The Irish channel was lousy with German U-boats and everyone knew the danger. toward war and the defeat of Germany.īut unanswered questions shroud the event. With nearly 1,200 lives lost - including more than 120 Americans - the tragedy helped propel the U.S. Torpedoed by a German U-boat in the 10th month of World War I, the Lusitania, fast and four-funneled, was nearing Liverpool, having left from New York, when it met its end. But in fact the Lusitania's sinking was a more complicated and arguably a more important affair. In the popular imagination, of course, the British passenger ship Lusitania pulls up short of the iceberg-doomed Titanic. But when it comes to the Lusitania, the story counts more than the style. As for their Lusitania (**1/2 stars), Greg King and Penny Wilson tell the sad tale with less in the way of Larson's cinematic cross-cutting and descriptive flair. We never tire of the Titanic's re-telling, and as we near the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania - on May 7 - there are two new books to remind us of an era of ocean-going glamour and war-wasted lives.Įrik Larson's Dead Wake (*** out of four stars) is the more … titanic of the two, given Larson's best-selling stature as a non-fiction spellbinder. The legends of lost ships call to us like siren songs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |