What Happened to the Lusitania? Part 1

     Almost everyone in the world knows about Titanic and the iceberg it stuck in 1912.  Many lives were tragically lost on the maiden voyage of and "unsinkable ship."  It's such am intriguing story that a movie was made and documentaries about are still being made over 100 years later.  But what about Lusitania? 
     Lusitania took it's maiden voyage on September of 1907.  Like Titanic it was a liner for the worlds elite.  It was dubbed "one of the safest, fastest, most magnificent steamships in the world" by newspapers of the day.   

This photograph of the stewards and stewardesses was made in Liverpool before Lusitania's last trip.

  Bismark Daily Tribune, May 8, 1915, Bismark (ND)

London, May 7 - The Cunard liner, Lusitania, which sailed out of New York last Saturday with over 2,000 souls aboard, 151 of which lives were passengers and 816 the crew, lies at the bottom of the ocean off the Irish coast, a victim of a German submarine.  She was sunk this afternoon by a German submarine which sent two torpedoes crashing into her side while the pasesngers [sic] were having luncheon. 

It was WWI at the time and Germany had warned that they intended to attack any ships entering their waters.

NUMBER RESCUED UNKNOWN 

     How many of Lusitania's passengers and crew were rescued cannot be told at present, but official statements from the British admiralty up to midnight accounted for not over five or six hundred.  The ship's steward, who landed with others at Queenstown, gave it as his opinion that nine hundred persons were lost.  

Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., May 11, 1915

TEN MILES FROM SHORE.

     The Lusitania was steaming along about ten miles off Old Head Kinsale on the last leg of her voyage to Liverpool, when about two o'clock in the afternoon a submarine suddenly appeared, so far as reports go, and fire two torpedoes without warning at the steamer.  One struck her near the bows and another in the engine room.

POWERFUL AGENTS OF DESTRUCTION.

     The powerful agents of destruction tore through the vessel's side, causing terrific explosions.  Almost instantly great volumes of water poured through the openings, and the ship listed.

BOATS SWUNG OUT.

     Boats already swung out davits and dropped overboard, were speedily filled with passengers who had been appalled by the desperate attack.  The wireless call for help was sent out, numerous small boats and one steamer responding.  But from all accounts, the Lusitania hesitated less than twenty minutes before taking a fatal plunge, carrying from her many of the human cargo.

DETAILS TRICKLING IN.

     Details of the catastrophe are trickling in a survivors, stunned by the experience, arrive at various points nearest the point of calamity.

     In the first cabin there were 106 American citizens and in the second cabin 65, and in the third class 17.

     Meagre reports of those rescued from the Lusitani contained but one name of an American Bostonian, but it will be several hours, at least, before any accurate list of the rescued and lost can be available.  Anxious crowds were on the streets and places where information was given out all night.

PASSENGERS AT LUNCH WHEN THE AWFUL CRASH HITS GIANT CUNARDER

     Scenes reminiscent of the Titanic and the Empress of Ireland (which I've never heard of will have to look into) disasters were witnessed in Liverpool tonight, where large crowds, chiefly woman relatives of the crew of the Lusitania, gathered outside of the Cunard offices, anxiously awaiting news from their men.  There was little news available, however, but people remained calm, although the strain was terrible.  

     The Morning Post, in an editorial on the Lusitania, after remarking on the elaborate warnings issued in New York before the ship sailed, says:

  ..."We find it difficult to understand how, with such warnings and such ample opportunity to take all precautions, and Lusitania was caught.  .The conclusion of the vessel's exact course must have been known to the captain of the submarine is difficult to avoid, and is uncomfortable to accept."

LUSITANIA HAD GUNS

     The Post believes conditions are favorable for rescue of many of the passengers and supposes everything was in readiness on board the liner and that procedure in case off attack had been carefully rehearsed.  It states the Lusitania was equipped with a formidable "battery of guns" and adds:

  

CRITICISE OUR ACTION.   

     But it appears that New York legal niceties regarding international law prevented the boat from carrying ammunition for these guns, under pains of being interned in neutral port as a ship of war.  (The US didn't enter the war until, and partly due to, the Lusitania disaster.)

     "But, surely, if the United States regards these submarine attacks as illegal, it should follow that the guns may be used on merchantment, to guard themselves against such attacks without making the vesesl [sic] which uses them a ship of war.

     "In the face of this crime, it is idle to waste words in condemnation.  We must set our teeth and go on with the war with more courage and determination."

MANY LIFEBOATS USELESS.

     Dublin, May 7 - The motor boat, Elizabeth, which arrived at Kinsale, reports that at 3:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon she picked up two life boats containing 63 and 16 survivors of the Lusitania respectively.  The cork tug took rescued to Queenstown.  They were mostly women and children.  The passenger said, owing to her list to port, the Lusitania could not launch many of her life boats.

     The tug, Stormcock, returned here bringing a 150 survivors of the Lusitania, principally passengers, among who were several women, several of the crew and the steward.  Describing the experience of the Lusitania, the steward said:

 PASSENGERS AT LUNCH.

     "The passengers were at lunch when the submarine came up and fired two torpedoes, which struck the Lusitania's starboard side, one forward and the other in the engine room where there were terrific explosions.

     Captain Turner immediately ordered the boats out.  The ship (illegible) between 400 and 500 passengers entered them.  The boat containing myself and three other boats were picked up shortly before  four o'clock by the Stormcock.  I fear few officers were saved, but they acted bravely.

    There were only fifteen minutes from the time the ship struck until she foundered, going down bow foremost.  It was a dreadful sight."

     Two other steamers with survivors are approaching the shore.

INTERESTED IN ATTITUDE OF UNITED STATES.

     Where Great Brtitain's fastest merchant vessel went down, Old Head Kinsale, is land mark that brought joy to many travelers, as it always stood as a sign from shore that the perils of the voyage across the Atlantic were at an end.

   The line, whose boast it had been that it never lost a passenger ship in the Atlantic service, now lost the ship that dodged the lurking enemy off Nantucket light house the day after the war was declared, and later startled the world by flying the stars and stripes.

    The British admiralty is discouraging publication of surmises and guesses regarding the dead and injured.  Even before the crude details were known, the British press was asking editorially what the United States will say to this event, and how he will hold Germany to "strict accountability" mentioned in previous diplomatic correspondence.

 Stay tuned, and stay curious, until part 2!