47 pages • 1 hour read
Erik LarsonDead Wake: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
William Turner
William Turner is the Lusitania’s captain during its final voyage in May 1915. Born in 1856, Turner develops a passion for sailing as a young boy, first serving on a crew at the age of eight. As Turner grows older, he serves on various crews, eventually joining the Cunard Steamship Company and working his way up to higher positions within the company. It takes nearly twenty years of working with the Cunard Steamship Company before Turner is given command of the Aleppo in 1903. Turner’s personal life is marked by disappointment. His wife eventually leaves him, moving to Australia with Turner’s two sons. However, Turner finds increasing success by working for the Cunard Steamship Company, and he serves as captains for many of its flagship ocean liners. During his voyages as captain of the Lusitania, Turner “broke all records for speed” (16). Though Turner experienced a handful of accidents during his career, none ever culminated in the death of passengers or crew. Turner is known for his work ethic, but he is notorious for not socializing with passengers, a custom practiced by most of the Cunard Steamship Company’s captains.
After a torpedo hits the Lusitania during its final voyage, Turner remains on board the bridge with his life jacket on. Once the Lusitania fully sinks, Turner feels his duty is finished. He leaves the ship and boards a lifeboat. Many of the survivors blame Turner for the disaster, insisting that the crew was not prepared for attack. Larson suggests that Turner blames himself for the attack as well because he is withdrawn and melancholy after he is rescued. His work ethic stems from a highly principled understanding of duty and service, which causes him to feel like a failure in the face of tragedy and other things that are beyond his control.
Walther Schwieger
Walther Schwieger is the captain of the U-20, the German submarine that attacks and sinks the Lusitania. Schwieger has a reputation in the German navy for being extremely knowledgeable about submarines, a recent invention. While Schwieger is known for his “ruthlessness” in attack, his crewmen consider him to be a jovial and caring captain (59). On April 30, Schwieger’s U-20 is one of many submarines ordered to patrol the sea between Ireland and Britain due to false information that Britain will begin launching troops from these waters. Over the next week, Schwieger’s U-20 heads to its target by going around Scotland and the coast of Ireland. Schwieger grows increasingly frustrated during the journey because he fails many times to successfully attack British ships. His impatience and frustration eventually spur him to sink the Lusitania. Before Schwieger reaches his destination, he decides to turn around and head back to Germany due to constant fog and dwindling fuel supplies. During his return journey, the fog clears up, and Schwieger spies the Lusitania. Schwieger’s U-boat begins trailing the Lusitania, and he is able to launch a torpedo at it after the Lusitania makes a sudden change in course. After the attack, Schwieger continues to serve successfully as a submarine captain, earning a medal for the number of ships he destroyed. In 1917, Schwieger’s submarine is destroyed by a British warship, killing Schwieger in the process.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson is the president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, serving throughout World War I. At the same time that war breaks out in Europe in 1914, Wilson is beset by personal tragedy when his wife Ellen dies. Though Wilson is upset by the war in Europe, he decides that America should remain neutral during the conflict. In the following months, Wilson becomes enamored with Edith Galt, a friend of his cousin. Wilson’s affections are unrequited, however, and Edith refuses Wilson’s proposal of marriage. This refusal leaves Wilson in a state of despair that is exacerbated by even more bad news about the war in Europe. Wilson is particularly distraught by the fact that German submarines start to become increasing aggressive towards neutral merchant ships. However, Wilson’s distress and despair are not powerful enough motivating factors to convince him to join the war. He only changes his mind about the war after receiving news of the Zimmerman Telegram—a German telegram to Mexico in which Germany offers to help Mexico conquer American lands. This direct threat to America, on its own soil, is what finally motivates Wilson to officially declare war on Germany in April 1917. Wilson’s constant reluctance to join the war throughout the book symbolizes a primal survival instinct to avoid danger until such danger is directly threatening.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill serves as the first lord of the Admiralty during World War I, the highest office in the British navy. As first lord, Churchill is known for his intense involvement in all aspects of the navy’s operations, which often places him in conflict with First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher. One of the core prongs of Churchill’s naval strategy is the highly secretive Room 40, a division of the Admiralty that is dedicated to intercepting and decoding German communications. Churchill is an incredibly meticulous man, and he closely reads all of the intercepted communications, regardless of how banal or innocuous they seem. He makes notes of even slight changes in German strategies. Churchill is also very cautious. He and other admirals are hesitant to act on much of the information that is discovered by Room 40 because they do not want to alert the Germans that their codes have been decoded. In the beginning years of the war, Churchill is frustrated by America’s neutral status, believing that America must join Britain as an ally in order for the British to defeat the Germans. On at least one occasion, Churchill suggests that a German attack on a merchant ship might be beneficial because it might spur Woodrow Wilson to declare war on Germany. Larson suggests that Churchill’s cunning and close involvement in the war may have caused the Lusitania’s sinking. Always objective, Churchill may have convinced the Admiralty not to properly protect the Lusitania to increase the chance that it would be attacked and that America would join the war as a result.
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By Erik Larson
