Welcome to this custom tailored deep dive. We
are just so glad you are joining us today. Yeah,
thanks for tuning in. It's great to be here.
Now, whenever you hear the name RMS Lusitania,
there is usually one single sentence that follows.
Right. It was the ship that sank and started
World War I. Exactly. And sure, I mean, as a
historical footnote, that is what most of us
learned in school. But today we have a massive
comprehensive stack of sources. We really do.
We've got detailed historical articles, engineering
specs, and accounts of a century of underwater
salvage. And our mission today is to go so much
deeper than that basic footnote. Way deeper.
The story of the Lusitania is so much more than
just its final 18 minutes. Right. We want to
uncover the incredible engineering leaps that
made this ship a marvel. The fatal design flaws
hidden beneath its luxury, the intense geopolitical
drama and frankly, the bizarre deep sea salvage
attempts that followed. It's wild. When you really
dig into the sources, it becomes a story about
human ambition. the dawn of a massive new technological
age, and the very messy complexities of international
law during wartime. This story is an absolute
aha moment waiting to happen for anyone who loves
peeling back the layers of history. And to help
us navigate through all of these historical details,
I have our resident expert here with me. I am
ready to get into it. Okay, let's unpack this
by setting the scene in the early 1900s. Let's
do it. Imagine you are looking at the transatlantic
shipping industry. At this time, German shipping
lines like Norddeutscher Lloyd are absolutely
dominating the trade. Right. They are capturing
all the lucrative immigrant traffic leaving Europe
for North America. And they are winning the Blue
Ribbon, which was the highly coveted prize for
the fastest Atlantic crossing. And then enter
JPMorgan. Ah, yes. The American billionaire is
aggressively buying up shipping lines, creating
this massive conglomerate called International
Mercantile Marine. He even manages to buy a controlling
interest in the British White Star Line. Which
is crazy. Suddenly the British maritime dominance
is under serious threat. And that threat to British
national prestige is where the geopolitical tension
really begins. The British government was looking
at the impending collapse of their liner fleet.
Yeah. This wasn't just about pride. You know,
it was an urgent matter of national security.
because these civilian ships acted as a reserve
fleet for war purposes. So when the Cunard Line's
chairman approached the British government for
help, the government responded with an unprecedented
deal. They gave Cunard a 2 .6 million pound loan.
That is a massive amount of money. Huge. And
at a very favorable 2 .75 % interest rate plus
annual subsidies just to keep them afloat. But
why would the British government just hand over
a massive loan like that to a private company?
What was the cash? The crucial condition was
that these new ships, the Lusitania and her sister
ship, the Mauritania, had to be built to strict
admiralty specifications. The whole point of
the government footing the bill was that in a
time of war, these luxury liners could be instantly
converted into armed merchant cruisers. Wow,
so they were basically warships in disguise.
They even went so far as to install gun mounts
on the decks during construction, though no guns
were ever actually fitted at that time. Officially,
They were listed as Royal Naval Reserve merchant
vessels. To meet those strict Admiralty specs
and win back the speed record, they must have
had to make some massive engineering leaps. They
absolutely did. The designers went with steam
turbine engines, which were largely untested
on this massive scale. Right. Prior to the Lusitania,
the biggest turbines ever built were for battleships,
and those only generated a fraction of the necessary
power. To hit the required speeds of 25 knots,
the Lusitania needed engines capable of producing
68 ,000 horsepower. That is just, I'm geeking
out over that. 68 ,000 horsepower. It was a mechanical
beast. The ship was fitted with four massive
propellers, with the inboard ones rotating inward
and the outboard ones rotating outward to maximize
efficiency. To power all of this, the ship relied
on 25 boilers and 192 individual furnaces. And
it worked. By 1907, the Lusitania grabbed the
blue ribbon and back for Britain. But what I
love most in these sources is the sheer contrast
between this raw mechanical power and the absolute
luxury on board. Oh, the interiors were stunning.
The interior was designed by a Scottish architect
named James Miller, and the first class dining
saloon was incredible. It was designed in a neoclassical
Louis XVI style, set over two decks with a 29
foot circular dome decorated with a elaborate
frescoes. Beautiful. But here's the detail that
cracks me up. Amidst all this opulent mahogany
and gold, the one concession to the fact that
they were bobbing around in the middle of the
unpredictable North Atlantic Ocean was that all
the luxurious furniture was bolted to the floor.
You couldn't even pull your chair out to sit
down. No, you just had to awkwardly slide into
it. It was a floating palace, but they couldn't
entirely ignore the realities of the sea. But
the luxury wasn't just reserved for the rich.
Here is a surprising detail for you listening.
The Lusitania absolutely revolutionized third
-class travel. It really did. Up until then,
if you were an immigrant, you were packed into
massive open dormitories deep in the ship. It
was crowded, noisy, and uncomfortable. Exactly.
But on the Lusitania, third -class passengers
got a honeycomb of two, four, six, and eight
berth cabins. They had a piano, polished pine
dining rooms, and real comfort. It was a game
changer. Think of it like booking a super cheap
economy ticket today, but instead of being crammed
into a middle seat, you actually get your own
private sleeping pod. It made the ship incredibly
popular. That revolutionary comfort and speed
undeniably changed sea travel. But beneath all
of that beautiful plaster work and those private
cabins, there were underlying structural choices
that would eventually prove catastrophic. That
rogue wave incident from 1910 really stands out
in the sources as a testament to how invincible
the ship felt. Oh, absolutely. The Lusitania
was two days into a voyage from Liverpool to
New York when it was hit by a 75 foot rogue wave.
We're talking about a seven -story building of
solid water. The ship's bow was designed to break
through waves rather than ride over them, so
this massive wall of water rolled right over
the bow and smashed directly into the bridge.
It shattered the thick bridge windows, physically
shifted the entire bridge structure aft, and
left a permanent depression in the deck. It just
kept sailing. It arrived in New York only a few
hours late. It must have felt like nothing could
sink her. What's fascinating here is when we
compare the Lusitania to its famous rival, the
White Star Line's Olympic class, which of course
included the Titanic. Right, the Titanic. The
Olympic class ships were built a few years later.
They were slightly larger and wider, and they
used a different engine setup that reduced the
heavy vibrations that constantly plagued the
Lusitania. But the most critical difference between
the two rivals was hiding right below the water
line. It all came down to how the hulls were
compartmentalized. Right, the bulkheads. How
did the two designs differ? The Titanic was divided
by transverse watertight bulkheads. Those are
walls that run across the width of the ship,
from the port side to the starboard side. OK.
The Lusitania also had transverse bulkheads,
but critically, it featured longitudinal bulkheads.
Which means they run front to back. Yes. Lengthwise
along the sides of the ship, parallel to the
outer hull, right next to the mass of coal bunkers.
This matters immensely for you as a listener
trying to picture the mechanics of a sinking
ship. Because of how the water fills the ship.
Exactly. If a ship with transverse bulkheads
takes on water, the water fills the compartments
evenly from side to side. The ship will settle
straight down into the water, perhaps jilting
forward or backward, but it remains relatively
level side to side. But if a ship with longitudinal
bulkheads gets pierced on one side, then only
the compartments on that specific side flood.
The longitudinal walls trap the water, preventing
it from flowing across the width of the ship
to balance the weight. So all that water is just
stuck on one side. The sheer massive weight of
thousands of tons of water on just one side causes
the ship to list or tilt severely. This unequal
flooding completely destroys the ship's stability.
And then there is the lifeboat situation. Like
most ships of the era, the Licitania initially
didn't carry enough lifeboats for everyone on
board, which was perfectly legal at the time.
Perfectly legal, yes. After the Titanic sank
in 1912, Cunard scrambled to update their safety
measures. They added... The small cranes used
to swing the boats out over the water and lower
them down. Exactly. But to accommodate everyone,
they also supplemented those with 26 collapsible
lifeboats stowed underneath the regular ones
and directly on the deck. Which introduces another
fatal flaw into the design. Collapsible lifeboats
aren't ready to go. They have canvas sides and
hollow wooden bottoms. They require precious
time and deck space to manually assemble. Right.
Time is a luxury you only have if your ship sinks
slowly and remains relatively level. And as those
longitudinal bulkheads guaranteed, Neither of
those conditions would be true for the Lusitania.
Here's where it gets really interesting because
we are moving into the outbreak of World War
I. Yes. When the war starts in 1914, all those
Admiralty specs we talked about, the secret gun
mounts, the government loans, suddenly become
incredibly relevant. The geopolitical situation
escalated rapidly into a naval tit -for -tat.
The Royal Navy blockaded the German Empire, and
the UK declared the entire North Sea a military
area, mining the approaches. In retaliation,
Germany declared the seas around the United Kingdom
a war zone, stating that all Allied ships would
be liable to be sunk without warning. It was
a complete breakdown of the traditional cruiser
rules of naval warfare. Right. Historically,
those rules required a submarine surface, warn
a civilian ship, and safeguard the passengers
before sinking it. But both sides were throwing
the old rulebook out the window. And this leads
to one of the most chilling details in the entire
source material. On May 1st, 1915, the German
embassy in the U .S. places warning advertisements
in 50 American newspapers. 50 of them. And they
deliberately run these warnings right next to
the sailing advertisements for the Lusitania.
On the exact day, she departs Pier 54 in New
York for the final time. Just imagine that. Imagine
opening your morning paper, seeing an ad to buy
a ticket for a luxury cruise, and right next
to it, an official warning from a foreign government
stating that if you get on that ship, you are
entering a war zone and might be sunk. It is
a stark historical artifact. And adding to the
tragedy where the cost -cutting measures Cunard
had quietly implemented. Because passenger demand
had naturally fallen due to the war. Right, so
the company shut down boiler room number four
to conserve coal and save on crew costs. This
reduced the Lusitania's top speed from 25 knots
down to 21 knots. Taking away her biggest advantage.
Furthermore, they had initially painted the ship
gray to disguise her, but decided to return her
to her highly visible civilian colors, repainting
the funnels in their normal Cunard livery, which
was red with black tops, and painting the superstructure
bright white. By cutting her speed to save money,
they removed one of her greatest natural defenses
against submarines. So we arrive at May 7, 1915.
The ship is nearing the end of her 22nd crossing.
It is early afternoon, the weather has cleared,
and she is about 11 miles off the old head of
Kinsale on the southern coast of Ireland. Almost
home. The passengers can literally see the green
hills of the shore, but the ship crosses the
path of a German U -boat, U -20. At 2 10 p .m.,
the submarine fires a single torpedo. It strikes
the Lusitania on the starboard bow. And this
is where a terrifying mystery occurs. Moments
after that single torpedo struck, a massive second
internal explosion erupted from within the hull.
It was so powerful it blew a geyser of water,
coal, and debris high above the boat deck. And
immediately, that fatal bulkhead design we talked
about earlier dictates everything that happens
next. Exactly as designed, but with tragic consequences.
Because of those longitudinal bulkheads, the
ocean water rapidly flooded the starboard side
coal bunkers, but couldn't flow evenly across
the width of the ship. Just as we feared. The
Lusitania immediately took on a severe 15 degree
list to starboard, which only worsened by the
minute. That list must have made the lifeboats
almost impossible to use. It rendered half of
them entirely useless. The lifeboats on the port
side, the high side of the tilting ship, were
swinging inward over the deck. Gravity was pulling
them away from the ocean. Wow, so they couldn't
even lower them? When the crew tried to lower
them, they crashed into the side of the ship
or swung wildly over the panicked passengers.
And on the other side? Meanwhile, on the starboard
side, The boats were swinging out so far away
from the hull that it was incredibly dangerous
for passengers to try to jump into them. And
because of the severe tilt and the chaos, the
crew couldn't even safely access or assemble
those 26 collapsible lifeboats we mentioned.
The speed of the disaster is just horrifying
when you dig into the accounts. If you think
about a ship like the Britannic, which was an
Olympic class ship that struck a mine and sank
a year later. That took nearly an hour to go
down. Which gave them enough time to lower their
lifeboat safely. The Lusitania went down and
just 18 minutes. 18 minutes from the torpedo
strike to the ship disappearing completely beneath
the waves. It's hard to fathom. Out of the 1
,960 passengers and crew on board, 1 ,197 perished.
Only six out of 48 lifeboats were successfully
launched. The sheer panic of those 18 minutes
is almost unimaginable. The rapidity of the sinking
left passengers and crew with virtually no time
to react. The bow plunged downward so quickly
that the massive propellers lifted entirely out
of the water while the ship was still moving
forward. So what does this all mean? The global
outcry was massive. The dead included 128 American
writers, businessmen, prominent citizens. It
created an absolute geopolitical firestorm. And
we must look at how both sides justified their
positions as it deeply affected international
relations. According to the historical sources,
Germany claimed the sinking was entirely justified.
Right. Let's look at the arguments objectively.
They argued that the Lusitania was officially
classed as an auxiliary cruiser, that she was
actively carrying contraband of war, and that
they had explicitly warned the American public
before the ship sailed. Because of the newspaper
ads? Yes. They argued that traditional cruiser
rules were obsolete because British merchant
ships had been secretly instructed by the Admiralty
to evade or even ram U -boats if they surfaced
to give a warning. On the other side, the United
States and the UK argued passionately that the
Lusitania was an unresisting passenger vessel.
Very different perspective. The US government
maintained that it was aware the ship was unarmed
and acting under American law. They argued that
no matter what rules Germany unilaterally declared,
nothing could justify the surprise slaughter
of hundreds of non -combatant civilians. They
viewed sinking a passenger ship without warning
as a clear violation of the fundamental principles
of international law and basic humanity. This
raises an important question. What was actually
in the cargo hold? Germany insisted the ship
was secretly carrying illegal munitions, making
it a legitimate military target. And according
to the historical sources, the ship's manifest
did indeed list massive amounts of munitions.
Really? Yes. It included an estimated 4 .2 million
rounds of rifle cartridges and 1 ,250 empty shell
cases. A few days after the ship sailed, Cunard
submitted an additional revised manifest to U
.S. Customs, admitting that those empty shells
were actually 103 ,000 pounds or roughly 50 tons
of filled live three inch shrapnel shells. Wait,
so there were 50 tons of live military artillery
sitting right beneath these oblivious first class
passengers who are eating in a Louis XVI dining
room. Staggering, isn't it? That is a staggering
amount of military material hiding in the belly
of a civilian luxury liner. I can see why the
political fallout in America was so intense.
President Woodrow Wilson wanted to maintain neutrality.
He demanded an apology and reparations, but he
still desperately wanted to keep the US out of
the war. His secretary of state, William Jennings
Bryan, actually resigned over this. Bryan believed
Wilson's demands were compromising American neutrality
and argued that ships carrying contraband simply
shouldn't carry passengers. The sinking absolutely
shifted American public opinion against Germany.
Under immense pressure, Germany temporarily suspended
its policy of targeting passenger ships. However,
in January 1917, they announced a return to full
unrestricted submarine warfare. And that decision?
coupled with the interception of the Zimmerman
Telegram, finally pushed the U .S. Congress to
declare war on Germany in April 1917. It is wild
to trace the line from a single torpedo strike
off the coast of Ireland directly to the entrance
of the United States into the First World War.
But the story of the Lusitania doesn't end in
1915. We have to talk about the wreck itself
and the absolutely bizarre sentry of salvage
and obsession that followed. The wreck sits today
about 305 feet deep. It lies on its starboard
side, but it is in terrible condition. It is
deteriorating much faster than the Titanic despite
being in significantly shallower water. Why is
that? This is partly due to the violent forces
of winter tides, but largely because it was actually
blasted by Royal Navy depth charges during World
War II, and over the decades, it has become covered
in heavy destructive fishing nets. OK, we have
to talk about this salvage attempt from the 1930s.
A submarine inventor named Simon Lake negotiated
a contract to salvage the ship. His plan reads
like something out of a Jules Verne novel. It
really does. Lake built a 200 foot long steel
tube, which was five feet in diameter. Inside
this massive tube, he installed a staircase,
and at the very bottom, he built an observation
and dive chamber. A staircase. Yes. The idea
was to float this massive steel straw out over
the ocean, sink it upright, so the bottom rested
right on the submerged deck of the Lusitania,
and divers could literally just walk down the
stairs to the wreck. Walk down a 200 -foot staircase
to the bottom of the ocean. That is both brilliant
and absolutely terrifying. Did it work? He built
it, and he actually tested it successfully in
shallower waters, but he ran out of money and
the salvage contract expired before he could
ever deploy it on the Lusitania itself. Which
leaves the wreck resting until 1967 when an American
venture capitalist named Greg Bemis enters the
picture. Bemis bought the entire wreck for just
one thousand pounds. Quite a bargain. And from
there, he spent decades in complex legal battles
against the UK, the U .S., and Ireland over ownership
and the rights to recover artifacts. The Irish
government eventually threw a major wrench in
his plans when they declared the wreck a national
heritage site, which severely restricted his
access to his own property. Bemis was incredibly
determined. He spent millions of dollars, essentially
the rest of his life, trying to prove a massive
conspiracy. theory. He firmly believed that the
British either orchestrated the sinking intentionally
to draw the U .S. into the war or that the ship
was carrying secret illegal high explosives that
caused that mysterious second explosion we talked
about. He was desperate for proof. In 1993, Bemis
actually granted permission to Robert Ballard,
the famous explorer who found the Titanic, to
explore the Lusitania. Ballard used remotely
operated vehicles to examine the wreck in detail.
While he couldn't access the exact area of the
torpedo strike because the ship is lying heavily
on its starboard side, he was able to examine
the exposed cargo hold. And what did he find?
He found it clearly undamaged by any internal
explosion. Ballard concluded that the mysterious
second explosion was not secret illegal munitions
going off, but was most likely a massive catastrophic
coal dust explosion inside the nearly empty bunkers
ignited by the torpedo strike. Bemis completely
rejected Ballard's findings. He just couldn't
accept it. He kept fighting the legal battles,
kept funding exploratory dives, and eventually
died in 2020 at the age of 91 without ever finding
the definitive proof for his conspiracy theory.
It's a tragic echo of the disaster itself, this
consuming obsession that lasted an entire lifetime.
If we connect this to the bigger picture, the
story of the Lusitania encompasses the heights
of Edwardian hubris. the brutal unsparing realities
of modern industrial warfare, and a deep -seated
human desire to uncover hidden truths beneath
the ocean. What a journey we have been on today.
We started with J .P. Morgan buying up the Atlantic
shipping lanes, marveled at bolted -down dining
room chairs and private third -class sleeping
pods, survived a 75 -foot rogue wave, and analyzed
the fatal flaw of longitudinal bulkheads. We
covered a lot of ground. We explored the chilling
May 1st newspaper warnings, the horrific 18 -minute
sinking where lifeboats became deadly pendulums,
the secret cargo of 4 .2 million rifle rounds,
and finally, a 200 -foot steel staircase built
to reach the bottom of the sea. And before we
close, I want to leave you with one final fascinating
detail from the sources to mull over. Oh, I'm
ready. We mentioned the Lusitania's incredible
speed and technology. Back in 1909, during the
Hudson Fulton celebration in New York City, millions
of people gathered to watch the shifts in the
harbor. As part of the event, the Wright brothers
brought their brand new airplane and flew it
right over the Lusitania. Wow. There are still
remarkable photographs of this exact moment.
At that moment, the Lusitania was widely considered
the absolute pinnacle of human travel and engineering.
Yet the irony is staggering. That fragile canvas
and wood flying machine buzzing over her massive
funnels represented the exact technology that,
in just a single generation, would completely
replace massive ocean queens like the Lusitania
as the mainstay of transatlantic travel. That
is incredible to think about the future literally
flying right over the present. Thank you so much
for joining us on this deep dive into the Lusitania.
We hope you walk away with a few more aha moments
and a much richer understanding of this incredible
chapter in history. Keep questioning, keep exploring,
and we will catch you next time.