Sinking of the Lusitania (1915): U-Boat Attack Off Ireland

The sinking of the Lusitania was the torpedoing of the British Cunard liner RMS Lusitania by the German submarine U-20 off the south coast of Ireland on 7 May 1915. The ship sank in about 18 minutes and 1,198 people died, among them 128 Americans. The attack caused outrage in Britain and the United States, became a symbol of German “frightfulness” in Allied propaganda and helped turn American opinion against Germany during the First World War.

Background: the liner and the war zone

The Lusitania was one of the great ocean liners of the age. Built by John Brown and Company on the Clyde and launched in 1906, she entered service in 1907 and soon won the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing. She and her sister ship Mauretania were partly financed by the British government, on condition that they could be used in wartime.

When war came in August 1914 the Lusitania continued to carry passengers between Liverpool and New York, although with one boiler room shut down to save coal and crew, which reduced her top speed. The Royal Navy’s blockade of Germany was meanwhile cutting off German trade. In response, Germany declared the waters around Britain and Ireland a war zone from 18 February 1915. Allied merchant ships in that zone could be sunk without warning, and neutral ships were told they might be at risk.

The last voyage

The Lusitania left Pier 54 in New York on 1 May 1915 under Captain William Turner, with about 1,960 passengers and crew on board. That same morning several American newspapers carried a notice from the Imperial German Embassy. It reminded travellers that a state of war existed and that ships flying the British flag were liable to destruction in the war zone. Few passengers cancelled; most believed that the liner’s speed would protect her.

Her cargo included war material that was openly listed on the manifest, notably about 4 million rounds of rifle ammunition, shell fuses and other goods. Under the rules of the time, such small-arms ammunition was not classed as explosives that barred a passenger ship from sailing.

The attack

U-20, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, had been operating off the south of Ireland and had sunk two British merchant ships on 6 May. The Admiralty warned shipping that submarines were active, but its advice on route and zig-zagging was general rather than specific.

On the early afternoon of 7 May, in fine weather, the Lusitania was approaching the Old Head of Kinsale in County Cork. At about 14:10 Schwieger fired a single torpedo, which struck the starboard side. Almost immediately a second, larger explosion followed from inside the hull. The ship took on a heavy list to starboard and went down by the bow.

The list made it extremely difficult to launch the lifeboats. Boats on one side swung out too far from the hull; on the other they swung inward against it. Some capsized or were smashed as they were lowered. In about 18 minutes the Lusitania was gone, leaving hundreds of people in the cold water. Rescue vessels, including fishing boats and small steamers, came out from Queenstown (now Cobh) and Kinsale over the following hours.

The victims

Of roughly 1,960 people aboard, 1,198 died and about 760 survived. The dead included 128 Americans and nearly 100 children. Among the best-known victims were the millionaire Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, the theatre producer Charles Frohman, the writer Elbert Hubbard and the Irish art collector Sir Hugh Lane.

Many of the recovered bodies were buried in mass graves in the Old Church Cemetery near Queenstown. Captain Turner survived after hours in the water.

Key people

• Walther Schwieger commanded U-20. He continued to sink ships and was killed in September 1917 when his later submarine, U-88, struck a mine.
• William Turner, the Lusitania’s captain, was criticised by the Admiralty for not following its advice, but the official inquiry cleared him of blame.
• Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, chose diplomatic protest rather than war.
• William Jennings Bryan, Wilson’s Secretary of State, resigned in June 1915 because he feared Wilson’s firm notes to Germany would lead to war.

The American reaction

The sinking caused a storm of anger in the United States, where many newspapers called it murder. Wilson nevertheless wanted to keep the country neutral. In a speech in Philadelphia on 10 May he said there was such a thing as a man being “too proud to fight,” a phrase his critics, including former president Theodore Roosevelt, attacked as weak.

Wilson sent a series of formal notes demanding that Germany respect the right of Americans to travel on the high seas. After further sinkings, including the liner Arabic in August 1915 and the cross-Channel ferry Sussex in March 1916, Germany promised to restrict attacks on passenger and merchant ships. These pledges held until Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917.

Investigations and propaganda

A British inquiry chaired by Lord Mersey, who had also led the British inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic, concluded in 1915 that the ship had been struck by two torpedoes and placed the blame on the German commander and government. Germany argued that the ship was an auxiliary of the Royal Navy carrying munitions and that passengers had been warned.

In 1915 the German artist Karl Goetz produced a satirical medal about the sinking. Britain copied it in large numbers as propaganda, presenting it as proof that Germany celebrated the deaths. Recruiting posters in Britain and Ireland also used images of the drowning victims.

Myths and facts

Myth: The Lusitania brought the United States into the war. The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, almost two years later. The decisive causes were the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram, although memories of the Lusitania shaped public feeling.

Myth: The ship was a secretly armed warship. The Lusitania carried no guns on her final voyage. She did carry war material, which was legal under American rules for ammunition of that type and was declared on her manifest.

Debated: the second explosion. Theories include a boiler or steam-line explosion, coal dust ignited in the bunkers, or the munitions cargo. Divers and researchers have examined the wreck, but there is no agreed answer. Claims that the British government deliberately exposed the ship to attack in order to draw America into the war are not supported by evidence.

Fact: the Germans did warn travellers. The embassy notice was real and appeared in New York papers on the day of departure. It was a general warning about all British ships in the war zone, however, not a specific threat against the Lusitania.

By the numbers

Exact totals vary slightly between sources because of uncertainty about stowaways and late bookings.

Legacy

The Lusitania quickly entered popular memory. The American cartoonist Winsor McCay produced an animated film, The Sinking of the Lusitania, released in 1918, which is often cited as one of the earliest animated documentaries. Recruiting posters in Britain urged men to “Remember the Lusitania”, and the name became shorthand for the cost of total war at sea.

In Ireland, the town of Cobh has a Lusitania memorial on its waterfront, and the mass graves in the Old Church Cemetery are still visited. A memorial garden and exhibition stand on the Old Head of Kinsale, overlooking the area where the ship sank. Commemorations are held each year around 7 May.

The wreck lies on its starboard side in about 90 metres of water. It has been examined by several diving expeditions, including one led by the oceanographer Robert Ballard in 1993, and many objects have been recovered. Since 1995 it has been protected by an Irish heritage order, which requires a licence for any dive or recovery.

The disaster also shaped the law and practice of war at sea. It fed later debates about whether submarines could follow the old “cruiser rules”, which required warships to stop a merchant vessel and allow passengers and crew to reach safety before sinking it. In both world wars, those rules largely broke down.

Timeline

• 1906, 7 June: The Lusitania is launched at Clydebank, Scotland.
• 1915, 18 February: Germany’s war zone around the British Isles comes into force.
• 1915, 1 May: The Lusitania sails from New York; the German Embassy warning appears in newspapers.
• 1915, 7 May, about 14:10: U-20 torpedoes the liner off the Old Head of Kinsale; she sinks in about 18 minutes.
• 1915, 10 May: Wilson makes his “too proud to fight” speech.
• 1915, 9 June: Secretary of State Bryan resigns over the American response.
• 1915, July: The Mersey inquiry publishes its findings.
• 1917, 6 April: The United States declares war on Germany.

Why it matters

The Lusitania became one of the defining images of the First World War at sea. It showed how submarines had changed naval warfare, blurring the line between military and civilian targets, and it pushed the United States away from strict neutrality towards the Allied side.