5 “Just Missed It” club: “Titanic’s ‘Just Missed It Club’ an Elite Group,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 16, 2012, www.?post-?gazette.?com/?life/?lifestyle/?2012/?04/?15/?Titanic-s-Just-Missed-It-?Club-an-?elite-group/?stories/?201204150209.
6 “Ships do have personalities”: Jack Lawrence’s memoir, When the Ships Came In, to which I was directed by Lusitania ace Mike Poirier, is really very charming and conveys a sense of New York’s vibrant maritime days in compelling fashion, to the point where a reader has to long for those days when dozens of ships nuzzled Manhattan’s Hudson River shoreline. Lawrence, When the Ships Came In; 116, see also 15, 16, and 117.
7 “to give satisfaction”: Cunard Steamship Company, “Rules to Be Observed in the Company’s Service,” Liverpool, March 1913, Admiralty Case Files: Limited Liability Claims for the Lusitania, Box 1, U.S. National Archives–New York, 73.
8 “I’m about to become”: Lawrence, When the Ships Came In, 119–21.
9 “Alfred Vanderbilt may have been a riot”: Ibid., 124.
10 “The Lusitania is doomed”: Ibid., 125.
11 Lawrence came across Elbert Hubbard: Ibid., 123.
12 “When I showed it to him”: Ibid.
13 “When you are getting ready to sail”: Ibid., 122.
14 “A feeling grew upon me”: See “Not on Board,” under “People,” at Lusitania Resource, www.?rmslusitania.?info/?people/?not-on-?board/.
15 A few others canceled: Ibid., and New Zealand Herald, June 26, 1915.
16 “From the very first”: Letter, A. B. Cross, published June 12, 1915, in Malay Mail, Doc. 1730, Imperial War Museum.
17 “there is a general system”: New York Times, May 1, 1915.
18 “Perfectly safe; safer than the trolley cars”: Testimony, Ogden Hammond, Petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, April 15, 1918, U.S. National Archives–New York, 166. For details about trolley accidents, see New York Times, Jan. 3, 1915; May 3, 1916; July 9, 1916.
19 “Of course we heard rumors”: May Walker, interview transcript, BBC Radio Merseyside, 1984, Imperial War Museum (with permission, BBC Radio Merseyside).
20 “looked personally after their comfort”: Letter, Charles P. Sumner to Alfred A. Booth, May 26, 1915, D42/C1/1/66, Part 2 of 4, Cunard Archives.
21 Theodate Pope: I came across several worthy accounts of Pope’s life and work. See Cunningham, My Godmother; Katz, Dearest; Paine, Avon Old Farms School; and S. Smith, Theodate Pope Riddle.
22 “You never act as other girls do”: Katz, Dearest, 25.
23 “the momentary effect”: Quoted in Cunningham, My Godmother, 53–54, and Katz, Dearest, 54.
24 “I have no memory at all”: Quoted in S. Smith, Theodate Pope Riddle, ch. 1, p. 3 (each chapter paginated separately).
25 “the greatest blot”: Ibid., ch. 2, p. 4.
26 “As it is my plan”: Ibid., ch. 4, p. 2; see full letter at Appendix B.
27 “I have wrung my soul dry”: Ibid., ch. 5, p. 1.
28 One incident in particular underscored: Katz, Dearest, 1.
29 “I am having such persistent insomnia”: S. Smith, Theodate Pope Riddle, ch. 6, p. 7.
30 “There is nothing like the diversion”: Katz, Dearest, 75.
31 “I was surprised”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 65–66.
32 Chandler joked: Lauriat, Claim.
33 “A thousand thanks”: Letter, Harris to “Gram and Gramp,” May 1, 1915, Harris Papers.
34 “was of that brand”: Lawrence, When the Ships Came In, 129.
35 “When a British skipper knows”: Ibid., 130.
ROOM 40: BLINKER’S RUSE
1 “An untried agent”: Record of Telegrams, April 24, 1915, Antwerp to Bruges, Antwerp Naval Intelligence Center, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/4177, National Archives UK.
2 “So that’s what war looks like!”: von Trapp, To the Last Salute, 24.
3 At some point that day: Bailey and Ryan, Lusitania Disaster, 73, 83.
WASHINGTON: LOST
1 “I hope it will give”: Letter, Wilson to Galt, April 28, 1915, Wilson Papers.
2 “fill my goblet”: Letter, Galt to Wilson, April 28, 1915, Wilson Papers.
3 It had been particularly welcome: Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 58.
4 “Such a pledge of friendship”: Letter, Galt to Wilson, April 28, 1915, Wilson Papers.
5 “It’s a great privilege”: Letter, Wilson to Galt, April 30, 1915, Wilson Papers.
6 “a heaven—haven—sanctuary”: Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 55.
7 “From the first”: Wilson, My Memoir, 58.
8 “perhaps the weal or woe of a country”: Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 57.
9 “In order to fit yourself”: Ibid.; for a variation, see Wilson, My Memoir, 55.
10 “life giving”: Letter, Galt to Wilson, April 28, 1915, Wilson Papers.
11 She had never met a man: Schachtman, Edith and Woodrow, 78.
12 “no mean man in love-making”: Levin, Edith and Woodrow, 74.
13 “He’s a goner”: Starling, Starling, 44.
14 On Saturday, May 1: Gilbert, First World War, 154.
15 “In Flanders fields”: Quoted in ibid., 156.
16 By the end of the month: Ibid., 164.
17 “We are still in our old positions”: Ibid., 126.
18 Elsewhere, wholly a new front: Ibid., 121, 135–36; Keegan, First World War, 238, 239.