Lusitania: A Passenger Ship or a Targeted Weapon?
The catastrophic sinking of the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915, serves as a poignant focal point for our discourse, representing not merely an act of war but a complex intersection of hubris, tragedy, and potential conspiracy. This ocean liner, lauded for its engineering marvels and luxurious accommodations, met its demise in a mere eighteen minutes after being torpedoed by a German U-boat, resulting in the loss of approximately 1,200 lives. As we meticulously unravel the events leading to this maritime disaster, we shall explore the implications of British military strategy, the nature of naval warfare during World War I, and the controversial presence of undeclared munitions aboard the Lusitania. Furthermore, we examine the consequential ripple effects that this incident had on American public opinion and its eventual entry into the war, illuminating the broader narrative of international relations during this tumultuous period. Join us as we delve into the depths of history, scrutinizing the myriad factors that transformed the Lusitania from a symbol of luxury into a harbinger of tragedy.
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Takeaways:
- The sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, resulted in the tragic loss of approximately 1,200 passengers and crew members, marking a significant event in maritime history.
- Despite warnings from the German government about the dangers of sailing in a war zone, the Lusitania embarked on her final voyage with a large number of civilians on board.
- The controversy surrounding the second explosion following the torpedo strike raises questions about potential undeclared munitions on the Lusitania that may have contributed to the disaster.
- The event served as a pivotal moment in shaping American public opinion against Germany, ultimately leading to the United States' involvement in World War I.
- The Lusitania was not merely a passenger ship; it was allegedly carrying munitions and war materials, which complicates the narrative of innocent civilian loss.
- Discrepancies in accountability between the British Admiralty and Captain Turner suggest potential scapegoating in the aftermath of the disaster.
Transcript
A calm, clear afternoon off the coast of Ireland.
Speaker A:The grandest fastest liner on the Atlantic, the the RMS Lusitania was nearing the end of her voyage.
Speaker A:The Lusitania was a British ocean liner, a luxury passenger ship whose dedicated purpose was to transport people across the ocean.
Speaker A:It was one of the fastest ships of its time, capable of reaching speeds up to 25 knots.
Speaker A:And it was quite large, reaching 240 meters, the length of two football fields.
Speaker A: On Board were over: Speaker B:So far the Lusitania's present journey had been uneventful.
Speaker B:But as it sailed through the Celtic Sea between Ireland and England, its destination of Liverpool just a short distance away, something sinister lurked beneath the waves.
Speaker A:At 2:10pm without warning, the Lusitania was torpedoed by a U20 German submarine, also known as a U boat.
Speaker A:Minutes later a second explosion occurred at the cause of which is still debated.
Speaker A:The consequences however, were unmistakable.
Speaker A: minutes, killing: Speaker B:In just 18 short minutes.
Speaker B:Michael.
Speaker B:The Lusitania, the marvel of engineering, would become a tomb, sparking a firestorm of outrage and controversy that burns to this day.
Speaker B:Was it just an act of war or something far more calculated?
Speaker B:A crime of unimaginable proportions?
Speaker A:Welcome to history's greatest crimes.
Speaker A:I'm Michael.
Speaker B:And I'm Elena.
Speaker B:Today we're diving deep into the murky waters surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania.
Speaker A:Stay with us as we discuss the reasons why German submarines targeted the Lusitania as seemingly innocent passenger ship.
Speaker A:How the media used this event to promote World War I and what archaeologists later found buried in the ship that suggests the British authorities were actually to blame.
Speaker A:Alright Alina, before we go get get into the sinking, we have to talk a little bit more about the ship herself, the Lusitania.
Speaker A:And it wasn't just any steamliner.
Speaker A:She was a statement.
Speaker A: Scotland, she was launched in: Speaker B:She was a technological marvel for her time.
Speaker B:She was one of the first British four stackers, which meant that she had four funnels which allowed the ship to move much quicker.
Speaker B:The Lusitania was the first ship to cross the Atlantic in under five days.
Speaker A:And boy was she luxurious.
Speaker A: he was designed to carry over: Speaker A: in the second cabin and over: Speaker A:Cunard, the company that helped build the Lusitania, really pulled out all the stops and she was a symbol of luxurious British maritime supremacy.
Speaker B:But there was a catch, wasn't there?
Speaker B:Built with a little help from the British government.
Speaker B:The British government had actually subsidized the cost of the Lusitania's construction with the understanding that the ship could be converted into an armed merchant cruiser if war broke out.
Speaker B:She even had emplacements designed for 126 inch guns, though it's hotly debated if any were ever actually fitted or on board.
Speaker B:During her final voyages, this dual nature would become a critical point of contention.
Speaker A: And by May: Speaker A:World War I included two main alliances at the time, the Allied powers, which included France, Great Britain and Russia, but also Italy, Japan, Serbia, Belgium and Montenegro.
Speaker A: iance, but not until April of: Speaker A:The opposing Central Powers included the German Empire, the Austria Hungary Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.
Speaker B:World War I, aka the Great War, broke out in July of the previous year.
Speaker B: In: Speaker A:Britain, with its very powerful surface fleet, had established a naval blockade of Germany and aiming to starve them into submission.
Speaker B:And Germany's response?
Speaker B:The U boat, AKA the submarine.
Speaker B:These submarines were an ace in the hole for the Germans against British naval dominance.
Speaker B: th of: Speaker B:They announced that they would sink any Allied merchant ships in the zone, often without warning.
Speaker B:And this was their policy of what they called unrestricted submarine warfare.
Speaker A:A terrifying prospect for any ship, but especially for a passenger liner that was still attempting to maintain transatlantic service.
Speaker A:The Germans argued that many Allied ships were actually carrying war materials, making them legitimate targets.
Speaker A:And to be fair, many of them were.
Speaker B:It's fascinating, Michael, how the nature of naval warfare was shifting so dramatically at this point.
Speaker B:Up to this point, the old prize rules had applied to naval warfare.
Speaker B:It was understood that if a warship intended to target an enemy ship, it should allow for the safety of crew and passengers before sinking it.
Speaker B:But as you can imagine, when a U boat surfaced to give warning to a targeted ship, that then made the U boat vulnerable to attack and turn.
Speaker A:And this was especially a concern because the British had started using what they called Q ships.
Speaker A:They were disguised warships designed to lure German U boats to the surface and then destroy them.
Speaker B:So the stage is set.
Speaker B:A magnificent liner A brutal war and a new terrifying weapon changing all the rules.
Speaker B:What could possibly go wrong?
Speaker A:Well, hindsight being 20 20, always, I guess everything.
Speaker A:But I feel you that on this occasion I too want to reach back in time and shake people a little bit in response to their actions.
Speaker B: st of: Speaker B:And to be fair, there were warnings, Michael, very explicit warnings that suggested that this was a bad idea for the ship and its passengers.
Speaker A:Indeed, the German Embassy in Washington took the extraordinary step of placing advertisements in in American newspapers right alongside Cunard's own sailing notices.
Speaker A: of: Speaker A:Quote, notice.
Speaker A:Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies as well as Great Britain and her allies, that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to to the British Isles, that in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain or any of her allies are liable to destruction in those waters.
Speaker A:And that traveling sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
Speaker B:Chilling.
Speaker B:And to make the situation even more clear, some newspapers even specifically mentioned the Lusitania in connection with these warnings.
Speaker B:But it wasn't just newspaper ads.
Speaker B:Apparently some prominent passengers received anonymous telegrams warning them that the Lusitania would be torpedoed.
Speaker A:And yet many passengers, the crew and the ship's owner company seemed to dismiss these threats.
Speaker A:There was a prevailing belief, a kind of hubris perhaps, that the Lusitania was simply too fast for any submarine to catch.
Speaker A:One ship official was quoted saying, the Lusitania is the safest boat on the sea and too fast for any submarine.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker B:That is a dangerous assumption.
Speaker B:It highlights a fascinating psychological aspect, a refusal to believe that something so grand, so symbolic, could actually be vulnerable.
Speaker B:As one historian, Eric Larson, put it in his research on the Lusitania, he said, quote, it is a story that many of us think we know, but.
Speaker B:But don't.
Speaker B:He notes that there was a widespread refusal to believe that anything untoward could happen to the ship.
Speaker A:This dismissal of clear warnings is a crucial element.
Speaker A:It speaks to a mindset, perhaps an Edwardian hangover, where the, quote, gentlemanly strictures of warfare were still believed to offer some protection to these civilian vessels.
Speaker A:And this, of course, was a fatal miscalculation.
Speaker B:So despite the undercurrent of danger.
Speaker B:The Lusitania steamed out of New York and as mentioned, the ship included different classes for passengers for different prices.
Speaker B:A veritable cross section of society.
Speaker B:There were also quite a range of passengers.
Speaker B:As mentioned, their nationalities weren't incredibly diverse.
Speaker B:Mostly British and Canadian with 159Americans sprinkled in.
Speaker B:But to give you an even closer look at the passengers, we also know that the ship tragically also held many children.
Speaker B:51 male children, 39 female children and 39 infants.
Speaker B:A total of 129 young lives.
Speaker A:Among the passengers were some actually notable figures.
Speaker A:Alfred Gwyn Vanderbilt, the millionaire sportsman, third son of the even richer Cornelius Vanderbilt ii.
Speaker A:He was on a business trip to attend a meeting of the International Horse Breeders Association.
Speaker A:One can imagine him strolling the deck of Lusitania the in his tailored suit and top hat.
Speaker B:Then there were American writer, publisher and philosopher Elbert Hubbard, who was traveling with his wife Alice.
Speaker B:Hubbard was the founder of the Roycroft movement which was based around an influential Arts and crafts movement in New York.
Speaker B:Whereas Alice was a well known suffragist pushing for women's suffrage.
Speaker B:The couple were reportedly on their way to Europe for Hubbard to interview Kaiser.
Speaker A:Wilhelm II and Theodot Pope Riddle, one of America's pioneering female architect who was traveling with her maid and a friend.
Speaker A:Theodot was a strong willed young woman born into privilege and wealth in the United States.
Speaker A:She refused to answer to her given name, Effie and went on to become one of the nation's pioneering female architects.
Speaker A:Rather than a debutante, her family wanted her to being the free spirit that she was.
Speaker A:Theodore was actually heading to England on board the Lusitania to promote psychical research in England.
Speaker A:Like many at her time, she was very interested in mediums and telepathy and spirits.
Speaker B:Charles Laureate Jr.
Speaker B:A Boston bookseller, was also on board.
Speaker B:Less elite than some of the other names we've mentioned, he was traveling with a colleague in second class.
Speaker B:In his memoir about his experience on the Lusitania, he described the early part of the voyage as fairly normal, though he noted the ship's somewhat slower speed and the unusual weather conditions.
Speaker A:And similarly class passenger was also quoted saying, I can't help hoping that we get some sort of thrill going up the English Channel, end quote.
Speaker A:Looking back, it's one of those things that make you think, be careful what you wish for.
Speaker B:Indeed, historians of the Lusitania paint a picture of passengers being trained and using life jackets, portholes covered and a ban on showing lights on deck, which was intended to make passengers feel like precautions were being taken against German submarines.
Speaker B:Over the course of the trip, there was apparently much discussion about the war and U boats.
Speaker B:But there was also a sense of routine.
Speaker A:According to written memoirs, Theoday Pope and her friends left lunch on the ship on that fateful day, May 7, as the ship orchestra played a waltz known as the Blue Danube.
Speaker A:A chilling juxtaposition of normalcy and impending doom.
Speaker A:While passengers enjoy enjoyed the Lusitania's relative luxury, German captain Lt.
Speaker A:Walther Schweiger and his U boat, the U20 were already on the prowl in the waters off of Ireland.
Speaker A: l electric submarine built in: Speaker A:It was 42 meters long with engines that went up to 700 metric horsepower.
Speaker A:It was also capable of operating at depths of up to 150 meters and.
Speaker B:Even more intimidating, the U20 German submarine was fitted with four torpedo tubes at the bow, type A torpedo mines and an anti aircraft gun.
Speaker A:And Schwaiger was having a busy and tragically successful patrol.
Speaker A:Just days before encountering the Lusitania on May 7, his U boat had already sunk three other vessels.
Speaker A:The sailing vessel Earl of Latham, the steamer's candidate and Centurion, all of them British.
Speaker A:In the case of the candidate and Centurion, Schwaiger noted in his log that he provided time for their crews to evacuate before sinking the ships.
Speaker B:And this is a crucial detail, Michael.
Speaker B:It shows that at least with these smaller merchant vessels, Captain Schwaiger was to some extent adhering to the older prize rules.
Speaker B:This makes his later actions regarding the Lusitania even more stark.
Speaker A:On the morning of May 7th, visibility was poor.
Speaker A:Schwaiger's U boat was low on fuel and had only three torpedoes left.
Speaker A:The German captain had initially decided to head home, even submerging to avoid a suspected patrol boat which turned out to be the British cruiser HMS Juno.
Speaker A:According to Schwaiger's notes, the Juno was passing at high speeds and zigzagging too fast for the U20 to target.
Speaker A:The Juno had actually been warned of U bot activity in the area.
Speaker B:German Captain Walter Schweiger himself is a figure of considerable interest.
Speaker B: Born in Berlin in: Speaker B: By: Speaker A:Commander and a successful one.
Speaker A:Over his career he would sink 49 ships.
Speaker A:He had been decorated with Germany's highest military honors.
Speaker B:But his methods were controversial even at the time.
Speaker B:While he was known to take the gentlemanly approach of allowing enemy crew off targeted ships, allowing them to survive.
Speaker B:He apparently didn't always follow that approach.
Speaker B:Some historians describe his overall approach as shoot first and ask questions later and later.
Speaker B:After he chose the later violent approach with the Lusitania on May 7, he would become known to the British as the baby killer.
Speaker A:On May 7, around 1:20pm Greenwich time, the U boat crew chief sighted the Lusitania.
Speaker A:Schweiger ordered the U boat to submerge.
Speaker A:Initially, he didn't think an attack would be possible.
Speaker A:But then, as he noted, the Lusitania turned, presenting a perfect target.
Speaker A:The hunter had found its prey.
Speaker B:At 2pm The Lusitania was approximately 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsel on the southern coast of Ireland.
Speaker B:Captain of the Lusitania, William Thomas Turner, was on the bridge.
Speaker B:Captain Turner is best known for his role in the Lusitania disaster, but he was actually an excellent navigator who accomplished several crossings at noble speeds.
Speaker B:He, he was promoted for his naval skills.
Speaker B:Despite his unsuitably gruff demeanor around passengers.
Speaker A:Yeah, Captain Turner was a bit grumpy at times.
Speaker A:At some point he was said to have referred to passengers as, quote, a load of bloody monkeys who are constantly chattering, end quote.
Speaker A:But as noted, Captain Turner was good at what he did.
Speaker A:And in the afternoon of May 7, the sea was smooth and the day was now clear.
Speaker B:Suddenly, lookout Leslie Morton, stationed at the bow, spotted the telltale white streak of a torpedo in the water.
Speaker B:He shouted, torpedoes coming on the starboard side.
Speaker A:Seaman Thomas Quinn in the crew's nest echoed the warning.
Speaker A:And Captain Turner rushed to the starboard side of the bridge.
Speaker A:But there was no time for evasive.
Speaker B:Action in the U boat.
Speaker B:Captain Schweiger watched what happened through his periscope.
Speaker B:In the entry to his war diary for that day, he wrote a chillingly detached record stating, quote, clear bow shot at 700 meters.
Speaker B:Shot struck starboard side close behind the bridge.
Speaker B:And an extraordinarily heavy detonation followed with a very large cloud of smoke far above the front tunnel.
Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker A:The time was 2:10pm the impact was devastating.
Speaker A:Passengers at lunch reported a, quote, penetrating thrust.
Speaker A:Theodore Pope, who was at the time on the B deck promenade, heard a dull explosion as water and timbers flew past.
Speaker A:A column of water and debris from the impact actually knocked lifeboat number five overboard.
Speaker B:And then, Michael, came the event that sealed the Lusitania's fate and has fueled debate ever since.
Speaker B:A second more powerful explosion just seconds after the torpedo hit.
Speaker A:Schweiger himself noted in his log.
Speaker A:He wrote that a second Explosion must have followed that of the torpedo.
Speaker A:But his question marks at the end of the log suggest he wasn't actually sure what caused it.
Speaker A:Survivors attested the second blast felt different, more muffled and internal and.
Speaker A:And far more violent.
Speaker A:It sent a cloud of choking steam and dust swirling around the bridge.
Speaker B:This second explosion is the crux of so many Lusitania controversies.
Speaker B:What caused it?
Speaker A:The evidence here is murky, but as we'll discuss in a few minutes, the second explosion makes a little more sense if you consider the possibility of undeclared explosives being on board the Lusitania.
Speaker A:Perhaps the Lusitania wasn't just a passenger ship solely carrying people like it suggested.
Speaker A:Maybe it had some hidden cargo that was intended to help the British war effort in World War I.
Speaker B:That would certainly change the narrative.
Speaker B:It moves the sinking of the Lusitania from a simple act of war against a passenger liner to one where the liner itself was a floating powder keg, knowingly or unknowingly to its passengers.
Speaker B:And if it's true, it becomes a crucial piece of evidence pointing towards deception.
Speaker A:After the second explosion, the Lusitania began to list heavily to starboard.
Speaker A:Captain Turner ordered the ship to turn around towards the Irish coast, hoping to breach her.
Speaker A:But the hydraulics had failed and she would not respond.
Speaker A:He then ordered the engines astern to slow her down.
Speaker A:But ruptured steam lines meant the engines were dead.
Speaker B:The list was severe, quickly reaching 15 degrees, then over 20.
Speaker B:This is where a critical design aspect of the Lusitania played a fatal role.
Speaker B:Her longitudinal bulkheads, particularly around the coal bunkers, were meant to contain damage.
Speaker B:Instead, they prevented water from cross flooding and balancing the ship, concentrating all the flooding on the starboard side and exacerbating the list.
Speaker B:A tragic irony, a safety feature contributing to the disaster.
Speaker A:This extreme list made launching the lifeboats an absolute nightmare.
Speaker A:Those on the port side, which was high up in the air at this point, swung inboard, crushing anyone beneath and making them impossible to launch.
Speaker A:In contrast, on the starboard side, the lifeboat swung far out, reaching a terrifying 60 foot gap between the deck and the boats.
Speaker B:Captain Turner ordered women and children into the boats first.
Speaker B:But many boats capsized during lowering.
Speaker B:They were damaged or spilled.
Speaker B:Their occupants, some accounts suggest crew were inexperienced and passenger confusion may have added to the chaos.
Speaker B:Of the 48 lifeboats, only six were successfully launched.
Speaker B:Just six?
Speaker A:Yikes.
Speaker A:The personal stories are heartbreaking.
Speaker A:The millionaire Alfred Vanderbilt was last seen helping others into lifeboats in giving his own life jacket to a mother with a child, knowing that he himself couldn't swim and he perished.
Speaker B:A witness saw Albert and Alice Hubbard link arms and walk into an open cabin on the top deck, closing the door behind them, choosing to meet their end together rather than be separated in the water.
Speaker A:The Pope, after a harrowing experience trying to get into a lifeboat, jumped into the sea with her maiden friend, only to be separated and later rescued unconscious.
Speaker A:She recalled the water being filled with, quote, hundreds of frantic, screaming, shouting humans and the children.
Speaker B:Of the 39 infants on board, 35 were lost.
Speaker B:Overall, 94 of the 124 children perished.
Speaker B:Many died from exhaustion after immersion in the cold water.
Speaker B:The sheer speed of the sinking gave them little chance.
Speaker A:Captain Turner remained on the bridge until the ship went down under him.
Speaker A:He survived, clinging to an oar or a chair before being picked up.
Speaker B:For those who found themselves in the water, Michael, it was an unimaginable hell.
Speaker B:The sea off Ireland in early May is frigid.
Speaker B:Hundreds were pitched into that cold, churning chaos.
Speaker A:Charles Lariat, the Boston bookseller, described the sound of over a thousand people in the water as, quote, a long, lingering moan, end quote.
Speaker A:He managed to get into a collapsible boat with lookout Leslie Morton and others pulling in more survivors until the boat was almost swamped.
Speaker B:Theodore Pope's account is terrifying.
Speaker B:Sucked down with the ship, trapped momentarily between decks, then surfacing to what she called a gray and watery inferno.
Speaker B:She lost consciousness multiple times before being found clinging to an ore.
Speaker B:Initially mistaken for dead, she later mentioned that the trauma of the event was so severe that her hair began to fall out.
Speaker A:Afterwards, another survivor, Robert Timmis, a British cotton trader traveling first class, was dragged down.
Speaker A:But being a strong swimmer, he managed to surface after what he estimated was 32 strokes.
Speaker A:Believing he'd been pulled down roughly 60ft, he was eventually rescued by the ship's carpenter, Neil Robertson.
Speaker A:These.
Speaker A:These individual stories, collected by historians from letters and diaries, paint such a vivid picture of the personal tragedy.
Speaker B:And the psychological scars must have been immense.
Speaker B:First class passenger, the British lady Margaret Mackworth Bluebell.
Speaker B:And hearing another survivor, Beatrice Witherbee, who had lost her baby and her mother to the water, vehemently berating Captain Turner, the grief and anger were palpable.
Speaker A:While the official response to the sinking of the Lusitania was being mobilized, the first heroes on the scene were local Irish fishermen and boatmen.
Speaker A:It took about two hours for the first rescue vessels to reach the site 11 miles offshore.
Speaker B:The fishing boat, the Wanderer of Peel, skippered by William Ball, was one of the very first.
Speaker B:They reportedly picked up around 160 to 200 survivors and towed lifeboats despite the danger of being swamped themselves.
Speaker B:Skipper Ball later wrote, quote, we were the only boat there for two hours and it was an awful thing to see her sinking and to see the plight of these people, end quote.
Speaker A:Another crewman from the same fishing ship, Harry Costin, said, I never want to see the like again.
Speaker A:There were four babies about three months old, and some of the people were almost naked.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker A:The spontaneous heroism from ordinary civilians is incredibly moving.
Speaker A:They face the horror head on.
Speaker A:Despite the U boat potentially still being in the area.
Speaker B:A lifeboat from another ship, the Quetzia Gwilt, apparently launched promptly, but with no wind.
Speaker B:The crew had to row the entire 12 nautical miles to the scene of the sinking.
Speaker B:They arrived about three and a half hours later, tragically too late to save lives.
Speaker B:Their log entry is heartbreaking.
Speaker B:If we had wind or any motor power, our boat would have certainly been first on the scene.
Speaker B:It was a harrowing sight to witness.
Speaker B:The sea was strewn with dead bodies.
Speaker A:Eventually, other naval vessels arrived and began coordinating the larger rescue and recovery effort.
Speaker A:Survivors and bodies were primarily brought to Queenstown on the southern coast of Ireland, where the local community rallied to provide aid, setting up a makeshift hospitals and morgues.
Speaker B: sus is that somewhere between: Speaker B:Only about 760 survived.
Speaker A:The American losses were particularly significant, at least politically.
Speaker A:128 US citizens died and as a result, the sinking of the Lusitania became a key factor in in shifting American public opinion against Germany.
Speaker B:Fewer than 300 bodies were ever recovered.
Speaker B:The rest were lost to the Atlantic.
Speaker B:In Queenstown, 173 victims were buried in mass graves in the old church cemetery, 80 of them unidentified.
Speaker A:The news of the sinking of the Lusitania hit the world like a thunderclap.
Speaker A:In the United States, initial headlines were a mix of shock and a demand for facts.
Speaker A:The New York Times on May 8 ran with, quote, divergent views of the sinking of the Lusitania, end quote.
Speaker B:But that restraint didn't last long.
Speaker B:Soon American papers were calling the attack a massacre, villainous, barbaric and ghastly.
Speaker B:The focus was squarely on the American lives lost and the perceived brutality of Germany.
Speaker A:In the uk, as you would expect, condemnation, was swift and furious.
Speaker A:Papers like the Surrey Mirror and the Newcastle Journal carried extensive reports.
Speaker A:The sinking of Britain's premier liner with such loss of civilian life became a potent symbol of German wartime aggression.
Speaker B:German newspapers, however, largely toed the official line.
Speaker B:They justified the sinking, claiming the Lusitania was actually an auxiliary cruiser, that she was carrying munitions and that ample warning had been given to passengers.
Speaker B:Our listeners will recall all of the ads placed in newspapers and other such warnings that passengers had received prior to the sailing.
Speaker A:In fact, one German artist, Carl Goetz, actually created a commemorative medal of the event.
Speaker A:On the medal he depicted the Lusitania laden with war materials, under the caption, no contraband goods.
Speaker A:And on the reverse, a skeleton selling tickets at the ship company office with the words business above all, this really captured the German public sentiment that the ship company and Britain more generally were, were to blame for risking passenger lives.
Speaker B:It's clear the sinking immediately became a propaganda battlefield.
Speaker B:Each nation framed the event to suit its wartime narrative.
Speaker B:The truth was almost secondary to how the story could be spun.
Speaker B:This manipulation of information, Michael, is a key part of why this event remains such a contentious crime.
Speaker A: ottom of The Atlantic, nearly: Speaker A:The immediate question beyond the horror was why?
Speaker A:And who was to blame?
Speaker A:Was it simply a German atrocity?
Speaker B:Or Michael, was there something more sinister at play?
Speaker B:We have a ship that was allegedly laden with undeclared explosives, a captain accused of critical errors, and whispers from historians that the British Admiralty, perhaps even Winston Churchill himself, let the Lusitania sail into a death trap in order to lure the United States into the war.
Speaker B:This is where the story moves from tragedy to a potential crime of unimaginable cynicism.
Speaker A:This is one of the most enduring controversies of the whole story.
Speaker A:The official manifest listed items like 4.2 million rounds of Remington bullets, almost 5,000 shrapnel shell casings, about female, 50 tons worth, and 18 cases of non explosive artillery fuses.
Speaker A:These were openly declared and under US law at the time considered, quote, non explosive in bulk.
Speaker A:And it was permissible on passenger ships, even those heading to belligerent nations.
Speaker B:But the real firestorm is over what wasn't declared.
Speaker B:Some sources allege a far more dangerous undeclared cargo, specifically a large consignment of gun cotton, a highly volatile explosive.
Speaker B:And those shrapnel shell casings that were officially listed.
Speaker B: that many were actually about: Speaker A:So to be clear, the Lusitania was a passenger ship that was already risking it by sailing into troubled waters.
Speaker A:But in addition to transporting passengers, it was also clearly carrying hidden, very explosive ammunition and weapons to get them past German submarines into England.
Speaker B:That's correct.
Speaker B:The German ambassador, Count Bernstorff, even presented evidence to President Wilson claiming the shrapnel consignment was 5,000 filled shells weighing over 100,000 pounds, deliberately mislabeled as non explosive shrapnel.
Speaker B:Now, if this is true, this wasn't just contraband, it was a massive safety hazard that could explain that catastrophic second explosion.
Speaker A:The distinction here is crucial.
Speaker A:Declared rifle cartridges were one thing, arguably legal under the loose neutrality laws of the time.
Speaker A:Undeclared gun cotton and live artillery shells were something else entirely.
Speaker A:That shifts the blame significantly towards the British authorities for recklessly endangering their passengers, which, regardless of the German actions.
Speaker B:In the aftermath, Captain William Turner himself was found in the crosshairs.
Speaker B:He faced a barrage of criticism for not zigzagging in a known submarine zone, for his reduced speeds of 18 knots when the ship was capable of 24 or 25, for sailing too close to Headlands and for alleged poor crew training for lifeboat deployment.
Speaker B:The British Admiralty actually brought charges against him.
Speaker A:Turner defended himself, stating he was following instructions as he understood them, that boiler conditions limited his speed and that the fog had been a factor earlier as well.
Speaker B:Ultimately, Captain Turner was exonerated.
Speaker B:British authorities famously concluded that the blame lay squarely with, quote, those who ordered the crime and those who committed a end quote, meaning the German government and the U boat crew.
Speaker A:But was Turner being set up as a scapegoat?
Speaker A:Some historians suggest that First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill and other British officials were quick to pin as much blame on Turner as possible, even allegedly backdating Admiralty orders and distorting geography to make him look culpable.
Speaker B:The Admiralty's eagerness to point the finger at Turner certainly raises eyebrows.
Speaker B:The reality is that if it could be shown that British authorities had failed in their duty to protect such a high profile liner, the political fallout would have been immense.
Speaker B:Shifting blame to the captain would be a convenient way to deflect their own responsibility.
Speaker A:And this brings us to the darkest conspiracy of them all, Elena.
Speaker A:That the British Admiralty under Winston Churchill deliberately endangered the Lusitania to create an incident so horrific that it would have to drag the United States into the war.
Speaker B:Proponents of this theory point to a couple of factors.
Speaker B:First, that the Lusitania sailing orders led her directly into danger.
Speaker B:And second, that a crucial naval escort that would have helped protect the ship was inexplicably withdrawn as the Lusitania was sailing across the Atlantic.
Speaker A:One supporter of this theory, Patrick Beasley, who worked in Naval Intelligence during World War II and wrote extensively about Britain's naval code breaking unit in World War I, was, quote, reluctantly driven to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy deliberately to put the Lusitania at risk, and that such a plot could not have been put into effect without Winston Churchill's express permission and approval.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker A:British code breakers had already broken German naval codes and knew that Captain Schweiger's submarine was operating off the Irish coast.
Speaker A:The question is, was the intelligence used effectively to protect the Lusitania?
Speaker B:But frankly, most mainstream historians strongly rebut these conspiracy claims.
Speaker B:They argue that there's no concrete evidence of a plot and that Churchill was actually in Paris in the days immediately preceding the sinking.
Speaker B:The Admiralty did send general warnings about U boat activity, even if it wasn't as effective as they hoped.
Speaker B:And Captain Turner's own navigational decisions, as we've discussed, played a significant role.
Speaker A:There's also the practical argument that Britain lacked the resources to escort every single liner, and the Lusitania was, in theory, much faster than any available escort.
Speaker B:And yet there's still some questionable evidence.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:This was seen by some as a smoking gun, indicating a willingness to see an incident occur that might embroil the United States.
Speaker A:Others argue it was simply Churchill wanting trade to continue despite the known risks, knowing that any German aggression against neutral ships would be diplomatically damaging to Germany.
Speaker B:The allure of the conspiracy is also fueled by claims of missing Admiralty documents from the period when official records are incomplete.
Speaker B:It naturally breeds suspicion that something is being hidden.
Speaker B:Whether this is due to wartime secrecy, bureaucratic bungling or an actual cover up is, of course, debatable.
Speaker A:Churchill was undeniably a pragmatic and sometimes ruthless wartime leader.
Speaker A: That February: Speaker A:It doesn't prove he plotted to sink the Lusitania, though, but it helps explain why he became such a central figure in these enduring and disturbing theories.
Speaker B:The sinking of The Lusitania, with 128American lives lost, sent shock waves across the Atlantic and landed squarely on President Woodrow Wilson's desk.
Speaker B:American public opinion, while initially calling for facts, quickly turned to outrage.
Speaker A:Wilson was in a tough spot.
Speaker A:He had campaigned on keeping America out of the war.
Speaker A:Yet here was a blatant attack that killed American civilians.
Speaker A:Former President Theodore Roosevelt was Scathing, demanding military reprisal and criticizing Wilson's cautious approach.
Speaker B:Wilson opted for diplomacy, at least initially.
Speaker B:The US government sent a series of strongly worded diplomatic notes to Germany.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:It stated that the US Government cannot admit that the adoption of such measures or such a warning of danger to operate is in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands.
Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker A:Germany's initial response was defiant.
Speaker A:They argued the Lusitania was carrying munitions, which, as we've seen, was at least partially true.
Speaker A:And they argued that the Lusitania was listed as an auxiliary cruiser, making her a legitimate target.
Speaker A:They also pointed to the newspaper warnings.
Speaker B:The diplomatic back and forth continued for months.
Speaker B: actually resigned in June of: Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:rights would be deemed deliberately unfriendly, which was strong diplomatic language.
Speaker A:It's clear Wilson was trying to walk a tightrope.
Speaker A:He was attempting to uphold American rights and honor, pacify public anger, but but also avoid being dragged into a massive European conflict.
Speaker A:This was a monumental task.
Speaker B:While Wilson engaged in diplomacy, the propaganda machines went into overdrive.
Speaker B:In Britain and America, the sinking became a powerful symbol of German barbarity.
Speaker B:The loss of innocent lives, especially women and children, was heavily emphasized.
Speaker A:The phrase Remember the Lusitania became a public, potent rallying cry, much like remember the main had been in the Spanish American war that we covered in a previous episode.
Speaker A:Recruitment posters featured images of a sinking Lusitania or drowning mothers and children designed to stir outrage and encourage enlistment.
Speaker B:One particularly effective piece of British propaganda was their reproduction of the German Carl Getz medal.
Speaker B:Getz had actually incorrectly dated the sinking as May 5, which was two days earlier, on his original satirical medal.
Speaker B:And the British seized on this mass produced copies and sold them, claiming the incorrect date was proof the Germans had premeditated the attack on that specific day.
Speaker B:A clever, if deceitful piece of psychological warfare.
Speaker A:The Germans, of course, had their own propaganda, emphasizing the Lusitania's alleged role as an armed auxiliary carrying war supplies and the Lusitania owner company as a reckless company.
Speaker A:But in the court of Allied public opinion, and especially in America, the image of Germany as the aggressor ruthlessly sinking a Passenger ship took firm hold.
Speaker B:The sheer volume of American casualties, including prominent figures like Alfred Vanderbilt, ensured constant press coverage and kept the tragedy in the public consciousness.
Speaker B:It solidified anti German sentiment even if it didn't immediately lead to war.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:See, the sinking of the Lusitania wouldn't be the reason the United States would enter World War I.
Speaker A:But the Lusitania crisis did lead to a temporary shift in German policy and public opinion.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:Under this pledge, Germany promised to stop the indiscriminate sinking of non military ships.
Speaker B:Merchant ships would be searched and sunk only if they were found to be carrying contraband and only after safe passage had been provided for crew and passengers.
Speaker B:This somewhat eased tensions with the United States for a while while, but it.
Speaker A:Was only a temporary reprieve.
Speaker A: By early: Speaker B: st of: Speaker B:This telegram, discovered by British code breakers, was a secret German proposal of an alliance with Mexico against the United States.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:So while the Lusitania wasn't the sole cause of America's entry into the war, it was undeniably a pivotal event.
Speaker B:And it exposed the brutality of modern warfare, galvanized public opinion, and set the stage for America's eventual and decisive involvement.
Speaker A:And what of the Lusitania herself?
Speaker A:She still lies in about 300ft of water 11 miles off the Irish coast.
Speaker A:The wreck is in poor condition, with the ship lying on her starboard side, largely flattened by time and strong currents.
Speaker B:The sinking of the Lusitania was a tragedy born of war, hubris, and perhaps deliberate calculation, and played a crucial role in shaping the course of the 20th century.
Speaker A:A crime of war?
Speaker A:Undoubtedly.
Speaker A:But was it also a crime of conspiracy, of a nation sacrificing its own to achieve a greater strategic aim?
Speaker A:The jury of history, it seems, is still out on at least some of those charges.
Speaker B:Thank you for joining us today on history's greatest crimes.
Speaker B:I'm Elena.
Speaker A:And I'm Michael.
Speaker A:Until next time, stay curious.
Speaker A:Curious.
