15 “One gets very close in three minutes”: Dorothy Conner Account, courtesy of Mike Poirier.
16 “She’s all right”: “Statement of Mrs. Theodore Naish,” Lusitania Papers, Microcopy 580, Roll 187, U.S. National Archives–College Park, 2.
17 “I thought about how wondrously beautiful”: Ibid., 3.
18 The sinking crowned a troubled period: This detail provided by Mike Poirier.
19 After helping to launch: Testimony, Leslie Morton, June 16, 1915, “Investigation,” line 495. Morton writes that this boat was No. 13, but Lusitania expert Mike Poirier suggests that he may have erred, that the boat was actually No. 9.
20 “If you had to jump”: Morton, Long Wake, 105.
21 “to waste in either horror or sympathy”: Ibid., 106.
22 “in some mistaken belief”: Ibid., 107.
23 “The time for heroics”: Ibid.
24 “but seeing the turmoil”: Ibid.
25 Lauriat swam clear: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 18.
26 “An all-swallowing wave”: The Irish Independent, May 7, 1955.
27 As measles-poxed Robert Kay: Robert Kay Account, courtesy of Mike Poirier.
28 “I couldn’t imagine what was landing on me”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 20–21, 85.
TELEGRAM
1 “S.O.S. from ‘Lusitania’ ”: Ledger, “Subs,” May 7, 1915, 2:26 P.M., Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/4101, National Archives UK; also in Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/64.
LUSITANIA: A QUEEN’S END
1 One woman, Margaret Gwyer: Morton, Long Wake, 108.
2 Two other passengers: Ramsay, Lusitania, 87; Morton, Long Wake, 108.
3 “a slow, almost stately, dive”: Morton, Long Wake, 108; For depth, see Ballard, Exploring the Lusitania, 10.
4 “plunged forward like a knife blade”: Letter, Dwight Harris to Mother, May 10, 1915, Harris Papers.
5 “As she went under”: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 85–87.
6 “never met anyone as ‘cool’ ”: Letter, Hugh Johnston to Adolf Hoehling, Sept. 25, 1955, Hoehling Papers.
7 “ ‘Lusitania’ sunk”: Telegram, Head of Kinsale to Admiralty, May 7, 1915, Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/64.
ALL POINTS: RUMOR
1 Frost walked to the windows: I decided to footnote this because it is precisely the kind of detail that is likely to cause a reader to pause a moment and ask him-or herself, Hmmm, how do you know he walked to his windows? Answer: because he tells us so. Frost, German Submarine Warfare, 187.
2 “I hear there is some sort of street rumor”: Ibid., 188.
3 After hanging up, Frost paced his office: Again, we know this because Frost tells us, “I must have spent ten or fifteen minutes pacing the floor of the office.” Ibid.
4 “Urgent: Recall Juno”: Telegram, Admiralty to S.N.O. Queenstown, May 7, 1915, Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/64.
5 “I then received a telegram”: Letter, Vice-Admiral C. H. Coke to Admiralty, May 9, 1915, Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK.
6 Each call brought fresh reports: Hendrick, Life and Letters, 2:1–2.
7 “We shall be at war”: Ibid., 2:2.
8 That morning, in New York: Jack Lawrence’s account, including dialogue, appears at Lawrence, When the Ships Came In, 134–39.
9 “I was pacing the streets”: Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 286.
10 “Astern in the distance”: Schwieger, War Log.