New book raises questions about Lusitania sinking

CHICAGO (WLS) -- On May 7, it will be exactly 100 years since the sinking of the luxury steamship Lusitania by a German submarine. A new best-selling novel is exploring the question: Did it have to happen?

"Dead Wake" - that's the name of the new book by best-selling author Erik Larson. And at the Union League Club, he signed his novel for hundreds of fans of history and old mysteries.

"When a torpedo is fired, at least in the World War I era, there is a compressed air wake that rises to the surface as it travels through the water and it lingers for quite a while," Larson said. "Yeah, that was a dead wake."

Dead wake torpedo and the greatest and fastest luxury liner of its day, the Lusitania, were on a deadly collision course in early May of 1915. The Lusitania left New York for Liverpool, England. It was World War I and German subs were on the prowl, but German sub U-20, captained by a Walther Schweeger, was secretly being tracked by the British.

"Down the west coast of Ireland and then enter the Irish Sea and end up outside Liverpool, exactly where, of course, the Lusitania was heading," Larson said.

On May 7, 1915, just off the coast of southern Ireland, a U-20 torpedo struck the Lusitania's starboard side and it went down in just 18 minutes. Of the 2,000 on board, 1,198 died.

One of the most fascinating things about this book is that British intelligence knew exactly where the sub was, they knew where the Lusitania was going, and they didn't do anything about it.

Even when there were destroyers available to protect the ocean liner, the Lusitania was left on its own.

"It is highly likely, today, that if the Lusitania had been protected by one or two destroyers that Capt. Schweeger might have been deterred by attacking," Larson said.

Larson says it was all about forcing America into the war, but that took two more years and those 1,198 lives.