On May 7, 1915, the British cruise ship Lusitania was sunk without
warning by the German submarine U-20 off Kinsale, Ireland. All but
761 of the 1,959 passengers and crew were killed, including 128
Americans. The day the liner set sail just six days earlier, the German
embassy in Washington, D.C., published an advertisement in American
newspapers warning travelers that they sailed British or Allied cruise
ships at their own risk. For this reason, it was widely accepted as fact that
the tragedy was premeditated.
This theory was brought into question years later when the log of the
U-20 was published and showed that the submarine had sunk other ships
and encountered the Lusitania by chance. Out of fear of being rammed,
the submarine sank the cruise liner. Although an examination prior to
sailing revealed no evidence that the liner was carrying ammunition, the
ship was in fact loaded with 4,200 cases of small-arms ammunition as well
as 1,250 shrapnel cases. This ammunition, when struck, could have contributed to the amazingly fast sinking of the ship. From the time of
impact, just eighteen minutes passed before the liner was submersed.
Earlier that year, on February 10, 1915, the U.S. government had
denied the legality of submarine warfare as practiced by Germany. It issued
a warning that it would hold Germany accountable for the recognition of
American rights on the high seas. Given that edict, the sinking of the
Lusitania three months later incensed American diplomats and common
citizens alike. President Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; served 1913–21)
demanded that Germany make amends for the crime and “disavow” it
(claim it had no knowledge of it). The German government agreed to
make reparations and eventually promised not to sink any more cruise liners without warning. But it refused to disavow the sinking of the Lusitania.