And we go behind the scenes at the British Admiralty, where, ten months into the war, petty infighting is beginning to undermine naval intelligence.Īs Larson sets the stage for the disaster, he underscores its brutality by giving us a peek into the private lives of dozens of the Lusitania’s passengers.

We get an unusual glimpse into the private life of President Woodrow Wilson, who, in the spring of 1915, seems more preoccupied with a budding romance than with events in Europe. The story shifts effortlessly from the point of view of William Thomas Turner, the capable captain of the Lusitania, to that of U-boat pilot Walther Schwieger, a man known for his kindness, humor, and love of puppies. Both won him critical acclaim and an international fan base.ĭead Wake is a complex work: Larson weaves together several plotlines and characters to share multiple perspectives on the central event. Indeed, he has already demonstrated his total mastery of the art of re-creating history in all its lurid and lucid detail in earlier books, including The Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts. While lesser writers might feel constrained by the responsibility to remain faithful to primary sources, hard evidence, and the rigors of science (yes, we are given a thorough grounding in torpedo technology), Larson revels in the challenge. In Dead Wake, Erik Larson ’78JRN seeks to detail the last crossing of the Lusitania and “the myriad forces, large and achingly small, that converged one lovely day in May 1915 to produce a tragedy of monumental scale.” Using the testimony and diaries of survivors, along with telegrams, letters, and secret intelligence ledgers, Larson constructs his compelling narrative with a painstaking - some might even say pathological - attention to historical accuracy. Of the 1,959 passengers and crew aboard, 764 survived. The Lusitania, once called by its owners “the safest boat on the sea,” sank in just eighteen minutes. Few are as familiar with the Lusitania, another ill-fated transatlantic cruiser, which left New York on May 1, 1915, with great pomp and celebration, only to be torpedoed by a German U-boat in hostile waters off the coast of Ireland.

When it comes to epic disasters involving luxury liners, the Titanic and its iceberg loom large. The 'RMS Lusitania,' as depicted in a 1907 postcard.

Dead wake by erik larson