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4e3688c
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However, in a later interview, housed in the archives of the Imperial War Museum, London, Beesly was less judicious. "As an Englishman and a lover of the Royal Navy," he said, "I would prefer to attribute this failure to negligence, even gross negligence, rather [than] to a conspiracy deliberately to endanger the ship." But, he said, "on the basis of the considerable volume of information which is now available, I am reluctantly compelled t..
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Erik Larson |
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6730948
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As it happened, their father had not had to spend very much time worrying. He had received telegrams from both sons, telling him each was looking for the other. The telegrams, Leslie later learned, had arrived five minutes apart, "so that father knew at home that we were both safe before we did."
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Erik Larson |
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fe18085
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At the Quebec prison, he had read Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope, then had autographed the book and given it to a guard for a souvenir.
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Erik Larson |
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2e0d51a
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in his path-breaking book The Mask of Sanity, Dr. Hervey Cleckley described the prototypical psychopath as "a subtly constructed reflex machine which can mimic the human personality perfectly. ... So perfect is his reproduction of a whole and normal man that no one who examines him in a clinical setting can point out in scientific or objective terms why, or how, he is not real." People exhibiting this purest form of the disorder would becom..
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Erik Larson |
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9bde5d4
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One of the deadliest storm surges in American history occurred on Lake Okeechobee in Florida, in 1928, when hurricane winds blowing across the long fetch of the lake raised a storm surge that killed 1,835 people.
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Erik Larson |
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7dc4ef6
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THE DATE WAS APRIL 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63-65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it. What he did know was that his foot hurt badly, more than he had expected. He was sixty-five years old and had become a large man. His hair had turned gray, his mustache nearly white, but his eyes were as blue as ever, bluer at this instant by proximity to the sea. His foot had forced him to delay the vo..
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Erik Larson |
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1595ac8
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At a time when hundreds of men have been put to death without trial or any sort of evidence of guilt, and when the population literally trembles with fear, animals have rights guaranteed them which men and women cannot think of expecting.
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Erik Larson |
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10bddab
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In this day before sonar, a submarine traveled utterly blind, trusting entirely in the accuracy of sea charts. One great fear of all U-boat men was that a half-sunk derelict or an uncharted rock might lie in their path.
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Erik Larson |
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73c5fda
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Mrs. Caillaux bought a gun, practiced with it at the gunsmith's shop, then went to the editor's office and fired six times. In her testimony, offering an unintended metaphor for what was soon to befall Europe, she said, "These pistols are terrible things. They go off by themselves." She"
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Erik Larson |
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0ce9a61
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Throughout that first year in Germany, Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation, the willingness of the populace and of the moderate elements in the government to accept each new oppressive decree, each new act of violence, without protest. It
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Erik Larson |
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a2947ae
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An all-swallowing wave, not unlike a surf comber on a beach, was rushing up the boat deck, enveloping passengers, boats, and everything that lay in its path," he wrote. A mass wail rose from those it engulfed. "All the despair, terror and anguish of hundreds of souls passing into eternity composed that awful cry."
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Erik Larson |
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d4594bf
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The disaster had an important secondary effect: because two of the cruisers had stopped to help survivors of the initial attack and thus made themselves easy targets, the Admiralty issued orders forbidding large British warships from going to the aid of U-boat victims.
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Erik Larson |
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af51939
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Another inventor, J. B. McComber, representing the Chicago-Tower Spiral-Spring Ascension and Toboggan Transportation Company, proposed a tower with a height of 8,947 feet, nearly nine times the height of the Eiffel Tower, with a base one thousand feet in diameter sunk two thousand feet into the earth. Elevated rails would lead from the top of the tower all the way to New York, Boston, Baltimore, and other cities. Visitors ready to conclude ..
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Erik Larson |
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13cfa41
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Stand with your back to the wind," he said, "and the barometer will be lower on your left than on your right."
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Erik Larson |
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7674dfa
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Boswell and Thompson write, "Every night the rooms on the two upper floors of the Castle were filled to overflowing. Holmes reluctantly accommodated a few men as paying guests, but catered primarily to women--preferably young and pretty ones of apparent means, whose homes were distant from Chicago and who had no one close to them who might make inquiry if they did not soon return. Many never went home. Many, indeed, never emerged from the c..
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Erik Larson |
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27504e0
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One poll found that 41 percent of those contacted believed Jews had "too much power in the United States"; another found that one-fifth wanted to "drive Jews out of the United States." ("
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Erik Larson |
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7f7d4a0
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Both camps maneuvered to win the endorsement of Kaiser Wilhelm, who, as the nation's supreme military leader, had the final say. He authorized U-boat commanders to sink any ship, regardless of flag or markings, if they had reason to believe it was British or French. More importantly, he gave the captains permission to do so while submerged, without warning. The most important effect of all this was to leave the determination as to which shi..
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Erik Larson |
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48982dc
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But Zimmermann surprised him. On Friday, March 2, during a press conference, Zimmermann himself confirmed that he had sent the telegram. "By admitting the truth," Lansing wrote, "he blundered in a most astounding manner for a man engaged in international intrigue. Of course the message itself was a stupid piece of business, but admitting it was far worse."
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Erik Larson |
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d55ab7d
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Holmes cast himself as a demanding contractor. As workers came to him for their wages, he berated them for doing shoddy work and refused to pay them, even if the work was perfect. They quit, or he fired them. He recruited others to replace them and treated these workers the same way. Construction proceeded slowly, but at a fraction of the proper cost. The high rate of turnover had the corollary benefit of keeping to a minimum the number of ..
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Erik Larson |
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cfd971b
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No sir," Dunwoody snapped. "It cannot be; no cyclone ever can move from Florida to Galveston." --
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Erik Larson |
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3203b32
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And just before the heat wave, a rising young British writer had published a scalding essay on Chicago. "Having seen it," Rudyard Kipling wrote, "I desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages."
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Erik Larson |
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fade12c
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That you have found me ... among so many millions is the miracle of our time!" he cried. "And that I have found you, that is Germany's fortune!"
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Erik Larson |
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3f3ebfa
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Lauriat made his first trip in 1873 on one of Cunard's earliest steamers, the Atlas. His purchases routinely made news. One acquisition, of a Bible dating to 1599, a Geneva, or "Breeches," Bible--so named because it used the word breeches to describe what Adam and Eve wore--drew nearly a full column in the New York Times."
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Erik Larson |
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b439ab9
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A Bridgeport, Connecticut, man presented his girlfriend with an engagement ring and handed her one end of a ribbon; the other end disappeared into his pocket. "A surprise," he said, and urged her to pull it. She obliged. The ribbon was attached to the trigger of a revolver. The man died instantly."
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Erik Larson |
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3edd41e
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Off the southeast tip of Italy a young Austrian U-boat commander named Georg von Trapp, later to gain eternal renown when played by Christopher Plummer in the film The Sound of Music, fired two torpedoes into a large French cruiser, the Leon Gambetta. The ship sank in nine minutes, killing 684 sailors.
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Erik Larson |
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b139d23
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Wasplike with their long slender hulls, these were ships not seen in these waters before. They approached in a line, each flying a large American flag. To the hundreds of onlookers by now gathered on shore, many also carrying American flags, it would be a sight they would never forget and into which they read great meaning. These were the descendants of the colonials returning now at Britain's hour of need, the moment captured in an immedia..
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Erik Larson |
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9484cf5
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The first submarine ever credited with sinking an enemy ship was the Confederate navy's H. L. Hunley, which, during the American Civil War, sank the Union navy's frigate, the Housatonic. The Hunley, propelled by a crew of eight using hand cranks to turn its propeller, approached the Housatonic after dark, carrying a large cache of explosives at the end of a thirty-foot spar jutting from its bow. The explosion destroyed the frigate; it also ..
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Erik Larson |
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ec36fe3
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The men lived for the moment the boat ascended to the surface and the hatch in the conning tower was opened. "The first breath of fresh air, the open conning-tower hatch and the springing into life of the Diesels, after fifteen hours on the bottom, is an experience to be lived through," said another commander, Martin Niemoller."
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Erik Larson |
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1dde208
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Mrs. Arthur Luck of Worcester, Massachusetts, traveling with her two sons, Kenneth Luck and Elbridge Luck, ages eight and nine, to rejoin her husband, a mining engineer who awaited them in England. Why in the midst of great events there always seems to be a family so misnamed is one of the imponderables of history.
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Erik Larson |
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9592b65
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Indeed, these are the great lingering questions of the Lusitania affair: Why, given all the information possessed by the Admiralty about U-20; given the Admiralty's past willingness to provide escorts to inbound ships or divert them away from trouble; given that the ship carried a vital cargo of rifle ammunition and artillery shells; given that Room 40's intelligence prompted the obsessive tracking and protection of the HMS Orion; given tha..
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Erik Larson |
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fa4d1da
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German forces in Belgium entered quiet towns and villages, took civilian hostages, and executed them to discourage resistance. In the town of Dinant, German soldiers shot 612 men, women, and children. The American press called such atrocities acts of "frightfulness," the word then used to describe what later generations would call terrorism. On"
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Erik Larson |
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67b5413
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Camille's rain fell with such ferocity it was said to have filled the overhead nostrils of birds and drowned them from the trees.
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Erik Larson |
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3782848
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The bureau had long banned the use of the word tornado because it induced panic, and panic brought criticism, something the bureau could ill afford.
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Erik Larson |
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5964fa1
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It's a great privilege to be permitted to share any part of your thought and confidence. It puts me in spirits again and makes me feel as if my private life had been recreated. But, better than that, it makes me hope that I may be of some use to you, to lighten the days with whole-hearted sympathy and complete understanding. That will be a happiness indeed.
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Erik Larson |
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0ca4aad
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The dedication had been anticipated nationwide. Francis J. Bellamy, an editor of Youth's Companion, thought it would be a fine thing if on that day all the schoolchildren of America, in unison, offered something to their nation. He composed a pledge that the Bureau of Education mailed to virtually every school. As originally worded, it began, "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands ..."
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Erik Larson |
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53eb7d4
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Margaret and James Shineman, newlyweds from Oil City, Wyoming, who suddenly found themselves aboard the fastest, most luxurious ship in service, for their journey to Scotland to visit Margaret's family. The visit was to be a surprise. Both were killed.
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Erik Larson |
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2541974
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Koerver reports another example of delusional thinking within the German navy. Adm. Edouard von Capelle said, on Feb. 1, 1917, "From a military point of view I rate the effect of America coming on the side of our enemies as nil." Tuchman, Zimmermann Telegram, 139; Koerver, German Submarine Warfare, xxxiii." --
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Erik Larson |
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9d6c215
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I went to Harvard for examination with two men not as well prepared as I. Both passed easily, and I flunked, having sat through two or three examinations without being able to write a word.' The same happened at Yale, Both schools turned him down. He never forgot it.
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erik-larson
the-devil-in-the-white-city
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Erik Larson |
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c9a0796
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I went to Harvard for examination with two men not as well prepared as I. Both passed easily, and I flunked, having sat through two or three examinations without being able to write a word," Burnham said. Larson wrote, "The same happened at Yale. Both schools turned him down. He never forgot it."
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Erik Larson |
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e4ac288
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CAPT. J. W. SIMMONS, master of the steamship Pensacola, had just as little regard for weather as the Louisiana's Captain Halsey. He was a veteran of eight hundred trips across the Gulf and commanded a staunch and sturdy ship, a 1,069-ton steel-hulled screw-driven steam freighter built twelve years earlier in West Hartlepool, England, and now owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company. Friday morning the ship was docked at the no..
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Erik Larson |
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dc79b52
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Amontillado. Broiled Shad a la Marechel. Cucumbers. Potatoes a la Duchesse. Filet Mignon a la Rossini. Chateau Lafite and Rinnart Brut. Fonds d'Artichaut Farcis. Pommery Sec. Sorbet au Kirsch. Cigarettes. Woodcock on Toast. Asparagus Sala. Ices: Canton Ginger. Cheeses: Pont l'Eveque; Rocquefort. Coffee. Liquers. Madeira, 1815. Cigars. Gage
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Erik Larson |
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0621f5f
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Nor did the inquiry ever delve into why the Lusitania wasn't diverted to the safer North Channel route, and why no naval escort was provided. Indeed, these are the great lingering questions of the Lusitania affair: Why, given all the information possessed by the Admiralty about U-20; given the Admiralty's past willingness to provide escorts to inbound ships or divert them away from trouble; given that the ship carried a vital cargo of rifle..
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Erik Larson |
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224bdcf
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What I have now at your generous hands is infinitely precious to me. It would kill me to part with it,--I could not and I hope you could not. And I will be patient, patient without end, to see what, if anything, the future may have [in] store for me.
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Erik Larson |
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6398f65
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Off the southeast tip of Italy a young Austrian U-boat commander named Georg von Trapp, later to gain eternal renown when played by Christopher Plummer in the film The Sound of Music, fired two torpedoes into a large French cruiser, the Leon Gambetta. The ship sank in nine minutes, killing 684 sailors. "So that's what war looks like!" von Trapp wrote in a later memoir. He told his chief officer, "We are like highway men, sneaking up on an u..
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Erik Larson |