Mauretania and Lusitania were built to counter the threat of Kronprinz Wilhelm and Kaiser Wilhelm II, and without any shadow of a doubt were the finest and most beautiful ships Cunard ever built. At the time of their launch they were easily the largest ships in the world, surpassing the size in length of the famous Great Eastern and both exceeded all comers when it came to pure unadulterated luxury. LUSITANIA.  Built: 1907 by John Brown & Co, Glasgow. Tonnage: 31,550 grt, 12,797 nt. 41,590 dwt. Engines: Quadruple screw, 4 x Parsons turbines, 2 x HP turbines served the outboard shafts, 2 X LP turbines served the inboard, slow speed direct coupled, all shafts fitted with four bladed propellers measuring nearly 17ft in diameter, 78,275 SHP, 25 Scotch Boilers, working stm press of 195 lbs per sq inch, machinery weighed 9,402 tons, service speed 25 Kts. Passengers: 560 1st Class, 475 2nd Class, 1,3OO 3rd Class, 812 Crew. Laid down in 1906 and launched on the 7th of June 1907 by Lady Inverclyde instantly becoming the world’s largest ship under construction. Cunard’s first four funnel ships with each funnel equidistant from the other made the German ships look positively outdated. Prior to her arrival in Liverpool the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board had to remove two hundred tons of silt directly in front of the floating landing stage also elevated platforms were constructed on the stage to facilitate gangways for the higher decks anticipated. Larger buoys were also anchored out in mid river at the Sloyne. Emphasis was placed on giant public rooms rather than the passenger cabins, however one set of passengers travelling conditions improved greatly and were even afforded a new status, that of third class, formally steerage, indeed the middle Europeans peasants which made up the largest emigrant group had never experienced such luxury. Gone was the standard steerage fare, now they had varied and well cooked meals served by stewards with cutlery supplied by the shipping company. Cabins slept between two to six passengers and each cabin had washstands soap and towels with running hot and cold water, all bunks were fitted with spring bedsteads and mattresses. There were even smoking rooms, ladies rooms, rooms with piano’s and the biggest improvement of all being promenade and shelter decks so all concerned had access to outside decks.  LUSITANIA. Note the starboard side running light under the bridge wing; previously lights had been mounted for’d in their own structure, Cunard was one of the first company’s to adopt the red and green indicator lights denoting port and starboard. She made her maiden voyage on the 7th of September Liverpool-Cobh-New York and on only her second crossing took the transatlantic record from NDL’s Kaiser Wilhelm II in 4 days, 19 hours and 52 minutes at an average speed of 23.99 knots. Until the advent of the German liner Bremen Cunard were to hold the Blue Riband for the next twenty-two years. At the outbreak of the First World War the Admiralty felt that Lusitania was unfit for conversion to that of an AMC, also her fuel consumption was rather high, therefore she was maintained in her civilian role for Cunard.  LUSITANIA’S ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK AFTER MAIDEN VOYAGE. As less than fifty per cent of available cabins were occupied by passengers during the war Cunard’s board had ordered reductions in coal consumption which led to six of her boilers being shut down, a reduction in her boiler room manning requirements consequently leading to an inevitable loss of speed. She was still capable of twenty-one knots, as German submarines could only manage nine knots below the surface and fifteen above her speed was thought to be more than adequate to meet any threat posed.  LUSITANIA’S LOUNGE. Its highly unlikely that most of Lusitania’s embarking passengers would have seen the press release in the morning papers, dated 1st of May, issued by the Imperial German Embassy by her Ambassador, Count Johann von Bernstorff, if they had more of her passengers may have cancelled their crossing. The Ambassador had delayed the publication of his Governments intent for over a week disagreeing with its wording, in the end he only concurred when rebuked by the German War Office in Berlin, by then it was too late for a large percentage on Lusitania’s passengers. The advert placed read as follows. NOTICE! Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany 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 ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk. Imperial German Embassy, D.C., April 22, 1915. The Count placed the information as a paid advert in the shipping sections where he hoped those travelling were likely to stumble across it. Some did and cancelled, others who had the time transferred to the American Line ship New York that sailed two hours after Lusitania, amongst their number were Ellen Terry and the ill fated Isadora Duncan. One notable exception was the thirty seven year old American socialite and Railroad magnate, Alfred Gwynne Vanerbilt who refused to change his plans made months before, he was to pay the ultimate price as many others were less than a week later. Given that information concealed at the time, and that in the time it took Lusitania to cross the Atlantic twelve allied ships were sunk, perhaps even more passengers would have declined the crossing. Some say, that the British Government deliberately concealed more relevant information and that it also actively encouraged Lusitania into the well-patrolled area of the Western Approaches in attempt to entice the United States to enter the war. If this was the case, and no one will ever know definitively, then it failed miserably, for it would be another two years before America’s reliance on isolation gave way to the more pragmatic approach of involvement.  LUSITANIA. Lusitania’s crossing of the Atlantic was totally without incident and the evening before she approached the Irish coast on the 6th of May, her Captain received from the Admiralty a message indicating their concern: “Take Liverpool pilot at bar and avoid headlands. Pass harbours at full speed. Steer midchannel course. Submarines off Fastnet.”  CAPTAIN TURNER. At 1100hrs the following morning as Lusitania broke through the fog bank into sunshine, albeit somewhat hazy, Captain Turner received a message from Vice Admiral Coke at Queenstown, however Captain Turner was unable to read the contents without first decoding it and to do this he needed to return to his cabin. Just before midday yet another message arrived for Captain Turner, this time from the Admiralty, which stated “Submarine active in southern part of Irish Channel, last heard of twenty miles south of Conninbeg Light vessel. Make certain Lusitania gets this.” In effect it meant that a submarine was lying in wait directly on Turners proposed course. Although I have never seen a translation of Vice Admiral Coke’s original message it proved of sufficient importance to send Turner hurrying to the bridge whereupon he gave the order to alter course by 20° to port giving her a heading of N67°E. Was this the information he’d dreaded ever since he’d arrived at the proposed rendezvous with HMS Juno only to find her absent or was it to order him to proceed directly to Queenstown? Later Turner was to declare that he hadn’t expected to see Juno, yet Coke declared that he’d been instructed to order her back into port, I have yet to discover a true and definitive sequence of these events.  HMS JUNO, ESCORT OR NOT! At 1240 hrs Turner received yet another message from the Admiralty saying “Submarine five miles south of Cape Clear, proceeding west when sighted at 1000hrs”. Unclear as to the original origin of this message though possibly an outward-bound vessel, or was it the submarine that was west bound? Arriving within sight of The Old Head of Kinsale lighthouse Turner ordered yet another change of course, this time on a heading for Queenstown, reverting to South 87° East. Just after 1400hrs Captain Turner had vacated the chartroom and had gone onto the port bridge wing and joined the lookout, another lookout was on duty on the starboard, but it was the sharp eyed lookout in the crows nest that yelled “Torpedo coming on the starboard side”. Directly after the initial explosion a secondary one occurred, there is much conjecture as to the cause of the second explosion, the time onboard was 1410hrs. Having failed to get any response from his engines due to loss of steam pressure Turner ordered the following distress signal to be transmitted, “SOS, SOS, SOS, Come at once, big list, 10 miles south Old Kinsale. MFA”.  LUSITANIA PASSING THE OLD HEAD OF KINSALE ON AN EARLIER VOYAGE. Cunard Line Copyright. The German submarine Unterseeboot 20 was commanded by Kapitanleutnant Walther Schwieger,. Schwieger had already sunk three merchant freighters during that first week in May and as Lusitania passed close to his position there can be little dispute as to his knowledge of what atrocity he was about to commit, words from his own official log reveal: “1:20 P.M. Directly in front of us I sight four funnels and masts of a steamer at right angles to our course, coming from south-southwest and going toward Galley Head. It is recognised as a passenger steamer. 1:25 P.M. Have advanced 11 meters toward steamer, in hope it will change course…. 1:35 P.M. Steamer turns, takes direction to Queenstown. We proceed at high speed in order to reach correct position. 2:10 P.M. Torpedo shot at distance of 700 meters. Hits steering center aft of bridge. Unusually great detonation with large cloud of smoke and debris shot above funnels. In addition to torpedo, a second explosion must have taken place. (Boiler, coal or powder?) The ship stops… leans to starboard, at the same time sinking at the bow. It looks as though she would capsize in a short time. There is great confusion onboard. Boats are cleared and many of them lowered into the water bow or stern first and capsize. At the bow of the ship can be seen the name Lusitania…”  KAPITANLEUTNANT WALTHER SCHWIEGER. A few years later and with the advantage of self serving hindsight Schwieger issued a further embellished account of the sinking without reference to the official log. “We had started back for Wilhelmshaven and were drawing near the Channel. There was a heavy sea and a thick fog, with small chance of sinking anything. At the same time, a destroyer steaming through the fog might stumble over us before we knew anything about it. So I submerged to twenty metres, below periscope depth. About an hour and a half later I heard the sound of powerful screws—not the propellers of a destroyer. I went up to ten meters and took a look through the periscope. I saw a big armoured cruiser. It had passed right over us and was now disappearing at full speed. “After I was through swearing, I noticed that the fog was lifting. Presently I could see blue sky. I brought the boat to the surface, and we continued our course above water. A few minutes after we emerged I sighted on the horizon a forest of masts and stacks. At first I thought they must belong to several ships. Then I saw it was a great steamer coming over the horizon. It was coming our way; I dived at once, hoping to get a shot at it.” “When the steamer was two miles away it changed course. I had no hope now, even if we hurried at our best speed, of getting near enough to attack her. I called my pilot, an old time captain of the merchant marine, to take a look at her through the periscope. At that instant, while he was coming in answer to my call, I saw the steamer change her course again. She was coming directly at us. She could have not have steered a more perfect course if she had deliberately tried to give us a dead shot. A short fast run, and we waited.” “I had already shot away my best torpedoes and had left only two bronze ones—not so good. The steamer was four hundred yards away when I gave an order to fire. The torpedo it, and there was rather a small detonation and instantly after a much heavier one. The pilot was beside me. I told him to have a look at close range. He put his eye to the periscope and after a brief scrutiny yelled ‘My God, it’s the Lusitania!’ “I took my position at the telescope again. The ship was sinking with unbelievable rapidity. There was a terrible panic on her deck. Overcrowded lifeboats, fairly torn from their positions, dropped into the water. Desperate people ran helplessly up and down the decks. Men and women jumped into the water and tried to swim to empty, over turned lifeboats. It was the most terrible sight I have ever seen. It was impossible for me to give any help. I could have saved only a handful. And then the cruiser that had passed us was not very far away and must have picked up the distress signals. She would shortly appear, I thought. The scene was to horrible to watch, and I gave the orders to twenty meters, and away.” What puzzles me is the fact that the sighting of the alleged British warship didn’t materialise into a rescue ship a short while later when Lusitania was sinking. An American businessman, Mr James Brooks from Bridgeport, Connecticut later recalled, “When I glanced out over the water it was perfectly smooth. My eyes alighted on a white streak making its way with lightening-like rapidity towards the ship. I was so high in that position above the surface of the water that I could make out the outline of the torpedo. It appeared to be about twelve feet long, and came along possibly three feet below the surface, its side white with bubbles of foam. I watched its passage, fascinated, until it passed out of sight behind the bridge, and in another moment came the explosion. The ship, recoiling under the force of the blow, was jarred and lifted, as if it had struck an immovable object. A column of water shot up to the bridge deck, carrying with it lots of debris, and, despite the fact that I must have been twenty yards from the spot at which the torpedo struck; I was knocked off my feet. Before I could recover myself, the iron forepart of the ship was enveloped in a blinding cloud of steam, due, not, I think, to the explosion of a second torpedo, as some thought, but to the fact that the two forward boilers had been jammed close together and jacknifed upwards…. We had been in sight of land for some time, and the head of the ship, which had begun to settle, was turned towards the Old Head of Kinsale”. This statement in itself should be sufficient to put to rest the old chestnut of Lusitania’s carriage of munitions and their subsequent explosion that caused her sinking with such speed. She did in fact have onboard 5,468 cases of cartridges and shrapnel shells but they were not the cause behind the forty-foot breadth and fifteen-foot high hull damage that the ship sustained, that was created by a combination of the torpedo and subsequent boiler explosion. Why the ship sank so quickly is still something of a mystery, why she sank by the head when she had watertight divisions only exacerbates the unsolvable, nevertheless sink she did in less than twenty minutes taking 1,101 men and women, and ninety four children with her. Those that hadn’t been trapped or dragged down with her either found themselves floating around in the few boats that managed to get away or grasped at islands of debris that congealed together made up of deck chairs and boxes. On receiving Lusitania’s distress call Vice Admiral Sir Charles Henry Coke, CIC Queenstown ordered to sea the cruiser HMS Juno countermanding in an instant their Lordships orders from the Admiralty. He also ordered Bluebell, a steamer, tugs Warrior, Stormcock and Julia, five local trawlers and the local lifeboat under tow of a tug to make all haste to the last known position of Lusitania. Meanwhile at the scene, and quite by chance arrived an Isle of Man fishing boat, the Wanderer, though overloading herself in the process she was able to pick up over two hundred survivors and took under tow two of Lusitania’s lifeboats. On her arrival, two miles of the Old Head of Kinsale she was met by Admiralty tug Flying Fish who’s Captain; Thomas Brierley immediately hove to and took onboard the survivors. Those other rescue ships that arrived at the scene later picked up both dead and alive and as dusk approached, without any chance of finding anybody else alive returned to port. For weeks after bodies were washed ashore in the immediate vicinity. Both British and American newspapers made vitriolic attacks on the German nation which served no real purpose other than to provoke rioting and attacks on German held property, especially in New York and Liverpool, even a German sounding name was sufficient for the mobs. Neither the British Government or Cunard were without justified criticism and too contentious to expostulate on this site, however it was the Germans who came in for world wide revulsion at the time, this wasn’t helped after the event by the issue of a bronze medallion in Germany, the run off being a mere hundred. The British secret service produced a cheaper version, some 35,000 with which if flooded the market in an anti German propaganda campaign.  OBVERSE OF MEDALION. The date, 5th of May was incorrect.  REVERSE OF MEDALION. Note the skeleton selling tickets to the passengers denoting business comes before safety. Lord Mersey headed the court of enquiry, which initially did not favour Captain Turner, the saddest aspect was the Admiralty’s denial that not only did it not order Lusitania into Queenstown but knew nothing of the mix up with regards HMS Juno. Those same powers that be also accused him of being negligent, incompetent and at worse a coward; they also went onto reprimand him for not following Admiralty instructions for avoiding underwater torpedoes. He was also lambasted for slowing down, closing in too close to the shore and for not taking evasive action, zigzagging. It didn’t help Captain Turners cause when his only witness to the messages was ignored in favour of the off duty Radio Officer, quite why this was allowed to happen is unknown but the evidence presented did nothing to persuade Lord Mersey of Turners guilt.  LORD MERSEY. On the subject of Captain Turner Lord Mersey wrote…….”Captain Turner was fully advised as to the means which in the view of the Admiralty were best calculated to avert the perils he was likely to encounter, and in considering the question whether he is to blame for the catastrophe in which his voyage ended you have to bear the circumstances in mind. It is certain that in some respects Captain Turner did not follow the advice given to him. It may be (though I seriously doubt it) that that had he done so his ship would have reached Liverpool in safety. But the question remains, was his conduct the conduct of a negligent or of an incompetent man. On this question I have sought the guidance of my assessors, who have rendered ma an invaluable assistance, and the conclusion at which I have arrived that blame ought not to be imputed to the Captain. The advice given to him, although meant for his most serious and careful consideration, was not intended to deprive him of the right to exercise his skilled judgement in the difficult questions that might arise from time to time in the navigation of his ship. His omission to follow the advice in all respects cannot fairly be attributed either to negligence or incompetence. He exercised his judgement for the best. It was the judgement of a skilled and experienced man, and although others might have acted differently and perhaps more successfully he ought not, in my opinion, to be blamed. The whole blame for the cruel destruction of life in this catastrophe must rest solely with those that plotted and with those who committed the crime…” Suffice it to say Lord Mersey not only waved his fees but he also indicated to Prime Minister Asquith that he no longer wished to administer His Majesty’s justice and later declared the whole Lusitania matter to his children as “a damned dirty business”. At the time Winston Churchill was the First Sea Lord at the Admiralty.  J. Roper J. Roper, pictured on the right, was awarded the R.N.L.I. medal for bravery, he repeatedly dived into the water to rescue not only passengers but Captain Taylor himself. Go to Part Six |
