SS LUSITANIA ON HER SEA TRIALS 1907
An amateur photographer was lucky
enough, or sufficiently patient,
to catch the Clydebank-made Lusitania
from a sheep-cropped Anglesey headland
– with her four funnels, six decks for passengers,
the hidden glistening luxury
of a grand hotel – on her sea trials
in the Irish Sea. The transatlantic route
was a lucrative race between the British
and the Germans – part of the long proxy war
before the War itself. The Admiralty
subsidised Cunard to build the steamer.
Eight years later, a U-boat sank her,
eleven miles off the Kinsale Lighthouse
in County Cork. All fifteen hundred perished.
There was justification, and outrage.
The USA entered the Great War.
Though a salvageable wreck, she is deemed
dangerous. The hold contains munitions.
The postcard size print is out of focus
and the day is misty, but the four funnels
are unmistakable.
Harvey Lillywhite
July 30, 2022Yes…’six decks for passengers,
the hidden glistening luxury
of a grand hotel’.
Lovely language. The luxury of the upper deck first class passengers riding atop those huddled below in tiny berths. The new century was bursting with optimism, tipsy with opportunity, and still fully able to hide any shame.
Mary Clark
July 30, 2022The ship was carrying ammunition, using the passengers as shields. What is the value of sinking a ship with a limited supply of munitions versus the lives of unknowing people? Did the Germans know it would cause what is now called Fake Outrage? Did the Allies think the Germans would hold off for these reasons? She made such an easy target.