20 As they approached the vessel: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 34.
21 “songs were being sung”: “Statement of Mr. A. J. Mitchell,” May 14, 1915, Lusitania Papers, Microcopy 580, Roll 197, U.S. National Archives–College Park.
22 “She’s conscious”: Letter, Pope to Ada Brooks Pope, June 28, 1915, Riddle Papers.
U-20: PARTING SHOT
1 “All we thought of”: Hayden Talbot, “The Truth About the Lusitania,” Answers, Nov. 8, 1919, in “Lusitania Various Papers,” Admiralty Papers, ADM 137/1058, National Archives UK.
2 “Of course he couldn’t hear anything”: This is the phrase that makes her account seem credible. It is a subtle point that only submariners understood—the silence, even though what they see through their periscopes is fire and death.
3 Just five minutes: Schwieger, War Log.
4 The steamer Schwieger had fired upon: Hoehling and Hoehling, Last Voyage, 85, 147–48.
5 “We proceeded with all possible speed”: Telegram, Lands End Wireless Station to Chief Censor, May 7, 1915, Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/64.
LUSITANIA: SEAGULLS
1 “The whole ship”: Ramsay, Lusitiana, 274.
2 “I thought he had gone”: New York Times, Nov. 21, 1915.
3 “I noticed it because”: Ibid.
4 “he used to carry a .22 rifle”: Letter, Norman H. Turner to Adolf Hoehling, Sept. 18, 1955, Hoehling Papers.
5 “That’s better”: The dialogue here is as reported by Mackworth, This Was My World, 248–49.
6 They applauded: Letter, Dwight Harris to Mother, May 10, 1915, Harris Papers.
7 Charles Lauriat carried one man: Lauriat, Lusitania’s Last Voyage, 41. Mike Poirier provided McMurray’s identity.
8 “I saved the baby’s pictures”: Boston Daily Globe, May 11, 1915.
9 She found her father waiting: Mackworth, This Was My World, 251.
10 “She was still dressed in the neat fawn tweed”: Ibid., 254.
11 “and took a huge dose of whiskey”: Letter, Dwight Harris to Mother, May 10, 1915, Harris Papers.
12 “I was left on a lounge”: Letter, Pope to Ada Brooks Pope, June 28, 1915, Riddle Papers.
13 She arranged to send: Katz, Dearest, 120.
14 “All night I kept expecting Mr. Friend”: Letter, Pope to Ada Brooks Pope, June 28, 1915, Riddle Papers.
15 “You should be worrying”: Hoehling and Hoehling, Last Voyage, 161.
16 “appeared stunned”: Telegram, Tuchy, London to New York World, New York, May 9, 1915, Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/64.
17 Tears filled his eyes: Ibid.
QUEENSTOWN: THE LOST
1 Of the Lusitania’s 1,959 passengers and crew: As on so many points involving the Lusitania, there is disagreement as to just how many passengers and crew were aboard, how many died, and how many of the passengers were American. Here I’m using Cunard’s official tally. See “General Analysis of Passengers and Crew” and “Summary of Passengers’ Nationality,” both in R.M.S. Lusitania: Record of Passengers & Crew, SAS/29/6/18, Merseyside.
2 For days dozens of cables: Letter, Charles P. Sumner to General Manager’s Office, Cunard, May 18, 1915, D42/PR13/32, Cunard Archive. This letter alone provides a jarring portrait of the dimension of the disaster. Running thirteen pages, single-spaced, it lists scores of cables sent between Cunard’s headquarters and its New York office.
3 “Am saved, looking for Cliff”: Details of Leslie Morton’s search for his brother, including dialogue, are from Morton, Long Wake, 112–13.
4 One man’s body: The fragment of lifeboat resides at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
5 “There was a curious effacement”: Frost, German Submarine Warfare, 226–28.
6 The unimportant bodies: Ibid., 226.
7 Body No. 1: “Identified Remains, South Coast List,” R.M.S. Lusitania: Record of Passengers & Crew, SAS/29/6/18, Merseyside.
8 “Several weeks after the disaster”: Frost, German Submarine Warfare, 228.
9 “Much of the body was eaten away”: Telegram, July 15, 1915, “Male body washed ashore,” D42/PR13/1/226–250, Cunard Archives.
10 Frost offered an additional pound: Telegram, Wesley Frost to William Jennings Bryan, May 13, 1915, decimal file 341.111L97/16, U.S. National Archives–College Park.
11 His name was Leon C. Thrasher: Telegram, U.S. Consul General, London, to William Jennings Bryan, April 7, 1915, Foreign Relations.
Thrasher is sometimes identified in news accounts as Thresher. I’ve chosen to use “Thrasher” because it is the spelling used in official U.S. diplomatic correspondence included in the Foreign Relations series.
12 Such was the case: Letter, Sgt. J. Regan to U.S. Consul Wesley Frost, Aug. 20, 1915, decimal file 341.111L97/105, U.S. National Archives–College Park.
13 “Needless to say”: Details of the Shields autopsy may be found in letter, Wesley Frost to U.S. Secretary of State, July 27, 1915, and enclosure, “Autopsy on Remains of Victor E. Shields,” decimal file 341.111. L97/87, U.S. National Archives–College Park.