The Day the World Was Shocked: The Lusitania Disaster and Its Influence on the Course of World War I

摘要

When Cunard launched the Lusitania in 1906, she was one of the largest and most luxurious passenger liners ever built. Displacing over 32,000 tons and capable of more than 26 knots, she was able to cross the Atlantic in less than five days. The outbreak of World War I did not deter Cunard from continuing its transatlantic passenger and mail service. On a foggy afternoon on 7 May 1915, Kapitanleutnant Walther Schwieger and his crew of submarine U-20 torpe-! Doed the Lusitania off the south coast of Ireland. Though her sinking outraged Americans, the ocean liner met her fate almost two years before the United States formally entered World War I.