I just finished Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the story of the ocean liner Lusitania’s final voyage. The Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine in 1916, during World War I. Out of 1,959 passengers and crew, 764 survived.

Larson gives poignant details for many of the passengers. We follow survivors as well as ones who perished. He analyzes reasons why the tragedy happened, asking why no ships of the British navy accompanied the liner as it neared England in submarine infested waters.

Mentioned over and over was the belief that no modern nation would sink a non military ship with so many innocent civilians aboard. It reminded me of how often we are deceived into thinking that “civilized” people have passed beyond the barbarity of their ancestors.

When the temptation is great enough, we are apt to condone, if not to conduct, acts of barbarity.

Previously, ships that sank other ships were supposed to warn the targets first so the passengers could escape in lifeboats. The attacker, it was thought, should also pick up survivors.

Submarines, however, were a new form of war, unsuited to the old civilities. If a submarine warned a ship, the ship would escape because ships were faster than subs. And a sub had no room in its crowded compartments for survivors.

Faced with the choice to use their power or see it made useless by the old rules, the subs chose to attack the Lusitania and other civilian ships.

With each conflict, we invent new weapons to harm and less means to protect innocents.