Lusitania Christmas Carol

A Lusitania Christmas Carol, November 24th, 2023

I am currently reading “Dead Wake” by Erik Larson. The book is about the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania in May of 1915. The sinking of the ship off of the coast of southern Ireland led America into WWI.

I am on page 68 at the beginning of the chapter “Menagerie”. It is the Friday before the Lusitania sails from New York City for Liverpool, England.

Erik Larson weaves the story well as he writes short biographies in the book about the captains of the Lusitania and U-20, the German submarine that sank the Lucy.

Larson also describes some of the passengers in detail. One of those passengers is Charles Lauriat a famous bookseller of rare and collectible books for bibliophiles.

On this Friday, Lauriat had traveled to William Field’s address on Fifth Avenue. Field was a wealthy man though he describes himself as a “gentleman farmer”. Fifth Avenue is the ritziest street in New York City.

Field owned a copy of “A Christmas Carol” that was owned by the author, Charles Dickens himself. Dickens had notations all over the inside cover and pages of the book. These notations were to provide evidence for his various lawsuits against other authors who had plagiarized his Christmas tale.

Field, after much reluctance, agreed to part with the book on loan to Lauriat. Lauriat was taking it to London for various Dickens scholars who wanted to study the Dickens notations.

Lauriat promised that the book would be safe. Cunard Lines had promised him that the Lusitania would be protected by the full force of the Royal Navy.

To quote Erik Larson, “… Field handed over the book, a handsome volume packaged in a “full Levant box,” meaning a container covered in the textured goatskin used in morocco bindings.”

….

Now what happens to the Dickens copy of “A Christmas Carol” I do not know yet as I haven’t finished the book but this part of the story struck me.

I know the Lusitania is going to be torpedoed and hundreds of people are going to die. I know that this sinking will draw the USA into WWI which is a disaster for us all as it led to the Versailles Treaty, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, WWII, and all kinds of madness and millions more dead.

But it is this book I care about. Yes, I know “A Christmas Carol” is an anti-capitalist pro-socialist fairy tale. But I like the story of redemption. If even a money-mad bastard like Ebenezer Scrooge can reform himself and be redeemed, then there is hope for us all.

Perhaps there is goodness in us all, even Dick Cheney. Though it is hard to imagine.

So I hope the book survives the sinking. We can all use a good redemption song.

TJM