The Lusitania Murders

board another ship, the Transylvania.

*The passenger list of the Lusitania included 129 children, 39 of whom were infants.

*The Lusitania had seven main decks, lettered A through F, highest to lowest, with the Hold Deck at the bottom. A Deck was also known as the Boat Deck; B Deck as the Promenade Deck; C Deck as the Shelter Deck; D Deck as the Upper Deck; E Deck as the Main Deck; and F Deck as the Lower Deck.

*The author’s aversion to formal evening wear relates to his disdain of traditional, imposed values, not to any preference for casual attire; Van Dine was in fact something of a clotheshorse with a fashion sense both fastidious and stylish, particularly after his mystery-writing success.

*Van Dine was separated, though not legally; his wife, Katherine (and their daughter, Beverly), were living in Los Angeles, waiting for Van Dine to “establish himself in the literary world” and send for them. He did eventually divorce Katherine.

*Crew drills on the Lusitania invariably alternated between the same two emergency boats, Number 13 and Number 14; lowering the boats-a tricky procedure-was not part of the drill. Hard-sided lifeboats on the ship numbered twenty-two, odd numbers hanging starboard, even hanging portside; stored in cradles underneath these conventional boats were twenty-six “collapsibles,” folding boats consisting of a shallow wooden keel with canvas sides.

*Fifty-five feet by fifty feet.

*Forty-four feet by fifty-two feet.

*The telegram read, “Submarines active off south coast of Ireland.” Thinking it might be part of a longer message that was broken up, Turner wired for details; the same message was repeated.

*The severe and steadily increasing list of the ship made safe loading and launching of the lifeboats an impossibility. Boats on the portside had swung inward, many smashed to kindling; starboard, they swung out too far to safely mount and lower.