Changes
Minor additions - propaganda value
[[Image:Lusitania.jpg|right|thumb|Poster about the Lusitania]]
On May 7, 1915, still relatively early in World War I, a German [[U-boat]] sunk a massive [[British ]] passenger liner known as the Lusitania off the coast of [[Ireland]]. This one sinking killed 1,198 people, including 128 U.S. citizens. A member of the prominent Vanderbilt family, known for its railroad empire, was among the fatalities. The overall number of casualties was only a few hundred less than those who died on the Titanic when it hit an iceberg in 1912.
On April 30th, 1915, the Lusitania was being loaded in New York with supplies, and was secretly being loaded with ammunition. Over on the other side of the world, in Germany, on the same day, Kapitänleutnant Walter Schwieger was ordered to take his U-boat-20 German submarine to take patrol of part of the Atlantic. The Lusitania started its trip across the Atlantic to Great Britain on May 1st, 1915, carrying 1257 passengers and 702 crew members under the command of Captain William Turner. On May 7th, the Lusitania and the German Submarine entered the Irish Channel. The Submarine had been sinking other ships before the Lusitania.
Running low on fuel Kapitänleutnant Walter Schwieger decided to turn back. On his way back he ran into several ships, and sunk them. When he met up with the Lusitania, he submerged and fired one torpedo. The torpedo was noticed, but nothing was able to be done about it. Right after it hit, it triggered a secondary explosion within the ship (the leading theory is this was a coal dust explosion; the Lusitania burned coal for fuel, and by this late stage of the crossing her bunkers were nearly empty. The theory states that the detonation of the torpedo stirred up this dust and simultaneously ignited it.) Due to the list (tilt to one side) of the ship, it was impossible to launch half of her lifeboats. A distress signal was sent out and picked up at Queenstown(now called [[Cobh]], Ireland. The Lusitania sank 18 minutes after the torpedo hit.
Queenstown sent out several boats to see what they could do. They arrived at the scene two hours after the sinking, and were able to rescue 761 people from the wreckage. The total number of deaths was 1,198.
The sinking of the Lusitania was extensively used in British [[propaganda]] to promote recruitment for the armed forces in the war against Germany, and to promote anti-German sentiment in the still-neutral United States.
