Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

by Erik Larson

  5 The South in particular suffered: Berg, Wilson, 341–42.

  6 The lead story: New York Times, June 27, 1914.

  7 In Europe, kings and high officials: Keegan, First World War, 53–54, 55, 57, 58; Thomson, Twelve Days, 89.

  8 In England, the lay public: Thomson, Twelve Days, 186. When Shackleton read a report in the press that Britain was soon to mobilize, he rather chivalrously volunteered to cancel his expedition and offered his ship and services to the war effort. Churchill telegraphed back: “Proceed.”

  9 “These pistols”: Ibid., 64, 65, 67, 97.

  10 Far from a clamor for war: Keegan, First World War, 10, 12, 15.

  11 the Ford Motor Company: New York Times, June 27, 1914.

  12 But old tensions and enmities persisted: Devlin, Too Proud to Fight, 220; Keegan, First World War, 17, 18, 19, 38, 42–43.

  13 “Europe had too many frontiers”: Thomson, Twelve Days, 23.

  14 As early as 1912: Tuchman, Zimmermann Telegram, 11.

  15 In Germany, meanwhile, generals tinkered: Keegan, First World War, 29, 30, 32–33.

  16 “It’s incredible—incredible”: Berg, Wilson, 334.

  17 “We must be impartial”: Ibid., 337, 774.

  Britain resented American neutrality. On December 20, 1914, First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher wrote, “The time will come when the United States will be d—d sorry they were neutral.… We shall win all right. I am only VERY sorry” (Marder, Fear God, 3:99). In the same letter Fisher made reference to a widely published poem, popular in Britain, by William Watson, entitled “To America Concerning England.” Watson asks:

  … The tiger from his den

  Springs at thy mother’s throat, and canst thou now

  Watch with a stranger’s gaze?

  18 “The United States is remote”: Brooks, “United States,” 237–38.

  19 Louvain: Keegan, First World War, 82–83; Link, Wilson: Struggle, 51; New York Times, Oct. 4, 1914.

  20 “felt deeply the destruction”: Link, Wilson: Struggle, 51.

  21 The German toll: Keegan, First World War, 135–36.

  22 By year’s end: Ibid., 176.

  23 For Wilson, already suffering depression: Berg, Wilson, 337.

  24 “I feel the burden”: Link, Wilson: Struggle, 50.

  25 “The whole thing”: Ibid., 52.

  26 There was at least one moment: Berg, Wilson, 339–40; Devlin, Too Proud to Fight, 227; Schachtman, Edith and Woodrow, 52.

  27 “We are at peace”: Berg, Wilson, 352.

  28 On entering waters: Doerries, Imperial Challenge, 94. Wilson wrote to House, later: “Such use of flags plays directly in the hands of Germany in her extraordinary plan to destroy commerce” (290).

  And indeed, news of the Lusitania flag episode incensed the German press and public, as reported by America’s ambassador to Germany, James Watson Gerard. “The hate campaign here against America has assumed grave proportions,” he cabled to Secretary Bryan, on Feb. 10, 1915. “People much excited by published report that Lusitania by order of British Admiralty hoisted American flag in Irish Channel and so entered Liverpool.” Telegram, Gerard to Bryan, Feb. 10, 1915, Foreign Relations.

  29 At the beginning of the war: Germany’s first U-boat sortie seemed to affirm the German navy’s initial skepticism about the value of submarines. On Aug. 6, 1914, after receiving reports that English battleships had entered the North Sea, Germany dispatched ten U-boats to hunt for them. The boats set out from their base on Germany’s North Sea coast, with authority to sail as far as the northern tip of Scotland, a distance no German submarine had hitherto traveled. One boat experienced problems with its diesel engines and had to return to base. Two others were lost. One was surprised by a British cruiser, the HMS Birmingham, which rammed and sank it, killing all aboard. The fate of the other missing boat was never discovered. The remaining submarines returned to base having sunk nothing. “Not encouraging,” one officer wrote. Thomas, Raiders, 16; see also Halpern, Naval History, 29; Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 34–35.

  30 “this strange form of warfare”: Churchill, World Crisis, 723.

  31 Only a few prescient souls: See Doyle, “Danger!” throughout.

  32 Doyle’s forecast: New York Times, Nov. 16, 1917.

  33 “The essence of war”: Memorandum, Jan. 1914, Jellicoe Papers.

  34 “abhorrent”: Churchill, World Crisis, 409. In British eyes the sinking of a civilian ship was an atrocity. “To sink her incontinently was odious,” Churchill wrote; “to sink her without providing for the safety of the crew, to leave that crew to perish in open boats or drown amid the waves was in the eyes of all seafaring peoples a grisly act, which hitherto had never been practiced deliberately except by pirates” (672).

  35 “if some ghastly novelty”: Ibid., 144, 145.

  36 German strategists, on the other hand: Breemer, Defeating the U-Boat, 12; Frothingham, Naval History, 57; Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 25, 88. The German term for “approximate parity” in naval strength was Kräfteausgleich. Breemer, Defeating the U-Boat, 12.

  37 “So we waited”: Churchill, World Crisis, 146; Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 11. This stalemate did not sit well with either side. Both navies hoped to distinguish themselves in the war and chafed at the lack of definitive, glory-yielding action. German sailors had to bear mockery by German soldiers, who taunted, “Dear Fatherland rest calmly, the fleet sleeps safely in port.” On the British side, there was the Admiralty’s long heritage of naval success that had to be protected. As one senior officer put it, “Nelson would turn in his grave.”

  Jellicoe was sensitive to how so defensive a strategy would sit with his fellow navy men, current and former. In an Oct. 30, 1914, letter to the Admiralty he confessed to fearing that they would find the strategy “repugnant.”

  He wrote, “I feel that such tactics, if not understood, may bring odium upon me.” Nonetheless, he wrote, he intended to stick to the strategy, “without regard to uninstructed opinion or criticism.”

  Koerver, German Submarine Warfare, xxviii, xv; see Jellicoe’s letter in Frothingham, Naval History, 317.

  38 “In those early days”: Hook Papers.

  39 He was soon to learn otherwise: Breemer, Defeating the U-Boat, 17; Churchill, World Crisis, 197–98; Marder, From the Dreadnought, 57. Breemer states that more than 2,500 sailors died in the incident.

  40 “the live-bait squadron”: When Churchill first heard the nickname “live-bait squadron” during a visit to the fleet, he investigated and grew concerned enough that on Friday, September 18, 1914, he sent a note to his then second in command, Prince Louis of Battenberg (soon to be forced from the job because of his German heritage), urging him to remove the ships. The prince agreed and issued orders to his chief of staff to send the cruisers elsewhere. “With this I was content,” Churchill wrote, “and I dismissed the matter from my mind, being sure that the orders given would be complied with at the earliest moment.”

  But four days later the ships were still in place, and in a state even more exposed than usual. Ordinarily a group of destroyers kept watch over them, but over the next several days the weather became so rough that it forced the destroyers to return to their home port. By Tuesday, September 22, the sea had calmed, and the destroyers began making their way back to the patrol zone. Weddigen got there first. Churchill, World Crisis, 197–98.

  41 “my first sight of men struggling”: The ship heeled over far enough that part of its bottom was exposed, as was its “bilge keel.” Hook saw “hundreds of men’s heads bobbing” in the water, “while a continuous stream of very scantily-clad men appeared from the upper deck and started tobogganing down the ship’s side, stopping suddenly when they came to the bilge keel, climbing over it, and continuing their slide until they reached the water with a splash. I remember wondering whether they hurt themselves when they started traveling over the barnacles below the water line.” Hook Papers.

  42 This posed a particularly acute threat: The two-thir
ds figure comes from Black, Great War, 50.

  43 “doom the entire population”: Telegram, Count Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff to William Jennings Bryan, Feb. 7, 1915, and see enclosure “Memorandum of the German Government,” Foreign Relations.

  44 “Does it really make any difference”: Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 218.

  Admiral Scheer had a rather cool view of the human costs of war and the role of U-boats in advancing Germany’s goals. “The more vigorously the war is prosecuted the sooner will it come to an end, and countless human beings and treasure will be saved if the duration of the war is curtailed,” he wrote. “Consequently a U-boat cannot spare the crews of steamers, but must send them to the bottom with their ship.” He added, “The gravity of the situation demands that we should free ourselves from all scruples which certainly no longer have justification.”

  This logic, he argued, also required that the submarine be used to its fullest advantage. “You do not demand of an aeroplane that it should attack the enemy on its wheels,” Scheer wrote. Failure to make maximum use of the submarine’s ability to attack by surprise, he wrote, “would be nonsensical and unmilitary.”

  And besides, Scheer argued, in delineating a war zone and warning ships to stay out, Germany had made its intentions clear. Therefore, if a submarine sank merchant ships, “including their crews and any passengers,” it was the fault of the victims, “who despised our warnings and, open-eyed, ran the risk of being torpedoed” (220, 221, 222–23, 228).

  45 “to a strict accountability”: Telegram, William Jennings Bryan to German Foreign Office, via James W. Gerard, Feb. 10, 1915, Foreign Relations.

  46 Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg: Bethmann was something of a humanist—he was an expert pianist and classicist, able to read Plato in Greek. Thomson, Twelve Days, 119.

  47 “Unhappily, it depends”: Devlin, Too Proud to Fight, 322; Gibson and Prendergast, German Submarine War, 105.

  48 “If in spite of the exercise”: Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 231. “Who is that beautiful lady?”: Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 282; Grayson, Woodrow Wilson, 50; Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 52.

  49 “I had no experience”: Wilson, My Memoir, 22; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 282.

  50 “taken for a tramp”: Wilson, My Memoir, 56; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 281.

  51 “There is not a soul here”: Wilson, My Memoir, 56; Link, Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.

  52 “This was the accidental meeting”: Wilson, My Memoir, 56; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 281; Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 53.

  Ever since the death of Ellen Wilson, there had been little laughter in the White House. During this first encounter between Galt and the president, Helen Bones heard Wilson laugh twice. “I can’t say that I foresaw in the first minute what was going to happen,” she recalled. “It may have taken ten minutes.” G. Smith, When the Cheering Stopped, 14.

  53 “He is perfectly charming”: Schachtman, Edith and Woodrow, 74; Link, Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.

  54 “and all sorts of interesting conversation”: Link, Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.

  55 “impressive widow”: Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 51.

  56 He had little time to dwell: Mersey, Report, throughout. One newspaper called it an act of “shocking bloodthirstiness.” At least one witness aboard the ship reported that the U-boat’s crew had laughed and jeered at survivors struggling in the water. A report telegraphed from the U.S. Embassy in London quoted another witness as stating that if the submarine had allowed just ten or fifteen more minutes before firing, “all might have been saved.” A subsequent investigation by Britain’s wreck commission was headed by Lord Mersey, who three years earlier had presided over an inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic. Mersey decried the amount of time Forstner had given the passengers, calling it “so grossly insufficient … that I am driven to the conclusion that the Captain of the submarine desired and designed not merely to sink the ship but, in doing so, also to sacrifice the lives of the passengers and crew.” As to the evidence of laughing and jeering, Mersey said, “I prefer to keep silence on this matter in the hope that the witness was mistaken.” Mersey, Report, 5; see also Link, Wilson: Struggle, 359; Walker, Four Thousand Lives Lost, 80, 81; telegram, U.S. Consul General, London, to William Jennings Bryan, April 7, 1915, Foreign Relations.

  57 “I do not like this case”: Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 277.

  58 “Perhaps it is not necessary”: Link, Wilson: Struggle, 365.

  LUSITANIA: SUCKING TUBES AND THACKERAY

  1 “Thousands of sweltering, uncomfortable men”: New York Times, April 28, 1915.

  2 “The public,” he complained: Ibid.

  3 “All men are young”: New York Times, April 29, 1915.

  4 a record trade surplus: New York Times, Dec. 9, 1915.

  5 There were extravagant displays: New York Times, May 1, 1915.

  6 On Thursday, April 29: New York Times, April 30, 1915.

  7 “A surprise,” he said: New York Times, May 1, 1915.

  8 “after a thorough search”: Ibid.

  9 “Space is left”: Ibid.

  10 The Lusitania’s roster: “Summary of Passengers’ Nationality,” R.M.S. Lusitania: Record of Passengers & Crew, SAS/29/6/18, Merseyside. Passengers’ addresses, including hotels and other temporary addresses in New York, may be found in Public Record Office Papers, PRO 22/71, National Archives UK.

  11 The American complement: Here I use Cunard’s official tally. But other sources offer varying totals, one as high as 218. “Summary of Passengers’ Nationality,” R.M.S. Lusitania: Record of Passengers & Crew, SAS/29/6/18, Merseyside; “List of American Passengers Believed to Have Sailed on the Lusitania,” U.S. National Archives–College Park.

  12 They brought their best clothes: The items that follow, alas, were what Cunard cataloged from some of the dead whose bodies were recovered but not identified. “Unidentified Remains,” R.M.S. Lusitania: Record of Passengers & Crew, SAS/29/6/18, Merseyside.

  13 Ian Holbourn, the famed writer: Holbourn was known widely as “the Laird of Foula,” for his ownership of an island in the Shetlands. The island, Foula, was a haven for all manner of birdlife, bearing storybook names coined by Foula’s past inhabitants: the cra’, of course—the crow, but also the rochie, the maa and maallie, and the tammie norie, wulkie, bonxie, ebb-pickie, snipoch, and the Allen Richardson, or Scootie Allen, or just plain Allen, this last the Arctic skua. For these and other charming details, certain to set alight the imaginations of birders everywhere, please see Holbourn’s own The Isle of Foula, throughout.

  14 “the golden age”: Bolze, “From Private Passion,” 415.

  15 “born boat sailor”: Boston Daily Globe, May 11, 1915.

  16 Something of a celebrity: Szefel, “Beauty,” 565–66.

  17 “as much a debating society”: Bullard et al., “Where History and Theory,” 93.

  18 “guide, counselor and friend”: Sargent, Lauriat’s, 10.

  19 “homeness”: Publishers’ Weekly, Feb. 21, 1920, 551.

  20 The store was long and narrow: For these and myriad other details about “Lauriat’s,” see text and photographs, Sargent, Lauriat’s, 39–46.

  21 “great gems”: Ibid., 46.

  22 “through the breaking up”: Ibid.

  23 One acquisition, of a Bible: New York Times, Sept. 28, 1895. For background on “Breeches” Bibles, see Daily Mirror, Dec. 3, 2013.

  24 “for the risk … is practically nil”: In a lengthy filing with the Mixed Claims Commission, convened after the war to levy compensation from Germany to various claimants, Lauriat provides a great many details about his journey and the things he carried with him. He filed his claim on April 6, 1923. All details mined from the proceeding will be cited as Lauriat, Claim. His remark about the safety of transporting things by ocean liner can be found in his filings at “Affidavit, March 12, 1925, or Charles Lauriat Jr.”

  25 “convoyed through the war zone”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 6.

  26 �
��but this year”: Ibid., 69.

  27 He packed: “Exhibit in Support of Answer to Question 1,” Lauriat, Claim.

  28 “In 1915, to come out”: Mackworth, This Was My World, 239.

  29 “In the evenings”: Ibid., 240.

  30 “I have always been grateful”: Ibid.

  31 “Certainly not”: “Deposition of William Thomas Turner,” April 30, 1915, Petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, April 15, 1918, U.S. National Archives–New York.

  U-20: THE HAPPIEST U-BOAT

  1 That same day, Friday: Details of Schwieger’s voyage, here and in following chapters, come from his War Log, a translation of which appears in the Bailey/Ryan Collection at the Hoover Institution Archives. The log proved invaluable in helping me reconstruct, in detail, U-20’s journey to the Irish Sea and back. Hereafter, where necessary, I’ll cite it simply as Schwieger, War Log.

  2 “A particularly fine-looking fellow”: Thomas, Raiders, 91.

  3 At routine cruising speeds: Gibson and Prendergast, German Submarine War, 356–57.

  4 Schwieger noted in his log: Koerver states that the “normal” wireless range for submarines was “several hundred miles.” Schwieger’s log indicates that for U-20, at least, the range was far shorter. Koerver, German Submarine Warfare, xix. Jan Breemer states that early in 1915 “reliable” communications between submarines and shore stations at distances of “up to 140 nautical miles were possible.” Breemer, Defeating the U-Boat, 15.

  5 “I want to stress”: Edgar von Spiegel interview, Lusitania, Catalog No. 4232, Imperial War Museum, London.

  6 “a splendid, dapple-gray horse”: Spiegel, Adventures, 20.

  7 “It was a very hard task”: Edgar von Spiegel interview, Lusitania, Catalog No. 4232, Imperial War Museum, London.

  8 Such authority could be thrilling: As German captain Paul Koenig put it, “The master of no ship is so lonely, so forced to depend entirely upon himself as the master of a submarine” (Voyage, 76).