ABSTRACT
The British passenger liner RMS Lusitania, built for the transatlantic trade between Europe and North America, was one of the largest such vessels of her time. For much of the first year of conflict during the Great War her owners and operator, Cunard Line, employed the vessel on scheduled passenger services between Liverpool and New York. On 7 May 1915, while steaming off the south coast of Ireland on the homeward passage towards Liverpool, Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine, U-20. Though only one torpedo was fired in the attack, two separate and distinct explosions followed, and the liner sank in 18 minutes with the loss of 1201 lives. Amongst the dead were 128 citizens of the then neutral USA. The sinking and its collateral effects became the focus of a major propaganda campaign by Great Britain, and was ultimately an influential factor in drawing America into the war as a British ally.
Favourable propaganda for the British side was contingent on media acceptance that Lusitania was unarmed and carried no contraband cargo. German justification for the attack was the conviction that the ship was carrying substantial consignments of war munitions thus making her a legitimate military target. This paper reviews aspects of the incident in light of the original manifest for the fateful voyage.
