The Lusitania

The Lusitania The British ocean liner, Lusitania, amazed the world with its intricate design and incredibly far voyages. The technology implemented into the passenger ship had never been used on a public ship before. Unfortunately, during WWI the Lusitania was shot and sunk by German forces. On the bright side, the survivors had a lasting impact on their home country’s view of the war. The sinking of the Lusitania sparked many views against the Germans, which ultimately led to America joining the war. The design of the Lusitania was created by Leonard Peskett. He was Cunard Line’s senior naval architect and designer. Leonard is also known for the design of many Cunard ships like the RMS Mauretania, RMS Aquitania, and the RMS Carmania (“Construction”).
John Brown and his company from Clydebank, Scotland built the Lusitania. The ship was designed with 10 decks, including the ones not open to the public. The first deck, known as the Navigation Deck, was the easiest way to get across the boat efficiently due to the vast open space to move. Towards the back were the officer’s rooms, which also had a stairwell to get to the lower deck. The Navigation Deck was nicknamed the Hurricane Deck because it was always windy and water splashed up the sides of the ship onto the people. The next deck was the A Deck, also known as the boat deck. This deck was mainly known for holding all of the lifeboats. There were only twenty lifeboats when the boat was first launched but Cunard Lines increased that number to forty-eight to make the passengers feel safer. The next deck down was the B Deck mainly known as the Promenade Deck. This deck was mainly for rooms and suites. It did include a smoking room for those who smoked but you had to have been in second class to use it. The next deck was the C Deck and named the Shelter Deck because all of it was completely covered with no open spaces to the outside and it was above where the water touched. It was where everyone was supposed to go when the weather got dangerous outside. This deck had first class, second class, and third class saloons so during a time of dangerous weather, the people would go to the designated areas by class. The engineers sleeping rooms were between first and second-class. On Deck D, also called the Saloon Deck, there were saloons for all the classes. In the front was the third class dining saloon along with the lavatories. In the middle was the first class dining saloon because there was more space. Finally, in the back was the second-class dining saloon along with the hospital. The third to last deck was the Main Deck. This is the deck that most of third class and the firemen lived on. The second to last deck was the F Deck or the Lower Deck. In the back was where the stewards would stay. It was not very comfortable because it was next to the engine and boiler rooms which were very loud. Next to the stewards’ rooms was the mailroom and mail sorting room. The final deck was called the last floor is called the Hold Plan. It was most important for storing coal and the engine room. This deck was also used to store ammunition, explosives, and other military cargo items. It was kept a secret that there were war supplies on the ship for the passengers’ safety due to the Germans using U-Boats (“Lusitania Home”). The Lusitania’s construction lasted for a great deal of time due to her tremendous size. The company that built the ship, Cunard Liners, was given 150,000 Euros by the government yearly to build the Lusitania and the Mauretania (“Lusitania”). These ships were to be given to the Admiralty's disposal in a time of war. Cunard Liners agreed and they built both of the ships. On June 7, 1906, the first rivet of the Lusitania was placed by Lord Inverclyde, which marked the start of the Lusitania's construction. Lord Inverclyde was the chairman of Cunard Lines at the time. Sadly, he was not able to witness the launch of the ship because he passed away eight months before she was launched. On June 7, 1906 at 12:30 p.m., Lady Inverclyde named the ship. After she named the ship, it was launched with thousands of people watching (“Lusitania”). The ship was built on the Clyde River, but the Lusitania was longer than the river was wide so it had to be launched at an angle. After the launch, the Lusitania was moved to a warehouse where she would spend the next year getting finishing touches. Once she was done getting touched up, she went out on a two day private trial off the coast of Ireland. She failed the former acceptance trials but the public was not notified as it would have been an extreme embarrassment to the government and Cunard Lines. The Lusitania was worked on until she passed the acceptance trials and invitations were sent out for a free trial cruise on July 27, 1907 (Lusitania Home”). The Lusitania successfully completed 201 ocean voyages (“Lusitania”).
She was the first ship to cross the Atlantic in under 5 days at a speed of 23.99 knots (“Lusitania”). This speed gained the Lusitania the Blue Riband for Britain. The Blue Riband was gained and lost many times between the Lusitania and other ships of the Cunard Lines like the Mauretania (“Lusitania”). The Lusitania was on its 202-ocean voyage from New York to Liverpool while it had been heard that the Germans were sinking any boat in unclaimed waters. The Captain of the Lusitania was warned by other Captains that it could be dangerous for him to go out there and that he shouldn’t risk the Lusitania. He was also given advice to follow a zigzag path so it would be harder for them to be torpedoed but the Captain believed going straight would make it hard for them to keep up and land a torpedo. On May 7, 1915 the Lusitania had made it through most of the travels and it was on the final stretch to Liverpool. It was going at the ship’s phenomenal top speed when a crew mate spotted something in the water coming towards them. The men gathered around and watched and held on as the torpedo struck the side of the boat. The boat shook and everyone was startled coming out of their rooms to see what the loud noise was. Moments later a second blast shook the boat causing all havoc to break loose. The boat was sinking as people were running to the lifeboats, trying to find loved ones, or grabbing personal belongings. The
lifeboats on one side of the ship were not able to come off because the boat started to sink in a way they could not be accessed. This left only one side of the lifeboats to be used. Everyone was rushing to get their lifeboat off and not enough people know how to detach them correctly which caused most of them to break on impact with the water or only one half of the boat detach and all the people fall into the water. Some mothers were unable to find their children, which caused them to stay in the boat too long and get stuck. Only six lifeboats were successfully detached out of the 48 that were included on the boat (Walker). One of the lucky survivors was Minnie Campbell. Minnie was a thirty-year-old teacher with nine siblings. She did not have a husband but she was very close to her brother. While the ship was sinking, Minnie was trying to find a lifeboat to get in but all of them were full. She ran across the entire deck looking for room until one seaman grabbed her and tossed her in saying: “You are just a tiny thing.”. The boat was then detached and fell into the water without breaking. After they landed they went around helping others that were floating in the water and brought them ashore (Walker). One of the boats picking up people from the water found a woman crying profusely. A man tried to pull her into the boat but she wouldn’t get in until she heard that her baby was okay. The man said he didn’t see a baby being put into a boat and the woman threw herself under the water. The man then grabbed her and lied to her that he saw her child being put onto another boat. Inside of the boat was a nursery for babies. At the time of the sinking, two famous men were inside with them. The men were Alfred Vanderbilt and Carl Frohman. Alfred was one of the richest men at the time and Carl was a playwright. The boat was sinking and the two men were rushing grabbing babies and strapping them in baskets with life preservers. The two men strapped each child in a basket with a life preserver but none of the children or the two men survived because of the rising waters and the turbulence from the sinking boat (“The Sinking of the Lusitania”). A German U-Boat called U-20 shot the Lusitania. The U-Boat was notorious for destroying many ships that were British. The U-Boat would send out a location ping to Germany to let them know where they were and the Americans found a way to get the ping as well. The Americans knew where U-20 was at all times but they didn’t know the Lusitania was being chased by it. U-20 followed the Lusitania for a long time trying to line up the shot perfectly before firing. When the torpedo hit the Lusitania the Germans in the U-Boat sat there celebrating and watching as the Lusitania sunk and hundreds of people died. After the sinking, The Germans apologized for sinking the Lusitania calling it a horrible accident. . They then pledged to end Unrestricted Submarine Warfare but a year later an American U-Boat sank an Italian liner killing 270 people along with 25 Americans (“Lusitania”). Germany found out the Lusitania had war ammunition and supplies which caused them to revoke their apology and say that they knew there were military supplies aboard which is why they sank the boat. After the Lusitania had been hit with a torpedo, a second explosion occurred catching everyone off guard. Nobody is sure what the second explosion was because there was only one torpedo hole in the ship. Cunard Lines came out with an official announcement and explained the second explosion was simply the engine room and boiler room blowing up from the impact of the torpedo hitting the side of the boat. Cunard Lines had been known for lying in the past about the truth of problems within their boats and helping the government secretly. The scene of the boat was wiped clean of all evidence the day after it sank by the British government. People had gone to the site curious of seeing what really happened. Everyone was confused as to why there was nothing there and saw that Britain had made a statement that they cleaned the entire site of missile casings and explosives so the public couldn’t get their hands on dangerous weapons. It was believed by many that the British had purposely sunk the boat to get America to join the war already but there was no proof of that being true. The boat sank in such a short amount of time compared to the time it should have taken. When people began to investigate further, they came back with nothing because there was no way to be sure what really happened since the entire front of the boat had been ripped apart from the second blast (“Lost Liners: Lusitania”). After more than 120 Americans were killed on the Lusitania, up rise in America began when people started pushing to join the war. They believed it was the best thing to do since they had just been attacked. Propaganda became more popular as the Americans urged the president to join the war. The Americans were highly against joining the war also because of overseas ties with companies. After a German U-Boat torpedoed the Italian liner, America broke all relations with Germany. Only hours after, Germany sank a US military boat leaving America no choice but to join the war. This helped not only the American economy to go back up but it also helped the Americans to come together again. The British ocean liner, Lusitania, was the ship that amazed the world with its remarkable design by Leonard Peskett and incredible ten-deck layout.
The ship had made 201 successful voyages before the German U-Boat, U-20, torpedoed it. Many people gave their lives trying to save others including two famous men, Alfred Vanderbilt and Carl Frohman. There were also conspiracies made about the government and what really caused the boat to sink based off of unproven facts. The aftermath caused propaganda in America and changed the minds of many Americans to want to join the war for revenge on Germany. Finally, Germany declared all boats hostile which upset America causing them to break all ties and join World War
III.