The Lusitania sank 109 years ago today!

I Love Lusitania.

Op are you a survivor?

Turns out she was carrying some war materiel, so were the Germans justified?

When the Lusitania was torpedoed by a U-boat off the southwest coast of Ireland during the Great War, twelve hundred men, women and children lost their lives. And among them, Father.

I'm sure some DLers were on it that post here, and still don't look a day over 35.

Crank up the Victrola and let's sing Abide with Me in memoriam!

we know maxx.

I was celebrating my 75th birthday!

DL fave Luise Rainer was actually alive then.

Was dewy ingenue Catherine Zeta-Jones on board?

Thank God I survived.

^But the 90 million men that you were to give an STD after surviving this feel much differently.

What's so special about 109?

[quote] so were the Germans justified?

Absolutely so. The civilian passengers were used by the Brits as human shields to sneak the munitions aboard into the UK. The last I saw on the subject the wreck was still off-limits for divers under orders from the Royall Navy.

Additionally Lusitania's construction was subsidized by the Admiralty on condition it be designed and built to serve as an auxiliary warship for the Navy.

The Germans gave potential passengers fair warning but were ignored.

The funny thing – well, I don't know if funny is the right word – is that the Germans stopped their policy of unrestricted naval warfare after the Lusitania outrage. And resumed it again after six months because they really had no other choice.

People sometimes imagine this event is what caused the Americans to enter the war the very next day, but that wasn't the case. It did help shift the American public opinion against Germany, though.

Only on DL would someone beat me to that, R4. Nice.

In 1918 there was a brilliant piece of Hate-the-Hun propaganda produced about the sinking. I can just imagine audiences of the day weeping as they watched the cartoon.

Animated Cartoons!

Loose taint yeah

I’m listening to a historical novel called THE GLASS OCEAN about the sinking of the Lusitania on Audible right now. It’s one of those novels written by three women, each taking the point of view of a different character, a rich married woman on the boat (Rose), a jewel thief in second class (Jack) and a modern day descendant of a survivor (Bill Paxton).