RMS LUSITANIA BRITISH LINER STARTED
MAIDEN VOYAGE 1907 SEPTEMBER 7
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| TORPEDOED DURING WW I |
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| NOW RESTING UNDER THE ATLANTIC |
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner that was sunk by a German submarine in World War I, causing a major diplomatic uproar. The ship was a holder of the Blue Riband, and briefly the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her running mate Mauretania. She was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. She made a total of 202 trans-Atlantic crossings.[3]
| History | |
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| Name: | Lusitania |
| Owner: | Cunard Line |
| Operator: | Cunard Line |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool |
| Route: | Liverpool to New York |
| Builder: | John Brown & Co, Clydebank, Scotland |
| Yard number: | 367 |
| Laid down: | 17 August 1904 |
| Launched: | 7 June 1906[1] |
| Christened: | Mary, Lady Inverclyde[2] |
| Acquired: | 26 August 1907 |
| Maiden voyage: | 7 September 1907 |
| In service: | 1907–1915 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed by German U-boat U-20 on Friday 7 May 1915. Wreck lies approximately 11 mi (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse in 300 ft (91 m) of water at 51°25′N 8°33′W |
| Status: | Partially-collapsed wreck |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 31,550 GRT |
| Displacement: | 44,060 long tons (44,767.0 t) |
| Length: | 787 ft (239.9 m)[a] |
| Beam: | 87 ft (26.5 m) |
| Height: | 60 ft (18.3 m) to boat deck, 165 ft (50.3 m) to aerials |
| Draught: | 33.6 ft (10.2 m) |
| Decks: | 9 passenger decks |
| Installed power: | 25 Scotch boilers. Four direct-actingParsons steam turbines producing 76,000 hp (57 MW). |
| Propulsion: | Four triple blade propellers. (Quadruple blade propellers installed in 1909). |
| Speed: | 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) |
| Capacity: | 552 first class, 460 second class, 1,186 third class. 2,198 total. 7,000 tons coal. |
| Crew: | 850 |
| Notes: | First ship of Cunard's grand trio, along with RMS Mauretania and RMS Aquitania |
German shipping lines were aggressive competitors in the transatlantic trade, and Cunard responded by trying to outdo them in speed, capacity and luxury. Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with revolutionary new turbine engines, able to maintain a service speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). Equipped with lifts, wireless telegraph and electric light, they provided 50% more passenger space than any other ship, and the first class decks were noted for their sumptuous furnishings.
When RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915, German submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic. Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed a newspaper advertisement warning people of the dangers of sailing on Lusitania.
On the afternoon of 7 May, Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared "zone of war". A second, unexplained, internal explosion sent her to the bottom in 18 minutes, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew.
In firing on what was officially a non-military ship without warning, the Germans were accused of breaching international laws known as the Cruiser Rules. However it was not possible for submarines to give warning due to the British introduction of Q-ships with concealed deck guns. German justifications for treating Lusitania as a naval vessel centered on the fact that the ship was carrying hundreds of tons of war munitions, therefore making it a legitimate military target, and also that British merchant ships had violated the Cruiser Rules from the very beginning of the war.[4][5][6][7][8]
The ship had been fitted with 6-inch gun mounts in 1913. The sinking caused a storm of protest in the United States, however, as 128 American citizens were among the dead. The sinking helped shift public opinion in the United States against Germany, and was a factor in the United States' declaration of war nearly two years later.
Although successive British governments have always maintained that there were no munitions on board the Lusitania, and that the Germans were therefore not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel, in 1982 the head of the British Foreign Office's North America department admitted that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous and which poses a safety risk to salvage teams.[9]
Design[edit]
Lusitania unloading Christmas mail to a post office boat.
Cunard established a committee to decide upon the design for the new ships, of which James Bain, Cunard's Marine Superintendent was the chairman. Other members included Rear Admiral H. J. Oram, who had been involved in designs for turbine powered ships for the navy, and Charles Parsons, whose company Parsons Marine was now producing revolutionary turbine engines.
Parsons maintained that he could design engines capable of maintaining a speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), which would require 68,000 shaft horsepower (51,000 kW). The largest turbine sets built thus far had been of 23,000 shp (17,000 kW) for the Dreadnought-class battleships, and 41,000 shp (31,000 kW) for Invincible-class battlecruisers, which meant the engines would be of a new, untested design. Turbines offered the advantages of generating less vibration than the reciprocating engines and greater reliability in operation at high speeds, combined with lower fuel consumption.
It was agreed that a trial would be made by fitting turbines to Carmania, which was already under construction. The result was a ship 1.5 knots (2.8 km/h; 1.7 mph) faster than her conventionally powered sister Caronia with the expected improvements in passenger comfort and operating economy.[12]
The ship was designed by Leonard Peskett[13] and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship's name was taken from Lusitania, an ancient Roman province on the west of Iberian Peninsula, the region that is now Southern Portugal and Extremadura in Spain. The name had also been used by a previous ship built in 1871 and wrecked in 1901, making the name available from Lloyds for Cunard's giant.[14][15] Peskett had built a large model of the proposed ship in 1902 showing a three funnel design.
A fourth funnel was implemented into the design in 1904 as it was necessary to vent the exhaust from additional boilers fitted after steam turbines had been settled on as the power plant. The original plan called for three propellers, but this was altered to four because it was felt the necessary power could not be transmitted through just three. Four turbines would drive four separate propellers, with additional reversing turbines to drive the two inboard shafts only. To improve efficiency, the two inboard propellers rotated inwards, while those outboard rotated outwards. The outboard turbines operated at high pressure; the exhaust steam then passing to those inboard at relatively low pressure.
The propellers were driven directly by the turbines, since sufficiently robust gearboxes had not yet been developed, and only became available in 1916. Instead, the turbines had to be designed to run at a much lower speed than those normally accepted as being optimum. Thus, the efficiency of the turbines installed was less at low speeds than a conventional reciprocating (piston in cylinder) steam engine, but significantly better when the engines were run at high speed, as was usually the case for an express liner. The ship was fitted with 23 double-ended, and two single-ended boilers (which fitted the forward space where the ship narrowed), operating at a maximum 195 psi and containing no fewer than 192 individual furnaces.[16]
Deck plans of Lusitania. Modifications were made both during, and after the ship's construction. By 1915 the Lifeboat arrangement had been changed to 11 fixed boats either side, plus collapsible boats stored under each lifeboat and on the poop deck.
Work to refine the hull shape was conducted in the Admiralty experimental tank at Haslar, Gosport. As a result of experiments, the beam of the ship was increased by 10 feet (3.0 m) over that initially intended to improve stability. The hull immediately in front of the rudder and the balanced rudder itself followed naval design practice to improve the vessel's turning response. The Admiralty contract required that all machinery be below the waterline, where it was considered to be better protected from gunfire, and the aft third of the ship below water was used to house the turbines, the steering motors and four 375-kilowatt (503 hp) steam driven turbo-generators. The central half contained four boiler rooms, with the remaining space at the forward end of the ship being reserved for cargo and other storage.
Coal bunkers were placed along the length of the ship outboard of the boiler rooms, with a large transverse bunker immediately in front of that most forward (number 1) boiler room. Apart from convenience ready for use, the coal was considered to provide added protection for the central spaces against attack. At the very front were the chain lockers for the huge anchor chains and ballast tanks to adjust the ship's trim.
The hull space was divided into twelve watertight compartments, any two of which could be flooded without risk of the ship sinking, connected by 35 hydraulically operated watertight doors. A critical flaw in the arrangement of the watertight compartments was that sliding doors to the coal bunkers needed to be open to provide a constant feed of coal whilst the ship was operating, and closing these in emergency conditions could be problematic.
The ship had a double bottom with the space between divided into separate watertight cells. The ship's exceptional height was due to the six decks of passenger accommodation above the waterline, compared to the customary four decks in existing liners.[17]
High tensile steel was used for the ship's plating, as opposed to the more conventional mild steel. This allowed a reduction in plate thickness, reducing weight but still providing 26 per cent greater strength than otherwise. Plates were held together by triple rows of rivets. The ship was heated and cooled throughout by a thermo-tank ventilation system, which used steam driven heat exchangers to warm air to a constant 65 °F (18.3 °C), while steam was injected into the airflow to maintain steady humidity.
Forty-nine separate units driven by electric fans provided seven complete changes of air per hour throughout the ship, through an interconnected system, so that individual units could be switched off for maintenance. A separate system of exhaust fans removed air from galleys and bathrooms. As built, the ship conformed fully with Board of Trade safety regulations which required sixteen lifeboats with a capacity of approximately 1,000 people.[18]
At the time of her completion Lusitania was briefly the largest ship ever built, but was eclipsed in this respect by the slightly larger Mauretania which entered service shortly thereafter. She was 70 feet (21 m) longer, a full 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) faster, and had a capacity of 10,000 gross tons over and above that of the most modern German liner, Kronprinzessin Cecilie. Passenger accommodation was 50% larger than any of her competitors, providing for 552 saloon class, 460 cabin class and 1,186 in third class. Her crew comprised 69 on deck, 369 operating engines and boilers and 389 to attend to passengers. Both she and Mauretania had a wireless telegraph, electric lighting, electric lifts, sumptuous interiors and an early form of air-conditioning (described previously)
Interiors[edit]
At the time of their introduction onto the North Atlantic, both Lusitania and Mauretania possessed among the most luxurious, spacious and comfortable interiors afloat. The Scottish architect James Miller was chosen to design Lusitania's interiors, while Harold Peto was chosen to design Mauretania.
The ship's passenger accommodation was spread across six decks within the ship, each deck identified with a corresponding letter in descending order from the top deck down to the waterline,
As seen aboard all passenger liners of the era, first, second and third class passengers were strictly segregated from one another. According to her original configuration in 1907,
Lusitania's first class accommodation was in the centre section of the ship on the five uppermost decks, mostly concentrated between the first and fourth funnels. When fully booked, Lusitania could cater to 552 first class passengers. In common with all major liners of the period, Lusitania's first class interiors were decorated with a mélange of historical styles.
The first class dining saloon was the grandest of the ship's public rooms; arranged over two decks with an open circular well at its centre and crowned by an elaborate dome measuring 29 feet (8.8 m),
[20] The lower floor measuring 85 feet (26 m) could seat 323, with a further 147 on the 65-foot (20 m) upper floor. The walls were finished with white and gilt carved mahogany panels, with corinthian decorated columns where required to support the floor above.
Promotional material showing the First Class dining room
Finished First Class dining room
All other first class public rooms were situated on the boat deck and comprised a lounge, reading and writing room, smoking room and veranda café. The last was an innovation on a Cunard liner and, in warm weather, one side of the café could be opened up to give the impression of sitting outdoors. However this would have been a rarely used feature given the often inclement weather of the North Atlantic.[21]
The first class lounge was decorated in Georgian style with inlaid mahogany panels surrounding a jade green carpet with a yellow floral pattern, measuring overall 68 feet (21 m). It had a barrel vaulted skylight rising to 20 feet (6.1 m) with stained glass windows each representing one month of the year.
Each end of the lounge had a 14-foot (4.3 m) high green marble fireplace incorporating enamelled panels by Alexander Fisher. The design was linked overall with decorative plasterwork. The library walls were decorated with carved pilasters and mouldings marking out panels of grey and cream silk brocade. The carpet was rose, with Rose du Barry silk curtains and upholstery. The chairs and writing desks were mahogany, and the windows featured etched glass. The smoking room was Queen Anne style, with Italian walnut panelling and Italian red furnishings. The grand stairway linked all six decks of the passenger accommodation with wide hallways on each level and two lifts. First class cabins ranged from one shared room through various ensuite arrangements in a choice of decorative styles culminating in the two regal suites which each had two bedrooms, dining room, parlour and bathroom. The port suite decoration was modelled on the Petit Trianon.[22]
Lusitania's second class accommodation was confined to the stern, behind the aft mast, where quarters for 460 second class passengers were located. The second class public rooms were situated on partitioned sections of boat and promenade decks housed in a separate section of the superstructure aft of the first class passenger quarters. Design work was deputised to Robert Whyte, who was the architect employed by John Brown. Although smaller and plainer, the design of the dining room reflected that of first class, with just one floor of diners under a ceiling with a smaller dome and balcony. Walls were panelled and carved with decorated pillars, all in white. As seen in first class, the dining room was situated lower down in the ship on the saloon deck. The smoking and ladies' rooms occupied the accommodation space of the second class promenade deck, with the lounge on the boat deck.
Cunard had not previously provided a separate lounge for second class; the 42-foot (13 m) room had mahogany tables, chairs and settees set on a rose carpet. The smoking room was 52 feet (16 m) with mahogany panelling, white plasterwork ceiling and dome. One wall had a mosaic of a river scene in Brittany, while the sliding windows were blue tinted. Second class passengers were allotted shared, yet comfortable two and four berth cabins arranged on the shelter, upper and main Decks.[23]
Noted as being the prime breadwinner for trans-Atlantic shipping lines, third class aboard Lusitania was praised for the improvement in travel conditions it provided to emigrant passengers, and Lusitania proved to be a quite popular ship for immigrants.[24] In the days before Lusitania and even still during the years in which Lusitania was in service, third class accommodation consisted of large open spaces where hundreds of people would share open berths and hastily constructed public spaces, often consisting of no more than a small portion of open deck space and a few tables constructed within their sleeping quarters. However, in an attempt to break that mould, the Cunard Line began designing ships such as Lusitania with more comfortable third class accommodation.
As on all Cunard passenger liners, third class accommodation aboard Lusitania was located at the forward end of the ship on the shelter, upper, main and lower decks, and in comparison to other ships of the period, it was surprisingly comfortable and spacious. The 79-foot (24 m) dining room was at the bow of the ship on the saloon deck, finished in polished pine as were the other two third class public rooms, being the smoke room and ladies room on the shelter deck.
When Lusitania was fully booked in Third Class, the smoking and ladies room could easily be converted into overflow dining rooms for added convenience. Meals were eaten at long tables with swivel chairs and there were two sittings for meals. A piano was provided for passenger use. What greatly appealed to immigrants and lower class travelers was that instead of being confined to open berth dormitories, aboard Lusitania was a honeycomb of two, four, six and eight berth cabins allotted to Third Class passengers on the main and lower decks.[25]
The Bromsgrove Guild had designed and constructed most of the trim on Lusitania.[26] Waring and Gillow tendered for the contract to furnish the whole ship, but failing to obtain this still supplied a number of the furnishings.
Construction and trials[edit]
Lusitania's launch, 7 June 1906
Lusitania's keel was laid at John Brown on Clydebank as yard no. 367 on 16 June 1904, Lord Inverclyde hammering home the first rivet. Cunard nicknamed her 'the Scottish ship' in contrast to Mauretania whose contract went to Swan Hunter in England and who started building three months later. Final details of the two ships were left to designers at the two yards so that the ships differed in details of hull design and finished structure. The ships may most readily be distinguished in photographs through the flat topped ventilators used on Lusitania, whereas those on Mauretania used a more conventional rounded top. Mauretania was designed a little longer, wider, heavier and with an extra power stage fitted to the turbines.
Career[edit]
Lusitania arriving in New York on her maiden voyage
Lusitania, commanded by Commodore James Watt, moored at the Liverpool landing stage for her maiden voyage at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday 7 September 1907 as the onetime Blue Riband holder RMS Lucania vacated the pier. At the time Lusitania was the largest ocean liner in service and would continue to be until the introduction of Mauretania in November that year. During her eight-year service, she made a total of 202 crossings on the Cunard Line's Liverpool-New York Route. A crowd of 200,000 people gathered to see her departure at 9:00 p.m. for Queenstown (Renamed Cobh), where she was to take on more passengers. She anchored again at Roche's Point, off Queenstown, at 9:20 a.m. the following morning, where she was shortly joined by Lucania, which she had passed in the night, and 120 passengers were brought out to the ship by tender bringing her total of passengers to 2,320.
At 12:10 p.m. on Sunday Lusitania was again under way and passing the Daunt Rock Lightship. In the first 24 hours she achieved 561 miles (903 km), with further daily totals of 575, 570, 593 and 493 miles (793 km) before arriving at Sandy Hook at 9:05 a.m. Friday 13 September, taking in total 5 days and 54 minutes, 30 minutes outside the record time held by Kaiser Wilhelm II of the North German Lloyd line. Fog had delayed the ship on two days, and her engines were not yet run in. In New York hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the bank of the Hudson River from Battery Park to pier 56. All New York's police had been called out to control the crowd. From the start of the day, 100 horse drawn cabs had been queuing, ready to take away passengers. During the week's stay the ship was made available for guided tours. At 3 p.m. on Saturday 21 September, the ship departed on the return journey, arriving Queenstown 4 a.m. 27 September and Liverpool 12 hours later. The return journey was 5 days 4 hours and 19 minutes, again delayed by fog.[41]
On her second voyage in better weather, Lusitania arrived at Sandy Hook on 11 October 1907 in the Blue Riband record time of 4 days, 19 hours and 53 minutes. She had to wait for the tide to enter harbour where news had preceded her and she was met by a fleet of small craft, whistles blaring. Lusitania averaged 23.99 knots (44.43 km/h) westbound and 23.61 knots (43.73 km/h) eastbound. In December 1907, Mauretania entered service and took the record for the fastest eastbound crossing. Lusitania made her fastest westbound crossing in 1909 after her propellers were changed, averaging 25.85 knots (47.87 km/h). She briefly recovered the record in July of that year, but Mauretania recaptured the Blue Riband the same month, retaining it until 1929, when it was taken by SS Bremen
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The sinking of the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Royal Navy blockaded Germany. The ship was identified and torpedoed by the German U-boat U-20 and sank in 18 minutes.
Lusitania had the misfortune to fall victim to torpedo attack relatively early in the First World War, before tactics for evading submarines were properly implemented or understood.
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.
Argument 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 non-explosive shell casings, as well as civilian passengers.
Several attempts have been made over the years since the sinking to dive to the wreck seeking information about precisely how the ship sank, and argument continues to the present day.
1915 painting of the sinking
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| Time | 14:10 – 14:28 |
|---|---|
| Date | 7 May 1915 |
| Location | North Atlantic Ocean, near Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland |
| Cause | Torpedoed by German U-boat U-20 |
| Outcome |
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