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Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania QUOTES

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania QUOTES

1 " It's all right to drill your crew, but why not drill the passengers. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

2 " He disliked the social obligations of the captaincy. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

3 " Wasplike with their long slender hulls, these were ships not seen in these waters before. They approached in a line, each flying a large American flag. To the hundreds of onlookers by now gathered on shore, many also carrying American flags, it would be a sight they would never forget and into which they read great meaning. These were the descendants of the colonials returning now at Britain's hour of need.... "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

4 " They looked more like day laborers than seamen. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

5 " There were always those passengers who came aboard bearing grudges against the modern age. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

6 " Murder was a fascination as always. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

7 " New York's perennial attraction was shopping. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

8 " If you had to jump six or seven feet or certainly drown, it's surprising how far even older people will jump. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

9 " I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organized affair, but I've learned the devil a lot in the last five minutes. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

10 " During World War I, Germany had only 25 of its vaunted submarines sailing at any one time. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

11 " My prophetic task would be twofold: to stand up to him, and to stand by him. To awaken his conscience, and to salve the pain this would cause him. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

12 " My between-books strategy was reading voraciously and on a whim. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

13 " 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 , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

14 " 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 , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

15 " Why in the midst of great events there always seems to be a family so misnamed is one of the imponderables of history. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

16 " I think my thought and imagination contain the picture and perceive its significance from every point of view. I have to force myself not to dwell upon it to avoid the sort of numbness that comes from deep apprehension and dwelling upon elements too vast to be yet comprehended or in any way controlled by counsel. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

17 " Belief in such things was widespread in America and Britain at the start of the twentieth century, when an Ouija board was a regular fixture in drawing rooms, to be brought out after dinner for impromptu séances. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

18 " As Wilson mourned his wife, German forces in Belgium entered quiet towns and villages, took civilian hostages, and executed them to discourage resistances. In the town of Dinant, German soldiers shot 612 men, women, and children. The American press called such atrocities acts of "frightfulness," the word then used to describe what later generations would call terrorism. On August 25, German forces bean an assault on the Belgian city of Louvain, the "Oxford of Belgium," a university town that was home to an important library. Three days of shelling and murder left 209 civilians dead, 1,100 buildings incinerated, and the library destroyed, along with its 230,000 books, priceless manuscripts, and artifacts. The assault was deemed an affront to just to Belgium but to the world. Wilson, a past president of Princeton University, "felt deeply the destruction of Louvain," according to his friend, Colonel House; the president feared "the war would throw the world back three or four centuries. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

19 " Passengers were crushed by descending boats. Swimmers were struck by chairs, boxes, potted plants, and other debris falling from the decks high above. And then there were those most ill-starred of passengers, who had put on their life preservers incorrectly and found themselves floating with their heads submerged, legs up, as in some devil’s comedy. "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

20 " She asked, what would he do if a lady happened to insist? Turner replied, “Madam, do you think that would be a lady? "

― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania