Review of Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

*Dead Wake: The Lasting Crossing of the Lusitania* by Erik Larson (2015). Published by Crown Publishers.

A few years back, I ended up finding a copy of Devil in the White City at a thrift store, and devoured it in the middle of a vacation. I still have my copy of the book sitting in my stack of books, and that was it.

I enjoyed Larson’s writing in that book and never dove deeper into what he had done as an author and as a historian, but when we arrived at our rental condo in Siesta Key, Florida, I was fascinated to see another Erik Larson book on the bookshelf. I ended up getting through all three of the physical books I brought with me this vacation, so what I ended up doing was reaching for the copy of Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania when I was out of my own content to read.

I brought it onto the beach with me, read about the first one hundred and fifty pages before I ended up going inside because of how hot it was. That night, I finished the book.

I find Larson’s style of writing to be so accessible and immersive, even if you have no or limited knowledge on the subject he’s writing about. I knew a little bit about the Lusitania and the consequences of its sinking, but the sheer amount of detail and characterization that went into this made the narrative even more devastating for everyone involved in the sinking.

Onwards with the review!

A gripping narrative of the politics, people, and submarine involved with the sinking of the Lusitania.

For these kinds of books, I think there is little value in recalling how the story unfolds in detailed action. This is a history book and you can easily Google what happened to the Lusitania if you need me to explain it to you. Larson begins this story in a way that humanizes those who were on the ship. He selects some of the prominent individuals, whether they’re first class and not, and presents the story weeks before the ship is set to sail.

There’s the rare book seller coming in from Boston looking to sell Dickens’ copy of one his own books, a wealthy man who buys a lifejacket out of fear of the ship sinking, or even Theodate, the first major female architect in the United States.

There’s also a prelude about the war and the inclusion of submarines by the Germans, which they have created a naval blockade all around the ocean England is surrounded by. The Lusitania even gets a threat that it will be sunk right before they leave, but everyone shrugs it off, including one of the richest men on the planet.

We learn through Larson about what it took to even get submarines to this point—how the men can’t shower, how one, that was sunk at the bottom of the ocean with a bomb, had all of the men inside of it clawing to get out. They obviously did not survive when the hatch was finally opened four months later.

There’s also a sense of masochism and sadism when it comes to the men who are running these operations, as we see how the captain of the U-20, that would sink the Lusitania, ended up kind of enjoying his job. They were encouraged to sink ships that were larger and were rewarded based on how much they sunk.

The book follows the characters through the journey across the Atlantic, and how the English government was cracking codes about where the submarines are. As the Lusitania approaches Ireland, the government is acutely aware that there are submarines in the area, and when U-20 ends up sinking some ships around the waters, they are definitely aware. But no one tells the people who are on the ship, and, on the day of the sinking, it happens right after the first class lunch.

The crew who know how to put down the lifeboats are the ones killed immediately by the torpedo, leaving chaos in its wake. Larson describes the scene in a haunting way, as the people who are on the boat are in their best clothes, and it sinks in less than twenty minutes. This is one of the most searing parts of the book—you know its coming, but when you actually get to the stories, you won’t be able to stomach it properly and find yourself saddened by the outcome.

For example, the woman we know who has been writing a long letter to be sent, that’s slowly but surely becoming novel length, we know perishes because her purse, containing the letter, is found in the water. A woman who tried to save her infant and son ends up dying, putting the infant in a man’s arms.

Only the son survives. Another woman gives birth in the water, and her son is haunted years later thinking that it was probably his mother. Even as we hurtle towards the final scenes of the book, which are about the responses and actions, this is the big shadow.

However, the weirdest part about the book was Wilson’s romance. It didn’t fit in at all with the context of the Lusitania, and I would have preferred just to cut to his responses to the ship going down. That felt like Larson was weirdly cramming in a different book into this one.

Overall Thoughts

Over a hundred years later, I think readings like these are necessary, despite how horrifying they are. There’s descriptions of how the people in the water who survived initially and ended up in the water ended up drowning because of how heavy their clothing was, as well as the general chaos that happened in the ship’s final moments.

This is such a horrible turn of events for those who thought that they were finally safe from the submarines, only for the worst scenario to happen because the lifeboats couldn’t even be lifted down.

The sinister part about all of this to me, though, is the fact that so many people knew that the sub was in the area and didn’t inform anyone outside of the government. Regardless, Larson has proven to be a master storyteller yet again, and I will not be sleeping on his books in the future.

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