William Thomas Turner

William Thomas Turner was a British merchant-navy captain who commanded RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 in 1915. He survived the sinking, which killed nearly 1,200 passengers and crew.

British inquiries largely cleared Turner of blame, despite attempts to question his navigation and emergency decisions. The disaster became a major controversy in the history of unrestricted submarine warfare and wartime propaganda.

In Erik Larson’s Dead Wake, Captain William Thomas Turner trusts the liner’s speed and the established conventions protecting passenger ships, while President Woodrow Wilson tries to keep the United States neutral.