The Lusitania was two hours late leaving New York on April 30, 1915, suffering a delay to pick up passengers off the Cameronia. It lost more time on its voyage to Liverpool as Captain William Turner ordered reduced speed to save coal. There were 1,264 passengers, three stowaways and a crew of 693 on board.
At 2:10 p.m. on May 7th, 11 miles off Old Head Kinsdale, Ireland, Walther Schwieger, captain of Unterseeboot 20, fired one torpedo that blew a hole the size of a small house 10-feet below the water line into the Lusitania’s starboard side. One hundred tons of water per second began pouring into the hull. At 787 feet and weighing approximately 31,550 tons the Lusitania was no longer the biggest passenger liner plying the Atlantic in 1915, but it was still the fastest.
None of that mattered now.
No one thought Germany would attack a ship such as the Lusitania, even after Germany had warned the world in February 1915 that all shipping was fair game for U-boat attack.
The ship began listing almost immediately, making it impossible to launch lifeboats on the port side. No one thought it necessary to show passengers how correctly don a life preserver. As a result, many people hit the water only to be flipped upside down by their preservers and drowned. At 2:28 p.m. Lusitania disappeared in 350 feet of water, taking 1,197 lives with it, including 128 Americans. Something that iconic, that well-built, that admired gone in 18 minutes.
Just 18 minutes.
