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The RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War on 7 May 1915, about 11 nautical miles (20 kilometres) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland.
May 9, 2024 · Lusitania, British ocean liner, the sinking of which by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, contributed indirectly to the entry of the United States into World War I. The sinking led to the deaths of 1,198 people, including 128 U.S. citizens, which led to a wave of indignation in the United States.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was owned by the Cunard Line and was first launched in 1906. Built for the transatlantic passenger...
- In May 1915 the British ocean liner was sailing from New York City to Liverpool, England. Following reports of German U-boat activity along the Iri...
- The ship sank within 20 minutes of being hit by a German torpedo. There has been much speculation about its quick demise, many pointing to the seco...
- The British ocean liner’s demise contributed indirectly to the United States’ entry into World War I. In 1915 it was sunk by a German U-boat, resul...
The wreck of Lusitania was located on 6 October 1935, 11 miles (18 km) south of the lighthouse at Kinsale. It lies on its starboard side at about a 30-degree angle, in roughly 305 feet (93 m) of water.
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Known as the “Greyhounds of the Seas,” Lusitania and its sister ship, Mauretania, were the fastest passenger liners of their age, capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in under five days. At more than 30,000 gross tons each, they were also the world’s largest liners from their launch in 1906 until being surpassed by Olympic and Titanic in 1910 and 1911, respectively.
Said to be “more beautiful than Solomon’s Temple and big enough to hold all his wives,” Lusitania attracted a plethora of wealthy, prominent passengers. On its ill-fated final voyage, those onboard included millionaire heir Alfred Vanderbilt, Broadway producer Charles Frohman and actress Rita Jolivet, as well as art collector Hugh Lane, who was purportedly traveling with Rembrandt and Monet paintings stashed away in sealed lead tubes. They were joined by a former British member of Parliament, an amateur boxing champion and a special envoy to the king and queen of Belgium, not to mention businessmen, nurses, would-be soldiers and children. What’s more, as secret documents and evidence gathered at the wreck site would later show, Lusitania had 4.2 million rounds of rifle ammunition, 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells and 18 cases of non-explosive fuses hidden away in its cargo hold, bound for the Western Front.
Lusitania
In February 1915, in an attempt to stop just such war material shipments—and to counter a crushing Royal Navy blockade—Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around the United Kingdom. Even neutral ships, it declared, would be fair game. Though submarine technology had progressed by leaps and bounds in recent years, the effort got off to a slow start, with only seven vessels going down in the first two weeks. Persistence paid off, though, when amid other successes the Germans torpedoed the British passenger-cargo ship SS Falaba on March 28 at a cost of over 100 lives, including the first American casualty of World War I.
Germany also engaged in some psychological warfare. On May 1, the same day as Lusitania’s scheduled departure from New York to Liverpool, the German embassy in the United States took out a warning in several newspapers reminding travelers that they went to Britain at their own risk. In some of those newspapers, the warning even appeared adjacent to a Lusitania advertisement. Yet almost no one canceled their trip. “It’s the best joke I’ve heard in many days,” said Lusitania’s captain, William Turner, whereas the Daily Telegraph in London called it “Berlin’s latest bluff.”
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The sinking of the Lusitania prompted an outcry in the United States (as well as in other Allied countries). “The freely expressed unofficial feeling is that the United States must declare war or forfeit European respect,” the U.S. ambassador to Britain told President Woodrow Wilson the next day. Yet Wilson did not immediately send in the troops, choosing to remain neutral in exchange for a German apology and an end to unrestricted submarine warfare. He even ran for re-election in 1916 using the slogan, “He kept us out of war.”
Early the following year, Germany sank several U.S. merchant vessels after resuming unrestricted submarine warfare, which it believed would cause Britain and France to surrender in just a few months. Moreover, British intelligence uncovered a telegram from Germany’s foreign minister in which he proposed a military alliance with Mexico. If Mexico entered World War I, the telegram stated, Germany would help it recover Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Feeling he no longer had a choice, Wilson called for a declaration of war on April 2, a decision that would help turn the conflict in the Allies’ favor. Far from forgotten, Lusitania featured prominently in recruitment posters and war bond advertisements as Americans geared up for battle in Europe.
- Jesse Greenspan
Jul 31, 2017 · Last week, the Irish Ministry of Culture and Heritage confirmed that divers have recovered the main ship's telegraph from the RMS Lusitania, the Cunard ocean liner sunk by a German U-boat on...
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Apr 17, 2018 · On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British-owned luxury steamship Lusitania, killing 1,195 people including 128 Americans, according to the Library of Congress.
Dec 2, 2009 · On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) began in Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool,...
