The Lusitania Story

By Mitch Peeke

The Lusitania Story is the complete story of this most famous ocean liner, told for the first time in a single volume. The Lusitania is today most remembered for controversy surrounding her loss by a German submarine attack in 1915, during the First World War. But this book also tells of her life before that cataclysmic event. It tells of the ground-breaking advances in maritime engineering that she represented, as well as a hitherto unheard of degree of opulence. This book also takes a close look at the disaster which befell her and, with the help of leading experts, the authors examine the circumstances of her loss and try to determine why this magnificent vessel was lost in a mere eighteen minutes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 6, 2002
• ISBN: 9781783400386

Book preview

Also by Mitch Peeke and Kevin Walsh-Johnson

Lusitania and Beyond:

The Life of Commodore William Thomas Turner

First published in Great Britain in 2002 by

LEO COOPER

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books,

47 Church Street,

Barnsley

South Yorkshire,

S70 2AS

Copyright © 2002 Mitch Peeke, Steven Jones

and Kevin Walsh-Johnson

ISBN 0 85052 902 6

ISBN 9781783400386 (epub)

ISBN 9781783400126 (prc)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

Typeset in 11/13pt Sabon by

Phoenix Typesetting, Burley-in-Wharfedale, West Yorkshire.

Printed in England by

CPI UK

We would like to dedicate this book to:

The City and People of Liverpool, Lusitania's hometown,

who do so much to keep the memory of her alive.

Jay, my wife who is my ‘Sunshine on a rainy day’ and whose

love, faith and support have always been to the fore.

(Even though she came very close to being

a ‘Lusitania widow’ herself at times!)

Mitch

Sonja, my wife with much love and affection.

Kevin

Kim, my wife; also my children Sian and Matthew,

all of whom graciously endured the long hours

I spent on the computer!

Steven

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Forces of Creation

Design

Building the Dream

Launch

Fitting Out

Trials and Alterations

Lusitania in Service

War

The Last Departure

The 202nd Atlantic Voyage

The Sinking of the Lusitania

Public Enquiries: The Crown v The Truth

The Wreck of the Lusitania

What Sank the Lusitania?

Epilogue

Appendix I Passenger and Crew List for Lusitania's Last Voyage

Appendix II Cunard Obligations: 1903 Agreement

Appendix III Lusitania Online

Appendix IV Dimensions and Statistics of RMS Lusitania

Bibliography

Index

Foreword

by F. Gregg Bemis Jr., owner of the Lusitania wreck.

While on the ‘lecture circuit’, the most frequently asked question is ‘how can you own the Lusitania?’ The answer is incredibly simple and straightforward. You buy it from whomever has the title, which in this case was the London-Liverpool War Reclamations Board. So far this ownership trail has been thoroughly tested first in the British Admiralty Court in 1985–6, then the Federal District Court in America in 1994–5, and finally the High Court in Ireland in 1996. In each and all cases my ownership of the wreck was confirmed. Strangely enough there are still people who find this to be inconclusive. You just can't please everybody.

But a much more interesting question that also gets asked is ‘why would you want to own the Lusitania?’ This is even asked from time to time by members of my family. But of course that is a loaded question, just as may have been the case with the Lusitania herself. Despite her present condition she was and still is, a beauty to behold, all 790 feet of her. With the same blind pride that a parent has for its child, to me the Lusitania remains a magnificent creation as well as profound challenge.

In 1968 when my then partner, George Macomber, and I became involved with John Light in his obsession with the ship, we were trying to build a saturation diving system that could provide the facilities to solve the mysteries of her sinking, as well as the ability to salvage her valuables. Such systems at that time were basically laboratories. Today you can charter them for $50-$70,000 a day. We were ahead of our time by several years and, as it turned out, several dollars short of what was needed. Our failure to reach the brass ring in no way detracts from either her beauty or her immense place in history. It did whet my appetite to pursue, at the appropriate time, the challenges inherent in discovering the secrets of her untimely and rapid demise.

As surely as she is the second most famous wreck after the Titanic's confrontation with an iceberg, she is nevertheless number ONE in the diving world. Resting on the bottom at only about 300 feet, she is the Mount Everest of the Technical Diving community. Attainable only with great skills and at considerable risk, she sings her siren's song to all those adventurous divers who have a sense of history and challenge.

My efforts continue to be directed towards revealing her secrets as well as towards the creation of museum exhibits and educational displays to stimulate interest in the important place she holds in international history, along with related politics and practices. It would be my hope that books such as this will help fuel the curiosity of those capable of financing and filming a major forensic examination of this truly lovely and lonely lady.

Today the technology is available, the human skill and interest is all around us; it is only a question of time before we find out the crucial missing information. Where exactly, to the foot, did the torpedo hit the ship? (No one has seen the hole.) Where exactly did the well-reported major second explosion take place? And hence what was the likely cause? There have been many hypotheses but no hard proof, and yet the proof is just a few yards out of sight under the seabed, 300 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, just beckoning for revelation.

This book is styled as a biography of a great lady of history. I commend the authors for their excellent efforts to bring her ‘alive’ for all of us. Similarly I will look forward to the time when we can close the story with a full and accurate explanation of her final cataclysmic death. It will be the final chapter only when we do the work beneath the waves that remains to be done.

Respectfully and thankfully.

F. Gregg Bemis Jr.

Acknowledgements

We would particularly like to acknowledge the tremendous help and information given to us by the following institutions:

National Maritime Museum, London, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, New York Public Library, The Museum of the City of New York, University of Liverpool (Cunard archives), Public Record Office, London, Archives department of Hill, Dickinson & Co. (Cunard's lawyers).

On a much more personal level we would like to thank:

Stephen Rodgers of GE Power Systems, Clydebank, (Formerly John Brown Engineering Ltd), Helmut Doeringhoff of the Bundesmilitärarchiv in Freiburg, Germany, Mrs Margaret Phillips of Kent County Library Services, Don Blows, for his computer work, Peter Engberg-Klarstrom, of the Scandinavian Titanic Society, Chief Engineer David Garstin RN (retired) who was a font of knowledge regarding the Lusitania's turbine engines, Dr John Bullen, Maritime Curator of the Imperial War Museum, London, Stan Walter, former curator of the Royal Artillery Museum, London, Colonel J. M. Phillips, BA MsocSC and his staff, of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust, Frederick Peeke, a former gunner with the Royal Artillery, Geoff Whitfield, Honorary Secretary of the British Titanic Society, whose invaluable research has made the passenger and crew list the comprehensive document that it now is and Peter Boyd-Smith of Cobwebs, Southampton, for allowing us to photograph the Lusitania artefacts in his possession and to use those photographs in this book. Lastly, though by no means least our sincere thanks and everlasting gratitude to F. Gregg Bemis Jr. for his continued support, for writing the foreword to this book and for his much-valued cooperation with the chapter ‘The wreck of the Lusitania’.

Introduction

RMS Lusitania. The very mention of her name summons a vision of disaster. Ask anyone what they know of the Lusitania and the vague reply will invariably be something like, ‘Wasn't that the big liner the Germans sank? First World War, wasn't it?’ Others may even go so far as to confuse the Lusitania with the ill-fated Titanic, or they may tell you that it was the sinking of the Lusitania that brought America into the war. Or was that Pearl Harbour? Can't remember now.

Prior to 1915 however, the mention of RMS Lusitania to anyone then living would not have brought any vague reply. Everyone knew of her, for she and her sister ship, RMS Mauretania, were the pride of the Cunard Line and supreme proof, if proof were needed, that Britannia, through her Royal and Merchant fleets, did indeed rule the waves.

But it was so long ago now, beyond living memory almost. And yet there remains a marked degree of mystique surrounding the Lusitania. With the Titanic story now patently suffering from overkill, media and public interest is rapidly turning toward the largely forgotten Lusitania. Sadly though, few will bother to look beyond the disaster of Friday, 7 May 1915. Hardly anyone will take the time to look at the Lusitania's real story, which actually starts in 1902. The events of that fateful Friday have completely blocked the view of her previous life and career, of her great achievements and the groundbreaking advances in the technology of her day that she represented.

Is this the mystique of the Lusitania? Undoubtedly for some it is, whilst for others, there is all the allure of a great sunken ship and the many rumours that will always surround such a vessel, such as the popular myth that like almost any lost ship, she was supposedly carrying an absolute fortune in gold bullion. Could it perhaps be all the ‘If only's’ that attend the story of her final voyage? If only Captain Turner or Kapitänleutnant Schwieger had taken different courses of action. If only the torpedo had hit her elsewhere. If only the Admiralty had provided an effective escort for her. If only she hadn't been carrying munitions.

The sinking of the Lusitania, unlike that of the Titanic, was a totally man-made disaster, a deliberate act and therefore a much bigger event in world history. The Titanic disaster held far-reaching consequences for the hitherto complacent sphere of maritime safety regulations. The Lusitania disaster held far-reaching consequences for the complacency of human nature, as well as world history.

Yet for all this, her story, like the ship herself, seems to have been largely forgotten for some strange reason and for us at least, this is the ultimate mystique of the Lusitania. This is what made us want to write this book.

Until now, if one had wanted to read her complete story, one would have to study at least six different books, all of which will throw differing opinions at the reader. One would then have to make a determined attempt to sort the wheat from the chaff, in order just to begin building a picture of this truly fascinating ship for oneself.

Unlike the story of the Titanic, no blockbuster movie has ever been made about the Lusitania, even though her loss was the much bigger event. Of the few television documentaries that have been made, most, if not all, stop short of telling anything like her full story for fear of the controversy that still surrounds her loss.

In the Lusitania story, one has all the classic ingredients of an enduring tale: a good sea story, a remarkable technical achievement, a study of the social history of her era, shipwreck on a grand scale and an epic ‘whodunit?’ complete with high-level cover-up. Her story is all the more fascinating for being fact rather than fiction.

In this book, we have tried to bring the best of these ingredients together for the first time into a single volume, to tell the truly absorbing story of a long-forgotten ship and her people. We believe this to be a story that the world has been waiting for, perhaps without even realizing that it has been waiting. So here then, for the first time, is her complete story from conception to sinking. It is a cradle to the grave account of one of the most remarkable ships ever to have graced the deep ocean. The RMS Lusitania.

Forces of Creation

The start of the twentieth century heralded many new inventions and many new ideas. It was a time of wonder; a time when what often seemed impossible on one day, became a reality the next. The motor car, powered flight, electric light, the gramophone, the telephone, all were perfect examples of this ‘great age of miracles’; a time of man's seemingly unstoppable progress in technology.

Britain was then at the forefront of world affairs and her shipbuilding, railway and heavy engineering industries were unrivalled anywhere. The British Empire was at the zenith of its influence during this period, which also saw sharp social contrasts at home. The rich were quite secure in their affluence and the poor were largely content to watch and wonder at them with reverence. The middle class sat where their name suggested, comfortably watching both extremes; aspiring to one, yet reviling the other. In this pre-Hollywood era, the rich and titled served as all the celebrity value that the working classes required. People who had wealth had never had it so good, and they took a great delight in their public display of it.

But ‘the Gilded Age’ as it became known, also signalled the end of many long-held beliefs, one of these being that as Britannia firmly ruled the waves and would do so for the foreseeable future, no other nation would even contemplate building a navy as strong or stronger than Britain's.

Ever since the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the British had considered that having the strongest navy in the world was of the utmost importance for trade, as well as being a matter of extreme national pride. There were few men in the British Admiralty who could see that things were changing, and that unless Britain did something quickly, she would be overtaken by new ‘upstart’ seafaring nations such as Germany.

Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany was growing in world stature day by day. As Queen Victoria's grandson, Wilhelm felt that Germany should not live in the shadow of the British Empire but take what he deemed to be her rightful place in world affairs. He felt that with German industry also booming, it was only fitting that Germany should possess an Empire of her own.

Kaiser Wilhelm knew that the lynchpin of his grandmother's Empire was the Royal Navy, ‘the police force of the Empire’, guarding British trade and foreign interests. The Royal Navy had an envied worldwide reputation for its invincibility, and Kaiser Wilhelm knew that for any major power with colonial interests, sea power was the all-important factor. He therefore wanted an ‘invincible’ navy too. In the