Sinking+of+the+Lusitania

__ The Sinking of the Lusitania __ May 8, 1915-- Just a mere seven days after leaving the New York City port the Lusitania cruise ship was suddenly sunk by a torpedo shot by a German U-boat. The cruise ships 202nd Atlantic crossing ended in the [|Irish channel]just before 2:00 pm British time after being sunk without warning. There were many casualties including over a hundred American deaths. The Germans had no right to sink the Lusitania, and without warning even makes it worse they did not allow anytime for the life boats to load. The Lusitania and sister ship, [|Mauretania] were the two fastest and largest steamers setting record speeds on trips across the [|Atlantic]. The Lusitania was a magnificent ship and the Germans had no purpose to destroy it. Many American newspapers portrayed the Lusitania as an innocent ship that the Germans sunk for no reason. This is why many American citizens turned against Germany and became enraged at Germany’s actions but they should learn the full story before choosing sides. The American public believed that the United States had the right to go to war with Germany after the sinking of the cruise ship and American casualties. What Americans did not realize is that Germany had many reasons for torpedoing the Lusitania. The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 was justifiable. The Lusitania was carrying [|explosives] which gave the German submarine the right to fire at it. The German u-boats records show that it has encountered other ships and did not kill anyone in these meetings. When sunk the Lusitania was close to Britain and easily in distance of having an escort. [|Germany] also made clear warnings about the war zone they declared around the British Isles. The Lusitania also did not follow the guidelines that it was supposed to while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The decision of Germany to sink the Lusitania was not wrong in any way.

On board the Lusitania other than just the passengers were 5,450 cases of [|ammunition] that were to be used against the German army. Of the 5,450 cases 4,200 were small arms ammunition and 1,250 were shrapnel cases. The Lusitania was a cruise ship and Britain broke the rules of warfare by having ammunition on board a civilian ship. Three years earlier the [|Admiralty]had gun mountings installed in December of 1912. Then on August 4, 1914 most of the forward 3rd class accommodations were removed to make more space in the forward cargo hold for gun mountings and ammunition. British authorities were desperate and lied to try to make Germany look bad. They denied having any ammunition on board the cruise ship and tried to blame the second explosion on coal dust but the climate was to moist for coal dust to ignite such an explosion. Since the Lusitania was carrying ammunition it was then considered a war ship and could be a target of the German submarine [|U-20]. The German submarine shot down the Lusitania in an act of self defense. The ammunition on board was going to the British troops and would have been used against German troops so they were protecting German soldiers. The German U-20 had a very clean background even though it was still doing its job. On its voyage through the war zone the U-20 came across many other ships. The German U-boats were not just sinking ships for fun they were following through on a warning that they had notified everyone of. One boat that the U-20 came across was a [|Danish]merchant ship which they let go. They were not on the allied side so the submarine let them go with no conflict. Two other ships were sunk by the U-20 and their no casualties from the sinking of the ships. The ships would be sunk by the U-20 but the passengers would be able to escape on life boats. The German submarine came across the Lusitania by chance after shortening its route because of shortage of fuel. The submarine was afraid of being rammed by the cruise ship (which many ships did to submarines) so they sunk it instead of risking their own lives. The U-20 did not treat this situation any differently than their other encounters with ships in the war zone. They fired one [|torpedo] to bring the ship to a slow gradual sinking. But an unexpected second explosion larger than the first from the torpedo caused the Lusitania to sink much faster than expected. This explosion came from the explosives that were being carried on board illegally in the forward cargo hold. The great cruise ship ended up sinking in only 18 minutes due to the second explosion. The explosion from the ammunition on board also caused the boat to tilt at such an angle that almost all the lifeboats on the starboard could not be launched. If people want to blame someone for the 1,198 deaths they should blame the U.S. and British government for allowing the explosives on board. Having the explosives on board had a major impact on the rapid sinking of the Lusitania.

Aware that the water around the [|British Isles]was a war zone, Britain should have organized an escort. Britain knew of all the dangers of traveling through war zone with German submarines through out the waters. The Lusitania was sunk eight miles southwest of [|Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland]. This was easily within distance for the British Navy to escort the Lusitania. The weather was clear with hardly any wind so there were no reasons for staying at shore because of unsafe weather. The Lusitania was a British ship that was the largest and fastest of its time and the British government still didn’t even try to protect it. Maybe if the Lusitania wasn’t one of their own ships there could be a reason for not giving an escort but since the Lusitania was one of their own there should have been an escort to ensure the safety of the boat and passengers. Not providing an escort for the Lusitania shows that Britain was just leaving them out to fend for themselves and didn’t care what happened to the people on board. The war zone was well known of after all the warnings given out by the Germans. As a result of the blockade Britain had done to Germany to starve the country, Germany decided to make a war zone around Britain and infest it with their U-boats. Before going onto the Lusitania and leaving [|New York City]all the passengers scheduled to go on the cruise knew of the German threats. Germany warned in newspapers that any ship that sailed into the European war zone could be a target. The [|German Embassy]had a warning posted in American papers May 1, 1915. The warning read “Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the [|Imperial German Government], vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of [|Great Britain] or her allies do so at their own risk."(thefirstworldwar.com) America obviously did not take these warnings seriously because the decided to try to sail right through the war zone pretending as if Germany never warned them about the U-boats. The day the Lusitania left for Britain the docks were crowded with newspaper reporters because of the warning posted in New York papers. Everyone was very surprised the warnings were not taken seriously by the Lusitania crew and passengers. The British deliberately tried to expose the Lusitania to try and get the Americans to join on their side of the war. Captain Turner commanded the cruise ship much differently than how she was supposed to be navigated. The Lusitania was traveling at a much slower speed than what it was supposed to be traveling. The ship was traveling at 15 knots rather than at 21 knots even though it was ordered to travel at full speed through the submarine war zone. Turner also violated 5 top secret instructions from the Admiralty. One of these instructions that were broken was that the Lusitania did not zigzag through the war zone to make her a harder target for submarines to shoot at. Also the Lusitania failed to stay in the middle of the Irish channel and avoid Headlands such as Old Head of Kinsale which Turner and his passengers were sunk 10 kilometers away from. Britain also failed to warn the Lusitania of two sinking’s that happened before the she arrived in the war zone. The [|Centurion] and the [|Candidate]both sunk and the British never warned their own ship of the nearby sinking’s. The Lusitania was used by the British to help get the Americans on their side and to join them in the war. The sinking of the Lusitania was a justifiable action taken by Germany. The German U-20 submarine sunk the Lusitania cruise ship of Ireland on May 7, 1915. Germany was not wrong in any way on their decision to fire one torpedo at the Lusitania and eventually sink the ship. The cruise ship was carrying a substantial amount of ammunition on board that was to be delivered to British soldiers. Since the Lusitania was carrying ammunition it was no longer considered a passenger ship and could be a target for the U-20. Also the German U-boat had sunk many other ships without killing anyone and the second explosion (from the ammunition) was responsible for causing a rapid sinking of the Lusitania. Since the cruise ship sunk so quickly this caused 1,198 crew members and passengers to perish. If [|Britain] did not want anything to happen to their great cruise ship then they could have sent an escort to protect it from the U-boats that were known to be in the area. Germany also made clear warnings that were known in the U.S. before the Lusitania left that they declared the water around the [|British Isles]a war zone. Last but not least Captain Turner did not carry out many commands on how the Lusitania was supposed to be driven through the submarine infested war zone. Britain was making the Lusitania an easy target so it would be sunk. This would then lead to the U.S. joining sides with them with their fight against Germany. Germany was not wrong in any way in their choice to sink the Lusitania.