Lusitania Remembered

This week marks the 93rd anniversary of the sinking of the Cunard ocean liner Lusitania. When she entered service in 1907, Lusitania made every other passenger ship in service obsolete. She was the first ocean liner over 30,000 gross tons, the first with four propellers and, along with her sister ship Mauretania, the fastest liner in service. Furthermore, she was luxurious with wood paneling, marble fireplaces and a dining room modeled after one is the Palace of Versailles. Lusitania was very popular and an icon of her time.

Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat. In an effort to break the British blockade of Germany imposed at the start of World War I, the Kaiser’s government had initiated a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare under which any ship entering the waters off of the British Isles could be attacked without warning.

The German policy was contrary to accepted international law, which forbid a warship to attack a merchant ship without warning. Accordingly, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson warned that Germany would be held strictly accountable if any Americans were killed or injured in such an attack.

On her last voyage, Lusitania was traveling from still neutral America to England when she was attacked. 1,198 people were killed including many neutral Americans, women and children.
The event stunned the world. Eventually, it led to America’s entry into World War I against Germany.

While the sinking of the Titanic three years earlier has remained in the public imagination and there are numerous fans of that ship, the story of the Lusitania is less well-known today and no one ever professes to love the Lusitania. This is perplexing. Prior to their sinkings, both ships were held in high esteem by the public. Indeed, the primary reason for building Titanic and her sisters was to compete with Lusitania and Mauretania. Both were luxurious and had passenger lists that included the rich and famous. Titanic was larger but Lusitania was considerably faster.

The magnitudes of the tragedies were similar. 1,503 people went down with the Titanic, a slightly higher percentage (68%) of those onboard than in the Lusitania sinking (61%).

Both sinkings sent shock waves through America and Britain. They were both unimaginable. With the Titanic, it was how could such an engineering marvel have sunk? With the Lusitania, it was how could such a famous ship with so many innocents aboard be attacked in violation of accepted international law?

Both sinkings had long-term repercussions although those from the Lusitania sinking had a greater impact. The Titanic disaster resulted in changes in lifeboat requirements and in ice patrols. The Lusitania was a major factor leading to America’s entry into World War I and thus affected the outcome of that conflict, which continues to have an effect on world affairs today.

Of course, Lusitania has not had the benefit of being the subject of Hollywood movies and the publicity that surrounds such productions. But, that only reflects that it is more comforting to think of tragedies of this scale being caused by nature rather than the willful act of other human beings.

For a more about the Lusitania’s last voyage, there is an article posted at: http://www.beyondships.com/Cunard-Lusitania.html