Lusitania Essay -- essays research papers

LusitaniaIt was 210 p.m. on May 7, 1915. Leslie Morton, a lookout on the Lusitania,screamed, "Torpedoes coming on the starboard side." Two explosions followed.Within 18 minutes the huge liner, once the largest ever built, sank to thebottom of the Celtic Sea. 1,195 out of the 1,959 people aboard died. WaltherSchwieger, commander of the German submarine U- 20, who had fired a singletorpedo 750 yards away from the ship, later called it the most horrible sight hehad ever seen.The Lusitania entered service between Liverpool and unused York on September7, 1907. Funded by the British Admiralty, the Lusitania, built by the CunardSteamship Company, was required to double as an auxiliary cruiser in case of war.This was a secret agreement between the Admiralty and Cunard. On May 12, 1913she was put in drydock to be double plated and hydraulically riveted, as well as modify for the application of guns. War was declared on August 4, 1914, andthe ship was sent again into drydock. There s he was armed with 12 six-inchguns(Simpson 60).Britain wanted to ship war materials over the Atlantic, but there was anembargo of shipping munitions on passenger ships. America also tended to publishthe cargo manifests so that the Allies as well as the Germans would know what isbeing shipped. Britain found a loophole in this. New cargo added at the lastminute did not go on the original manifest, and so a supplementary manifest wouldbe submitted 4 or 5 days later. Also, due to t...