1,197 of the 1,960 people aboard killed (including 4 after the event)[1]
Turned international opinion against Germany.
Temporary end of unrestricted submarine warfare.
Sinking site
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Sinking of RMS Lusitania on a map of Ireland
The RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War on 7 May 1915, about 11 nautical miles (20 kilometres) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. The attack took place in the declared maritime war-zone around the UK, three months after unrestricted submarine warfare against the ships of the United Kingdom had been announced by Germany following the Allied powers' implementation of a naval blockade against it and the other Central Powers.
The passengers had been notified before departing New York of the general danger of voyaging into the area in a British ship, but the attack itself came without warning. From a submerged position 700m to starboard, U-20 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger launched a single torpedo at the Cunard liner. After the torpedo struck, a second explosion occurred inside the ship, which then sank in only 18 minutes.[2][3]: 429 The U-20's mission was to torpedo warships and liners in the Lusitania’s area. In the end, there were only 763 survivors out of the 1,960 passengers, crew and stowaways aboard,[1] and ~128 of the dead were American citizens.[4] The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany. It also contributed to the American entry into the War two years later; images of the stricken liner were used heavily in US propaganda and military recruiting campaigns.[3]: 497–503
The contemporary investigations in both the United Kingdom 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.[2] At time of her sinking the primarily passenger-carrying vessel had in her hold around 173 tons of war supplies, comprising 4.2 million rounds of rifle ammunition, almost 5,000 shrapnel-filled artillery shell casings and 3,240 brass percussion fuses.[5][6] Argument over whether the ship could be legitimately attacked the way that it was has raged back and forth throughout the war and beyond.[7]
^ abThe official figures give 1195 lost out of 1959, excluding three stowaways who also were lost. The figures here eliminate some repetitions from the list and people subsequently known not to be on board. "Passenger and Crew Statistics". The Lusitania Resource. 12 December 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
^ abPreston, D (2003). Wilful Murder. The Sinking of the Lusitania. London : Black Swan. ISBN 978-0-552-99886-4.
^The exact number varies across sources. 128 is the official number. Hoehling gives 124, Lusitania's passenger manifest suggests many more, and the Library of Congress gives 123. "The Lusitania Disaster | Articles & Essays | Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914–1919 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress". Library of Congress. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
^Douglas Carl Peifer (1 June 2016). Choosing War: Presidential Decisions in the Maine, Lusitania, and Panay Incidents. Oxford University Press. p. 269.
^King & Wilson 2015, p. 5.
^Manson, Janet Marilyn (1977). International law, German submarines and American policy (Master of Arts thesis). Portland State University. doi:10.15760/etd.2489.
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