The Book Depository Dead Wake by Erik Larson
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Price: £10.99
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Description: Dead Wake : Paperback : Transworld Publishers Ltd : 9780552779340 : : 31 Dec 2015 : On 1st May 1915, the luxury ocean liner Lusitania sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool. Her passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone and its submarines were bringing terror to the Atlantic. The Book Depository Dead Wake by Erik Larson - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780552779340
MPN: 9780552779340
GTIN: 9780552779340
Author: Changeling
Rating: 5
Review: Gripping stuff! Larson has clearly done an awful lot of research. He takes us from the quayside in Manhattan where passengers are complacently boarding Cunard's flagship, many blithely unaware that the German Embassy has posted a warning to merchant shipping in that morning's papers and misguided in the belief that the Royal Navy will protect her, to the White House, where Woodrow Wilson is determined to stay out of the war in Europe and, frankly, is more interested in the potential second Mrs Wilson, to Machiavellian goings on in the Admiralty in London, to the evil of the German Empire. We all know what happened to the Lusitania. But that doesn't make the story - and Larson's account - any less edge-of-seat. The subject and the author certainly stirs the passions! It's a bit like watching a disaster movie, where one knows what happens, but still can't help willing that the end will somehow be different. And there's an incredulity to it, as well. Surely Kaiser Bill and his cronies knew that by sinking a ship with so many US citizens on board would encourage the States to enter the war (though it wasn't quick in doing so, even then)? The commander of U-20 patrols the waters around the British Isles sinking any unfortunate vessel that came into his sights, regardless of the neutrality of many. The German Empire seemed to be hellbent on the destruction of anything and everything (arguably, even itself). There's a lot of controversy surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania, obviously. How could the Germans be so cruel and heartless to sink a merchant ship with nearly two-thousand innocent civilians on board? Larson reels of the figures: 'Of the Lusitania's 1,959 passengers and crew, only 764 survived; the total of deaths was 1,195. The three German stowaways brought the total to 1,198. Of 33 infants aboard, only 6 survived. Over 600 passengers were never found. Among the dead were 123 Americans.' But was the British Admiralty culpable? Why didn't navy ships escort the Lusitania through the war zone? Why did one torpedo sink a ship as big as her (although the authorities persisted in claiming it was two)? Why did it only take eighteen minutes for the liner to sink? And why had the King previously asked if America would enter the war if the Lusitania was lost? In other words, was the Lusitania sacrificed to provoke the US to join the Allies? Larson's account is compelling and stirs a lot of passions. That the U-boat crew celebrated the sinking and the German people were jubilant disgusts me. His wife later claimed that the U-boat commander was a broken man after he realised what he has done, but his later actions bely that. I am against the death penalty, but I was pleased when I read that his later command was sunk and he was lost. Equally, I am disgusted that the Admirality may have sacrificed the Lusitania and those on board for the war effort. Of course, it's all conjecture and unlikely that we will ever know the truth, but the conspiracy theories will continue. And the 'what ifs' are equally maddening: What if the Lusitania's departure from New York hadn't been delayed? What if she hadn't stopped for two hours to pick up passengers from another ship commandeered by the Admiralty? What if she had been travelling at full speed, rather than slower to save coal? What if the fog hadn't lifted? Indeed, the Lusitania's sister ship, Mauretania, narrowly avoided a U-boat attack herself. So much was down to chance. In other words, a ripping yarn.
Author: Mr Kevin Vause
Rating: 4
Review: Loved the story, well told by Erik Larson (as always), but there are one or two unforgiveable (geographically based) editing errors in here. E.g. p.205 "...to reach the English port cities of Swansea, Cardiff and Bristol"; both Swansea and Cardiff are in Wales, not England! As an Englishman living in Wales, I know just how offensive this would be perceived. Also p.210 "...until it returned to its base at Milford Haven, on the English coast..."; again , Milford Haven is in Wales. Loved your story, Erik, but please get your editing staff to open an atlas!
