Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Douglas Ferguson

in other ways we cling stubbornly to outmoded beliefs which ultimately do us great harm. Read this to know more about the ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2015

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Retelling a story that has been told many times already is either foolish (what’s new?) or courageous (see what’s new!). Larson successfully manages to bring a fresh perspective to a tale that I felt I knew.

Dead Wake- The Last Crossing of the Lusitania is a surprisingly well crafted re-telling of a known event. Despite knowing the outcome - the loss of nearly 1,200 souls at the hands of a German U-boat in the spring of 1917 - Larson keeps pulling the reader along. He does so by adopting many perspectives - those of passengers on the cruise ship, crew members on the U-boat, Woodrow Wilson in the White House to name just a few - with just the right amount of telling detail to bring the reader into the moment. Reading Dead Wake is a tutorial in early twentieth century naval architecture, morality, social manners and political history.

Larson shows how the sinking of the Lusitania was, for many, a “Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back”. Taken in isolation, this was a tragedy. Indeed, the captains of the Lusitania and the U-Boat, Cunard executives, Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill and Kaiser Wilhelm made assumptions about each other’s behaviors and interests which proved to be tragically wrong. Put in the context of the beginning of World War I, the sinking altered the course of history by dragging the United States into the conflict.

In other ways, the event was a classical tipping point. One era - the world of Victorian manners and gentlemanly wars - ended and another - the era of global modern warfare and the emergence of American leadership - began. Never again would it be safe to assume a bright line between civilian (commercial) and political (military interests).

Hanging over the Lusitania disaster is a sense of avoidable inevitability. If any one of many points along the voyage - slowing down to pick up mail, changing course to get bearings, information not transmitted from British intelligence - had gone differently the Lusitania would not have had a rendezvous with its tragic destiny. It would have steamed calmly into port. However, they didn’t go the other way and history as we now know it unfolded.

We now live in a world where we try to take lessons from this eminently avoidable disaster. Technology dependence? The Lusitania was too fast and too big to be sunk. False assumptions about the enemy? The Germans miscalculated British and American reactions. Changing social mores? The British put civilians in harms way for military purposes. For that alone, Larson’s use of history to illuminate the past to help in the present is invaluable. We had our own Lusitania disaster with 9/11. What will the next one be?

As with ether books by Eirk Larson (In the Garden of the Beasts and the Devil in the White City) the reader learns not just about the event, but about the era in which the event took place. We are nearly a century beyond the values of Victorian England and adolescent America. In some ways we have made progress, in other ways we cling stubbornly to outmoded beliefs which ultimately do us great harm.

Read this to know more about the past and to be better prepared for the future.

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Phil Seifert

A Great Historical Accounting

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2017

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A very well researched accounting of the attack and sinking. Larson does a good job debunking some of the myths that had arisen over the years, many of which I had heard before as updated evidence came out. This is the first book I've read on the Lusitania in quite a while, but was aware of many of the basic facts. Larson does an excellent job in tracking the movements of both the Lusitania and U-20 from the time they left their respective ports until they met off the old head of Kinsale, to give the reader a feeling of each ship's journey. In particular, the decisions made by both Captains Turner and Schweiger that day in terms of courses and speed of each vessel that resulted in a perfect shot setup for Schweiger. Also covered are passenger stories of some aboard, wartime events that resulted in allowing passenger ships to be targeted, apparent apathy of the Wilson White House on the goings on of the war to that point and why, and aftermath of the sinking on both Captains and the war mentality. Overall, a highly informative and interesting book.

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WILLIAM H FULLER

Unexpected Casualties -- Or Perthaps Not So Unexpected?

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2019

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“Please don't tell me that we're going to be subjected to this kind of inept writing,” I thought, when, on page 7, I encountered “the ship was booked to . . . carry nearly 2,000 people, or 'souls' . . . .” My suspicion deepened two pages on when I ran across a reference to the captain's holding “the record for a 'round' voyage, meaning round-trip, . . .” I fervently hoped that I was not going to be subjected to parenthetical comments every few pages giving unwanted and unneeded synonyms for perfectly comprehensible words in the text, thereby utterly destroying the flow of the narrative. Thankfully, this distracting technique rapidly disappeared, a third example appearing only much later when the author felt compelled to insult his readers again by lecturing us that the forecastle of a ship often appears spelled as “fo'c'sle.” Other than these three insults to readers' intelligence, I can levy no criticism against Dead Wake:: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, for it is an outstanding history and is otherwise written in a compelling and engaging style.

By introducing us to the captain and several passengers in the initial chapters, Larson enables us readers to become rather intimate with them and to see them as fellow beings with abilities, shortcomings, worries, loves and eccentricities. They represent the nearly 2,000 people aboard the fated ship and through them we come to care what befalls these doomed souls. We also come to view events through other eyes, those of the commander of Unterseeboot zwanzig, U-20, the submarine that launches the fatal torpedo.

Dead Wake also reaches beyond the Lusitania into the British Admiralty, and we learn something of the personalities and actions of a few significant government officials. We learn of Room 40, a precursor of Bletchley Park, the secret code-breaking operation of the government. Back in the still-isolationist United States, we see President Woodrow Wilson continuing to resist joining the far-off European war even as the bodies of U.S. citizens piled higher as Germany began more and more to disregard flags of neutral countries and to attack all shipping without exception. We wonder to what extent Wilson's personal grief over the death of his wife and his pursuit of the affections of Edith Bolling Galt distracted him from world affairs.

We are reminded that the sinking of the Lusitania did not precipitate entry of the U.S. into World War I and that, in fact, about two years passed between those two events. An intercepted telegram from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the the president of Mexico urged an alliance with Germany and, assuming victory by the Central Powers, offered to give the states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico. (Publication of that offer in U.S. newspapers was much more the death knell of isolationist sentiment than was the destruction of the Lusitania.)

Dead Wake, in short, is an excellent history of the years leading up to the entry of the U.S. in The Great War, years in which Germany held the upper hand at sea, years in which civilian passengers died in increasing numbers before the term “collateral damage” became common, years in which perhaps—just perhaps—British naval protection of ships such as the Lusitania was intentionally weak so that a disastrous attack, should one occur, might goad the U.S. into fighting alongside Allied forces. We understand why the British Admiralty ordered the recall of the only fast ship that had begun to sail to the rescue of survivors floundering in the frigid ocean. Erik Larson regales us with the known facts and suggests the possibilities in a non-fiction history book that is as captivating as any spy-thriller novel. I cannot envision a reader willingly putting this book down once he or she has once begun it.

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This Is the Best Kind of Nonfiction Book: A Fact-Filled Page-Turner

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2019

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Crescendo. That is the best word to describe this book.

From page one, the story slowly builds to a crescendo that is searing, heartbreaking, tragic, and absolutely frustrating—because at so many points along the way, the sinking of the famed passenger ship Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915 eleven miles off the southern coast of Ireland could have been prevented.

Even though we all know the ending, author Eric Larson is a masterful storyteller using a novelist's favorite tool in this nonfiction tome: Each chapter tells the tale from a different point of view, including the Lusitania's Captain William Thomas Turner, various passengers on ship who are both famous and ordinary, the German U-boat's Captain Walther Schwieger and his crew, the cipher decoders in Britain's top secret Room 40, and President Woodrow Wilson, who was grief-stricken over the death of his wife but soon fell in love (as in head over heels) with another woman. In addition to the specific story of the sinking of the Lusitania, the book is a fascinating treasure trove of early 20th century culture, fashion, and mores as World War I was ramping up.

Bonus: The findings—both immediately after the sinking and decades later—of why this tragedy happened are truly shocking.

Because of Larson's prodigious research and ability to weave a good story, readers are treated to the best kind of nonfiction book: a fact-filled page-turner.

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IsolaBlue

The Mystery of Room 40 and the Sinking of Humanity

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2015

Erik Larson is not capable of writing anything less than a gripping account of history. All of his previous books have been spellbinding accounts of storms, cities, crimes, inventions, ships and/or war. In DEAD WAKE: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Larson returns to the subjects of war and ships and stirs in a potent mixture of international politics as well as a little romance to once again seduce his readers with a contemporary view of an historical situation.

Written to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, a Cunard passenger liner sunk by a German U-Boat, Larson's account differs in several ways from other well-known books produced on the subject. Diana Preston's LUSITANIA: An Epic Tragedy, published in 2002, is one of the best-written accounts of the disaster. The difference between Preston's work and Larson's might be found in the subtitle of the Larson book which emphasizes the crossing while Preston's book is most memorable for its account of the sinking and its aftermath, particularly accounts of survival. No one can read Preston's book without feeling as if he/she is clinging to a piece of wreckage in a cold, spring sea awaiting rescue. No one can read Larson's book and not feel like the proverbial fly on the wall in the infamous Room 40 of the British Admiralty. While Preston addressed Room 40, in Larson's writing, the room takes on a role and becomes a character (albeit not a very appealing one) in its own right.

Larson skillfully gets into the mindset of Winston Churchill and how determined he was to see America enter the war. In the States, Larson goes back in time and brings President Woodrow Wilson to life through a love affair that seemed to take up more of his time than thinking about the suitability of America's neutrality. Yet Larson allows readers to see Wilson in a most human light; perhaps the love affair gave him the strength for the decisions he had to make later. While the reader feels a connection with Wilson and also with the much-maligned but ultimately blameless Captain of the Lusitania, Captain Turner, utter horror and strong dislike is brought out when we read about Captain Schwieger of U-Boat 20 and, in a strange way, perhaps even more when we examine the real-life characters and goings-on within the Admiralty's Room 40. Germany and Britain both emerge as more than a bit despicable.

The pluses of Larson's latest work are his acute examination of Room 40, his up-close look at Woodrow Wilson, and his ability to swing between the behind-the-scenes action and balance his discoveries with a conventional but absorbing look at some of the passengers on board the Lusitania all while building a true and terrifying suspense in the narrative. His profile of Charles Lauriat, Boston bookseller and collector of rare documents and drawings, is excellent. One senses that Larson was truly interested in Lauriat and might, having not been faced with producing a book to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Lusitania's sinking, have chosen Lauriat as a sole subject for a book or article.

Erik Larson can never disappoint. Whether one reads a great deal about WWI history, maritime disasters, or early 1900s international politics, there is something new to be learned in DEAD WAKE. For those who have read very little about the Lusitania, this book is an excellent starting point. As mentioned before, Diana Preston's LUSITANIA: An Epic Tragedy tells a similar story but with a slightly different approach. Both books have something to offer, but Larson's, being newer, may include some fresh revelations about the history we thought we knew.

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Wandrwoman

Treachery, Negligence, Insidious Indifference in a World Gone Mad

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2016

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This is a compelling tale of opposing positions. Of good and evil, peace and war, civilians and soldiers, England and Germany, magnificent ocean liners and stealthy U-boats, bureaucrats and autocrats, the rich and the poor, technology and nature.

We all know about the tragic sinking of the British luxury ocean liner Lusitania in 1915, during the early days of WW1. Torpedoed by a German U-Boat while off the coast of Ireland, close to 1,200 civilian lives were lost. Despite our knowing the horrific ending, Eric Larson, spins a story that is as suspenseful and gripping as any fictional mystery or thriller.

Known for his works of narrative non-fiction, Larson pulls from a huge amount of existing documentation to relate the story. He quotes from personal reminiscences, notes, journals, autobiographies, government and corporate records, telegrams, photographs, news reports, court documents and insurance claims. Events come to life and characters become vividly all too human.

Lusitania’s Captain William Thomas Turner is stolid and an experienced seaman but surprisingly unprepared for the realities of open water warfare. A company man, he believes what the Cunard executives tell him, the Lusitania is invincible and the passengers need reassurances and platitudes rather than “upsetting” safety training. Walther Schweiger, the U-boat Captain, is a hard edged, dedicated military man, willing and able to go for weeks in a hot, stinking, claustrophobic, underwater vessel. He thinks not of comfort but of finding and attacking enemy ships….whether they be military or merchant…..his job is to find, destroy, and kill, without sentimentality or ethical burden.

President Woodrow Wilson is at first depressed at the death of his first wife and then romantically smitten with Edith Bolling Galt who would eventually become his second. Was Wilson too emotionally preoccupied with his personal issues to actively lead his country? Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the British Admiralty, was youthful and politically aggressive. As the war went on, the British were anxious for the US to join the fight. British intelligence had “secured” the German military code book and were able to intercept U-boat cables. They knew the Lusitania was a target. They knew the position of the U-boats. Did Churchill (and other British leaders) purposefully leave the Lusitania open to attack to prevent Germany from discovering that their codes had been broken, and to draw the US into the War?

The Cunard ship company was concerned with profits and good publicity. Executives did little to protect and preserve its ships during their Trans-Atlantic crossings and even less to prepare its passengers for what seemed like an eventual disaster.

Was the Lusitania merely in the wrong place at the wrong time or a tragic pawn in a hideous game for world domination? Larsen suggests the latter.

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Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Acceptable but Choppy

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2017

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I'm a big Erik Larson fan, having read Thunderstruck and Devil in the White City.

I haven't finished this book, and I'll edit my review when I have, but so far the editing is driving me crazy--too many unnecessary (and sometimes incorrect) commas and too many series connected with conjunctions when commas would suffice. In summary, the book's content is stellar but it reads choppy and disconnected. I find myself rereading sentences frequently (mostly to determine what was done wrong and how I would fix it). For example, the following three examples come from the first pages of the book (numbered to match the photos):

1. So is Bernard a designer who is a member of the theater set, or a set designer for theater productions? My guess is the latter (not really a guess--I checked it), in which case the hyphen in "theater-set" is technically wrong.
2. Comma not needed between "occasions" and "while." While more a style decision than a usage problem, the style becomes annoying when it recurs with frequency.
3. The appositive, telling the reader that "souls" equals "people," is unnecessary for readers with even a rudimentary grasp of English. So it makes the writing clunkier and wordier for no good reason.

It may sound as if I don't like the book, but I actually like the content quite a lot. My issues are more about readability and editing.

But perhaps by the end, those problems won't bother me so much. Stay tuned.

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Craig Wood

The final crossing of the Lusitania

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2019

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"Dead Wake" provides an excellent telling of the May 1915 trans-Atlantic crossing of the Lusitania. On the final full day of that voyage, the ship was sunk by a torpedo fired from a German submarine off the coast of Ireland. More than 1,200 people died in the disaster.

Larsen provides many interesting facts about the ship itself, its captain, crew, and passengers, as well as the political situation in the US and Europe in early 1915. It's really a gripping narrative, told with suspense and flair. A significant chunk of the book is dedicated to the sinking itself -- the 18 minutes that elapsed from when the ocean liner was struck by the torpedo until it sunk below the surface of the sea. But events that played out in the US, the UK, and Germany also have a prominent place in the book.

Although I appreciated learning about Woodrow Wilson and the tug-of-war between pacifists and warmongers in the US, I could have done without all of the time spent on his personal relationship with his paramour, Edith Galt, who would end up marrying Wilson later in 1915. As background material it was interesting enough, but the book seemed too heavily skewed to telling the nitty-gritty of this relationship, at the expense of other events that Wilson experienced during this time.

There's a ton of material available online about the Lusitania, and many other books written about the tragedy. "Dead Wake" will probably pique your interest on the subject, encouraging you to learn more about this seminal event in 20th century history.

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Kindle Customer

Not the usual Eric Larson quality

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2018

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Normally, I love Eric Larson books, but this one fell completely short. I had to force myself to finish it. Overly detailed descriptions about things that were not pertinent to the story. After the first description of the obstacles / challenges to operating a Uboat, I got it. Understand it was a terrific feat, but he goes on and on and on about it every time he jumps back to the uboat operation. It was just as bad as a Tom Clancy novel when he describes every curve, function, aspect of a gun in his books. Anyway, if you like this type of writing, you will probably enjoy the book; me, I thought about stabbing my eyes out just so I wouldn't have to keep going.

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Sci-fi Mom

Dead Boring

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2020

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I don’t like to leave negative reviews. Someone else could find this fascinating and I didn’t check, but I bet there are thousands of 5 star reviews.
Mr Larson did what he does best. He researched and wove facts into a narrative. So I don’t think he did anything wrong. For me, I was bored with the story. It dragged until we FINALLY got the impact. I read the book because I wanted his take on theories that the ship was carrying munitions. He says no and I believe him. If anyone could have uncovered that secret, it would be Erik Larson . I was not surprised AT ALL of the conspiracy to move the US into the war. I totally believe that the British Government did that.
So I don’t want to trash the book. I was bored by it, but this is typical Erik Larson quality.

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