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Dead Wake


The enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania by #1 New York Times ...
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If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

Created: 03/20/16

Replies: 19

Posted Mar. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

While Germany's advertisement scared away some would-be Lusitania passengers, most placed their faith in the British Navy to protect the ship, and some laughed off the risk altogether. In their position, would you have cancelled your ticket?


Posted Mar. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Maggie

Join Date: 01/01/16

Posts: 434

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I do believe I would have canceled my trip, especially if I was traveling with children. I am really not a brave person! Knowing the outcome of the Titanic, knowing how many lives were lost and the horror those passengers went through I am sure I would have cancelled. Even today I would not be fond of getting on a cruise ship!


Posted Mar. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
virginiap

Join Date: 03/01/12

Posts: 24

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

Most definitely I would have cancelled my ticket.


Posted Mar. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kdowney25

Join Date: 01/25/16

Posts: 179

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

If I had been traveling myself, I probably would have seriously considered delaying the trip. But I think most of the passengers probably didn't take the threats very seriously. Plus, as stated above, the British Navy would gave been able to protect them. Indeed, many passengers and crew did assume the British Navy would be monitoring and protecting them.


Posted Mar. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
meredithk

Join Date: 06/10/13

Posts: 27

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

No I probably wouldn't. I take the position like the passengers on the ocean liner "that it wouldn't happen to me". This was a newer liner that had a stellar safety record commissioned by the British military and would be protected if there was a problem.


Posted Mar. 21, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
laurief

Join Date: 09/08/12

Posts: 75

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I believe it would have been a difficult decision to weigh the cost of the ticket, the idea of a luxurious trip across the ocean versus the perceived danger but in the end - I wold cancel.


Posted Mar. 21, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kimk

Join Date: 10/16/10

Posts: 872

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I'm quite sure I would have gone regardless. I think I would have felt the concerns were overplayed, and would have banked on the ship being too well-built to sink. I also would have convinced myself that no one would be heartless enough to endanger that many civilians at one time.


Posted Mar. 21, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
linz

Join Date: 08/12/15

Posts: 167

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

Yes, I would have cancelled because there was a what going on in Europe! I'm very cautious, and would not feel like it was safe for any civilians to be on the water with warships around! Just because there are Americans on board does not guarantee safety!


Posted Mar. 23, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dianec

Join Date: 03/15/12

Posts: 22

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

If I were still in my twenties or thirties, I would have gone. Now I'm too invested in the lives of my children, etc., to risk my life.


Posted Mar. 24, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
juliaa

Join Date: 12/03/11

Posts: 271

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I'm fairly risk-averse and doubt I would have booked passage in the first place, given the presence of warships and submarines in the Atlantic. But if I had booked passage, I'm fairly certain I would have canceled.


Posted Mar. 24, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
juliep

Join Date: 04/07/12

Posts: 250

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

No one seemed to think that the Lusitania would be torpedoed, everyone seemed to be in denial. So yes, I probably would have gone.


Posted Mar. 25, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
N*Starr

Join Date: 03/13/14

Posts: 51

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

This reminds me of living in today's era, there are threats all around us. The boundaries between civilian and solider are not as clear. I am highly risk adverse, but yet life goes on. I think Larsen tried to show us how uninvolved the Americans were during the lead up to WWI. There is another thread that kind of touches on this, what are the parallels? Perhaps we find ourselves in a time where we, too, are living in a bit of bliss based on our location in the US. I think of Brussels and Paris and think, would I still want to go out knowing what we know now? Maybe the question is, if I were a Lusitania passenger how would have I evaluated the risk? It seems that many at the time thought it was not too risky. My guess is that I would have reacted the same.


Posted Mar. 27, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
celiaarnaud

Join Date: 04/18/12

Posts: 73

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

Since the war was well underway, I probably would not have booked passage in the first place. But some of the passengers were headed home, so it's hard to say what I would have done if that were my situation. I'm reminded of the trip my husband and I took to Egypt in 2008. I know I would not go to that part of the world now, but I have friends who went on a pilgrimage to Israel and spent part of the time near the Lebanese border. They had a marvelous time, but I would not have taken the trip.


Posted Mar. 29, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Sooz

Join Date: 07/29/14

Posts: 62

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

Being the cautious woman I am noted for, I believe that I would have cancelled but hindsight is always easier to say what I might have done at the time. Perhaps in my desire to travel on such a magnificent ship, I might have been persuaded by the Cunard Line, that it would be safe to travel with full British escort through the war zone.
When I was younger, I may have felt differently than I do today as a senior citizen!


Posted Mar. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
nevans72

Join Date: 01/17/16

Posts: 7

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I don't believe the passengers would have known their fate before hand so, no I would not have canceled my ticket due to the fact that you can't know that it would have happened. Everyday we do things that are dangerous and we take that risk knowing something could happen but we still do them.


Posted Mar. 31, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
katherinep

Join Date: 07/16/14

Posts: 374

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

In my youth? Probably not! Although, growing up in Manhattan, I've always had a good sense of avoiding neighborhoods that had an iffy rep. Europe was in the midst of a War. Don't think I'd have booked to begin with. Now, in my 70's? Definitely would NOT book.


Posted Apr. 01, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
booksnob

Join Date: 11/12/11

Posts: 31

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

No I wouldn't have canceled. I would have believed what everyone was saying. The Lusitania was safe, faster than submarines and the British will be protecting them at all times with their warships. I'm in love with travel and would have taken the risk.


Posted Apr. 02, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
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mojogirl

Join Date: 02/20/16

Posts: 5

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

If I were going home, I would've gone for it, but if it was just to take a trip for travel's sake, no thank you. I'm not a cruise-type person so I wouldn't have needed much convincing to cancel. Hindsight is always easy, though. It seemed that most of the passengers believed they were going to be protected. Call it naivete or just faith that no one could be capable of purposely torpedoing a passenger vessel. The reality of that is just too heinous to conceive of.


Posted Apr. 04, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
ylhoff

Join Date: 10/23/12

Posts: 85

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I definitely would have canceled my ticket given the number of ways life was trying to communicate to the passengers that boarding the Lusitania was just not a good idea.


Posted Apr. 09, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
jenbrinkley

Join Date: 04/05/16

Posts: 23

RE: If you had been in the position of a Lusitania passenger, would you have cancelled your ticket?

I probably would have kept my plans in tact and travelled on the Lusitania choosing to believe it was safer than any vessel ever built. I also would have believed that it would be protected from German U-Boats. What happened to the Lusitania was inconceivable to most people.


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