The Lusitania Dead Wake

In Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson tells a story of events surrounding the sinking of Lusitania. He argues that the ship would not have sunken if time management was different and Room 40 gave detailed directions and warnings to the ship. He claims that the ship sank for many reasons which led to significant consequences such as United States joining Britain for World War I.

The Open Boat, written by Stephen Crane is discusses the journey of four survivors that were involved in a ship wreck. The oiler, the cook, the captain, and the correspondent are the survivors that make onto a dingey and struggle to survive the roaring waves of the ocean. They happen to come across land after being stranded in the ocean for two days and start to feel a sense of hope that they would be rescued anytime soon. They began feeling down as they realize nobody was going to rescue them and make an attempt to reach shore. The story discusses an external conflict of man vs nature to help state clearly the central idea. The central idea of the story conveys man’s success against nature when ones’ abilities are combined together to increase the chances of survival. The use of 3rd person limited omniscience and character analysis helps to explain how the journey of the men’s survival to get out of the ocean and reach shore is able to succeed while Stephen Crane uses symbolism to demonstrate the unity created amongst the survivors.

Yet, events in Europe were altering President Wilson's outlook on the war. Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare was the cause of the loss of American lives in the Atlantic. The sinking of the Lusitania, a British liner, off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915 by a German U-boat that killed 128 Americans was a harsh reality that

An major event that happened was Elizabeth (Liz) did not realize she was dead until she saw her funeral. On top of that she was on a boat and the boat stopped at Elsewhere. The below passage is important because it reveals a moment the main character experiences about a timeless theme of a death. “ I am dead, Liz thinks.

In Dead Wake: The Crossing of the Lusitania, the author, Erik Larson, writes a nonfiction novel surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania. Larson argues that Room 40 purposely did not send Juno to rescue the passengers of the Lusitania. He claims that such an event influenced America to join World War I and side with Great Britain.

They have little energy and are no longer sure of rescue. This is, in my opinion the most interesting part of the story emotionally. The characters seem truelly desperate and nothing makes for a better story than a bit of desperation. Their struggle is intense and realistic. it becomes easy to picture these men struggling to survive against the harsh winter waves. How hard they struggle is both ironic and amusing. The narator describes the crew as the correspondent sees them. "The oiler was ahead in the race. He was swimming strongly and rapidly." The oiler is obviously trying the hardest to survive; a wasted effort on his part. "Off to the correspondent's left, the cook's great white and corked back bulged out of the water, and in the rear the captain was hanging with his one good hand to the keel of the overturned dingey." The captain and cook are struggling as well but barely manage to hold on. In my opinion this shows how useless they are to the whole party. The captain has done nothing but shot orders and the cooks optimism did nothing to help the

The sailors are dead and there are lots of them. Slessor’s precise words are "convoys of dead sailors", now, a convoy is defined as any group of vehicles travelling together and together is the key word here. All these dead bodys’ personified actions and feelings are the same. Using muted adjectives "softly" and "humbly" Slessor elucidates how reluctantly but obediently they all come to shore, giving up their contented dawdling of the night before that is depicted through imagery in the line "At night they sway and wander in the waters far under".

British ships were called in to action during the war to restore U-boat losses. The Lusitania was the sister to the Titanic. The ship was transporting 1,959 civilians, substantial cargo and munitions. The ship left from New York on May 1st 1915 and was headed

Water was starting to cover the whole boat. They tried to get the life boats from one side of the boat to the other. In the process it killed some people when they were transferring the life boats from one side to the other (Preston 217-220). The crew was trying to get all the women and children in the life boats before the Lusitania sunk. At this point there was already a significant amount of people that already died and that was hurt. All this time that was passing and the Lusitania was steadily sinking. It was sinking very fast. Finally after all the panic and stress they had all the life boats filled with people away from the Lusitania (Preston 220-230). Many people died before the Lusitania even sunk. Some were hit by falling pieces of the boat. Other people fell off the Lusitania when it was sinking because of how horrible the conditions were. The Lusitania winded up being perpendicular in the water because of how fast it was sinking and breaking (Preston 231-232). After a while the Lusitania was almost completely under water. Most of the people that was in the water had got pulled under by the boats funnels when it was starting to

That is a clear indication that no ship, be it passenger or warship nor weapon bearing or not, flying the colors of any enemy known to the German forces were to enter those waters. With this knowledge one would think that sending a passenger ship into dangerous waters would require an escort. The Lusitania was not escorted. The captain of the ship Captain Turner was also advised on several occasions to reroute to a safer location or docking. These requests were ignored. It was also confirmed that the Lusitania, a passenger ship, indeed was carrying weapons and ammunitions. Along with that it is believed the Lusitania suffered from a second explosion, either the ammunition stored down below or a possible second torpedo launched from the U boat. Knowingly travelling into enemy waters, unguarded, with weapons, the Lusitania was inevitably sunk in order to achieve an excuse to join actively into the war for profit.

The origin of this source is valuable because both authors are highly credible with Bailey being a professor and author of books on diplomatic history and Ryan as a World War II commander and researcher. Additionally, with publication date being long after the sinking, the authors have the advantage of hindsight in their evaluations. The purpose of this book is to create a source that thoroughly analyzes the sinking in order for readers to better understand events surrounding the sinking. This is valuable because prior to the publication of this book, it was intended to replace sensationalized articles and books pertaining to the Lusitania thus the experienced authors put in extra effort to create a work which can be used as a source for the future. This could be a limitation as well considering the intended audience was American and British readership, thus allowing the authors to paint the Germans as villains for instigating the attack. The content is valuable as this book is derived from a range of sources from released government documents to eyewitness accounts allowing for the analysis of the sinking to be looked at from a number of

The people who died and survived on the Lusitania will be remembered through empathy and feeling. The tragic deaths and stories that makes us want to put ourselves into their shoes and stories. For have you ever wondered what they went through. Just try to feel what they felt from the bad to the good things.

Shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean is a great book. Not alot happens in the first few chapters except the background of the sailors. The more you read into the book the more problems that arise. In one chapter they got low on food and their spirits were down but the next they found food and were happy and singing. When shackleton was the captain of that ship he pushed his crew as hard as he could to keep them moving and happy. The main problem in the book was when the ship got stuck in ice. This ship was a giant reinforced walls it had it all, But when the

128 Americans that were on board were killed. However, the ‘Lusitania’ was not an American ship and Wilson accepted the Germans change in policy that their U-boats would now adopt ‘cruiser’ tactics and surface to attack ships with guns fitted onto their decks. While the German chancellor managed to avoid a major diplomatic issue this time, the German military was adamant that the ‘cruiser’ tactic was not going to be used as it was to dangerous for the lightly armored U-boats of the time.

The first important symbol Crane describes in his story is the boat the characters float upon. This boat, which seems to be no larger than a bathtub, seems quite small against the vast ocean. As the characters cling to the boat to survive the dangerous sea, it symbolizes how human life can bob along the world’s uncertainties. Crane describes the boat as “open,” which supports the interpretation of how being unprotected can expose people to the unexpected turns of life (Crane 339). The open boat becomes a sanctuary and reality for the characters; this reality helps them comprehend how little control they have over everything they do.