Sinking of the Lusitania

hey everybody what's going on and welcome to another video and before we get started today as always i'd just like to take a moment to thank everybody who's been leaving me comments and messaging me about my videos i try to read as many of them as i can so thank you guys very much i appreciate it and i'd also like to take a moment to welcome all my new subscribers everybody who's new here welcome it means a lot that you're here and please feel free to leave comments below and send me video suggestions any ideas you want me to cover or any other topics i try to read as many of them as i can alright everybody well hey let's get into today's topic in today's video we're going to be talking about the sinking of another famous ocean liner called the rms lusitania the rms lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the germans in may of 1915 and the sinking of the lusitania was met with worldwide outrage at the germans for sinking a passenger vessel and when the lusitania sank it was also met with great loss of life so we're going to be talking about the sinking of the lusitania the history around it and the story behind one of history's most famous shipwrecks now before we talk about the sinking of the lusitania we first need to talk about some of the history behind the ship so you have a better understanding of the events that led up to the ship's eventual sinking you see the lusitania was built by a company called the canard land and the lusitania was also part of a fleet of ships that were going to be used to dominate the passenger route from europe to america the ships were the lusitania which you see here the rms mauritania which is shown in this picture and a few years later this ship the rms aquitania was built you see at the time that lusitania and mauritania were built there was a huge demand for immigration from europe to america tons of people were leaving europe and the hard conditions that they were facing and trying to start a new life for themselves in the new world america so canard built a one to build a fleet of ships called the lusitania which is right here they wanted to build the mauritania and they also want to build the aquatanium but the aquitaine wouldn't come around for a few more years so what made the lusitania and mauritania very unique was they were very big ships very luxurious but they were also very fast these ships lucitane and mauritania could cross the atlantic in five days incredibly fast and incredibly powerful ships they had they built these ships with four sets of propellers on the bottom so canard had such an advantage during this time because these ships were huge and they were very fast that it also led to another company that you might have heard of called the white star line to build a certain other type of vessels a certain other type of fleet of ships this ship the rms olympic i'm not sure if you all have heard of this ship or not but the rms titanic and the hmhs britannic so yes the ships that we all know from the white star line and the reason that so many of us got into history the olympic the titanic and the britannic were built as a response to canard line building the lusitania the mauritania and the aquitania with one big difference the lusitania and the mauritania were built with speed in mind they wanted to have fast ships but to also cross the atlantic very quickly where the white star line when they built olympic and titanic built it with luxury in mind so where the lusitania could cross the ocean in five days the titanic was slower it could cross the ocean in seven days but they were bigger and more luxurious ships that was the whole point however one key thing that some people don't know about titanic you see as we all know titanic had four funnels however what most people don't know is the fourth funnel was fake the white star line only needed three finals to deal with the smoke from titanic the fourth funnel was just there for looks but why did they put a fourth funnel on titanic well it was a direct response to canard lime putting four funnels on the lusitania however all four finals on lucitane and mauritania were active they needed that to power the ships immense engines so the fake funnel on the titanic was built as a response and in order to make the titanic olympic look like they were just as fast and capable as the lusitania even though they were much slower however unlike that of titanic and her sister ships titanic and britannic both sank of titanic's fleet of ships only the olympic had a very long career but the lusitania the mauritani and the aquitania all had very long and very successful careers at sea the lusitania was built in 1906 and she did not sink until 1915. okay so now that you have a basic understanding of the lusitania's history let's jump ahead to the year 1915 and talk about the year that the lusitania sunk now in 1915 the year that the lusitania was sunk there was a pretty major global event going on called world war one and the two primary fighters in the first world war were england the united kingdom and germany they were fighting pretty hard but in 1915 the united states had not yet entered the war and was trying its best to remain neutral and the year that the lusitania was sunk the transatlantic route between europe and america was still open there were still ships sailing through it however germany had introduced a new devastating weapon that was put to great effect during the first world war world war one saw the first ever widespread use of submarines and they were actually used to great effect during the first world war submarines were such a new concept at the time but there were not a whole lot of countermeasures in place to deal with them the submarine or u-boat was used to great effect during the first world war and germany had basically exclusive rights to the submarine they were the only ones using them at the time and submarines were such a new concept that both the british and the americans were still trying to figure out how to properly deal with them they had ways to to get rid of them u-boats spent most of their time up on the surface they weren't very effective at traveling long distances under water at the time but they didn't have depth charges or any primary ways to detect submarines when they were underwater this is pre-sonar and things like that so submarines were very very effective at dealing massive devastation to both the british and the american fleets by the end of world war one the german u-boats had sunk over 5 000 ships whereas only 178 u-boats were lost by the end of the war now in 1915 as i said earlier america was not involved in world war one we didn't get involved in world war one until 1917 a couple years later so because of this the germans the british they all had embassies in america at the time and that meant that there were german ships in america there were british ships in america and any german ships that were actually in america at the time that war broke out were stuck there because if they left american territory and went out into international waters it was in all that war at that point the british ships would open fire on them so any german ships that were in america were basically stuck there until the end of the war now in 1915 as i said earlier the british were still very active in the north atlantic route and they were sailing ships back and forth between america and london and europe and so on and the lusitania was in new york city in may of 1915 getting ready to depart america bound for europe but because of this and because of the whole u-boat thing and because america was actually neutral in the war the german embassy actually issued a warning warning people about crossing the ocean on a british ship on april 22nd 1915 a warning appeared in the american newspaper from the imperial german embassy in america warning travelers that were sailing on british ships that a state of war existed between germany and great britain and her allies and this included lusitania the warning basically said that anybody who sails on a ship of great britain and enters the war waters are to do so at their own risk however even with this warning from the germans it did not really affect the americans or the british too much and worrying about traveling on the lusitania there may have been a handful of people who canceled their passage on the ship after this warning was issued but most people continue on as usual no one really thought that the germans would go to the point to actually fire upon and sink a civilian ship and on top of that they also knew how fast the lusitania was so if any u-boats did shoot a torped at the lusitania they were very confident that the lusitania could just simply outrun the torpedo and the submarine so yeah bottom line is the warning that the germans did didn't really affect anything at all people got on the lusitania the shipping continued and even with the u-boat danger in the waters people were very confident that the british would protect the ship and do everything they could and that if a torpedo did hit the lusitania it would be fine it wouldn't do significant damage and the lucitane was just too fast it was way too fast for any u-boats to actually do any real damage or actually threaten the ship in any major way so on may 1st 1915 the lusitania departed new york bound for liverpool and just set sail and for the initial part of the voyage across the atlantic the voyage was normal and there were no problems however all of that changed when lusitania was about to complete its voyage as you can see from this picture on the bottom half of the picture you can see liverpool where the lusitania was heading for but on the top part you can see as the lusitanian was passing ireland where the x is that is where lusitania came into contact with a german u-boat where the german u-boat immediately opened fired on lusitania now you're probably wondering why didn't the british military send a ship to protect the lusitania as it was approaching the coast well the british government did send warning messages to lusitania warning that there were u-boats in the area that the lucita would be traveling through however the messages were not consistent and they did not exactly tell the lusitania where the u-boat exactly was even though the british government did know about u-20 the u-boat that sunk lutania they did know what they did know its general location they were tracking like what ships that had opened fired on so they had a pretty good idea of its rough area rough area where the submarine was however that message was not sent to lusitania and they did not send a warship to guard lusitania either and there are conspiracies around this but there is an official explanation as well warships were a lot more precious to the british fleet at the time and they did not want to risk a warship over a passenger vessel so that is the official reason for why there was no warship out there protecting the lusitania when the u-boat opened fired on it being perfectly honest it was more or less dumb luck that the submarine was even able to take a shot at lusitania remember lusitania was much faster than submarines however where the submarine was actually doing its patrol the lucitana ended up sailing almost right up beside the submarine which gave the submarine a perfect chance to fire one torpedo into the lusitania which struck the ship on its side right behind the bridge now another thing to keep in mind the lusitania was built like a warship and it was actually capable of becoming a military vessel if necessary they put things in place in order to build it make it easier to convert the ship for military use should the need arise so this ship was built like a fortress and it could handle it could handle itself pretty well so it was a common belief that a single torpedo would not sink the lusitania and even the germans on the submarine didn't think that one torpedo would sink the ship they were really just trying to damage the ship or kind of you know just give it a bloody nose so to speak they just wanted to kind of damage it a little bit they were hoping to sink it but they never thought it would and right after the first torpedo hit the lusitania the ship rocked a little bit but then stabilized and then something unexpected happened about 10-20 seconds after the torpedo hit the lusitania was rocked by a massive secondary explosion and this explosion did a huge amount of damage to the lusitania and to this day we're not 100 certain where that secondary explosion came from however there are many theories but right after that explosion happened the lusitania developed a very very strong list in the direction that the torpedo had actually hit the ship it only took seconds for the lucitan to develop a very very strong list to starboard in the seconds following the secondary explosion that rippled through the ship and this very very strong list to starboard made it extremely difficult to launch and prep light boats on the starboard side as well as launch and prep light boats on the port side you see on the starboard side of the ship the light bulbs began to swing out so far that it was hard for passengers to get on board and on the port side any lifeboats that tried to be lowered were actually scraping against the lusitanius hall so these two factors were a huge problem in getting the lusitania evacuated another problem that was facing the lucitaneous crew was due to the fact that how fast the lusitania was traveling when the torpedo actually hit the ship right after the torpedo had detonated the captain had ordered the lucitane to slow down and to begin to prep and launch the lifeboats however just mere minutes after the torpedo detonated the lusitania lost all helm control which means they couldn't steer the ship and the engine stopped responding so now the lusitania was drifting at near 18 to 20 knots and sinking by the head with a strong list to starboard inside the lusitania it was basically chaos you have to think there were 1959 people inside the lusitanium when the torpedo detonated and the lusitania was sinking very fast so it was just mayhem inside with people trying to run around and get out of the ship as quickly as possible however one thing that made it extremely difficult for the people inside the ship to get out that only a mere four minutes after the lusitania was hit by the torpedo the lusitania's entire electrical system shut down and you see the lusitania losing electrical power was a very very big deal even though the lusitania was sinking during the daytime and it was a very very nice day outside these ships were very big and they were very very dark inside without power unless you happen to be somewhere where there was a window but if you were deep inside the ship like in the engine room or one of the lower level inside cabins that had no window trying to find your way out of this ship while it's rapidly sinking you gotta think it's got a very very strong list to starboard and you're trying to find your way out in the dark and the ship is rapidly flooding i mean it would be near impossible for some people especially people down in the end room and in the deep sections of the ship to find their way out in those circumstances to the people who actually did find their way up onto the lusitania's deck it was basically chaos the crew trying to keep them under control while they prep and launch the lifeboats you had some lifeboats where people panicked and tried to jump into it and the lipo just spilled everyone into the ocean you were having people just falling overboard due to the very very strong list it was basically chaos on the deck of the lusitania during the sinking and you see the lusitania was equipped with more than enough lifeboats for all the passengers and crew on board but due to the horrible conditions and how rapidly the ship was going down of the 48 lipos that the lusitania had on board only six escaped the ship and some were launched and some just fell overboard and were later picked up like they fell overboard and passengers climbed on to them after the ship had sunk so it was nothing short of chaos on board lusitania as she rapidly sank then at a mere 18 minutes after the torpedo had detonated the lusitania began her final plunge and once the water reached the bridge the lusitania quit rising out of the water and then just began to settle back like you see here and the ship just at this point just dropped to the sea floor with her funnels and mass towers being the last objects of the ship to go beneath the surface i always found it rather interesting that the lucitaneous four funnels never fell during the sinking i guess it just has to do with how the ship sank like she was sinking by the head at first but then towards the end she just leveled out and just dropped straight down to the seafloor maybe that had something to do with it if anybody else out there has any ideas please let me know in the comments below i would be really really happy to hear your theories anyway the lusitania sunk in just as little as 18 minutes and the biggest question is why did she sink so fast and could one torpedo have done that much damage well it seems to me that most of the damage of the lusitania occurred during that secondary explosion and the biggest question is what was that secondary explosion now there's been a lot of theories and a lot of claims over the years from coal dust igniting to boilers exploding and so on but there's another theory that i think is very very possible and that's the us was secretly shipping weapons to britain on board the lusitania and i think that's entirely possible and that where the torpedo just happened to hit the ship the weapons inside the ship just detonated and caused the ship to sink so quickly i think that's very possible and that's the theory that i tend to lean more towards but if anybody else out there has any ideas or any thoughts on it please let me know i'm not an expert in boilers or coal dust ignition so i'd be very very curious to hear your thoughts but yeah the lusitania sunk in just 18 minutes and 1200 of the 900 people on board passed away and when the lusitania sank it was met by worldwide outrage and it wasn't the main reason but it was a very very big factor in the us getting involved in the first world war because the germans would sink a passenger ship so anyway guys that's it for this video i hope you learned something and found it interesting and enjoyed it and just i had a ton of fun making it and everybody out there if you have any suggestions for future videos please let me know in the comments below and everybody else out there please subscribe to my channel it means a lot and everybody who's new here thank you guys i really really appreciate it all right everybody well hey you stay safe out there and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Historic Travels

Views: 251,162

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Id: OZutWqibMX4

Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021