Lusitania Report
Lusitania
It was 2:10 p.m. on May 7, 1915. Leslie Morton, a lookout on the Lusitania, screamed,
quot;Torpedoes coming on the starboard side. quot; 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.
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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 voyages it carried war materials.
Bryan had an advertisement run the morning of departure of May 1, 1915. British
Naval Intelligence discovered the ad and gave orders to look out for U boats, predicting a trap. Turner,
Captain of the Lusitania, was told that he would rendezvous with the cruiser Juno about 40 miles west
of the southern tip of
Ireland. German Intelligence thought that the U boat lookout order meant that large vessels would be
leaving England. U 20 and U 30 were immediately sent to the British Channel and southern Irish
waters(Simpson 66 69).
On May 5, Winston Churchill attended a meeting concerning the Lusitania and the U 20. They
concluded that Juno would need an escort, so assistance would be given, most likely the destroyer
Flotilla. But this did not happen. For unknown reasons, Juno was recalled to Queenstown, and no
destroyers were sent(Simpson 70).
On May 5 and 6 three ships were sunk by the U 20, the last without warning.
Alfred Booth, Chairman of Cunard, read about this and sent a message to Captain
Turner diverting the Lusitania to Queenstown. Schwieger spotted the ship on May
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