She was the first of her kind....a special ship that changed the world of ocean travel.....She took the Blue Ribbon for the fastest passage..and was the first Ocean greyhound to cross the Atlantic in less than 5 days.
She was destroyed through the stupidity of war and murder...This is a medal honoring the sinking of the ship by the Germans......Soon after the British issued thousands of them and blamed them on the Germans..
The Lusitania would be a calling card for getting men to join the army to fight the Huns.
When the ship sank in 1915 she sank fast...also after her sinking her hull was used for target practice...and soon it was just a nearly unreconizable hulk.
Here she moves out onto her maiden voyage in 1907
Her interiors were remarkable and quite beautiful. In fact she was more popular than her sister ship..
Her last sailing was on May 1st, 1915....from pier 54...In the papers that day were warnings....War existed between Germany and England...and passengers were warned NOT TO SAIL...But few listened as the Lusitania was faster than any U boat ....but she was steel, and steel can sink....Few paid any attention to the ad..
She was a massive ship as you can see in this picture showing her compared to the Brooklyn bridge with her sister and also laying the Flatiron building on its side and looking rather tiny compared to the massive ship
She was the first liner to have 4 screws....However when she went on her trials it was found her vibration was tremendous...So her back end was heavily built up.
This is the vessel getting ready for her trials in dry dock 1907
A rather prophetic picture as the ship sails by the Old Head of Kinsale in 1911...It would be there that she would be torpedoed by the U20 on May 7, 1915...and she sank in 15 minutes...with a massive loss of life....Ending the career of the world's first super liner.....When will we ever learn of the stupidity of war...perhaps we never will......
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