When she left for Liverpool, England, the Lusitania carried a large number of US passengers, despite the fact that the German authorities had published a warning in US newspapers on the morning of her departure. The notice read:
Many of the 1,257 passsengers believed that the luxury liner was unlikely to be a target to the Germans as it had no military value. However, unknown to her passengers, apart from her normal cargo of meat, medical supplies, copper, cheese, oil and machinery, the Lusitania also carrying a large quantity of munitions for the British to use during the war.
The Lusitania was captained by William Turner who, with his experience and a crew of 702, should certainly have been on alert for any Germany activity. As the giant liner left the shores of New York, a German U-boat was leaving, captained by Captain Walter Schwieger. He had been ordered to sail to the northern tip of Great Britain, join the Irish Channel and destroy any ships travelling from and to Liverpool, England. Schwieger was known to have frequently attacked ships without giving any warning, firing at any he suspected of being British.
Before the Lusitania set out on its voyage, it was decided to only light 19 of the 25 boilers on board to save on the enormous consumption of coal. This meant that the Lusitania was now limited to a speed of 21 knots, still much faster than a U-boat submarine, with a top speed of 13 knots.
The first few days of the luxury liner’s voyage were uneventful, unlike those of the German submarine. As Schwieger rounded the south-west tip of Ireland, he attempted to destroy several ships, but was unsuccessful. The same day he spotted a small schooner, the Earl of Lathom, and first surfacing to warn crew, opened fire and destroyed the boat. The following day Schwieger continued his journey to the Irish Sea, firing torpedoes at the steamer Candidate, and about two hours later he destroyed another ship, the Centurion. For some reason, even though the captain of the Lusitania received several warnings that a German U-boat had destroyed three British ships in the waters he was about to cross, he failed to take any action to avoid being attacked.
Schwieger was running low on fuel by this point and instead of travelling past Liverpool, he decided to turn back. This meant that the Lusitania and the U-boat were about to cross paths.
On 7 May, the Lusitania entered the most dangerous part of her journey and, apparently concerned about poor weather conditions, Captain Turner actually slowed the boat down. On top of that, Turner was ignoring all the rules for avoiding attack, sailing too close to the shore, where the U-boats usually sat in waiting. However, Turner trusted his own instincts and experience and ordered extra lookouts and ordered that the lifeboats be swung out ready for evacuation.
Shortly before the U-boat and the Lusitania met, Schwieger had spotted an old war cruiser, the Juno. However, he was unable to hit his target because the captain was using the zigzagging tactic, which made it difficult to fire at due to its constantly changing course. Captain Turner, however, did not use this tactic because he felt that it wasted both time and fuel.
At 1.20 p.m. the U-boat spotted something large in its sight:
Starboard ahead four funnels and two masts of a steamer with a course at right angles to us…
Schwieger submerged and stealthily approached the enormous steamer. At 1.40 p.m. the Lusitania was about 700 m (765 yd) away and even turned towards the U-boat, making its target much easier. Schwieger ordered for a single torpedo to be fired.
On board the Lusitania, the passengers had just finished their lunch. As Captain Turner went down to his cabin, an 18-year-old lookout by the name of Leslie Morton spotted a burst of bubbles about 400 m (440 yd) from the liner. Then he saw another line of bubbles travelling at about 22 knots, heading towards the starboard (right) side of the ship. Aware that this meant trouble, Morton quickly grabbed the megaphone and shouted to the bridge:
Torpedoes coming on the starboard side.
Just a few seconds later, the lookout posted in the crow’s nest, Thomas Quinn, sounded the alarm when he noticed the torpendo’s wake. Captain Turner quickly ran to the ship’s bridge, but as he reached it the torpedo exploded on impact.
There was a large explosion as the torpedo penetrated the hull just below the waterline. The initial explosion set off a violent secondary blast, which appeared to come from the bottom of the ship. The Lusitania tilted to the right at an angle of 25 degrees. The wireless room had to tap out its SOS message using battery power, as the main power had gone out with the explosion.
Because of the violent tilt of the ship, the lifeboats on the port (left) side were unable to be launched. The lifeboats on the starboard side were swung out so far, that it meant passengers had to make a huge leap from the deck to actually get into the boats. Many of the crew members panicked as the ship started to sink, launching lifeboats that only carried a few people. Some of the lifeboats capsized, and some were damaged when the torpedo hit, so, despite the fact that the Lusitania carried enough lifeboats for everyone on board, the simple fact was that the majority of them could not be launched for one reason or another.
Within 18 minutes of the torpedo hitting the ship, the Lusitania sank, taking with it 1,195 of the 1,959 on board. Captain Turner jumped as the water covered the bridge, and he swam around for about three hours before being rescued by a nearby lifeboat, which was already overloaded with people.
Captain Walter Schwieger had watched through his periscope from the moment the torpedo hit the Lusitania, and made notes in his log. It clearly stated that his U-boat only fired one single torpedo, but that it caused an unusually large explosion. The secondary explosion was due to the 4,200 cases of small arms ammunition that the Lusitania was carrying in its hold, making her a legitimate target for the German U-boat.
The distress signals sent out by the Lusitania reached Queenstown, Ireland, which was about 17 km (10 miles) away. Vice Admiral Sir Charles Coke organized as many rescue ships as he had available and told their captains to sail to where the Lusitania had sent its last signal. It took them about two hours to reach the six remaining lifeboats and any survivors still in the water. In total they picked up 761 people, a disaster that had only been rivalled by the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
News of the disaster was sent across the Atlantic to New York, and partly because of the large number of Americans on board, they were outraged at the sinking of the Lusitania. Out of the 197 who boarded the liner only 69 survived. Riots occurred in many countries at the injustice of the attack, and stores worldwide refused to serve any German customers. Anti-German protests and political cartoons started to appear with regularity, and President Woodrow Wilson sent the first of four notes regarding the Lusitania incident on 13 May.
The Germans tried to defend themselves by claiming that the Lusitania was not only armed, but that it was also carrying war munitions for the destruction of German soldiers. Although the first claim was not true, the second was proved many years later when some secret British documents were intercepted.