Jenkins World History
The Sinking of the Lusitania
From
Selected Case Studies in American History
By William E. Gardner, Robert W. Beery, James R. Olson, Kenneth A. Rood Allyn and Bacon Inc (1970)
Please complete “The Sinking of the
Lusitania
Handout” using
the following information.
Background
It began on a sunny June morning in 1914. A chauffeur-driven, open, touring car containing the Archduke of Austria-Hungary and his wife was winding its way through the narrow streets of Sarajevo, an obscure town in the little-known country of Bosnia. The Chauffeur, who had made a wrong turn onto Francis Joseph street, was preparing to turn around when a nineteen-year old youth moved toward the car with a pistol in his hand. He fired twice at the Archduke and his wife. A spurt of blood shot from the Archduke’s mouth as his wife Sophie cried, “For heaven’s sake, what’s happened to you?” Seconds later she collapsed into unconsciousness from what the chauffeur thought was shock. The dying Archduke somehow sensed that she, too, had been hit by the assassin’s bullets. He cried out, “Sophie dear, Sophie dear, don’t die! Stay alive for our children!” By 11a.m. both the Archduke and his wife were dead.
So ended the drama of Sarajevo. By evening shocked citizens around the world read in their newspapers of an assassinated Archduke in a faraway place. Few people thought that this event could have any effect upon their lives. Few realized that the shot that killed the Archduke was like a spark igniting a powder keg. The powder keg was Europe and it exploded into World War I.
World War I ended on a grey, November morning in 1918. At 11 a.m. the cease-fire order went into effect. For the first time in four years it was truly “all quiet on the western front.” At war’s end there was a little to celebrate. What had begun as an adventure and novelty ended in a nightmare of chaos and human suffering. Nearly 10,000,000 men and woman had been killed in four years of fighting and more than 6,000,000 had been crippled for life.
The German submarine Commander, Captain Schwieger, apparently saw things differently through the lens of his periscope. He gave the order to fire, and the explosion which rocked the Lusitania was so sudden and the confusion so great, that only 35 of the 129 children on board were saved. Hundreds of passengers went down with the ship while others drowned trying to stay afloat in the very icy water. The corpses were recovered and brought to the Irish port Of Queenstown, where they were piled in even rows along the docks. Bodies continued to wash up along the Irish coast for months after the sinking.
The first reports of the sinking to reach America were confused and meager. Relatives of the American passengers turned to their newspapers in hope of finding out what actually happened to the Lusitania and to their loved ones. Angry relatives demanded to know who was to blame for the sinking.
Let us suppose that you had relatives on board the Lusitania. Like most Americans you want the answer to two questions:
1. What actually happened to the Lusitania on the afternoon of May 7, 1915?
2. Who was to blame for the sinking of the Lusitania and for the death of your relatives?
The sources you will use in trying to answer these questions include newspapers published at the time of the sinking, eyewitness accounts, the actual diary of the submarine commander, official government documents, news interviews, and trial testimony. On the basis of this evidence, you must decide what actually happened to the Lusitania and who was to blame for the death of the Americans on board. We will begin our investigation by reading a newspaper account of the sinking which appeared in the New York World on May 8, 1915.
LONDON, MAY 8- The Cunard Linear Lusitania was torpedoed, supposedly by German submarines shortly after 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon, ten miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, near Munster, Ireland.
She sank fifteen minutes later. The company states that no warning was given her. The Lusitania carried 2,104 persons when she sailed from New York.
The meager, confused reports so far received make it uncertain how many of these have been saved. A steward of the first boat that reached Queenstown with survivors from the linear said he feared that 900 lives had been lost.
This dispatch came from Queenstown at 1:10 a.m.
“The tug Stormcock has returned here, bringing about 150 survivors of the Lusitania, among whom were many women, several of the crew, and one steward. Describing the experience of the Lusitania the steward said: The passengers were at lunch when a submarine came up and fired two torpedoes which hit the
Captain Turner immediately ordered the boats out. The ship began to list badly immediately. Ten boats were put into the water, and between 400 and 500 passengers entered the lifeboats.
I fear that few of the officers were saved. They acted bravely.
There was only fifteen minutes from the time the ship was struck until she foundered and sank, bow foremost. It was a dreadful sight.”
An official statement issued by the Cunard Steamship Company said,
“First Officer Jones thinks from 500 to 600 were saved.”
A dispatch to the Chronicle from Queenstown says that
“seven torpedoes were fired by the attacking German craft, one of them sinking the Lusitania amidship.” This would indicate that at least two submarines were arrayed in wait for the ship, since the newest types of undersea boats carry but six torpedo tubes…”
We still do not know for certain how many torpedoes were fired at the Lusitania. At this point we will examine the eyewitness testimony of the passengers which may provide further clues to solving that puzzle.
You will find that the eyewitnesses do not always agree. Then you must ask yourself whether the eyewitnesses were in a good position to see what they said happened and whether they would have any reason for not telling the truth.
How many torpedoes were fired? What do the eyewitnesses say?
OLIVER P. BERNARD (passenger) “I think I can say I was one of the few people who really saw a torpedo discharged at the Lusitania. Coming on deck from the dining salon, I was leaning against the starboard rail of the ship when I saw the periscope of a submarine about 200 yards away. Then I noticed a long, white streak of foam. It gave me the impression of frothy, sizzling water. Almost immediately there was a terrific impact, followed by an explosion.”
DR. CARL E. FOSS (passenger) “I was traveling second class, and on May 7th, I was
leaning against the rail on the port side of the ship, looking off towards the Irish coast. It was just at 1:30 that I noticed something low in the water about a mile away.”
ERNEST COWPER (a Toronto newspaperman) “I was chatting with a friend at the rail about 2:00 when suddenly I caught a glimpse of the conning tower of a
Up to this point we have been viewing the tragedy of the Lusitania it was seen through the British and American eyes. Now we will look at the incident through German eyes. In particular we will look through the eyes of Captain Schweiger, Commander of U-20, the submarine which torpedoed the Lusitania. The document which you will investigate next, consists of translated excerpts from the diary kept on board ship by Captain Schwieger.
May 6, 1915
…The voyage to the St. George’s Channel had consumed so much of our fuel oil that it would be impossible for us to return (to Germany) around the southern end of Ireland if we had now continued to Liverpool. I intend to return as soon as two-fifths of our fuel is used up. I intend to avoid, if at all possible, the trip through the North Channel on account of the type of patrol service witch U-20
encountered there on her last trip. Only three torpedoes are still available of which I wish to save two, if possible, for the return trip.
May 7, 1915 3:10
“Ahead to starboard four funnels and two masts of a steamer with course perpendicular to us came into sight. Ship is made out to be large passenger steamer.
Submerged to a depth of 11 meters and went ahead at full speed, taking a course converging with the one of the steamer, hoping it might change its course to starboard along the Irish coast.
The steamer turns to starboard, takes course to Queenstown, thus making possible an approach for a shot. Until 3:00 P.M., we ran high speed in order to gain position directly ahead.
Clean bow shot at a distance of 700 meters (G-torpedo, 3-meters depth adjustment); angle 90, estimated speed 22 knots. Torpedo hits starboard side right behind bridge.
An unusually heavy detonation takes place with a very strong explosion cloud. The explosion of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one (boiler or coal or powder). The super-structure above the point of impact and the bridge are torn asunder, fire breaks out, and smoke envelopes the high bridge.
The ship stops immediately and keels over to starboard very quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow. It appears as if the ship were going to capsize very shortly. Great confusion ensues on board; the boats are made clear and in part are lowered to the water. In doing so, great panic must have reigned; some boats, full to capacity, are rushed and founder immediately.
3:25
out to sea. It would have been impossible for me, anyhow, to fire a second torpedo into this crowd of people struggling to save their lives.”
Was the sinking of the Lusitania justifiable? The German government said “yes” in an official statement printed in the New York World on Sunday, May 9, 1915.
BERLIN, May 8 (via wireless to London, May 9 – 2:45 A.M.) The following official communication was issued tonight:
“The Cunard Liner Lusitania was yesterday torpedoed by a German submarine and sank. The Lusitania was naturally armed with guns, as were recently most of the English merchant ships. Moreover, as is well known here, she had large quantities of war material in her cargo.
Her owners, therefore, knew to what danger the passengers were exposed. They alone bear the responsibility for what has happened.
Germany, on her part, left nothing undone to repeatedly and strongly warn them (the passengers). The Ambassador in Washington even went so far as to make a public warning, so as to draw attention to the danger.
The English press sneered at them for the warning and relied on the protecting of the British navy to safeguard the Atlantic sea traffic. “
Before we can go any further in our investigation of what really happened to the Lusitania and who was to blame, we must determine whether the ship was actually armed and carried war materials as the Germans charged. As you examine the statements which follow, keep these questions in mind:
1. What is the source of the information? Is it a reliable source? 2. Who is the authority? Is he in a position to know?
3. When was the statement made? What were the circumstances surrounding the statement when it was made?
4. Is the person making the statement likely to tell the truth? Why or why not?
“The True Story of the Louisiana,” an article published in the American Mercury in May of 1935:
“Judge Julius M. Mayer of the United States Disconcerting the Louisiana, handed down in August 1918, held that the Cunard Steamship Company was blameless and accepted the theory of there having been two torpedoes. He declared that, “The proof is absolute that she was not and never had been armed, nor did she carry any explosives.”
“She (the Lusitania) had no weapons of offence or defense and no masked guns.”
Daily Express, (a London newspaper) May 11, 1915:
“It is equally untrue that the Lusitania was carrying ammunition on its final voyage.”
The Nation, November 20, 1920:
“Dudley Field Malone (Inspector at the port of New York) revealed that the Lusitania carried large quantities of ammunition consigned to the British Government, including 4,200 cases of Springfield cartridges. The Wilson administration refused to permit publication of the fact.”
Snyder, Louis L. The Military History of the Lusitania (1965):
“On May 1, 1962 newsmen interviewed John Idwal Lewis, seventy-seven, of Stockton, California, the only officer of the Lusitania still alive. Lewis stated that the liner carried no guns or munitions when she was sunk. “I was the third officer at the time and in a position to know”
A twenty-one year old American skin diver, John Light of Boston, explored the wreck of the Lusitania with an underwater camera for the first time on July 20, 1960. In the next three years, Light made a total of thirty-eight dives to the Lusitania. In 1961, accompanied by another diver, he claimed to have found a long slender object which could have been a gun. The men insisted that their findings showed that the wreck had been visited before, possibly by British Admiralty divers who had removed the ship’s guns.”
The Nation, January 23, 1923:
Dudley Field Malone (Inspector at the Port of New York) wrote, “Whether this second explosion was due to bursting boilers or to the ignition of other explosives is mere speculation.”
Before we can decide who was to blame for the sinking of the Lusitania, we must settle one other controversy. Were the passengers fairly warned that they risked being torpedoed by a submarine if they sailed on the Lusitania?
The German Embassy placed the following advertisement in the New York World, May 1, 1915, and several other New York papers on the very day that the Lusitania set sail for Ireland.
The following statements by two surviving passengers and the German ambassador provide further insight into the questions you have been discussing.
Charles E. Lauriat, Jr. (a survivor) “When I bought my ticket at the Cunard office in Boston, I asked if we were to be convoyed through the war zone, and the reply was, ‘Oh yes! Every precaution will be taken.’”
Reverend Clark, (another survivor) said that the ticket agent assured him there was no danger. “The Cunard Company is not likely to rush a ship as
enormous in value if there were any extra danger.”
Count Johann von Bernstorff, (the German ambassador in Washington) claims that he received the warning notice several weeks before it was actually published. “Thinking it a great mistake,” he said, “I threw it into a drawer of my desk and hoped that Berlin would forget about it.” On the day before the
