If the title seems rather proprietorial, given that Gregg Bemis rather than Bob Ballard owns the wreck of the legendary White Star liner, once you've read this book you'll happily forgive the celebrated wreck-explorer any presumption.
The text was originally put together in 1995, a couple of years after Ballard's piloted submersible and ROV dives on the wreck. Now the book has been packaged as a large-format softback, and it's an attractive piece of work.
The Lusitania was torpedoed by U20 off southern Ireland in May 1915, with the loss of just under 1200 people, two-thirds of them passengers. Her sinking is often said to have brought the USA into the Great War, though in fact (and despite the book's subtitle, Probing the Mysteries of The Sinking That Changed History) Ballard dismisses the tragedy as little more than a contributory factor to America's eventual declaration of war.
Neither does he entertain for long the conspiracy theory that Britain (through First Sea Lord Winston Churchill) encouraged the Germans to sink the vessel to draw America into the conflict. Much blame does however seem to rest with the thick-headed Captain Turner.
This book is incredibly rich in illustration, from original photographs of the ship and its occupants through Ken Marschall's amazing paintings of the wreck and the underwater footage. Much of the content is an account of the final transatlantic voyage, based around recollections of survivors, and the graphics are painstakingly matched to the text throughout.
This care in production extends to the final section, in which underwater images of parts of the wreck are matched to original photographs.
There have been quite a few scuba dives on the Lusitania since Ballard's expedition, though the Irish government has not exactly been welcoming to divers.
But if you want to know more about what lay behind the sinking of one of the great names in maritime history, and how the wreck looks, this lovingly assembled book is for you.
Steve Weinman
Haynes Publishing
ISBN: 9781844256662
Softback, 228pp, £14.99
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