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.
By David Selzer