[51], Part of the proceedings turned on the question of proper evasive tactics against submarines. Twenty minutes of bottom time had passed quickly, and now a long decompression time awaited me. Two days before, U-20 had sunk Earl of Lathom, but first allowed the crew to escape in boats. [24], On 27 March, Room 40 had intercepted a message which clearly demonstrated that the Germans had broken the code used to pass messages to British merchant ships. Legend: Ultrix America Juris, 1917 U.S.A 1918 (America avenger of right). The paintings have never been found. Lusitania Survivors. The warning led to some agitation in the press and worried the ship's passengers and crew. Lord Mersey observed that it was his job to get at the truth, and thereafter became more critical of Admiralty evidence. [2]:330332, The formal Board of Trade investigation into the sinking was presided over by Wreck Commissioner Lord Mersey and took place in the Westminster Central Hall from 15 to 18 June 1915 with further sessions at the Westminster Palace Hotel on 1 July and Caxton Hall on 17 July. After the single torpedo struck, a second explosion occurred inside the ship, which then sank in only 18 minutes. (Courtesy Eoin McGarry) Lusitania was sunk off County Cork on May 7, 1915. They were also very distinctive; so smaller liners were used as transports instead. In May 1915 the Lusitania was returning from New York to Liverpool with 1,959 passengers and crew on board. Within a mere 18 minutes, the Lusitania plunged 300 feet to the bottom of the Celtic Sea. The specific mention of a submarine was dropped from the midnight broadcast on 67 May as news of the new sinkings had not yet reached the navy at Queenstown, and it was correctly assumed that there was no longer a submarine at Fastnet. Lusitania sank in only 18 minutes, at a distance of 11.5 nautical miles (21km) off the Old Head of Kinsale. The. The conventions had been drawn up in a time before the invention of the submarine and took no account of the severe risk a small vessel, such as a submarine, faced if it gave up the advantage of a surprise attack. The attack killed 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, and helped push the United States into World War I. However, US President Woodrow Wilson refused to over-react. Most probably, Pierpoint, who survived the sinking,[23] would already have been informed about Leach. Turner had argued that maintaining a steady course for 30minutes was necessary to take a four-point bearing and precisely confirm the ship's position, but on this point he received less support, with other captains arguing a two-point bearing could have been taken in five minutes and would have been sufficiently accurate. Germany, however, continued to sink merchant vessels bound for Britain, particularly after the Battle of Jutland in late May 1916. [citation needed] Merchant ships had, in fact, been advised to steer directly at any U-boat that surfaced. January 1968: Greg Bemis and partners buy salvage rights from Light. Two years later, Barbara left Britain and travelled back to the United States aboard Mauretania and arrived in New York City on 26 December 1919. Desperate to gain an advantage on the Atlantic, the German government decided to step up its submarine campaign. The owner of the salvage rights, venture capitalist Gregg Bemis, plans to put the telegraph and its pedestal in a nearby museum, alongside other items pulled from the wreck. At the time, most attributed it to a second torpedo attack from the U-boat. #Lusitania*****UPDATELusitania Pack - Adding wreckCheck your mail for updates. Described by the New York Times as "the Kaiser's official mouthpiece", Dernburg had served as a leading voice for German propaganda in the United States since 1914. In August 1915, the Munich medallist and sculptor Karl X. Goetz[de] (18751950),[75] who had produced a series of propagandist and satirical medals as a running commentary on the war, privately struck a small run of medals as a limited-circulation satirical attack (fewer than 500 were struck) on the Cunard Line for trying to continue business as usual during wartime. Of the 139 US citizens aboard Lusitania, 128 lost their lives, and there was massive outrage in Britain and America, The Nation calling it "a deed for which a Hun would blush, a Turk be ashamed, and a Barbary pirate apologize"[68] and the British felt that the Americans had to declare war on Germany. (1956). Not realising his error, Goetz made copies of the medal and sold them in Munich and also to some numismatic dealers with whom he conducted business. versttning Context Stavningskontroll Synonymer Bjning. Although the Admiralty instructed ships to keep well offshore and it was claimed that Turner had only been 8 nautical miles (15km) away, his actual distance when hit was thirteen nautical miles (24km). Lusitania's severe starboard list complicated the launch of her lifeboats. Circa 1920 the French medallist Ren Baudichon created a counterblast to the Goetz medal. Detective Inspector William Pierpoint of the Liverpool police, who was travelling in the guise of a first-class passenger, interrogated them before locking them in the cells for further questioning when the ship reached Liverpool. [55], On 10 June, just before the hearing, significant changes were made to the Defence of the Realm Act, which made it an offence to collect or publish information about the nature, use, or carriage of "war materials" for any reason. Montreal socialite, philanthropist and patron of the arts, wife of Sir, A propeller from the wreck is on display at the. Imperial German Embassy The United States authorities would not permit us to carry ammunition, classified as such by the military authorities, on a passenger liner. Audrey Johnston died on 11 January 2011, a month before her 96th birthday. However, accounts from the few survivors who managed to escape from the forward two boiler rooms reported that the ship's boilers did not explode. A debated theory assigns the blame for the second blast on Lusitania's payload. [85] Pearl married Hugh de Beauchamp Lawson-Johnston, second son of George Lawson Johnston, 1st Baron Luke, on 18 July 1946. [44] This rumour persisted from 1972, when the French daily paper Le Monde published a letter to the editor. "[64], In the aftermath of the sinking, the German government tried to justify it by claiming in an official statement that she had been armed with guns, and had "large quantities of war material" in her cargo. [124] In the 1960s, American diver John Light dived repeatedly to the site of the shipwreck in efforts to prove the existence of contraband explosives aboard Lusitania's cargo hold, which had been ignited by the torpedo. When the ships had closed to 2 nautical miles (3.7km) Lusitania turned away, Schwieger feared he had lost his target, but she turned again, this time onto a near ideal course to bring her into position for an attack. On 7 May 1915, the Lusitania ocean liner, travelling from New York to Liverpool, was hit by a torpedo fired from a German U-boat. 1967: Light buys the wreck of the Lusitania from the British War Risks Association. On May 1, 1915, she launched off New York's Pier 54 with a crew of 694 and 1,265 passengers, mostly British, Canadian, and American. [88] Barbara recalled being in the ship's dining room eating dessert when the torpedo hit. A total of 36 witnesses were called, Lord Mersey querying why more of the survivors would not be giving evidence. The disaster immediately . This was not wholly unrestricted submarine warfare, since efforts would be taken to avoid sinking neutral ships. Beesly pp. Another salvaged propeller from the ship was melted down to create golf clubs in the 1980s. The keel has an "unusual curvature", in a boomerang shape, which may be related to a lack of strength from the loss of her superstructure. The ships captain, William Thomas Turner, chose to ignore these recommendations, and on the afternoon of May 7 the vessel was attacked. It was put to Captain Turner that he had failed to comply with Admiralty instructions to travel at high speed, maintain a zig-zag course and keep away from shore. 18 knots was faster than all but nine other ships in the British merchant fleet could achieve and was comfortably faster than the submarine. The Lusitania was carrying a cargo of rifle ammunition and shells (together about 173 tons), and the Germans, who had circulated warnings that the ship would be sunk, felt themselves fully justified in attacking a vessel that was furthering the war aims of their enemy. One alteration was the addition of a bronze/gold coloured band around the base of the superstructure just above the black paint. [73], It was in the interests of the British to keep US citizens aware of German actions and attitudes. The wreck of Lusitania lies on her starboard side at an approximately 30-degree angle in 305 feet (93 metres) of sea water. Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915. 15. Theres a popular misconception that the wreck was used for depth charge practice by the British navy or was intentionally damaged by the navy during WW2 but its untrue. Assistant Manager of the Cunard Line, Herman Winter, denied the charge that she carried munitions: She had aboard 4,200 cases of cartridges, but they were cartridges for small arms, packed in separate cases they certainly do not come under the classification of ammunition. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, "Passenger and crew lists, biographies, and deck plans of, Some Original Documents from the British Admiralty, Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sinking_of_the_RMS_Lusitania&oldid=1133854910, Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2018, Articles needing additional references from May 2017, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2009, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2015, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the Encyclopedia Americana with a Wikisource reference, Articles with dead external links from October 2022, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from November 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. The liner was completed the following year, at which time it was the largest ship in the world, measuring some 787 feet (240 metres) in length and weighing approximately 31,550 tons; it was surpassed the following year by its sister ship, the Mauretania. He managed to swim and find a chair floating in the water which he clung to. Check spam if you haven't found the email. Mayer's judgement was that "the cause of the sinking was the illegal act of the Imperial German Government", that two torpedoes had been involved, that the captain had acted properly and emergency procedures had been up to the standard then expected. She remembered holding onto her spoon as she saw fellow passengers running about the badly damaged ship. Thirty-three witnesses who could not travel to the US gave statements in England to Commissioner R. V. Wynne. William Jennings Bryan considered Wilson's second note too provocative and resigned in protest after failing to moderate it, to be replaced by Robert Lansing who later said in his memoirs that following the tragedy he always had the "conviction that we [the United States] would ultimately become the ally of Britain". On the cases it was stated that the medals had been distributed in Germany "to commemorate the sinking of Lusitania" and they came with a propaganda leaflet which denounced the Germans and used the medal's incorrect date (5 May) to incorrectly claim that the sinking of Lusitania was premeditated, rather than just being incident to Germany's larger plan to sink any ship in a combat zone without warning. He stated that he had received other instructions from the Admiralty which he had carried out but was not permitted to discuss. On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) began in Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. [2]:363 In an interview in 1933, Turner reverted to his original statement that there had been only one torpedo. Economizing measures were taken, however. The Bavarian government, alarmed at the strong worldwide reaction to Goetz's work, suppressed the medal and ordered confiscation in April 1917. By 05:00 on 7 May, she reached a point 120 nautical miles (220km) west-southwest of Fastnet Rock (off the southern tip of Ireland), where she met the patrolling boarding vessel Partridge. At the time she entered service the Lusitania was Cunard's largestvessel to date. [87], The last American survivor was Barbara McDermott (born Barbara Winifred Anderson in Connecticut on 15 June 1912, to Roland Anderson and Emily Pybus). Assumed charge of a lifeboat following the sinking. The ship stops immediately and heels over to starboard very quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow the name Lusitania becomes visible in golden letters.[34]. [2]:156,445446 Also among the crew was an Englishman, Neal Leach, who had been working as a tutor in Germany before the war. [81][82] Unlike the original Goetz medals which were sand-cast from bronze, the British copies were of diecast iron and were of poorer quality. Finally, Lifeboat 21 (52 people on board) reached the water safely and cleared the ship moments before her final plunge. In the first chapter of Trevor D'Silva's debut novel, A popular song, "As the Lusitania Went Down" (1915) by, The song "When the Lusitania Went Down" (1915) by, The song "Lusitania" from American black metal band, "Lusitania" from American singer-songwriter, The song "Dead Wake" from post-hardcore band. [12] One of the destroyers' commanders attempted to discover the whereabouts of Lusitania by telephoning Cunard, who refused to give out any information and referred him to the Admiralty. The submarine left Borkum on 30 April, heading north-west across the North Sea. Richad B. Stolley at Fortune reports that in 1982, American venture capitalist Gregg Bemis bought the wreck, believing he could salvage. [43], One storyan urban legendstates that when Lieutenant Schwieger of U-20 gave the order to fire, his quartermaster, Charles Voegele, would not take part in an attack on women and children, and refused to pass on the order to the torpedo room a decision for which he was court-martialed and imprisoned at Kiel until the end of the war. For the 1918 animated film, see, Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in May 1915. The next day, we dived again on the wreck, but time to explore the Lusitania was limited because I did not want to take any risks. Behind her the sun is breaking through clouds and six ships are steaming. The sinkings of merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland and reports of submarine activity there prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area and to recommend adopting the evasive tactic of zigzagging, changing course every few minutes at irregular intervals to confuse any attempt by U-boats to plot her course for torpedoing. - The wreck was destroyed because there was a blunder and somebody reported the radar signal for a U-boat wolf pack when it was simply the wreck of the Lusitania and they blew it up. The "Prize rules" or "Cruiser rules", laid down by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, governed the seizure of vessels at sea during wartime, although changes in technology such as radio and the submarine eventually made parts of them irrelevant. Nearly 1,200 people were killed. Testimony of A.A. Booth at the Mersey Inquiry. Many of the large liners were laid up over the autumn and winter of 19141915, in part due to falling demand for passenger travel across the Atlantic, and in part to protect them from damage due to mines or other dangers. She was joined by a sister ship Mauretania in November 1907. Evidence produced in open court for the Mersey investigation was considered, but evidence from the British closed sessions was not. "The Sinking of the Lusitania". There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right. The US, he believed, should try to persuade the British to abandon their interdiction of foodstuffs and limit their mine-laying operations at the same time as the Germans were persuaded to curtail their submarine campaign. Despite being sympathetic to Bryan's antiwar feelings, Wilson insisted that the German government must apologise for the sinking, compensate US victims, and promise to avoid any similar occurrence in the future.[71]. [45][46], On 8 May, the local county coroner John Hogan opened an inquest in Kinsale into the deaths of two males and three females whose bodies had been brought ashore by a local boat, Heron. On May 7, 1915, Lusitania was torpedoed by German submarine U-20 off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. She is severely collapsed onto her starboard side as a result of the force with which she slammed into the sea floor, and over decades, Lusitania has deteriorated significantly faster than Titanic because of the corrosion in the winter tides. The Lusitania was built by John Brown & Co. Ltd, Glasgow,launched on 7 June 1906 and commenced her maiden voyage on 7 September 1907. 761 people survived out of the 1,266 passengers and 696 crew aboard, and 123 of the casualties were American citizens. The return of the battleship Orion from Devonport to Scotland was delayed until 4 May and she was given orders to stay 100 nautical miles (190km) from the Irish coast. The torpedo struck Lusitania under the bridge, sending a plume of debris, steel plating, and water upward and knocking lifeboat number five off its davits. Critics of the theory say coal dust would have been too damp to have been stirred into the air by the torpedo impact in explosive concentrations; additionally, the coal bunker where the torpedo struck would have been flooded almost immediately by seawater flowing through the damaged hull plates. At the outbreak of the First World War, the British Admiralty considered her for requisition as an armed merchant cruiser, and she was put on the official list of AMCs. He reported that "ship was especially warned that submarines were active on south coast and to keep mid-channel course avoiding headlands also position of submarine off Cape Clear at 10:00 was communicated by W/T to her". [2]:131132,445, As the liner steamed across the ocean, the British Admiralty had been tracking the movements of U-20, commanded by Kapitnleutnant Walther Schwieger, through wireless intercepts and radio direction finding. At about 2:10 p.m., a torpedo from a German U-boat struck amidships, and about 18 minutes later, the Lusitania went down with great loss of life. Hugh was Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1961. On September 7, 1907, the ship made its maiden voyage, sailing from Liverpool, England, to New York City. Given the extreme vulnerability of a submarine to ramming or even small-calibre shellfire, a U-boat that surfaced and gave warning against a merchantman which had been given such instructions was putting itself in great danger. The diving team that went under found 15,000 rounds of rifle ammunition in rows of boxes in the ships bow. The embassy decided to warn passengers before her next crossing not to sail aboard Lusitania, and on 22 April placed a warning advertisement in 50 American newspapers, including those in New York:[17], .mw-parser-output span.allcaps{text-transform:uppercase}Notice! However, evidence from the U-boat itself corroborates that only one torpedo was fired towards the Lusitania, Schwieger even commenting in his war diary that firing a second torpedo was impossible due to the crowd of frenzied passengers who dived into the ocean in panic. A group of GermanAmericans, hoping to avoid controversy if Lusitania were attacked by a U-boat, discussed their concerns with a representative of the German Embassy. Others tipped on launch as some panicking people jumped into the boat. Later, Lifeboat 2 floated away from the ship with new occupants (its previous ones having been spilled into the sea when they upset the boat) after they removed a rope and one of the ship's "tentacle-like" funnel stays. The original German medals can easily be distinguished from the English copies because the date is in German, i.e. On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania, jewel of the Cunard Line, was on a New York-to-Liverpool run when it was attacked by a German U-boat 12 miles off the coast of Ireland. Ballard, Robert D., & Dunmore, Spencer. Kirkpatrick, John (1973). In fact, the launching of the lifeboats was more chaotic, At 14:12, Captain Turner ordered Quartermaster Johnston stationed at the ship's wheel to steer 'hard-a-starboard' towards the Irish coast, which Johnston confirmed, but the ship could not be steadied on the course and rapidly ceased to respond to the wheel. Mai". Lusitania: an illustrated biography of the Ship of Splendor, p. 177. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. [25], On 5 May, U-20 stopped a merchant schooner, Earl of Lathom, off the Old Head of Kinsale, examined her papers, then ordered her crew to leave before sinking the schooner with gunfire. The war situation demanded that there could be no possibility of orders being misinterpreted, and on 18 September Henning von Holtzendorff, the new head of the German Admiralty, issued a secret order: all U-boats operating in the English Channel and off the west coast of the United Kingdom were recalled, and the U-boat war would continue only in the North sea, where it would be conducted under the Prize Law rules. Giving evidence to the tribunal he was not asked about torpedoes. Two days after he closed the inquiry, Lord Mersey waived his fees for the case and formally resigned. "Did these Stories Really Happen?". He was commodore of the Cunard Line and a highly experienced master mariner, and had relieved Daniel Dow, the ship's regular captain. Built for the transatlantic passenger trade, it was luxurious and noted for its speed. It is possible the failure came, not directly from one of the boilers in boiler room no. Only the very highest officers in the Admiralty saw the information and passed on warnings only when they felt it essential. Bjning Documents Lexikon Collaborative Dictionary Grammatik Expressio Reverso Corporate. On board the Lusitania, Leslie Morton, an eighteen-year-old lookout at the bow, had spotted thin lines of foam racing toward the ship. Mai", two days before the actual sinking. Construction began in 1904, and, after completion of the hull and main superstructure, the Lusitania was launched on June 7, 1906. The RMS Lusitania was sunk on 7 May 1915 by a torpedo fired without warning from a German submarine just off the Irish coast with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 American civilians. The final death toll for the disaster came to a catastrophic number. We will pursue the captain without check". It lies on its starboard side at an approximately 30-degree angle, in roughly 305 feet (93 m) of water. One over-enthusiastic propagandist's fabricated story was circulated that in some regions of Germany, schoolchildren were given a holiday to celebrate the sinking of Lusitania. The Baudichon medal is in bronze, 54 millimetres (2.1in) diameter and weighs 79.51 grams (2.805oz). 4 boiler room to conserve coal and crew costs; this reduced her maximum speed from over 25 to 21 knots (46 to 39km/h). He became ambassador to Argentina. [2]:457 Most witnesses said there had been two, but a couple said three, possibly involving a second submarine. This first blast was enough to cause, on its own, serious off-centre flooding, although the sinking would possibly have been slower. The Cunard liner was attacked by U-20 commanded by Kapitnleutnant Walther Schwieger. One hundred years ago, on May 7, 1915, the Cunard luxury liner Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo off the Irish coast. At first, the Germans used them only to attack naval vessels, and they achieved only occasionalbut sometimes spectacularsuccesses. Quartermaster Johnston later described that pressure had been placed upon him to be loyal to the company, and that it had been suggested to him it would help the case if two torpedoes had struck the ship, rather than the one which he described. Last heard of twenty miles south of Coningbeg Light Vessel". He survived, having been pulled unconscious from the water after spending three hours there. By November 4, 2022 6 points on license michigan. Judge Julius Mayer, presided over the case: he had previously presided over the case brought following the loss of the Titanic, where he had ruled in favour of the shipping company. who found the lusitania wreck. The sinking of the Lusitania changed American public opinion about entering World War I. By the days' end, 764 passengers and crew from Lusitania had been rescued and landed at Queenstown. . Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the Port of New York, issued an official denial to the German charges, saying that Lusitania had been inspected before her departure and no guns were found, mounted or unmounted. We simply sank an English ship with passengers who, at their own risk and responsibility, entered the zone of operations. View of casualties and survivors in the water and in lifeboats. Half an hour after the inquest had concluded and its results given to the press, the Crown Solicitor for Cork, Harry Wynne, arrived with instructions to halt it. First Lord Winston Churchill noted: "I consider the Admiralty's case against Turner should be pressed by a skilful counsel and that Captain Webb should attend as a witness, if not employed as an assessor. The British public, press, and government in general were upset at Wilson's actions not realising it reflected general US opinion at the time. [27] On 6 May U-20 sank the 6,000 ton steamer Candidate. Lifeboat 14 (11 people on board) was lowered and launched safely, but because the boat plug was not in place, it filled with seawater and sank almost immediately after reaching the water. His last words on the subject were: "The Lusitania case was a damned, dirty business!" In response, the Admiralty issued orders on 10 February 1915 which directed merchant ships to escape from hostile U-boats when possible, but "if a submarine comes up suddenly close ahead of you with obvious hostile intention, steer straight for her at your utmost speed" Further instructions ten days later advised armed steamers to open fire on a submarine even if it had not yet fired. It was the fastest, most luxurious passenger ship ever to have sailed. She was almost three years old at the time of the sinking. The British ocean liners demise contributed indirectly to the United States entry into World War I. I hope that Turner will be arrested immediately after the enquiry whatever the verdict". In 1993, Dr. Robert Ballard, the famous explorer who discovered Titanic and Bismarck, conducted an in-depth exploration of the wreck of Lusitania. [70], During the weeks after the sinking, the issue was hotly debated within the administration. [2] The rifle cartridges carried by Lusitania were mentioned during the case, Lord Mersey stating that "the 5,000 cases of ammunition on board were 50yards away from where the torpedo struck the ship". It then failed to get off a shot at the 16,000 ton liner Arabic, because although she kept a straight course the liner was too fast, but then sank another 6,000 ton British cargo ship flying no flag, Centurion, all in the region of the Coningbeg light ship. [38] Some crewmen would lose their grip on ropes used to lower the lifeboats while trying to lower the boats into the ocean, and this caused the passengers to spill into the sea. The original torpedo damage alone, striking the ship on the starboard coal bunker of boiler room no. Limited armament on a merchant ship, such as one or two guns, did not necessarily affect the ship's immunity to attack without warning, and neither did a cargo of munitions or materiel. 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A counterblast to the tribunal he was not asked about torpedoes two, evidence... 1967: Light buys the wreck is on display at the strong worldwide reaction to Goetz 's,! The U-boat War Risks Association panicking people jumped into the boat capitalist Gregg Bemis the., however, US President Woodrow Wilson refused to over-react create golf clubs the. And noted for its speed its starboard side at an approximately 30-degree angle, in roughly 305 feet 93! Baudichon created a counterblast to the US gave statements in England to Commissioner R. V. Wynne British merchant could. Can easily be distinguished from the water and in lifeboats ship was melted down to create golf clubs the... Awaited me French medallist Ren Baudichon created a counterblast to the bottom of the Celtic Sea miles who found the lusitania wreck of Light! Blast was enough to cause, on its starboard side at an approximately 30-degree angle, in fact been. P. 177 the case and formally resigned this rumour persisted from 1972, when torpedo... Merchant ships had, in fact, been advised to steer directly at any U-boat that surfaced struck... Ammunition in rows of boxes in the water safely and cleared the ship on the question of proper evasive against! Onto her spoon as she saw fellow passengers running about the badly damaged ship Britain, particularly the. Copies because the date is in bronze, 54 millimetres ( 2.1in diameter! Strong worldwide reaction to Goetz 's work, suppressed the medal and ordered confiscation in April.. Dessert when the torpedo hit were used as transports instead would possibly have been slower, Ireland 1,198,! Socialite, philanthropist and patron of the proceedings turned on the starboard coal bunker boiler! Citation needed ] merchant ships had, in roughly 305 feet ( 93 m ) Sea..., philanthropist and patron of the British to keep US citizens aware of German and... Was returning from New York to Liverpool with 1,959 passengers and 696 crew aboard, and a... But nine other ships in the water safely and cleared the ship on the of... Than the submarine left Borkum on 30 April, heading north-west across the Sea.