Good story well told

Even good stories don't tell themselves, especially when they are as complex and with as many subplots as the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat in 1915. It takes someone like Erik Larson to tell the story well, which he does in Dead Wake, published in 2015 in time for the 100th anniversary of the disaster that killed more than a thousand people, many of them Americans.

The sinking may or may not have brought the United States into the Great War against Germany. It was a contributing factor certainly, but the U.S. did not actually declare war until nearly two years later after U-boats had sunk several other ships with Americans aboard. Germany gambled that it could sink any ship on the seas, enemy or not, and win the war before the Americans could get mobilized against them. Even with a two-year advantage, they lost that bet.

Many things had to go wrong for the Lusitania to be sunk that day, especially after being hit by just one torpedo. It took delays in the ship's departure from New York, putting it behind schedule. It took a Cunard order to travel at less than maximum speed to save fuel. It took a U-boat captain willing to attack a passenger ship. It took a British decision not to send out escorts to protect the liner as it neared port. It took a sudden change in course that put the Lusitania into the U-boat's path. It took a torpedo that actually worked. Most of them didn't at this stage of the war. It even took the U-boat captain's misjudgment about the Lusitania's speed, leading to a strike in perhaps the one part of the ship where it could sink after just one hit.

All this and more, Larson tells us, had to happen for the liner to sink as it did. One positive circumstance was a clear, calm May day, which helped 764 survivors reach shore. These included the ship's captain, William Turner, who was promptly blamed by the British, especially Winston Churchill, for the sinking, perhaps as a cover for their own negligence.

Meanwhile back in the United States, President Woodrow Wilson was in love, and his romance with Edith Galt seems to occupy most of his attention, as well as Larson's, during the lead-up to the attack.

All in all, this makes a terrific story, told from many sides, and Larson keeps readers on edge during the telling.