46 Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg: Bethmann was something of a humanist—he was an expert pianist and classicist, able to read Plato in Greek. Thomson, Twelve Days, 119.
47 “Unhappily, it depends”: Devlin, Too Proud to Fight, 322; Gibson and Prendergast, German Submarine War, 105.
48 “If in spite of the exercise”: Scheer, Germany’s High Sea Fleet, 231. “Who is that beautiful lady?”: Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 282; Grayson, Woodrow Wilson, 50; Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 52.
49 “I had no experience”: Wilson, My Memoir, 22; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 282.
50 “taken for a tramp”: Wilson, My Memoir, 56; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 281.
51 “There is not a soul here”: Wilson, My Memoir, 56; Link, Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.
52 “This was the accidental meeting”: Wilson, My Memoir, 56; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 281; Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 53.
Ever since the death of Ellen Wilson, there had been little laughter in the White House. During this first encounter between Galt and the president, Helen Bones heard Wilson laugh twice. “I can’t say that I foresaw in the first minute what was going to happen,” she recalled. “It may have taken ten minutes.” G. Smith, When the Cheering Stopped, 14.
53 “He is perfectly charming”: Schachtman, Edith and Woodrow, 74; Link, Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.
54 “and all sorts of interesting conversation”: Link, Wilson: Confusions, 1–2.
55 “impressive widow”: Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 51.
56 He had little time to dwell: Mersey, Report, throughout. One newspaper called it an act of “shocking bloodthirstiness.” At least one witness aboard the ship reported that the U-boat’s crew had laughed and jeered at survivors struggling in the water. A report telegraphed from the U.S. Embassy in London quoted another witness as stating that if the submarine had allowed just ten or fifteen more minutes before firing, “all might have been saved.” A subsequent investigation by Britain’s wreck commission was headed by Lord Mersey, who three years earlier had presided over an inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic. Mersey decried the amount of time Forstner had given the passengers, calling it “so grossly insufficient … that I am driven to the conclusion that the Captain of the submarine desired and designed not merely to sink the ship but, in doing so, also to sacrifice the lives of the passengers and crew.” As to the evidence of laughing and jeering, Mersey said, “I prefer to keep silence on this matter in the hope that the witness was mistaken.” Mersey, Report, 5; see also Link, Wilson: Struggle, 359; Walker, Four Thousand Lives Lost, 80, 81; telegram, U.S. Consul General, London, to William Jennings Bryan, April 7, 1915, Foreign Relations.
57 “I do not like this case”: Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 277.
58 “Perhaps it is not necessary”: Link, Wilson: Struggle, 365.
LUSITANIA: SUCKING TUBES AND THACKERAY
1 “Thousands of sweltering, uncomfortable men”: New York Times, April 28, 1915.
2 “The public,” he complained: Ibid.
3 “All men are young”: New York Times, April 29, 1915.
4 a record trade surplus: New York Times, Dec. 9, 1915.
5 There were extravagant displays: New York Times, May 1, 1915.
6 On Thursday, April 29: New York Times, April 30, 1915.
7 “A surprise,” he said: New York Times, May 1, 1915.
8 “after a thorough search”: Ibid.
9 “Space is left”: Ibid.