Dead Wake

2 “All lookouts had been warned”: Letter, Thomas Mahoney to Adolf Hoehling, May 14, 1955, Hoehling Papers.

3 “trick at the wheel”: Hugh Johnston, interview, Lusitania, BBC Written Archives Centre.

4 “We carried on”: Ibid.

5 “seeing a dozen things”: Morton, Long Wake, 102–3.

6 A group of children: John Brennan, interview, Lusitania, BBC Written Archives Centre.

7 “At ten minutes past two”: Leslie Morton, testimony, June 16, 1915, 16, “Investigation.”

8 “10 points on the port bow”: Hugh Johnston, testimony, June 16, 1915, 19, “Investigation.”

9 “Here is a torpedo coming”: Ibid.

10 “a real walk”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 7.

11 “a piece of vitriolic English”: Ibid., 7–8.

12 “which was a marvelous blue”: Letter, Pope to Ada Brooks Pope, June 28, 1915, Riddle Papers.

13 “a streak of froth”: Liverpool Weekly Mercury, May 15, 1915.

14 “That isn’t a torpedo, is it?”: Ibid.

15 “I did not think that anybody”: Ibid.

16 That first turmoil: Ballard, Exploring the Lusitania, 84–85; New York Times, May 10, 1915; Preston, Lusitania, 441–42; Testimony, Casey B. Morgan, Petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, April 15, 1918, U.S. National Archives–New York, 714, 715; testimony, Lawrence Y. Spear, Petition, 766, 767. Anyone interested in more detail about torpedoes, and German U-boats generally, would do well to visit uboat.?net, a well-monitored and authoritative website on German submarine warfare in both world wars. See especially “Selected Technical Data of Imperial German U-Boats and Their Torpedoes,” www.?uboat.?net/?history/?wwi/?part7.?htm. See also www.?navweaps.?com/?Weapons/?WTGER_PreWWII.?htm.

17 “I saw the torpedo coming!”: Letter, Dwight Harris to Mother, May 10, 1915, Harris Papers.

18 “It was a beautiful sight”: James A. Brooks, quoted in unidentified, undated news clipping, Hoehling Papers.

19 In just two months, another Cunard captain: Bisset, Commodore, 65.

U-20: “TREFF!”

1 “Torpedo hits starboard”: Schwieger, War Log.




PART IV: THE BLACK SOUL

LUSITANIA: IMPACT

1 “I saw it disappear”: Quoted in telegram, Pitney to Tribune, New York, May 9, 1915, “Lusitania Various Papers,” Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK.

2 “The side of the ship is nothing”: Testimony, Gregory C. Davison, Petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, April 15, 1918, U.S. National Archives–New York, 837.

3 “was blown to atoms”: Deposition, Thomas Quinn, May 15, 1915, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK; Preston, Lusitania, 453.

4 Just inside the hull: See Garzke et al., Titanic, and Wood, et al., “Sinking,” throughout.

5 “forced flooding”: Wood et al., “Sinking,” 177.

6 Captain Turner was standing: Deposition, William Thomas Turner, May 15, 1915, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK; Preston, 453.

7 “Well, that wasn’t so bad”: Ballard, Exploring the Lusitania, 87.

8 “Water, bits of coal”: Letter, Dwight Harris to Mother, May 10, 1915, Harris Papers.

9 “The ship listed so much”: Letter, Grace French to Mrs. Prichard, Sept. 10, 1915, Prichard Papers.

10 “I timed everything”: Testimony, William McMillan Adams, Petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, April 15, 1918, U.S. National Archives–New York, 24.

11 Charles Lauriat checked his stem-winding wristwatch: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 9.

12 “You could feel the two separate motions”: Ibid., 72.

13 “more like an explosion of a boiler”: Testimony, Charles E. Lauriat Jr., Petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, April 15, 1918, U.S. National Archives–New York, 92, 104.

14 “I think we might stay up”: Mackworth, This Was My World, 242.

15 “wasted a minute or so”: Ibid., 243.

16 “I always thought”: Ibid., 244.

17 “Mr. Hubbard stayed by the rail”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 9.

18 “If you don’t care to come”: Ibid., 73.

19 Norah Bretherton: Statement of Norah Bretherton (n.d.), Lusitania Papers, Microcopy 580, Roll 197, U.S. National Archives–College Park.

20 On entering the bridge: Deposition, Hugh Johnston, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK.

21 “All right, boy”: All dialogue here is as reported by Johnston in Ibid.

22 “every step was an effort”: Robert Kay Account, courtesy of Mike Poirier.

23 “In their hurry, they put them on”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 11.

24 “Captain, what do you wish us to do”: Ibid., 11.

25 “The Captain says the boat will not sink”: Letter, Henry Needham to Mrs. Prichard, July 9, 1915, Prichard Papers.

26 “I don’t know what possessed me”: New York Times, June 2, 1915.