30 “that of mystifying and misleading the enemy”: “A Little Information for the Enemy,” Hall 3/4, Hall Papers.
Hall loved the surprise of intelligence work and loved knowing the real stories behind events reported in the news, which often were censored. For example, Room 40 learned the real fate of a German submarine, U-28, that had attacked a ship carrying trucks on its main deck. One shell fired by the U-boat’s gun crew blew up a load of high explosives stored in the ship, and suddenly “the air was full of motor-lorries describing unusual parabolas,” Hall wrote. Officially, the U-boat was lost because of explosion. But Hall and Room 40 knew the truth: one of the flying trucks had landed on the submarine’s foredeck, penetrating its hull and sinking it instantly. “In point of actual fact,” wrote Hall, “U-28 was sunk by a motor-lorry!”
As strange as such stories were, Hall wrote, “I am sometimes inclined to think that perhaps the strangest thing of all was the intelligence Division itself. For it was like nothing else that had ever existed.” “The Nature of Intelligence Work,” Hall 3/1, Hall Papers.
LUSITANIA: A CAVALCADE OF PASSENGERS
1 All these things were captured on film: The film, SS Lusitania on Her Final Departure from New York City, During World War I, can be viewed at Critical?Past.?com (www.?criticalpast.?com/?video/?65675040085_?SS-Lusitania?_passengers-?arrive-at-the-?dock_passengers-?aboard-SS-?Lusitania_?author-Elbert-?Hubert). An agent for the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation (not yet the Federal Bureau of Investigation) watched this film twice in succession during a private showing at a theater in Philadelphia. The agent, Frank Garbarino, was struck by the detail it captured and believed it would provide all the information necessary to confirm that the film was not a fake. “It will be easy to identify many of the persons who were aboard the steamer by those who knew them intimately,” he wrote. “Furthermore we were able to distinguish the numbers of the license on three taxicabs which drove up to the pier with passengers and the features of the passengers as they emerged from the taxicabs are very clear. The license numbers of the taxicabs were 21011, 21017, 25225. It will be easy to ascertain what taxicab company has these licenses and they will probably have a record of the persons they took to the Cunard pier that morning.” Letter, Bruce Bielaski to Attorney General, June 27, 1915, Bailey/Ryan Collection.
2 Here came Charles Frohman: For details about Frohman and his life, see Marcosson and Frohman, Charles Frohman, throughout; also New York Times, May 16, 1915; Lawrence, When the Ships Come In, 126.
3 Another arrival was George Kessler: For an overview of Kessler’s flamboyant life as the “Champagne King,” see “Compliments of George Kessler,” American Menu, April 14, 2012 (courtesy of Mike Poirier); for the Gondola Party, see Tony Rennell, “How Wealthy Guests Turned the Savoy into the World’s Most Decadent Hotel,” Daily Mail, Dec. 17, 2007, www.?dailymail.?co.?uk/?news/?article-502756/?How-wealthy-?guests-turned-?Savoy-worlds-?decadent-hotel-?shuts-100m-?refit.?html, and “The Savoy: London’s Most Famous Hotel,” Savoy Theatre, www.?savoytheatre.?org/?the-savoy-?londons-?most-famous-?hotel/ For reference to “freak dinners,” see Lexington Herald, May 16, 1915.
According to one account, Kessler had brought with him cash and securities valued at $2 million. Preston, Lusitania, 137.
4 “misconducting himself”: New York Times, May 26, 1908, and June 11, 1909.