The Lusitania Story by Steve Jones & Mitch Peeke & Kevin Walsh-Johnson

Author:Steve Jones & Mitch Peeke & Kevin Walsh-Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783400386
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

The Sinking of the Lusitania

Captain Turner, responding to the lookout's warning, looked to starboard in shocked disbelief just in time to see the white streak in the water. But before he could even shout a helm order, the torpedo struck the ship with a sound that he later recalled was ‘like a heavy door being slammed shut’. Almost instantaneously came a second, much larger explosion, which physically rocked the ship. A tall column of water and debris shot skyward.

At this moment, Junior Third Officer Albert Bestic was in his cabin. The baggage master, Mr Crank, had sent a messenger to him with a request that he come forthwith to the baggage room, to oversee the unloading of the passengers' luggage. Now that they were making an unscheduled stop at Queenstown, Crank thought it prudent to start piling some of the luggage on the foredeck, in order to save time, and possibly passenger complaints, when the ship docked. Bestic was just about to follow the messenger down to the forward hold when he realized that he was still wearing his best uniform. Pausing to change into his working uniform ultimately saved his life, as there were no survivors from the baggage room. They were all killed when the torpedo struck the ship just below the area where they were working.

Up on the bridge, Captain Turner quickly looked at the Pearson's Fire and Flood indicator board. It was going absolutely mad, showing fire and extensive flooding in the whole of the forward section ahead of boiler room No. 1. The tall column of water and debris now cascaded down and wrecked one of the forward starboard lifeboats. A glance at the commutator revealed that the Lusitania was already listing five degrees to starboard and was also down by the head. The clock on the bridge said 14.10 hours.

Watching events through his periscope, Schwieger could not believe that so much havoc could have been wrought by just one torpedo. He noted in his log that, ‘an unusually heavy detonation’ had taken place and noted that a second explosion had also occurred which he put down to perhaps, ‘boilers, coal or powder’. He also noticed that the torpedo had hit the Lusitania further forward of where he had aimed it. He therefore revised his estimate of the Lusitania's speed to ‘not more than 20 knots’. After allowing Lanz a quick look at the stricken liner, Schwieger brought the periscope down and U-20 headed back to sea, to begin her voyage home.

On the bridge of the Lusitania, the slant of the deck grew steeper by the minute. Captain Turner shouted to Quartermaster Johnston, who was at the helm, to close any watertight doors that remained open and to put the helm over toward land.

Looking forward, Captain Turner suddenly realized that there was no hope of saving his ship. The bows of the liner were dipping toward the sea at an alarming rate. Beaching her was patently out of the question. He knew they were fourteen miles from shore and she was sinking so fast that they'd never make it.

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