Customer Reviews

The Lusitania

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've read this title several times, and it's one of those few that get better each time. This is NOT a human interest type of book for the casual reader. It also challenges the "East Coast Establishment" view, which has dominated our history books for so long. Simpson examines many topics in detail, including the political and naval background as well as cargo, manifesting and port clearance procedures, and comes up with a most fascinating and documented tale. Although I can't agree with all his arguments and inferences, I think his conclusions in the main are correct. I would recommend this book highly to any serious student of the event.

The late James Burnham remarked that among Great Britian's major exports, hypocricy was the formost of their exports. Colin Simpson's book titled THE LUSITANIA is yet one more classic example of such hypocricy. This is a well written and thoroughly documented account of the actual status of THE LUSITANIA and the background to the attack with took place in 1915.

Simpson gave his readers a solid background of the behind-the-scenes efforts of what some call The Eastern Establishment to prod Americans into war with the Germans during World War I. The Hate Germany rhetoric in this country was incited by Eastern Establishment Anglophiles in their efforts to elicit support for the British while creating lies and distortions about alleged German atrocities which never took place. As an aside Posonby's book undermines these myths and folklore nonsense.

Simpson documented how bankers and the plutocratic rich used every means fair or foul to arm the British during the early phases of World War I. While the Americans were supposedly neutral, these men used their financial connections to support the British when the supposedly easy victory of the "allies" over their German rivals proved to be anything but easy. While President Wilson and some in his administration preached neutrality in 1914 and 1915, Wilson and some of his advisers were actively planning to enlist U.S. support and military intervention against the Germans as early as 1915 in violation of both U.S. law and international law.

Simson was very comprehensive and clear about the status of THE LUSITANIA and other British vessels operated by the Cunard line. Under international law, merchant ships ( civilian vessels) were not to armed. If a civilian vessel were armed, that ship was subject to attack by enemy naval commanders as though the ship was a naval military vessel. THE LUSITANIA and many other British civilian vessels were indeed armed. Simpson is clear that THE LUSITANIA was not only armed, the ship was registered in the British navy as an auxillary battle cruiser which made the ship a legal military target under international law. When the British lied about THE LUSITANIA being armed, British officials were embarrassed when Cunard officials who owned the vessel boasted about THE LUSITANIA's restructuring for armament. Simpson detailed the construction of the ship to contain gun placements, and THE LUSITANIA's crew ordered passangers away from where the guns were.

Readers will discover that British sea captains who were in charge of ships such as THE LUSITANIA often hoisted the American flag on the high seas. When German U Boat commanders would surface to warn what they thought was an American ship of possible danger, the British commanders would order the shooting of the German submarine or ramming the subermarine.

An interesting anecdote is the fact that THE LUSITANIA would have been attacked sooner had some of the German U Boat commanders had a current manual indentifying THE LUSITANIA as resistered as a naval vessel and not a civilian vessel. However, the Germans did indeed get current manuals and gave warning in New York City newspapers of the danger that U.S. passangers assumed if they travelled on this ship. In fact, President was derelect in his duty as President when he failed to enforce a U.S. law forbidding U.S. civilians from travelling on ships and trains carrying munitions and explosives. THE LUSITANIA was carrying such cargo in addition to being armed.

The conditions leading to the attack are criminal. The British were aware of a German submarine in the area of THE LUSITIANIA's. THE LUSITANIA had a naval escort that was inexplicably withdrawn when the vessel approached the coast of Ireland exposing the vessel to attack. After the attack, British naval captains threatened civilian boaters with attack if these civilians tried to rescue the passangers. The British government was trying to increase the casuality rate to inflame American opinion.

British hypocricy was further exposed in this book in subsequent hearing about the sinking of THE LUSITIANIA. The deceit and lying of British government officials was witheld from the hearings in an attempt to blame the Captain of THE LUSITANIA as solely responsible for the tragedy. This did not work very well, and the matter was obscured from the press and other interested parties.

Some of this reviewer's college students surprised him when these students showed journalistic accounts of THE LUSITANIA tragedy. Some of the reporters actually reported on the actual status of THE LUSITANIA as an armed battle auxillary cruiser and the British deceit. Yet, textbook writers and publishers avoid the actual truth of the sinking of THE LUSITANIA like the plague. It is about time for these cowards to write honest history about the event almost a hundred years later.

There is little criticism of this book. There are an overwhelming amount of documents and sources which makes the book useful and thorough. Anyone who wants a dispassionate view of history would do well to read and absorb this book.

Author Colin Simpson did an impressive amount of research that is so well documented that it can evidently withstand any credible challenge to the authenticity of the story he tells. As expected, a nation at war, as Britain was preparing for at the time, naturally makes use of all resources at its disposal. This of course would include the great passenger ships of the day; so, it is no surprise that the Lusitania was subtly transformed at the time to serve not only the transatlantic passenger business goals of ship owner Cunard but also to function as an armed naval cruiser should the need arise for it to play that role as well. Simpson irrefutably documents this fact. Then, however, comes his main thesis that he and most others would find hard to countenance; namely that this ship is alleged to have played a secret but powerful role in bringing America into World War I. The fact that Britain naturally blockaded shipping to Germany as the War proceeded apparently led to the substantial support of their war material shipping needs from the U.S. by U.S. business interests. Here, the author clearly shows that the Lusitania was transporting such material along with passengers. Moreover, he points out that the Lusitania sailed into harm's way without the protection afforded other ships and so was a ready target by the U-boat that sank it. Again his documentation is impressive. The book was published in 1972, yet it is virtually unknown today. Perhaps this is undertandable, as acceptance of Simpson's thesis would require some changes to World War I history as we know it.

This paperback packs in lots of information about the event that dragged the U.S. into WWI, thanks to the duplicitous British. The narrative covers events preceding the sinking through to salvage attempts in the 80s. As a detailed look at one of the major events of the early 20th century, this book is highly recommended to anyone interested in the Lusitania.

I read this book to make a speech for my AP European History class, and while I was reading it, I slept through a lot of it. Since I did not understand too much of the book, I sunk just like how the Lusitania did. In my opinion, the names of the people were too long (i.e. Wind"shaft"ston Church"n'priest"hill"n'mountain") got me all confused. But on the other hand, Simpson had some pretty good ideas and he seemed like he was a German spy, but he also had British views too. The Titanic is a much easier speech and Kate Winslet gets naked in the movie.