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Essays on the sinking of the lusitania
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Essays on the sinking of the lusitania
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The keel for the Lusitania was laid in May 1905 to be one of the biggest commercial ocean liners post the RMS Titanic hull. “John Brown and Co Ltd of Glasgow was the winning builders to build this ship. Post the building of the ship, over a 1 year period. She was launched on June 7th, 1906”. (“RMS Lusitania”) Her attraction was the fact that she had seven full decks for passengers compared to the normal four to five that most of the ships carried or housed at that time. The upper class passengers enjoyed their berthing like they always had with all the comforts of home. But now instead of the poor class having to sleep in open air berthing that had no privacy, they actually were able to sleep in 4 or six person to a berthing space or room. …show more content…
Lusitania has a new feature that was to help protect her inners from attack or a collision by putting the coal bunkers on the side of the boiler room rather than in line with the boilers. “Engines were placed in the rear of the ship, boilers were placed amidships, and space for the cargo, which could be converted to a magazine if needed, was in the front”. (“Design-The Lusitania Resource.”)
With the out brake of World War I in 1914, this meant that the role of the Lusitania could and would change in the near future if needed. She was designed to be converted to an armed merchant cruiser should the need arise. She was designed to carry 12 quick fire six inch guns along with the ability to carry troops and
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The Germans had launched their first unrestricted U-boat campaign in 1915. U-boat commander Walther Schwieger was the captain in charge of the U20. Per the German executive orders dated April 30th, 1915 to the Lieutenant-Commander Schwinger of U-boat 20 that gave him clear orders to attack any transport ships, merchant ships and warships as they see fit under any flag. “On 7 May 1915, Schwieger was responsible for U-20's torpedoing of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania leading to the deaths of 1,198 people”. (“Sinking of the RMS
The German’s unrestricted submarine warfare was the main reason for the U.S. to enter war. Wilson had tremendous support from Americans. The Germans had to be stopped. The attacks came without warning killing many innocent people (Winter and Baggett, 1996). The Germans sank numerous ships including our own. The most famous ship sunk was the Lusitiania. Aboard that ship 128 Americans were killed (http://www.angelfire.com/in3/wilson/wilson.html). The Lusitania was torpedoed without any notice. The Lusitania sunk in 18 minutes killing a total of 1198 people (http://www.poltechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/chart.ww1.html).
Kennedy points out that “according to the census of 1910, one of every three Americans in that year had either been born abroad or had at least one parent born abroad. Of those 32 million persons from families with close foreign ties, more than ten million derived from the Central Powers.” Many immigrants still supported their Old Country; German agents had committed acts of sabotage to prevent the delivery of war materials to the Allies during the American neutrality period, 1914-1917, causing Wilson to expel German representatives from the country. Wilson (and others) believed American disloyalty was prevalent within the immigrant population, and in 1915 and 1916 launched attacks “against so-called hyphenated Americans. “There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit,” Wilson told the Congress in his third annual message, “born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America,
The USS Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser. She did not have heavy armor which made her vulnerable to torpedo attacks. She had been ordered to sail on July 16, 1945, to deliver a bomb that would end the war. Unfortunately, it sank before it arrived.
On the other side, Wilson was determined to revise the imperialist practices of earlier administrations, promising independence to the Philippines and making Puerto Ricans American citizens. But Wilson's own policies could sometimes be high-handed. His administration intervened militarily more often in Latin America than any of his predecessors. In the European war, American neutrality ended when the Germans refused to suspend submarine warfare after 120 Americans were killed aboard the British liner Lusitania and a secret German offer of a military alliance with Mexico against the United States was uncovered. In 1917, Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war on Germany.
When World War I broke out in Europe, Woodrow Wilson announced that the United States would stay out of European affairs and remain neutral. Wilson was aware that the United States had no interest in the matters that did not directly affect the interests of American citizens. He hoped that the United States would remain neutral and continue to trade with warring nations. The American view of neutrality meant we were entitled to safely and freely trade with either side at war as long as it was out in the open seas. The United States hoped to stay out of the way because war was viewed as wasteful, irrational, and immoral.
The sinking of the Lusitania was a tragic event. It occurred on May 7th, 1915 in the North Atlantic ocean. The famous British ocean liner had departed from New York City and was off the coast of Ireland when a German submarine fired torpedoes. The ship had roughly 1,900 passengers on board, most of which were American citizens. The ship was meant for passengers and not for cargo but as lots of reporters have stated there was in fact a handful of war materials aboard the ship which was kept secret from its passengers.Prior to the sinking the Germans had declared that the waters around the British Isles were considered to be a war zone.1 This war zone idea was backed by the fact that the Germans admitted to enforce unrestricted submarine warfare; meaning if you were in the water you were getting blown up with or without prior knowledge. It took a total of eighteen minutes for the Lusitania, in its entirety, to disappear beneath the waves of the North Atlantic ocean.2 After the ship had sunk the American press had openly and with lots of determination and passion deemed the event uncivilized. However, the Lusitania was not the only ship that was torpedoed. A year later in 1916 the Sussex, an unarmed French passenger ship was sunk by another German submarine. 3
In his book, “Woodrow Wilson Revolution, War, and Peace” by Arthur Link, Link walks step by step through President Woodrow Wilson’s career beginning from the time he was born and focuses on his role during and after World War I. Through his entire book, Link acts as an apologist for the actions of Wilson as well as argues against the opinions of other historians. Link speaks about Wilson almost as if he idolizes him; as if despite what other historians and public opinion might say that he can do no wrong.
...Wilson took on the persona of the leader of a “righteous war”, and with much support from the people approached Congress asking for a declaration of war (James and Wells, 26). While not everyone was supportive of the war, the vast majority was extremely pro-war. Congress passed the declaration of war against Germany primarily based on its unrestricted usage of U-boats against American ships. Thus through actions taken by the Germans, the United States would begin its involvement in the Great War.
My topic is concerning the sinking of the Lusitania. The Lusitania was a British merchant ship that had 200 Americans on board. The Germans sunk the cruiser with submarine warfare on May 7th, 1915, claiming that the ship was carrying munitions. Though the Lusitania was not a weapons-bearing ship, later investigations proved there were a few munitions on board. When the ship sank, a total of 150 of the 1,100 casualties were Americans; thus, this crisis later became war propaganda in America. President Woodrow Wilson became frustrated with the transgression on the Germans’ part and issued them a warning. He claimed that the Germans violated American rights on the high seas, and that the Germans were accountable for their breach of
In 1915 the cruise liner lusitania was sunk by a german U boat just south of the coast of ireland. There were 2 explosions on the hull of the lusitania then it sunk in 18 minutes and 128 american lives were lost, this rightfully angered the american public but they were being lied to (data set 8). Britain used these civilian passengers as meat shields for the ammunition they were carrying on the ship. according to the british reports the lusitania was hit by 2 torpedoes, but according to the germans they only fired 1 torpedo, the second explosion was actually the onboard ammunition exploding, but the british straight lied to everybody and called it a second torpedo (outside source). According to most people this event is why the US joined the war but that is
people wanted (Doc 1a). Wilson wasn’t very strict on his neutrality though. As WWI continued exports to Germany decreased as they greatly increased for Great Britain (Doc 1b). The U.S. still favored Great Britain and its allies and were not very neutral in trade. It raises the question if Germany was wrong to sink merchant ships. In response to the destruction of passenger and merchant ships Wilson wrote notes to the German leadership and made strong protests against their actions (Doc 2). Germany promised to stop the attacks, but later broke their promise leading to the U.S. entering the war. As stated before Roosevelt also supported neutrality. His actions before the war (WWII) were more drastic then Wilson’s. He put trade embargo’s on Japan fearing their increasing aggressiveness toward other nations and their possible threat to the United States and stationed the U.S. fleet at Hawaii (Doc 7). Roosevelt believed the best way to help European nations was to act as a beacon of liberty and restr...
America’s 28th President faced a great deal of stress during his eight years in office, one of Wilson’s greatest stressors was a little over a year into his presidency World War One had begun to brew. After close to three years Wilson asked congress to “declare a war to end wars” that would "make the world safe for democracy". On April 6, 1917 congress voted and declared war on Germany. While Wilson’s want to end the war and implement democracy was all from good intentions it took multiple steps to get to that point. Wilson believed in self determination and believed in the rights of people within their own nations to elect representatives rather than living under totalitarian regimes. Most countries that fought in WWI did not consist of a democracy based government but rather monarchies, a form of
On April 2nd 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America, ??went before Congress and called for a declaration of war. Both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of going to war with Germany.?# This was an act that led to much resistance among the American people. Not four months earlier the American people re-elected President Wilson, partly because of his success in keeping the United States out of this European war. However, a series of events, such as the Germans continuing submarine warfare and the attacks on five American ships, led President Wilson to sever diplomatic relations with Germany and send the United States into what would be labeled as World War I. As a result of the war the
The purpose of this source is share information about the sinking of the Lusitania. How the passengers in on the boat fate was in doubt. Especially to share information about who and how it was attacked. On May 7, 1915, a German Submarine fired a torpedo which sunk the Lusitania. The Germans reason for firing a torpedo was that it was equipped with ammunition. This source is valuable because The Topeka State Journal is sharing new information about the tragic event that occurred. This source accurately reflects what was going on during this time period because their tension between Great Britain and Germany. The United States didn’t want to get involve, but once Germany sunk the Lusitania which had American passengers on board. The United States entered the World War I. The limitation of this source is that it is a journal or newspaper company, which could change up the information for its audience. You don’t know if some people change up the stories for views. However, it does seem to be correct on the following information that it is sharing with the
... middle of paper ... ...& Co. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. The Ship Magnificent, Vol. 2. Conclusion Due to The Titanic's incident engineers have improved on the building of ships with the aid of modern technology and durable materials which is able to withstand hard pressures exerted on it, and it has also enabled them to build bigger ships which has the capacity of caring large number of people, as well as more number of survival boats, and emergency radio communicators, computer and satellite to enable the captain or crew members to get help when faced in trouble in bad waters, etc.