Lusitania

this is the best book on lusitania book.this book is more than telling you about what lead up to the sinken but following rescue and fate of the people aboard her that tragic trip.

The late James Burnham remarked that among Great Britian's major exports, hypocricy was the formost of their exports. Colin Simpson's book titled THE LUSITANIA is yet one more classic example of such hypocricy. This is a well written and thoroughly documented account of the actual status of THE LUSITANIA and the background to the attack with took place in 1915. Simpson gave his readers a solid background of the behind-the-scenes efforts of what some call The Eastern Establishment to prod Americans into war with the Germans during World War I. The Hate Germany rhetoric in this country was incited by Eastern Establishment Anglophiles in their efforts to elicit support for the British while creating lies and distortions about alleged German atrocities which never took place. As an aside Posonby's book undermines these myths and folklore nonsense. Simpson documented how bankers and the plutocratic rich used every means fair or foul to arm the British during the early phases of World War I. While the Americans were supposedly neutral, these men used their financial connections to support the British when the supposedly easy victory of the "allies" over their German rivals proved to be anything but easy. While President Wilson and some in his administration preached neutrality in 1914 and 1915, Wilson and some of his advisers were actively planning to enlist U.S. support and military intervention against the Germans as early as 1915 in violation of both U.S. law and international law. Simson was very comprehensive and clear about the status of THE LUSITANIA and other British vessels operated by the Cunard line. Under international law, merchant ships ( civilian vessels) were not to armed. If a civilian vessel were armed, that ship was subject to attack by enemy naval commanders as though the ship was a naval military vessel. THE LUSITANIA and many other British civilian vessels were indeed armed. Simpson is clear that THE LUSITANIA was not only armed, the ship was registered in the British navy as an auxillary battle cruiser which made the ship a legal military target under international law. When the British lied about THE LUSITANIA being armed, British officials were embarrassed when Cunard officials who owned the vessel boasted about THE LUSITANIA's restructuring for armament. Simpson detailed the construction of the ship to contain gun placements, and THE LUSITANIA's crew ordered passangers away from where the guns were. Readers will discover that British sea captains who were in charge of ships such as THE LUSITANIA often hoisted the American flag on the high seas. When German U Boat commanders would surface to warn what they thought was an American ship of possible danger, the British commanders would order the shooting of the German submarine or ramming the subermarine. An interesting anecdote is the fact that THE LUSITANIA would have been attacked sooner had some of the German U Boat commanders had a current manual indentifying TH

After putting the sinking of the Lusitania into historical context, author David Butler delineates in harrowing detail the ship's final moments, recreating for the reader a mind's eye image of what must have ocurred aboard ship during this pivotal event in world history. His description of the minute by minute efforts of the passengers to survive (the ship sank in only 18 minutes!) his 85 pages of sinking description mark a high point in this type of writing. You'll never need to read another account of a ship's sinking after "witnessing" this one! It just couldn't have been written better. A masterful job on all counts, the author is to be commended not only on his attention to the details of historical perspective, but as well to his understanding of human emotions brought to the very brink of existence. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

A note to readers -- the first half of this book is more of a chronicle of WW I than an account of the Lusitania. If you're just a disaster buff, you'll probably like the Titanic stories better than this. The author explains in his final note that he deliberately focused on the historical context and meaning of this event rather than the minutia of the sinking itself (as he does in his Titanic book). I personally enjoyed the WWI refresher. There are still many unanswered questions about the ship's death -- did Churchill deliberately let it be struck to draw the US into battle? We may never know. The author does a nice job of putting this event in context. The sinking chapters are shorter than you'd think (heck, the ship went down in 18 minutes) but there is a lot of juicy background stuff here.

I've read this title several times, and it's one of those few that get better each time. This is NOT a human interest type of book for the casual reader. It also challenges the "East Coast Establishment" view, which has dominated our history books for so long. Simpson examines many topics in detail, including the political and naval background as well as cargo, manifesting and port clearance procedures, and comes up with a most fascinating and documented tale. Although I can't agree with all his arguments and inferences, I think his conclusions in the main are correct. I would recommend this book highly to any serious student of the event.