Quinn mentions efforts to persuade Lane to delay his departure from the United States and to sail on an American rather than a British ship. He refers to a warning from the German embassy against sailing on the 'Lusitania', issued on the morning of the sailing, and describes as "criminal carelessness" the fact that the ship was not in a convoy. He also writes of Lane the person, his work, art, debts and will and offers his assistance, and of American attitudes to the sinking of the 'Lusitania' and the war.