Lusitania Sinking

When the Lusitania sailed in the spring of 1915, Europe had been at war for more than 8 months. What was the precipitating cause of that Great War? A domino effect, set in motion on June 28, 1914 when Gavrilo Princip, a Serb, assassinated Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

Riding in his car during a state visit to Bosnia, Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were in Sarajevo to review military troops. Their shocking deaths began a chain reaction culminating in The Guns of August.

By 1918, when Princip died of tuberculosis four years into his life sentence, a whole generation was dead. The front-line trenches, towns and seas of Europe were filled with millions of bodies. People everywhere were cut down before they had really lived.

Of those who died, 1,198 were victims of a German U-boat attack on the Lusitania. Although she was not far from the safety of an Irish harbor, the record-holding ship fell victim to a torpedo launched by SM U-20.

While the Lusitania's owner, crew and passengers apparently did not take the German threat seriously, Walther Schwieger did. It took only one well-placed G-type torpedo from his U-boat to sink one of the fastest passenger liners of her day.