Displaying 1 of 1 2002 Format: Book Author: Ramsay, David, 1933- Title: Lusitania : saga and myth / David Ramsay. Edition: First American edition. Publisher, Date: New York ; London : Norton, 2002. ©2001 Description: xii, 308 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm illustration map plate Subjects: Lusitania (Steamship) World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations, German. World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations -- Submarine. Shipwrecks -- History -- 20th century. Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-301) index. ISBN: 0393050998 Other Number: 49520090 System Availability: 1 # System items in: 1 # Local items: 1 # Local items in: 1 Current Holds: 0 Place Request Add to My List Expand All | Collapse All Availability Large Cover Image Trade Reviews Publishers Weekly ReviewRamsay investigates the 101st and final voyage of the ocean liner Lusitania, torpedoed on May 7, 1915, by a German U-boat as it was crossing the North Atlantic from the U.S. to England. Of the nearly 2,000 people on board, only 764 survived. The incident eventually pushed the U.S. to enter WWI. Ramsay recounts the disaster itself from every perspective, probing international policy, WWI history and the background and design of the luxury liner itself. Drawing on witness accounts and survivor interviews, Ramsay also re-creates the experiences of different passengers and crew members. After the disaster, he shows, all sides used the ship's demise for war propaganda, and hearsay surrounding the incident gave rise to several conspiracy theories (the vessel was under faulty command; Churchill had prior knowledge of the attack and refused to prevent it; the ship was carrying munitions). Some may find Ramsay's detailed postmortem of every aspect of the disaster a little dry, while his account of families adrift in the sea may strike others as too melodramatic. Still, military and maritime history buffs should appreciate Ramsay's painstaking research, and his comparisons of the Lusitania incident to the more famous sinking of the Titanic offer a useful perspective, even if it does sometimes seem to be a shameless attempt to lure the Leo-loving set. Photos, illus. and maps. (May 2) Forecast: This title will be competing for shelf space this month with Walker's slightly more compelling Lusitania, by Diana Preston (Forecasts, Mar. 11). (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reservedBooklist ReviewDiana Preston's Lusitania [BKL Ap 1 02] remains the first choice for libraries, but Ramsay's account has its own strengths. Preston examined the diplomatic fallout, and submariner Robert Ballard photographed the wreck (Exploring the Lusitania, 1995). Ramsay gives greater play to the commercial competition with German lines that inspired the ship's construction, as well as the technology that made Lusitania the speed queen of the day. His rendering of the day it was torpedoed is not as crisp as Preston's, but Ramsay provides other compensations. His lengthy quotations from contemporary newspapers reflect how shocked America was by the event and how defensive Germany was. On the British side, generous verbatim extracts from legal proceedings show how bent its officialdom was on blaming the captain, an effort that excites conspiracy theorists to this day. --Gilbert Taylor Summary The saga of the Lusitania is one of the most remarkable in the annals of maritime history. State-of-the-art when she went into service and the first express liner to be equipped with steam turbines, she outclassed all her rivals. She triumphantly restored British supremacy on the North Atlantic passenger routes and became an acknowledged commercial success; she was highly popular with her regular passengers. Her sinking in May 1915 by a German U-boat, with heavy loss of life, was at that time the most savage attack on civilians in the course of war, and was widely denounced in allied and neutral countries. From that day her loss has become encrusted with legends (including conspiracy theories), many of them created by German propaganda. In this new book David Ramsay has unraveled those myths and legends and tells a clear and compelling saga of terrible maritime disaster and clashes among three powerful nations. It is a story of potentates and presidents, ambassadors and ministers of state, bankers, shipping magnates, spies, and, not least, Captain William Turner, who had to defend himself against charges of incompetence and fight for his reputation. Based on detailed research, this new book almost certainly contains the most objective account of the history of the liner and the circumstances surrounding her sinking. The sinking of Lusitania, which took a mere eighteen minutes, led to a loss of life comparable with the Titanic disaster, and the ramifications were felt across Europe and America; this masterly telling of the story will intrigue the general reader as much as it does the historian and enthusiast. Librarian's View Syndetics Unbound Displaying 1 of 1
