Lusitania
..."Torpedoes coming on the starboard side." Two explosions followed.
Within 18 minutes the huge liner, once the largest ever built, sank to the
bottom of the Celtic Sea. 1,195 out of the 1,959 people aboard died. Walther
Schwieger, commander of the German submarine U- 20, who had fired a single
torpedo 750 yards away from the ship, later called it the most horrible sight he
had ever seen.
The Lusitania entered service between Liverpool and New York on September
7, 1907. Funded by the British Admiralty, the Lusitania, built by the Cunard
Steamship Company, was required to double as an auxiliary cruiser in case of war.
This was a secret agreement between the Admiralty and Cunard. On May 12, 1913
she was put in drydock to be double plated and hydraulically riveted, as well as
modified for the application of guns. War was declared on August 4, 1914, and
the ship was sent again into drydock. There she was armed with 12 six-inch
guns(Simpson 60).
Britain wanted to ship war materials over the Atlantic, but there was an
embargo of shipping munitions on passenger ships. America also tended to publish
the cargo manifests so that the Allies as well as the Germans would know what is
being shipped. Britain found a loophole in this. New cargo added at the last
minute did not go on the original manifest, thus a supplementary manifest would
be submitted 4 or 5 days later. Also, due to the embargo, munitions were listed
as sporting cartridges' and stamped with Not liable to explode in
bulk'(Simpson 63).
About a week before the voyage, the New York German community tried to run
an ad warning about the trans-Atlantic voyage. But the duty officer at the State
department did not approve, so no ads were placed. Later George Vierick, who was
in charge of placing the ads, convinced William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of
State, that on all but one of the Lusitania's...
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