2 Churchill’s “energy and capacity”: “Lord Fisher and Mr. Churchill,” Hall 3/5, Hall Papers.
Violet Asquith, daughter of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, was a keen observer of her time and the men she encountered, including Churchill and Fisher.
She quotes Churchill as saying, “I think a curse should rest on me because I am so happy. I know this war is smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment—and yet—I cannot help it—I enjoy every second I live” (quoted in Hough, Winston and Clementine, 286).
She also has some choice observations to offer about Fisher. “I said both to my father and Winston that though I did not doubt Lord Fisher’s genius I thought him dangerous because I believed him to be mad” (quoted in Hough, Winston and Clementine, 284). On another occasion, she remarked, “What a strange man he is!” (quoted in Hough, Winston and Clementine, 306).
One of her close friends, Archie Gordon, happened to take a voyage on the Lusitania in December 1908. He experienced something of a letdown. “I had hoped for novel sensations, experiences & acquaintances,” he wrote in a letter to her. “Instead, something closely resembling a hyper-dull hotel with the doors & windows shut.” The crossing was rough and uncomfortable at first, then improved. “The sea calmed, the sun came out, & people hitherto undreamt of came out like rabbits” (Carter and Pottle, Lantern Slides, 172).
3 “Gradually we in the Admiralty”: “Lord Fisher and Mr. Churchill,” Hall 3/5, Hall Papers.
4 “The state of affairs at Head Quarters”: Letter, Jellicoe to Sir Frederick Hamilton, April 26, 1915, Jellicoe Papers.
5 “But he was seventy-four years old”: Churchill, World Crisis, 230.
6 “I took him because I knew”: Hough, Winston and Clementine, 270.
7 “great nervous exhaustion”: Churchill, World Crisis, 443.
8 “He had evinced unconcealed distress”: Ibid.
9 “Just look after ‘the old boy’ ”: Soames, Clementine Churchill, 157–58; Hough, Winston and Clementine, 270.
10 “the constant bombardment”: Marder, Fear God, 209.
11 “it has repeatedly occurred”: Telegram, James Gerard to William Jennings Bryan, May 6, 1915, Foreign Relations.
12 “creamy lace”: Wilson, My Memoir, 61.
13 “Cousin Woodrow looks really ill”: Ibid., 61–62.
14 She nicknamed him “Tiger”: Ibid., 67.
15 “Just as I thought”: Ibid., 61–62.
16 “I don’t think he believed her”: Ibid., 62.
17 “playing with fire”: Ibid.
18 “an almost unqualified denial”: Telegram, William Jennings Bryan to Edward Grey, via Walter Hines Page, March 30, 1915, Foreign Relations; Link, Winston: Struggle, 347.
19 the prompt release of an automobile: William Jennings Bryan to U.S. Consul General, London, May 3, 1915, Foreign Relations.
20 “In the life and death struggle”: Link, Winston: Struggle, 119.
21 “Together England and Germany are likely”: Ibid., 348.
22 “No formal diplomatic action”: New York Times, May 5, 1915.
23 “a sharp note”: Seymour, Intimate Papers, 1:432.
LUSITANIA: THE MANIFEST
1 “I shall never forget”: Hart, Gallipoli, 244.
2 “I got back into the trench”: Ibid.
3 “They crept right up”: Ibid., 210.
4 By the time the Allied invading force: Keegan, First World War, 248.
5 “The scene … was tragically macabre”: Hart, Gallipoli, 37.
6 Here were muskrat skins: “Supplemental Manifest,” Bailey/Ryan Collection. For the insurance value of Hugh Lane’s paintings, see “Sir Hugh Percy Lane,” under “People,” “Saloon (First Class) Passenger List,” at Lusitania Resource, www.?rmslusitania.?info/?people/?saloon/?hugh-?lane/.
7 “The army in France”: Churchill, World Crisis, 421, 447.
8 The shrapnel shells were essentially inert: Wood et al., “Sinking,” 179–80.
U-20: AT LAST
1 Throughout the morning: Schwieger, War Log.
SIGHTING
1 “Small boat containing”: Telegram, Head of Kinsale to Admiralty, May 5, 1915, “Home Waters: General Operation Telegrams,” May 1–5, 1915, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/112, National Archives UK.
ROOM 40: SCHWIEGER REVEALED
1 gunfire in the fog: Telegram, Naval Center to Admiralty, May 5, 1915, Lusitania Various Papers. Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK. This spooky telegram reads: “Old Head Kinsale reports five forty three sounds of gunfire south, foggy, Brow Head.”
2 The new message: Telegram, Head of Kinsale to Admiralty, May 5, 1915, “Home Waters: General Operation Telegrams,” May 1–5, 1915, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/112, National Archives UK.
3 The captain of a British ship: Telegram, Naval Center Queenstown to Admiralty, May 5, 1915, “Home Waters: General Operation Telegrams,” May 1–5, 1915, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/112, National Archives UK.