The Lusitania was a British ocean liner sunk in 1915 by a torpedo fired from the German U-boat, U-20.
The Lusitania was built from 1904 to 1906 by John Brown & Co., in Clydebank, Scotland for the British shipping company, Cunard. The ship was the latest in luxury and included new innovations such as elevators, electric lighting and telegraph service. Plus, the Lusitania and her sister ship, the Mauretania were equipped with four state-of-the-art Parsons steam turbine engines that produced 76,000 horsepower. The ship would sail along at a top speed of 29-knots, (25 mph). It's cruising speed was set at 25-knots. On a single day's run in March of 1914, the ship reached 28-knots.
The Lusitania had a tonnage of 31,550 GRT. It was 787 feet long with a beam of 87 feet. It's height was 60 feet to the boat deck and 165 feet to the aerials. It's draught was 33.6 feet. It had nine passenger decks. It's capacity was 552 1st class passengers, 460 2nd class passengers and 1,180 3rd class passengers. It carried a crew of 850. The Lusitania had 50% more passenger space than ships had had in the past.
Construction had begun on August 17, 1904 at Yard No. 367. The ship was finished and launched on June 7, 1906. It was christened by Mary, Lady Inverclyde. It was acquired by Cunard on August 26, 1907 and made it's maiden voyage on September 7, 1907. It would be in service for nearly nine years and would make 202 Trans-Atlantic crossings in it's short lifetime.
At the time, England and Germany were in a war situation. Germany had warned Britain that they would attack any British or allied ships in what they declared a war zone around the British Isles. America was still traveling to England at this time because the United States thought that they were safe from these warnings. At that time, America and Germany were not at odds. But several American ships had been damaged or sank by German mines.
In February of 1915, Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Britain. In May 1915, several New York newspapers published warnings by the German Embassy in Washington, DC, that Americans traveling on British or allied ships did so "at your own risk" in war zones. The warning was actually printed on the same page of the newspapers that carried the advertisement for the sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool, England.
The British Admiralty warned the Lusitania's Captain that merchant ships had been sunk off the south coast of Ireland. They warned the Lusitania to avoid the area or, at least, take evasive actions such as zig-zapping.
For whatever reason, The Lusitania's Captain ignored the warnings. Possibly he thought that the German Navy would only attack freighters, never a passenger ship. Whatever the case, he was very wrong.
On Friday, May 7, 1915, at 2:12 pm, as many of the passengers walked the decks after lunch, looking at the views, a few said later, that they saw what appeared to be a torpedo coming right at them. It all happened so fast that no one had time to react. The torpedo hit the Lusitania on the starboard side and exploded. Another explosion would follow. Lifeboats were loaded quickly and many simply jumped overboard. The Lusitania sank in around 15-minutes just 11-miles off the southern coast of Ireland. Out of the 1,959 people aboard, 1,198 died and 761 survived. Many of the dead were women and children.
It was determined later on that the ship was carrying about 173-tons of ammunition for Britain. Germany claimed that was why it had been targeted. After the United States protested, Germany apologized and promised to end the restrictions. However, in November of 1915, another U-Boat torpedoed an Italian liner and it sank killing 270 people including 25 Americans. Public opinion was turning against Germany.
On January 31, 1917, Germany re-posted the unrestricted warfare zone. Three days later, The United States broke relations with Germany. Only a few hours after that, the American ship, Housatonic was sunk by a German U-Boat. That was followed in late March with the sinking of four more U.S. merchant ships. Then on April 2, President Woodrow Wilson stood before congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. Soon after, America entered World War I.
In the summer of 1993, Robert Ballard found the Lusitania in just under 300 feet of water. To read about the discovery, go to the PBS website. The link is at the end of this blog.