LUSITANIA was a luxury ocean liner torpedoed by a German U-Boat on May 7, 1915. It carried a total of 1959 people, with 1257 being passengers and 702 crew members. A total of 1,195 passengers died, with almost a hundred children among them.
Germany had war plans and intended to attack with U-Boats.
Lusitania was approximately 48 km from Cape Clear Island, being at that time in Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, when she encountered fog and reduced speed. Lusitania was making for the port of Cobh, Ireland when it crossed in front of U-20 (a german U-Boat). The U-20 fired a torpedo at Lusitania, though it's not certain whether it was just one or two, since the Lusitania experimented a second explosion. It was believed that it was because of the Lusitania carrying amrs and ammunitions, explosive materials, that is, but this 'theory' is not that valid because it was proved that the weapons Lusitania was carrying were minor and legal.
After the two explosions, the Lusitania quickly sank. It took 18 minutes for it to sink. 885 victims' bodies were never recovered. The Lusitania had 48 life boats, enough for all passengers, but only 6 were successfully lowered.
This quote is also important as to why was the Lusitania attacked:
"Under the "cruiser rules", the Germans could sink a civilian vessel only after guaranteeing the safety of all the passengers. Since Lusitania (like all British merchantmen) was under instructions from the British Admiralty to report the sighting of a German submarine, and indeed to attempt to ram the ship if it surfaced to board and inspect her, she was acting as a naval auxiliary, and was thus exempt from this requirement and a legitimate military target. By international law, the presence (or absence) of military cargo was irrelevant."
Info was obtained mainly from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania
by. CésarG.
well I think there's something weird here, I have never liked germans because they're bad! and just like the U.S. they've always wanted power, so it can be thought that they fired the two torpedoes. I don't know if they're still that bad but they always wanted to fix everything with disaster, and well the U.S. aren't that innocent either, that's why they're a good target for other countries that are as obssessive as they are. It's too bad that because of wars, envies, and arguing among countries a lot of cilivians have to die. Also, it's so sad that the ship or whatever it was called was all pretty and it got wasted.
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