Home > Work > Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
121 " Oh, so many things swarmed in my thoughts,” she wrote; “and yet each time I was with him I felt the charm of his presence. "
― Erik Larson , Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
122 " there existed a widespread, if naive, belief that war of the kind that had convulsed Europe in past centuries had become obsolete—that the economies of nations were so closely connected with one another that even if a war were to begin, it would end quickly. Capital "
123 " THE SUBMARINE as a weapon had come a long way by this time, certainly to the point where it killed its own crews only rarely. "
124 " The war began with the geopolitical equivalent of a brush fire. "
125 " But within a week, the brush fire gusted into a firestorm, spiking fears, resurrecting animosities, triggering alliances and understandings, and setting long-laid plans in motion. "
126 " constantly keep in mind that whatever has happened "
127 " of Commons "
128 " 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. "
129 " expected, well suited to Germany’s guerrilla "
130 " Whether out of professional pique or some instinct of fear, the ship’s mascot—a cat named Dowie, after Captain Turner’s predecessor—fled the ship that night, for points unknown. "
131 " Its 300 stokers, trimmers, and firemen, working 100 per shift, would shovel 1,000 tons of coal a day into its 192 furnaces to heat its 25 boilers and generate enough superheated steam to spin the immense turbines of its engines. "
132 " What most likely caused the second event was the rupture of a main steam line, carrying steam under extreme pressure. This was Turner’s theory from the beginning. "
133 " With the physique of a bank safe, he was the embodiment of quiet strength. "
134 " She and a friend joked about what to do if the ship were attacked. “Our stewardess laughed,” Mrs. Lines recalled, “and said we would not go down, but up, as we were well loaded with munitions. "
135 " Some captains made no attempt to save the lives of merchant seamen; others went so far as to tow lifeboats towards land. One u-boat commander sent the captain of a torpedoed ship three bottles of wine to ease the long row ashore. "
136 " Another raid followed on January 31, during which nine airships flew as far as Liverpool, along the way sending terrifying shadows scudding across the landscape of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. "
137 " Unterseebootkonstruktionsbüro "
138 " Far from a clamor for war, there existed a widespread, if naive, belief that war of the kind that had convulsed Europe in past centuries had become obsolete—that the economies of nations were so closely connected with one another that even if a war were to begin, it would end quickly. "
139 " The Lusitania remained a passenger liner, but with the hull of a battleship. "
140 " Turner, that day, was master of one of the great greyhounds of the North Atlantic—and looked the part. "