Lusitania Anniversary

Subject: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Fiolar
Date: 07 May 01 - 08:42 AM

Today April 7th 1915, the Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed about ten miles off the Irish coast and sunk with the loss of 1198 lives in 18 minutes. Controversy still exists as to whether she was carrying explosives. Another theory is that the massive damage to the ship was as a result of the coal dust exploding following the attack. There is a memorial to the dead in the town of Cobh. Any songs or ballads known about the tragedy?

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Wolfgang
Date: 07 May 01 - 08:59 AM

Here's a possible candidate.

The DT has only one song in which this ship is mentioned: My brother Sylveste.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 07 May 01 - 01:06 PM

The lyrics to "When the Lusitania Went Down" can be found at (sorry no blue clicky) http://www.authentichistory.com/audio/lusitania.html

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: mousethief
Date: 07 May 01 - 01:15 PM

http://www.authentichistory.com/audio/lusitania.html

Alex

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Megan L
Date: 07 May 01 - 02:54 PM

Fiolar a similar incident happened in WWII, my father and his apprentice stood on the banks of the clyde and waved to the lads father as she sailed of down the river, she was torpedoed just of Ireland. I wrote this for my dad just before he died. sorry I can't be more helpful on the Lucitania Farewell My Son

I waved to you my son My chef's whites gleaming as proudly as my smile I nudged my apprentice "That's my boy" And as we watched you across the water My heart was filled with joy.

At ships rail and on shore we did wave We weren't to know that sunny day That within the cycle of the sun Our war would start and end And one of us would have a sailor's grave.

The great liner sailed on On shore the mighty shipyards thundered 453 growing daily with honest toil Rivets flying, hammers ringing, little knowing For one of us the war would soon be done.

And on the liner, ladies danced sequinned gowned Men black as hell fed hungry fires Diamonds of sweat their only adornment A gong calling passengers to dinner Soon all would be drowned.

Death stalked round Eire's shore Silent streak towards the mighty hull Ripping into her side, tearing at her life Explosive sound, screams of trapped and dying Stench of burning flesh. She is no more.

Still the shipyards thunder on 453 a silent shadow now waiting in the wings The unborn ghost of Liners yet to come Waiting till men may safely sail round Erie's shore She will not go where I have gone Farewell my son

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Fiolar
Date: 08 May 01 - 09:36 AM

Thanks Megan for sharing those lovely words. My condolences to you on the loss of your father.

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 08 May 01 - 01:01 PM

Ah, but that's a song and a half, Wolfgang.

Fiolar, where do you unearth these anniversaries you bring to our attention? You're a month out in your first post, by the way, but obviously you meant to say May.

I don't think there's much doubt that the ship was carrying munitions, but it seems not to have been carrying actual explosives in the conventional sense. For instance the cargo included 5,000 shrapnel, or air-burst, shells, but these were projectiles only, rather than full rounds - ie they were without their brass cases, explosives, and timer fuses. Similarly the ship was carrying detonator fuses, but again these were on their way to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to have explosives added.

The famous secondary explosion, that brought such a fast sinking, is now believed to have been caused by about 40 tonnes of aluminium powder. The USA was the leading supplier of this commodity, which was a critical ingredient in many nitrate-based explosives. When heated and brought in contact with water, it releases vast amounts of hydrogen, aand is easily detonated when airborne. Whatever caused the second big bang, a side effect was that it released another cargo - thousands of fur pelts, that floated to the surface, where Cork fishermen eagerly gathered them and sold them to a local furrier company (Rohu?).

Britain (by which I mean UK, which then, in international law at any rate, included the whole of Ireland) had by then compromised the safety of civilians at sea in all kinds of ways. In particular by its illegal suspension of an international code known as Freedom of the Seas, which had applied since the 1850s. Britain unilaterally declared the whole of the north sea as a war zone in November 1914, as part of implementing the "hunger blockade" of Germany which ultimately decided why one side won and the other lost in WW1. Germany retaliated in Feb 1915 by declaring all shipping in British waters fair game, and warning that no ship could be guaranteed exemption.

By this time the UK (specifically Churchill) was well into fitting merchant and passenger ships with armour plating and heavy guns. Huge grants had been awarded for construction of ships, including the Lusitania and Mauritania, on condition that they had built-in capability to take 12 six-inch guns, could accommodate ammo magazines, and could still maintain 25 knots. Converted ships, with their armaments disguised behind lifeboats etc, were known as Q ships after Queenstown (Cobh) in Co Cork, were the conversion work was done in secrecy. In fact the Lusitania was never converted, after farcial catastrophes with some earlier Q ships, and because fuel consumption would have been astronomical.

As well as the risk of being fired at by concealed guns, U boats were also at risk of being rammed if they surfaced, and this had happened several times by May 1915, with the rammers usually being apparently innocent merchant/passenger ships. Thus the U-boat commanders had got into the habit of firing off their torpedoes first and asking questions later. Reasonable enough, in the circumstances.

President Wilson and the US port authorities seem to have aided and abetted, or at least turned a blind eye to, the practice of transporting munitions alongside unsuspecting civilian passengers. Churchill was later accused of letting the Lusitania sink, knowing that the loss of American lives (140?) would harden American opinion against Germany. It now seems more likely that the failure to warn the ship about a knwon U-boat threat, was to avoid compromising UK code-breaking, which was then done by a team known as Room 40, an early precursor of Bletchley Park. The 1198 would have seemed a mere bagatelle, given that more than 20,000 were lost in a single day at the Somme around the same time. Most likely of all is that there was no conspiracy, just a cock-up, because various warnings were issued to shipping in the vicinity of various ports, in varying degrees of detail. No-one seems to have really pinned down why detailed warnings did not go out from Queenstown, if not from British intellligence then at least from knowlede on the ground (the U-boat that sank the Lusitainia had sank a smaller ship in the same area a couple of days earlier).

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Les from Hull
Date: 08 May 01 - 01:24 PM

Lusitania would never have been a Q-ship. Q-ships were much smaller merchant ships which were intended to bring U-boats to the surface to sink them with gunfire (rather than using a much more expensive torpedo). They had concealed weapons.

Passenger liners were converted into Armed Merchant Cruisers by adding (usually) 6 to 8 6 inch guns - wich were not concealed. Most countries gave a grant to the shipping companies owning large fast passenger vessels to have strongpoints built in so that these guns could be added in case of war. The other main use of these vessels was, of course, as troopships.

Les

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 08 May 01 - 01:31 PM

Reading Fionn's posting reminds me of that wonderful advice I got once "Never assume malice, when stupidity is a sufficient explanation." No villains (except war itself) just stupidity, poor communications, and information overload.
There's a newspaper page I have seen reproduced in history books in which the ad by the German Embassy "Passengers are reminded that a state of war exists. . ." is next to the timetable of sailings for the Lusitania and the Mauritania, her sister ship(?)

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 08 May 01 - 08:10 PM

Thanks for the correction Les. Lusitania was indeed assigned to be an AMC (a decision not seen through in the end) and I had assumed the "Q" designation applied to these conversions as well as to the smaller vessels.

Pete, you're right that Mauritania was the sister ship. That and a subsequent, even larger Cunard Line ship, the Aquitania, both did get requisitioned and converted for government service. I believe both were used only for troop transport and hospital duty.

Subject: RE: Lusitania Anniversary
From: Fiolar
Date: 09 May 01 - 05:11 AM

Thanks Fionn for pointing out my silly mistake regarding the mixup between April and May. Yes I did mean May. I have always been interested in history and folk music and over the years have compiled an odd collection of facts in regard to both. Thanks also to Mousethief and Joan.