Lusitania — What Happened,
Lusitania — What Happened, Why She Sank, and Why the Disaster Still Matters
On 7 May 1915, the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was approaching the south coast of Ireland near the end of a voyage from New York to Liverpool.
Europe was at war.
Germany had declared the waters around the British Isles a war zone, and German U-boats were hunting Allied shipping.
At approximately 2.10pm, the German submarine U-20, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, fired a torpedo at Lusitania.
The weapon struck the liner on her starboard side.
A second, much larger internal explosion followed almost immediately.
Just 18 minutes later, Lusitania disappeared beneath the Atlantic.
Of the 1,959 people aboard, 1,198 died, including 128 American citizens.
The sinking became one of the defining maritime disasters of the First World War — and more than a century later, arguments continue over why the ship sank so quickly, what she was carrying, and whether the disaster could have been prevented.
What Was RMS Lusitania?
RMS Lusitania was one of the great transatlantic passenger liners of the early twentieth century.
Built for the Cunard Line and launched in 1906, she entered commercial service the following year.
Along with her sister ship Mauretania, Lusitania represented British engineering, speed and luxury at a time when shipping companies competed fiercely for passengers crossing the Atlantic.
She was approximately 787 feet long and capable of speeds exceeding 25 knots.
Before the war, she regularly carried passengers between Liverpool and New York.
When the First World War began in August 1914, however, the Atlantic became increasingly dangerous.
Merchant ships and passenger liners were now operating within a conflict zone.
Why Was Lusitania Sailing During the War?
Despite the war, transatlantic passenger services continued.
Britain depended heavily upon shipping for food, materials and supplies, while thousands of civilians still needed to travel between Europe and North America.
Germany responded to Britain’s naval blockade by increasingly using submarines against Allied shipping.
In February 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding Britain and Ireland a war zone.
Ships entering those waters risked attack.
Before Lusitania departed New York on 1 May 1915, the German Embassy in Washington had even placed newspaper advertisements warning travellers that vessels flying the British flag could be attacked.
Many passengers nevertheless boarded.
Lusitania was a famous passenger liner, and confidence remained that her speed would help protect her from submarines.
The Final Voyage
Lusitania departed New York on 1 May 1915 bound for Liverpool.
Captain William Thomas Turner, one of Cunard’s most experienced commanders, was in charge.
As the ship approached Ireland several days later, warnings had already been transmitted concerning German submarine activity in the area.
The German submarine U-20 was operating off the Irish coast.
Its commander, Walther Schwieger, had already attacked several vessels during the patrol.
On 7 May, Lusitania approached the southern coast of Ireland.
Visibility varied during the morning, and Captain Turner reduced speed because of fog before later increasing it as conditions improved.
The liner was approaching the area near the Old Head of Kinsale when U-20 sighted her.
The Torpedo Attack
Schwieger manoeuvred U-20 into an attacking position.
At approximately 2.10pm, he ordered a torpedo fired.
The torpedo struck Lusitania on the starboard side beneath the bridge area.
Passengers and crew felt the impact.
Almost immediately afterwards, a second and significantly larger explosion occurred inside the ship.
The precise cause of this second explosion has remained one of the most debated aspects of the disaster.
Water poured into the damaged compartments.
Lusitania rapidly developed a heavy starboard list.
Within minutes, it became obvious that the liner was in mortal danger.
Why Did Lusitania Sink So Quickly?
The speed of the sinking was catastrophic.
Lusitania remained afloat for only around 18 minutes after the torpedo struck.
Several factors contributed.
The torpedo caused extensive flooding, and the ship’s forward movement forced additional water into the damaged hull.
The severe list made launching lifeboats extremely difficult.
Open portholes and other openings may also have allowed additional water into the vessel.
The mysterious second explosion almost certainly increased the damage.
Exactly what caused it remains disputed.
Possible explanations have included the ignition of coal dust, steam-system failures, structural damage, or the effects of cargo carried aboard the vessel.
Whatever the precise sequence, the ship flooded far more rapidly than many aboard could have imagined.
The Lifeboat Disaster
Lusitania carried enough lifeboat capacity for those aboard, but possessing lifeboats and successfully launching them were very different things.
As the ship listed sharply to starboard, lifeboats on one side swung away from the hull while those on the other side became difficult or impossible to lower safely.
Some boats overturned while being launched.
Others fell or struck passengers below.
Many passengers never reached a boat.
The sinking happened so quickly that there was little time to organise an orderly evacuation.
Families became separated.
Passengers found themselves thrown into the water alongside wreckage, overturned boats and debris.
The Atlantic off Ireland was cold.
For many who survived the sinking itself, exposure became the next danger.
The Rescue
Fishing boats, local vessels and rescue craft headed towards the scene.
Survivors were pulled from the sea and taken towards the Irish port of Queenstown, now known as Cobh.
Bodies were also recovered in large numbers.
The scale of the tragedy rapidly became apparent.
Of the 1,959 passengers and crew aboard, only 761 survived.
Among the dead were men, women and children from numerous countries.
The loss of 128 Americans gave the disaster enormous political significance in the United States, which at that stage had not entered the war.
Was Lusitania Carrying Munitions?
This question has followed the disaster ever since.
Lusitania was unquestionably carrying military-related cargo.
Her manifest included items such as rifle cartridges and shell components.
Germany argued that the vessel was therefore assisting the Allied war effort and was a legitimate military target.
Britain maintained that Lusitania remained fundamentally a passenger liner carrying civilians.
The presence of ammunition has also fuelled speculation that her cargo caused the second explosion.
However, the existence of military cargo does not automatically explain the violence of that explosion or the extraordinary speed of the sinking.
The debate continues because the disaster sits at the intersection of naval warfare, civilian shipping and wartime secrecy.
Was Lusitania Armed?
Lusitania had been designed with potential wartime use in mind and had received government financial support during construction.
Like several large British liners, she could potentially have been converted for naval service.
She was not, however, operating as an armed warship when she was sunk.
She was sailing as a commercial passenger vessel under the British flag.
This distinction became central to the international controversy following the attack.
Germany maintained that British merchant vessels could contribute to the war effort and therefore represented legitimate targets.
Critics argued that deliberately attacking a passenger liner without allowing civilians to escape violated established principles of maritime warfare.
Did Captain Turner Ignore Warnings?
Captain Turner’s actions were heavily scrutinised after the disaster.
He had received warnings about submarine activity and had been instructed to take precautions.
Questions were raised about his speed, his course and whether Lusitania should have followed a more pronounced zigzag pattern.
Turner defended his decisions and survived the sinking.
A British inquiry ultimately did not place responsibility for the disaster upon him.
The fundamental cause remained the German torpedo attack.
Nevertheless, the debate surrounding his navigation illustrates how major disasters often produce intense examination of individual decisions made shortly before catastrophe.
Did Britain Know Lusitania Was in Danger?
Another persistent controversy concerns British naval intelligence.
The Admiralty possessed information about German submarine operations through intercepted communications.
This has led to claims that the British authorities knew Lusitania was sailing into danger and failed to protect her adequately.
More extreme theories have suggested that the ship was deliberately exposed in the hope that her destruction would draw the United States into the war.
No convincing evidence has established such a deliberate conspiracy.
However, questions about what British authorities knew, when they knew it and whether additional protection might have been possible remain part of the historical debate.
Did Lusitania Bring America Into the First World War?
Not immediately.
The United States did not enter the First World War following the sinking of Lusitania in May 1915.
President Woodrow Wilson continued to pursue neutrality.
However, the deaths of 128 Americans dramatically changed public attitudes towards Germany.
The disaster became a powerful symbol of unrestricted submarine warfare and was repeatedly used in Allied propaganda.
American entry into the war eventually came in April 1917, almost two years after the sinking.
Lusitania therefore did not directly cause American intervention, but it helped alter the political atmosphere in which that later decision was made.
The German Response
Germany defended the attack by arguing that Lusitania was a British vessel travelling through a declared war zone and carrying military supplies.
German authorities also accused Britain of using civilian passengers as protection for military cargo.
International reaction was nevertheless severe.
The attack created a diplomatic crisis between Germany and the United States.
For a period, Germany reduced its use of unrestricted submarine warfare in response to American pressure.
That policy changed again in 1917 when Germany resumed unrestricted submarine attacks in an effort to sever Britain’s Atlantic supply routes.
The decision contributed directly to the United States entering the war.
The Investigation
Official inquiries followed the sinking.
The British investigation strongly criticised Germany and concluded that Lusitania had been destroyed by an unlawful submarine attack.
German accounts naturally presented a different interpretation.
As with many wartime investigations, evidence existed within a highly charged political environment.
Later historians have therefore examined ship plans, cargo manifests, survivor accounts, submarine records and Admiralty documentation in attempts to reconstruct what happened.
Some questions have been answered clearly.
Others remain disputed.
What Caused the Second Explosion?
The second explosion remains the enduring technical mystery of Lusitania.
U-20 fired only one torpedo.
Schwieger’s own wartime diary recorded the initial impact followed by a second explosion.
Numerous passengers also described two distinct detonations.
Possible causes have included:
- damage to steam pipes or boilers;
- coal-dust ignition;
- the detonation or burning of cargo;
- structural failure following the torpedo impact;
- interaction between several damaged systems.
No single explanation has achieved universal acceptance.
What is certain is that the second explosion greatly increased the impression that Lusitania had suffered more than a conventional single torpedo strike.
That uncertainty has helped sustain theories about the disaster for more than a century.
Could Lusitania Have Survived?
Perhaps — but the circumstances were exceptionally unfavourable.
Large passenger liners were designed with watertight compartments intended to limit flooding.
Yet compartmentalisation was not an absolute guarantee.
Damage in the wrong location, combined with rapid flooding and a severe list, could overwhelm those protections.
The torpedo strike and subsequent explosion compromised Lusitania’s ability to remain stable.
Once the list developed, evacuation itself became extraordinarily difficult.
Eighteen minutes simply was not enough time to remove nearly two thousand people from such a large ship.
The Human Cost
Behind the political arguments and technical investigations were almost twelve hundred individual deaths.
Families were destroyed.
Children died alongside parents.
Some passengers survived only because strangers helped them.
Others remained trapped below decks.
Bodies washed ashore along the Irish coast.
The town of Queenstown became the centre of the recovery operation.
For those who lived there, the disaster was not an abstract event in a distant war.
It arrived directly on their shoreline.
Where Is Lusitania Today?
The wreck of RMS Lusitania lies off the southern coast of Ireland, roughly 11 miles from the Old Head of Kinsale.
The wreck rests at a depth of approximately 90 metres.
Over time, it has deteriorated considerably.
Diving expeditions and surveys have attempted to understand both the condition of the wreck and the causes of the sinking.
The site remains both a historical wreck and a grave for many of those who died.
Why Does Lusitania Still Matter?
Lusitania occupies an unusual place in history.
She was a passenger liner destroyed during wartime.
She carried civilians and military-related cargo.
Her sinking became an international political crisis.
Her loss influenced American opinion but did not immediately bring the United States into the war.
And the exact mechanics of her rapid sinking still invite debate.
That combination of documented fact, wartime secrecy and unresolved technical questions explains why Lusitania continues to attract historians, divers, researchers and readers more than a century later.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Lusitania sink?
RMS Lusitania was sunk on 7 May 1915.
Where did Lusitania sink?
She sank off the southern coast of Ireland near the Old Head of Kinsale.
What sank Lusitania?
The German submarine U-20 fired a single torpedo which struck the ship’s starboard side.
How quickly did Lusitania sink?
She sank approximately 18 minutes after being torpedoed.
How many people died?
1,198 people died, including 128 American citizens.
Did the Germans fire two torpedoes?
No. U-20 fired one torpedo. A second major explosion occurred inside Lusitania shortly afterwards.
Was Lusitania carrying weapons?
She carried military-related cargo, including rifle ammunition and shell components. The extent to which that cargo contributed to the sinking remains debated.
Did the sinking cause America to enter the First World War?
Not immediately. The United States entered the war in April 1917, nearly two years later, although the Lusitania disaster significantly damaged American attitudes towards Germany.
Who commanded Lusitania?
The ship was commanded by Captain William Thomas Turner.
Who commanded the submarine that sank Lusitania?
U-20 was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger.
Read the Full Book
For a deeper examination of the sinking, the controversy surrounding Lusitania’s cargo, the decisions made before the attack and the questions that remain unresolved, read the full investigation by Bill Stewart.
Read the book https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H6288Z91
Explore more What Happened? investigations on Billy’s Book Club, examining maritime and aviation disasters, spaceflight accidents, industrial catastrophes, intelligence operations and other historical events where the accepted story deserves a closer look.
About the Author
Bill Stewart is an author and former seafarer whose career included service in the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, followed by work in marine auditing and accident investigation.
His nonfiction writing examines major disasters, unexplained events, intelligence operations and historical investigations, with particular emphasis on separating documented evidence from speculation.
His books and What Happened? Investigation Pages form part of the nonfiction archive at Billy’s Book Club — Books Worth Talking About.