not to see thedeclaration itself assufficient justification forwar. What he did not yetknowwasthattherewasasecond, very secretmessage appended to thetelegram Bernstorff hadreceived and that bothtelegrams had beeninterceptedand relayed toBlinker Hall’s intelligencedivision in the Old

Admiralty Building inLondon, which by nowoversaw a second, andsingularly sensitive,component of Room 40’soperations—theinterception of diplomaticcommunications, bothGerman and, incidentally,American.

THE FIRST OF Hall’s men to

grasp the importance ofthe second telegram wasone of his top codebreakers,Lt.Cdr.NigeldeGrey. On the morning ofJanuary 17, 1917, aWednesday, Hall andanother colleague wereattending to routinematters, when de Greywalkedintotheoffice.“D.I.D.,” he began—using the acronym for

Director of IntelligenceDivision—“d’you want tobring America into thewar?”“Yes, my boy,” Hallanswered.“Why?”DeGrey toldhim thatamessage had come in thatwas “rather astonishing.”Ithadbeeninterceptedtheday before, and de Greyhad not yet managed toread the entire text, but

what he had decipheredthusfarseemedalmosttoofar-fetchedtobeplausible.Hall read the partial

decrypt three or fourtimes,insilence.“Idonotremember a time when Iwas more excited,” hewrote.But just as quickly, he

realized that theremarkable nature of themessage presented a

challenge. To disclose thetext right awaywouldnotonly put the secret ofRoom 40 at risk but alsoraise questions about thecredibility of themessage,for what it proposed wascertaintoraiseskepticism.The telegram was fromGermany’s foreignsecretary, ArthurZimmermann,written in anew code that was

unfamiliar to Room 40.The process of renderingitstextincoherentEnglishwasslowanddifficult,butgradually the essentialelements of the messagecame into view, like aphotograph in adarkroombath. It instructedGermany’s ambassador inMexico to offer Mexicanpresident VenustianoCarranza an alliance, to

take effect if the newsubmarine campaign drewAmerica into the war.“Make war together,”Zimmermann proposed.“Make peace together.” Inreturn, Germany wouldtake measures to helpMexico seize previouslyheld lands—“lostterritory”—in Texas, NewMexico,andArizona.Hallhadnodoubtas to

the telegram’s importance.“This may be a very bigthing,” he told de Grey,“possiblythebiggestthingofthewar.Forthepresentnot a soul outside thisroomistobetoldanythingat all.” And that includedevenHall’ssuperiorsintheAdmiralty.Hall hoped he couldavoid revealing thetelegram altogether. There

was a chance thatGermany’s declaration ofunrestricted U-boatwarfare by itself wouldpersuade PresidentWilsonthat the time forwar hadcome. Hall’s hopes soaredonFebruary3,1917,whenWilson broke offdiplomatic relations withGermany and orderedAmbassador Bernstorff toleave. But Wilson stopped

shortofcallingforwar.Ina speech that day,Wilsonstated that he could notbelieve Germany reallyintended to attack everyship that entered the warzone and added, “Onlyactual overt acts on theirpart canmakeme believeitevennow.”Hall realized the time

for action had come—thathehadtogetthetelegram

intoAmericanhandsbutatthe same time protect thesecret of Room 40.Through a bit ofskulduggery, Hallmanagedtoacquireacopyof the telegram as it hadbeen received in Mexico,from an employee of theMexican telegraph office,therebyallowingBritaintoclaim that it hadobtainedthe telegram using

conventional espionagetechniques. On February24, 1917, Britain’s foreignsecretary formallypresentedafullytranslatedcopy of the telegram toU.S.ambassadorPage.

WILSONWANTEDtoreleasethetext immediately, butSecretary Lansingcounseled against it,

urging that they firstconfirmbeyonddoubtthatthe message was real.Wilsonagreedtowait.Thatsameday,thenewsbroke that a Cunardpassenger liner, theLaconia,hadbeensunkoffthe coast of Ireland, afterbeing struck by twotorpedoes. Among thedead were a mother anddaughter from Chicago.

Edith Galt Wilson hadknownthemboth.

WILSON AND LANSING resolvedtoleakthetelegramtotheAssociated Press, and onthe morning of March 1,1917, America’snewspapersmade it front-page news. Skepticsimmediately proclaimedthe telegram to be a

forgery concocted by theBritish,justasLansingandCaptain Hall had fearedwould happen. Lansingexpected Zimmermann todeny themessage, therebyforcing the United Stateseither to disclose thesource or to stand muteand insist that the nationtrustthepresident.But Zimmermann

surprised him. On Friday,

March 2, during a pressconference, Zimmermannhimself confirmed that hehadsentthetelegram.“Byadmitting the truth,”Lansing wrote, “heblundered in a mostastounding manner for aman engaged ininternational intrigue. Ofcourse the message itselfwas a stupid piece ofbusiness, but admitting it

wasfarworse.”

THEREVELATIONthatGermanyhoped to enlist Mexico inan alliance, with thepromiseofU.S.territoryasa reward,was galvanizingby itself, but it wasfollowed on Sunday,March 18, by news thatGerman submarines hadsunkthreemoreAmerican

ships, without warning.(To add to the sense ofglobal cataclysm, apopularrebellionsweepingRussia—the so-calledFebruary Revolution—hadcaused the abdication onMarch15ofTsarNicholasand filled the next day’spapers with news ofviolence in the streets ofRussia’s then capital,Petrograd.)Atectonicshift

occurred in the nation’smood. The press nowcalledforwar.AshistorianBarbara Tuchman put it:“Allthesepapershadbeenardently neutral untilZimmermann shot anarrow in the air andbrought down neutralitylikeadeadduck.”Secretary Lansing was

elated. “The Americanpeopleareat last readyto

make war on Germany,thankGod,”hewrote inapersonal memorandum, inwhich he revealed acertain bloodlust. “It maytake two or three years,”Lansing wrote. “It mayeven take five years. Itmay cost a millionAmericans;itmaycostfivemillion. However long itmay take, however manymen it costs we must go

throughwithit.Ihopeandbelieve that the Presidentwillseeitinthislight.”Wilson gathered his

cabinet on March 20,1917, and asked eachmembertostatehisviews.One by one eachweighedin. All said the time forwar had come; mostagreedthatineffectastateof war already existedbetween America and

Germany. “I must havespoken with vehemence,”Lansing wrote, “becausethe President askedme tolowermyvoice so thatnoone in the corridor couldhear.”Once all had spoken,

Wilson thanked them butgave no hint as to whatcoursehewouldtake.The next day, he sent a

request to Congress to

convene a special sessiononApril2.Hepreparedhisspeech,againtypingonhisHammond portable. IkeHoover, the White Houseusher, told anothermember of the staff thatjudgingbyWilson’smood,“Germany is going to getHell in the address toCongress. I never knewhim to be more peevish.He’s out of sorts, doesn’t

feel well, and has aheadache.”Topreventleaks,WilsonaskedHoover tobring thespeech to the printingoffice in person, on themorning of April 2. Thatsame day, news arrivedthat a German submarinehad sunk yet anotherAmerican ship, the Aztec,killing twenty-eight U.S.citizens. Wilson hoped to

speak that afternoon, butvarious congressionalprocesses intervened, andhewasnotcalleduntiltheevening.He left theWhiteHouse at 8:20 P.M.; Edithhad set off for theCapitoltenminutesearlier.A spring rain fell, soft

and fragrant; the streetsgleamed from the ornatelamps along PennsylvaniaAvenue. The dome of the

Capitolwaslitforthefirsttime in the building’shistory. Wilson’s Treasurysecretary and son-in-law,William McAdoo, wouldlater recall how theilluminated dome “stoodinsolemnsplendoragainstthedarkwetsky.”Despitethe rain, hundredsofmenand women lined theavenue. They removedtheir hats and watched

withsomberexpressionsasthe president passedslowly in his car,surrounded by soldiers onhorseback, as clear a signas any of what was tocome.Hoovesbeatsteadilyagainstthestreetandgavetheprocessiontheairofastatefuneral.Wilson arrived at the

Capitol at 8:30, to find itheavily guarded by

additional cavalry, theSecret Service, post officeinspectors,andcitypolice.Three minutes later, theSpeaker announced, “ThePresident of the UnitedStates.” The vast chamberexploded with cheers andapplause. Small Americanflagsflutteredeverywhere,like birds’ wings. Thetumult continued for twominutes, before settling to

allowWilsontobegin.He spoke in the directand coolmanner that hadbecome familiar to thenation and that listenersoften described asprofessorial. His voicebetrayed no hint of whathe was now prepared toaskofCongress.Atfirsthekept his eyes on his text,but as he progressed henowandthenlookedupto

underscoreapoint.He described Germany’s

behavior as constituting“ineffectnothinglessthanwar against thegovernment and people ofthe United States.” Heoutlined Germany’s pastefforts at espionage andalluded to theZimmermann telegram,and he cast America’scoming fight in lofty

terms. “The world,” hesaid, “must be made safefordemocracy.”At this there rose the

sound of one man’sapplause, slow and loud.Sen. John SharpWilliams,a Mississippi Democrat,broughthishandstogether“gravely, emphatically,”accordingtoareporterfortheNewYorkTimes.Inthenextmoment,theideathat

thiswasthecenterpieceofWilson’s speech, and thatit encapsulated all thatAmerica might hope toachieve, suddenly dawnedontherestof thesenatorsand representatives, and agreatroarfilledtheroom.Wilson’s remarks gained

force and momentum.Warningof“manymonthsof fiery trial and sacrificeahead,” he declared that

America’sfightwasafightonbehalfofallnations.“To such a task we can

dedicateour livesandourfortunes, everything thatweareandeverythingthatwehave,withtheprideofthose who know that theday has come whenAmerica is privileged tospend her blood and hermight for the principlesthat gave her birth and

happiness and the peacewhich she has treasured.God helping her, she candonoother.”Now camepandemonium. Everyoneroseatonce.Flagswaved.Men cheered, whistled,shouted,cried.Wilsonhadspoken for thirty-sixminutes; he nevermentionedtheLusitaniabyname. He quickly walked

fromthechamber.Four days passed beforeboth houses of Congressapproved a resolution forwar.Duringthisperiod,asif deliberately seeking toensure that no Americanhadlast-minutedoubts,U-boats sank two Americanmerchant ships, killing atleast eleven U.S. citizens.Congress took so long notbecause there was any

question whether theresolution would pass butbecause every senator andrepresentative understoodthis to be a moment ofgreat significance andwanted to have hisremarks locked forever inthe embrace of history.Wilson signed theresolution at 1:18 P.M. onApril6,1917.ToWinstonChurchill, it

was long overdue. In hismemoir-like history TheWorld Crisis, 1916–1918,he said of Wilson, “Whathe did in April, 1917,could have been done inMay, 1915. And if donethen what abridgment ofthe slaughter; whatsparingoftheagony;whatruin, what catastropheswould have beenprevented; in how many

million homes would anempty chair be occupiedtoday;howdifferentwouldbe the shattered world inwhich victors andvanquished alike arecondemnedtolive!”Asithappened,America

joinedthewarjustintime.Germany’s new campaignof unrestricted submarinewarfare had succeeded toan alarming degree,

although this had beenkept secret by Britishofficials. An Americanadmiral, William S. Sims,learned the truthwhenhetraveled to England tomeet with British navalleaders to plan America’sparticipationinthewaratsea.WhatSimsdiscoveredshocked him. German U-boatsweresinkingshipsatsuch a high rate that

AdmiraltyofficialssecretlypredictedBritainwouldbeforced to capitulate byNovember1,1917.Duringthe worst month, April,any ship leaving Britainhad a one-in-four chanceof being sunk. InQueenstown, U.S. consulFrost saw strikingcorroboration of the newcampaign’s effect: in asingle twenty-four-hour

period, the crews of sixtorpedoed ships cameashore. Admiral Simsreported to Washington,“Briefly stated, I considerthatatthepresentmomentwearelosingthewar.”Just ten days later, the

U.S. Navy dispatched asquadron of destroyers.They set off from Bostonon April 24. Not many ofthem. Just six. But the

significance of theirdeparture was lost on noone.

ON THE MORNING of May 4,1917, anyone standingatop the Old Head ofKinsale would have seenan extraordinary sight.First there appeared sixplumesof dark smoke, faroff on the horizon. The

day was unusually clear,the sea a deep blue, thehills emerald, very muchlike a certain day twoyears earlier. The shipsbecame steadily moredistinct. Wasplike withtheir long slender hulls,these were ships not seenin these waters before.Theyapproachedinaline,each flying a largeAmerican flag. To the

hundreds of onlookers bynow gathered on shore,many also carryingAmerican flags, it wouldbe a sight they wouldnever forget and intowhich they read greatmeaning. These were thedescendants of thecolonials returningnowatBritain’shourofneed, themoment captured in animmediately famous

painting by BernardGribble, The Return of theMayflower. American flagshung from homes andpublic buildings. A Britishdestroyer, the Mary Rose,sailed out to meet theinbound warships, andsignaled, “Welcome to theAmerican colors.” Towhich the Americancommander answered,“Thank you, I am glad of

yourcompany.”On May 8, thedestroyersbegantheirfirstpatrols, just a day beyondthe two-year anniversaryof the sinking of theLusitania.

EPILOGUE

PERSONALEFFECTS

ONE HOT DAY IN JULY 1916, AHARBOR PILOT WALKED into theship-newsofficeinBatteryPark in Manhattan andinvited a group of

reporters to accompanyhimon abrief voyage, bytugboat, up the HudsonRiver toYonkers, northofManhattan, where he wasto “fetch out” a ship, thatis, guide it downriver tothewiderandsaferwatersof New York Harbor.Ordinarily this was not avoyage the reporterswouldbeinclinedtomake,but the day was stifling

andthepilotsaidthefreshair would do them allgood. The reporters,among them the EveningMail’s JackLawrence, alsobroughtalongagooddealofalcohol,or,asLawrenceputit,“liquidsustenance.”As their tugboatapproached the Yonkerswharf, the reporters sawthat the ship was an oldCunard ocean liner, the

Ultonia, docked there topickupaloadofhorsesforthe war. It was a smallship,withonefunnel.“Shelooked so smeared anddirty and utterlywoebegonethatwehardlyrecognized her,” Lawrencewrote. The ship’s blackhull had been paintedgray, in haphazardfashion.“Muchofthishadchipped off, giving her a

peculiar, spottedappearance.”The day was languid,

therivercalm,andyettheshipmovedwithapeculiarside-to-side motion.Lawrence had never seensuch a thing and found it“almost uncanny.” Thisrolling,thepilotexplained,was caused by thehundreds of horses withinthe ship. Sensing

movement, all the horsesroped to one side of thehull would suddenly rearbackward in alarm,causing a slight roll. Thisin turn would startle thehorses anew and causethoseon theopposite sideto step back. The side-to-side roll became morepronounced with eachcycle, to the point wherethe ship looked as if it

were being buffeted by aheavy sea. This, the pilotexplained, was called a“horse storm,” and undercertain conditions it couldbang a ship against itswharf and damage deckrailsandboats.Asthetugboatpulledupalongside the Ultonia, theship’s cargo doors swungopen to admit the pilot.The sunblazed. Inside the

darkened hold stood oneman, shaded by theoverhead door. He lookeddown at the pilot andreporters. He did notsmile. Lawrencerecognized him at once:Capt. William ThomasTurner. “His old blueuniform was soiled andwrinkled,” Lawrencewrote, but “his cap,bearing the Cunard Line

insignia, was still at thefamiliar jaunty angle. Thefigureofthemanwasstillerectandcommanding.”The pilot climbed into

theship.“Gladtoseeyouaboard,

sir,” Turner told him.“We’ll get under wayimmediately. These horsesareraisinghell.”Turner had been given

command of the ship in

November 1915, after itsregular captain had fallenillduringastopinFrance.He had been the onlycaptain available toreplace him. Just beforeTurner left Liverpool totake over command,Cunard’s chairman AlfredBooth asked him into hisoffice. Booth began toapologize about assigningTurner to such a modest

vessel, but the captainstopped him. “I told himthere were no regrets onmy part,” Turner said. “Iwouldgotoseaonabargeif necessary to get afloatagain, as I was tired ofbeing idle and on shorewhile everyone else wasawayatsea.”In December 1916,

Cunard reassigned Turnerand put him in command

of the Ivernia, anotherpassenger shiprecommissioned for warduty, though this onecarried troops, not horses.Turner was not its masterfor long. On January 1,1917, while in theMediterranean off theisland of Crete, the shipwas torpedoed and sunk,killing 153 soldiers andcrew.Turnersurvived.The

ship had been zigzaggingatthetimeoftheattack.Cunard made Turner arelief captainandputhimback in charge of theMauretania,but thiswasathin expression ofconfidence, for the shipwasindrydock.In 1918, Turner wasonce again compelled torelivetheLusitaniadisasterwhen a federal judge in

NewYorkopenedatrialtodeterminewhetherCunardwas liable for the ship’sloss. The proceedingcombinedseventylawsuitsfiled by Americansurvivors and next of kin.Here too the judge ruledthat the sole cause of thedisaster was Schwieger’sattack and that he hadfiredtwotorpedoes.Thefinalhumiliationfor

Turner came later, withpublication of WinstonChurchill’s book, inwhichChurchill persisted inblaming Turner for thedisaster and, despitepossessing clearknowledgetothecontrary,reasserted that the shiphad been hit by twotorpedoes.The old captain—“this

great little man,” as his

friendGeorgeBallputit—hadsurvivedthesinkingoftheLusitaniawithhisprideintact; he’d survived thesinking of the Ivernia; butthis newaffronthurthim.Atsixty-four,whenCunardrequiredcaptainstoretire,Turner left the companyand traveled to Australiatotrytomendthingswithhis estranged family butfound that life there did

not suit him. He returnedto England and retired tohishome inGreatCrosby,outside Liverpool, to belooked after by hislongtime companion,MabelEvery.Hekeptbeesin half a dozen hives thathe had built in his yardand harvested the honeythey produced. Often inconversation he wouldabsentmindedly pick

stingersfromhisarmsandshins.Turnerwas said to be a

fundamentally happy manwholikedagoodpipenowandthen.Hetoldstoriesofthe sea,butnever theonemost people wanted tohear.“Capt.Turnerfelttheloss of the Lusitania verymuch, and seldommentioned it to anyone,”wrote Miss Every. It was

this silence that told hisfriends how heavily thedisaster weighed on him.Inareplytoasympatheticfemale friend in Boston,Turnerwrote,“Igrieveforall the poor innocentpeople that lost their livesand for those that are leftto mourn their dear oneslost.” But that was all hewas willing to say on thesubject, he told her.

“Please excuse me sayingmore, because I hate tothinkorspeakofit.”At the same time, hewas not haunted by thedisaster; nor did it leavehimdepressedandbroken,as popular conceptionmight have held. WroteGeorge Ball, “He was fartoo strong a character tobrood over a matter thatwas beyond rectification

andallow it toworryhimtothepointofmelancholy—acharacteristicheneverat any time displayed.”Turner himself said, in aninterview with the NewYorkTimes,“Iamsatisfiedthat every precaution wastaken, and that nothingwasleftundonethatmighthave helped to savehumanlivesthatday.”Turnerretainedhisgood

humor, according toGeorge Ball. “Merrimentand humor were alwaysprominently observable inhis company and neverwas he unable to keep allhis associates interestedandamused.”Thisbecamemoredifficultwhen,inhisseventies, cancerinfiltrated his colon. “Thepoor fellow did suffergreat agony in the last

year of his life,” Ballwrote.TurnerdiedonJune24,

1933, at the age ofseventy-six.“Hediedashehad lived,” Ball wrote,“full of courage and spiritandwithoutcomplaint.Sopassedtothegreatbeyondoneof thehardy and ablesailors of the old hardschool.”Turner’sniece,Mercedes

Desmore, attended thefuneral. The captain wasburied at a cemetery inBirkenhead, across theMerseyfromtheLiverpooldocks. His name wasengravedat thebottomofthe family tombstone,along with a briefreferencetotheLusitania.Anewwarcame,andonSeptember 16, 1941, aNaziU-boattorpedoedand

sank a British ship, theJedmoor, off the OuterHebrides,killingthirty-oneof its thirty-six crew.Amongthelostwasafifty-five-year-old able seamannamed Percy WilfredTurner—Captain Turner’syoungestson.

IN APRIL 1917, Kptlt.Walther Schwieger was

given command of a newsubmarine, U-88, largerthanU-20,andwith twicethe number of torpedoes.A few months later, onJuly 30, he received theGerman navy’s highestaward, a pretty blue crosswith a French name, Pourle Mérite, nicknamed theBlue Max. At the time hewasonlytheeighthU-boatcommandertoreceiveone,

hisrewardforhavingsunk190,000 gross tons ofshipping. The Lusitaniaalone accounted for 16percentofthetotal.In London, in the OldAdmiralty Building, Room40 tracked Schwieger andhisnewboat through fourcruises, one of whichlasted nineteen days. Thefourth cruise began onSeptember 5, 1917, and

proved to be considerablyshorter. Soon afterentering the North Sea,Schwieger encountered aBritish Q-ship, the HMSStonecrop,oneofaclassofso-called mystery shipsthatoutwardlylookedlikevulnerable freighters butwere in fact heavilyarmed. While trying toescape, Schwieger steeredhis boat into a British

minefield. Neither he norhiscrewsurvived,andthesubmarine was neverfound. Room 40 recordedthe loss with a smallnotationinred:“Sunk.”In Denmark, coastal

residentscontinuedtovisitthe shore where hisprevious boat, U-20, hadrunaground,andnowandthenwouldclimbuponthewreckage, until in 1925

the Danish navydemolished the remainswith a spectacularexplosion. By then, theconning tower, deck gun,andothercomponentshadbeenremoved.Theyresidetodayinaseasidemuseumin Thorsminde, Denmark,on an austere stretch ofNorth Sea coastline.Severed from its base andlaced with rust, the

conning tower sits on themuseum’s front lawnwithall the majesty of adiscarded refrigerator, aforlorn ghost of theterrifying vessel that oncehunted the seas andchangedhistory.

CAPT.REGINALD“BLINKER”HALLwas knighted in 1918 forhis work with Room 40,

thoughtheworkitselfwaskeptsecretfordecades.HewentontowinelectiontotheHouse of Commons asa Conservative memberand remained active inpoliticsthroughthe1920s.At one point, during ageneralstrikein1926,theConservative partyestablished a temporarynewspaper, the BritishGazette, and put Hall in

charge of personnel. Theeditor inchiefwashisoldboss, Winston Churchill.Circulation soared to onemillioncopiesadaybeforethe strike ended. Hallretired from politics in1929 and moved to ahomeintheNewForest,alovely terrain of pastureand woods in southernEngland.He set out to publish a

book about Room 40 andhis exploits as intelligencechief, but in August 1933theAdmiraltyandForeignOffice,sensinganewdarktilt in the world, madeclear theirdispleasureandtheir wish that the storyremain secret. Hallwithdrew the manuscript,though his notes and anumber of completedchapters reside today in

the Churchill Archives inCambridge, England. Inone notation Hall exults,“How simple isintelligence!”Hall believed that new

troublewasindeedsoontocomeinEurope.HevisitedGermany and Austria in1934.Evertheintelligenceman, he reported hisobservations about theNational Socialist

movement to thegovernment. He alsodescribedhisexperiencetoa friend in America. “Allthe young are in thenet,”he wrote, “anyone whotriedtokeepoutofbeingaNazi is hazed till theychange theirmind;a formof mass cruelty whichexists only in such acountry.” He added, “Itwill, some time soon, be

the duty of HUMANBEINGStodealwithamaddog;whenthattimecomesyour people will have totaketheirshare.”When the next war didbegin,HalljoinedBritain’sHome Guard. He becameitschiefofintelligence.Hishealth, never good,declined as the warprogressed. In July 1943one of his former code

breakers, Claude Serocold,by thatpointadirectorofClaridge’s Hotel, put himup in one of the hotel’ssuites so that he couldspend his last days incomfort. At one point aplumber arrived to dealwith a problem in thebathroom.Inkeepingwiththe dignified character ofthehotel,theplumberwasdressed in a black suit.

Hall said, “If you’re theundertaker, my man,you’re too early.”He diedonOctober22,1943.

AMONG THE PASSENGERS whosurvived—all of whomreceived from Cunard alifetime discount of 25percent—there weremarriages, lifelongfriendships forged, and at

least two suicides. RitaJolivet’s sister, Inez, arenowned violinist, wasnot herself a passenger,but her husband wasamong the lost. Shedecided shecouldnot livewithout him and in lateJuly 1915 shot herself todeath. At least two youngmenwhohadsurvivedthesinking were subsequentlykilledinthewar.

Margaret Mackworthexperienced a complexsuite of aftereffects. Herordeal had the perverseresult of eliminating herlong-standingfearofwaterand substituting anexaggeratedterrorofbeingtrapped in an enclosureunder water. This fearcame to her primarilywhen she took the trainthat passed through the

Severn Tunnel, under theSevern River. It was ajourney she had to takeoften, and every time, shewrote, “I insistentlypictured the tunnel givingway,thewaterrushingin,and the passengers beingcaught and suffocatedanddrownedlikeratsinatrapin the little boxes ofcarriages.”Overall, though, she

believed the disaster hadmade her a better person.Shehadanewconfidence.“If anyone had asked mewhether I should behaveasIoughtinashipwreckIshould have had thegravestdoubts,”shewrote.“And here I had gotthrough this test withoutdisgracing myself.” Shealsofound,tohersurprise,that the experience had

eliminated a deep horrorof death that she hadharbored since childhood.“Idonotquiteunderstandhow or why it did this,”she wrote. “The onlyexplanation I can give isthatwhenIwaslyingbackin that sunlitwater Iwas,andIknewit,veryneartodeath.” The prospect hadnot frightened her, shewrote: “Rather, somehow,

one had a protectedfeeling, as if it were akindlything.”Her friend andtablemate, DorothyConner, went on to jointhewar effort,working ina canteen in France closeto the front. In honor ofher help and bravery, theFrench awarded her theCroixdeGuerre.Young Dwight Harris

presented his engagementringtohisbetrothed,MissAileen Cavendish Foster,and theyweremarriedonJuly 2, 1915, in London.The little boy he saved,Percy Richards, reachedtheageofforty,butkilledhimselfonJune24,1949.George Kessler, the

Champagne King, madegood on a pledge he hadmade during his time in

the water—that if hesurvived he would devotehimself to the care ofvictims of the war. Heestablishedafoundationtohelp soldiers and sailorsblinded in battle. HelenKeller became a trusteeandlatergavehernametothe organization, whichoperates today as HelenKellerInternational.Five months after the

disaster, Charles Lauriatwrote a book about hisexperience, entitled TheLusitania’s Last Voyage. Itbecame a bestseller. Hecontinued to sell books,manuscripts, andworksofart, and in 1922 filed aclaim against GermanywiththeU.S.MixedClaimsCommission for the valueof the lost Thackeraydrawings and the Dickens

Carol. He wanted$51,399.31, whichincluded interest; thecommission awarded him$10,000. He died onDecember28,1937,attheage of sixty-three. Hisobituary in the BostonGlobe noted the fact thatover the years he hadmade sixty voyages toLondon and Europe. Asuccession of new owners

built the Lauriat companyinto an empire of 120“Lauriat’s” stores, but thisexpansion came tooquickly,attoogreatacost,just as bookstores cameunder pressure fromnationalchainsandonlinesellers. The company filedfor bankruptcy protectionin 1998 and a year laterclosedforgood.Belle Naish, the Kansas

City passenger who losther husband, found thatlong after the disaster shecould not look at a clearblue skywithout feeling adeep sense of foreboding.Theodate Pope put Mrs.Naishinherwillasthanksfor that moment on thedeck of the rescue shipJulia when Naish realizedthat Theodate was not infact dead and called for

help.Theodate’s recoverytook time. Her spiritualistfriends rallied andarrangedforhertostayina private home in Cork.She arrived with her facestill battered and vividlyhued, wearing a mélangeof clothing that she hadselected from a collectiondonated by Queenstownresidents. Her host family

placedherinaguestroomwithwhitewalls, tulips inwindowboxes,andalivelycoal fire. Until this pointshe had existed in a kindof emotional trance,unable to feel much ofanything. But now,suddenly, in this cozyhome, she felt safe. “Idropped into a chair and,forthefirsttime,criedmyheart out.” She received

letters of consolation.Mary Cassatt wrote, “Ifyou were saved it isbecause you have stillsomething to do in thisworld.”To complete her

recovery, TheodatemovedontoLondon,totheHydePark Hotel. Henry Jameswas a regular visitor.Theodatedescribedherselfasbeing“insuchastateof

exhaustionandshock”thatshewoulddriftofftosleepin his presence, but eachtime she awoke, he wasthere,“hisfoldedhandsonthe top of his cane, somotionless that he lookedlike a mezzotint.” ThoughshehadadoredEnglandonher past visits, she nowfound it utterly changed.“You can have no idea ofthewaratmospherehere,”

she wrote to her mother.“Itissuffocating,itisso—not depressing—but soconstantly in the thoughtsand on the lips ofeveryone.”Shereturnedtoher beloved house, Hill-Stead. For long afterwardshe endured severeinsomnia, and nightmaresin which she searched forher young companion ofthe Lusitania, Edwin

Friend. On the worstnights a cousin wouldwalk her through herhouse until she hadcalmed enough to returntobed.She eventually adopted

the “gold collar” andmarried a former U.S.ambassador to Russia,John Wallace Riddle. Sheachieved her goal ofcreating a progressive

boys’schoolasamemorialtoherlatefather.Shebuiltit in Avon, Connecticut,and called it Avon OldFarmsSchool,whichexiststoday.Her companion, EdwinFriend, had indeed beenlost but was reported bymembers of thereconstituted AmericanSociety for PsychicalResearch to have paid the

groupseveralvisits.

SOURCESANDACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TheGunintheMuseum

INTHEDUSTYTIMELINEofworldevents installed in mybrainback inhigh school,the Lusitania affairconstituted the skimpiest

of entries, tuckedsomewhere between theCivil War and PearlHarbor. I always had theimpression, shared Isuspect bymany, that thesinking immediatelydrovePresidentWoodrowWilsonto declare war onGermany, when in factAmerica did not enterWorld War I for anothertwo years—half the span

oftheentirewar.Butthatwas just one of the manyaspectsoftheepisodethattook me by surprise. As Ibegan reading into thesubject, and digging intoarchives in America andBritain, I found myselfintrigued, charmed, andmoved.What especially drew

me was the rich array ofmaterialsavailabletohelp

tell the story in as vividamanner as possible—sucharchival treasures astelegrams, interceptedwireless messages,survivordepositions,secretintelligence ledgers,KapitänleutnantSchwieger’sactualwarlog,Edith Galt’s love letters,and even a film of theLusitania’s final departurefrom New York. Together

thesemadeapaletteoftherichest colors. I can onlyhope I used them to besteffect.Findingthesethingswas

halfthefun.Everybookisan expedition intounfamiliar realms, withboth an intellectual and aphysical component. Theintellectual journey takesyoudeepintoasubject,tothe point where you

achieve a level ofexpertise. A focusedexpertise, however. Am IanexpertonWorldWarI?No. Do I know a lot nowabout the Lusitania andWorldWar I–era U-boats?Yes. Will I ever writeanother book about asinking ship or submarinewarfare?Mostlikelynot.The physical journey

proved especially

compelling, inways I hadnot anticipated. At onepoint I found myselfaboard Cunard’s QueenMary2 inaForce10galeduring a winter crossingfrom New York toSouthampton. At another,IwounduphorriblylostinHamburg with a German-speaking GPS system thatunbeknownst to me hadbeen tuned to a different

city but gamely tried todirect me to my hotel allthe same. I felt like acharacter in the BourneIdentity, taking wild turnsdown alleys and into cul-de-sacs,until I realizednoGPS system would eversend a driver the wrongway down a one-waystreet.My travels tookmeas far north asThorsminde, Denmark (in

February no less); as farsouth as ChristopherNewport University inNewport News, Virginia;as far west as the HooverLibrary at StanfordUniversity; and to variouspoints east, including thealwaysamazingLibraryofCongress and the U.S.National Archives, andequally enticing archivesin London, Liverpool, and

Cambridge. There willalwaysbeanEngland,andIamsoveryglad.Along the way came

quiet moments ofrevelation where past andpresent for an instantjoinedandhistorybecamea tactile thing. I live forthesemoments.No soonerdid I sit down to work atthe Hoover Library atStanford University than

an archivist brought me,unbidden, a fragment ofplanking from a lifeboatstamped with the nameLusitania, originally foundbeside the corpse of apassengerwhohadwashedashore. In theStrandingsmuseum St.George, in Thorsminde,Denmark, I was able tostandbesideandtouchthedeck gun of U-20—the

actual gun that had sunkthe Earl of Lathom—adopting poses that mywife assured me werebeyond dorky. At theNational Archives of theUnitedKingdom,inKew—well guarded by swans—Iopenedonefileboxtofindthe actual codebook, theSKM, or Signalbuch derKaiserlichen Marine, thathad been retrieved by the

Russians and given toRoom 40 in 1914. One ofthe most powerfulmomentscamewhenIwasgiven permission by theUniversity of Liverpool,repository of the CunardArchive, to view morguephotosofLusitaniavictims.The effect of suchmoments is like sticking afinger in amildly chargedelectricsocket.Itisalways

reassuring, because nomatter how deeply Iimmerse myself in asubject, I still like havingactual, physical proof thatthe events I’m writingaboutreallydidoccur.Strangely, in the week

before I sent my initialdraft to my editor, theKoreanferrySewolsankintheYellow Sea, subjectinghundredsofschoolchildren

toanexperienceverycloseto that of the passengerson the Lusitania. Onemorning I finishedrewriting a passagedealingwiththeLusitania’ssevere list and how itimpaired the launching oflifeboats, only to visitCNN’s website a fewminuteslatertoreadaboutexactly the samephenomenon occurring

withtheSewol.MyvoyageontheQueen

Mary 2—a beautiful andgracious ship, by the way—brought me invaluableinsights into the nature oftransoceanic travel. Eventoday,whenyouareinthemiddleof theAtlanticyouare very much alone, andfar from rescue ifsomething cataclysmicwere to occur. Unlike the

passengersoftheLusitania,before we left New Yorkweallwererequiredtotryonourlifejackets.Noonewas exempted, regardlessof how many voyages heor she had already made.This was serious businessand, frankly, a bit scary,forputtingonalife jacketforces you to imagine theunimaginable.

WHEN WRITING about theLusitania, one has to bevery careful to sift andweigh the things thatappear in books alreadypublished on the subject.There are falsehoods andfalsefacts,andthese,oncedropped into thescholarlystream, appear over andover again,with footnotesalwaysleadingbacktothesameculprits.Fortunately,

I had a guide to help methrough all this, MikePoirier of Pawtucket,Rhode Island, an amateurhistorian who very likelyknowsmoreabouttheshipand its passengers thanany other living soul, andwho read my manuscriptforthingsthatmightcauseLusitania buffs to howlwithlaughter.Onegetsthesense that Mike cares

about the “Lucy’s”passengers as if theywerehis nephews and nieces.His helpwas invaluable. Iwas aided as well byanother Lusitaniaaficionado, GeoffreyWhitfield, who gaveme atour of modern-dayLiverpool. I must assert,however,thatifanyerrorspersist in this book, thefaultissolelymyown.

For evaluations of paceand narrative integrity—whether the book workedor not—I relied on mytrusted cadre of advancereaders, my great friendsCarrie Dolan and PennySimon, my friend andagentDavidBlack,andmysecret weapon, my wife,Christine Gleason, whosemargin notations—smileyfaces, tear-streamed eyes,

down arrows, and longrows of zzzzzs—as alwaysprovidedexcellentmarkersas towhere Iwentwrongand what I did right. Myeditor at CrownPublishing, Amanda Cook,wrote me an elevenpageletter that provided abrilliant road map totweaking the narrative.Sheprovedamasterattheart of offering praise,

while at the same timeshoving tiny knives undereach of my fingernails,propelling me into amonth of narrativerenovation that wasprobably themost intensewriting experience of mylife.Thanksaswelltocopyeditor Elisabeth Magnusforsavingmefromhavingone character engage inthe decidedly dangerous

practice of dressing with“flare,” and from havingpassengers go “clamoring”aboard. I must of coursethank the threeSuperheroes—myterm—ofCrown, Maya Mavjee,Molly Stern, and DavidDrake, who I confess arefar more adept atmanaging martinis than I.ThanksalsotoChrisBrandand Darren Haggar for a

truly excellent cover. Andfinally cheers to the realheroes, Emma Berry andSarahSmith.In the course of myresearch, I soughtwhenever possible to relyonarchivalmaterials,butIdid find certain secondaryworks to be of particularvalue: Arthur S. Link’smonumental multivolumebiography of Woodrow

Wilson,titled,well,Wilson—the most valuablevolumebeing, forme,TheStruggle for Neutrality,1914–1915;A.ScottBerg’smore recentWilson; JohnKeegan’s wrenching TheFirst World War; MartinGilbert’s The First WorldWar; Gerhard Ritter’s TheSchlieffen Plan; LowellThomas’s1928bookaboutWorld War I U-boats and

their crews, Raiders of theDeep; Reinhard Scheer’sGermany’sHighSeaFleetintheWorldWar; Churchill’sThe World Crisis, 1911–1918; Paul Kennedy’s TheWar Plans of the GreatPowers,1880–1914;andR.H. Gibson and MauricePrendergast’s primer, TheGerman Submarine War,1914–1918.I especially enjoyed the

many works of intimatehistory—memoirs,autobiographies, diaries—that I came across alongthe way, though these ofcourse must be treatedwithspecialcare,owingtofading memories andcovert agendas. Theirgreatest value lies in thelittle details they offerabout life as once lived.These works include

StarlingoftheWhiteHouse,by one of Wilson’s SecretService men, Edmund W.Starling (“as told to”ThomasSugrue),whotookme aboard Wilson’shoneymoon train;Woodrow Wilson: AnIntimate Memoir, byWilson’sphysician,CaryT.Grayson; My Memoir, byEdith Bolling Wilson;Commodore, by James

Bisset; Voyage of theDeutschland, by PaulKoenig; The Journal ofSubmarine Commander vonForstner,byGeorg-GuntherFreiherr von Forstner;TheLusitania’s Last Voyage, byCharlesE.LauriatJr.;ThisWas My World, byMargaret Mackworth(Viscountess Rhondda);andWhen the Ships CameIn, by Jack Lawrence.

Another such intimatework, valuable forgrounding me in Britishhigh society before thewar, was Lantern Slides:The Diaries and Letters ofViolet Bonham Carter,1904–1914, edited byMark Bonham Carter andMarkPottle,whichIfoundutterlycharming.Iconfessto having fallen a little inlove with Violet, the

daughter of British primeminister Herbert HenryAsquith.

THEFOLLOWINGLISTofcitationsisbynomeansexhaustive:to cite every fact wouldrequire a companionvolume and would betedious in the extreme. Icite all quoted materialand anything else that for

one reason or anotherrequires noting oramplificationorthatmightcause a Lusitania buff toburn a lifeboat on mylawn. Throughout I haveincluded small stories thatI could not fit into themain narrative but thatstruckmeasworth tellingall the same for theoblique insights they offerbutalsoforthebestreason

ofall:justbecause.

NOTES

ABBREVIATIONSUSEDINNOTES

ForeignRelationsU.S. Department of State,Papers Relating to theForeign Relations of theUnited States. 1915,

Supplement, The WorldWar, University ofWisconsin DigitalCollections, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1915Supp.

“Investigation”“InvestigationintotheLossof the Steamship‘Lusitania,’ ” ProceedingsBeforetheRightHon.Lord

Mersey, WreckCommissioner of theUnitedKingdom,June15–July 1, 1915, NationalArchivesUK.

Lauriat,ClaimCharles E. Lauriat Jr.,Claim, Lauriat vs.Germany, Docket 40,MixedClaimsCommission:United States and

Germany, Aug. 10, 1922.U.S.NationalArchivesandRecords Administration atCollegePark,MD.

MerseysideMaritime Archives,Merseyside MaritimeMuseum.

Schwieger,WarLogWalther Schwieger, War

Log. Bailey/RyanCollection, HooverInstitution Archives,Stanford University,Stanford,CA.

U.S. National Archives–CollegeParkU.S.NationalArchivesandRecords Administration atCollegePark,MD.

U.S. National Archives–NewYorkU.S.NationalArchivesandRecords Administration atNewYorkCity.

AWORDFROMTHECAPTAIN

1 “vessels flying theflag”: See New YorkTimes, May 1, 1915.An article about the

warning appears on p.3, the ad itself on p.19.

2 “thinking, dreaming,sleeping”: LiverpoolWeekly Mercury, May15,1915.

3 He assured theaudience: Preston,Lusitania,172.

4 “The truth is”: Baileyand Ryan, Lusitania

Disaster,82.5 on two previousoccasions: Ibid., 65;Beesly, Room 40, 93;Ramsay, Lusitania, 50,51.

6 “You could see theshape”: Testimony,Thomas M. Taylor,Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.

NationalArchives–NewYork,913.

PARTI:“BLOODYMONKEYS”

LUSITANIA:THEOLDSAILORMAN

1 Despite the war inEurope: “GeneralAnalysis of Passengersand Crew,” R.M.S.

Lusitania: Record ofPassengers & Crew,SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside.

2 This was … thegreatest number: NewYork Times, May 2,1915.

3 During an early trialvoyage: Cunard DailyBulletin,July19,1907,Merseyside.

4 “a vote of censure”:Ibid.

5 “for I calculate thatthereisroom”:Ibid.

6 “Please deliver me”:Ibid.

7 “The inhabitants werewarlike”: “Lusitania,”D42/S9/5/1, CunardArchives.

8“Rule,Britannia!”:Thetitle of this song is

often written and saidincorrectly, as if itwere a declaration.The title, however, ismeant to be anexhortation, as in “GoBritain!”

9 “You do not get anyidea”: Letter, C. R.Minnitt to Mrs. E. M.Poole, July 9, 1907,DX/2284,Merseyside.

10 The ship’s lightbulbs:Minutes,CunardBoardof Directors, July 10,1912, D42/B4/38,Cunard Archives; Fox,Transatlantic,404.

11 He found it “verygratifying”: Letter, W.Dranfield to W. T.Turner, Jan. 20, 1911,D42/C1/2/44, CunardArchives; Letter,W. T.

Turner to Alfred A.Booth, Feb. 6, 1911,D42/C1/2/44, CunardArchives.

12 Its 300 stokers: Bisset,Commodore,32.

13 Cunard barred crewmembers: Thecompany called thepermissible matches“Lucifer matches,”though in fact that

nameharkedbacktoadecidedly unsafe earlyprecursor that lit withapopandsentembersflying.

14 “counteract, as far aspossible”: “CunardLinerLusitania,”941.

15 The guns were neverinstalled: Strangely,this remained a pointof controversy for

decades, reinforced byreports by at least onediver who reportedseeing the barrel of anaval gun protrudingfromthewreckage.Butno passenger everspoke of seeing a gunaboard, and a film ofthe ship’s departureshows clearly that noguns were mounted.Also, a search by

Customs in New Yorkfound no evidence ofarmament.

16 “devil-dodger”:Hoehling andHoehling, Last Voyage,42.

17 “Had it been stormy”:HobartMercury,March8,1864.

18 “I was the quickestman”: Hoehliing and

Hoehling, Last Voyage,42.

19 “never, at any time”:Letter, George Ball toAdolf Hoehling, July22, 1955, HoehlingPapers.

20 “On the ships”: Letter,Mabel Every to AdolfHoehling, May 4,1955,HoehlingPapers.

21 “a load of bloody

monkeys”: Preston,Lusitania,108;alsosee“William ThomasTurner,” LusitaniaOnline, http://www.lusitania.net/turner.htm.

22 On one voyage:“Captain’sReport,Oct.15, 1904,” Minutes,Cunard ExecutiveCommittee, Oct. 20,

1904, D42/B4/22,Merseyside.

23 “Madam, do youthink”: Letter, GeorgeBalltoAdolfHoehling,July 22, 1955,HoehlingPapers.

24 more “clubbable”:Preston,Lusitania,108.

25 “He was a good, andconscientious skipper”:Letter, R. Barnes

(dictated to K.Simpson) to MaryHoehling, July 14,1955,HoehlingPapers.

26 “Captain’scompliments”: AlbertBestic to AdolfHoehling, June 10,1955,HoehlingPapers.

27 “one of the bravest”:Letter, ThomasMahoney to Adolf

Hoehling, May 14,1955,HoehlingPapers.

28 “The wave,” Turnersaid: New York Times,Jan.16,1910.

29 The Cunard manual:The manual was anexhibit in the NewYork limit-of-liabilityproceedings. CunardSteamship Company,“Rules to BeObserved

in the Company’sService,” Liverpool,March1913,AdmiraltyCase Files: LimitedLiabilityClaimsfortheLusitania, Box 1, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork.

30 The dangers of fog:Larson, Thunderstruck,376.

31 “to keep the ship

sweet”: CunardSteamship Company,“Rules,”54.

32 “The utmost courtesy”:Ibid.,43.

33 “much to theamusement”:NewYorkTimes,May23and24,1908.

34 “shouldnotbemadeamarket place”:Minutes, Sept. 1910

[day illegible],D42/B4/32, CunardArchives. There were othersortsofcomplaints.Onacoupleofvoyages inSeptember 1914 third-class passengers “of avery superior type”complained about thefact that Cunard didnot supply them withsheets, unlike other

less exalted steamshiplines, according to areport by the chiefthird-class steward.Hewrote, “They did notquite understand whysheets should not besuppliedonvesselslikethe LUSITANIA andMAURETANIA wherehigher rates werecharged.” Thecompany studied the

matter and found thatit could supply twothousand sheets andone thousand quilts ata cost of £358 pervoyage. Memoranda,General Manager toSuperintendent ofFurnishingDepartment, Sept. 30,1914, and Oct. 2,1914,D42/PR13/3/24-28,

CunardArchives.35“Whenyouhaveiton”:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,21.

36 “to be severelyreprimanded”:Captain’s Record:William ThomasTurner,D42/GM/V6/1,CunardArchives.

37 “tired and really ill”:

Preston,Lusitania,110;Ramsay,Lusitania,49.

WASHINGTON:THELONELYPLACE

1 The train carrying thebody: Schachtman,EdithandWoodrow,41;G. Smith, When theCheering Stopped, 11;New York Times, Aug.12,1914.

2 just a year and a half:In 1913, InaugurationDaycameinMarch.3 “For several days”:Schachtman, Edith andWoodrow,72.4 “felt like a machine”:Ibid., 48. HarlakendenHouse was owned byan American authornamed WinstonChurchill,whosebooks

were,atthetime,verypopular—enough sothat he and the otherWinston exchangedcorrespondence andthelatterresolvedthatin all his writings hewould insert a middleinitial, S, for Spencer.His full and formalname was WinstonLeonard Spencer-Churchill.

5TheSouthinparticularsuffered: Berg,Wilson,341–42.6 The lead story: NewYork Times, June 27,1914.7 In Europe, kings andhigh officials: Keegan,First World War, 53–54, 55, 57, 58;Thomson,TwelveDays,89.

8 In England, the laypublic: Thomson,Twelve Days, 186.When Shackleton reada report in the pressthat Britain was soonto mobilize, he ratherchivalrouslyvolunteered to cancelhis expedition andoffered his ship andservices to the wareffort. Churchill

telegraphed back:“Proceed.”

9 “These pistols”: Ibid.,64,65,67,97.

10 Far from a clamor forwar: Keegan, FirstWorldWar,10,12,15.

11 the Ford MotorCompany: New YorkTimes,June27,1914.

12 But old tensions andenmities persisted:

Devlin, Too Proud toFight, 220; Keegan,First World War, 17,18,19,38,42–43.

13 “Europe had toomanyfrontiers”: Thomson,TwelveDays,23.

14 As early as 1912:Tuchman,ZimmermannTelegram,11.

15 In Germany,meanwhile, generals

tinkered: Keegan, FirstWorldWar,29,30,32–33.

16 “It’s incredible—incredible”: Berg,Wilson,334.

17 “We must beimpartial”: Ibid., 337,774. Britain resentedAmerican neutrality.On December 20,

1914, First Sea LordJacky Fisher wrote,“The time will comewhentheUnitedStateswillbed—dsorrytheywere neutral.… Weshallwinallright.Iamonly VERY sorry”(Marder, Fear God,3:99). In the sameletter Fisher madereference to a widelypublished poem,

popular in Britain, byWilliam Watson,entitled “To AmericaConcerning England.”Watsonasks:… The tiger from hisdenSpringsatthymother’sthroat, and canstthounowWatch with astranger’sgaze?

18 “The United States isremote”: Brooks,“United States,” 237–38.

19 Louvain: Keegan, FirstWorld War, 82–83;Link, Wilson: Struggle,51; New York Times,Oct.4,1914.

20 “felt deeply thedestruction”: Link,Wilson:Struggle,51.

21 The German toll:Keegan, First WorldWar,135–36.

22 By year’s end: Ibid.,176.

23 For Wilson, alreadysuffering depression:Berg,Wilson,337.

24 “I feel the burden”:Link, Wilson: Struggle,50.

25 “The whole thing”:

Ibid.,52.26Therewas at least onemoment: Berg,Wilson,339–40; Devlin, TooProud to Fight, 227;Schachtman, Edith andWoodrow,52.

27 “We are at peace”:Berg,Wilson,352.

28 On entering waters:Doerries, ImperialChallenge, 94. Wilson

wrote to House, later:“Such use of flagsplays directly in thehands of Germany inher extraordinary planto destroy commerce”(290).Andindeed,newsofthe Lusitania flagepisode incensed theGerman press andpublic, as reported byAmerica’s ambassador

to Germany, JamesWatson Gerard. “Thehate campaign hereagainst America hasassumed graveproportions,”hecabledto Secretary Bryan, onFeb.10,1915.“Peoplemuch excited bypublished report thatLusitania by order ofBritish Admiraltyhoisted American flag

inIrishChannelandsoentered Liverpool.”Telegram, Gerard toBryan, Feb. 10, 1915,ForeignRelations.

29Atthebeginningofthewar:Germany’sfirstU-boat sortie seemed toaffirm the Germannavy’s initialskepticism about thevalue of submarines.

OnAug.6,1914,afterreceiving reports thatEnglishbattleshipshadentered theNorthSea,Germany dispatchedtenU-boatstohuntforthem.Theboatssetoutfrom their base onGermany’s North Seacoast,withauthoritytosail as far as thenorthern tip ofScotland,adistanceno

Germansubmarinehadhitherto traveled. Oneboat experiencedproblems with itsdieselenginesandhadto return tobase.Twoothers were lost. Onewas surprised by aBritish cruiser, theHMS Birmingham,which rammed andsank it, killing allaboard.Thefateofthe

othermissingboatwasnever discovered. Theremaining submarinesreturned to basehaving sunk nothing.“Not encouraging,”one officer wrote.Thomas, Raiders, 16;seealsoHalpern,NavalHistory, 29; Scheer,Germany’s High SeaFleet,34–35.

30 “this strange form ofwarfare”: Churchill,WorldCrisis,723.

31 Only a few prescientsouls: See Doyle,“Danger!”throughout.

32 Doyle’s forecast: NewYork Times, Nov. 16,1917.

33 “The essence of war”:Memorandum, Jan.1914,JellicoePapers.

34 “abhorrent”: Churchill,World Crisis, 409. InBritisheyesthesinkingof a civilian ship wasan atrocity. “To sinkher incontinently wasodious,” Churchillwrote; “to sink herwithout providing forthe safetyof the crew,to leave that crew toperishinopenboatsordrownamidthewaves

was in the eyes of allseafaring peoples agrisly act, whichhitherto had neverbeen practiceddeliberately except bypirates”(672).

35 “if some ghastlynovelty”: Ibid., 144,145.

36 German strategists, onthe other hand:

Breemer, Defeating theU-Boat, 12;Frothingham, NavalHistory, 57; Scheer,Germany’s High SeaFleet, 25, 88. TheGerman term for“approximate parity”in naval strength wasKräfteausgleich.Breemer, Defeating theU-Boat,12.

37 “So we waited”:Churchill,WorldCrisis,146;Scheer,Germany’sHighSeaFleet,11.Thisstalemate did not sitwell with either side.Both navies hoped todistinguish themselvesin thewar and chafedat the lack ofdefinitive, glory-yielding action.German sailors had to

bear mockery byGerman soldiers, whotaunted, “DearFatherlandrestcalmly,the fleet sleeps safelyinport.”OntheBritishside, there was theAdmiralty’s longheritage of navalsuccess that had to beprotected. As onesenior officer put it,“Nelson would turn in

hisgrave.”Jellicoewassensitiveto how so defensive astrategywouldsitwithhis fellow navy men,current and former. InanOct.30,1914,letterto the Admiralty heconfessed to fearingthat they would findthe strategy“repugnant.”Hewrote,“Ifeelthat

such tactics, if notunderstood,may bringodium upon me.”Nonetheless, hewrote,he intendedtostick tothe strategy, “withoutregard to uninstructedopinionorcriticism.” Koerver, GermanSubmarine Warfare,xxviii,xv;seeJellicoe’sletter in Frothingham,NavalHistory,317.

38 “In those early days”:HookPapers.

39 He was soon to learnotherwise: Breemer,Defeating the U-Boat,17; Churchill, WorldCrisis,197–98;Marder,From the Dreadnought,57.Breemerstatesthatmore than 2,500sailors died in theincident.

40 “the live-baitsquadron”: WhenChurchill first heardthenickname“live-baitsquadron” during avisit to the fleet, heinvestigated and grewconcernedenoughthaton Friday, September18, 1914, he sent anotetohisthensecondin command, PrinceLouis of Battenberg

(soon to be forcedfrom the job becauseof his Germanheritage), urging himto remove the ships.The prince agreed andissued orders to hischief of staff to sendthe cruisers elsewhere.“With this I wascontent,” Churchillwrote,“andIdismissedthe matter from my

mind, being sure thattheordersgivenwouldbe complied with attheearliestmoment.” But four days laterthe ships were still inplace, and in a stateeven more exposedthan usual. Ordinarilya group of destroyerskeptwatchover them,but over the nextseveral days the

weather became soroughthatitforcedthedestroyers to return totheir home port. ByTuesday, September22, the sea hadcalmed, and thedestroyers beganmakingtheirwaybackto the patrol zone.Weddigen got therefirst. Churchill, WorldCrisis,197–98.

41 “my first sight of menstruggling”: The shipheeledoverfarenoughthatpart of its bottomwasexposed,aswasits“bilgekeel.”Hooksaw“hundreds of men’sheads bobbing” in thewater, “while acontinuous stream ofvery scantily-clad menappeared from theupperdeckandstarted

tobogganing down theship’s side, stoppingsuddenly when theycametothebilgekeel,climbing over it, andcontinuing their slideuntil they reached thewater with a splash. Iremember wonderingwhether they hurtthemselves when theystarted traveling overthe barnacles below

the water line.” HookPapers.

42 This posed aparticularly acutethreat: The two-thirdsfigure comes fromBlack,GreatWar,50.

43 “doom the entirepopulation”: Telegram,CountJohann-Heinrichvon Bernstorff toWilliam Jennings

Bryan, Feb. 7, 1915,and see enclosure“Memorandum of theGerman Government,”ForeignRelations.

44 “Does it really makeany difference”:Scheer,Germany’sHighSeaFleet,218. Admiral Scheer hada rather cool view ofthehumancostsofwar

andtheroleofU-boatsin advancingGermany’s goals. “Themore vigorously thewar is prosecuted thesooner will it come toan end, and countlesshuman beings andtreasure will be savedif the duration of thewar is curtailed,” hewrote.“ConsequentlyaU-boat cannot spare

the crews of steamers,butmustsendthemtothe bottom with theirship.” He added, “Thegravityofthesituationdemands that weshould free ourselvesfromallscrupleswhichcertainly no longerhavejustification.” This logic, heargued, also requiredthat the submarine be

used to its fullestadvantage. “You donot demand of anaeroplane that itshould attack theenemy on its wheels,”Scheer wrote. Failuretomakemaximumuseof the submarine’sability to attack bysurprise, he wrote,“would be nonsensicalandunmilitary.”

Andbesides, Scheerargued, in delineatinga war zone andwarning ships to stayout, Germany hadmade its intentionsclear. Therefore, if asubmarine sankmerchant ships,“including their crewsandanypassengers,”itwas the fault of thevictims,“whodespised

our warnings and,open-eyed,rantheriskof being torpedoed”(220, 221, 222–23,228).

45 “to a strictaccountability”:Telegram, WilliamJennings Bryan toGermanForeignOffice,via James W. Gerard,Feb. 10, 1915, Foreign

Relations.46 Chancellor Theobaldvon BethmannHollweg: Bethmannwas something of ahumanist—he was anexpert pianist andclassicist, able to readPlato in Greek.Thomson,TwelveDays,119.

47 “Unhappily, it

depends”: Devlin, TooProud to Fight, 322;Gibson andPrendergast, GermanSubmarineWar,105.

48 “If in spite of theexercise”: Scheer,Germany’s High SeaFleet,231.“Whoisthatbeautiful lady?”:Cooper, WoodrowWilson, 282; Grayson,

Woodrow Wilson, 50;Levin, Edith andWoodrow,52.

49 “I had no experience”:Wilson, My Memoir,22; Cooper, WoodrowWilson,282.

50 “taken for a tramp”:Wilson, My Memoir,56; Cooper, WoodrowWilson,281.

51 “There is not a soul

here”: Wilson, MyMemoir, 56; Link,Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.

52 “This was theaccidental meeting”:Wilson, My Memoir,56; Cooper, WoodrowWilson, 281; Levin,EdithandWoodrow,53.Eversincethedeathof Ellen Wilson, there

hadbeenlittlelaughterin the White House.During this firstencounter betweenGaltandthepresident,Helen Bones heardWilson laugh twice. “Ican’tsaythatIforesawin the first minutewhat was going tohappen,” she recalled.“Itmayhavetakentenminutes.” G. Smith,

When the CheeringStopped,14.

53 “He is perfectlycharming”:Schachtman, Edith andWoodrow, 74; Link,Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.

54 “and all sorts ofinterestingconversation”: Link,Wilson: Confusions, 1–

2.55 “impressive widow”:Levin, Edith andWoodrow,51.

56 He had little time todwell: Mersey, Report,throughout. Onenewspaper called it anact of “shockingbloodthirstiness.” Atleast one witnessaboard the ship

reported that the U-boat’s crew hadlaughed and jeered atsurvivors struggling inthe water. A reporttelegraphed from theU.S. Embassy inLondonquotedanotherwitness as stating thatif the submarine hadallowed just ten orfifteen more minutesbefore firing, “all

might have beensaved.” A subsequentinvestigation byBritain’s wreckcommission washeaded by LordMersey, who threeyears earlier hadpresided over aninquiry into thesinking of the Titanic.Mersey decried theamount of time

Forstnerhadgiven thepassengers, calling it“so grosslyinsufficient … that Iam driven to theconclusion that theCaptain of thesubmarine desired anddesignednotmerelytosink the ship but, indoing so, also tosacrifice the lives ofthe passengers and

crew.” As to theevidence of laughingand jeering, Merseysaid, “I prefer to keepsilence on this matterin the hope that thewitnesswasmistaken.”Mersey, Report, 5; seealso Link, Wilson:Struggle, 359; Walker,Four Thousand LivesLost, 80, 81; telegram,U.S. Consul General,

London, to WilliamJennings Bryan, April7, 1915, ForeignRelations.

57“Idonotlikethiscase”:Cooper, WoodrowWilson,277.

58 “Perhaps it is notnecessary”: Link,Wilson:Struggle,365.

LUSITANIA:SUCKING

TUBESANDTHACKERAY1 “Thousands ofsweltering,uncomfortable men”:New York Times, April28,1915.

2 “The public,” hecomplained:Ibid.

3 “All men are young”:New York Times, April29,1915.

4 a record trade surplus:

New York Times, Dec.9,1915.

5Therewereextravagantdisplays: New YorkTimes,May1,1915.

6OnThursday,April29:New York Times, April30,1915.

7 “A surprise,” he said:New York Times, May1,1915.

8 “after a thorough

search”:Ibid.9“Spaceisleft”:Ibid.10 The Lusitania’s roster:“Summary ofPassengers’Nationality,” R.M.S.Lusitania: Record ofPassengers & Crew,SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside.Passengers’ addresses,including hotels and

other temporaryaddressesinNewYork,maybefoundinPublicRecord Office Papers,PRO 22/71, NationalArchivesUK.

11 The Americancomplement: Here Iuse Cunard’s officialtally.Butothersourcesoffer varying totals,one as high as 218.

“Summary ofPassengers’Nationality,” R.M.S.Lusitania: Record ofPassengers & Crew,SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside; “List ofAmerican PassengersBelieved to HaveSailed on theLusitania,” U.S.National Archives–CollegePark.

12Theybroughttheirbestclothes:Theitemsthatfollow,alas,werewhatCunardcatalogedfromsome of the deadwhose bodies wererecovered but notidentified.“UnidentifiedRemains,” R.M.S.Lusitania: Record ofPassengers & Crew,SAS/29/6/18,

Merseyside.13 Ian Holbourn, thefamed writer:Holbourn was knownwidelyas“theLairdofFoula,” for hisownershipofanislandin the Shetlands. Theisland, Foula, was ahaven for all mannerof birdlife, bearingstorybook names

coined by Foula’s pastinhabitants:thecra’,ofcourse—the crow, butalso the rochie, themaa and maallie, andthe tammie norie,wulkie, bonxie, ebb-pickie, snipoch, andthe Allen Richardson,or Scootie Allen, orjust plain Allen, thislast the Arctic skua.For these and other

charming details,certaintosetalighttheimaginationsofbirderseverywhere,please seeHolbourn’s own TheIsle of Foula,throughout.

14“thegoldenage”:Bolze,“From PrivatePassion,”415.

15 “born boat sailor”:Boston Daily Globe,

May11,1915.16 Something of acelebrity: Szefel,“Beauty,”565–66.

17 “as much a debatingsociety”:Bullardetal.,“Where History andTheory,”93.

18 “guide, counselor andfriend”: Sargent,Lauriat’s,10.

19 “homeness”: Publishers’

Weekly,Feb.21,1920,551.

20Thestorewaslongandnarrow: For these andmyriad other detailsabout “Lauriat’s,” seetext and photographs,Sargent, Lauriat’s, 39–46.

21“greatgems”:Ibid.,46.22 “through the breakingup”:Ibid.

23 One acquisition, of aBible:NewYork Times,Sept. 28, 1895. Forbackground on“Breeches” Bibles, seeDaily Mirror, Dec. 3,2013.

24 “for the risk … ispractically nil”: In alengthy filingwith theMixed ClaimsCommission, convened

after the war to levycompensation fromGermany to variousclaimants, Lauriatprovides a greatmanydetails about hisjourneyand the thingshe carried with him.He filed his claim onApril 6, 1923. Alldetailsminedfromtheproceeding will becitedasLauriat,Claim.

His remark about thesafety of transportingthings by ocean linercan be found in hisfilings at “Affidavit,March 12, 1925, orCharlesLauriatJr.”

25 “convoyed through thewar zone”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,6.

26 “but this year”: Ibid.,

69.27He packed: “Exhibit inSupport of Answer toQuestion 1,” Lauriat,Claim.

28“In1915,tocomeout”:Mackworth, This WasMyWorld,239.

29“Intheevenings”:Ibid.,240.

30 “I have always beengrateful”:Ibid.

31 “Certainly not”:“DepositionofWilliamThomas Turner,” April30, 1915, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–NewYork.

U-20:THEHAPPIESTU-BOAT

1Thatsameday,Friday:

Details of Schwieger’svoyage, here and infollowing chapters,come from his WarLog, a translation ofwhich appears in theBailey/RyanCollectionat the HooverInstitution Archives.The log provedinvaluable in helpingme reconstruct, indetail, U-20’s journey

to the Irish Sea andback.Hereafter,wherenecessary, I’ll cite itsimply as Schwieger,WarLog.

2 “A particularly fine-looking fellow”:Thomas,Raiders,91.

3 At routine cruisingspeeds: Gibson andPrendergast, GermanSubmarine War, 356–

57.4Schwiegernoted inhislog:Koerverstatesthatthe “normal” wirelessrange for submarineswas “several hundredmiles.”Schwieger’slogindicatesthatforU-20,at least, therangewasfar shorter. Koerver,German SubmarineWarfare, xix. Jan

Breemer states thatearly in 1915“reliable”communicationsbetween submarinesand shore stations atdistancesof“upto140nautical miles werepossible.” Breemer,Defeating the U-Boat,15.5 “I want to stress”:

Edgar von Spiegelinterview, Lusitania,Catalog No. 4232,ImperialWarMuseum,London.6 “a splendid, dapple-gray horse”: Spiegel,Adventures,20.7 “It was a very hardtask”: Edgar vonSpiegel interview,Lusitania, Catalog No.

4232, Imperial WarMuseum,London.

8 Such authority couldbethrilling:AsGermancaptain Paul Koenigput it, “The master ofnoshipissolonely,soforced to dependentirely upon himselfas the master of asubmarine” (Voyage,76).

9 When on patrol:According to HansKoerver, byMay 1915Germany had only anaverage of fifteen U-boats available forlong-range serviceeach day. At any onetime, typically onlytwo patrolled theBritish Isles. Koerver,German SubmarineWarfare,xxi,xxiii.

10“onthe fastestpossibleroute”: Bailey,“Sinking,”54.

11 The submarine as aweapon: Compton-Hall, Submarine Boats,14, 21, 36, 38–39, 99,102, 109; Fontenoy,Submarines,8,10.

12 Schwieger’s boat was210 feet long: Rössler,U-Boat,14;vonTrapp,

To the Last Salute, 32–33; Neureuther andBergen,U-Boat Stories,173.

13 “More dials andgauges”: Thomas,Raiders,82.

14 Even his superiorsseemed surprised:Ledger: U-20, Feb. 6,1915, Ministry ofDefence Papers,

DEFE/69/270,NationalArchivesUK.

15“Shewasa jollyboat”:Thomas, Raiders, 81,91.

16 “He was a wonderfulman”: Edgar vonSpiegel interview,Lusitania, Catalog No.4232, Imperial WarMuseum,London.

17 “Apparently the enemy

wasathome”:Thomas,Raiders,83.

18 It was the one time:Spiegel,Adventures,12.

19 “And now,” Schwiegersaid: For details aboutthis Christmas scene,see Thomas, Raiders,83–85.

20atleastonedogaboard:Hoehling andHoehling, Last Voyage,

4; Thomas, Raiders,90–91.Supposedlyonecommander oncetransported a juvenilecamel.

21 That Schwieger wasable to conjure:Forstner, Journal, 56–57; Neureuther andBergen,U-Boat Stories,189; Thomas, Raiders,86.

22 “And now,” saidZentner: Thomas,Raiders,86.

23 “U-boat sweat”:Spiegel,Adventures,15.

24 “You can have noconception”: Koenig,Voyage,116.

25 “The first breath offresh air”: Niemöller,From U-Boat to Pulpit,1.

26Itwasearlyinthewar:Zentner tells this storyin Thomas’s Raiders,87–89. The literatureonU-boats is full of storiesthat can only makeyou wonder why onearth any young manwould ever joinGermany’s submarineservice. Case in point:One boat, U-18,

attemptedanattackonBritain’s main fleetbased in Scapa Flow,off northern Scotland,but was spotted andrammed by a patrolvessel, a trawler. Thecollision damaged theboat’s periscope andthe horizontal rudders—the hydroplanes—that controlled itsascent and descent.

Thecaptainorderedanemergency dive, buttheboatplungedtothebottom,thenshotbackup to the surface, outofcontrol.Thereitwasrammedasecondtime,now by a destroyer.The U-boat sank butstruggled back to thesurface, where itdrifted, disabled. Thecaptain signaled

surrender. Thedestroyer managed torescue all but onememberofthecrew. On another U-boat,duringapracticedive,thecommanderdashedfrom the conningtower at the lastminute and slammedthe hatch behind him.It didn’t close. As theboat went below the

surface, water surgedin and quickly beganflooding the interior.Theboat sank90 feet.The water rose soquickly that for somecrew it was soon atneck level. Itwas thenthat one crewman,himself nearlysubmerged, thought toengage the boat’scompressed-air

apparatus, which blewwater from its divingtanks.Theboatshottothe surface. The crewengaged its internalpumps, and the waterquickly disappeared.“But suddenly,”recalled LeadingSeaman Karl Stoltz,“the whole interiorwas filled with agreenishchokingvapor

—chlorine gas fromthe water that hadflooded the electricbattery.” The captainordered all the menoutondeck,exceptforan engine-roommechanic and thehelmsman. Fresh airflowing through thehatchthinnedthegas. The cause was asimple error by the

captain. The hatch,once closed, wassupposed to be sealedinplaceusingawheelthat operated a seriesof clamps, but beforethe dive the captainhad mistakenly turnedthe wheel the wrongway, setting theclamps in their sealedposition, thus blockingthehatchfromclosing.

Stoltz estimated thatthecrewhadbeenjustseconds away frombeingdrowned. Even the stealth ofU-boats, their mainasset, could workagainst them. OnJanuary 21, a U-boatof the same class asSchwieger’s U-20 wason patrol off the coastof Holland when its

crew spotted anothersubmarine. Presumingat first that this wasanother German boat,theytriedtwicetohailit but got no answer.The U-boat’s captain,Bruno Hoppe, nowdecided the othersubmarine must beBritish and launchedan attack. He sank itwithonetorpedo,then

movedclosetoattemptto rescue survivors.There was only one,who now informedhim the boat he hadjust destroyed was infacttheGermannavy’sown U-7, under thecommand of Hoppe’sclosest friend. “Thetwo men had beeninseparable for years,”according to U-boat

captain Baron vonSpiegel, who knewthemboth. For these andotherstories,seeGibsonandPrendergast, GermanSubmarineWar,17–18,20; Neureuther andBergen,U-Boat Stories,154–57; Thomas,Raiders,171–72.

27 Depth charges did not

yet exist: Depthcharges were firstdeployed in January1916butinitiallywerenot very effective.They would notbecome a significantthreat to U-boatcommanders foranother year. Sonar—thesourceoftheiconic“ping” in submarinemovies—would not be

introduced until afterWorldWar I.Breemer,Defeating the U-Boat,34; Marder, From theDreadnought,350.

28 This was a strenuousmaneuver: Forstner,Journal,14–15.

29 oil-laced water:Neureuther andBergen,U-Boat Stories,25.

30 Throughout Friday:Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:MENAGERIE1 That Friday, CharlesLauriat:Lauriat,Claim.

2 At Pier 54, on Fridaymorning:Letter,AlbertE. Laslett to PrincipalOfficer, LiverpoolDistrict, June 8, 1915,Ministry of Transport

Papers, MT 9/1326,National Archives UK.Thatthisdrilldidtakeplace is documentedby various referencesin the AdmiraltyPapers at the NationalArchives UK. Forexample, see“‘Lusitania’—AmericanProceedings,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,

NationalArchivesUK.3 Taken together:Answers of Petitionerto InterrogatoriesPropounded by Hunt,Hill&Betts,Petitionofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–NewYork.

4 For the Friday drill:Testimony, Andrew

Chalmers, April 18,1918, Petition of theCunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,20.5 It was Turner’s belief:Deposition, WilliamThomas Turner, April30, 1915, Petition ofthe Oceanic Steam

Navigation Co.Limited, for Limitationof Its Liability asOwner of the S.S.Titanic, U.S. NationalArchives–NY.6 What made raising acrew even harder:“CunardLiner,”939.7Henoted“theawkwardway”: Walker, FourThousand Lives Lost,

169.8 Baker idled away:BakerPapers.

9 “The old-fashionedable seaman”: NewYork Times, Nov. 21,1915.

10 “They are competentenough”: Testimony,William ThomasTurner,June15,1915,“Investigation,”7.

11 He also had twotattoos: These detailswerelistedinMorton’s“OrdinaryApprentice’sIndenture,”afour-yearcontract that obligatedMorton to obey thecommands of hiscaptain and thecaptain’s associates“andkeephisandtheirsecrets.” It stipulatedfurther that the

apprentice could not“frequent Taverns orAlehouses … nor playat unlawful games.”Above all, eachapprentice agreed notto “absenthimself … withoutleave.” In return,apprentices receivedanannual salaryof£5inthefirstyear,whichincreased to slightly

more than £10 in thelast year. They werealso guaranteed roomand board and“MedicineandMedicaland SurgicalAssistance.” Each gotten shillings to do hiswash. “OrdinaryApprentice’sIndenture,” MortonPapers, DX/2313,Merseyside;

“ContinuousCertificateof Discharge,” MortonPapers, DX/2313,Merseyside.

12 “We were still lookingupon war”: Morton,LongWake,97.

13 “What a sight”: Ibid.,98.

14 “What are you boyslookingat?”:Ibid.,99.

15Malonewassaidtobea

deadringer:BaileyandRyan, LusitaniaDisaster,108.

16 For German spies andsaboteurs:SomeBritishofficialseven had concernsabout the loyalty ofthe men employed byCunardinitsNewYorkoffice, which was runby Charles P. Sumner,

manager of all thecompany’s operationsin America. Cunard’sown Captain DowwassaidtodistrustSumner“on the score ofintimacy withGermans,” accordingto a telegram fromBritain’sconsulgeneralin New York, SirCourtenay Bennett. SirCourtenay too was

convinced the officewasunder theswayofGermany. He sawproof of this in thenumber of employeeswith German-soundinglast names, such asFecke, Falck, Buiswitz,Reichhold, Brauer,Breitenbach, andMuller.SirCourtenay’scountryman SirArthurHerbert, a former

diplomat, believedlikewise. Theirrepeated inquiriesmade these alreadytense times all themore trying forSumner, a skilledmanager who keptCunard’s ships sailingon schedule and hadthe full confidence,verging on friendship,of Cunard’s chairman,

AlfredA.Booth. Sir Arthur was soconvinced thatsomething sinisterwasafoot within Cunard’sNew York operationsthathehiredaprivatedetectivetoinvestigatewithout tellingSumner. The detectivelacked subtlety andbehaved in a mannerthat caused Cunard’s

employees to suspectthathemightbeaspy.As Sumner recalled,“This man excited mysuspicions so muchthat I put our DockDetective on to thework of watching SirArthur Herbert’sdetective.” Sumnersent a report to SirArthur about theprivate eye’s odd

behavior, thinking hewould be interested.“Instead of beingpleased at what I haddone,” Sumner wrote,“he [Sir Arthur] flewinto a terrible passionand said that he hadnever been so insultedin his life.” Sir Arthurwent so far as toaccuse Sumner ofspying on him and

seemed so distressedthat Sumner began towonder if the ex-diplomatmight in factbeharboringsecretsofhis own. Sumnerwrote, “It reallyexcited somesuspicions inmymindthat something mightbe disclosed bywatching hismovements.”

“Confidentially,”Sumnerwrote,“IthinkI may safely expressthe opinion that SirArthur Herbert is alittle‘peculiar.’” On that point atleast, even Sumner’sother antagonist, SirCourtenay Bennett,seemed to agree. Onone occasion SirArthur paid a call on

Sir Courtenay. Analtercation arose,Sumner wrote, duringwhich Sir Courtenaytoldhisvisitorto“ ‘gohome and teach hismother how to suckeggs.’” Sumner wrote,“While I cannot helpthinking this was asomewhat undignifiedprocedure…itaffords

theonlyfunnyincidentthatIhaveexperiencedinallmydealingswiththetwomen.”Telegram,C.Bennettto Alfred Booth, Nov.30, 1914,D42/C1/1/66, Part 2of 4, CunardArchives;“Salaries of New YorkOffice Staff,”D42/C1/1/66, Part 3of 4, CunardArchives;

letter, Charles P.Sumner to D. Mearns,Dec. 29, 1914,D42/C1/2/44, CunardArchives;letter,CharlesP.SumnertoAlfred A. Booth, Aug.4, 1915,D42/C1/1/66, Part 3of 4, CunardArchives;telegram, RichardWebb to Cecil Spring-Rice, May 11, 1915,

“Lusitania VariousPapers,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

17 “The crew of theLusitania”: Telegram,April 27, 1915,Box2,Bailey/RyanCollection.

18“You’renotgoingtogetback”: Francis

Burrows, interview,Lusitania, BBC WrittenArchivesCentre.

19 “began doingsomething weshouldn’t”: RobertJames Clark,interview, Lusitania,BBC Written ArchivesCentre.

20Infact,exactlyoneyearearlier: Memorandum,

May 7, 1914,D42/PR13/3/14-17,CunardArchives.

21 He made his way toBroadway: Preston,Lusitania,110;Ramsay,Lusitania,51;NewYorkTimes,March30,1915.

22 He went to Lüchow’s:Preston,Lusitania,110.

23 That evening, back athis sister’s apartment:

Lauriat,Claim.24 Elsewhere in the city:See the websiteLusitania Resource,www.RMSLusitania.info,whichpresentsaneasily searchabledatabase about theshipanditspassengers.

ROOM40:“THEMYSTERY”

1 In London, two blocksfrom the Thames: MydescriptionofRoom40and its operations isderived fromdocumentsheldbytheChurchill Archives,Churchill College,Cambridge, and theNational Archives oftheUnitedKingdom,atKew, in its AdmiraltyPapers. For further

reading, see Beesly,Room 40; Gannon,Inside Room 40; Adm.William James, CodeBreakers; and Ramsay,“Blinker”Hall.

2 By far the mostimportant:Icannottellyou how delighted Iwas when during oneof my visits to theNational Archives of

the United Kingdom Iwas able to examinetheactualcodebook.Itcametomelikeagift,wrappedinpaperwitha cloth tie, in a largebox. Touching it, andopeningit,andturningits pages—gently—gave me one of thosemoments where thepast comes briefly,physically alive. This

verybookhadbeenona German destroyer,sunkbytheRussiansintheearlydaysofWorldWar I. Signalbuch derKaiserlichen Marine,Berlin, 1913,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4156,National Archives UK;see also Beesly, Room40, 4–5, 22–23;Halpern,NavalHistory,

36; Adm. WilliamJames, Code Breakers,29; Grant, U-BoatIntelligence,10.

3 The Russians in factrecovered three copies:For varying accountsof the recovery of thecodebook, seeChurchill,WorldCrisis,255; Halpern, NavalHistory, 36–37; and

Tuchman,ZimmermannTelegram,14–15.

4“chieflyremarkableforhis spats”: History ofRoom 40, CLKE 3,ClarkePapers.

5 “It was the best ofjobs”:Ibid.

6 said to be obsessed:Halpern,NavalHistory,37; Beesly, Room 40,310–11.

7 “I shall never meetanothermanlikehim”:Adm. William James,CodeBreakers,xvii.Evenbeforethewar,while then incommand of a cruiser,theHMSCornwall,Halldistinguished himselfwith an intelligencecoup. The year was1909,andhisshipwasto be among other

Britishvesselspayingaceremonial visit toKiel, Germany, homeof the German fleet.The Admiralty askedHall for help ingathering preciseinformation about theconfiguration of ship-construction slips intheharbor,whichwerekept from view by acordon of patrol

vessels. An idea came toHall. The Duke ofWestminster waspresent for the regattaandhadbroughtalonghis speedboat, theUrsula, to show off.German sailors lovedthe boat and cheeredeverytimetheysawit.Hall asked the duke ifhe could borrow it for

acoupleofhours.Thenextday,twoofHall’smen went aboard theUrsula disguised ascivilian engine-roomhands. The boat thenput on a display ofspeed, racing out tosea and tearing backthrough the harbor.The yacht roaredthrough the line ofpatrol boats, drawing

cheers from theircrews. But then,something unfortunatehappened.TheUrsula’sengines broke down,right in front of theGermany navy’sshipbuilding facilities.As the boat’s crewmadeashowof tryingto start the engines,Hall’s men tookphotograph after

photograph of theshipyard. One of thepatrolvesselsendeduptowing the boat backto its moorage. “TheGermans weredelightedtogetsuchacloseviewofher,”Hallwrote, “but they werehardly less delightedthan I was, for one ofthe ‘engineers’ hadsecured the most

perfect photographs ofthe slips and obtainedall the informationwewanted.” “The Natureof Intelligence Work,”Hall3/1,HallPapers.

8 The Machiavelli side:Adm. William James,CodeBreakers,202.

9 the empire’s firstdefeat: Gilbert, FirstWorldWar,102.

10 British warshipsnearby: Gibson andPrendergast, GermanSubmarine War, 19;Gilbert, First WorldWar,124.

11 And then came April22:Clark,Donkeys,74;Gilbert, First WorldWar, 144–45; Keegan,First World War, 198–99.

12 “I saw some hundredpoor fellows”: Clark,Donkeys,74.

13 The Admiralty alsoharbored:Frothingham, NavalHistory,66,75.

14 “nomajor movement”:History of Room 40,CLKE3,ClarkePapers.

15 “the risk ofcompromising the

codes”: Memorandum,Henry Francis Oliver,CLKE1,ClarkePapers.

16 “Had we been calledupon”: History ofRoom40,“NarrativeofCapt. Hope,” CLKE 3,ClarkePapers.

17 “shook the nerve”:History of Room 40,CLKE3,ClarkePapers.

18 “soul-

destroying…objectofhatred”:Ibid.

19 “Watch this carefully”:Beesly,Room40,92.

20 “Any messages whichwere not according toroutine”: History ofRoom 40, CLKE 3,ClarkePapers.

21 “The final note”:Memorandum, HerbertHope to Director of

Operations Division,April 18, 1915,“Captain Hope’sMemos to OperationsDivision,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/4689, NationalArchivesUK.

22“Wheneveranyoftheirvessels”: History ofRoom 40, CLKE 3,ClarkePapers.

23asenseoftheflesh-and-blood men: Reportsderived frominterrogations ofcaptured U-boatofficersandcrewyielda sense of U-boat lifefar richer than thatprovided by any otherpublished memoir orbook. AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/4126, National

Archives UK.Specifically, seeinterrogationsinvolvingcrewfromU-48, U-103, UC-65, U-64, and UB-109; seealso Grant, U-BoatIntelligence,21.

24 They used theirwireless systemsincessantly: Beesly,Room40,30.

25 “extreme garrulity”:History of Room 40,CLKE3,ClarkePapers;Beesly,Room40,30.

26 “I fooled ’em thattime”:NewYorkTimes,May8,1915.

27 Room 40 had longfollowed: “Capt.Hope’s Diary,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4169,

NationalArchivesUK.28 Addressed to allGerman warships:Record of Telegrams,March 3, 1915,Norddeich NavalIntelligence Center,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4177,NationalArchivesUK.

29 “Four submarinessailed”: Intercepted

telegrams, April 28and 29, 1915,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/3956,National Archives UK.Anyone examiningthesefileswillnote,tohis or her pleasure,that these are theactual handwrittendecodes.

30“thatofmystifyingand

misleading theenemy”: “A LittleInformation for theEnemy,”Hall3/4,HallPapers. Hall loved thesurprise of intelligencework and lovedknowing the realstories behind eventsreported in the news,which often werecensored.Forexample,

Room 40 learned thereal fate of a Germansubmarine, U-28, thathad attacked a shipcarrying trucks on itsmain deck. One shellfired by the U-boat’sgun crew blew up aloadofhighexplosivesstored in theship,andsuddenly “the air wasfull of motor-lorriesdescribing unusual

parabolas,”Hallwrote.Officially, the U-boatwas lost because ofexplosion.ButHallandRoom 40 knew thetruth:oneoftheflyingtrucks had landed onthe submarine’sforedeck, penetratingits hull and sinking itinstantly. “In point ofactual fact,” wroteHall, “U-28 was sunk

byamotor-lorry!” As strange as suchstories were, Hallwrote, “I amsometimes inclined tothink that perhaps thestrangest thing of allwas the intelligenceDivision itself. For itwas like nothing elsethathadeverexisted.”“The Nature ofIntelligence Work,”

Hall3/1,HallPapers.

LUSITANIA:ACAVALCADEOFPASSENGERS

1 All these things werecaptured on film: Thefilm, SS Lusitania onHer Final Departurefrom New York City,During World War I,can be viewed at

CriticalPast.com(www.criticalpast.com/video/65675040085_SS-Lusitania_passengers-arrive-at-the-dock_passengers-aboard-SS-Lusitania_author-Elbert-Hubert).An agent for theJustice Department’sBureauofInvestigation(not yet the Federal

Bureau ofInvestigation) watchedthis film twice insuccession during aprivate showing at atheater inPhiladelphia. Theagent, FrankGarbarino, was struckby the detail itcaptured and believedit would provide allthe information

necessary to confirmthatthefilmwasnotafake.“Itwillbeeasytoidentify many of thepersons who wereaboard the steamer bythose who knew themintimately,” he wrote.“Furthermorewewereable to distinguish thenumbersof the licenseon three taxicabswhichdroveup to the

pier with passengersandthefeaturesofthepassengers as theyemerged from thetaxicabsareveryclear.Thelicensenumbersofthe taxicabs were21011, 21017, 25225.It will be easy toascertain what taxicabcompany has theselicenses and they willprobablyhavearecord

of the persons theytooktotheCunardpierthat morning.” Letter,Bruce Bielaski toAttorneyGeneral,June27, 1915, Bailey/RyanCollection.

2 Here came CharlesFrohman: For detailsaboutFrohmanandhislife,seeMarcossonandFrohman, Charles

Frohman, throughout;also New York Times,May 16, 1915;Lawrence, When theShipsComeIn,126.

3 Another arrival wasGeorgeKessler: For anoverview of Kessler’sflamboyant life as the“ChampagneKing,”see“Compliments ofGeorge Kessler,”

American Menu, April14, 2012 (courtesy ofMike Poirier); for theGondola Party, seeTony Rennell, “HowWealthyGuestsTurnedthe Savoy into theWorld’sMostDecadentHotel,”DailyMail,Dec.17, 2007, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-502756/How-wealthy-guests-turned-

Savoy-worlds-decadent-hotel-shuts-100m-refit.html, and“The Savoy: London’sMost Famous Hotel,”Savoy Theatre, www.savoytheatre.org/the-savoy-londons-most-famous-hotel/ Forreference to “freakdinners,” see LexingtonHerald,May16,1915. According to one

account, Kessler hadbroughtwithhimcashand securities valuedat $2million. Preston,Lusitania,137.4 “misconductinghimself”: New YorkTimes, May 26, 1908,andJune11,1909.5 “Just Missed It” club:“Titanic’s ‘Just MissedIt Club’ an Elite

Group,”PittsburghPost-Gazette, April 16,2012, www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2012/04/15/Titanic-s-Just-Missed-It-Club-an-elite-group/stories/201204150209.

6 “Ships do havepersonalities”: JackLawrence’s memoir,When the Ships Came

In, to which I wasdirected by Lusitaniaace Mike Poirier, isreally very charmingandconveysasenseofNew York’s vibrantmaritime days incompelling fashion, tothe point where areader has to long forthose days whendozens of shipsnuzzled Manhattan’s

Hudson Rivershoreline. Lawrence,When the Ships CameIn; 116, see also 15,16,and117.

7 “to give satisfaction”:Cunard SteamshipCompany,“RulestoBeObserved in theCompany’s Service,”Liverpool,March1913,Admiralty Case Files:

Limited LiabilityClaims for theLusitania, Box 1, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,73.

8“I’mabouttobecome”:Lawrence, When theShipsCameIn,119–21.

9“AlfredVanderbiltmayhave been a riot”:Ibid.,124.

10 “The Lusitania is

doomed”:Ibid.,125.11 Lawrence came acrossElbert Hubbard: Ibid.,123.

12 “When I showed it tohim”:Ibid.

13 “When you are gettingready to sail”: Ibid.,122.

14 “A feeling grew uponme”: See “Not onBoard,” under

“People,” at LusitaniaResource, www.rmslusitania.info/people/not-on-board/.

15 A few others canceled:Ibid.,andNewZealandHerald,June26,1915.

16 “From the very first”:Letter, A. B. Cross,published June 12,1915, in Malay Mail,Doc. 1730, Imperial

WarMuseum.17 “there is a generalsystem”: New YorkTimes,May1,1915.

18 “Perfectly safe; saferthan the trolley cars”:Testimony, OgdenHammond, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,

166. For details abouttrolley accidents, seeNew York Times, Jan.3, 1915;May3, 1916;July9,1916.

19 “Of course we heardrumors”: May Walker,interview transcript,BBCRadioMerseyside,1984, Imperial WarMuseum (withpermission, BBCRadio

Merseyside).20“lookedpersonallyaftertheir comfort”: Letter,Charles P. Sumner toAlfred A. Booth, May26, 1915,D42/C1/1/66, Part 2of4,CunardArchives.

21Theodate Pope: I cameacross several worthyaccounts of Pope’s lifeand work. See

Cunningham, MyGodmother; Katz,Dearest; Paine, AvonOld Farms School; andS.Smith,TheodatePopeRiddle.

22“Youneveractasothergirlsdo”:Katz,Dearest,25.

23“themomentaryeffect”:Quoted inCunningham, My

Godmother,53–54,andKatz,Dearest,54.

24 “I have no memory atall”: Quoted in S.Smith, Theodate PopeRiddle,ch.1,p.3(eachchapter paginatedseparately).

25 “the greatest blot”:Ibid.,ch.2,p.4.

26 “As it is my plan”:Ibid., ch. 4, p. 2; see

full letter at AppendixB.

27“Ihavewrungmysouldry”:Ibid.,ch.5,p.1.

28 One incident inparticularunderscored:Katz,Dearest,1.

29 “I am having suchpersistent insomnia”:S.Smith,TheodatePopeRiddle,ch.6,p.7.

30 “There is nothing like

the diversion”: Katz,Dearest,75.

31 “I was surprised”:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,65–66.

32 Chandler joked:Lauriat,Claim.

33 “A thousand thanks”:Letter,Harristo“Gramand Gramp,” May 1,1915,HarrisPapers.

34 “was of that brand”:

Lawrence, When theShipsCameIn,129.

35“WhenaBritishskipperknows”:Ibid.,130.

ROOM40:BLINKER’SRUSE

1 “An untried agent”:Record of Telegrams,April 24, 1915,Antwerp to Bruges,Antwerp Naval

Intelligence Center,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4177,NationalArchivesUK.

2 “So that’s what warlooks like!”: vonTrapp, To the LastSalute,24.

3Atsomepointthatday:Bailey and Ryan,Lusitania Disaster, 73,83.

WASHINGTON:LOST1 “I hope it will give”:Letter, Wilson to Galt,April28,1915,WilsonPapers.

2“fillmygoblet”:Letter,Galt to Wilson, April28, 1915, WilsonPapers.

3Ithadbeenparticularlywelcome: Levin, EdithandWoodrow,58.

4 “Such a pledge offriendship”: Letter,Galt to Wilson, April28, 1915, WilsonPapers.

5 “It’s agreatprivilege”:Letter, Wilson to Galt,April30,1915,WilsonPapers.

6 “a heaven—haven—sanctuary”: Levin,EdithandWoodrow,55.

7 “From the first”:Wilson, My Memoir,58.

8 “perhaps the weal orwoe of a country”:Levin, Edith andWoodrow,57.

9 “In order to fityourself”: Ibid.; for avariation, see Wilson,MyMemoir,55.

10 “life giving”: Letter,

Galt to Wilson, April28, 1915, WilsonPapers.

11 She had never met aman: Schachtman,EdithandWoodrow,78.

12“nomeanman in love-making”: Levin, EdithandWoodrow,74.

13 “He’s a goner”:Starling,Starling,44.

14 On Saturday, May 1:

Gilbert, First WorldWar,154.

15 “In Flanders fields”:Quotedinibid.,156.

16 By the end of themonth:Ibid.,164.

17“Wearestillinouroldpositions”:Ibid.,126.

18 Elsewhere, wholly anew front: Ibid., 121,135–36; Keegan, FirstWorldWar,238,239.

19 a systematic slaughter:Gilbert, First WorldWar,142–43.

20 “It is difficult, if notimpossible”: Lansing,Private Memoranda,April 15, 1915,LansingPapers.

21 “A neutral in time ofinternational war”:Ibid.,April29,1915.

22“Germannavalpolicy”:

Link, Wilson: Struggle,366.

23 “It was not thought inofficial quarters”: NewYork Times, May 2,1915.

24 The ship remainedafloat: Ledger,Messages Received,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4101,NationalArchivesUK.

25 “lids”: WashingtonHerald, May 1 and 2,1915.

26 “cool and clean”: NewYork Times, May 7,1915.

LUSITANIA:UNDERWAY1 “Dark brown hair”:Poster, “LusitaniaDisaster. InformationWanted,” Prichard

Papers.2 “a most interestingface”: Letter, TheodatePope toMrs. Prichard,Feb. 4, 1916, PrichardPapers.

3 “rather dull”: Letter,Thomas Sumner toMrs.Prichard,Oct.28,1915,PrichardPapers.

4 “He was a greatfavorite”:Letter,Henry

Needham to Mrs.Prichard, May 20,1915,PrichardPapers.

5 “counting the time”:Letter,ArthurGadsdento Mrs. Prichard, July4, 1915, PrichardPapers.

6“Doyouthinkallthesepeople”: Hoehling andHoehling, Last Voyage,21; see alsoNew York

Times,May6,1915.7 “CaptainTurner…neglectedhisduty”: Letter, OliverBernard to Mrs.Prichard, Aug. 15,1915,PrichardPapers.

8 While movingdownriver: I culledthese details of NewYork Harbor from avarietyofsources,held

attheNewYorkPublicLibrary main branch.These include Map ofNewYorkandHarbor,A.R.OhmanMapCo.,1910; Sea Chart, NewYork Bay and Harbor,1910; Map of Depths,New York Bay andHarbor,U.S.CoastandGeodetic Survey, May1914; Map,Manhattan, G. W.

Bromley & Co., 1916,Plate 38; Map, NewYork City, 1910,Section 2, Plate 10,1911.Interestingly,thelast map makes areference to “Sir PeterWarren Farm,” justabove FourteenthStreet in Manhattan,once a vast tract ofopen land acquired inthe eighteenth century

by Warren, a Britishsea captain. May Ioffer a pointlessobservation: there isno farm in thatlocationtoday.

9 Governors Island: Inthe interests of fillingthereader’smindwithyet more uselessknowledge, I’d like tonote, here, that the

1960scomedyduo theSmothers Brothers—Tom and Dick—wereborn on GovernorsIsland.

10 This being wartime:Preston,Lusitania,136.There is scantinformation aboutthese mysteriousgentlemen. I wasunable to find any

source that identifiedthem by name. It isalso unclear exactlywhere they were heldaboard ship, as theLusitaniahadnoformal“brig,” but all reportsagree they wereconfinedbehindlockeddoors.

11AltaPiper:See“NotonBoard,” under

“People,” at LusitaniaResource, www.rmslusitania.info/people/not-on-board/.

U-20:TOWARDFAIRISLE1 The boat’s ventilators:Spiegel,Adventures,3.2 “here and there rainand fog”: Schwieger,WarLog.Allreferencesin this chapter to

course, weather, waveheights, and so forthcomefromthislog.3Men served as ballast:Neureuther andBergen,U-Boat Stories,126,186,195.4Oneboat,U-3:Rössler,U-Boat,25.5 “The scratches on thesteel walls”:Neureuther and

Bergen,U-Boat Stories,145.

LUSITANIA:RENDEZVOUS

1Itswallswerecovered:See details in “Saloon(First Class)Accommodations,”under “LusitaniaAccommodations,” atLusitania Resource,

www.rmslusitania.info/lusitania/accommodations/saloon.

2Theodatefoundacopy:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915, Riddle Papers.Pope’s letter providesone of the mostdetailed accounts ofshipboard life and the

sinkingthatIwasabletolocate.

3 The paper devoted:New York Sun, May 1,1915.

4 “The President wasentirely unaware”:Ibid.; see also Berg,Wilson,347–49.

5 A German drive: NewYorkSun,May1,1915.

6 “Whatever else could

they expect”: Katz,Dearest,103.

7 “Under nocircumstances”:Ibid.

8 “Passengers areinformed”:Ibid.,109.

9 “to head off Americantravel”:New York Sun,May1,1915.

10“Thatmeansofcourse”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,

1915,RiddlePapers.11 “My!… The mail I gottoday”: Letter, Hustonto “Ruth,” May 1,1915. This compellingbit of Lusitania arcanawasprovidedtomebyGeoffrey Whitfield.The letter is publishedin Kalafus, Poirier etal.,LestWeForget.

12 “swirling mist-veils”:

Bisset,Commodore,45.13 Turner was underorders:“AnswersofthePetitioner to theInterrogatoriesPropounded by MayDavies Hopkins,”Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork, 3, 9;

Memorandum,“‘Lusitania’—AmericanProceedings,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,National Archives UK;minute,Nov.19,1914,CunardArchives.

ROOM40:CADENCE1 Intercepted PositionReports:Minute Sheet:

U-20, Ministry ofDefence Papers,DEFE/69/270,NationalArchivesUK.

PARTII:JUMPROPEANDCAVIAR

U-20:“THEBLINDMOMENT”

1 By 8:25 A.M., Sunday:Schwieger,WarLog.

2 Simple enough inconcept:Foradditionaldetails about diving,see Forstner, Journal,20–27;Koenig,Voyage,51–58;NeureutherandBergen,U-Boat Stories,174.

3as littleasseventy-fiveseconds: Bailey andRyan, LusitaniaDisaster,120.

4 Certain older boats:Koerversaysthatboatsbuilt before U-20,numberedU-5toU-18,all powered bygasoline, took “severalminutes” to dive(German SubmarineWarfare, xxxvii).Breemer says, “By1914 a diving time offive minutes or lesshad become standard

for a boat when fullysurfaced, about oneminute fromanawashcondition” (DefeatingtheU-Boat,14).5 “suicide boats”:Koerver, GermanSubmarine Warfare,xxxvii.6 Commander PaulKoenig recalled:Koenig,Voyage,51–58.

7areddishlight:Spiegel,Adventures,15.

8“Well,weseemtohavearrived”: Koenig,Voyage,54.

9 To speed the process:Thomas,Raiders,33.

10 with an angry growl:Koenig,Voyage,27.Hecalls it a “furious”growl.

11 “the blind moment”:

Ibid., 31; Forstner,Journal,75.

12 “some of the mostnerve-racking”:Neureuther andBergen,U-Boat Stories,118.

13 U-20 emerged:Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:ASUNDAYATSEA

1the“longcourse”:NewYork Times, Sept. 12,1909.

2 Timing was crucial:“Answers of thePetitioner to theInterrogatoriesPropounded by MayDavies Hopkins,”Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.

NationalArchives–NewYork, 4; Ramsay,Lusitania,227.

3 Theodate Pope awoke:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

4 Second-class passengerWilliam UnoMeriheina:Meriheina’sletterwas reprinted inan unidentified news

article “Saves 15Lusitania Passengers,Then Writes to WifefromRaft,”heldbytheNew-York HistoricalSociety,NewYork,NY.It is excerpted as wellin Kalafus et al., LestWeForget.

5 “A braver man”:Kalafusetal.,“WilliamMeriheina: An

Inventive Survivor,”Encyclopedia Titanica,March29,2014,www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/documents/william-meriheina-an-inventive-survivor.pdf.

6 “We have passed”:“Saves 15 LusitaniaPassengers, ThenWrites to Wife fromRaft,” unidentified

newsarticle,New-YorkHistoricalSociety,NewYork,NY.

7 into the crow’s nest:Testimony, Charles E.Lauriat Jr, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,87.

8 On Sunday, the ship’s

first full day: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,3.

9 “At this rate”: Quotedin “Mr. CharlesEmelius Lauriat, Jr.,”under “People,”“Saloon (First Class)Passenger List,” atLusitania Resource,www.rmslusitania.info/people/saloon/

charles-lauriat.10 He looked them over:Lauriat, Claim.Lauriat’s claim beforethe Mixed ClaimsCommission numbershundredsofpages andcontains many detailsabout his journey,downtothenumberofbags he brought withhim and where he

stored them.Hisclaimalso provides insightsinto his dealings withThackeray’s daughterandgranddaughter.

11 “absolutely necessary”:“Answers of Petitionerto InterrogatoriesPropounded by Hunt,Hill & Betts,” Petitionof the CunardSteamship Company.

April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,58.

12 expressly prohibitedfrom “gossiping”:Memorandum, toCaptain and StaffCaptain, Lusitania,Nov.21,1914,CunardArchives,GM22/1/1.

13 “Ships should give”:“Answers of the

Petitioner to theInterrogatoriesPropounded by MayDavies Hopkins,”Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork, 5;“Memorandum as toMaster’s Actions,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,

NationalArchivesUK.14“inaplacewhereitcanbe destroyed”:“Instructions forOwners and Masters,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,National Archives UK.AMay1915Admiraltymemorandum entitled“Notes on Mines andTorpedoes” instructs

ship captains on howto treat a torpedofound floating in thesea. The first, andpossibly wisest, bit ofadvice: “Do not hit iton the nose.”Bailey/RyanCollection.

15 This was an effectivemaneuver: Telegram,Adm. John Jellicoe to

Admiralty, March 23,1915, ChurchillPapers, CHAR13/62/83. In histelegram, JellicoerecountsthesinkingofU-29 and praises the“seamanlike handling”oftheDreadnought,butnonetheless urges thatthe sinking be keptsecret. In telegraphicprose, he writes: “It

must be verydisconcerting to theenemy whensubmarinedisappearedand cause of loss notknown.”

16 “It is not in any waydishonorable”:“Instructions forOwners and Masters,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,

NationalArchivesUK.17“Noocean-goingBritishmerchantvessel”:Ibid.

18 “War experience hasshown”: ConfidentialMemorandum, April16, 1915. AdmiraltyPapers, ADM1/8451/56, NationalArchivesUK;“AnswersofthePetitionertotheInterrogatories

Propounded by MayDavies Hopkins,”Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,5–6.

19 Cunard’s lawyers laterwould hedge:“Answers of Petitionerto InterrogatoriesPropounded by Hunt,

Hill & Betts,” Petitionof the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,4.

20 little impression:LusitaniaseamanLeslieMorton, for example,wroteinalettertotheAssociated Press that“zig-zagging for

merchantshipshadnotat that time beenintroduced,alsoa shiptraveling at sixteenknots or over wasconsidered by practiceand precedent to besafe from submarineattack.” Morton toAssociated Press, May15, 1962, MortonPapers, DX/2313,Merseyside.

During Cunard’slimit-of-liabilitytrialinNew York, ThomasTaylor, a Cunardcaptain, testified thatmerchant captains didnot begin zigzagginguntil fivemonths afterthe sinking of theLusitania. Askedwhether he wouldhave considered doingso before the disaster,

hesaid,“No,wewouldnot have done it. Wenever thought of it upto that time.”Testimony of ThomasM. Taylor, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,907,911,915.

21“Itookalookaround”:

Letter, Dwight Harristo Mother, May 10,1915,HarrisPapers.

ROOM40;QUEENSTOWN;LONDON:PROTECTINGORION1 “There will be lessmoon”: Telegram,HenryFrancisOlivertoJacky Fisher, May 2,1915, Admiralty

Papers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

2 “in view of thesubmarine menace”:Telegram, HenryFrancisOliver toAdm.John Jellicoe, May 2,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

3 Oliver would sendexplicit warnings:

Beesly, Room 40, 100;Ramsay,Lusitania,246.

4 declared it clear onApril15:Beesly,Room40,96–97.

5 Admiral Oliver issuedorders:Ibid.,100.

6ThatSunday:Ibid.7 the Admiralty alsotracked: Telegram, St.Marys Scilly toAdmiralty, May 2,

1915, 4:05 P.M.,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/112,National Archives UK;telegram, St. MarysScilly to Admiralty,May2,1915,6:07P.M.,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/112,National Archives UK;Telegram, Admiral,Devonport to

Admiralty, May 2,1915, 10:22 P.M.Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/112,National Archives UK;ledger, “Subs,”May 2,1915, 10:27 A.M., 4:05P.M., and 6:07 P.M.,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4101,NationalArchivesUK.

8 “The reference to the

Lusitania”: Frost,German SubmarineWarfare,186.

9 In fact,Wilson had bynow: Link, Wilson:Struggle, 48, 120–22;Devlin, Too Proud toFight,318–19.

10 “The blowing up of aliner”: Cooper, WalterHinesPage,306.

U-20:APERILOUSLINE1At 12:30 p.m. Sunday:All details in thischapter come fromSchwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:HALIBUT1to“see thateverythingwasclean”:Testimony,John I. Lewis, Petitionof the CunardSteamship Company,

April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,598.

2“Irememberputtinganeyesplice in”:Morton,LongWake,101.

3 TheWashington Times:WashingtonTimes,May3,1915.

4 “a very dyspeptic sortof fellow”: Letter,Grace French to

Prichard, Sept. 10,1915,PrichardPapers.5 On one voyage themenu: Menus,SAS/33D/2/13b,Merseyside.6Thecompany laid inasupply: All fromCunard Archives,D42/B4/45: Minutes,Feb. 18, 1915; March10, 1915; April 21,

1915;May5,1915.7 Michael Byrne: Letter,Michael Byrne toWilliam JenningsBryan. June 8, 1915,Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll,197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.8“war,andsubmarines”:Harold Smethurst,“Hand-Written

Account,” DX/2085,Merseyside.

9 “over consciousness”:S.Smith,TheodatePopeRiddle,ch.1,p.3.

10 “Tears come”: Katz,Dearest,20.

11“Cheerup”:Ibid.,19.12 Mitchell’s solution:Ibid.,22.

13 “At first, and in some

cases”: Mitchell, FatandBlood,42.

14 “would do far better”:Mitchell, Wear andTear,47.

15 “I am always happy”:Katz,Dearest,22.

16 “Live as domestic alife”: Knight, “All theFacts,”277.

17 “Never touch pen”:Ibid.

18 “who so nearly droveme mad”: Ibid., 259.Although Gilman’sstory dampenedMitchell’spopularity,itdid not stopWoodrowWilson, shortly afterhis 1912 election tothe presidency, fromundergoing anexamination atMitchell’s clinic. Forover a decade Wilson

had suffered smallstrokes and otherevents associated withan undiagnosedcerebral-vasculardisorder,includingonejarring moment in1906 when, whilepresident of Princeton,he temporarily lostvision in his left eye.Dr. Mitchell offeredthe prognosis that

Wilson would notsurvive his first term.He recommended rest,exercise,andahealthydiet and advised thepresidenttokeepstressto a minimum. Link,“Dr. Grayson’sPredicament,”488–89.

19“Ifindthatmymaterialworld”: S. Smith,Theodate Pope Riddle,

ch.5,p.1.20 “Pictures have beendead”:Ibid.

21 “My interest inarchitecture”:Ibid.

22“tiredofseeing”:Ibid.23“Itrulybelieve”:Letter,Pope to Ada BrooksPope, June 28, 1915,RiddlePapers.

24 “I can’t help hoping”:

Mackworth, This WasMyWorld,242.

25 “We noticed this withmuch surprise”: Ibid.,241–42.

26 “one very smart navyblue serge”: Letter,Grace French to Mrs.Prichard, Nov. 12,1915,PrichardPapers.

27 “very short”: Letter,Grace French to Mrs.

Prichard, Nov. 20,1915, Prichard Papers.Mike Poirier contendsthiswomanwasIrish.

28“Apartyofus”:Letter,Olive North to Mrs.Prichard, Sept. 11,1915,PrichardPapers.

29 “I never saw himagain”:Ibid.

30 “There were so manyon the ship”: letter,

Gertrude Adams toMrs. Prichard,undated, PrichardPapers.

31Intheevening:Ramsay,Lusitania,50.

U-20:THETROUBLEWITHTORPEDOES

1 “Very beautifulweather”: Schwieger,WarLog.

2 Another indicator ofvelocity: At night, fastships with all lightsdoused betrayedthemselvesbytheglowof the white wakeclimbing their bows.The problem becameacute when a shippassed through watersprone to thephosphorescencecaused by certain

marine organisms.Some U-boat menreported feeling asense of awe uponseeing the bow wakesraised by speedingdestroyers, eventhoughdestroyersweretheir most lethalopponents. Onecrewmancalledthis“alovely sight.” U-boatcommanderGeorg von

Trapp wrote that atsuch moments itseemed as though thedestroyers were“wearing whitemustaches.” VonTrapp, To the LastSalute, 75; Neureutherand Bergen, U-BoatStories,112,199.

3AccordingtoaGermantally: Translation

notes, Arno Spindler,DerHandelskriegmitU-Booten, Box 2,Bailey/RyanCollection; Preston,Lusitania,165;RichardWagner, “Lusitania’sLast Voyage,” Log,Spring 2005, www.beyondships.com/files/hLUSITANIAarticler.pdf,3.

4 One U-boatexperienced threetorpedo failures: “U-58: Interrogation ofSurvivors,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/4126, NationalArchivesUK,5.

5 Another submarine:“Report ofInterrogation ofSurvivors of ‘U.B.

109,’ ” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/4126, NationalArchivesUK,7.

6 Schwieger’s target:Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:SUNSHINEANDHAPPINESS

1 “Tuesday—Resumption”: “Saves15 Lusitania

Passengers, ThenWrites to Wife fromRaft,” unidentifiednewsarticle,New-YorkHistoricalSociety,NewYork,NY.

2 “Tuesday: I didn’twrite”: Letter, Hustonto “Ruth,” May 1,1915, Kalafus et al.,LestWeForget.

3 “I think a happier

company”: “Narrativeof Mrs. J.MacFarquhar,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

4 “As the days passed”:Lauriat, Last Voyage,69.

5 “I’d never seen”:Conner account,

quoted in Kalafus etal.,LestWeForget.

ROOM40:THEORIONSAILS

1AdmiralOliverorderedthe ship to depart:Telegram,AdmiraltytoC.-in-C. Devonport,May 4, 1915, andtelegram, Stockton toAdmiralty, May 5,

1915, both in “HomeWaters: GeneralOperation Telegrams,”May 1–5, 1915,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

2Asuccessionofreports:Telegram,AdmiraltytoC.-in-C., May 4, 1915,telegram,NavalCenterDevonport to

Admiralty, May 4,1915, telegram,Stockton toAdmiralty,May5,1915,telegram,Orion (via Pembroke)to Admiralty, May 5,1915, and telegram,C.-in-C. Home Fleet toAdmiralty, May 5,1915, all in “HomeWaters: GeneralOperationsTelegrams,” May 1–5,

1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

3 On the morning ofSunday: Ledger,“Subs,” May 2, 1915,10:30A.M.,andMay3,2:30 A.M., AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/4101, NationalArchivesUK;NewYorkTimes,May3,1915.

4 “large sheet of flame”:Ledger,“Subs,”May4,1915, 3:32 A.M.,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4101,NationalArchivesUK.

U-20:FRUSTRATION1 At 7:40 P.M., Tuesday:Schwieger,WarLog.

LONDON;BERLIN;

WASHINGTON:COMFORTDENIED

1 “The situation iscurious”:Marder,FromtheDreadnought,266.Eventheirschedulesclashed. Fisher’s besthours were the earlymorning,between4:00A.M. and breakfast; healsowenttobedearly,by nine at night.

Churchill began workat eight in themorning,while still inhisbed,andcontinueduntil1:00A.M.AsRearAdm. Sir DouglasBrownrigg recalled:“He presented a mostextraordinaryspectacle, perched upinahugebed,withthewhole of thecounterpane littered

with dispatch boxes,redandallcolors,anda stenographer sittingat the foot—Mr.Churchill himself withan enormous CoronaCoronainhismouth,aglassofwarmwateronthe table by his sideand a writing-pad onhisknee!”(267).

2Churchill’s“energyand

capacity”:“LordFisherand Mr. Churchill,”Hall3/5,HallPapers. Violet Asquith,daughter of PrimeMinister HerbertAsquith, was a keenobserver of her timeand the men sheencountered, includingChurchillandFisher.ShequotesChurchillas saying, “I think a

curse should rest onme because I am sohappy.Iknowthiswaris smashing andshattering the lives ofthousands everymoment—and yet—Icannothelpit—Ienjoyevery second I live”(quoted in Hough,Winston andClementine,286). She also has some

choice observations tooffer about Fisher. “Isaidboth tomy fatherand Winston thatthoughIdidnotdoubtLord Fisher’s genius IthoughthimdangerousbecauseIbelievedhimto bemad” (quoted inHough, Winston andClementine, 284). Onanother occasion, sheremarked, “What a

strange man he is!”(quoted in Hough,Winston andClementine,306). One of her closefriends,ArchieGordon,happened to take avoyageontheLusitaniainDecember 1908.Heexperienced somethingof a letdown. “I hadhoped for novelsensations, experiences

& acquaintances,” hewroteinalettertoher.“Instead, somethingclosely resembling ahyper-dull hotel withthe doors & windowsshut.” The crossingwas rough anduncomfortable at first,then improved. “Thesea calmed, the suncame out, & peoplehitherto undreamt of

came out like rabbits”(Carter and Pottle,LanternSlides,172).

3 “Gradually we in theAdmiralty”: “LordFisher and Mr.Churchill,” Hall 3/5,HallPapers.

4 “The state of affairs atHeadQuarters”:Letter,Jellicoe to SirFrederick Hamilton,

April 26, 1915,JellicoePapers.

5 “But he was seventy-four years old”:Churchill,WorldCrisis,230.

6 “I took him because Iknew”:Hough,WinstonandClementine,270.

7 “great nervousexhaustion”: Churchill,WorldCrisis,443.

8 “He had evincedunconcealed distress”:Ibid.

9“Justlookafter‘theoldboy’ ”: Soames,Clementine Churchill,157–58; Hough,Winston andClementine,270.

10 “the constantbombardment”:Marder,FearGod,209.

11 “it has repeatedlyoccurred”: Telegram,James Gerard toWilliam JenningsBryan, May 6, 1915,ForeignRelations.

12 “creamy lace”:Wilson,MyMemoir,61.

13“CousinWoodrowlooksreallyill”:Ibid.,61–62.

14 She nicknamed him“Tiger”:Ibid.,67.

15 “Just as I thought”:Ibid.,61–62.

16 “I don’t think hebelieved her”: Ibid.,62.

17 “playing with fire”:Ibid.

18 “an almost unqualifieddenial”: Telegram,William JenningsBryantoEdwardGrey,viaWalterHinesPage,

March 30, 1915,Foreign Relations; Link,Winston:Struggle,347.

19 the prompt release ofan automobile:William JenningsBryan to U.S. ConsulGeneral, London, May3, 1915, ForeignRelations.

20 “In the life and deathstruggle”: Link,

Winston:Struggle,119.21 “TogetherEnglandandGermany are likely”:Ibid.,348.

22 “No formal diplomaticaction”: New YorkTimes,May5,1915.

23 “a sharp note”:Seymour, IntimatePapers,1:432.

LUSITANIA:THE

MANIFEST1 “I shall never forget”:Hart,Gallipoli,244.

2 “I got back into thetrench”:Ibid.

3 “They crept right up”:Ibid.,210.

4 By the time the Alliedinvading force:Keegan, First WorldWar,248.

5 “The scene … wastragically macabre”:Hart,Gallipoli,37.

6 Here were muskratskins: “SupplementalManifest,”Bailey/RyanCollection. For theinsurance value ofHugh Lane’s paintings,see “Sir Hugh PercyLane,”under “People,”“Saloon (First Class)

Passenger List,” atLusitania Resource,www.rmslusitania.info/people/saloon/hugh-lane/.

7 “The army in France”:Churchill,WorldCrisis,421,447.

8 The shrapnel shellswere essentially inert:Woodetal.,“Sinking,”179–80.

U-20:ATLAST1 Throughout themorning: Schwieger,WarLog.

SIGHTING1 “Small boatcontaining”: Telegram,Head of Kinsale toAdmiralty, May 5,1915, “Home Waters:General Operation

Telegrams,” May 1–5,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

ROOM40:SCHWIEGERREVEALED

1 gunfire in the fog:Telegram, NavalCenter to Admiralty,May5,1915,LusitaniaVarious Papers.

Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/1058,National Archives UK.This spooky telegramreads: “Old HeadKinsale reports fiveforty three sounds ofgunfire south, foggy,BrowHead.”

2 The new message:Telegram, Head ofKinsale to Admiralty,

May 5, 1915, “HomeWaters: GeneralOperation Telegrams,”May 1–5, 1915,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

3ThecaptainofaBritishship: Telegram, NavalCenter Queenstown toAdmiralty, May 5,1915, “Home Waters:

General OperationTelegrams,” May 1–5,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

4 Now came a fourthmessage: Telegram,Naval CenterQueenstown toAdmiralty, May 5,1915 (9:51 P.M.),“Home Waters:

General OperationsTelegrams,” May 1–5,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

5 A detailed record:Ledger, Ministry ofDefence Papers,DEFE/69/270,NationalArchivesUK.

6 They accompanied thedreadnought:

Telegram, Orion (viaPembroke) toAdmiralty, May 5,1915, “Home Waters:General OperationTelegrams,” May 1–5,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/112,NationalArchivesUK.

7 The Orion continued:Ibid.

8 “most important to

attract neutralshipping”: Beesly,Room40, 90; Ramsay,Lusitania,202.

LUSITANIA:HELPFULYOUNGLADIES

1 “wakened by shouts”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

2 “we mustered the

cooks”: Testimony,John I. Lewis, Petitionof the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,587.3 “The men were notefficient”: Myersaccount, quoted inKalafus et al., Lest WeForget.

4 “On Thursdaymorning”: “Narrativeof Mrs. J.MacFarquhar,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.5 “We were not issuedwith paint brushes”:Morton, Long Wake,101. Mike Poirier

contends Morton mayin fact haveencountered twoCromptongirls.

6 A boy named RobertKay: Robert KayAccount, courtesy ofMike Poirier. Specialthanks also to RobertKay.

7 “It’s alright drilling”:New York Times, May

10,1915.

U-20:SPECTACLE1 Thursday morning,May6:Schwieger,WarLog.

2 St. George’s Channel:Anyone interested ingetting a better senseof where all theseplaces and bodies ofwaterareinrelationto

one another need onlytype the names into aGooglesearchbox.

LUSITANIA:LIFEAFTERDEATH

1 Theodate too was amember: For more onthe Society forPsychicalResearchandon spiritualism at theend of the nineteenth

century and the startofthetwentieth,pleasesee my ownThunderstruck,386–87.

2 “If you wish to upsetthelaw”:Ibid.,11,13,401.

3 Theodate claimed herown turban levitated:S.Smith,TheodatePopeRiddle,Notes,8.

4 In 1907, the year

Theodate turned forty:Katz,Dearest,69.

5 Though only in histwenties: Ibid., 103; S.Smith, Theodate PopeRiddle,ch.8,p.1.

6 “There were passagesthat illustrated”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

7 “All around us”:

Quoted in “The Storyof the Sinking of theLusitania,” by DeborahNicholson LinesDavison. Courtesy ofMs.Davison.

8 As of noon Thursday:Memorandum,“ ‘Lusitania’—AmericanProceedings,”Admiralty Papers,

ADM 1/8451/56,NationalArchivesUK.

U-20:CHANGEOFPLAN1 On Thursdayafternoon: Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:MESSAGES1 “Submarines active”:Telegram, Censor,Valencia to Admiralty,

May7,1915,LusitaniaVarious Papers,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/1058,NationalArchivesUK.

2 “Submarines offFastnet”:Ibid.

3 After dinner, PrestonPrichard: Letter, GuyR. Cockburn to Mrs.Prichard, Sept. 6,1915,PrichardPapers.

4 On past voyages:“Programme in Aid ofSeamen’s Charities,”R.M.S. Lusitania, Sept.21, 1912, DX/728,Merseyside;“Programme ofEntertainment,” April21 and 22, 1915,D42/PR3/8/25,CunardArchive.

5 “I was keenly

interested”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,5.

6 Under certainconditions: Ramsay,Lusitania,164.

7 “that no suggestionwould be made”:“StatementofMr.A.J.Mitchell,” May 14,1915,LusitaniaPapers,Microcopy 580, Roll

197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

8 “She was only toohappy”: JosephineBrandell Account,quoted in Kalafus etal.,LestWeForget.

9“Hopeyouhavea safecrossing”: Record ofWireless Signals, May6, 1915, “LusitaniaVarious Papers,”

Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/1058,NationalArchivesUK.

LONDON;WASHINGTON;BERLIN:TENSION

1 “in sight for fiveminutes:” Telegram,Naval CenterQueenstown toAdmiralty, May 6,1915, “Home Waters:

General OperationTelegrams,”May6–10,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/113,NationalArchivesUK.

2 “heart failure,accelerated by shock”:New York Times, May6, 1915; WashingtonTimes,May5,1915.

3 “running amok”:WashingtonTimes,May

5,1915.4 “There are somethings”:WilsontoGalt,May 5, 1915, WilsonPapers.

5 “I can hardly see”:WilsontoGalt,May6,1915,WilsonPapers.

6 “There was the fear”:Wilson, My Memoir,66–67.

7 “Oh, so many things

swarmed”:Ibid.,67.8 “all the problemswhich confrontedhim”:Ibid.

9“unwelcomepublicity”:Ibid.

10 “This fact is eminentlyboundnotonlytoalterour good relations”:Link, Wilson: Struggle,398.

11 That evening:

WashingtonTimes,May6,1915.

12 At midnight thatThursday: Interceptedtelegram, “Norddeichto all Ships,”Admiralty Papers,ADM137/3959.Here’stheactualtext:MAY6,1915NORDDEICH TOALLSHIPS

NO.48S.S. LUSITANIALEAVES LIVERPOOL FORNEW YORK ON MAY15TH. S.S.TUSCANIA LEAVES

GLASGOW ON MAY 7THFOR NEW YORK VIALIVERPOOL. S.S.CAMERONIA11,000TONSLEAVESONMAY 15TH FOR NEW

YORK.

U-20:FOG1 Schwieger and hiscrew: Schwieger, WarLog.

PARTIII:DEADWAKE

THEIRISHSEA:ENGINESABOVE

1EarlyFridaymorninganumber of passengers:“Statement of Mrs.Theodore Naish,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll187, U.S. NationalArchives–College Park;“Statement of MaudeR. Thompson,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll187, U.S. National

Archives–College Park;Ramsay,Lusitania,77.2 “We had been told”:“Statement of Mrs.Theodore Naish,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll187, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.3 “I do not like this”:Ibid.4 “As the horn was

blowing”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,5,69–70.5 “just the loom of theland”: Testimony, LeoThompson, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,673.6 “Number and

directions”: Telegram,Kilrane to DirectorNaval Intelligence,London, May 7, 1915,“Home Waters:General OperationTelegrams,”May6–10,1915, AdmiraltyPapers,ADM137/113,NationalArchivesUK.7 Booth quit breakfast:Testimony, Alfred

Booth, “Investigation,”Lines 262–65, 276–77;“Answers of Petitionerto InterrogatoriesPropounded by Hunt,Hill & Betts,” Petitionof the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,1,3.

8 “Submarines active”:

Telegram, May 7,1915, 11:25 A.M., citedin “Answers of thePetitioner to theInterrogatoriesPropounded by MayDavies Hopkins,”Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,8.

9 “It was a beautifulday”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,70.

10 “just flat as a billiardtable”: FrancisBurrows, interview,Lusitania, BBC WrittenArchivesCentre.

11 “The viewwas grand”:“Narrative of Mrs. J.MacFarquhar,”

Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

12 “All of a sudden”:Schwieger,WarLog.

13 A seven-year-old girl:As you perhaps haveguessed, these andother details thatfollow also come fromlists of belongings

recovered from theunidentified dead ofthe Lusitania.“UnidentifiedRemains,” R.M.S.Lusitania: Record ofPassengers & Crew,SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside;“Lusitania:Effects of UnidentifiedBodies,” in WesleyFrost to WilliamJennings Bryan, June

4, 1915, decimal file341.111L97/37, U.S.National Archives–CollegePark.

14 “I pinned the bigdiamond brooch”:Letter, Dwight Harristo Mother, May 10,1915,HarrisPapers.

15 “I replied that hisword”: “Statement ofMrs. Theodore Naish,”

Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll187, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

16 “Submarines 5 milessouth”: “MemorandumastoMaster’sActions,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,NationalArchivesUK.

17 At his periscope:Schwieger,WarLog.

18 “After I was throughswearing”: Thomas,Raiders,96.

19 “Unusually goodvisibility”: Schwieger,WarLog.

LONDON;WASHINGTON:THEKING’SQUESTION1 “We spoke of theprobability”: Seymour,Intimate Papers, 1:432;

also in Ramsay,Lusitania,77–78.

2 “Suppose they shouldsink”: Seymour,Intimate Papers, 1:432;Cooper, Walter HinesPage, 306; Ramsay,Lusitania,78.

3 severe shortage ofartilleryshells:Keegan,First World War, 199;Churchill,WorldCrisis,

437.4“incurringunjustifiablerisks”:Churchill,WorldCrisis,437.

5 “Without actuallytakingpart”:Ibid.

6 “suffering from everyform of horribleinjury:”Ibid.,438.

7 “In this clear morningair”: Letter, Wilson toGalt, May 7, 1915,

WilsonPapers.

THEIRISHSEA:FUNNELSONTHEHORIZON

1 U-20 moved:Schwieger,WarLog.

2 “At first I thought”:Thomas,Raiders,97.

3 “Ahead and tostarboard”: Schwieger,WarLog.

4 At about 1:30 P.M.:Bailey and Ryan,LusitaniaDisaster,143.

5 But as he watched:Robert Kay Account,courtesy of MikePoirier.

6 “I suggested that thepassengers”: Kessler,quoted in Kalafus etal.,LestWeForget.

7 Just as Pilot Lanz

arrived: Schwieger,WarLog.

8Thattheship“wasnotsent”:Ibid.

9CharlesLauriatwenttolunch: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,73.

10 “A young Englishmanat our table”: Letter,Pope to Ada BrooksPope, June 28, 1915,

RiddlePapers.11“Whileattable”:Letter,Dwight Harris toMother,May10,1915,HarrisPapers.

12 “talking aboutSubmarines”: Letter,Gadsden to Mrs.Prichard,July4,1915,PrichardPapers.

13 “volunteered to pointher out”: Letter,Grace

French to Mrs.Prichard, Sept. 10,1915,PrichardPapers.

14 “I replied that Mr.Prichard”: Letter,Grace French to Mrs.Prichard, Sept. 19,1915,PrichardPapers.

15 They joked as theyhunted:Ibid.

16 Schwieger estimated:Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:BEAUTY1“Atfiveminutestofourbells”: Morton, LongWake,103.

2“All lookoutshadbeenwarned”: Letter,Thomas Mahoney toAdolf Hoehling, May14, 1955, HoehlingPapers.

3 “trick at the wheel”:Hugh Johnston,

interview, Lusitania,BBC Written ArchivesCentre.

4“Wecarriedon”:Ibid.5 “seeing a dozenthings”: Morton, LongWake,102–3.

6 A group of children:John Brennan,interview, Lusitania,BBC Written ArchivesCentre.

7 “At ten minutes pasttwo”: Leslie Morton,testimony, June 16,1915, 16,“Investigation.”

8 “10points on theportbow”: Hugh Johnston,testimony, June 16,1915, 19,“Investigation.”

9 “Here is a torpedocoming”:Ibid.

10 “a real walk”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,7.

11 “a piece of vitriolicEnglish”:Ibid.,7–8.

12 “which was amarvelous blue”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

13 “a streak of froth”:Liverpool Weekly

Mercury, May 15,1915.

14“Thatisn’tatorpedo,isit?”:Ibid.

15 “I did not think thatanybody”:Ibid.

16 That first turmoil:Ballard, Exploring theLusitania, 84–85; NewYork Times, May 10,1915; Preston,Lusitania, 441–42;

Testimony, Casey B.Morgan,PetitionoftheCunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,714, 715; testimony,Lawrence Y. Spear,Petition, 766, 767.Anyone interested inmore detail abouttorpedoes,andGermanU-boats generally,

would dowell to visituboat.net, a well-monitored andauthoritative websiteon German submarinewarfare in both worldwars. See especially“Selected TechnicalData of ImperialGerman U-Boats andTheir Torpedoes,”www.uboat.net/history/wwi/part7.

htm. See also www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTGER_PreWWII.htm.

17 “I saw the torpedocoming!”: Letter,Dwight Harris toMother,May10,1915,HarrisPapers.

18 “It was a beautifulsight”: James A.Brooks, quoted in

unidentified, undatednews clipping,HoehlingPapers.

19 In just two months,another Cunardcaptain: Bisset,Commodore,65.

U-20:“TREFF!”1 “Torpedo hitsstarboard”: Schwieger,WarLog.

PARTIV:THEBLACKSOUL

LUSITANIA:IMPACT1 “I saw it disappear”:Quoted in telegram,PitneytoTribune,NewYork, May 9, 1915,“Lusitania VariousPapers,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, National

ArchivesUK.2“Thesideoftheshipisnothing”: Testimony,Gregory C. Davison,Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,837.

3“wasblown toatoms”:Deposition, ThomasQuinn, May 15, 1915,

Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/1058,National Archives UK;Preston,Lusitania,453.

4Justinsidethehull:SeeGarzke et al., Titanic,and Wood, et al.,“Sinking,”throughout.

5 “forced flooding”:Woodetal.,“Sinking,”177.

6 Captain Turner was

standing: Deposition,William ThomasTurner,May15,1915,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/1058,National Archives UK;Preston,453.

7 “Well, that wasn’t sobad”:Ballard,ExploringtheLusitania,87.

8 “Water, bits of coal”:Letter, Dwight Harris

to Mother, May 10,1915,HarrisPapers.

9 “The ship listed somuch”: Letter, GraceFrench to Mrs.Prichard, Sept. 10,1915,PrichardPapers.

10 “I timed everything”:Testimony, WilliamMcMillan Adams,Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,

April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,24.

11CharlesLauriatcheckedhis stem-windingwristwatch: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,9.

12“Youcouldfeelthetwoseparate motions”:Ibid.,72.

13“morelikeanexplosion

of a boiler”:Testimony, Charles E.Lauriat Jr., Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives–New York,92,104.

14 “I thinkwemight stayup”: Mackworth, ThisWasMyWorld,242.

15 “wasted a minute or

so”:Ibid.,243.16 “I always thought”:Ibid.,244.

17“Mr.Hubbardstayedbythe rail”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,9.

18 “If you don’t care tocome”:Ibid.,73.

19 Norah Bretherton:Statement of NorahBretherton (n.d.),

Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

20Onenteringthebridge:Deposition, HughJohnston, AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

21 “All right, boy”: Alldialogue here is as

reported by JohnstoninIbid.

22 “every step was aneffort”: Robert KayAccount, courtesy ofMikePoirier.

23 “In their hurry, theyput them on”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,11.

24 “Captain, what do youwish us to do”: Ibid.,

11.25 “The Captain says theboat will not sink”:Letter,HenryNeedhamto Mrs. Prichard, July9, 1915, PrichardPapers.

26 “I don’t know whatpossessed me”: NewYork Times, June 2,1915.

27 “I left my coffee and

nuts”: Testimony,Frederic J. Gauntlett,Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,115.

28 The two first-classelevators: There isdebate as to exactlywhat happened inthese two elevators.

Preston quotes one ofthe ship’s bellboys assaying,“Wecouldheartheir screams comingup—they knew theywere trapped.” Shealso quotes apassenger’s statementthattheelevatorswere“filledwith passengersscreaming.” Certainly,the loss of electricpower would have

stopped the elevatorsand would haveprovided a trulyterrifying moment forpassengers within. ButLusitania expert MikePoirier questionswhetheranyonewasinfact trapped or killedin the elevators. Hebaseshisskepticismonthe absence ofadditional

corroborating accountsin the scores ofstatements made bypassengers after thedisaster. The debate,however, cannot besettled in anydefinitive way.Preston,Lusitania,210.

29 The scores of men:There is, however, nodebate about what

happened with thiselevator, and in theluggageroom.

30 “rush of water”:Ramsay,Lusitania,214.

31 By one estimate, atleast 70 portholes:Ibid.,215.

32 “A strange silenceprevailed”: IrishIndependent, May 7,1955.

FIRSTWORD1“‘LUSITANIA’indistress”:“Copies of TelegramsRelative to Sinking ofS.S. Lusitania,”Lusitania VariousPapers, AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

2 “ ‘Lusitania’ S.E. 10miles sinking”:

Telegram,GalleyHeadto Admiralty, May 7,1915, ChurchillPapers,CHAR13/64.3 “ ‘Lusitania’torpedoed”: Telegram,Naval CenterQueenstown toAdmiralty, May 7,1915, ChurchillPapers, CHAR 13/64;also, Ledger, “Subs,”

Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4101,NationalArchivesUK.

LUSITANIA:DECISIONS1 Ogden Hammond:Testimony, Ogden H.Hammond, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. NationalArchives-New York,

171–78; letter, OgdenH. Hammond toJoseph F. Tumulty,May 21, 1915,Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

2 The boat contained:Testimony, LeslieMorton, June 16,1915, 17,

“Investigation”; JamesH. Brooks, “StatementorStoryontheSinkingof the Lusitania,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–College Park;testimony, IsaacLehmann, Petition ofthe Cunard SteamshipCompany, April 15,1918, U.S. National

Archives–New York,297.

3 “It is the captain’sorders”: This segmentof dialogue wasreported by IsaacLehmanninIbid.,297–98.

4 “I took a look atthings”:Letter,DwightHarris toMother,May10, 1915, Harris

Papers.5 “The deck suddenlylooked very strange”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

6 “We walked closetogether”:Ibid.

7“ComeRobinson”:Ibid.8 another readout of thespirit gauge:Testimony, Hugh

Robert Johnston, June16, 1915, 19,“Investigation.”

9 “My God”: HughJohnston, interview,Lusitania, BBC WrittenArchivesCentre.

10 “Save yourself”: HughJohnston, interview,Lusitania, BBC WrittenArchives Centre;testimony, Hugh

Robert Johnston, June16, 1915, 19,“Investigation.”

U-20:SCHWIEGER’SVIEW1 “I took my position”:Thomas,Raiders,97.

2 “It would have beenimpossible”: Thissentence seems sounlike somethingSchwiegerwouldwrite

that it has promptedsomeLusitaniascholarstowonderwhetherhe,or someone else,alteredhislogafterthefact.But,asitisinthelog, and I am in noposition to know forcertainwhetherhedidinfacttouchupthelogto improve his futurestature in the eyes ofhistory,Iquoteithere.

Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:THELITTLEARMY

1 The floor was canted:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,14,78.

2 “The steamer was allthe time rapidlysettling”:Ibid.,17.

3 “Never could onerealize”: Statement of

Mr.A.J.Mitchell,May14, 1915, LusitaniaPapers, Microcopy580, Roll 197, U.S.National Archives–CollegePark.

4Lauriatstoodonaseat:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,82–83.

5 “Please will you showme”: Newspaperaccount, “Knox

Describes Lusitania’sEnd,” provided byMikePoirier,quotedinKalafus et al., Lest WeForget.

6 Norah Bretherton:Statement of NorahBretherton (n.d.),Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

7 “I opened my eyes”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

8 “The gulls were flyingoverhead”: Kalafus etal.,LestWeForget.

9 “It got blacker andblacker”:GraceFrenchAccount, LennoxHerald, May 1975,courtesy of Mike

Poirier.10 “I had no feeling offear”: Letter, DwightHarris toMother,May10, 1915, HarrisPapers.

11 For the family ofJoseph Frankum:Liverpool WeeklyMercury, May 15,1915.

12 “I clung to my wife”:

Ibid.13 “gently and vaguely”:Mackworth, This WasMyWorld,244.

14“Well,you’vehadyourthrill”:Ibid.

15“Onegetsverycloseinthree minutes”:Dorothy ConnerAccount, courtesy ofMikePoirier.

16 “She’s all right”:

“Statement of Mrs.Theodore Naish,”Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll187, U.S. NationalArchives–College Park,2.

17 “I thought about howwondrously beautiful”:Ibid.,3.

18The sinking crowned atroubled period: This

detail provided byMikePoirier.

19Afterhelpingtolaunch:Testimony, LeslieMorton, June 16,1915, “Investigation,”line 495. Mortonwrites that this boatwas No. 13, butLusitania expert MikePoiriersuggeststhathemay have erred, that

the boat was actuallyNo.9.

20 “If you had to jump”:Morton, Long Wake,105.

21 “to waste in eitherhorror or sympathy”:Ibid.,106.

22 “in some mistakenbelief”:Ibid.,107.

23“The time forheroics”:Ibid.

24 “but seeing theturmoil”:Ibid.

25 Lauriat swam clear:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,18.

26 “An all-swallowingwave”: The IrishIndependent, May 7,1955.

27 As measles-poxedRobert Kay: RobertKay Account, courtesy

ofMikePoirier.28 “I couldn’t imaginewhat was landing onme”: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,20–21,85.

TELEGRAM1 “S.O.S. from‘Lusitania’ ”: Ledger,“Subs,” May 7, 1915,2:26 P.M., Admiralty

Papers, ADM137/4101, NationalArchives UK; also inChurchill Papers,CHAR13/64.

LUSITANIA:AQUEEN’SEND

1 One woman, MargaretGwyer: Morton, LongWake,108.

2 Two other passengers:

Ramsay, Lusitania, 87;Morton, Long Wake,108.

3“aslow,almoststately,dive”: Morton, LongWake, 108; For depth,see Ballard, ExploringtheLusitania,10.

4“plungedforwardlikeaknife blade”: Letter,Dwight Harris toMother,May10,1915,

HarrisPapers.5 “As she went under”:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,85–87.6 “never met anyone as‘cool’ ”: Letter, HughJohnston to AdolfHoehling, Sept. 25,1955,HoehlingPapers.7 “ ‘Lusitania’ sunk”:Telegram, Head ofKinsale to Admiralty,

May7,1915,ChurchillPapers,CHAR13/64.

ALLPOINTS:RUMOR1 Frost walked to thewindows: I decided tofootnotethisbecauseitispreciselythekindofdetail that is likely tocauseareadertopausea moment and askhim- or herself,

Hmmm, how do youknow hewalked tohiswindows? Answer:because he tells us so.Frost, GermanSubmarine Warfare,187.

2 “I hear there is somesort of street rumor”:Ibid.,188.

3Afterhangingup,Frostpacedhisoffice:Again,

we know this becauseFrost tells us, “I musthave spent ten orfifteen minutes pacingtheflooroftheoffice.”Ibid.

4 “Urgent: Recall Juno”:Telegram,AdmiraltytoS.N.O. Queenstown,May7,1915,ChurchillPapers,CHAR13/64.

5 “I then received a

telegram”:Letter,Vice-Admiral C.H. Coke toAdmiralty, May 9,1915, AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

6Eachcallbroughtfreshreports: Hendrick, LifeandLetters,2:1–2.

7 “We shall be at war”:Ibid.,2:2.

8 That morning, in NewYork: Jack Lawrence’saccount, includingdialogue, appears atLawrence, When theShipsCameIn,134–39.

9 “I was pacing thestreets”: Cooper,WoodrowWilson,286.

10 “Astern in thedistance”: Schwieger,WarLog.

LUSITANIA:ADRIFT1 “I saw myselfhundreds”:Letter,E.S.Heighway to Mrs.Prichard, June 25,1915,PrichardPapers.

2 the killer washypothermia: For aprimer onhypothermia, seeWeinberg,“Hypothermia.”

3 “The most frightfulthing”: Letter, DwightHarris toMother,May10, 1915, HarrisPapers.

4 “The cries for help”:Ibid.

5 “When I came to thesurface”: Mackworth,This Was My World,246.

6 “a little dazed”: Ibid.,

247.7 “so that one couldinhaleit”:Ibid.,248.

8“anoasisinadesertofbodies”: Morton, LongWake,108

9 “We were pickingpeople out of thewater”: Testimony,Frederic J. Gauntlett,Petition of the CunardSteamship Company,

April 15, 1918, U.S.NationalArchives–NewYork,123.

10 “Never have I heard”:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,25.

11 “I would, old chap”:How delightful,frankly, that peopleactuallydidonceupona time use the phrase“oldchap.”Ibid.,40.

12 Seaman Morton swamto get her: Morton,LongWake,108–9.

13 “The clothes werealmost blown off”:Lauriat,Lusitania’sLastVoyage,29.

14 “I heard a woman’svoicesay”:Ibid.

15 “Come, Holy Ghost”:HenryWoodSimpson’saccountin“Savedfrom

the Lusitania,” ChurchFamily, May 14, 1915,courtesy of MikePoirier.

16 “I was fully expectingthe submarine”:Mersey, Report, 1,account of GeorgeBilbrough.

17 Here were the Brock:Seea listofboats thatparticipated in the

rescue effort, enclosedwithin letter, Vice-Admiral C.H. Coke toAdmiralty, May 9,1915, AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

18 “No news could behad”: Frost, GermanSubmarine Warfare,191.

19“Wedideverythingwecould:” Ramsay,Lusitania,25–26.

20Astheyapproachedthevessel: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,34.

21 “songs were beingsung”: “Statement ofMr. A. J. Mitchell,”May 14, 1915,Lusitania Papers,

Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

22 “She’s conscious”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

U-20:PARTINGSHOT1 “All we thought of”:Hayden Talbot, “TheTruth About the

Lusitania,” Answers,Nov. 8, 1919, in“Lusitania VariousPapers,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

2 “Of course he couldn’thearanything”:This isthe phrase that makesher account seemcredible. It is a subtle

point that onlysubmarinersunderstood—thesilence, even thoughwhat they see throughtheir periscopes is fireanddeath.

3 Just five minutes:Schwieger,WarLog.

4ThesteamerSchwiegerhad fired upon:Hoehling and

Hoehling, Last Voyage,85,147–48.

5“Weproceededwithallpossible speed”:Telegram, Lands EndWireless Station toChief Censor, May 7,1915, ChurchillPapers,CHAR13/64.

LUSITANIA:SEAGULLS1 “The whole ship”:

Ramsay,Lusitiana,274.2 “I thought he hadgone”:NewYorkTimes,Nov.21,1915.

3 “I noticed it because”:Ibid.

4“heusedtocarrya.22rifle”: Letter, NormanH. Turner to AdolfHoehling, Sept. 18,1955,HoehlingPapers.

5 “That’s better”: The

dialogue here is asreported byMackworth, This WasMyWorld,248–49.

6Theyapplauded:Letter,Dwight Harris toMother,May10,1915,HarrisPapers.

7Charles Lauriat carriedone man: Lauriat,Lusitania’s Last Voyage,41. Mike Poirier

provided McMurray’sidentity.

8 “I saved the baby’spictures”: Boston DailyGlobe,May11,1915.

9 She found her fatherwaiting: Mackworth,This Was My World,251.

10 “She was still dressedin the neat fawntweed”:Ibid.,254.

11 “and took a huge doseof whiskey”: Letter,Dwight Harris toMother,May10,1915,HarrisPapers.

12 “I was left on alounge”: Letter, Popeto Ada Brooks Pope,June 28, 1915, RiddlePapers.

13 She arranged to send:Katz,Dearest,120.

14 “All night I keptexpecting Mr. Friend”:Letter, Pope to AdaBrooks Pope, June 28,1915,RiddlePapers.

15 “You should beworrying”: Hoehlingand Hoehling, LastVoyage,161.

16 “appeared stunned”:Telegram, Tuchy,London to New York

World,NewYork,May9, 1915, ChurchillPapers,CHAR13/64.

17 Tears filled his eyes:Ibid.

QUEENSTOWN:THELOST1OftheLusitania’s1,959passengers and crew:As on so many pointsinvolvingtheLusitania,there is disagreement

as to just how manypassengers and crewwere aboard, howmany died, and howmanyofthepassengerswere American. HereI’m using Cunard’sofficial tally. See“General Analysis ofPassengers and Crew”and “Summary ofPassengers’Nationality,” both in

R.M.S. Lusitania:RecordofPassengers&Crew, SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside.

2 For days dozens ofcables: Letter, CharlesP. Sumner to GeneralManager’s Office,Cunard,May18,1915,D42/PR13/32, CunardArchive. This letteralone provides a

jarring portrait of thedimension of thedisaster. Runningthirteen pages, single-spaced,itlistsscoresofcables sent betweenCunard’s headquartersand its New Yorkoffice.

3“Amsaved,lookingforCliff”: Details of LeslieMorton’ssearchforhis

brother, includingdialogue, are fromMorton, Long Wake,112–13.

4 One man’s body: Thefragment of lifeboatresides at the HooverInstitution, StanfordUniversity.

5 “There was a curiouseffacement”: Frost,German Submarine

Warfare,226–28.6 The unimportantbodies:Ibid.,226.

7BodyNo.1:“IdentifiedRemains, South CoastList,” R.M.S. Lusitania:RecordofPassengers&Crew, SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside.

8 “Several weeks afterthe disaster”: Frost,German Submarine

Warfare,228.9“Muchofthebodywaseaten away”:Telegram, July 15,1915, “Male bodywashed ashore,”D42/PR13/1/226–250,CunardArchives.

10 Frost offered anadditional pound:Telegram,WesleyFrostto William Jennings

Bryan, May 13, 1915,decimal file341.111L97/16, U.S.National Archives–CollegePark.

11 His namewas Leon C.Thrasher: Telegram,U.S. Consul General,London, to WilliamJennings Bryan, April7, 1915, ForeignRelations.

Thrasher issometimesidentifiedinnews accounts asThresher. I’ve chosento use “Thrasher”because it is thespellingusedinofficialU.S. diplomaticcorrespondenceincluded in theForeignRelationsseries.

12 Such was the case:

Letter,Sgt.J.RegantoU.S. Consul WesleyFrost, Aug. 20, 1915,decimal file341.111L97/105, U.S.National Archives–CollegePark.

13 “Needless to say”:Details of the Shieldsautopsymay be foundin letter, Wesley Frostto U.S. Secretary of

State, July 27, 1915,and enclosure,“Autopsy on Remainsof Victor E. Shields,”decimal file 341.111.L97/87, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

14 “My own personalloss”: Letter, Alfred A.Booth to Charles P.Sumner, May 8, 1915,D42/C1/1/66, Part 2

of4,CunardArchives.15 “is sad beyondexpression”: Letter,Charles P. Sumner toAlfred A. Booth, May14, 1915,D42/C1/1/66, Part 2of4,CunardArchives.

16 “a picture of peace”:WashingtonTimes,May10,1915.

17ThefamilyofElizabeth

A. Seccombe:“Identified Remains,”R.M.S. Lusitania:RecordofPassengers&Crew, SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside; letter,Wesley Frost to U.S.Secretary of State,Sept. 17, 1915,decimal file341.111L97/123-124,U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

18Ofthe791passengers:Icomputed thesenumbers on the basisof data provided inR.M.S. Lusitania:RecordofPassengers&Crew, SAS/29/6/18,Merseyside.

19 “The place is alive”:Preston,Lusitania,297.

20 “I can see his face”:Letter,GraceFrenchto

Mrs. Prichard, Sept.10, 1915, PrichardPapers.

21 “I beg of you”: Letter,TheodatePope toMrs.Prichard,Feb.4,1916,PrichardPapers.

22 “I know you must betempted”: Letter, RuthM. Wordsworth toPrichard,July9,1915,PrichardPapers.

PARTV:THESEAOFSECRETS

LONDON:BLAME1 “We sh’d pursue theCaptain”: Annotationto telegram, RichardWebb to Cecil Spring-Rice, May 11, 1915,“Lusitania VariousPapers,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM

137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

2 “a brave but unluckyman”: Horgan, ParnelltoPearse,274.

3 “willful and wholesalemurder”:Ibid.,273.

4 “That august body”:Ibid.,275.

5 “proceeded along theusual trade route”:“Memorandum as to

Master’sActions,”May8, 1915, AdmiraltyPapers, ADM1/8451/56, NationalArchivesUK.

6 “appears to havedisplayed”: Telegram,RichardWebb toCecilSpring-Rice, May 11,1915, “LusitaniaVarious Papers,”Admiralty Papers,

ADM 137/1058,NationalArchivesUK.

7 “Bare facts only”:Letter,WesleyFrost toWilliam JenningsBryan, May 11, 1915,Lusitania Papers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

8 “I was struck by thefact”: Memorandum,

“Statement of CaptainW.A.Castle,”May14,1915,LusitaniaPapers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–CollegePark.

9 “Merchant trafficmustlook after itself”:Independent, May 24,1915.

10 “Have sunk off theSouth Coast of

Ireland”:Imagesoftheactual handwrittendecodesmay be foundin the papers of theMinistry of Defence,DEFE/69/270,NationalArchivesUK.

11 “My highestappreciation”:Ibid.

12 “by means of onetorpedo”:Ibid.

13Turnertestifiedthatby

his own standards:Testimony, WilliamThomas Turner, June15, 1915, 4,“Investigation.”

14Carsonletpassthefact:Bailey and Ryan,Lusitania Disaster, 143;telegram,WesleyFrostto William JenningsBryan, May 9, 1915,ForeignRelations.Inhis

telegram, Frost quotesa passenger’sstatement, whichbegan, “At 12 noonship began tozigzag … off Irishcoast.”

15“Imeantosay,wehavethe very greatadvantage”:Testimony, WilliamThomas Turner, June

15, 1915, 15,“Investigation.”

16“exercisedhisjudgmentforthebest”:AnnextotheReport,MinistryofTransport Papers, MT9/1326,“Investigation,”9.

17“stilllefttheLusitaniaaconsiderably fastership”:Ibid.,7.

18 “He was very bitter”:

Letter, Norman H.Turner to AdolfHoehling, Sept. 18,1955,HoehlingPapers.

19 “a damned dirtybusiness”:Memorandum,HeadofNaval HistoricalBranch,Oct.25,1972,Ministry of DefencePapers, DEFE/69/270,NationalArchivesUK.

20 “one is left only withan unforgivable cock-up”: Beesly, Room 40,121.

21 “As an Englishman”:Article and associatedinterview, PatrickBeesly,Misc.162,Item2491, Imperial WarMuseum.

22 “With regard to thequestion of convoy”:

Memorandum,“ ‘Lusitania’—AmericanProceedings,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 1/8451/56,NationalArchivesUK.

23 “Even one destroyerencircling the liner”:Irish Independent, May7,1955.

24“Theneglecttoprovide

naval escort”: Bisset,Commodore,46.

25 “It might … but it isoneofthosethingsonenever knows”:Liverpool WeeklyMercury, May 15,1915.

26 Testing done severalyears earlier: Baileyand Ryan, LusitaniaDisaster, 101;Wood et

al.,“Sinking,”179–80.27 A more plausibletheory: Ballard,Exploring the Lusitania,194–95. Ballard’sbook, by theway, hasmany compellingphotographs (152–91)ofwhatremainsoftheLusitaniaatthebottomof the sea, takenduring his exploration

ofthewreckin1993.28 Subsequentinvestigation byforensic engineers:Garzke et al., Titanic,260–61; Wood et al.,“Sinking,” 181–83,187.AlsoseeAnnextotheReport,MinistryofTransportation Papers,MT 9/1326,“Investigation.”

29 This was Turner’stheory: Preston,Lusitania,453.

30“to50poundsinafewseconds”: Deposition,George Little,May 15,1915, “DepositionsRemoved from TradeDivision Papers,”Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/1058,National Archives UK;

Preston,Lusitania,453.31Notonly that, it struckprecisely the rightplace: Garzke et al.,Titanic, 256–60, 263–67; Wood et al.,“Sinking,” 174–78,186,188.

WASHINGTON;BERLIN;LONDON:THELAST

BLUNDER

1 “If I pondered”: NewYork Times, Nov. 15,1921.

2 In fact, apart from anoisy pro-war faction:Resolution, May 16,1915; Rush MedicalCollege, Resolution,May16,1915;CollegeofDentistry,Universityof Illinois, Resolution,May 11, 1915; and

Tennessee StateAssembly, Resolutionall inLusitaniaPapers,Microcopy 580, Roll197, U.S. NationalArchives–College Park;Cooper, Vanity ofPower, 33–34;Cummins, “Indiana’sReaction,”13,15,17. Andmay I just sayhow refreshing it wasto read the state of

Louisiana’s resolution,inlightoftherancorinAmerican politics thatprevailedat the time Icompletedthisbook:“Suchacrisisasnowconfronts our countrycalls for coolness,deliberation, firmnessand precision of mindon the part of thoseentrusted with thepower of

administration. “Under theprovidenceofGodthiscountry has such aleader in WoodrowWilson…whowithhisadvisershassosignallyshown the temper andcourage and greathumanity that reflectsthe sentiment of hisloyal countrymen.”Resolution, May 20,

1915, LouisianaLegislature, LusitaniaPapers, Microcopy580, Roll 197, U.S.National Archives–CollegePark.

3“thedaywhichmarkedthe end”: NeuePreussische Zeitung,May 10, 1915,translation, Foreignand German Press

Analysis, Box 2,Bailey/RyanCollection.

4 “America does notknow what conditionsare”: Telegram,Heer[illegible], NewYork, to Evening News,London, May 8, 1915,Churchill Papers,CHAR13/64.

5“Thereissuchathing”:

Berg, Wilson, 364;Link, Wilson: Struggle,382.Newspaper editorOswald GarrisonVillard, in hisautobiography FightingYears, claimed it washe who had plantedthe phrase “too proudto fight” in thepresident’s mind. Hedid so inadvertently,he wrote. He had

discussed the conceptwithWilson’s personalsecretary, Tumulty,never thinking thatTumultywould pass italong to Wilson.Villard, Fighting Years,256–57.

6 “probably the mostunfortunate phrase”:Berg,Wilson,364.

7 “I do not know just

whatIsaid”:WilsontoGalt, May 11, 1915,WilsonPapers.

8 “I have just put thefinal touches”: WilsontoGalt,May12,1915,WilsonPapers. Wilson understoodthat diplomatic noteswere likely to havelittleeffectintheshorttermbutbelievedthem

valuable all the same.“They alter no facts,”hewrote,inalettertoGalt, dated Aug. 8,1915;“theychangenoplansorpurposes;theyaccomplish nothingimmediate; but theymay convey somethoughts that will, ifonly unconsciously,affect opinion, and setup a counter current.

At least such is myhope;anditisalsotheonly hope for thesedistractedEnglish!”

9“thesacred freedomofthe seas”: Telegram,William JenningsBryan to GermanForeignOffice,viaU.S.Amb. James Gerard,May 13, 1915, ForeignRelations, 394; Berg,

Wilson,365–66.10 “The Kaiser hasawarded the IronCross”: Cummins,“Indiana’s Reaction,”24.

11 Wilson himselfdescribed Bryan as a“traitor”: Wilson toGalt[undated],WilsonPapers. Wilson wrote:“For he is a traitor,

thoughIcansayso,asyet,onlytoyou.” Bryan’s defectioncaused Wilson deephurt.InalettertoGaltdatedJune9,1915,hewrote,“Theimpressionupon my mind of Mr.Bryan’s retirement is avery painful one now.It is always painful tofeel that any thinkingman of disinterested

motive, who has beenyour comrade andconfidant, has turnedawayfromyouandsethis hand against you;anditishardtobefairand not think that themotive is somethingsinister.” To which Galtreplied, “Hurrah! OldBryanisout!”

12 “a figure in top hat,tailcoat”: Starling,Starling,62.

13 “Were I theCaptain ofa U-boat”: Halpern,NavalHistory,306.

14 “Dear Old Tirps”:Bailey and Ryan,LusitaniaDisaster,36.

15 “advantageous to theAllied cause”: Hall,Minute,Dec.27,1915,

“Lusitania VariousPapers,” AdmiraltyPapers, ADM137/1058, NationalArchivesUK.

16 KapitänleutnantSchwiegerdidhispart:New York Times, Sept.9, 1915; “List ofTonnage Sunk by U-88,” Box 2,Bailey/Ryan

Collection.17“DearKaiser:Inspiteofpreviouscorrespondence”:Cummins, “Indiana’sReaction,”30.

18 “Great excitement &activity”:“Capt.Hope’sDiary,” Nov. 5, 1916,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4169,NationalArchivesUK.

19 “will have to devoteitself to one task”:Scheer,Germany’sHighSeaFleet,194.

20“everyU-boatisofsuchimportance”:Ibid.

21 “I guarantee upon myword”: Tuchman,Zimmermann Telegram,141; Birnbaum, PeaceMoves, 277. Tuchmannotes that

Holtzendorff’smemorandum, whichran to two hundredpages, included suchfine-grained details asthenumberof caloriesin a typical Englishbreakfast and theamount of wool inskirts worn byEnglishwomen. Koerver reportsanother example of

delusional thinkingwithin the Germannavy. Adm. Edouardvon Capelle said, onFeb. 1, 1917, “From amilitarypointofviewIrate the effect ofAmericacomingontheside of our enemies asnil.” Tuchman,Zimmermann Telegram,139; Koerver, GermanSubmarine Warfare,

xxxiii.22 “d’you want to bringAmerica into thewar?”:Thedialogueinthis chapter is asreportedbyHallinch.25, “Draft D,” of hisunpublishedautobiography, HallPapers.

23 “Make war together”:Ibid.; Boghardt,

Zimmermann Telegram,106–7; Link, Wilson:Campaigns,343.

24“Thismaybeaverybigthing”: Hall, “DraftD.,” ch. 25, HallPapers.

25“Onlyactualovertactson their part”:Tuchman,ZimmermannTelegram,151.

26 Hall realized the time

for action had come:Boghardt, ZimmermannTelegram,78,101,105.My account here isnecessarilyabbreviated, for onecould write an entirevolume just on theZimmermann telegram—as indeed otherauthorshavedone.Forfurther reading, turnfirst to Tuchman,

mainly for the sheerpanache with whichshe tells the story. Forthe most up-to-datescholarship, however,see Boghardt’sZimmermann Telegram(2012) and Gannon’sInsideRoom40(2010).

27 “By admitting thetruth”: Beesly, Room40,223.

28 “All these papers hadbeenardentlyneutral”:Tuchman,ZimmermannTelegram,185.

29 “The American peopleare at last ready”:Lansing, PrivateMemoranda,March19,1917,LansingPapers.

30 “I must have spokenwith vehemence”:Ibid.,March20,1917.

31 “Germany is going togetHell”:Link,Wilson:Campaigns,421.

32 “stood in solemnsplendor”: Sullivan,OurTime,272–73.

33 “in effect nothing lessthan war”: The NewYork Times of April 3,1917, publishedWilson’s entire speechon the front page. See

also Link, Wilson:Campaigns,422–26.

34 “gravely,emphatically”: NewYork Times, April 3,1917.

35 “What he did in April,1917”: Churchill,World Crisis, 682–83.One early-twentieth-century British diarist,Lady Alice Thompson,

did not think veryhighly of America’srestraint. On Feb. 27,1917,afterthesinkingof a Cunard liner, theLaconia, she wrote,“The contemptiblePresident of the U.S.may yet be ‘kicked’into taking notice ofthis fresh Germanoutrage. He is stillmasquerading at

‘considering thematter’—”Afteranothersinkingshe wrote, on March24, 1917: “I suspectWilson will writeanother note!! & thenthis new act ofBarbaritywillsinkintooblivion. They are awonderful nation ofBig talk& little action—I leave them at

that.” Diaries of LadyAlice Thompson, vols.2 and 3, Doc. 15282,ImperialWarMuseum.

36 In Queenstown, U.S.consul Frost: Frost,German SubmarineWarfare,5.

37 “Briefly stated, Iconsider”: Sims,VictoryatSea,43.

38 “Welcome to the

American colors”:Ibid.,51.

39 On May 8, thedestroyers: Halpern,NavalHistory,359.

EPILOGUE:PERSONALEFFECTS

1“Shelookedsosmearedand dirty”: Lawrence,When the Ships CameIn,131–32.

2 “horse storm”: Ibid.,132.

3“Hisoldblueuniform”:Ibid.,133.

4 “I toldhim therewereno regrets”: New YorkTimes,Nov.21,1915.

5 On January 1, 1917:Ramsay,Lusitania,161;Hoehling andHoehling, Last Voyage,172.

6 “this great littleman”:Letter, George Ball toAdolf Hoehling, July22, 1955, HoehlingPapers.

7 “Capt. Turner felt theloss”: Letter, MabelEvery to AdolfHoehling, May [4],1955,HoehlingPapers;Ramsay,Lusitania,161;letter, George Ball to

Adolf Hoehling, July22, 1955, HoehlingPapers.8 “I grieve for all thepoor innocentpeople”:Letter, WilliamThomasTurnertoMissBrayton, June 10,1915, D42/PR13/29,CunardArchive.9“Hewas far toostronga character”: Letter,

George Ball to AdolfHoehling, July 22,1955,HoehlingPapers.

10 “I am satisfied thatevery precaution wastaken”: New YorkTimes,Nov.21,1915.

11 “Merriment andhumor”:Letter,GerogeBalltoAdolfHoehling,July 22, 1955,HoehlingPapers.

12 “He died as he hadlived”:Ibid.

13 Room 40 recorded theloss: Ledger, TacticalFormation ofSubmarines: Summaryof Submarine Cruises,Entry: Sept. 5, 1917,Admiralty Papers,ADM 137/4128,National Archives UK;Grant, U-Boat

Intelligence,73,185.14They reside today:Themuseum is theStrandingsmuseum St.George, Thorsminde,Denmark, just a briefstroll from the NorthSea. U-20’s conningtowerstandsonalawnout front, stripped ofall hatches andapparatus. Schwieger’s

deck gun, once soaccurate and deadly,stands inside themuseum, opposite acabinet that displaysother pieces of thesubmarine. For moreonthemuseum,seeitswebsite at www.strandingsmuseet.dk/about-us

15 “How simple is

intelligence!”: “RoughNotes,” Hall 2/1, HallPapers.

16 “All the young are inthenet”:Letter,HalltoPercyMadeira,Oct. 6,1934, Hall 1/6, HallPapers.

17 “If you’re theundertaker, my man”:Ramsay,“Blinker”Hall,299.

18 “I insistently picturedthe tunnel givingway”:Mackworth,ThisWasMyWorld,262.

19 “If anyone had askedme”:Ibid.,259.

20 “I do not quiteunderstand”: Ibid.,260.

21 He established afoundation:“Compliments of

George Kessler,”American Menu, April14,2012,12.

22 A succession of newowners: For the morerecent history ofLauriat’s, see theBoston Globe, Oct. 1,1972,andMay19andJune13,1999.

23aclearbluesky:KansasCity Star, June 15,

1919.CourtesyofMikePoirier.

24 “I dropped into achair”: Katz, Dearest,121.

25 “If you were saved”:Cunningham, MyGodmother,51.

26 “in such a state ofexhaustion”: Katz,Dearest,122.

27 “You can have no

idea”:Ibid.,125.28Her companion, EdwinFriend: Hoehling andHoehling, Last Voyage,171.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ARCHIVALCOLLECTIONSBaker, James. Papers.Imperial War Museum,London.BBC Written ArchivesCentre. Caversham,Reading,England.

Bailey, Thomas Andrew,and Paul B. RyanCollection. HooverInstitution Archives,Stanford University.Stanford,CA.Bruford, Walter Horace.Papers. ChurchillArchives, ChurchillCollege, Cambridge,England.Bryan, William Jennings.

Papers. Library ofCongress ManuscriptDivision. Washington,D.C.

Churchill,Winston.Papers.Churchill Archives,Churchill College,Cambridge,England.

Clarke,William F. Papers.Churchill Archives,Churchill College,Cambridge,England.

CunardArchives(“RecordsoftheCunardSteamshipCo.”), Sydney JonesLibrary, University ofLiverpool, England.Courtesy of theUniversity of LiverpoolLibrary.Denniston, AlexanderGuthrie. Papers.Churchill Archives,Churchill College,

Cambridge,England.Fisher, Jacky. Papers.Churchill Archives,Churchill College,Cambridge,England.

Hall, William Reginald.Papers. ChurchillArchives, ChurchillCollege, Cambridge,England.

Harris, Dwight. Papers.New-York Historical

Society.NewYork,N.Y.(File: BV Lusitania, MS1757.) Courtesy of theNew-York HistoricalSociety.

Hoehling,Adolf,andMaryHoehling. Papers. RMSLusitania Collection.Mariners’ Museum andLibrary. ChristopherNewport University,NewportNews,VA.

Hook, Hereward. Papers.Imperial War Museum,London.Jellicoe, John. Papers.Churchill Archives,Churchill College,Cambridge,England.Kell, Vernon. Papers.Imperial War Museum,London.Lansing, Robert. Papers.Library of Congress

Manuscript Division.Washington, DC (DeskDiaries and PrivateMemoranda).

Lorimer, D. Papers.Imperial War Museum,London.

Maritime Archives.Merseyside MaritimeMuseum. Liverpool,England.

McAdoo, William Gibbs.

Papers. Library ofCongress ManuscriptDivision. Washington,DC.

National Archives of theUnited Kingdom, Kew,England. Material citedin accord with Britain’sOpen GovernmentLicense.

Prichard, Mrs. G. S.Papers. Imperial War

Museum,London.Riddle, Theodate Pope.Papers. Hill-SteadMuseum, Farmington,CT.

U.S. Department of State.Papers Relating to theForeign Relations of theUnited States. 1915.Supplement, The WorldWar. University ofWisconsin Digital

Collections.U.S.NationalArchivesandRecords Administration,CollegePark,MD.

U.S.NationalArchivesandRecords Administrationat New York City. NewYork,NY.

Wilson, Woodrow. Papers.Library of CongressManuscript Division.Washington,DC.

BOOKSANDJOURNALARTICLES

Albertini,Luigi.TheOriginsof the War of 1914.Translated by IsabellaM. Massey. London:Oxford University Press,1953.

Bailey, Thomas A.“German DocumentsRelating to the‘Lusitania.’ ” Journal of

Modern History 8, no. 3(September 1936): 320–37.———. “The Sinking ofthe Lusitania.”AmericanHistorical Review 41, no.1(Oct.1935):54–73.Bailey, Thomas A., andPaul B. Ryan. TheLusitania Disaster: AnEpisode in ModernWarfare and Diplomacy.

New York: Free Press,1975.

Ballard, Robert, withSpencer Dunmore.Exploring the Lusitania:Probing the Mysteries oftheSinkingThatChangedHistory. Toronto:Warner/Madison Press,1995.

Beesly, Patrick. Interview.“Sinking of the

Lusitania.” Imperial WarMuseum,London.

———. Room 40: BritishNaval Intelligence, 1914–18. London, HamishHamilton,1982.

Berg,A.Scott.Wilson.NewYork: G. P. Putnam’sSons,2013.

Bernstorff, Count Johann-Heinrich von.My ThreeYears in America. New

York: Scribner’s Sons,1920.

Birnbaum, Karl E. PeaceMoves and U-BoatWarfare. Stockholm:Almqvist and Wiksell,1958.

Bisset, James.Commodore:War,PeaceandBigShips.London: Angus andRobertson,1961.

Bixler, Julius Seelye.

“William James andImmortality.” Journal ofReligion 5, no. 4 (July1925):378–96.

Black, Jeremy. The GreatWar and the Making ofthe Modern World. NewYork:Continuum,2011.

Boghardt, Thomas. TheZimmermann Telegram:Intelligence, Diplomacy,and America’s Entry into

WorldWar I. Annapolis,MD: Naval InstitutePress,2012.

Bolze, Thomas A. “FromPrivatePassiontoPublicVirtue: Thomas B.Lockwood and theMaking of a CulturalPhilanthropist, 1895–1935.” Libraries and theCulturalRecord45,no.4(2010):414–41.

Breemer, Jan S. Defeatingthe U-Boat: InventingAntisubmarine Warfare.Newport, RI:NavalWarCollegePress,2010.

Brooks, Sydney. “TheUnited States and theWar: A British View.”North American Review201, no. 711 (Feb.1915):231–40.

Broomfield, Andrea. “The

Night the Good ShipWent Down.”Gastronomica 9, no. 4(Fall2009):32–42.Bullard, Melissa Meriam,S. R. Epstein, BenjaminG. Kohl, and SusanMosher Stuard. “WhereHistory and TheoryInteract: Frederic C.Lane on the EmergenceofCapitalism.”Speculum

79, no. 1 (Jan. 2004):88–119.Carter,MarkBonham,andMarkPottle,eds.LanternSlides: The Diaries andLetters of Violet BonhamCarter, 1904–1914.London:WeidenfeldandNicolson,1996.Churchill, Winston S. TheWorldCrisis,1911–1918.1923. Reprint, London:

Thornton Butterworth,1931.

Clark, Alan. The Donkeys.London:Pimlico,1961.

Clements, Kendrick A.“Woodrow Wilson andWorld War I.”Presidential StudiesQuarterly 34, no. 1(March2004):62–82.

Compton-Hall, Richard.Submarine Boats. New

York:Arco,1983.Cooper, John Milton, Jr.The Vanity of Power:American Isolationismand the FirstWorldWar,1914–1917. Westport,CT:Greenwood,1969.

———.Walter Hines Page:The Southerner asAmerican, 1855–1918.Chapel Hill: Universityof North Carolina Press,

1977.———. Woodrow Wilson.NewYork:Knopf,2009.Crow, Duncan. A Man ofPushandGo:TheLife ofGeorge Macaulay Booth.London: Rupert Hart-Davis,1965.Cullen, Fintan. “The LaneBequest.” Field DayReview 4 (2008): 187–201.

Cummins, Cedric C.“Indiana’s Reaction tothe SubmarineControversy of 1915.”Indiana Magazine ofHistory40,no.1(March1944):1–32.“The Cunard LinerLusitania.”Journal of theAmerican Society forNavalEngineers19,no.4(Nov.1907):933–83.

Cunningham,PhyllisFenn.My Godmother: TheodatePope Riddle. Canaan,NH:Phoenix,1983.

Devlin, Patrick.Too Proudto Fight: WoodrowWilson’s Neutrality. NewYork: Oxford UniversityPress,1975.

Directory of Directors. Cityof Boston. Boston:Bankers’ Service Co.,

1905.Doerries, Reinhard R.Imperial Challenge:Ambassador CountBernstorff and German-American Relations,1908–1917. Translatedby Christa D. Shannon.Chapel Hill: Universityof North Carolina Press,1989.Doyle, Arthur Conan.

“Danger!”InDanger!andOther Stories. London:JohnMurray,1918.Egan, Timothy. ShortNights of the ShadowCatcher. Boston:HoughtonMifflin,2013.Figueiredo, Peter de.“SymbolsofEmpire:TheBuildings of theLiverpool Waterfront.”Architectural History 46

(2003):229–54.Fontenoy, Paul.Submarines:AnIllustratedHistory of Their Impact.Weapons and Warfare.SantaBarbara,CA:ABC-CLIO,2007.

Forstner, Georg-GuntherFreiherrvon.TheJournalofSubmarineCommandervon Forstner. TranslatedbyMrs.RussellCodman.

Boston: HoughtonMifflin,1917.

Fox,Stephen.Transatlantic:SamuelCunard,IsambardBrunel, and the GreatAtlantic Steamships. NewYork: HarperCollins,2003.

Frost, Wesley. GermanSubmarine Warfare: AStudy of ItsMethods andSpirit. New York: D.

Appleton,1918.Frothingham, Thomas G.The Naval History of theWorld War. Vol. 1.Cambridge, MA:Harvard UniversityPress,1925.Gannon,Paul. InsideRoom40: The Codebreakers ofWorld War I. Hersham,Surrey, UK: Ian Allan,2010.

Garzke,WilliamH.,Jr.,D.K. Brown, A. D.Sandiford,J.Woodward,and P. K. Hsu. “TheTitanic and Lusitania: AFinalForensicAnalysis.”Marine Technology 33,no. 4 (Oct. 1996): 241–89.Gibson,R.H.,andMauricePrendergast.TheGermanSubmarine War 1914–

1918. 1931. Reprint,Uckfield, East Sussex:Naval and MilitaryPress,2003.

Gilbert, Martin. The FirstWorld War. New York:HenryHolt,1994.

Grant, Robert M. U-BoatIntelligence, 1914–1918.North Haven, CT:ArchonBooks,1969.

Grayson,CaryT.Woodrow

Wilson: An IntimateMemoir. 1960. Reprint,Washington, DC:PotomacBooks,1977.

Halpern, Paul G. A NavalHistory of World War I.Annapolis, MD: NavalInstitutePress,2012.

Hart, Peter.Gallipoli. NewYork: Oxford UniversityPress,2011.

Hazen, David W. Giants

and Ghosts of CentralEurope. Portland, OR:Metropolitan Press,1933.

Hendrick, Burton J. TheLifeandLettersofWalterH. Page. Vols. 1–3.Garden City, NY:Doubleday,Page,1922.

Hoehling, Adolf A., andMaryHoehling.TheLastVoyage of the Lusitania.

London: Longmans,Green,1957.Holbourn, Ian B.Stoughton. The Isle ofFoula. 1938. Reprint,Edinburgh: Birlinn,2001.Horgan, John J.Parnell toPearse: SomeRecollections andReflections. 1949.Reprint, Dublin:

UniversityCollegePress,2009.Hough, Richard. Winstonand Clementine. London:Transworld,1990.Houston, David F. EightYears with Wilson’sCabinet, 1913 to 1920.New York: Doubleday,Page,1926.James, Adm.William.TheCode Breakers of Room

40. New York: St.Martin’sPress,1956.James, William. “Addressof the President BeforetheSocietyforPsychicalResearch.” Science, n.s.,3, no. 77 (June 19,1896):881–88.Kahn, David. TheCodebreakers: The Storyof Secret Writing. NewYork:Macmillan,1967.

Kalafus, Jim, MichaelPoirier, Cliff Barry, andPeter Kelly. Lest WeForget: The Lusitania.Publishedonline,May7,2013. www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lest-we-forget-the-lusitania.html.Katz, Sandra L. Dearest ofGeniuses: A Life ofTheodate Pope. Windsor,

CT: Tide-Mark Press,2003.Keegan, John. The FirstWorld War. New York:VintageBooks,1998.Kennedy,PaulM.TheWarPlansoftheGreatPowers,1880–1914. London:George Allen andUnwin,1979.Kilgour, Raymond L. Estesand Lauriat: A History,

1872–1898. Ann Arbor:University of MichiganPress,1957.Knight,DeniseD.“‘AlltheFacts of the Case’:Gilman’s Lost Letter toDr. S. Weir Mitchell.”American LiteraryRealism37,no.3(Spring2005):259–77.Koenig,Paul.VoyageoftheDeutschland. New York:

Hearst’s InternationalLibrary,1917.Koerver, Hans Joachim.German SubmarineWarfare 1914–1918 inthe Eyes of BritishIntelligence. Steinbach,Austria: LIS Reinisch,2012. http://germannavalwarfare.info/01gnw/subm/jpg/subm.pdf.Lambert, Nicholas. The

SubmarineService,1900–1918. London: Ashgate,2001.

Lamont, Peter.“SpiritualismandaMid-Victorian Crisis ofEvidence.” HistoricalJournal47,no.4(2004):897–920.

Lane, Anne Wintermute,andLouiseHerrickWall,eds. The Letters of

FranklinK.Lane.Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1922.Larson, Erik.Thunderstruck. NewYork:Crown,2006.Lauriat,CharlesE.,Jr.TheLusitania’s Last Voyage.Boston: HoughtonMifflin,1915.Lawrence, Jack.When theShips Came In. NewYork: Farrar and

Rinehart,1940.Levin, Phyllis Lee. Edithand Woodrow. NewYork:Scribner,2001.Link, Arthur S. “Dr.Grayson’s Predicament.”Proceedings of theAmerican PhilosophicalSociety 138, no. 4 (Dec.1994):487–94.———. Wilson: Campaignsfor Progressivism and

Peace, 1916–1917.Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1965.

———. Wilson: Confusionsand Crises, 1915–1916.Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1964.

———. Wilson: TheStruggle for Neutrality,1914–1915. Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1960.

Lord, Walter. A Night toRemember. New York:HenryHolt,1955.Mackworth,Margaret.ThisWasMyWorld. London:Macmillan,1933.Marcosson, Isaac F., andDanniel Frohman.Charles Frohman:Manager and Man. NewYork: Harper andBrothers,1916.

Marder,ArthurJ.FearGodand Dread Nought: TheCorrespondence ofAdmiral of the Fleet LordFisher of Kilverstone.Vols. 2 and 3. London:JonathanCape,1959.———. From theDreadnought to ScapaFlow: The Royal Navy inthe Fisher Era, 1904–1919. Vol. 2. London:

Oxford University Press,1965.Mellown, Muriel. “LadyRhondda and theChanging Faces ofBritish Feminism.”Frontiers9,no.2(1987):7–13.Mersey, Lord (JohnCharles Bingham).Report on the Loss of the“Falaba.” London:H.M.

StationeryOffice,1915.Messimer, Dwight R. TheMerchant U-Boat.Annapolis, MD: NavalInstitutePress,1988.Mitchell, S. Weir. Doctorand Patient.Philadelphia: J. B.Lippincott,1888.———.FatandBlood:AndHow to Make Them.Philadelphia: J. B.

Lippincott,1877.———. Wear and Tear orHintsfortheOverworked.Philadelphia: J. B.Lippincott,1897.

Morton, Leslie. The LongWake. London:Routledge and KeganPaul,1968.

Neureuther, Karl, andClaus Bergen, eds. U-Boat Stories. Uckfield,

East Sussex, UK: Navaland Military Press,2005.Niemöller,Martin.FromU-Boat to Pulpit. Chicago:Willett,Clark,1937.Paine, Judith. “Avon OldFarms School: TheArchitectureofTheodatePope Riddle.” Perspecta18(1982):42–48.Preston, Diana. Lusitania:

An Epic Tragedy. NewYork:Walker,2002.Ramsay, David. “Blinker”Hall: Spymaster.Gloucestershire, UK:HistoryPress,2009.———.Lusitania:SagaandMyth. NewYork:W.W.Norton,2002.Rintelen, Franz von. TheDark Invader: WartimeReminiscences of a

German Naval Officer.New York: Penguin,1939.

Ritter, Gerhard. TheSchlieffen Plan.Translated by Andrewand Eva Wilson. NewYork: Frederick A.Praeger,1958.

Rössler, Eberhard. The U-Boat. Translated byHarold Erenberg.

London: Arms andArmourPress,1981.Rossano, Geoffrey L.Stalking the U-Boat: U.S.Naval Aviation in EuropeDuring World War I.Gainesville: UniversityPressofFlorida,2010.Sargent, George H.Lauriat’s, 1872–1922.Boston: privatelyprinted,1922.

Schachtman, Tom. Edithand Woodrow. NewYork: G. P. Putnam’sSons,1981.Scheer, Reinhard.Germany’sHighSeaFleetin theWorldWar. 1919.Reprint, New York:PeterSmith,1934.Seymour, Charles. TheIntimatePapersofColonelHouse. Vols. 1 and 2.

Boston: HoughtonMifflin,1926.

Sims,WilliamSowden.TheVictory at Sea. 1920.Reprint, Annapolis:Naval Institute Press,1984.

Smith, Gene. When theCheering Stopped: TheLast Years of WoodrowWilson. New York:WilliamMorrow,1964.

Smith, Sharon Dunlap.Theodate Pope Riddle:HerLifeandArchitecture.2002. www.valinet.com/~smithash/theodate/.Soames, Mary. ClementineChurchill: The Biographyof a Marriage. Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1979.Spiegel, Edgar von. TheAdventures of the U-202.

New York: Century,1917.GoogleBook.Starling, Edmund W. (astold toThomasSugrue).Starling of the WhiteHouse. 1916. Reprint,Chicago: People’s BookClub,1946.Steinberg, Jonathan.Yesterday’s Deterrent:Tirpitz and the Birth ofthe German Battle Fleet.

New York: Macmillan,1965.Sullivan,Mark.Our Times,1900–1925. New York:Charles Scribner’s Sons,1936.Szefel, Lisa. “Beauty andWilliam Braithwaite.”Callaloo 29, no. 2(Spring2006):560–86.Thomas,Lowell.Raidersofthe Deep. Garden City,

NY: Garden CityPublishing,1928.Thomson, GeorgeMalcolm. The TwelveDays:24Julyto4August1914. London:Hutchinson,1964.Trapp, Georg von. To theLast Salute: Memories ofan Austrian U-BoatCommander. Translatedby Elizabeth M.

Campbell. Lincoln:University of NebraskaPress,2007.

Trommler, Frank. “TheLusitania Effect:America’s MobilizationAgainst Germany inWorld War I.” GermanStudies Review 32, no. 2(May2009):241–66.

Tuchman, BarbaraW. TheZimmermann Telegram.

1958. Reprint, NewYork:MacMillan,1966.“The Use of Neutral Flagson Merchant Vessels ofBelligerents.” AmericanJournal of InternationalLaw 9, no. 2 (April1915):471–73.U.S. Navy Department.German SubmarineActivities on the AtlanticCoastoftheUnitedStates

and Canada.Washington, DC: GPO,1920.Valentiner,Max.Laterreurdes mers: Mes aventuresen sous-marin, 1914–1918. Paris: Payot,1931.Villard, Oswald Garrison.Fighting Years: Memoirsof a Liberal Editor. NewYork: Harcourt, Brace,

1939.Walker, Alastair. FourThousand Lives Lost: TheInquiries of Lord Merseyinto the Sinkings of theTitanic, the Empress ofIreland, the Falaba, andthe Lusitania. Stroud,Gloucestershire, UK:HistoryPress,2012.

Ward, Maisie. FatherMaturin. London:

Longmans,Green,1920.Weinberg, Andrew D.“Hypothermia.” Annalsof Emergency Medicine22, pt. 2 (Feb. 1993):370–77.Weir, Gary E. Building theKaiser’sNavy.Annapolis,MD: Naval InstitutePress,1992.Weizsäcker, Ernst von.Memoirs of Ernst von

Weizsäcker. London:VictorGollancz,1951.Wilson, Edith Bolling.MyMemoir. 1938. Reprint,New York: Bobbs-Merrill,1939.Wood,M. G., D. I. Smith,and M. R. Hayns. “TheSinking of the Lusitania:Reviewing theEvidence.” Science andJustice42,no.3 (2002):

173–88.

ABOUTTHEAUTHOR

ERIKLARSONistheauthorofIntheGardenofBeasts,TheDevil in the White City,Thunderstruck, Isaac’sStorm, and otherworks ofnonfiction.He haswrittenfor a variety of national

magazinesand isa formerstaff writer for the WallStreetJournalandTime.Heand his wife divide theirtime between Seattle andNewYorkCity.

Alsoby#1NewYorkTimesbestsellingauthor

ErikLarson

B\D\W\YAVAILABLEWHEREVERBOOKS

ARESOLD