Customer Reviews

LUSITANIA: An Illustrated Biography

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The new J. Kent Layton book on the LUSITANIA, certainly has to me among the most concise, detailed books ever regarding this one famous Cunard liner... Although her sister-ship MAURETANIA gained more fame over the long term for her enduring speed record and flawless reliability, the LUSITANIA remains most familiar to many, largely due to the pointless war-induced disaster which befell her... There are many photographs never seen anywhere else, plus some survivor accounts and anecdotes from others still alive from when the ship met her doom... The book has a set of deck-plans, plus a number of colorized period postcard photos of the liner "as built" with the white forecastle before she actually entered commercial service. The book also contains several colorized interior photos from her early years. There are also a number of finely-detailed paintings of the LUSITANIA, including the cover artwork depicting the liner as she looked with buff promenade-stripe and black funnels as per her last voyage. Pete Hodges

This book is one of the most comprehensive books about the Lusitania. I have been an avid Lusitania buff for over thirty years and I have purchased books about her, but this book has pictures of Lusitania that have never been seen at Liverpoool and here in New York. I am extremely satisfied with this book and would like to salute the creator of the book, J Kent Layton, "Cheers", A magnificent Job Well Done.

I have read most of the books that have been written on this subject, starting with A.A. and Mary Hoehling's THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE LUSITANIA (1956), and I must say, this is the most complete history of this fascinating ship that I have ever seen. Every detail is there, from the laying of the keel, through the peacetime voyages that gained her great fame and the Blue Riband for speed...few writers want to venture into the history, all they want to portray is the drama and the gore of the devastingly premature end of her career at the hands of a bloodthirsty U-boat commander. We don't need here to debate whether she was a legitimate target or not because she carried contraband weapons into a war zone, or whether the British Admiralty knowingly used her civilian passengers as a human shield to deliver the goods or, even more gleefully neutral about it, might pull the USA into the conflict if she happened to be sunk by the Germans....all of that has been covered elsewhere ad infinitum. This book shows the history of a Grand Dame of the Seas, and like Miss Havisham in GREAT EXPECTATIONS, we all wince when she unexpectedly falls victim to a falling log that rolls out of the fireplace. In the midst of these pages, you will see a myriad of photos that you have never seen before of a great ship carrying the illustrious and privileged of the time safely and quickly across the pond. The photos display a society page of the times. No wonder there were several well-known characters amidst the victims of the last voyage....they had all learned from their peers that this was the ship to travel aboard! Buy this book and experience more than one Bon Voyage!
Peter Stelling, Atlanta, Georgia

I was very pleased to see the updated pictures throughout the book - although the story in the book is the same as it was in the original version, it was still very refreshing to read and will take it along on my future cruises to read in a deckchair while out and about on the ocean!