"She Was Glorious"—The Pre-Sinking History of RMS Lusitania

First Class Dining, RMS Lusitania

Inception

The Liverpool-based shipping company Cunard ordered the R.M.S. Lusitania and its sister ship, the R.M.S. Mauretania, in 1902. Lusitania was built by the shipyard of John Brown & Co. in Scotland. For Cunard, the two ocean liners had a shared purpose: to restore Britain’s dominance in the transatlantic passenger travel industry by beating its German (and, to a lesser degree, American) competition. To build the Lusitania and Mauretania, Cunard secured a £2.6 million, low-interest subsidy from the British government (in today’s currency, that’s about £300 million). Cunard also received an annual operating subsidy of £75,000, or about £8.6 million today, for each ship, and a contract worth £68,000 each, or £7.8 million today, to transport mail. The ships were designed to accommodate 563 first-class, 464 second-class, and 1138 third-class passengers, plus 802 crew.

As another part of the loan arrangement, Cunard guaranteed that both ships would be able to cruise at a speed of at least 24.5 knots (about 28 mph). That would make the Lusitania and Mauretania faster than the speediest German liners, which could run just over 23 knots. To meet this challenge, Cunard installed four steam turbine engines, each with its own screw propeller, a first for ocean liners. The new technology in the Lusitania required “68 additional furnaces, six more boilers, 52,000 square feet of heating surface, and an increase of 30,000 horsepower.”

An Arrival in New York

The Very Best Accommodations

The ship was promoted as a "floating palace," featuring a two-story dining salon, a veranda café, a smoking room, electric lighting, and elevators. First class passengers enjoyed lavish suites. Each class of passenger accommodation featured dining rooms, smoking rooms, ladies’ lounges, nurseries, and other public spaces. They ranged in opulence from plush Georgian and Queen Anne styles in the first-class compartments to plain but comfortable in third class. The Lusitania was also the first ocean liner to have elevators, as well as a wireless telegraph, telephones, and electric lights.

Onboard dining included dozens of dishes at each seating for the most discerning Edwardian gastronomes. A luncheon menu from January 1908 suggested appetizers like potted shrimps, omelette aux tomates, lamb pot pie, and grilled sirloin steak or mutton chops. A variety of cold meats—Cumberland ham, roast beef, boiled ox tongue, boar’s head, and more—was served next. For dessert, guests could nibble on fancy pastry, compote of prunes and rice, cheeses, fruits, and nuts.

First Class Sleeping Accommodation 

Prewar Operations

On 7 September 1907, the Lusitania departed Liverpool on its maiden voyage enroute to New York with a stop in Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland. “She presented an impressive picture as she left with her mighty funnels and brilliant illuminations,” the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser reported. “Throughout the day there was a continuous stream of sightseers on board, and the departure was witnessed by about 200,000 people.” 

Cunard desperately wanted to win back the Blue Riband, an unofficial title for the fastest average time on a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, from the German superliners. Bad weather prevented the Lusitania from reaching its top speed on the first try, but on the voyage from 6–10 October 1907, the ship reached an average speed of 23.99 knots, breaking the Germans' record. She soon became known as the "Greyhound of the Seas."

Lusitania's popularity would grow throughout her early service. The ship provided a combination of unmatched speed and reliability, an ever-growing reputation for safety, luxury, and comfort, and the gold star status for its passengers of having traveled on the world's most stylish and fastest ocean liner.

R.M.S. Lusitania would complete 101 round-trip voyages (202 crossings) between Liverpool and New York, between 1907 and 1915.

How the Ship Would Have Looked During the War

Wartime Service

Instead of being fully converted into a military vessel, Lusitania continued when war broke out to operate as a luxury passenger liner to maintain passenger, mail, and trade routes between Great Britain and the neutral United States. Sister ship Mauritania, meanwhile, did perform unambiguous military service as a transport vessel for Canadian troops and as a hospital ship. 

Nevertheless, the Lusitania was registered as an armed auxiliary cruiser with the British Admiralty, designed for quick conversion if needed. While never officially fitted with guns, she was modified with hidden cargo spaces for ammunition, additional compass platforms, cranes, and dark paint to mask her funnels

One major controversy broke out during her wartime operations. At times its captains ordered the American flag to be flown to deter submarine attacks. British diplomats, naturally, defended the practice, while their American counterparts strongly disagreed, as expressed in a 10 February 1915 memorandum:

Assuming that the foregoing reports are true, the Government of the United States, reserving for future consideration the legality and propriety of the deceptive use of the flag of a neutral power in any case for the purpose of avoiding capture, desires very respectfully to point out to His Britannic Majesty’s Government the serious consequences which may result to American vessels and American citizens if this practice is continued.

At some point, the Lusitania began carrying war contraband. While long denied, on its final voyage, Lusitania carried 4.2 million rounds of Remington .303 rifle ammunition, 18 cases of fuses, and 125 cases of shrapnel shells. Presumably, the last voyage was not the first occasion of this practice. Of course, the public was never made of aware of any of this activity.

The Departing Lusitania Passengers of 1 May 1915

The Passengers at Wartime

Early-war travel on Lusitania was not without excitement, although U-boats were not yet a consideration. When war broke out in Europe, Lusitania was under way for Europe. One voyager aboard later described arriving from America in the war zone: 

When we arrived off the Welsh coast at night we had a sterner omen of strife, for searchlights from the shore were constantly played on us. But there was no apparent anxiety among the passengers, since that was before the days of submarine ” frightfulness,” and we docked safely.

By 1915, however, the passengers were quite conscious of the U-boat danger. Californian Will Irwin was aboard a February 1915 eastbound trip.

The “state of war” begins, in fact, at the pier. This was no common sailing of an Atlantic liner, anyone could see that with half an eye. There was much excitement in the crowd which came to bid us goodbye, much emotion expressed and suppressed. Wives clung emotionally to their husbands; a few women, blinded by their tears, refused to wait to see us off, but ran away down the pier before the deckhands drew up the gangplank.

Journalist Charles Edward Russell described the passengers' mindset on an April 1915  crossing:

Nobody talks about submarines, battleships nor sunken vessels. By some secret psychology the whole subject is dropped. Also we bear ourselves with an elaborate unconcern. But one thing betrays us. At dinner there is some crash of machinery somewhere below, and half the company jump up breathless. Tension–we all feel it.

Multiple Warnings

Cunard and the passengers and crew of RMS Lusitania received multiple warnings regarding the danger of German submarine attacks before its departure on 1 May 1915, though the final attack in the Irish Sea would come without warning from the captain of U-20. Public warnings from the German Embassy in Washington D.C. were published in newspapers as early as 22 April. On the day the Lusitania departed New York, another notice was published in 50 American newspapers warning that vessels flying the British flag were liable to destruction and that travelers on these ships did so at their own risk reminding them that "vessels flying the flags of the Allies are liable to destruction in the war zone around the British Isles." 

When the Lusitania sailed on 1 May it had aboard 1,210 passengers. A number of the passengers received telegrams at the pier, signed by names unknown to them and presumed to be fictitious, advising them not to sail as the liner was to be torpedoed by submarines. Among the persons who received such a telegram was Alfred G. Vanderbilt. He destroyed the message without comment.  Overall, though, the Cunard office received only a typical number of last-minute cancellations.

The first six days of her last crossing were typically uneventful for the passengers. However, Captain William Turner received at least three specific warnings from the British Admiralty regarding submarine activity ahead in the area off the southern coast of Ireland.

Where the Last Voyage Would End

Then the World Changed

In the early afternoon of 7 May, able seaman Leslie Morton began his scheduled watch at 2 p.m. He later  told the BBC:

It was a beautiful day; the sea was like glass. And as we were going to be in Liverpool the next day, everybody felt very happy. We hadn’t paid a great deal of attention to the threats to sink her because we didn’t think it was possible. . . Ten past two, I saw a disturbance in the water, obviously the air coming up from a torpedo tube. And I saw two torpedoes running toward the ship, fired diagonally across the course. The 'Lucy' was making about 16 knots at the time. I reported them to the bridge with a megaphone, we had torpedoes coming on the starboard side. And by the time I had time to turn round and have another look, they hit her amidships between No. 2 and 3 funnels.

Last Photograph of the Lusitania

We have a number of articles on the sinking  of RMS Lusitania and the event's influence on America's march to war HERE. 

Sources for this article:  The Liverpool National Museum; Mental Floss, 3 May 2022; Office of the Historian, Department of State; Gare Maritime