The Lusitania Murders

entertainment, I could explore some of the same issues that plague us almost a century later. I hope I have provided not only escape, but a morsel or two of food for thought, and that this mystery novel is in no way disrespectful to the gravity of such dire events.

I am grateful to my editor, Natalee Rosenstein of Berkley Prime Crime; when I was drowning in research materials, Natalee-who had in the first place suggested the Lusitania as a “disaster mystery” subject-threw me a life preserver by extending my deadline. My friend and agent, Dominick Abel, lent his usual support, and also helped buy me valuable time. And my wife, Barb-in a stressful period-was as always the best first mate a skipper could hope for. Unlike Elbert Hubbard’s wife, Alice, however, she always had plenty to say.

About the Author

Max Allan Collins has earned an unprecedented eleven Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations for his historical thrillers, winning twice for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991).

A Mystery Writers of America “Edgar” nominee in both fiction and nonfiction categories, Collins has been hailed as “the Renaissance man of mystery fiction.” His credits include five suspense-novel series, film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets and movie/TV tie-in novels, including In the Line of Fire, Air Force One and the New York Times-best-selling Saving Private Ryan.

He scripted the internationally syndicated comic strip Dick Tracy from 1977 to 1993, is co-creator of the comic-book features Ms. Tree, Wild Dog and Mike Danger, has written the Batman comic book and newspaper strip, and the mini-series Johnny Dynamite: Underworld. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, is the basis of the DreamWorks feature film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, directed by Sam Mendes.

As an independent filmmaker in his native Iowa, he wrote and directed the suspense film Mommy, starring Patty McCormack, premiering on Lifetime in 1996, and a 1997 sequel, Mommy’s Day. The recipient of a record five Iowa Motion Picture Awards for screenplays, he wrote The Expert, a 1995 HBO World Premiere; and wrote and directed the award- winning documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane (1999) and the innovative Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market (2000).

Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins, and their teenage son, Nathan.

*Van Dine refers here, obliquely, to a drug addiction that he battled, off and on, throughout his younger years, when opium and marijuana were weaknesses of his artistic temperament. He wrote of his problem only once, in a 1917 essay for The Medical Review of Reviews, in which he rather farsightedly made the statement, “Drug addiction is a disease. The fact that it is self-imposed does not alter its status.” M.A.C.

*Frohman was forty-seven.

*Twenty-four-by-fifty.

*The pair of Regal Suites, on either side of the Promendade Deck, catered to the creme de la creme of transatlantic travellers; each suite offered a dining room, two bedrooms, a bath and toilet, and sitting rooms for maids and valets.

*Of the seventy-seven positions he had attempted to fill, Staff Captain J.C. Anderson managed only forty- one.

*As he reports it, Van Dine has organized the tour in a fashion that suits his literary intentions; but he perhaps gives a false impression of the geography of the ship. The upper decks, A and B, were shared by the first and second classes, and Decks C and D were shared by the first, second and third classes. Only Deck E was exclusively third class (cabins only). Segregation of classes was accomplished in various ways; the Saloon dining room on D Deck, for example, was separated from the Second Cabin dining room by a network of galleys and pantries.

*A typical example would be a piece of hollow lead tubing with a circular disc of copper dividing it into two chambers, one filled with pitric acid, the other with sulfuric acid; a wax plug at either end would make the mini- firebomb airtight. The thickness of the copper disc could act in effect as a timing device, determining whether within days or hours when the acids would meet, and combust.

*Van Dine’s sense that the liner had reduced speed was correct, though by mid-morning of Sunday, May 2, the fog had cleared, and the order for “full astern” again was given. By noon, the Lusitania had logged only 501 nautical miles, putting her south of Nova Scotia-meager progress for a ship that had once set a record of 617 miles in a day. With a reduced number of boilers operating, and the battery of 192 furnaces only three-quarters fired, the ship was capable of little more.

*The suites had been decorated by various well-known English firms in such styles as Empire, Georgian, Queen Anne, Sheraton, Louis XV, Louis XVI and Colonial, with panelling and furniture utilizing satinwood, mahogany, sycamore and walnut. Suites and “special cabins” had modelled ceilings, ornamental lights and gilt fittings on doors and furniture.

*Van Dine’s somewhat snide opinion aside, for Vanderbilt this was a meaningful act. The millionaire always exhibited his horses at Olympia, and had transported twenty-six horses, sixteen coaches and a team of grooms and assistants across the Atlantic.

*The Titanic took four hours to sink; the Lusitania, by some accounts, as little as fifteen minutes.

*Even with the Cameronia passengers, the Lusitania was underbooked. While second class was over capacity with 600 passengers, third class had 367 bookings out of a possible 1,186; and first class had 290 where 552 could be accommodated. Still, Turner was in a sense correct, as the 1,257 aboard represented the largest number of passengers on a single crossing since the start of the war.

*Existing blueprints of the Lusitania indicate two hospital rooms for men and one for women, side by side on the shelter deck, mid-ship and somewhat aft. The brig, however, is not indicated on these plans, though it is clear from numerous sources that the ship indeed had a brig, which (according to Van Dine, at least) was one of those two hospital rooms designated for men.

*Sixty-eight feet by fifty-two feet.

*Lauriat-who played in the daily ship’s betting pool-was keenly interested in the ship’s progress; his approximation of her speed was correct, though he was surely unaware that at twenty knots, the Lusitania had hit her top speed, due to the reduced number of boilers in use.

*In addition Captain Turner had tripled his lookouts, aware he was fast approaching dangerous waters, and needing to take a fix on his position as soon as land was sighted, to begin working out the course and speed to port at Liverpool. Because of her size, the Lusitania could only cross the mouth of the Mersey at high tide. . and if he missed that, he would have to spend twelve hours steaming back and forth, a virtual target for prowling U-boats.

*In 1915, Van Dine was twenty-eight.

*McClure’s concept would eventually become the League of Nations and, decades later, the United Nations.

*Van Dine overstates: A more fair characterization would be that the Lusitania was primed to become an armed auxiliary cruiser.

*The mastheads rose 216 feet; the ship was 785 feet long, extending beyond the wharf into the Hudson River (which had been dredged to accommodate her). The 10-million-dollar liner had 192 furnaces, 6 turbines (68,000 accumulative horsepower), and 2 massive boilers taking up four boiler rooms. In the hull were 26,000 steel plates held by 4,000,000 rivets. The rudder alone weighed 65 tons.

*Forty-one first- and second-class passengers transferred from the Cameronia to the Lusitania; three hundred third-class passengers were forced to wait almost a week to