ON THIS DAY

----------ooOoo----------

May 7. 1915

Lusitania sunk

RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906.

During World War I, Lusitania was listed as armed merchant cruiser (AMC) and carried both British ammunitions and US citizens on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing, when on 7 May 1915 at 18 km off Ireland, the German submarine U-20 fired a single torpedo, triggering a second explosion and the sinking about 18 minutes later. Only 6 of several dozen lifeboats and rafts were successfully lowered, and of 1,960 persons on board, 767 survived and 1,193 perished.

The German government attempted to find justifications for sinking Lusitania. Special justifications focused on the small declared cargo of 173 tons of war materials on board the 44,000 ton displacement ship, and false claims that she was an armed warship and carried Canadian troops. In defence of indiscriminately sinking ships without warning, they asserted that cruiser rules were obsolete, as British merchant ships could be armed and had been instructed to evade or ram U-boats if the opportunity arose.

The sinking, which killed over 100 US citizens, significantly increased American domestic public support for entering the war which occurred two years later in 1917 with the United States declaration of war on Germany.

Wreck of the Lusitania 2001

----------ooOoo----------