This week on q a our guest is erik larson out with his book dead wake. With world war one being fought in europe, the lusitania liners sailed to liverpool, england with 2,000 passengers and crew on board. Cspan erik larson, your new book, dead wake, you start off first sentence, on the night of may 6, 1915, as his ship approach the coast of ireland, ccaptain William Thomas turner left the bridge and made his way to the first class lounge. What are you talking about . This is the night before the lusitania was torpedoed. The ship was that day, on friday the next day on friday, may 7th was going to enter the socalled the zone of war declared by the german navy. The water surrounding the u. K. Had become this they had designated this a zone of war. So the night before, captain turner was going into the lounge to actually talk to passengers during the intermission in the talent show, the nightly talent show, one of the features of transatlantic voyages. And he had some sobering news but al
Throughout the rest of 1914, he was deeply troubled. But by may he is head over heels in love with a woman named edith. A 40something widow in washington, d. C. It is not clear yet whether she is going to fall in love with him back. He is writing passionate love letters to her by the dozens at this point. This is the context, war and passion. Brian you start out by saying this i first started reading about the lusitania on a whim. What was the whim . Erik when i look for the next idea, it is always a difficult time. A good friend of mine coined a term to describe it, she says that is when i am in the dark country of no ideas. When i am in that country, i always try to just read. If something occurs to me i will start looking into it. The lusitania had always been on my back burner, but i had always been reluctant to think about doing a book about it because it seems to me it is almost like, too obvious a story, too much low hanging fruit. A lot of times i want an idea that is complex e
Captain William Thomas turner makes his way toward the lounge. Erik this was the night before the lusitania was torpedoed. The next day, the ship was going to enter the socalled zone of war declared by the german navy. The water surrounding the u. K. Had been designated as a zone of four. The night of zone of war. The night before, captain turner was going into the lounge to talk to passengers during the intermission for the nightly talent show, one of the features of transatlantic voyages. He had some sobering news, but also some comforting news. He wanted to, first let everyone know that they were entering the war zone the next day, but the good news was that he said that they would be comfortably under the protection of the british navy. The royal navy. Brian and where they . Erik no, it turns out they werent at all. Brian and this is 1915 . What is going on in the world . Erik what is going on in the world is war. America is not in the war. The war broke out in august of 1914 and v
Way toward the lounge. What are you talking about . Erik this was the night before the lusitania was torpedoed. The next day, the ship was going to enter the socalled zone of war declared by the german navy. The water surrounding the u. K. Had been designated as a zone of war. The night before, captain turner was going into the lounge to talk to passengers during the intermission for the nightly talent show, one of the features of transatlantic voyages. He had some sobering news, but also some comforting news. He wanted to, first let everyone know that they were entering the war zone the next day, but the good news was that he said that they would be comfortably under the protection of the british navy. The royal navy. Brian and where they . Erik no, it turns out they werent at all. Brian and this is 1915 . What is going on in the world . Erik what is going on in the world is war. America is not in the war. The war broke out in august of 1914 and very quickly the war has proven to the