The Secrets of the Lusitania :: essays research papers

The American owner of the ill-fated Lusitania is planning to explore and hopefully salvage the liner, sunk off the south-west coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, killing 1,198 people. "The Lusitania is probably the most important shipwreck that hasn't been investigated in any detail so far," says Gregg Bemis. And although there are striking similarities between the Lusitania and the Titanic, recently the subject of a major movie, Bemis believes that the Lusitania is "a much more interesting and historical story - and you don't have to make up any phoney romance the way they did with the Titanic." It is a story which involves US President Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill and the still unanswered question of what the liner was carrying on board. The Lusitania, pride of the Cunard line, was sailing from New York for the port of Liverpool when a single torpedo from a German U-boat crashed into her hull between the third and fourth funnels. The ship sank in just under 20 minutes. Of those killed, 128 were American citizens, and the incident influenced the eventual US decision to enter the war two years later. It also provoked curiosity and mystery that naval historians have argued over ever since. Was the Lusitania, as the Germans claimed persistently, heavily loaded with Liliya Goldenberg 2 weapons of war? If she was, who tipped Germany off? In addition, did she carry priceless works of art in watertight containers, and what of the six million dollars in gold bullion rumored to have been taken aboard but which was not on the manifest? Following the discharge of the fatal torpedo, there was a second blast deep inside the ship a few minutes later - could this have been a secret cargo of explosives? What is certain is that since the fatal day of May 7, 1915, the wreck of the Lusitania has lain untouched 100 meters deep off the Old Head of Kinsale, a prominent peninsula on Ireland's southern coast. Gregg Bemis is in no doubt that she was carrying weaponry. "She went down in 18 minutes," he says. "That would have been impossible with one torpedo for a ship that size. There were high explosives on board, all right." Bemis also points out that one of those who perished was Sir Hugh Lane, Irish art collector and head of London's National Gallery. He was believed to have had a stack of paintings by Rubens, Titian and Monet on board in watertight