Sinking of the RMS Lusitania

The Lusitania went under astonishingly fast. Only 18 minutes passed from the time the torpedo hit until the ship was completely submerged. This meant passengers had less time to make it to lifeboats, some of which broke apart or were otherwise unusable. The German torpedo was not the only thing to rock the ship. Shortly after the torpedo hit, passengers and crew members felt a second terrifying explosion. To this day, nobody knows for sure what caused the second explosion. Some theorize coal dust in the bowels of the ship produced it. Others think it could have been caused by war munitions or the ship's boilers. It's believed this second explosion may have quickened the ship's demise. The ship's quick sinking time undoubtedly led to more casualties. The German attack on the Lusitania was a political act - and reactions to the event were likewise political. Despite the public outcry, Germany defended its actions by claiming the ship was transporting contraband war materials from America to Great Britain. As such, destroying the ship was an act of war, and the German U-boat was under no obligation to fire a warning shot. The United Kingdom vehemently denied Germany's claims. The owner of the wreckage believes the ship may have been carrying highly explosive war materials like nitrocellulose. In 2014, files were released that prove the British government knew that ammunition was on board.

The sinking of the ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on 7 May 1915, during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the British Empire and the British Royal Navy blockaded Germany. The British liner was identified and torpedoed by the German U-boat SM U-20 and sank in 18 minutes, killing 1,198 and leaving 761 survivors. Three German stowaways were among the dead. The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, contributed to the American entry into World War I, and became an iconic symbol in military recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought.

It was not, however, a black and white straightforward case of a wartime sinking.

History

War diary (Kriegstagebuch) SM "U 20", commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger

For decades, the British government repeatedly denied that the Lusitania was carrying explosives when it was sunk. In 1982, the government changed its tune. Shortly before divers embarked on a salvage expedition, British government officials warned the divers of the risk involved. According to the Foreign Office: "The facts are that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous. The Treasury [has] decided that they must inform the salvage company of this fact in the interests of the safety of all concerned. Although there have been rumours in the press that the previous denial of the presence of munitions was untrue, this would be the first acknowledgement of the facts by [Her Majesty's Government]." An American venture capitalist owns the salvage rights to it. Gregg Bemis essentially purchased the wreck because he hoped to salvage about $12 million worth of scrap metal from the remains of the ship. Rather than stripping the vessel, however, Bemis has since become obsessed with exploring the wreck to gain a better understanding of what caused the second explosion. Unfortunately, the Irish government continues to place strict limits on his plans.

After the Lusitania sank, the British government immediately went on the offensive. They denied the presence of war munitions and downplayed the significance of the small arms ammunition on board the ship. This interpretation was bolstered by investigations, court cases, and suppressed testimony shortly after the attack. One of the American victims was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, a member of the Vanderbilt dynasty. The loss of American lives was especially problematic since the US was not yet an active participant in World War I. The sinking outraged Americans and helped turn public sentiment against Germany. German Americans were terrorized, many were forced to change their surname, Schmidt to Smith, Müller to Miller and so on.

War munitions recovered from the wreck of the Lusitania in 2008; Lusitania was officially carrying among her cargo 750 tons of rifle/machine-gun ammunition, 1250 cases of shrapnel artillery shells with the explosive burster charges loaded but no fuzes or propellant charges, and the artillery fuzes for those shells stored separately.

The contemporary investigations in both the UK and the United States into the precise causes of the ship's loss were obstructed by the needs of wartime secrecy and a propaganda campaign to ensure all blame fell upon Germany. Arguments over whether the ship was a legitimate military target raged back and forth throughout the war as both sides made misleading claims about the ship. At the time she was sunk, she was carrying a large quantity of rifle cartridges and explosive shells, as well as civilian passengers.

A British cruiser of the Royal Navy, HMS "Juno", which had heard of the sinking only a short time after Lusitania was struck, left her anchorage in Cork Harbour to render assistance. Just south of Roche's Point at the mouth of the harbour only an hour from the site of the sinking she turned and returned to her mooring as a result, it is believed, of orders issued from Admiralty House in Cobh (HQ Haulbowline naval base), then known as Queenstown. By the following morning, news of the disaster had spread around the world.

Several attempts have been made over the years since the sinking to dive to the wreck seeking information about precisely how the ship sank. Controversially, an attack on Lusitania has been argued to have been enabled in order to bring the United States into the war, with this notably involving Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty.

Alarmed that the US might be about to enter the war on the Allied side, the Kaiser’s government apologised for the loss of American life and ordered its submarines not to sink neutral shipping or passenger liners. It also claimed that it was justified in torpedoing Lusitania as a tit-for-tat for the Royal Navy’s blockade of the German coast (causing starvation) and because the liner had “large quantities of war materiel in her cargo”. The British government vehemently denied the latter charge, knowing that the sinking of a non-military ship with the loss of almost 1,200 lives was a useful means of swaying American opinion in favour of entering the war. It eventually had the desired effect, in April 1917, when the US declared war on Germany, condemning the recent resumption of unrestricted submarine attacks as “warfare against mankind”. After the conflict, successive British governments, worried about their ongoing relations with the US, continued to deny that there were munitions on board the Lusitania. They were lying. Government papers released in 2014, and recent dives on the wreck, have confirmed that the Germans were right all along: the ship was indeed carrying war material. When the first salvage operation was about to take place in 1982, the British Foreign Office voiced its concern that the ship could “literally blow up on us”. It added: “Successive British governments have always maintained that there was no munitions on board the Lusitania (and that the Germans were therefore wrong to claim to the contrary as an excuse for sinking the ship). The facts are that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous.” A subsequent dive in 2008 confirmed the presence of more than 4 million .303 rifle bullets and tons of munitions – shells, powder, fuses and gun cotton – “in unrefrigerated cargo holds that were dubiously marked cheese, butter and oysters”. Some have concluded that it was these munitions that caused the second explosion on the Lusitania, and that therefore the British authorities must accept a share of the blame for the rapid sinking and the huge loss of life. This claim was challenged in 2012 by scientific tests at a US government-funded research facility in California that seemed to show the second blast was a boiler explosion that did not itself cause significant damage. But even if the 2012 research is accurate, it does not absolve the British of all responsibility.

After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no munitions on board Lusitania, and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. In 1982, as government papers released in 2014 prove, the head of the Foreign Office's American department finally admitted that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous and poses a safety risk to salvage teams. In 2008, divers finally entered the hold of Lusitania, and proved once and for all that she had been smuggling military munitions to England. Germany had been legally in the right to sink her.

The Truth Behind the Sinking of RMS Lusitania

Although the United States claimed to be officially neutral, Germany declared that Lusitania was being used to transport military cargoes to England, which made her a legitimate target of war. Germany even went so far as to take out ads in the American newspapers warning civilians not to take passage on the Lusitania. The Imperial German Embassy placed a warning advertisement in 50 American newspapers, including those in New York:

Notice!

Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.

Imperial German Embassy

Washington, D.C., 22 April 1915.

Lusitania was sent across the Atlantic without escorts and directed to sail into an area where German U-Boats were known to be operating, where she was spotted and sunk by SM U-20 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. From an official translation of Schwieger’s diary:

“Clear bow shot at 700 m [...] Shot struck starboard side close behind the bridge. An extraordinarily heavy detonation followed, with a very large cloud of smoke (far above the front funnel). A second explosion must have followed that of the torpedo (boiler or coal or powder?) [...] The ship stopped immediately and quickly listed sharply to starboard, sinking deeper by the head at the same time. It appeared as if it would capsize in a short time. There is great confusion on the ship; the boats are made ready and launched [lowered into the water]. Many people must have lost their heads [panicked]; several boats loaded with people rushed downward, struck the water bow or stern first and filled at once [...] The ship blew off steam; at the bow the name “Lusitania” in golden letters was visible. The funnels were painted black; stern flag not in place. It was running 20 nautical miles. Since it seemed as if the steamer could only remain above water for a short time, [U 20] went to 24 m depth and ran toward the Sea. Nor could I have fired a second torpedo [towards the ship] due to this swarm of people who were trying to save themselves.”

The United States and Britain denied that Lusitania carried war materials, and the story of the Germans sinking a helpless passenger ship turned public opinion against Germany. In 2008, divers finally entered the hold of Lusitania, and proved once and for all that she had been smuggling military munitions to England. Germany had been legally in the right to sink her.

The Morgan group had floated one-and-a-half billion dollars in loans to Britain and France. With the fortunes of war turning against them, investors were facing the threat of a total loss. As Ferdinand Lundberg observed:

“The declaration of war by the United States, in addition to extricating the wealthiest American families from a dangerous situation, also opened new vistas of profits."

As the presidential election neared for Wilson’s second term, Colonel Mandell House (personal adviser to Woodrow Wilson) entered into a series of confidential talks with Sir William Wiseman, who was attached to the British embassy in Washington and who acted as a secret intermediary between House and the British Foreign Office. What was the purpose of those dealings? It was nothing less than to work out the means whereby the United States could be brought into the war. Viereck explains:

"Ten months before the election which returned Wilson to the White House in 1916 because he “kept us out of war,” Colonel House negotiated a secret agreement with England and France on behalf of Wilson which pledged the United States to intervene on behalf of the Allies."

From England’s point of view, the handwriting on the wall was clear. Unless the United States could be brought into the war as her ally, she soon would have to sue for peace. The challenge was how to push the (American Public) off their position of stubborn neutrality. How that was accomplished is one of the more controversial aspects of the war. It is inconceivable to many that English leaders might have deliberately plotted the destruction of one of their own vessels with American citizens aboard as a means of drawing the United States into the war as an ally. –Let’s take a closer look at this conspiracy theory. Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty at that time, said:

"There are many kinds of maneuvers in war…maneuvers in time, in diplomacy, in mechanics, in psychology; all of which are removed from the battlefield, but react often decisively upon it…The maneuver which brings an ally into the field is as serviceable as that which wins a great battle.”

The maneuver chosen by Churchill was particularly ruthless. After many years of investigation, it is now possible to identify the cargo that was loaded aboard the Lusitania on her last voyage. It included 600 tons of pyroxyline (commonly called gun cotton,) six-million rounds of ammunition, 1,248 cases of shrapnel shells (which may not have included explosive charges), plus an unknown quantity of munitions that completely filled the holds on the lowest deck and the trunkways and passageways of F deck.

The German embassy in Washington was well aware of the nature of the cargo being loaded aboard the Lusitania and filed a formal complaint to the United States government, because "almost all of it was in direct violation of international neutrality treaties". The response was a flat denial of any knowledge of such cargo. Seeing that the Wilson Administration was tacitly approving the shipment, the German embassy made one final effort to avert disaster. It placed an ad in fifty East Coast newspapers, including those in New York City, warning Americans not to take passage on the Lusitania. The ad was prepaid and requested to be placed on the paper’s travel page a full week before the sailing date. –Of the fifty newspapers, only the Des Moines Register carried the ad on the requested date.

When the Lusitania left New York Harbor on May 1, her orders were to rendezvous with a British destroyer, the Juno, just off the coast of Ireland so she would have naval protection as she entered hostile waters. When the Lusitania reached the rendezvous point, however, she was alone, and the captain assumed they had missed each other in the fog. In truth, the Juno had been called out of the area at the last minute and ordered to return to Queenstown. And this was done with the full knowledge that the Lusitania was on a direct course into an area where a German submarine was known to be operating. To make matters worse, the Lusitania had been ordered to cut back on the use of coal, not because of shortages, but because it would be less expensive. Slow targets, of course, are much easier to hit.

"[...] she was required to shut down one of her four boilers and, consequently, was now entering submarine-infested waters at only 75 % of her potential speed."

In the map room of the British Admiralty, Churchill watched the play unfold and coldly called the shots. Small disks marked the places where two ships had been torpedoed the day before. A circle indicated the area within which the U-boat must still be operating. A larger disk represented the Lusitania traveling at nineteen knots directly into the circle.

One of the officers present in the high-command map room on that fateful day was Commander Joseph Kenworthy, who previously had been called upon by Churchill to submit a paper on what would be the political results of an ocean liner being sunk with American passengers aboard. He left the room in disgust at the cynicism of his superiors. In 1927, in his book The Freedom of the Seas, he wrote without further comment:

“The Lusitania was sent at considerably reduced speed into an area where a U-boat was known to be waiting and with her escorts withdrawn.”

The man charged with writing an “acceptable” report about the incident, Lord Mersey, wrote to Prime Minister Asquith and turned down his fee for services. He added:

“I must request that henceforth I be excused from administering His Majesty’s Justice.”

In later years, his only comment on the event was:

“The Lusitania case was a damn dirty business.”

Arms and munitions

Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz stated it was sad that many Americans "in wanton recklessness, and in spite of the warnings of our Ambassador, had embarked in this armed cruiser, heavily laden with munitions" and had died, but that Germany had been within her rights to sink the ship.

In the context of a wartime crossing, the cargo of the Lusitania on her last voyage included war materiel for the Allied war effort, including 52 tons of shrapnel shells, more than 3,000 percussion fuses, and 4,200 cases of Remington rifle cartridges.

Lusitania was indeed officially listed as an auxiliary war ship, though contrary to von Tirpitz's assertion she was not armed, and her cargo had included an estimated 4,200,000 rounds of rifle cartridges, 1,250 empty shell cases, and 18 cases of non-explosive fuzes, which was openly listed as such in her cargo manifest. The day after the sinking, The New York Times published full details of the ship's military cargo. Assistant Manager of the Cunard Line, Herman Winter, denied the charge that she carried munitions, but admitted that she was carrying small-arms ammunition, and that she had been carrying such ammunition for years. The fact that Lusitania had been carrying shells and cartridges was not made known to the British public at the time. In the 27-page additional manifest, delivered to U.S. customs 4–5 days after Lusitania sailed from New York, and in the Bethlehem Steels papers, it is stated that the "empty shells" were in fact 1,248 boxes of filled 3" shell, 4 shells to the box, totalling 103,000 pounds or 50 tonnes.

In September 2008, .303 cartridges of a type known to be used by the British military were recovered from the wreck by diver Eoin McGarry. Erik Larson has stated that the cargo included 50 barrels and 94 cases of aluminium powder, as well as 50 cases of bronze powder. Author Steven L. Danver states that Lusitania was also secretly carrying a large quantity of nitrocellulose (gun cotton), although this was not listed on the cargo manifest either. Furthermore, there was a large consignment of fur, sent from Dupont de Nemours, an explosives manufacturer, and 90 tons of butter and lard destined for the Royal Navy Weapons Testing Establishment in Essex. Although it was May, this lard and butter was not refrigerated; it was insured by the special government rate but the insurance was never claimed.

The wreck was depth-charged or attacked with Hedgehog mortars by the Royal Navy during World War II in an attept to destroy evidence. A Dublin-based technical diver, Des Quigley, who dived on the wreck in the 1990s, reported that the wreck is "like Swiss cheese" and the seabed around her "is littered with unexploded hedgehog mines". In 2008, divers finally entered the hold of Lusitania, and proved once and for all that she had been smuggling military munitions to England. Germany had been legally in the right to sink her.

The nearly century-old debate about whether the passenger liner Lusitania was transporting British war munitions when torpedoed by a German U-boat is over. Physical evidence of just such a cargo has been recovered from the wreck, which rests 12 miles off the Irish coast in 300 feet of murky, turbulent water. Lusitania was sunk off County Cork on May 7, 1915. The attack killed 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, and helped push the United States into World War I. Ever since the ship went down, there have been suspicions that Lusitania was carrying live munitions. Under the rules of war, that would have made the liner a legitimate target, as the Germans maintained at the time. The British government has always been evasive about the presence of munitions on Lusitania. Two cargo manifests were submitted; the second, filed after the ship sailed, indicated there were light munitions on board. Some believe the ship was carrying much more, however, and that the British Navy attempted to destroy the wreck in the 1950s to conceal its military cargo. Now a team led by County Waterford-based diver Eoin McGarry, on behalf of Lusitania's American owner, Gregg Bemis, has recovered live ammunition from the wreck. Bemis was granted a five-year license in 2007 by the Irish government to conduct limited excavations at the site. He originally bought the vessel in 1968 for $2,400 from the Liverpool & London War Risks Insurance Association. This past September, Bemis's team used a remotely operated vehicle to penetrate the wreck. They were able to clearly identify a vast amount of ammunition in an area of Lusitania not believed to have carried cargo. The Remington .303 caliber bullets the team discovered on the ship had been used by the British military during World War I. Ten of the bullets were brought to the surface. "Further research needs to be conducted, but if the discovered ammunition was found in an area where cargo was not known to be stored on board, it strongly supports the argument that the Lusitania was functioning as more than a passenger liner," says Fionnbar Moore, senior archaeologist with the Underwater Archaeology Unit of the Irish Department of Environment, which monitored the dive. The bullets are in the hands of Irish authorities, who under maritime law are now responsible for establishing their owner. Further expeditions will search for additional evidence of munitions. "The charge that the Lusitania was carrying war materiel is valid," says Bemis. "She was a legitimate target for the German submarine."

In February 2009, the Discovery Channel television series Treasure Quest aired an episode titled "Lusitania Revealed", in which Gregg Bemis, a retired venture capitalist who owns the rights to the wreck, and a team of shipwreck experts explore the wreck via a remote control unmanned submersible. At one point in the documentary an unexploded depth charge was found in the wreckage. Professor William Kingston of Trinity College, Dublin steted,

"There's no doubt at all about it that the Royal Navy and the British government have taken very considerable steps over the years to try to prevent whatever can be found out about the Lusitania".

See also

• Attack on Pearl Harbor
• Revisionist views on the causes of the World Wars

External links

• Churchill and the Sinking of the Lusitania
• Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914-1918
• America Goes to War
• Winston Churchill Discreetly Veiled, Part 1
• Diving The R.M.S Lusitania, 2019
• The 'Lusitania' Helped Push America Into WWI & Remains One Of The World's Most Dangerous Dive Wrecks, 2021
• The Lusitania Case – The Sinking of the Lusitania and a Refusal to Obey an Order on Board SM U 20, Deutsches U-Boot-Museum (Cuxhaven)