23 That evening, back at his sister’s apartment: Lauriat, Claim.
24 Elsewhere in the city: See the website Lusitania Resource, www.?RMSLusitania.?info, which presents an easily searchable database about the ship and its passengers.
ROOM 40: “THE MYSTERY”
1 In London, two blocks from the Thames: My description of Room 40 and its operations is derived from documents held by the Churchill Archives, Churchill College, Cambridge, and the National Archives of the United Kingdom, at Kew, in its Admiralty Papers. For further reading, see Beesly, Room 40; Gannon, Inside Room 40; Adm. William James, Code Breakers; and Ramsay, “Blinker” Hall.
2 By far the most important: I cannot tell you how delighted I was when during one of my visits to the National Archives of the United Kingdom I was able to examine the actual codebook. It came to me like a gift, wrapped in paper with a cloth tie, in a large box. Touching it, and opening it, and turning its pages—gently—gave me one of those moments where the past comes briefly, physically alive. This very book had been on a German destroyer, sunk by the Russians in the early days of World War I. Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine, Berlin, 1913, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/4156, National Archives UK; see also Beesly, Room 40, 4–5, 22–23; Halpern, Naval History, 36; Adm. William James, Code Breakers, 29; Grant, U-Boat Intelligence, 10.
3 The Russians in fact recovered three copies: For varying accounts of the recovery of the codebook, see Churchill, World Crisis, 255; Halpern, Naval History, 36–37; and Tuchman, Zimmermann Telegram, 14–15.
4 “chiefly remarkable for his spats”: History of Room 40, CLKE 3, Clarke Papers.
5 “It was the best of jobs”: Ibid.
6 said to be obsessed: Halpern, Naval History, 37; Beesly, Room 40, 310–11.
7 “I shall never meet another man like him”: Adm. William James, Code Breakers, xvii.
Even before the war, while then in command of a cruiser, the HMS Cornwall, Hall distinguished himself with an intelligence coup. The year was 1909, and his ship was to be among other British vessels paying a ceremonial visit to Kiel, Germany, home of the German fleet. The Admiralty asked Hall for help in gathering precise information about the configuration of ship-construction slips in the harbor, which were kept from view by a cordon of patrol vessels.
An idea came to Hall. The Duke of Westminster was present for the regatta and had brought along his speedboat, the Ursula, to show off. German sailors loved the boat and cheered every time they saw it. Hall asked the duke if he could borrow it for a couple of hours. The next day, two of Hall’s men went aboard the Ursula disguised as civilian engine-room hands. The boat then put on a display of speed, racing out to sea and tearing back through the harbor. The yacht roared through the line of patrol boats, drawing cheers from their crews. But then, something unfortunate happened. The Ursula’s engines broke down, right in front of the Germany navy’s shipbuilding facilities. As the boat’s crew made a show of trying to start the engines, Hall’s men took photograph after photograph of the shipyard. One of the patrol vessels ended up towing the boat back to its moorage. “The Germans were delighted to get such a close view of her,” Hall wrote, “but they were hardly less delighted than I was, for one of the ‘engineers’ had secured the most perfect photographs of the slips and obtained all the information we wanted.” “The Nature of Intelligence Work,” Hall 3/1, Hall Papers.
8 The Machiavelli side: Adm. William James, Code Breakers, 202.
9 the empire’s first defeat: Gilbert, First World War, 102.
10 British warships nearby: Gibson and Prendergast, German Submarine War, 19; Gilbert, First World War, 124.
11 And then came April 22: Clark, Donkeys, 74; Gilbert, First World War, 144–45; Keegan, First World War, 198–99.
12 “I saw some hundred poor fellows”: Clark, Donkeys, 74.
13 The Admiralty also harbored: Frothingham, Naval History, 66, 75.
14 “no major movement”: History of Room 40, CLKE 3, Clarke Papers.
15 “the risk of compromising the codes”: Memorandum, Henry Francis Oliver, CLKE 1, Clarke Papers.
16 “Had we been called upon”: History of Room 40, “Narrative of Capt. Hope,” CLKE 3, Clarke Papers.
17 “shook the nerve”: History of Room 40, CLKE 3, Clarke Papers.
18 “soul-destroying … object of hatred”: Ibid.
19 “Watch this carefully”: Beesly, Room 40, 92.
20 “Any messages which were not according to routine”: History of Room 40, CLKE 3, Clarke Papers.
21 “The final note”: Memorandum, Herbert Hope to Director of Operations Division, April 18, 1915, “Captain Hope’s Memos to Operations Division,” Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/4689, National Archives UK.