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pp. 308, b/w photographs, “Ramsay gives greater play to the commercial competition with German lines that inspired the ship’s construction, as well as the technology that made Lusitania the speed queen of the day. His rendering of the day it was torpedoed is not as crisp as Preston’s, but Ramsay provides other compensations. His lengthy quotations from contemporary newspapers reflect how shocked America was by the event and how defensive Germany was. On the British side, generous verbatim extracts from legal proceedings show how bent its officialdom was on blaming the captain, an effort that excites conspiracy theorists to this day.”