The Lusitania Story

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written attempt at history
Review: The jacket claims this book is "authoritative" and the "complete story". To the contrary, it is far from it. The book is riddled with errors from the passenger list down to spurious claims about lifeboats careening down the deck,smashing into people. The latter was introduced in the Hickey/Smith book. There was no evidence other than a misinterpretation of surviving officer Albert Bestic's account. Had they checked his original testimony, testimony they said they used, he never said anything of the kind. No one on the port side made this claim or that they had to duck out of the way of lifeboats sliding down the deck. Including Isaac Lehmann who said the boat that swung inboard ( whose account they partially use ), but swung back into its original position- not down the deck. The authors also do not site the original source, 'Seven Days to Disaster.' They claim the last piece of music was 'Blue Danube'. Incorrect- many survivors from the dining room said it was 'Tipperary'. They again, misinterpreted the account of survivor Oliver Bernard. Some things seem almost serialized, not straight reporting of history. Like sequences detailing Captain Turner's day to day actions. The cause of the sinking is examined and readers will note it is similar to Colin Simpson's claim. With todays resources, the authors could have actually turned up new and interesting information, but, sadly, there is nothing new in this book and what is in this book is generally wrong.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste!
Review: The torpedo hit the forward magazine? I don't think so. Schweiger saw his missle hit the ship clearly; the torpedo hit right under the bridge as he stated; at the farthest forward, the torpedo hit just in front of the bridge, which was still a good distance away from the magazine. And port-side lifeboats slamming across the boat deck? Only one of them broke free, but the rest of the boats just swung into the superstructure and then back into their positions again. In any case, none of the lifeboats that were lowered safely came from the port side.

And explosives in the magazine? No, what the Lusi carried was little more than fuses, bullets and shrapnel, all of which were in separate cases and therefore could not have ignited even if the torpedo did hit that far forward. Besides, if the explosives did go off, wouldn't it have destroyed the magazine? The pictures of the wreck show clearly that the bow is intact, save for some damage that was probably just part of the impact at the bottom. Conclusion? Nothing in the magazine exploded.

"he realized that his shot had struck the ship further forward of where he had first thought (he was aiming for a hit in the Lusitania's forward boiler room)," How would Schwieger know the layout of the ship?

The "complete story"? Ha! There seems to be very little focus on the sinking itself and of the people. This is more about what could have happened to cause the sinking. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy, by Diana Preston, describes the human side much more and gives many more possible causes of what might have happened to cause the sinking without supporting any particular point.

I'm not sure what I was expecting... but I wasted my money and time on this book. And boring? Let's not get started on that. Do not waste anything on this book. Oi!