Today commemorates the 106th anniversary of the sinking of the passenger ship, Lusitania, at the hands of a German torpedo. This is a book review of its story as retold by Erik Larson in Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.
When: May 7th, 1915
Where: 12 miles off the coast of Ireland
Why: War.
“The track lingered on the surface like a long pale scar. In maritime vernacular, this trail of fading disturbance, whether from ship or torpedo, was called a “dead wake.” – Erik Larson
I have to thank Noelle Gallagher on Youtube for this recommendation. I have never really been a huge history person, but learning about the start of WWI through this lens was very refreshing. You’re being educated on what is happening on both sides of the war in a way I found was very entertaining and thrilling. Not to mention now I know a lot of fun facts about this cataclysmic event.
In Dead Wake, we’re following the lives of different people that experienced the sinking of the Lusitania. You feel their fears and anxieties building up to the ship’s final day as if you yourself were there. We also follow the German U-boat that shot the deadly torpedo, which in itself was a side of this history I never really knew about.
Fun fact: If a toilet is flushed while the U-boat is deep underwater, the pressure will spew it’s contents back into the ship. This is called a U-boat baptism!
Erik Larson shines light on different conspiratorial aspects that really make you rethink history. Mere days before the ship set sail from New York to Liverpool, the Germans advertised a warning that any ship “flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters”. Why did the Lusitania depart anyway? In this case, were the Germans justified in sinking the ship? These are the questions that launched the first World War.
“The most likely explanation is that there was indeed a plot, however imperfect, to endanger the Lusitania in order to involve the United States in the war.” – Erik Larson
I would recommend Dead Wake, easily, to anyone that wants to learn history, but not from a textbook. It captures the events with the writing style of a fictional plot-driven story, following the Lusitania chronologically through the point of view of many of its passengers, and adversaries. Erik Larson just has this way of making history fun and engaging. You get to meet people like Douglas Hertz whose mother died in a fire, and his wife on a train wreck; all within the same year that he almost died in a shipwreck. You will easily fall in love with some of the people you meet and the relationships they foster. This book presents an all-together great recounting of the life of the Lusitania in its final journey. By the end, you will definitely know way too much about this ship for your own sake!
If you’re aching for more Lusitania content, I would highly recommend the documentary Dark Secrets of the Lusitania by National Geographic. It dives deep (literally) into the theories that could explain what really happened to the Lusitania.
I’d also like to further recommend The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. These are the only books I have read by Larson, but he has quickly become one of my favorite nonfiction authors. Highly recommend if you’re interested in learning more about the inner workings of WWII with a cast of very peculiar characters.