A review by bookish_brain1
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

4.0

I've been on an Erik Larson kick lately. I didn't love his book about Churchill, but this book reminded me why I love his storytelling. This book is about the last crossing of the Lusitania. I couldn't help reading it and having scenes from the movie Titanic flash across my brain. There were eerie similarities. Instead of an iceberg though, it was a German U-boat torpedo that condemned the Lusitania. It feels awful to read about a tragic historical event knowing that it could have been avoided. Some might say that Britain deliberately left the Lusitania open to peril in order to force the United States into the war. That was certainly my conclusion. In order to protect national secrets, Britain even went so far as to try and place blame on the Captain Turner. Ultimately it was blamed on the German U-boat, and erroneously credited the 18 minute sinking of the Lusitania on two torpedos, even though it was only one. A "dead wake" is the body of the torpedo moving well ahead of the wake, leaving a long pale scar. One passenger watched it collide with the ship, and described the scene as "beautiful." The Lusitania held 1,959 passengers and crew. Only 764 survived. Only 6 of the 33 infants on board survived. 600 passengers were never found or identified. And 123 were Americans. The unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave, and even afterwards if a family tried to claim a body, they were not allowed to have it exhumed and moved. Bodies washed upon distant shores for months after the ship went down. 18 minutes.