EXPLORING
THE LUSITANIA HBDJ DEEP-SEA OCEAN WRECK ARCHEOLOGY WW1 U-BOAT SINKING
HARDBOUND BOOK WITH DUSTJACKET
by ROBERT D. BALLARD with SPENCER DUNMORE in ENGLISH
PROBING THE MYSTERIES OF THE SINKING
THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
The author of the best-selling
The Discovery of the Titanic explores the controversies surrounding the sinking
of the cruise ship in 1915, in a large-format gift book featuring more than
three hundred photographs and illustrations.
----------------------
DESIGN
CONSTRUCTION
PASSENGER ACCOMMODATIONS
PROPELLING MACHINERY
CARGO AND NAVIGATION APPLIANCES
THE LAUNCHING TO THE SHIP
THE SALOONS IN THE SHIP
THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY
TO THE SHIP
SEA TRIALS
THE PRIMARY & SECONDARY
BUILDERS OF THE SHIP
---------------
Additional Information from
Internet Encyclopedia
RMS Lusitania (named after the
Roman province in Western Europe corresponding to modern Portugal) was a
British ocean liner that was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906 and held the
Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1908. It was
briefly the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of the
Mauretania three months later. She was sunk on her 202nd trans-Atlantic
crossing, on 7 May 1915, by a German U-boat 11 miles (18 km) off the southern
coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 passengers and crew.
The sinking occurred about two
years before the United States declaration of war on Germany. Although the
Lusitania's sinking was a major factor in building American support for a war,
war was eventually declared only after the Imperial German Government resumed
the use of unrestricted submarine warfare against American shipping in an
attempt to break the Transatlantic supply chain from the US to Britain, as well
as after the Zimmermann Telegram.
German shipping lines were
Cunard's main competitors for the custom of Transatlantic passengers in the
early 20th century, and Cunard responded by building two new 'ocean
greyhounds': the Lusitania and the Mauretania. Cunard used assistance from the
British Admiralty to build both new ships, on the understanding that the ship
would be available for military duty in time of war. During construction gun
mounts for deck cannons were installed but no guns were ever fitted. Both the
Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with turbine engines that enabled them to
maintain a service speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). They were equipped with
lifts, wireless telegraph, and electric light, and provided 50 percent more
passenger space than any other ship; the first-class decks were known for their
sumptuous furnishings.
The Royal Navy had blockaded
Germany at the start of the First World War; the UK had declared the North Sea
a war zone in the autumn of 1914 and mined the approaches. In the spring of
1915, all food imports for Germany were declared contraband. In response
Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone too, and
German submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic. When RMS Lusitania
left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915 the German embassy in the United States
placed fifty newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing
on Lusitania. Objections were made by the British that threatening to torpedo
all ships indiscriminately was wrong, whether it was announced in advance or
not.
On the afternoon of 7 May, a
German U-boat torpedoed Lusitania 11 miles (18 km) off the southern coast of
Ireland inside the declared war zone. A second internal explosion caused her to
sink in 18 minutes, killing 1,198 passengers and crew.[3]: 57 The German
government justified treating Lusitania as a naval vessel because she was
carrying 173 tons of war munitions and ammunition, making her a legitimate
military target, and they argued that British merchant ships had violated the
cruiser rules from the very beginning of the war.[5][6][7][8][9] The
internationally recognised cruiser rules were obsolete by 1915; it had become
more dangerous for submarines to surface and give warning with the introduction
of Q-ships in 1915 by the Royal Navy, which were armed with concealed deck
guns. The Germans argued that Lusitania was regularly transporting "war
munitions"; she operated under the control of the Admiralty; she could be
converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser to join the war; her identity had
been disguised; and she flew no flags. They claimed that she was a non-neutral
vessel in a declared war zone, with orders to evade capture and ram challenging
submarines.
However, the ship was not armed
for battle and was carrying hundreds of civilian passengers, and the British
government accused the Germans of breaching the cruiser rules. The sinking
caused a storm of protest in the United States because 128 American citizens
were among the dead. The sinking shifted public opinion in the United States
against Germany and was one of the factors in the declaration of war nearly two
years later. After the First World War, successive British governments
maintained that there were no munitions on board Lusitania, and the Germans
were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. In 1982, the head of
the Foreign Office's American department finally admitted that there is a large
amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous and poses
a safety risk to salvage teams.
Development and construction
Lusitania and Mauretania were
commissioned by Cunard, responding to increasing competition from rival
transatlantic passenger companies, particularly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd
(NDL) and Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). They had larger, faster, more modern
and more luxurious ships than Cunard, and were better placed, starting from
German ports, to capture the lucrative trade in emigrants leaving Europe for
North America. The NDL liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse captured the Blue Riband
from Cunard's Campania in 1897, before the prize was taken in 1900 by the HAPAG
ship Deutschland. NDL soon wrested the prize back in 1903 with the new Kaiser
Wilhelm II and Kronprinz Wilhelm. Cunard saw its passenger numbers affected as a
result of the so-called "Kaiser-class ocean liners".
American millionaire businessman
J. P. Morgan had decided to invest in transatlantic shipping by creating a new
company, International Mercantile Marine (IMM), and, in 1901, purchased the
British freight shipper Frederick Leyland & Co. and a controlling interest
in the British passenger White Star Line and folded them into IMM. In 1902,
IMM, NDL and HAPAG entered into a "Community of Interest" to fix
prices and divide among them the transatlantic trade. The partners also
acquired a 51% stake in the Dutch Holland America Line. IMM made offers to
purchase Cunard which, along with the French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
(CGT), was now its principal rival.
Cunard chairman Lord Inverclyde
thus approached the British government for assistance. Faced with the impending
collapse of the British liner fleet and the consequent loss of national
prestige, as well as the reserve of shipping for war purposes which it
represented, they agreed to help. By an agreement signed in June 1903, Cunard
was given a loan of £2.6 million to finance two ships, repayable over 20 years
at a favourable interest rate of 2.75%. The ships would receive an annual
operating subsidy of £75,000 each plus a mail contract worth £68,000. In return,
the ships would be built to Admiralty specifications so that they could be used
as auxiliary cruisers in wartime.
Design
Cunard established a committee
to decide upon the design for the new ships, of which James Bain, Cunard's
Marine Superintendent was the chairman. Other members included Rear Admiral H.
J. Oram, who had been involved in designs for steam turbine-powered ships for
the Royal Navy, and Charles Parsons, whose company Parsons Marine was now
producing turbine engines.
Parsons maintained that he could
design engines capable of maintaining a speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph),
which would require 68,000 shaft horsepower (51,000 kW). The largest turbine
sets built so far had been of 23,000 shp (17,000 kW) for the Dreadnought
battleship, and 41,000 shp (31,000 kW) for Invincible-class battlecruisers,
which meant the engines would be of a new, untested design. Turbines offered
the advantages of generating less vibration than the reciprocating engines and
greater reliability in operation at high speeds, combined with lower fuel
consumption. Having initially turned down the use of this relatively untried
type of engine, Cunard was persuaded by the Admiralty to set up a committee of
marine professionals to look at its possible use on the new liners. The
relative merits of turbines and reciprocating engines were investigated in a
series of trials between Newhaven and Dieppe using the turbine-driven
cross-Channel ferry Brighton and the similarity-designed Arundel, which had
reciprocating engines. The Turbine Committee was convinced by these and other
tests that turbines were the way forward and recommended on 24 March 1904 that
they should be used on the new express liners. In order to gain some experience
of these new engines, Cunard asked John Brown to fit turbines on Carmania, the
second of a pair of 19,500g-intermediate liners under construction at the yard.
Carmania was completed in 1905 and this gave Cunard almost two years of
experience before the introduction of their new super liners in 1907.
The ship was designed by Leonard
Peskett[15] and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The
ship's name was taken from Lusitania, an ancient Roman province on the west of
the Iberian Peninsulathe region that is now southern Portugal and Extremadura
(Spain). The name had also been used by a previous ship built in 1871 and
wrecked in 1901, making the name available from Lloyd's for Cunard's giant.
Peskett had built a large model
of the proposed ship in 1902 showing a three-funnel design. A fourth funnel was
implemented into the design in 1904 as it was necessary to vent the exhaust
from additional boilers fitted after steam turbines had been settled on as the
power plant. The original plan called for three propellers, but this was
altered to four because it was felt the necessary power could not be
transmitted through just three. Four turbines would drive four separate
propellers, with additional reversing turbines to drive the two inboard shafts
only. To improve efficiency, the two inboard propellers rotated inward, while
those outboard rotated outward. The outboard turbines operated at high
pressure; the exhaust steam then passing to those inboard at relatively low
pressure.
The propellers were driven
directly by the turbines, for sufficiently robust gearboxes had not yet been
developed, and became available in only 1916. Instead, the turbines had to be
designed to run at a much lower speed than those normally accepted as being
optimum. Thus, the efficiency of the turbines installed was less at low speeds
than a conventional reciprocating steam engine, but significantly better when
the engines were run at high speed, as was usually the case for an express
liner. The ship was fitted with 23 double-ended and two single-ended boilers
(which fitted the forward space where the ship narrowed), operating at a
maximum 195 psi (1,340 kPa) and containing 192 individual furnaces.
Deck plans of Lusitania.
Modifications were made both during and after the ship's construction. By 1915
the lifeboat arrangement had been changed to 11 fixed boats on either side,
plus collapsible boats stored under each lifeboat and on the poop deck.
Work to refine the hull shape
was conducted in the Admiralty experimental tank at Haslar, Gosport. As a
result of experiments, the beam of the ship was increased by 10 feet (3.0 m)
over that initially intended to improve stability. The hull immediately in
front of the rudder and the balanced rudder itself followed naval design
practice to improve the vessel's turning response. The Admiralty contract
required that all machinery be below the waterline, where it was considered to
be better protected from gunfire, and the aft third of the ship below water was
used to house the turbines, the steering motors and four 375-kilowatt (503 hp)
steam-driven turbo-generators. The central half contained four boiler rooms,
with the remaining space at the forward end of the ship being reserved for
cargo and other storage.
Coal bunkers were placed along
the length of the ship outboard of the boiler rooms, with a large transverse
bunker immediately in front of that most forward (number 1) boiler room. Apart
from convenience ready for use, the coal was considered to provide added
protection for the central spaces against attack. At the very front were the chain
lockers for the huge anchor chains and ballast tanks to adjust the ship's trim.
The hull space was divided into
thirteen watertight compartments, any two of which could be flooded without
risk of the ship sinking, connected by 35 hydraulically operated watertight
doors. A critical flaw in the arrangement of the watertight compartments was
that sliding doors to the coal bunkers needed to be open to provide a constant
feed of coal whilst the ship was operating, and closing these in emergency
conditions could be problematic. The ship had a double bottom with the space
between divided into separate watertight cells. The ship's exceptional height
was due to the six decks of passenger accommodation above the waterline,
compared to the customary four decks in existing liners.
High-tensile steel was used for
the ship's plating, as opposed to the more conventional mild steel. This
allowed a reduction in plate thickness, reducing weight but still providing 26
per cent greater strength than otherwise. Plates were held together by triple
rows of rivets. The ship was heated and cooled throughout by a thermo-tank
ventilation system, which used steam-driven heat exchangers to warm air to a
constant 65 °F (18.3 °C), while steam was injected into the airflow to maintain
steady humidity.
Forty-nine separate units driven
by electric fans provided seven complete changes of air per hour throughout the
ship, through an interconnected system, so that individual units could be
switched off for maintenance. A separate system of exhaust fans removed air
from galleys and bathrooms. As built, the ship conformed fully with Board of
Trade safety regulations which required sixteen lifeboats with a capacity of
approximately 1,000 people.
At the time of her completion,
Lusitania was briefly the largest ship ever built, but was soon eclipsed by the
slightly larger Mauretania which entered service shortly afterwards. She was 3
feet (0.91 m) longer, a full 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) faster, and had a
capacity of 10,000 gross register tons over and above that of the most modern
German liner, Kronprinzessin Cecilie. Passenger accommodation was 50% larger
than any of her competitors, providing for 552 saloon class, 460 cabin class
and 1,186 in third class. Her crew comprised 69 on deck, 369 operating engines
and boilers and 389 to attend to passengers. Both she and Mauretania had a
wireless telegraph, electric lighting, electric lifts, sumptuous interiors and
an early form of air-conditioning.
Interiors
At the time of their
introduction onto the North Atlantic, both Lusitania and Mauretania possessed
among the most luxurious, spacious and comfortable interiors afloat. The
Scottish architect James Miller was chosen to design Lusitania's interiors,
while Harold Peto was chosen to design Mauretania. Miller chose to use
plasterwork to create interiors whereas Peto made extensive use of wooden
panelling, with the result that the overall impression given by Lusitania was
brighter than Mauretania.
The ship's passenger
accommodation was spread across six decks; from the top deck down to the
waterline they were Boat Deck (A Deck), the Promenade Deck (B Deck), the
Shelter Deck (C Deck), the Upper Deck (D Deck), the Main Deck (E Deck) and the
Lower Deck (F Deck), with each of the three passenger classes being allotted
their own space on the ship. As seen aboard all passenger liners of the era,
first-, second- and third-class passengers were strictly segregated from one
another. According to her original configuration in 1907, she was designed to
carry 2,198 passengers and 827 crew members. The Cunard Line prided itself with
a record for passenger satisfaction.
Lusitania's first-class
accommodation was in the centre section of the ship on the five uppermost
decks, mostly concentrated between the first and fourth funnels. When fully
booked, Lusitania could cater to 552 first-class passengers. In common with all
major liners of the period, Lusitania's first-class interiors were decorated
with a mélange of historical styles. The first-class dining saloon was the grandest
of the ship's public rooms; arranged over two decks with an open circular well
at its centre and crowned by an elaborate dome measuring 29 feet (8.8 m),
decorated with frescos in the style of François Boucher, it was elegantly
realised throughout in the neoclassical Louis XVI style. The lower floor
measuring 85 feet (26 m) could seat 323, with a further 147 on the 65-foot (20
m) upper floor. The walls were finished with white and gilt carved mahogany
panels, with Corinthian decorated columns which were required to support the
floor above. The one concession to seaborne life was that furniture was bolted
to the floor, meaning passengers could not rearrange their seating for their
personal convenience.
All other first-class public
rooms were situated on the boat deck and comprised a lounge, reading and
writing room, smoking room and veranda café. The last was an innovation on a
Cunard liner and, in warm weather, one side of the café could be opened up to
give the impression of sitting outdoors. This would have been a rarely used
feature given the often inclement weather of the North Atlantic.
The first-class lounge was
decorated in Georgian style with inlaid mahogany panels surrounding a jade
green carpet with a yellow floral pattern, measuring overall 68 feet (21 m). It
had a barrel vaulted skylight rising to 20 feet (6.1 m) with stained glass
windows each representing one month of the year.
Each end of the lounge had a
14-foot (4.3 m) high green marble fireplace incorporating enamelled panels by
Alexander Fisher. The design was linked overall with decorative plasterwork.
The library walls were decorated with carved pilasters and mouldings marking
out panels of grey and cream silk brocade. The carpet was rose, with Rose du
Barry silk curtains and upholstery. The chairs and writing desks were mahogany,
and the windows featured etched glass. The smoking room was Queen Anne style,
with Italian walnut panelling and Italian red furnishings. The grand stairway
linked all six decks of the passenger accommodation with wide hallways on each
level and two lifts. First-class cabins ranged from one shared room through
various ensuite arrangements in a choice of decorative styles culminating in
the two regal suites which each had two bedrooms, dining room, parlour and bathroom.
The port suite decoration was modelled on the Petit Trianon.
Lusitania's second-class
accommodation was confined to the stern, behind the aft mast, where quarters
for 460 second-class passengers were located. The second-class public rooms
were situated on partitioned sections of boat and promenade decks housed in a
separate section of the superstructure aft of the first-class passenger
quarters. Design work was deputised to Robert Whyte, who was the architect
employed by John Brown. Although smaller and plainer, the design of the dining
room reflected that of first class, with just one floor of diners under a
ceiling with a smaller dome and balcony. Walls were panelled and carved with
decorated pillars, all in white. As seen in first class, the dining room was
situated lower down in the ship on the saloon deck. The smoking and ladies'
rooms occupied the accommodation space of the second-class promenade deck, with
the lounge on the boat deck.
Cunard had not previously
provided a separate lounge for second class; the 42-foot (13 m) room had
mahogany tables, chairs and settees set on a rose carpet. The smoking room was
52 feet (16 m) with mahogany panelling, white plaster work ceiling and dome.
One wall had a mosaic of a river scene in Brittany, while the sliding windows
were blue-tinted. Second-class passengers were allotted shared, yet comfortable
two- and four-berth cabins arranged on the shelter, upper and main decks.
Noted as being the prime
breadwinner for trans-Atlantic shipping lines, third class aboard Lusitania was
praised for the improvement in travel conditions it provided to emigrant
passengers; Lusitania proved to be a quite popular ship for immigrants.[26] In
the days before Lusitania and even still during the years in which Lusitania
was in service, third-class accommodation consisted of large open spaces where
hundreds of people would share open berths and hastily constructed public
spaces, often consisting of no more than a small portion of open deck space and
a few tables constructed within their sleeping quarters. In an attempt to break
that mould, the Cunard Line began designing ships such as Lusitania with more
comfortable third-class accommodation.
As on all Cunard passenger
liners, third-class accommodation aboard Lusitania was located at the forward
end of the ship on the shelter, upper, main and lower decks, and in comparison
to other ships of the period, it was comfortable and spacious. The 79-foot (24
m) dining room was at the bow of the ship on the saloon deck, finished in
polished pine as were the other two third-class public rooms, being the smoke
room and ladies room on the shelter deck.
When Lusitania was fully booked
in third class, the smoking and ladies room could easily be converted into
overflow dining rooms for added convenience. Meals were eaten at long tables
with swivel chairs and there were two sittings for meals. A piano was provided
for passenger use. What greatly appealed to immigrants and lower class
travellers was that instead of being confined to open berth dormitories, aboard
Lusitania was a honeycomb of two, four, six and eight berth cabins allotted to
third-class passengers on the main and lower decks.
The Bromsgrove Guild had
designed and constructed most of the trim on Lusitania. Waring and Gillow
tendered for the contract to furnish the whole ship, but failing to obtain this
still supplied a number of the furnishings.
Construction and trials
Lusitania's keel was laid at
John Brown on Clydebank as yard no. 367 on 17 August 1904, Lord Inverclyde
hammering home the first rivet. Cunard nicknamed her 'the Scottish ship' in
contrast to Mauretania whose contract went to Swan Hunter in England and who
started building three months later. Final details of the two ships were left
to designers at the two yards so that the ships differed in details of hull
design and finished structure. The ships may most readily be distinguished in
photographs through the flat-topped ventilators used on Lusitania, whereas
those on Mauretania used a more conventional rounded top. Mauretania was
designed a little longer, wider, heavier and with an extra power stage fitted
to the turbines.
The shipyard at John Brown had
to be reorganized because of her size so that she could be launched diagonally
across the widest available part of the river Clyde where it met a tributary,
the ordinary width of the river being only 610 feet (190 m) compared to the
786-foot (240 m) long ship. The new slipway took up the space of two existing
ones and was built on reinforcing piles driven deeply into the ground to ensure
it could take the temporary concentrated weight of the whole ship as it slid
into the water. In addition, the company spent £8,000 to dredge the Clyde,
£6,500 on new gas plant, £6,500 on a new electrical plant, £18,000 to extend
the dock and £19,000 for a new crane capable of lifting 150 tons as well as
£20,000 on additional machinery and equipment.[29] Construction commenced at
the bow working backwards, rather than the traditional approach of building
both ends towards the middle. This was because designs for the stern and engine
layout were not finalised when construction commenced. Railway tracks were laid
alongside the ship and across deck plating to bring materials as required. The
hull, completed to the level of the main deck but not fitted with equipment
weighed approximately 16,000 tons.
The ship's stockless bower
anchors weighed 101⁄4 tons, attached to 125 ton, 330 fathom chains all
manufactured by N. Hingley & Sons Ltd. The steam capstans to raise them
were constructed by Napier Brothers Ltd, of Glasgow. The turbines were 25 feet
(7.6 m) long with 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter rotors, the large diameter necessary
because of the relatively low speeds at which they operated. The rotors were
constructed on site, while the casings and shafting were constructed in John
Brown's Atlas works in Sheffield. The machinery to drive the 56-ton rudder was
constructed by Brown Brothers of Edinburgh. A main steering engine drove the
rudder through worm gear and clutch operating on a toothed quadrant rack, with
a reserve engine operating separately on the rack via a chain drive for
emergency use. The 17 ft (5.2 m) three-bladed propellers were fitted and then
cased in wood to protect them during the launch.
The ship was launched on 7 June
1906, eight weeks later than planned due to labour strikes and eight months
after Lord Inverclyde's death. Princess Louise was invited to name the ship but
could not attend, so the honour fell to Inverclyde's widow Mary.[32][1] The
launch was attended by 600 invited guests and thousands of spectators.[33] One
thousand tons of drag chains were attached to the hull by temporary rings to
slow it once it entered the water.[34] The wooden supporting structure was held
back by cables so that once the ship entered the water it would slip forward
out of its support. Six tugs were on hand to capture the hull and move it to
the fitting out berth.[35] Testing of the ship's engines took place in June
1907 prior to full trials scheduled for July. A preliminary cruise, or
Builder's Trial, was arranged for 27 July with representatives of Cunard, the
Admiralty, the Board of Trade, and John Brown aboard. The ship achieved speeds
of 25.6 knots (47.4 km/h; 29.5 mph) over a measured 1 mile (1.6 km) at
Skelmorlie with turbines running at 194 revolutions per minute producing 76,000
shp. At high speeds the ship was found to suffer such vibration at the stern as
to render the second-class accommodation uninhabitable. VIP invited guests now
came on board for a two-day shakedown cruise during which the ship was tested
under continuous running at speeds of 15, 18 and 21 knots but not her maximum
speed. On 29 July, the guests departed and three days of full trials commenced.
The ship travelled four times between the Corsewall Light off Scotland to the
Longship Light off Cornwall at 23 and 25 knots, between the Corsewall Light and
the Isle of Man, and the Isle of Arran and Ailsa Craig. Over 300 miles (480 km)
an average speed of 25.4 knots was achieved, comfortably greater than the 24
knots required under the Admiralty contract. The ship could stop in 4 minutes
in 3/4 of a mile starting from 23 knots at 166 rpm and then applying full
reverse. She achieved a speed of 26 knots over a measured mile loaded to a
draught of 33 feet (10 m), and managed 26.5 knots over a 60-mile (97 km) course
drawing 31.5 feet (9.6 m). At 180 revolutions a turning test was conducted and
the ship performed a complete circle of diameter 1000 yards in 50 seconds. The
rudder required 20 seconds to be turned hard to 35 degrees.
The vibration was determined to
be caused by interference between the wake of the outer propellers and inner
and became worse when turning. At high speeds the vibration frequency resonated
with the ship's stern making the matter worse. The solution was to add internal
stiffening to the stern of the ship but this necessitated gutting the
second-class areas and then rebuilding them. This required the addition of a
number of pillars and arches to the decorative scheme. The ship was finally
delivered to Cunard on 26 August although the problem of vibration was never
entirely solved and further remedial work went on throughout her life