Ocean liner "Lusitania" - the tragic fate of the ship. Lusitania

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"Range 700, bearing 90, nose number ... pli!"

Without taking his eyes off the periscope, V. Schwieger, the commander of the German submarine U-20, commanded. Thus began the tragedy, which was equated with the death in 1912, after a collision with an iceberg, of the English steamer Titanic, which carried 1,430 people to the bottom of the Atlantic. The comparison is all the more justified, since we are talking about the English liner Lusitania.

... was the first World War. Having lost hope of achieving dominance at sea after the defeat of the English fleet in a pitched battle, Germany launched a merciless struggle against enemy shipping, hoping to force the island empire to seek peace on terms dictated from Berlin. German submariners sank any ships, but especially hunted for large-capacity passenger liners. The fact is that each of them is easy to turn into a high-speed, roomy military transport, and the UK had plenty of such ships. Now let's interrupt our story to be transported to the end of the 19th century.

Then the English Parliament passed a law according to which any commercial vessel, designed for a speed of more than 17 knots, should be designed and built under the supervision of the Admiralty, which reserved the right to use it in wartime. In turn, it undertook to help the shipping companies with finances.

In 1907, Cunard added to its fleet the same type of turbine steamers Lusitania and Mauritania, built by John Brown and Swan Hunter. The Admiralty covered part of the cost of these liners, which had a distinctive, straight stem, well-sighted stern, long, low superstructure, and four slightly sloping chimneys that gave them a graceful, swift appearance. The requirements of the military were taken into account - the full speed was 24 knots, on the upper deck there were foundations for 150-mm guns. In addition, Kunard undertook not to accept foreigners for command positions, but to recruit 75% of the crew from British subjects.

Both ships have gone down in history. "Mauritania" in 1909 crossed the ocean in 4 days, 10 hours and 51 minutes, winning the honorary "Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic" and managing to keep it for 22 years! And the Lusitania...

With the outbreak of war, the Admiralty changed plans for the Cunard liners. "Mauritania" made several voyages as a hospital ship and got laid up for better safety. The Lusitania continued to operate on the Liverpool - New York line.

On May 1, 1915, she left the American port with 1,257 passengers and 702 sailors. And a few days later southwest coast Ireland, a German submarine appeared, sinking two ships there. On the evening of May 6, the captain of the liner, W. Turner, learned from a radio message that

"V southern waters Ireland's submarines have stepped up their operations."

Turner did not receive any recommendations, although the directors of the company and the Admiralty knew that the liner was heading for this area. Turner ordered the boats to be lowered to the level of the promenade deck, so that in which case the passengers would quickly get into them.

Wilson's statement.

Interiors of the Lusitania

At 13:00 on May 7, 1915, one of the sailors of the German submarine U-20 noticed a large four-pipe vessel ahead. He informed Captain Walter Schwieger that he had spotted a large four-tube ship traveling at about 18 knots. The boat had little fuel and only one torpedo, the captain was about to return to base, as the boat noticed that the ship was slowly turning to starboard towards the boat.
The Lusitania was approximately 30 miles (48 km) from the Irish coast when she entered the fog and reduced her speed to 18 knots. She went to the port of Queenstown - now Cobh - in Ireland, to which there were 43 miles (70 km) of the way.
At 14:10 the lookout spotted an approaching torpedo from the starboard side. A moment later, the torpedo hit the starboard side under the bridge. The explosion sent a column of broken steel plating and water up, followed by a second, larger powerful explosion, due to which the Lusitania began to roll heavily to starboard.

The death of the Lusitania

Rescued passengers at Lime Street Station, Liverpool

Pictured is Mr. Cooper, a Canadian journalist, with little Helen Smith, a six-year-old girl who lost both her parents in the Louisitania disaster.

The liner sank in 18 minutes 8 miles (13 km) from Kinsale. 1,198 people died, including almost a hundred children. The bodies of many of the victims were buried in Queenstown in Kinsale, the city near the site of the sinking of the Lusitania.

Disaster survivors arrive in Queenstown

Burial of victims from the Lusitania. London, England 1915

Demonstration against the Germans on Tower Hill in London

Anti-German pogroms after the torpedoing of the Lusitania: many shops whose owners bore German surnames were destroyed. In the photo, the thugs are destroying the Schönfeld cigar warehouse. London, England 1915.

By the beginning of the First World War, the German fleet had only 48 boats, but they turned out to be so effective in the fight against the British fleet (unfortunately, in the fight against peaceful ships - what is the sinking of the Lusitania liner worth) that they were released before the end of the war almost four hundred at sea. About half there and found their end ...

Lieutenant Commander (German: Kapitanleutnant) Walter Schwieger (right). Schwieger commanded the submarine U-20, which sank the British transatlantic liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915. He was lost on September 17, along with the submarine U-88, off the coast of Denmark. He made 17 military campaigns, destroying 190,000 tons of enemy tonnage, and was recognized as the seventh most successful submariner of the Kaiser fleet

The same U-20 that sank the Lisitania became mass grave for your crew...

"Lusitania".

In Germany.

deep-sea submersible "Scorpio" sunken"Lusitania"

December 11th, 2012

The brilliant film version of the death of the Titanic overshadowed the catastrophe itself. This and other mysterious disaster beginning of the century - the death of the Lusitania. A giant English liner with passengers on board, which died under strange and still unclear circumstances.

"... I was awakened by a terrible push. I rushed to the button of the electric bell, but there was probably no current. At that time, whistles, screams and the clatter of hundreds of feet were heard upstairs. The crying of women and children mingled with the roar of the siren. I understood one thing: something terrible has happened.

Taking with me the life belts lying in my cabin, I rushed to upper deck. At the same time, I hardly managed to open the door of the cabin, which turned out to be littered with some debris. It felt like the ship was heeling. Something indescribable was happening on deck.

The bright sun illuminated the ship and about a thousand distraught people, rushing from one side to the other. The crew of the ship was confused despite the fact that the captain, standing on the bridge, gave orders until the last minute; passengers themselves rushed to the lifeboats ...

When I found myself on the surface of the water, the huge ship disappeared, and black dots of people floated around in the vast expanse. In the distance, the vague outlines of the coast of Ireland were visible. The sun was hot, but the water was cold."- Only after two hours, which, as the witness of the disaster recalls, he spent "in a terrible stupor", the rescue ship approached.

Note This is not about the sinking of the Titanic. . A brilliant film version of the famous maritime disaster it is difficult to compare with the stingy and unsophisticated description of events that we reprinted from a Russian journal of 1915. But then, in the days of the death of the huge English passenger ship Lusitania, the world community was literally in a fever from conflicting rumors, assumptions and conjectures. Name shipwreck bowed and conjugated on the pages of newspapers, in government memorandums and ... diplomatic notes.

What happened? The death of the ship seems mysterious, moreover, it seems that until now in England government documents on the "case" of the Lusitania are a strict state secret. And yet we will try to open its veil.

British ocean liner"Lusitania" (RMS Lusitania), known primarily for its luxurious rooms and high-speed capabilities, cruised across the Atlantic Ocean between the US and the UK. Its displacement was about 31 thousand tons, its length was about 240 m (the length of the Titanic was 268 meters), its height was 18.5 m. At that time it was one of largest ships along with the Titanic.

With the commissioning of another Mauritania ship of the same type in November 1907, the Lusitania and Mauritania staged a high-speed dispute and more than once the honorary prize " blue ribbon Atlantic" passed from hand to hand. The Lusitania made her fastest westward voyage at an average speed of 25.85 knots (47.87 km/h) in 1909.

"A large English liner with Americans on board may be sunk."

On May 7, 1915, the huge four-pipe English passenger ship Lusitania, which was on a regular New York-Liverpool flight, was suddenly attacked by a German submarine. U-20 off the south coast of Ireland.

Eighteen minutes after the explosion, the Lusitania was completely submerged. Of the 1959 people on board the Lusitania, 1198 died. According to the official statement of representatives of the British government, there were no weapons, ammunition and military sailors on board the passenger ship. The sinking of the Lusitania was called one of the most tragic events of the First World War. The English journalist K. Simpson has long been interested in the "case" of the Lusitania.

The circumstances of her death, the abundance of carefully fabricated data, wrote K. Simpson, convinced him that the traditional version of the disasters of the Lusitania contains "fundamental omissions and obvious inaccuracies." According to Simpson, documents found in the archives of the British steamship company Cunard Lines, as well as in the US government archives, force the Lusitania "case" to be reconsidered.

May 1, 1915 exactly on schedule "Lusitania" last time went to sea from the pier in the port of New York. In the early morning, the assistant captain of the Lusitania traditionally met passengers at the gangway. On the pier, in addition to rare passengers, he saw a crowd of reporters. They showed the English sailor the morning edition of the New York Tribune.

Among the paid advertisements in the newspaper stood out an ominous warning: Americans were advised not to use the services of English passenger liners because of the possibility of an attack by German submarines. As follows from the text, the announcement was placed by the German embassy. There was growing anxiety on the pier. But the representative of the Cunard company reassured everyone who stood with the tickets at the side of the Lusitania. "The liner of our company has been and remains the most fast ship in the Atlantic. And no German warship or submarine simply can catch up with the Lusitania.

The keel of the Lusitania was laid down at the John Brown & Co. yard in Clydebank at 367 on June 16, 1904.

In the afternoon, the Lusitania put to sea. The captain of the Lusitania, Turner, took his usual place on the captain's bridge. Turner was an experienced sailor, but now, in wartime, the sailors of the merchant marine had to obey the orders of the naval officers of the Admiralty. Navy sailors determined the course of merchant ships and reported secret information about enemy submarines. British naval intelligence could determine exactly where the German submarine sent to carry out a combat mission was located on the high seas. The British received the secret radio codes of the German fleet. Radio stations on the coast of England waited patiently while German submariners, who were on the high seas, gave radio signals with meticulous accuracy.

But Captain Turner was not given a warning about German submarines either in the port of New York, where the officer of the British navy was located, or off the coast of Ireland, where the Lusitania entered the coverage area of ​​coastal radio stations. And only on the evening of May 6, Turner received a radiogram: "A German submarine is located off the southern coast of Ireland."

But the radiogram was not transmitted by the naval command, but by Admiral Coke, commander of the anti-submarine flotilla: he roughly determined the area of ​​\u200b\u200boperation of the submarine after he received reports of the death of two small steamers. Coke knew that the Lusitania was approaching the submarine. But the admiral could not put the anti-submarine flotilla into the sea without an order from the Admiralty, and such an order was not received.

Captain Turner received a radio message as the liner was approaching St. George's Channel. And in peaceful days, the strait was a serious test even for experienced sailors, and in the days of the war it became doubly dangerous: at the entrance to the strait, German submariners lay in wait for prey. But Captain Turner could not change the course of the ship without an order from an Admiralty officer or, in extreme cases, from the commander of a warship.

The only thing he could do was to alert everything life-saving appliances, remove the lights, batten down the windows. The captain went down to the salon, where the lights were bright and music was playing, and, trying not to raise his voice, told the passengers that the possibility of enemy submarines could not be ruled out. “But we are sure,” the captain added, “that we will not be left alone, because the Royal Navy is guarding us ...” These were not empty words: off the coast of Ireland, at Cape Fastnet Rock, Atlantic liners usually expected escort English cruisers.

At dawn on 7 May there was thick fog. Captain Turner slowed down and ordered the siren to sound to warn the warships of the liner's approach. But there was none around warship Royal Navy.

In the Admiralty, in the office of Minister of the Navy W. Churchill, there was a huge map. The officers on duty continuously moved the signs that indicated the path of each German submarine detected using intelligence data and radio intercepts. In official English historical works, an exceptionally high assessment of the activities of British intelligence is given: "She read the thoughts of the German command and foresaw the movement of ships of the enemy fleet."

It is interesting to note that the secret ciphers of the German fleet were handed over to the British by the Russian naval command: the ciphers were found on the German cruiser Magdeburg, which was sunk after a battle with ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Divers entered the command cabin and retrieved secret documents.

There is no doubt that Churchill represented what the Lusitania meant to England, one of the largest and fastest ships. The Admiralty received messages from America, which should be called very disturbing. German diplomats and German-Americans, whose close ties to German intelligence were not in doubt, have recently been warning the Americans that the British transatlantic liners be attacked by boats. The editor of the newspaper of the German community in the United States, who often carried out the instructions of the German military attache in the United States, literally stated the following: "A large English liner with Americans on board may be sunk."

But the British Admiralty and the energetic Minister Churchill, far from stepping up security measures, showed a strange nonchalance. The captain of the Lusitania did not receive an alarm, the warships did not go to sea ...

In the very first reports of the German telegraph agency and newspapers about the sinking of the Lusitania, it was emphasized that the British liner was not in literally by a passenger ship, because an English ship was carrying explosives from America. In those days, one could read that the Lusitania was actually an auxiliary cruiser of the Royal Navy and carried heavy artillery on board.

Representatives of the Admiralty called the allegations about the guns installed on the Lusitania slander. But they did not answer a direct question: whether there were dangerous military materials on board the passenger ship. And only a few weeks later, in British statements, the unconditional version of the "exclusively peaceful nature of the Lusitania's cargo" was established. In 1926, the famous English historian navy Wilson clarified: he called the Lusitania "unarmed", but noted that among her cargo were " boxes with rifle cartridges and unloaded, empty blanks for shrapnel shells".

K. Simpson checked all types of cargo that were in the hold of the Lusitania. "The strange cargo - 3800 boxes lined with canvas - cargo marked as packages with cheese. The documents name the sender of this strange cargo - US citizen A. Fraser. His the name appears frequently on New York port records and was on the list of the largest importers of goods from the US in 1915. But further verification showed that before the war, Fraser was an insolvent debtor. the British formalized the export of military materials from the United States, primarily explosives produced at the factories of the DuPont company.

Considering the sinking Lusitania, the submarine commander immediately noticed thick smoke and severe damage to the deck and superstructures. German sailors suggested that the explosion of the torpedo caused the detonation of coal dust or ... the explosion of a significant amount of ammunition that was in the hold near the coal bunkers. This view has become generally accepted in Germany. Subsequently, the Minister of the Navy Tirpitz noted in his memoirs the following reason for the death of the Lusitania: "... The immediate death of the Lusitania was caused by a second explosion of ammunition loaded into the holds."

The official British version unequivocally stated that the Lusitania was lost as a result of the explosion of two German torpedoes. The "Royal Commission of Inquiry", which is traditionally created in England to determine the causes of major disasters, admitted in its final document that there was no ammunition on board the passenger ship. Responsibility for the death of a passenger ship was assigned to the command of the German naval forces, which allowed submarine captains to attack peaceful ships without warning.

But the integrity of the commission was far from flawless. All arguments that questioned the accepted version were rejected in advance. The Commission did not take into account the testimony of the Lusitania passenger, Canadian professor J. Marechal. According to him, after the torpedo exploded, he heard a second explosion, accompanied by the sound of exploding ammunition; Maréchal made the last statement on the basis of his experience gained in military service.

But British government officials said that Marechal could not be trusted that he was brought to trial for forgery and fraud: the commission was given information about the namesake of a Canadian professor who really was a dark person. And this was not the only case. Subsequently, Lord Mersey, chairman of the Royal Commission, admitted that the Lusitania case was a "dirty story."

However, during the First World War, only a few specialists, experts in naval weapons, could appreciate the main mistake of the commission of inquiry: even two torpedoes could not sink a huge ship in a matter of minutes!

The torpedoes used by the German submarines were relatively imperfect. Could such a torpedo make a hole in the side of the Lusitania, into which, as eyewitnesses of the events said, "a locomotive could pass"?

In 1918, the huge English steamer Justicia was attacked by submarines. And although the very first torpedo caused serious damage, the Giustishia stayed afloat for about a day, and during this time the German submariners repeated the torpedo attack several times. The German sailors were certain that the Giustishia had been sunk by six torpedoes of the same type used in 1915.

Contemporaries remembered the events of May 7, 1915 as a crime committed by German militarists.

But things were different...

In the English political dictionary there is the concept of "grand strategy": the coordination of long-term military and political plans. Let's see what place was assigned in the "grand strategy" to the huge passenger liners that were built for regular communication with America.

The Lusitania project was created in the USA in 1902, when the American banker Morgan suggested that British shipowners build huge ships with the participation of American capital that would bring to life latest achievements science and technology. The maritime giants would allow profitable Passenger Transportation on the Atlantic lines. But enterprising American bankers violated the secret plans of the British Admiralty.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the maritime rivalry between England and Germany reached its highest limit. England built a huge navy. While creating new warships, the Admiralty at the same time secretly subsidized private English shipping companies: according to the plans of military sailors, passenger ships were turned into transports and auxiliary cruisers in the first days of the war. The admirals demanded to stop negotiations with American bankers and at the same time offered to conclude a profitable agreement: the government would provide subsidies for the construction of huge liners. The only condition is that in the event of war, the ships are placed at the disposal of the Royal Navy.

This is how the famous liners of the Cunard company - Lusitania and Mauritania - appeared. "Sister ships" were equipped steam turbines, which made it possible to achieve unprecedented speed for those years. The new liner's displacement of over 31,000 tons and a speed of at least 25 knots surpassed those of the latest warships of that time, battleships.

Since 1907, the Lusitania has been making regular flights between Liverpool and New York. R. Kipling spoke enthusiastically about the new ships: " The captain only has to take the helm - a city of nine decks will float away into the sea ... Passengers soon appreciated the speed and comfort of the new ships.

In the first week of the war, in 1914, platforms for guns and hoists for shells were installed aboard the Lusitania. But soon the Lusitania returns to Liverpool. The flag of the merchant fleet remained on her mast.

In preparation for the war, the Admiralty, led by the self-confident Churchill, made serious mistakes: the Admiralty was sure that the main threat to British ships came from the German surface fleet, including hastily armed merchant ships.

But Germany used submarines against the English merchant fleet. Losses grew at an alarming rate. It was soon discovered that the English army and navy were expending vast amounts of ammunition; industry could not cope with the plans for military production. The government decided to purchase military materials from the United States, but cargo steamers were attacked by submarines.

It was in such an environment that the Admiralty remembered the "largest and fastest" liners. A prominent official of the Admiralty met with the president of the Kunard company. He explained that the Lusitania would carry out a "special assignment from the government." " Regular flights will be accompanied by the carriage of cargo of particular importance to Britain. The cargo space in the hold will be expanded and transferred to the disposal of the Admiralty. The Cunard continues to carry passengers and carefully hides the presence of "special cargo".

There is every reason to assume that the Kunard management knew what was hidden under the neutral designation "special cargo". With the participation of the Cunard company in the United States, explosives were bought, which were transported to New York, to port warehouses. Payment was made through bank accounts "Kunard".

In June 1915, the Austrian-Hungarian embassy in the United States sent a "confidential letter" to the US State Department. Austrian diplomats showed in detail how the explosives of the American chemical concern DuPont were loaded aboard the Lusitania into the bow hold rooms. They were forty-pound boxes lined with linen, looking like packages of cheese. This shipment belonged to the American Fraser...

All eyewitnesses to the sinking of the Lusitania pointed to two explosions. The second explosion was disproportionate in strength with the first: a few minutes after the second explosion, the bow of the Lusitania plunged into the water, and the stern rose to the height of a multi-storey building. A torpedo from a German submarine hit the bow of the liner, where there was a "special cargo" - boxes lined with canvas ...

In one of the letters from the Austrian-Hungarian embassy, ​​details were given that suggest how and when Austrian intelligence (it is possible that on behalf of the German government) learned about the transportation of ammunition on the ships of the Kunard company.

Therefore, upon learning of the sinking of the Lusitania, the Austrian consul von Retegg was seriously shocked and agreed with the arguments of the Austrian diplomats, who asked him to make a statement certified by an American lawyer, which directly stated that the cause of the death of American citizens was an explosion of ammunition in the hold of a passenger ship.

German submarine U20 washed up on the coast of Denmark, believed to be the one that sank the Lusitania

Are English mistakes accidental? And is it possible to call their actions erroneous?

Since February 1915, when Germany began the submarine war, the British Admiralty has been trying to find an effective means to combat enemy submarines. England suffered heavy losses: on average, the British lost one large merchant ship every two days. At the same time, German submarines dealt a heavy blow to the reputation and pride of the Minister of the Navy, Churchill.

It turned out that the technical means of combating submarines used by the fleet are clearly insufficient. Therefore, the question is legitimate: could the Admiralty, headed by Churchill, fulfill its tasks of defending the country? And, perhaps, it was precisely the "political solution of the problem" that saved not only Churchill, but also the Cabinet of Ministers from a shameful resignation ...

In the spring of 1915, the personal representative of the President of the United States, Colonel House, appears in London. He was supposed to explain US policy to the British government. British Foreign Secretary Gray receives House at his home. Gray asked frank questions, the essence of which boiled down to the following: what will "Uncle Sam" do if a German submarine sinks an ocean liner with Americans on board? House replied that resentment would sweep America. Gray agreed: yes, there are many moralists in America, but what political response will follow from the government and the president? And House admits that this will be enough to "engage us in a war."

Indeed, the death of 115 US citizens in the U-20 attack on the Lusitania provoked strong American protests. The demonstrators carried anti-German slogans and demanded that Germany be punished. The US government sent an official note to Berlin. The German government was forced to limit submarine warfare: from June 6, 1915, German submarines were forbidden to attack large passenger ships.

The break in the submarine war was not long, it was terminated in February 1916, but during this time the Entente countries, primarily England, saved 1,600,000 tons of merchant fleet tonnage, that is about five hundred ships.

The Lusitania was well known in America. And if we take into account that on the eve of the sinking of the Lusitania, House had to bring to the attention of the British government a list of repressive measures that would be America's response to the British detention of American ships with "peaceful" cargo for Germany, one can understand how gift of fate was for British politicians a torpedo from the German submarine U-20.

However, the British "grand strategy" made full use of the coincidence of interests and long-term plans of England and the United States. President Wilson was preparing for war, but he was careful not to make militaristic statements: elections were approaching, and among ordinary Americans there were many supporters of peace and US neutrality. In 1915, President Wilson needed an excuse to justify America's military preparations.

On May 11, 1915, while Wilson's cabinet was debating the text of Germany's note of protest over the sinking of the Lusitania, Secretary of State Brian issued a strong condemnation of the president's policies. He emphasized that back in early May, the president had been provided with reliable information about the transportation of ammunition by ships of British companies. According to Brian, there was a gross violation of US neutrality.

But the puritanical directness of Brian, a pacifist and opponent of alcoholic beverages, irritated Wilson, and when discussing a note of protest, he delivers a "knockout blow." Bryan's objections are rejected, and he was presented as "a defender of the German militarists committing barbaric acts against civilians." Brian resigns. His post is occupied by Lansing, an active supporter of rapprochement with England.

These changes did not go unnoticed in America: evaluating the president's policy, the New York Times published a cartoon - Wilson is trying to play the Americans a new song, "Here's your rifle, Johnny."

Further events in the United States resembled a film about the life of gangsters. Unidentified persons raided the Austrian-Hungarian consulate in Cleveland, where the testimony of engineer von Retheg and other documents about the sinking of the Lusitania were kept. Soon, von Retegh himself had to stand trial: he was accused of forging a check and sentenced to prison.

And only at the end of the 20th century, documents were found in the archives of the US federal services that allow us to conclude that the secret service of the US Department of Justice was directly related to these "strange events" ...

The administration of President Wilson was well aware of the behind-the-scenes side of the Lusitania affair. All documents were placed in an archive with a warning label "Only for the President of the United States."

One gets the impression that in England, too, government documents on the "case" of the Lusitania are still a strict state secret.

In April 1982 the ship "Merwig" Scottish company Oceaning, which carries out complex underwater work using unique equipment, approached the site of the sinking of the Lusitania. Launched from the ship underwater manipulator- a small remote-controlled submarine. The survey of the site of the sinking of the Lusitania was conceived as a promotional event that was supposed to show the capabilities of the new technology.

The preliminary result of the survey exceeded all expectations: underwater cameras showed that the bow compartments of the sunken liner were cleared of debris, and the cargo hatch cover was torn off. When the underwater manipulator slowly descended into the hold, the specialists could not contain their astonishment: on the screen, according to them, an image of the ship's inner plating appeared with deep longitudinal grooves that the bucket leaves for lifting sunken objects and cargo. " It's hard to imagine, but the hold of the Lusitania is swept like a living room", - said one of the journalists who took part in the search work.

An underwater photograph showed that in the region of the port side of the Lusitania, a huge hole was visible in the bow plating. Explosives experts concluded that a "powerful explosion" had occurred inside the hold. It was reported in the English press that after a detailed examination of the Lusitania, specialists from the Oceaning firm, after a detailed examination of the Lusitania, came to the conclusion that all evidence that could establish what kind of cargo was in the bow hold of the Lusitania was destroyed after the death of the ship.

According to information received from British journalists, the Irish Coast Guard reported that an auxiliary vessel of the British Navy stopped at the crash site in 1946 for a long time, and subsequently a ship appeared at the site of the Lusitania's death, which carried out underwater work. However, representatives of "Osharing" admitted that they were not ignored by the government of Her Majesty.

Officials correctly but very firmly recalled that there is indisputable evidence that during the last tragic flight The Lusitania had no explosives on board the famous passenger liner, with the exception of not very dangerous rifle cartridges ...

However, in 2008, divers explored the wreck of the Lusitania eight miles off the coast of Ireland. On board the ship, some ammunition was found, including Remington rounds. This discovery confirms the German version that the Lusitania was used to secretly transport weapons from the US to the UK and was not in the full sense of the word a neutral civilian vessel. This is also supported by the second explosion, which could be an explosion of ammunition on board.

The discovery of the wreckage revives the old controversy about the mission and circumstances of the sinking of the Lusitania and about this biggest war crime of the 20th century.

Note

In Soviet historical literature, the circumstances of the sinking of the Lusitania were not studied 1 . (Including in the only political biography of W. Churchill, published in Russian. - Trukhanovsky V. G. "W. Churchill". M., 1977.) A brief analysis of the events associated with last flight"Lusitania", is contained in the study by E. Ivanyan: "The White House: Presidents and Politics" (M., 1979) and in essays on the history of British secret operations conducted by the government and the Foreign Office: Chernyak E. "The Secret Diplomacy of Great Britain" (M. , 1975). It is noteworthy that in these studies, the authors recognized the reliability of the conclusions of the English journalist K. Simpson contained in a book published in London in 1972 by the reputable Longman publishing house (Simpson K. "Lusitania". L., 1972).

This article mainly uses documents discovered and published by Simpson: documents from the British State Archives, the archives of the US federal services and the collection of documents of the law firm "Hill, Dickinson and Company", which in 1915 represented the interests of the owners of the Lusitania.

1. Essay by L. Skryagin and I. Shmelev - "The Drama of the Lusitania". "About the sinking of an English liner in 1915" ("Knowledge is Power", 1966, No. 5). The essay is based on newspaper and magazine publications of the twenties and thirties and reflects various assumptions about the causes of the death of the Lusitania.

Alexander Savinov
"Knowledge is power"

The Lusitania arrives in New York on her maiden voyage. 1907

Lusitania, bedroom 1st class.

"Lusitania"

David Doe, captain of the Lusitania .1915

The photo shows a reconstruction of the torpedo path from the words of an eyewitness.

Rescued from the Lusitania at Queenston.

Disaster survivors arrive in Queenstown

On January 11, 2011, Audrey Pearle died at the age of 95, the last surviving passenger of the liner, who at the time of his death was only three months old.

Departure of castaways from Queenstown to London

Rescued passengers at Lime Street Station, Liverpool

The surviving officers of the Lusitania, from left to right: First Officer R. Jones, A. A. Besty, Junior Third Officer, Third Officer and J.P. Lewis, 1915

George V meets with the surviving crew of the Lusitania

Two men remove the crates containing the bodies of the victims from the rescue boat.

Divine service for the victims of the Lusitania at Westminster Cathedral in London. Service conducted by Cardinal Born

Burial of victims from the Lusitania. London, England 1915

Demonstration against the Germans on Tower Hill in London

Anti-German pogroms after the torpedoing of the Lusitania: many shops whose owners bore German surnames were destroyed. In the photo, the thugs are destroying the Schönfeld cigar warehouse. London, England 1915.

propaganda poster

Taking with me the life belts that lay in my cabin, I rushed to the upper deck. At the same time, I hardly managed to open the door of the cabin, which turned out to be littered with some debris. It felt like the ship was heeling. Something indescribable was happening on deck.

The bright sun illuminated the ship and about a thousand distraught people, rushing from one side to the other. The crew of the ship was confused despite the fact that the captain, standing on the bridge, gave orders until the last minute; passengers themselves rushed to the lifeboats ...

When I found myself on the surface of the water, the huge ship disappeared, and black dots of people floated around in the vast expanse. In the distance, the vague outlines of the coast of Ireland were visible. The sun was warm, but it was cold in the water." - Only two hours later, which, as the witness of the disaster recalls, he spent "in a terrible stupor", the rescue ship approached.

Note that we are not talking about the sinking of the Titanic. It is difficult to compare the brilliant film version of the famous sea disaster with the stingy and artless description of events that we reprinted from a Russian magazine of 1915. But then, in the days of the death of the huge English passenger ship Lusitania, the world community was literally in a fever from conflicting rumors, assumptions and conjectures. The name of the lost ship was declined and conjugated on the pages of newspapers, in government memorandums and ... diplomatic notes.

What happened? The death of the ship seems mysterious, moreover, it seems that until now in England government documents on the "case" of the Lusitania are a strict state secret. And yet we will try to open its veil.

"A large English liner with Americans on board may be sunk"

Eighteen minutes after the explosion, the Lusitania was completely submerged. Of the 1959 people on board the Lusitania, 1198 died. According to the official statement of representatives of the British government, there were no weapons, ammunition and military sailors on board the passenger ship. The sinking of the Lusitania was called one of the most tragic events of the First World War. The English journalist K. Simpson has long been interested in the "case" of the Lusitania.

The circumstances of her death, the abundance of carefully fabricated data, wrote K. Simpson, convinced him that the traditional version of the disasters of the Lusitania contains "fundamental omissions and obvious inaccuracies." According to Simpson, documents found in the archives of the British steamship company Cunard Lines, as well as in the US government archives, force the Lusitania "case" to be reconsidered.

On May 1, 1915, exactly on schedule, the Lusitania put to sea for the last time from the pier in the port of New York. In the early morning, the assistant captain of the Lusitania traditionally met passengers at the gangway. On the pier, in addition to rare passengers, he saw a crowd of reporters. They showed the English sailor the morning edition of the New York Tribune.

Among the paid advertisements in the newspaper stood out an ominous warning: the Americans were not recommended to use the services of British passenger liners because of the possibility of an attack by German submarines. As follows from the text, the announcement was placed by the German embassy. There was growing anxiety on the pier. But the representative of the Cunard company reassured everyone who stood with the tickets at the side of the Lusitania. “The liner of our company was and remains the fastest ship in the Atlantic. And no German warship or submarine simply can catch up with the Lusitania.

In the afternoon, the Lusitania put to sea. The captain of the Lusitania, Turner, took his usual place on the captain's bridge. Turner was an experienced sailor, but now, in wartime, the sailors of the merchant marine had to obey the orders of the naval officers of the Admiralty. Navy sailors determined the course of merchant ships and reported secret information about enemy submarines. British naval intelligence could determine exactly where the German submarine sent to carry out a combat mission was located on the high seas. The British received the secret radio codes of the German fleet. Radio stations on the coast of England waited patiently while German submariners, who were on the high seas, gave radio signals with meticulous accuracy.

But Captain Turner was not given a warning about German submarines either in the port of New York, where the officer of the British navy was located, or off the coast of Ireland, where the Lusitania entered the coverage area of ​​coastal radio stations. And only on the evening of May 6, Turner received a radiogram: "A German submarine is located off the southern coast of Ireland."

But the radiogram was not transmitted by the naval command, but by Admiral Coke, commander of the anti-submarine flotilla: he roughly determined the area of ​​\u200b\u200boperation of the submarine after he received reports of the death of two small steamers. Coke knew that the Lusitania was approaching the submarine. But the admiral could not put the anti-submarine flotilla into the sea without an order from the Admiralty, and such an order was not received.

Captain Turner received a radio message as the liner was approaching St. George's Channel. And in peaceful days, the strait was a serious test even for experienced sailors, and in the days of the war it became doubly dangerous: at the entrance to the strait, German submariners lay in wait for prey. But Captain Turner could not change the course of the ship without an order from an Admiralty officer or, in extreme cases, from the commander of a warship.

The only thing he could do was to alert all rescue equipment, remove the lights, batten down the windows. The captain went down to the salon, where the lights were bright and music was playing, and, trying not to raise his voice, told the passengers that the possibility of enemy submarines could not be ruled out. “But we are sure,” the captain added, “that we will not be left alone, because the Royal Navy is guarding us ...” These were not empty words: off the coast of Ireland, at Cape Fastnet Rock, Atlantic liners usually expected escort English cruisers.

At dawn on 7 May there was thick fog. Captain Turner slowed down and ordered the siren to sound to warn the warships of the liner's approach. But there was not a single battleship of the Royal Navy nearby.

In the Admiralty, in the office of Minister of the Navy W. Churchill, there was a huge map. The officers on duty continuously moved the signs that indicated the path of each German submarine detected using intelligence data and radio intercepts. In official English historical works, an exceptionally high assessment of the activities of British intelligence is given: "She read the thoughts of the German command and foresaw the movement of ships of the enemy fleet."

It is interesting to note that the secret ciphers of the German fleet were handed over to the British by the Russian naval command: the ciphers were found on the German cruiser Magdeburg, which was sunk after a battle with ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Divers entered the command cabin and retrieved secret documents.

There is no doubt that Churchill represented what the Lusitania meant to England, one of the largest and fastest ships. The Admiralty received messages from America, which should be called very disturbing. German diplomats and German-Americans, whose close ties to German intelligence were not in doubt, have lately warned the Americans that British transatlantic liners would be attacked by yard boats. The editor of the newspaper of the German community in the United States, who often carried out the instructions of the German military attache in the United States, literally stated the following: "A large English liner with Americans on board may be sunk."

But the British Admiralty and the energetic Minister Churchill, far from stepping up security measures, showed a strange nonchalance. The captain of the Lusitania did not receive an alarm, the warships did not go to sea ...

In the very first reports of the German telegraph agency and newspapers about the sinking of the Lusitania, it was emphasized that the English liner was not literally a passenger ship, because the English ship was carrying explosives from America. In those days, one could read that the Lusitania was actually an auxiliary cruiser of the Royal Navy and carried heavy artillery on board.

Representatives of the Admiralty called the allegations about the guns installed on the Lusitania slander. But they did not answer a direct question: whether there were dangerous military materials on board the passenger ship. And only a few weeks later, an unconditional version of the “exclusively peaceful nature of the Lusitania’s cargo” was established in British statements. "boxes with rifle cartridges and unfilled, empty blanks for shrapnel shells."

K. Simpson checked all types of cargo that were in the hold of the Lusitania. "The strange cargo - 3800 boxes lined with canvas - cargo marked as packages with cheese. The documents name the sender of this strange cargo - US citizen A. Fraser. His the name appears frequently on New York port records and was on the list of the largest importers of goods from the US in 1915. But further verification showed that before the war, Fraser was an insolvent debtor. the British formalized the export of military materials from the United States, primarily explosives produced at the factories of the DuPont company.

Considering the sinking Lusitania, the submarine commander immediately noticed thick smoke and severe damage to the deck and superstructures. German sailors suggested that the explosion of the torpedo caused the detonation of coal dust or ... the explosion of a significant amount of ammunition that was in the hold near the coal bunkers. This view has become generally accepted in Germany. Subsequently, the Minister of the Navy Tirpitz noted in his memoirs the following reason for the failure of the Lusitania: "... The immediate death of the Lusitania was caused by a second explosion of ammunition loaded into the holds."

The official British version unequivocally stated that the Lusitania was lost as a result of the explosion of two German torpedoes. The "Royal Commission of Inquiry", which is traditionally created in England to determine the causes of major disasters, admitted in its final document that there was no ammunition on board the passenger ship. Responsibility for the death of a passenger ship was assigned to the command of the German naval forces, which allowed submarine captains to attack peaceful ships without warning.

But the integrity of the commission was far from flawless. All arguments that questioned the accepted version were rejected in advance. The Commission did not take into account the testimony of the Lusitania passenger, Canadian professor J. Marechal. According to him, after the torpedo exploded, he heard a second explosion, accompanied by the sound of exploding ammunition; Maréchal made the last statement on the basis of his experience gained in military service.

But British government officials said that Marechal could not be trusted that he was brought to trial for forgery and fraud: the commission was given information about the namesake of a Canadian professor who really was a dark person. And this was not the only case. Subsequently, Lord Mersey, chairman of the Royal Commission, admitted that the Lusitania case was a "dirty story."

However, during the First World War, only a few specialists, experts in naval weapons, could appreciate the main mistake of the commission of inquiry: even two torpedoes could not sink a huge ship in a matter of minutes!

The torpedoes used by the German submarines were relatively imperfect. Could such a torpedo make a hole in the side of the Lusitania, into which, as eyewitnesses of the events said, "a locomotive could pass"?

In 1918, the huge English steamer Justicia was attacked by submarines. And although the very first torpedo caused serious damage, the Giustishia stayed afloat for about a day, and during this time the German submariners repeated the torpedo attack several times. The German sailors were certain that the Giustishia had been sunk by six torpedoes of the same type used in 1915.

Contemporaries remembered the events of May 7, 1915 as a crime committed by German militarists.

But things were different...

The Lusitania project was created in the United States in 1902, when the American banker Morgan proposed that British shipowners build, with the participation of American capital, huge ships that would bring to life the latest achievements of science and technology. The maritime giants would allow profitable passenger traffic on Atlantic lines to be monopolized. But enterprising American bankers violated the secret plans of the British Admiralty.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the maritime rivalry between England and Germany reached its highest limit. England built a huge navy. While creating new warships, the Admiralty at the same time secretly subsidized private English shipping companies: according to the plans of military sailors, passenger ships were turned into transports and auxiliary cruisers in the first days of the war. The admirals demanded to stop negotiations with American bankers and at the same time offered to conclude a profitable agreement: the government would provide subsidies for the construction of huge liners. The only condition is that in the event of war, the ships are placed at the disposal of the Royal Navy.

This is how the famous liners of the Cunard company - Lusitania and Mauritania - appeared. The "sister ships" were equipped with steam turbines, which made it possible to reach speeds unprecedented for those years. The new liner's displacement of over 31,000 tons and a speed of at least 25 knots surpassed those of the latest warships of that time, battleships.

Since 1907, the Lusitania has made regular flights between Liverpool and New York. R. Kipling enthusiastically spoke about the new ships: "The captain only has to take the helm - the city will float into the sea in nine decks ..." Passengers soon appreciated the speed and comfort of the new ships.

In the first week of the war, in 1914, platforms for guns and hoists for shells were installed aboard the Lusitania. But soon the Lusitania returns to Liverpool. The flag of the merchant fleet remained on her mast.

In preparation for the war, the Admiralty, led by the self-confident Churchill, made serious mistakes: the Admiralty was sure that the main threat to British ships came from the German surface fleet, including hastily armed merchant ships.

But Germany used submarines against the English merchant fleet. Losses grew at an alarming rate. It was soon discovered that the English army and navy were expending vast amounts of ammunition; industry could not cope with the plans for military production. The government made the decision to purchase war supplies from the US, but the cargo ships were being attacked by submarines.

It was in such an environment that the Admiralty remembered the "largest and fastest" liners. A prominent official of the Admiralty met with the president of the Kunard company. He explained that the Lusitania would carry out a "special assignment from the government." "Scheduled flights will be accompanied by cargo that is of particular importance to Britain." Cargo space in the hold will be expanded and placed at the disposal of the Admiralty. "Kunard" continues to transport passengers and carefully hides the presence of "special cargo".

There is every reason to assume that the Kunard management knew what was hidden under the neutral designation "special cargo". With the participation of the Cunard company in the United States, explosives were bought, which were transported to New York, to port warehouses. Payment was made through bank accounts "Kunard".

In June 1915, the Austrian-Hungarian embassy in the United States sent a "confidential letter" to the US State Department. Austrian diplomats showed in detail how the explosives of the American chemical concern DuPont were loaded aboard the Lusitania into the bow hold rooms. They were forty-pound boxes lined with linen, looking like packages of cheese. This shipment belonged to the American Fraser...

All eyewitnesses to the sinking of the Lusitania pointed to two explosions. The second explosion was disproportionate in strength with the first: a few minutes after the second explosion, the bow of the Lusitania plunged into the water, and the stern rose to the height of a multi-storey building. A torpedo from a German submarine hit the bow of the liner, where there was a "special cargo" - boxes lined with canvas ...

In one of the letters from the Austrian-Hungarian embassy, ​​details were given that suggest how and when Austrian intelligence (it is possible that on behalf of the German government) learned about the transportation of ammunition on the ships of the Kunard company.

Therefore, upon learning of the sinking of the Lusitania, the Austrian consul von Retegg was seriously shocked and agreed with the arguments of the Austrian diplomats, who asked him to make a statement certified by an American lawyer, which directly stated that the cause of the death of American citizens was an explosion of ammunition in the hold of a passenger ship.

Are English mistakes accidental? And is it possible to call their actions erroneous?

It turned out that the technical means of combating submarines used by the fleet are clearly insufficient. Therefore, the question is legitimate: could the Admiralty, headed by Churchill, fulfill its tasks of defending the country? And, perhaps, it was precisely the "political solution of the problem" that saved not only Churchill, but also the Cabinet of Ministers from a shameful resignation ...

In the spring of 1915, the personal representative of the President of the United States, Colonel House, appears in London. He was supposed to explain US policy to the British government. British Foreign Secretary Gray receives House at his home. Gray asked frank questions, the essence of which boiled down to the following: what will "Uncle Sam" do if a German submarine sinks an ocean liner with Americans on board? House replied that resentment would sweep America. Gray agreed: yes, there are many moralists in America, but what political response will follow from the government and the president? And House admits that this will be enough to "engage us in a war."

Indeed, the death of 115 US citizens in the U-20 attack on the Lusitania provoked strong American protests. The demonstrators carried anti-German slogans and demanded that Germany be punished. The US government sent an official note to Berlin. The German government was forced to limit submarine warfare: from June 6, 1915, German submarines were forbidden to attack large passenger ships.

The break in the submarine war was not long, it was terminated in February 1916, but during this time the Entente countries, primarily England, saved 1,600,000 tons of merchant fleet tonnage, that is, about five hundred steamships.

The Lusitania was well known in America. And if we take into account that on the eve of the sinking of the Lusitania, House had to bring to the attention of the British government a list of repressive measures that would be America's response to the British detention of American ships with "peaceful" cargo for Germany, one can understand what a gift of fate was for British politicians torpedo the German submarine U-20.

However, the British "grand strategy" made full use of the coincidence of interests and long-term plans of England and the United States. President Wilson was preparing for war, but he was careful not to make militaristic statements: elections were approaching, and among ordinary Americans there were many supporters of peace and US neutrality. In 1915, President Wilson needed an excuse to justify America's military preparations.

On May 11, 1915, while Wilson's cabinet was debating the text of Germany's note of protest over the sinking of the Lusitania, Secretary of State Brian issued a strong condemnation of the president's policies. He emphasized that back in early May, the president had been provided with reliable information about the transportation of ammunition by ships of British companies. According to Brian, there was a gross violation of US neutrality.

But the puritanical directness of Brian, a pacifist and opponent of alcoholic beverages, irritated Wilson, and when discussing a note of protest, he delivers a "knockout blow." Bryan's objections are rejected, and he was presented as "a defender of the German militarists committing barbaric acts against civilians." Brian resigns. His post is occupied by Lansing, an active supporter of rapprochement with England.

These changes did not go unnoticed in America: evaluating the president's policy, the New York Times published a cartoon - Wilson is trying to play the Americans a new song, "Here's your rifle, Johnny."

Further events in the United States resembled a film about the life of gangsters. Unidentified persons raided the Austrian-Hungarian consulate in Cleveland, where the testimony of engineer von Retheg and other documents about the sinking of the Lusitania were kept. Soon, von Retegh himself had to stand trial: he was accused of forging a check and sentenced to prison.

And only at the end of the 20th century, documents were found in the archives of the US federal services that allow us to conclude that the secret service of the US Department of Justice was directly related to these "strange events" ...

The administration of President Wilson was well aware of the behind-the-scenes side of the Lusitania affair. All documents were placed in an archive with a warning label "Only for the President of the United States."

One gets the impression that in England, too, government documents on the "case" of the Lusitania are still a strict state secret.

In April 1982, the ship "Merwig" of the Scottish company "Oshering", which carries out complex underwater work using unique equipment, approached the site of the sinking of the Lusitania. An underwater manipulator was launched from the ship - a small remotely controlled submarine. The survey of the site of the sinking of the Lusitania was conceived as a promotional event that was supposed to show the capabilities of the new technology.

The preliminary result of the survey exceeded all expectations: underwater cameras showed that the bow compartments of the sunken liner were cleared of debris, and the cargo hatch cover was torn off. When the underwater manipulator slowly descended into the hold, the specialists could not contain their astonishment: on the screen, according to them, an image of the ship's inner plating appeared with deep longitudinal grooves that the bucket leaves for lifting sunken objects and cargo. "It's hard to imagine, but the hold of the Lusitania is swept like a living room," said one of the journalists who took part in the search.

An underwater photograph showed that in the region of the port side of the Lusitania, a huge hole was visible in the bow plating. Explosives experts concluded that a "powerful explosion" had occurred inside the hold. It was reported in the English press that after a detailed examination of the Lusitania, specialists from the Oceaning firm, after a detailed examination of the Lusitania, came to the conclusion that all evidence that could establish what kind of cargo was in the bow hold of the Lusitania was destroyed after the death of the ship.

According to information received from British journalists, the Irish Coast Guard reported that an auxiliary vessel of the British Navy stopped at the crash site in 1946 for a long time, and subsequently a ship appeared at the site of the Lusitania's death, which carried out underwater work. However, representatives of "Osharing" admitted that they were not ignored by the government of Her Majesty.

Officials correctly but very firmly recalled that there is indisputable evidence that during the last tragic voyage of the Lusitania there were no explosives on board the famous passenger liner, with the exception of not very dangerous rifle cartridges ...

The second catastrophe of the century - the death in 1915 of the giant English liner "Lusitania", which occurred under strange and still not clear circumstances. This catastrophe was called one of the most tragic and mysterious events of the First World War. Many details of this catastrophe are still considered secret for some reason. Meanwhile, at first glance, there should not be anything particularly mysterious in this story.

The Lusitania was the pride of the English shipping company Cunard Line. Built in 1907, when the German transatlantic companies launched a particularly active struggle for "a place in the sun", it was supposed to remind everyone that Great Britain is still the mistress of the seas. In addition, Parliament and the Admiralty pinned special hopes on the Lusitania as a potential warship. On the liner, if necessary, it was possible to install twelve rapid-fire guns. So, not without reason, the German transatlantic companies saw the Lusitania as a powerful rival, and the German authorities accused the British government of using the liner to transport weapons and other contraband across the Atlantic. On a medal cast by Munich craftsmen in August 1915, the Lusitania is depicted with a military aircraft and a gun on deck under the satirical comment "No smuggling." On the back, there is a skeleton selling tickets, and on the top is the inscription "Business First", hinting that Cunard Line deliberately puts civilians at risk to enrich itself. Be that as it may, the economic and military interests of the German elite coincided, and a real hunt was arranged for the Lusitania.

The chronicle of events is as follows.
On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania, on a New York-Liverpool voyage, was attacked by the German submarine U-20 Walter Schwieger off the south coast of Ireland. From a distance of seven hundred and fifty yards, he sent a single torpedo. It happened at 2:10 in the afternoon. Huge liner disappeared in the waves in just 18 minutes, leaving a mess of people, deck chairs, oars and masses of debris on the surface. Looking at this picture from his submarine, even Schwieger was shocked. He later said that it was the worst sight he had ever seen. Then he made the following entry in the logbook: “Obviously, the ship will not stay afloat for long. I dive to a depth of twenty-four meters and go into the sea. I could not fire a second torpedo into this crowd of living people trying to escape.
Of the 1,959 people aboard the ship, 1,198 died.
A German submarine torpedoed and sank a passenger ship...

But over time, other hypotheses began to emerge. So, according to the testimony of the English journalist K. Simpson, who became interested in the “Lusitania case”, the official version contains “fundamental omissions and obvious inaccuracies”, as well as an abundance of carefully fabricated and rigged data. Documents found in the archives of the British steamship company Cunard Lines, as well as in the US government archives, make us look at this story a little differently.

So, in the early morning of May 1, 1915, the assistant captain of the Lusitania traditionally met passengers at the gangway. But then reporters came up to him and showed him the morning issue of the New York Tribune, which featured an ominous warning from the German embassy among the paid advertisements. It strongly advised the Americans not to use the services of British passenger liners because of the possibility of an attack by German submarines. The passengers got excited. However, a representative of the Kunard company hastened to reassure everyone: “The liner of our company has been and remains the fastest ship in the Atlantic. And no German warship or submarine will be able to catch up with the Lusitania.” And in the afternoon, exactly on schedule, the Lusitania left the pier in the port of New York ...

During the First World War, English civilian sailors had to obey the orders of the officers of the Admiralty. It was the military who determined the course of trade and passenger ships, informed the captains of information about German submarines. Knowing the secret radio codes of the German fleet, British military radio stations intercepted the radio signals of German submariners at sea and determined their location.
The captain of the Lusitania, Turner, did not receive any warning before going to sea. Only on the evening of May 6 did a radiogram arrive on the liner: a German submarine was spotted off the southern coast of Ireland. Moreover, the radiogram was transmitted not by the naval command, but by the commander of the anti-submarine flotilla, Admiral Coke, who, having received reports of the death of two small steamers, determined the area of ​​\u200b\u200boperation of the submarine.

The radiogram came when the liner approached the Strait of St. George. It was there that enemy submariners most often lay in wait for prey. But the captain could not change the ship's course without the order of an Admiralty officer or, in extreme cases, without instructions from the commander of the warship. Therefore, Captain Turner went down to the salon, casually informed the passengers about the possibility of the appearance of enemy submarines and reassured everyone by saying that the liner was under the protection of the Royal Navy. These were not empty words, since at Cape Fastnet Rock, Atlantic liners were usually escorted by English cruisers. But on that day, May 7, not a single warship of the Royal Navy was nearby for some reason. And no one prevented the German submarine from attacking the Lusitania, which sank after the very first torpedo...

Already after the end of the war, many historians were interested in the question: why so big ship sunk so fast? According to the British version, this happened because not one, but two torpedoes were fired at the ship. However, even the government commission could not really explain why even two torpedoes caused such catastrophic damage on the ship ...

In 1926, the famous English naval historian Wilson tried to clarify the situation by noting that among the Lusitania's cargo were "boxes with rifle cartridges and unfilled, empty blanks for shrapnel shells." A total of 3800 boxes lined with canvas - a cargo marked for greater secrecy in the ship's documents as packages of cheese. According to the same documents, US citizen A. Fraser was listed as the sender of this mysterious cargo. But, as the audit showed, at that moment Fraser was an insolvent debtor and could not afford to send such a large consignment across the ocean.
Based on this fact, K. Simpson suggested that Fraser was a figurehead, with the help of which the British processed the export of military materials from the United States produced at the factories of the DuPont company.

In Germany, it has become generally accepted version that the torpedo explosion caused the detonation of a significant amount of ammunition that was in the hold near the coal bunkers. It was for this reason that the decks and superstructures of the sinking Lusitania were destroyed, the former Minister of the German Navy Tirpitz noted in his memoirs.
The same version was indirectly confirmed by the passenger of the Lusitania, Canadian professor J. Marechal, who claimed that after the explosion of the torpedo he heard a second explosion, which was the sound of exploding ammunition. The professor could not be mistaken, because during the years of military service he gained certain experience.
In light of all this, even the Chairman of the Royal Commission, Lord Mersey, subsequently recognized the “Lusitania affair” as a “dirty story” ...

And the attempt to shed the light of truth on it much later also turned out to be fruitless. When in April 1982 the Scottish ship "Merwig" approached the place of the sinking of the Lusitania and a small, remote-controlled submarine was launched from the ship, underwater television cameras showed that the bow compartments of the sunken liner were cleared of debris, and the cargo hatch cover was torn off. When the cameras "looked" into the hold, an image of the ship's inner plating appeared with deep longitudinal grooves that the bucket could leave for lifting sunken objects and cargo.
Someone obviously tried to cover all traces...