A famous Cunard liner
RMS Lusitania was built for the Cunard Line in Scotland and entered service in 1907. She was among the largest and fastest ships in the world, and soon after her maiden voyage she won the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, a prize that shows how closely the shipping lines competed for prestige. She carried passengers in several classes, and a large amount of cargo, between Liverpool and New York.
Her design reflected the ideas of the time. The British government had helped to fund her construction on condition that she could be converted for naval service in wartime. In practice, though, she was not taken into the navy, and she continued to work as a passenger liner. Her story is a good illustration of ocean liner history before the First World War, when the grand liners were symbols of national pride.
The war at sea
When the First World War began in 1914, Britain’s naval blockade of Germany and Germany’s attempt to disrupt British supply routes made the Atlantic a theatre of conflict. In February 1915, Germany declared the waters around the British Isles a war zone in which Allied merchant ships could be attacked, and neutral vessels might be at risk too. German submarines, or U-boats, were the main weapon.
Before the Lusitania sailed from New York on 1 May 1915, the German embassy placed notices in American newspapers warning that passengers who travelled on ships of Britain or its allies did so at their own risk. Some passengers noticed them. The ship nonetheless sailed with nearly 2,000 people aboard, which included about 1,260 passengers and a crew of around 700.
7 May 1915
On the afternoon of 7 May, as the Lusitania neared the south coast of Ireland, the German submarine U-20, commanded by Walther Schwieger, sighted her. A single torpedo struck the starboard side. There was a second explosion shortly afterwards, the cause of which is still debated. Candidates have included a boiler, coal dust or something in the cargo.
The ship listed heavily and sank in about eighteen minutes. The list made it difficult or impossible to launch many of the lifeboats, and some were swamped. About 1,200 of those aboard died, a figure that is quoted as 1,198 or 1,195 in different sources, and roughly 760 survived. Among the dead were many women and children, and around 120 US citizens. Local boats from the Irish coast took part in the rescue, and the towns nearby received the survivors and the dead.
The question of the cargo
German officials argued that the ship was a legitimate target because she was carrying munitions. It is established that her manifest included rifle ammunition and some other war-related material, which was legal under the rules of the time for a passenger ship that was not an armed auxiliary. British officials denied that she carried anything more dangerous than that. The sensitive question of whether additional explosives were aboard has been debated for decades, and explorations of the wreck have not settled it.
The sinking raised serious issues about the laws of war at sea. The established rules, in principle, required a submarine to give warning and allow crew and passengers to get away before sinking a merchant ship. A submarine surfacing to do so was extremely vulnerable, which is why the Germans claimed the rules could not be followed.
Public opinion
The reaction was immediate and strong. In Britain, there were anti-German riots in some cities. In the United States, newspapers condemned the attack, and President Woodrow Wilson sent diplomatic protests to Berlin. Wilson, though, did not ask for war. He said famously that a nation could be “too proud to fight”, a remark that was widely criticised, and America stayed out of the war for another two years.
Germany did, however, make concessions. After further incidents, it announced restrictions on attacks on passenger ships, and for a time U-boat commanders were told to take greater care. The pledge lasted until early 1917, when Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. That decision, together with other developments, brought the United States into the war in April 1917.
It would be too simple to say that the Lusitania caused America to enter the war. It did harden opinion, and “Remember the Lusitania” became a recruiting slogan, but the road to war was longer and had several causes. A German medal made privately by an artist to criticise the sinking, and copied in Britain as propaganda, is an example of how the event was used by both sides.
The wreck
The wreck lies on the seabed off the Old Head of Kinsale, at a depth of roughly 90 metres, and has been explored by divers and surveyed several times. Because the water is deep and the hull has collapsed in parts, investigation is difficult. The site is protected under Irish law.
Longer-term effects
The loss of the Lusitania reinforced the vulnerability of passenger ships to submarines and encouraged the later adoption of the convoy system, which proved effective in the Atlantic. The convoy idea became central again in the Atlantic convoy battle of the Second World War. The disaster also fed continuing discussion about the safety of liners, three years after the Titanic had led to new lifeboat rules; the Lusitania’s quick list showed that even adequate boats might be impossible to use in an emergency.