Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1915 — BIG OCEAN LINER TORPEDOED. [ARTICLE]

BIG OCEAN LINER TORPEDOED.

The Lusitania of the Cunard Line Sunk Friday Afternoon Off the Irish Coast. The British ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine off the Old Head of Kinsale on the Irish coast about 2 p. m., Friday afternoon and over 1,100 lives lost, more than 100 of which were American. Accounts-differ as to the number of torpedoes fired by the submarine, some giving it as twq while others say there were three that struck the big boat. Notwithstanding its strong construction, it went down in less than 30 minutes, carrying more than 1,000 people with it. Only 764 of the nearly 2,000 on board, including passengers and crew, were saved. Of the saved 487 were passengers and 274 crew. The passengers on board numbered 1,251, of which 188 were Americans; 956 British; other nationalities, 107. The crew' numbered 816. Among the prominent Americans lost were Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Elbert Hubbard, Justus Forman, Herbert Stone, Victor E. Shields, Herman A. Myers and Chas. Klein.

The boat was struck without any warning whatever, just after the noon luncheon, and many of the passengers, believing it impossible for the ship to sink so soon, made little effort to leave the boat until too late, and were carried down with it. The Lusitania was one of the finest vessels afloat. She was declared “unsinkable” by builders from fire, wind and water. On her maiden trip in 1907 she made a new world record for speed, an average of 23.01 knots per hour. Her length was 785 feet, width 88 feet and gross tonnage 32,500. It is said that posters had been printed and distributed in New York and advertisements of warning made in the New York papers, that the Lusitania would never be permitted to reach its destination on this trip, and that unsigned telegrams of warning were also received on the pier before it set sail by many of the prominent Americans, yet they disregarded these warnings and w’ent to their death. The sinking of this huge ocean liner with the hundreds of men, Women and children passengers thereon has aroused a storm of indignation throughout the neutral countries of the civilized world, and it is probable that strong and emphatic protests will be made to the German government over its action.