RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania arriving in New York City in 1907 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | RMS Lusitania |
| Namesake | Lusitania |
| Owner | Cunard Line |
| Port of registry | Liverpool |
| Route | Liverpool – Queenstown – New York |
| Builder | John Brown & Co, Clydebank |
| Yard number | 367 |
| Laid down | 17 August 1904 |
| Launched | 7 June 1906 |
| Christened | Mary, Lady Inverclyde |
| Acquired | 26 August 1907 |
| Maiden voyage | 7 September 1907 |
| In service | 1907 – 1915 |
| Out of service | 7 May 1915 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Torpedoed and sunk by the SM U-20, on 7 May 1915 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | 31,550 GRT, 12,611 NRT |
| Displacement | 44,060 long tons (44,767.0 t) |
| Length | |
| Beam | 87.8 ft (26.8 m) |
| Height | 65 ft (19.8 m) to boat deck, 165 ft (50.3 m) to aerials, 104 ft (31.7 m) from keel to top of boat deck, 144 ft (43.9 m) from keel to top of funnels |
| Draught | 33.6 ft (10.2 m) |
| Depth | 56.6 ft (17.3 m) |
| Decks | 6 passenger decks, 10 overall |
| Installed power | 25 fire-tube boilers; four direct-acting Parsons steam turbines producing 76,000 hp (57 MW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Capacity | 552 first class, 460 second class, 1,186 third class; 2,198 total. |
| Crew | 850 |
| Notes | First British four-funnelled ocean liner |
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. The Royal Mail Ship, the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister Mauretania three months later, in 1907 regained for Britain the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing, which had been held by German ships for a decade.
During World War I, Lusitania was listed as armed merchant cruiser (AMC) and carried both British munitions and US citizens on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing, when on 7 May 1915 at 14:10 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, the German submarine U-20 fired a single torpedo, triggering a second explosion and the sinking about 18 minutes later. Only 6 of several dozen lifeboats and rafts were successfully lowered, and of 1,960 persons on board, 767 survived and 1,193 perished.
The sinking, which killed over 100 US citizens, significantly increased American domestic public support for entering the war which occurred two years later in 1917 with the United States declaration of war on Germany.