RMS LUSITANIA
GREYHOUND OF THE SEAS
Length: 787’
Beam : 87.8’
GRT: 32,000 (1 GRT=100 cubic feet - measure of enclosed space, not weight)
LUSITANIA in New York before final voyage
Boat deck to water: 60’
Notice funnels : Black, not reddish orange of Cunard
Upper structure : gray, not white
Look at all the lifeboats! 48 (22 regular, 26 collapsible) Originally only 16 - same number as RMS TITANIC
Look! There’s the new Captain, Captain Turner. He replaced Captain Dow. Why?
Did you hear three people have been arrested on the ship and we’re still at the dock?
The passengers are not festive: they are apprehensive.
Some saw the warning in the paper.
So why are we Americans sailing on her?
Swift ship - 26 knots - but one of her four boiler rooms is closed off. Cunard wanted her to stay in port for the war - like Mauritania and Aquitania but Admiralty wanted her at sea. After all, she was designed as an auxiliary cruiser - hence her tall, narrow shape
Many watertight compartments and bulkheads - 12 transversal and longitudinal
Protected by the Royal Navy
Passengers and the Captain readily assured they would have Naval escort when they reached the war zone.
Captain Turner’s orders were to take the same course as last time.
He was told elements of Cruiser Squadron “E” would meet him (The cruiser HMS JUNO) ten miles south and 40 miles west of FASTNET.
CRUISER RULES
Subs warned merchantmen before attack but...
October, 1914, Br ordered ships to fire on or ram German subs; fly neutral flags in Br. waters - preferably American
November 3, 1914, British Military area declared Ships could not proceed safely without escort Search for contraband -took to Br. ports. more and more added to list as war went on.
January 30, 1915, Germans captured Churchill’s orders to ram and fly neutral flags.
February 4, 1915, German submarine zone. Subs originally surfaced to warn ships but were rammed. All Br ships given orders to ram on sight
MAY 6, 1915; Captain Turner:
1.) doubled the lookouts
2.) ordered lifeboats swung out
3.) uncovered lifeboats
4.) had provisions in lifeboats checked
5.) ordered a blackout
6.) and honestly told the passengers, “On entering the war zone tomorrow we shall be secure
in the care of the Royal Navy.”
MAY 7, 1915
Heavy fog in the morning. Slowed to 15 knots. Did not want to miss escort in the fog so didn’t stay further out to sea. Sounded foghorn. Fog cleared by noon.
U-20, on patrol, sighted a smudge of smoke on horizon. Couldn’t reach ship, but then it changed course.
2:09 p.m. Fired one bow torpedo
2:10 p.m. LUSITANIA hit
2:12 p.m. Capt. Turner orders the LUSITANIA turned to land, but ship does not respond
2:14 p.m. electric power fails
2:20 p.m. Ship slows enough (after traveling more than two miles) to ATTEMPT to launch lifeboats
2:28 p.m. LUSITANIA is gone. Lost: 1198 (plus 3 in brig) including 124 Americans SIX lifeboats successfully launched.
WHAT HAPPENED
A.) transverse
B.) longitudinal
ALL BR CRUISERS OF THIS DESIGN WERE NOT TO BE EXPOSED TO SUBS UNLESS THEY HAVE AN ESCORT
LUSITANIA WAS NOT SENT ONE MESSAGE INFORMING THEM THAT 23 SHIPS HAD BEEN SUNK OFF THE COAST OF IRELAND SINCE MAY 1, 1915
2:10 p.m. MAY 7, 1915:
Lookouts Morton (in the bow) and Quinn ( in the crow’s nest ) sight torpedo and shout alarm to bridge
Torpedo hits forward, under the mast (Morton did not have a good view of the area hit)
There was an Initial explosion, then a tremendous explosion sending water and debris high over LUSITANIA so that when it descended it destroyed starboard lifeboat #5.
Not only was a hole opened but also bulkheads and portholes in the area were damaged. Survivors estimate 70 starboard portholes were open. Each porthole could leave in 3.75 TONS OF WATER PER MINUTE.
It is believed she took an immediate list to starboard for five minutes She then stabilized for about ten minutes then listed again. With her rudder and props out of the water her bow hit the ocean bottom (300’ deep). Some hoped that she might stick in this position - with about 400’ of the ship out of the water. She, of course, rolled and sank.
Two major contributing factors to the loss of the ship:
1.) THE LIST
2.) NOT SLOWING DOWN
LIFEBOATS
48 lifeboats, 6 successfully launched. Why?
1.) overturned while loading
2.) overturned in the sea - people trying to climb in
3.) NOT CREW’S FAULT. Crewmen lost grip on the ropes passengers jumping into the lifeboats
4.) rivets
5.)snubbing chains
6.) plugs not in some of boats
7.) ship moving, lifeboats came down on other lifeboats
POSSIBLE CAUSES FOR THE RAPID SINKING:
Ammunition (contraband). Ammunition was on the sailing list but not enough to do this much damage. If the shells were filled with powder, an explosion was possible. Her loading manifest had much left off. After leaving port a supplementary manifest (This was done for all ships) was filed.
For example, on her manifest was listed 1,248 cases of shrapnel (small pieces of metal) to be put in shells. BUT Bethlehem Steel Corporation, which supplied it, listed on April 28, 1915, 1,248 cases of 3” shrapnel filled shells, four shells to a case. These were then marked “Non-explosive in Bulk”.
Boiler explosion. No, surviving crewmen from each boiler room said they did not explode.
Coal dust - but the dust would have been dampened down as the steel hull was in contact with the cold water.
Pipe bomb - would have been set off by torpedo
Torpedo - it was a World War One torpedo. It would have detonated on contact. The day before a much smaller ship had been torpedoed and took over an hour and a half to sink.
Commander Kenworth, 192, original manuscript “…her escort withdrawn deliberately.”
Jack Roper, crewman, 1919, wrote Cunard requesting expenses for his testimony in accord with line indicated by Cunard.
April 12, 2008
Last American survivor died - BARBARA McDERMOTT (three years old in 1915)
January 11, 2011
Audrey Warren Johnston died - (three months old in 1915)
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA: HORROR AT SEA BRITAIN NOT ONLY RULED THE WAVES, THEY WAIVED THE RULES.
WME September, 2014
Greyhound of the Seas