Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy [Mass Market Paperback]

Diane Preston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2006

On May 7, 1915, toward the end of her 101st eastbound crossing, from New York to Liverpool, England, R.M.S. Lusitania — pride of the Cunard Line and one of the greatest ocean liners afloat — became the target of a terrifying new weapon and a casualty of a terrible new kind of war. Sunk off the southern coast of Ireland by a torpedo fired from the German submarine U-20, she exploded and sank in eighteen minutes, taking with her some twelve hundred people, more than half of the passengers and crew. Cold-blooded, deliberate, and unprecedented in the annals of war, the sinking of the Lusitania shocked the world. It also jolted the United States out of its neutrality — 128 Americans were among the dead — and hastened the nation's entry into World War I.

In her account of this enormous and controversial tragedy, Diana Preston recalls both a pivotal moment in history and a remarkable human drama. The story of the Lusitania is a window on the maritime world of the early twentieth century: the heyday of the luxury liner, the first days of the modern submarine, and the climax of the decades-long German-British rivalry for supremacy of the Atlantic. It is a criticalchapter in the progress of World War I and in the political biographies of Woodrow Wilson, William Jennings Bryan, Kaiser Wilhelm II, andFirst Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. Above all, it is the story of the passengers and crew on that fateful voyage — a story of terror and cowardice, of self-sacrifice and heroism, of death and miraculous survival.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the British passenger ship Lusitania on the high seas, killing some 1,200 people, among them the magnate Alfred Vanderbilt and the renowned author Elbert Hubbard. In this swiftly paced reconstruction, Diana Preston examines the events of that day and its aftermath--and hints at some tantalizing secrets. Among other things, the sinking of the Lusitania and the death of scores of American passengers helped draw the United States into World War I. Yet, Preston observes, it was no sneak attack; the German government had gone out of its way to warn prospective passengers that the English ship, as a military reserve vessel, was a fair target. And for good reason, though the Germans may not have known it; Preston suggests that it may well have been carrying armaments, which does much to explain why the British government suppressed a fact-finding inquest following the sinking. Whatever the truth, the destruction of the Lusitania had far-reaching effects--not least of them the Kaiser's ordering a stop to unrestricted submarine warfare. Preston's richly detailed, highly readable history sheds new light on the incident and the conduct of modern war. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Following her previous title for Walker, The Boxer Rebellion, Preston, an Oxford-trained historian, writer and broadcaster, provides more thrills and chills with this tale of the May 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, one of the jewels of Cunard's fleet of ocean liners, during a crossing from New York to Liverpool. Hit by a German submarine's torpedo, it sank in 18 minutes, with 1,200 casualties. The tragedy was a major motivation for America's entering WWI against Germany, as 124 U.S. citizens were among the dead. Preston offers myriad details to recreate the look and feel of the Lusitania's last voyage. Beyond that, she judiciously marshals German accounts at the time of the sinking and since to "justify" the attack, such as the charge that the Lusitania was carrying Canadian soldiers or contraband weapons, but she finds no evidence that soldiers were present, although a cache of weapons was carried. With a realistic view of the tangle of world politics in the WWI era, she concludes: "... no government, British, German, or American, was entirely free of blame for the situation leading up to the attack. Nor, in its wake, was any government hesitant to twist the facts, or use the disaster, to its own political ends."
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (March 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425189988
• ISBN-13: 978-0425189986
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "No merchantman shall be sunk without warning", May 3, 2002

By 

"michaeleve" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy (Hardcover)

This was the time honored tradition that governed war at sea. Britain and Germany were at war since August 4, 1914, when WWI commenced. Nevertheless warship captains were in the habit of signalling or firing warning shots, allowing crew and passengers of merchantmen to disembark before consigning ship and cargo to the watery depths. Rewards were for tonnage sunk not the numbers of persons sent to "Davey Jones' Locker". This wouldn't apply to the RMS Lusitania anyway. At 785 feet and displacing nearly 40,000 tons with a capacity of carrying 2,000 passengers and 850 crew, she was no mere merchantman but a luxury passenger liner advertised as the "Queen of the Seas". She sailed with impunity, without escort, and according to a well publicized and regular schedule. This was no doubt the mindset of Captain William Turner as he got the Lusitania underway on the morning of May 1, 1915 for the return voyage from New York to Liverpool; the ship's 202nd Atlantic crossing. Turner would also be comforted in knowing that the ship had thirty-four electrically controlled watertight doors which made her "virtually unsinkable" (the same words used to describe a certain ship involved in an earlier titanic catastrophe at sea). Lusitania was popularly known as the "Greyhound of the Sea" due to a top speed in excess of 25 knots and this seemed to have given Turner great confidence as he declared "a torpedo can't get the Lusitania - she runs too fast."

This gripping account by Diana Preston shows the false bravado of that statement and the truth of LUSITANIA being instead known as "An Epic Tragedy". On May 7 in broad daylight the ship was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-20 within sight of the coast of Ireland. The ship went down in under twenty minutes with the loss of 1,201 lives including 291 women and 94 children. There was utter shock and disbelief and the repercussions were immediate with worldwide condemnation of the sinking. There were 128 Americans among those lost including Alfred Vanderbilt. In the US, official complacency and public isolationist sentiments totally evaporated. What made it worse was that there had been no warning whatsoever. Only a trail of bubbles indicated an incoming torpedo.

This book is Preston's attempt to sort out why the usual rules of war were disregarded with the Lusitania "carrying civilian men, women and children". As is true of most tragedies at sea, the sinking of the ship is usually only the highwater mark, there is invariably confusion, controversy, and if it's a big enough event, there's sure to be conspiracy theories about. So it is with the Lusitania. One of the issues Preston looks at is: Did 32 year old Kapitan Leutnant Walther Schweiger - the commander of U-20 - know what he was firing at?, and did he act on his own initiative or under specific orders? This ties in with the larger theme of whether the Lusitania was a legitimate target as the Germans claimed. There are at least three versions offered as rationale (1) The Lusitania was an armed merchant cruiser (2) She was ferrying Canadian troops, and (3) She was loaded with guns and munitions. A conspiracy theory surrounds Britain supposedly setting these events in motion so as to draw us into the war. Preston doesn't find any evidence supporting this idea and it's apparent that conspiracists are imagining machinations by Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty. The events of history that Winston Churchill supposedly single-handedly orchestrated is quite phenomenal!

While Churchill, Woodrow Wilson, and Kaiser Wilhelm II all get due attention, this is as much about the passengers and their survival at sea, and in places it is a richly uplifting story of human courage and dignity. A female passenger Madame de Page assisted children into the lifeboats and was directly responsible for saving thirty-five young lives. Captain Turner stayed at his post and tried to steam on in order to beach the Lusitania. This failed and as the ship foundered he tried to maintain calm and only left when he believed he was the last man aboard. At this point nobody knew that so many were trapped below decks.

Preston offers us a riveting historical account that reads like a nautical yarn. The facts are grim and the loss of life was horrendous but Preston's writing skill allows her to bring the people and events alive. The historical detail remains as an unobtrusive backdrop and the richer and more colorful human interest stories shine through.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, May 16, 2002

By 

James R. Stanton (Pine Knoll Shores, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy (Hardcover)

Move over Stephen Ambrose! This historian has outdone you with her seamless melding of diaries, public records, newspaper accounts, military records, and her prose as the glue. Read this book, including appendix, acknowledgements and, even the references (!) in two long but captivated sittings! Surpases Ambrose's, Undaunted Courage - my previous favorite. On a par with McCullough's John Adams. Bravo, Mrs. Preston.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and Insightful, June 24, 2003

By 

Douglas S Heimlich - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy (Mass Market Paperback)

I believe the comparison of Diana Preston to Pullitzer Prize Winner Barbara Tuchman is quite justified, as Ms. Preston has gone to great lengths to provide intricate detail of the lives and events surrounding the Lusitania's tragic sinking off the Irish coast.

It would be a disservice to say that this book provides too much detail for a reader who just wants the basics of the ship's sinking. I find that it is those details that make the book so engaging and, surprisingly, a fast read. Every good book I've read has typically taken about 100 pages before the author "has" you, and before you know it, Preston will have you on the top deck staring down at that single menacing torpedo.

Knowing how the disaster affected so many lives through the poetic testimony of its survivors adds a much welcome human element to the tragedy.

I was very much impressed by Preston's inquiry into what actually did cause that second explosion on the vessel. She has all the facts up to date and interests you with each new development.

You'll know all there is to know about the Lusitania and more after reading Preston's book. A most engaging read