Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
12 quotes
"It's all right to drill your crew, but why not drill the passengers."
"He disliked the social obligations of the captaincy."
"Wasplike with their long slender hulls, these were ships not seen in these waters before. They approached in a line, each flying a large American flag. To the hundreds of onlookers by now gathered on shore, many also carrying American flags, it would be a sight they would never forget and into which they read great meaning. These were the descendants of the colonials returning now at Britain's hour of need...."
"My between-books strategy was reading voraciously and on a whim."
"They looked more like day laborers than seamen."
"There were always those passengers who came aboard bearing grudges against the modern age."
"Murder was a fascination as always."
"New York's perennial attraction was shopping."
"If you had to jump six or seven feet or certainly drown, it's surprising how far even older people will jump."
"I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organized affair, but I've learned the devil a lot in the last five minutes."
"During World War I, Germany had only 25 of its vaunted submarines sailing at any one time."
"My prophetic task would be twofold: to stand up to him, and to stand by him. To awaken his conscience, and to salve the pain this would cause him."