The Lusitania Saga & Myth


Book Description

An account of one of the greatest maritime disasters in history—the Lusitania’s proud service, its sinking by a German U-Boat, and the tragic aftermath. When the RMS Lusitania entered service in 1907, she was the pride of the Cunard fleet. The first transatlantic express liner powered by marine turbines, she had a top speed of twenty-five knots and could make the Liverpool-New York crossing in five days, restoring British supremacy along the key North Atlantic route. All this ended during World War I, on 7 May 1915, when she was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank eighteen minutes later, taking with her the lives of the 1,198 passengers and crew. In this well-researched book, the author concentrates not just on the disaster but its consequences, including the political recriminations and the governmental inquiry. The loss of American citizens was a major reason why the United States entered the War. Fully-illustrated with rare historical photographs, this is a fascinating study of a major shipping catastrophe with profound repercussions that would have an effect not just on maritime law, but on the future of the world.




Lusitania: Saga and Myth


Book Description

An objective and enthralling account of the sinking of the Lusitania, which unravels many of the myths and, for the first time, explains the true significance of that terrible disaster. 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.




Choosing War


Book Description

Throughout US history, presidents have had vastly different reactions to naval incidents. Though some incidents have been resolved diplomatically, others have escalated to outright war. What factors influence the outcome of a naval incident, especially when calls for retribution mingle with recommendations for restraint? Given the rise of long range anti-ship and anti-air missile systems, coupled with tensions in East Asia, the Persian Gulf, and the Black and Baltic Seas, the question is more relevant than ever for US naval diplomacy. In Choosing War, Douglas Carl Peifer compares the ways in which different presidential administrations have responded when American lives were lost at sea. He examines in depth three cases: the Maine incident (1898), which led to war in the short term; the Lusitania crisis (1915), which set the trajectory for intervention; and the Panay incident (1937), which was settled diplomatically. While evaluating Presidents William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's responses to these incidents, Peifer lucidly reflects on the options they had available and the policies they ultimately selected. The case studies illuminate how leadership, memory, and shifting domestic policy shape presidential decisions, providing significant insights into the connections between naval incidents, war, and their historical contexts. Rich in dramatic narrative and historical perspective, Choosing War offers an essential tool for confronting future naval crises.




Over Here, Over There


Book Description

During the Great War, composers and performers created music that expressed common sentiments like patriotism, grief, and anxiety. Yet music also revealed the complexities of the partnership between France, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. At times, music reaffirmed a commitment to the shared wartime mission. At other times, it reflected conflicting views about the war from one nation to another or within a single nation. Over Here, Over There examines how composition, performance, publication, recording, censorship, and policy shaped the Atlantic allies' musical response to the war. The first section of the collection offers studies of individuals. The second concentrates on communities, whether local, transnational, or on the spectrum in-between. Essay topics range from the sinking of the Lusitania through transformations of the entertainment industry to the influenza pandemic. Contributors: Christina Bashford, William Brooks, Deniz Ertan, Barbara L. Kelly, Kendra Preston Leonard, Gayle Magee, Jeffrey Magee, Michelle Meinhart, Brian C. Thompson, and Patrick Warfield




Maritime Operations Law in Practice


Book Description

The law that applies to maritime operations at sea is complex and comprises two distinct elements: treaty law (1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), and the cases and incidents that occur at sea in both peacetime and during armed conflict which result in the creation of customary international law applicable to maritime operations at sea. Covering sovereignty and vessel status, jurisdiction and interdiction, freedom of navigation, maritime law enforcement and security, and the law of naval warfare, this edited collection brings together the most famous and influential cases and incidents at sea. Exploring the entire spectrum of maritime operations from ‘high end’ war-fighting to constabulary operations that are conducted by naval forces and maritime law enforcement agencies at sea to provide the factual circumstances of each case or incident; offering sophisticated analysis and insights into the case or incidents enduring importance, and their significance for the development of the law applicable to maritime operations; and offering a detailed account and evaluation of the most critical but rarely understood cases in maritime operations law, which encourages comparison between key cases, this book will be an essential reference for practitioners, scholars, teachers, and students of maritime operations law.




Prolonging the Agony


Book Description

The fact that governments lie is generally accepted today, but World War I was the first global conflict in which millions of young men were sacrificed for hidden causes. They did not die to save civilization; they were killed for profit and in the hopes of establishing a one-world government. By 1917, America had been thrust into the war by a President who promised to stay out of the conflict. But the real power behind the war consisted of the bankers, the financiers, and the politicians, referred to, in this book, as The Secret Elite. Scouring government papers on both sides of the Atlantic, memoirs that avoided the censor's pen, speeches made in Congress and Parliament, major newspapers of the time, and other sources, Prolonging the Agony maintains that the war was deliberately and unnecessarily prolonged and that the gross lies ingrained in modern "histories" still circulate because governments refuse citizens the truth. Featured in this book are shocking accounts of the alleged Belgian "outrages," the sinking of the Lusitania, the manipulation of votes for Herbert Hoover, Lord Kitchener's death, and American and British zionists in cahoots with Rothschild's manipulated Balfour Declaration. The proof is here in a fully documented exposé—a real history of the world at war.




A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks


Book Description

Shipwrecks as a window on the history of globalization




Disaster At Sea


Book Description

"Flayhart delivers a gripping chronicle of mishap and mayhem . . . filled with danger and heroism and rich with detail."—Sea Power A colorful and deadly history of ocean liner disasters from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Disaster at Sea is a chronicle of the most frightening episodes in the maritime history of the North Atlantic. From 1850 to the present day, the Atlantic has been home to hundreds of ocean liners and cruise ships, each more lavish than the last...all of them symbols of wealth and luxury. Perhaps this is why readers have always been fascinated by the lives of these ships—and their deaths. Many of us know the stories of the Titanic and the Lusitania. Both tragedies caused tremendous loss of life, even as they made the ships immortal. But there are many little-known accounts of extraordinary survivals at sea, such as the Inman and International liner City of Chicago that jammed her bow into an Irish peninsula in 1892 but stayed afloat long enough for all to be rescued, or the City of Richmond that survived a dangerous fire in 1891, and a year earlier the City of Paris, whose starboard engine exploded at full speed in the mid-Atlantic and yet miraculously still made port. Often such tales are forgotten even if the ship sank: In 1898 the Holland-America liner Veendam hit a submerged wreck and sank at sea, but all lives were saved—so this vessel's dramatic story seemed less important in maritime history than incidents involving human loss. As recently as 2000, the Sea Breeze I sank off the East Coast of the United States while on a positioning voyage, but all her crew members were rescued in a heroic effort by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. These stories and many others are dramatic, and acclaimed maritime scholar William Flayhart has spent much of the last forty years in search of material from which to create colorful narratives. Author of The American Line: 1871–1902 and coauthor of Majesty at Sea and the first edition of QE2, Flayhart retells classic ocean liner disaster stories while bringing to light never-before-published but compelling episodes in man's ongoing battle with the sea. Originally published in hardcover under the title Perils of the Atlantic.




Perils Of The Atlantic


Book Description

"Perils of the Atlantic" captures the stories of a number of vessels that experienced adventure on the high seas, from the tragic loss of the liner "Arctic" in 1854 to the swift sinking of the Italian "Andrea Doria" in 1956.




Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History


Book Description

Presents a chronologically-arranged reference to catastrophic events in American history, including natural disasters, economic depressions, riots, murders, and terrorist attacks.