137-553: RMS Lusitania (named after the Roman province corresponding to modern Portugal and portions of western Spain ) was a British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. She was the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister Mauretania three months later and was awarded the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1908. Lusitania
274-604: 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
411-516: A capacity of about 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 ft (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
548-406: 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
685-521: A copy of the message. Sir Thomas Hohler , the British ambassador in Mexico, later claimed to have been "Mr. H" or at least to have been involved with the interception in his autobiography. The coded text could then be shown to the Americans without embarrassment. Moreover, the retransmission was encoded with the older code 13040 and so by mid-February, the British had the complete text and the ability to release
822-510: A dilemma. Evidence the United States had been provided confidentially by the British informed Wilson that the message was genuine, but he could not make the evidence public without compromising the British codebreaking operation. This problem was, however, resolved when any doubts as to the authenticity of the telegram were removed by Zimmermann himself. At a press conference on March 3, 1917, he told an American journalist, "I cannot deny it. It
959-399: A full complement of lifeboats all rigged under davits. This difference would have been a major contributor to the high loss of life involved with Lusitania ' s sinking, since there was not sufficient time to assemble collapsible boats or life-rafts, had it not been for the fact that the ship's severe listing made it impossible for lifeboats on the port side of the vessel to be lowered, and
1096-581: A further copy in Mexico City, and Balfour could obscure the real source with the half-truth that it had been "bought in Mexico". Page then reported the story to Wilson on February 24, 1917, including details to be verified from telegraph-company files in the United States. Wilson felt "much indignation" toward the Germans and wanted to publish the Zimmermann Telegraph immediately after he had received it from
1233-462: A gymnasium, a squash court , large reception rooms, À la Carte restaurants separate from the dining saloons, and many more staterooms with private bathroom facilities than their two Cunard rivals. Heavy vibrations as a by-product of the four steam turbines on Lusitania and Mauretania would plague both ships throughout their voyages. When Lusitania sailed at top speed the resultant vibrations were so severe that second- and third-class sections of
1370-518: 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
1507-501: 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. Due to receiving this subsidy, Lusitania and her sister ship received special permission to fly the Blue Ensign , as a Royal Naval Reserve Merchant Vessel. Cunard established a committee to decide upon the design for the new ships, of which James Bain, Cunard's Marine Superintendent
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#17328440842001644-513: A military commission to assess the feasibility of the Mexican takeover of their former territories contemplated by Germany. The generals concluded that such a war was unwinnable for the following reasons: The Carranza government was recognized de jure by the United States on August 31, 1917, as a direct consequence of the Zimmermann telegram to ensure Mexican neutrality during World War I . After
1781-492: 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. The White Star Line 's Olympic -class vessels were almost 100 ft (30 m) longer and slightly wider than Lusitania and Mauretania . This made the White Star vessels about 15,000 tons larger than
1918-520: A period when RMS was restricted to steam-ships. Motor Vessel and Motor Ship indicated that propulsion was provided by diesel rather than steam . The RMV Scillonian III carries the designation RMV for Royal Mail Vessel and is the only active RMV. Service dates are the years with the status of Royal Mail Ship. Those highlighted are still in service with the status of Royal Mail Ship. Zimmermann Telegram see also The Zimmermann telegram (or Zimmermann note or Zimmermann cable )
2055-525: 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 ft (21 m). It had a barrel vaulted skylight rising to 20 ft (6.1 m) with stained glass windows each representing one month of the year. Each end of
2192-567: A reprisal to German naval mining efforts, the UK then declared the North Sea a military area in the autumn of 1914 and mined the approaches. As their own reprisal, Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, wherein all allied ships would be liable to be sunk without warning. Britain then declared all food imports for Germany were contraband. When submarines failed to sink many ships,
2329-421: 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
2466-504: A responsibility to protect the lives of law-abiding Americans. The Americans had already warned the Germans repeatedly about their actions, and the Germans had also demonstrated that submarines were able to sink merchant ships under cruiser rules. The sinking shifted public and leadership opinion in the United States against Germany. US and internal German pressure led to a suspension of German Admiralty policy of deliberately targeting passenger ships, as well as later stronger restrictions. War
2603-408: 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. A series of tit-for-tat moves intensified the naval portion of World War I . The Royal Navy had blockaded Germany at the start of the war; as
2740-399: 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 ft (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
2877-592: A total of 201 crossings on the Cunard Line's Liverpool-New York Route, carrying a total of 155,795 passengers westbound and another 106,180 eastbound. Lusitania and other ships participated in the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in New York City from the end of September to early October 1909. The celebration was also a display of the different modes of transportation then in existence, Lusitania representing
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#17328440842003014-399: A total of 22 boats rigged in davits. The rest of their lifeboat accommodations were supplemented with 26 collapsible lifeboats, 18 stored directly beneath the regular lifeboats and eight on the after deck. The collapsibles were built with hollow wooden bottoms and canvas sides, and needed assembly in the event they had to be used. This contrasted with Olympic and Britannic which received
3151-403: A voyage from Liverpool to New York, when, two days into the trip, she encountered a rogue wave that was 75 feet (23 m) high. The design of the ship's bow allowed her to break through waves instead of riding on top of them. This, however, came with a cost, as the wave rolled over the bow and slammed into the bridge. As a result, the forecastle deck was damaged, the bridge windows were smashed,
3288-435: Is our intention to endeavour to keep the United States neutral. If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together make peace; we shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer her lost territory of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. You are instructed to inform
3425-546: Is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract to the British Royal Mail . The designation dates back to 1840. Any vessel designated as "RMS" has the right both to fly the pennant of the Royal Mail when sailing and to include the Royal Mail "crown" insignia with any identifying device and/or design for the ship. It was used by many shipping lines, but is often associated in particular with
3562-562: Is true." Then, on March 29, 1917, Zimmermann gave a speech in the Reichstag in which he admitted that the telegram was genuine. Zimmermann hoped that Americans would understand that the idea was that Germany would not fund Mexico's war with the United States unless the Americans joined World War I. Nevertheless, in his speech Zimmermann questioned how the Washington government obtained the telegram. According to Reuters news service, Zimmermann told
3699-495: 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
3836-743: 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 mi (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
3973-451: The Olympic class also differed from Lusitania and Mauretania in the way in which they were compartmented below the waterline. The White Star vessels were divided by transverse watertight bulkheads . While Lusitania also had transverse bulkheads, it also had longitudinal bulkheads running along the ship on each side, between the boiler and engine rooms and the coal bunkers on the outside of
4110-572: The White Star Line , Cunard Line , Royal Mail Lines , Union-Castle Line , Canadian Pacific Line , Orient Line and the P&;OSNC , which held a number of high-profile mail contracts , and traditionally prefixed the names of many of their ships with the initials "RMS". While some lines in the past, particularly the Royal Mail Lines , called all their ships "RMS", technically a ship would use
4247-593: The military invasion of Veracruz in 1914, Mexico did not participate in any military excursion with the United States in World War I. That ensured that Mexican neutrality was the best outcome that the United States could hope for even if it allowed German companies to keep their operations in Mexico open. The decryption was possible after the failure of the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition to Afghanistan , when Wilhelm Wassmuss abandoned his codebook, which
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4384-606: The 1914 Ypiranga incident . German Naval Intelligence officer Franz von Rintelen had attempted to incite a war between Mexico and the United States in 1915, giving Victoriano Huerta $ 12 million for that purpose. The German saboteur Lothar Witzke , who was based in Mexico City, claimed to be responsible for the March 1917 munitions explosion at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the San Francisco Bay Area, and
4521-700: The Allies later recovered, and allowed the British to decrypt the Zimmermann telegram. The message came in the form of a coded telegram dispatched by Arthur Zimmermann , the Staatssekretär (a top-level civil servant , second only to their respective minister) in the Foreign Office of the German Empire on January 17, 1917. The message was sent to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt . Zimmermann sent
4658-474: The Allies later recovered, and allowed the British to decrypt the Zimmermann telegram. Zimmermann's office sent the telegram to the German embassy in the United States for retransmission to Von Eckardt in Mexico. It has traditionally been understood that the telegram was sent over three routes. It went by radio, and passed via telegraph cable inside messages sent by diplomats of two neutral countries (the United States and Sweden). Direct telegraph transmission of
4795-583: The American Embassy in Britain. Bell was at first incredulous and thought that it was a forgery. Once Bell was convinced the message was genuine, he became enraged. On February 20, Hall informally sent a copy to US Ambassador Walter Hines Page . On February 23, Page met with British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour and was given the codetext, the message in German, and the English translation. The British had obtained
4932-651: The American subsidiary of the German entity. The Swedish diplomatic message holding the Zimmerman telegram went from Stockholm to Buenos Aires over British submarine telegraph cables, and then moved from Buenos Aires to Mexico over the cable network of a United States company. After the Germans' telegraph cables had been cut, the German Foreign Office appealed to the United States for use of their diplomatic telegraphic messages for peace messages. President Wilson agreed in
5069-413: The Americans agreed to back the official cover story. The German Foreign Office refused to consider that their codes could have been broken but sent Von Eckardt on a witch hunt for a traitor in the embassy in Mexico. Von Eckardt indignantly rejected those accusations, and the Foreign Office eventually declared the embassy exonerated. On February 19, Hall showed the telegram to Edward Bell, the secretary of
5206-427: The Americans the message was not a forgery. For the first story, the British obtained the coded text of the telegram from the Mexican commercial telegraph office. The British knew that since the German embassy in Washington would relay the message by commercial telegraph, the Mexican telegraph office would have the coded text. "Mr. H", a British agent in Mexico, bribed an employee of the commercial telegraph company for
5343-599: The British and French on the Western Front and strangle Britain with unrestricted submarine warfare before American forces could be trained and shipped to Europe in sufficient numbers to aid the Allies. The Germans were encouraged by their successes on the Eastern Front to believe that they could divert large numbers of troops to the Western Front in support of their goals. Mexican President Venustiano Carranza assigned
5480-427: The British had the ability to prove the authenticity of the message to the American government. As a cover story, the British could publicly claim that their agents had stolen the telegram's decoded text in Mexico. Privately, the British needed to give the Americans the 13040 code so that the American government could verify the authenticity of the message independently with their own commercial telegraphic records, but
5617-494: The British, but he delayed until March 1, 1917. Many Americans then held anti-Mexican as well as anti-German views. Mexicans had a considerable amount of anti-American sentiment in return, some of which was caused by the American occupation of Veracruz . General John J. Pershing had long been chasing the revolutionary Pancho Villa for raiding into American territory and carried out several cross-border expeditions. News of
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5754-400: 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
5891-518: The Cunard vessels. Both Lusitania and Mauretania were launched and had been in service for several years before Olympic , Titanic and Britannic were ready for the North Atlantic run. Although significantly faster than the Olympic class would be, the speed of Cunard's vessels was not sufficient to allow the line to run a weekly two-ship transatlantic service from each side of the Atlantic. A third ship
6028-411: The German authorities loosened U-boat rules of engagement. The German embassy in the United States also placed fifty newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing on a British ship in the area, which happened to appear just as RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915. Objections were made by the British and Americans that threatening to torpedo all ships indiscriminately
6165-405: 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
6302-478: The President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico shall on his own initiative communicate with Japan suggesting the latter's adherence at once to this plan, and at the same time offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that
6439-566: The Reichstag, "the instructions...came into its hands in a way which was not unobjectionable." On April 6, 1917, Congress voted to declare war on Germany . Wilson had asked Congress for "a war to end all wars " that would "make the world safe for democracy". Wilson considered another military invasion of Veracruz and Tampico in 1917–1918, to pacify the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Tampico oil fields and to ensure their continued production during
6576-639: The Southampton to New York route as a gesture to Cunard's history. The Royal Mail continues a form of this tradition on modern day airliners . The UK's flag carrier airline, British Airways , is contracted to carry mail on some of its scheduled long-distance routes. Aircraft operating these routes with the facilities to carry mail are allowed to display the Royal Mail's logo and crest on their fuselage, usually alongside their registration markings. The less-common designations RMMV for Royal Mail Motor Vessel and RMMS for Royal Mail Motor Ship , were used for
6713-551: The Titanic. In recent years the shift to air transport for mail has left only three ships with the right to the prefix or its variations: RMS Segwun , which serves as a passenger vessel in Gravenhurst, Ontario , Canada; RMV Scillonian III , which serves the Isles of Scilly ; and RMS Queen Mary 2 . QM2 was conferred "RMS" by Royal Mail when she entered service in 2004 on
6850-655: The Ypiranga incident and against the advice of the British government. War was prevented thanks to the Niagara Falls peace conference organized by the ABC nations , but the occupation was a decisive factor in Mexican neutrality in World War I . Mexico refused to participate in the embargo against Germany and granted full guarantees to the German companies for keeping their operations open, specifically in Mexico City. The Zimmermann telegram
6987-472: 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 ft (16 m) with mahogany panelling, white plaster work ceiling and dome. One wall had a mosaic of a river scene in Brittany, while
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#17328440842007124-483: The angled prows of the Olympic class. Designed so that the ships could plunge through a wave rather than crest it, the unforeseen consequence was that the Cunard liners would pitch forward alarmingly, even in calm weather, allowing huge waves to splash the bow and forward part of the superstructure. This would be a major factor in damage that Lusitania suffered at the hands of a rogue wave in January 1910. The vessels of
7261-508: The bank of the Hudson River from Battery Park to pier 56. All New York's police had been called out to control the crowd. From the start of the day, 100 horse-drawn cabs had been queuing, ready to take away passengers. During the week's stay the ship was made available for guided tours. At 3 pm on Saturday 21 September, the ship departed on the return journey, arriving Queenstown 4 am 27 September and Liverpool 12 hours later. The return journey
7398-508: The belief both that such co-operation would sustain continued good relations with Germany and that more efficient German–American diplomacy could assist Wilson's goal of a negotiated end to the war. The Germans handed in messages to the American embassy in Berlin, which were relayed to the embassy in Denmark and then to the United States by American telegraph operators. The Germans assumed that this route
7535-425: 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
7672-502: The bridge was shifted a couple of inches aft, and both the deck and the bridge were given a permanent depression of a few inches. No one was injured, and the Lusitania continued on as normal, albeit arriving a few hours late in New York with some shaken-up passengers. Royal Mail Ship Royal Mail Ship (sometimes Steam-ship or Steamer ), usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS ,
7809-549: The building of the first three of a fleet of steamships: the RMS ; Empress of China , RMS Empress of India and RMS Empress of Japan which regularly sailed between Vancouver and Asia beginning in 1891. The RMS designation was also used on the ships of the White Star , P&O and Cunard lines of the 19th and 20th centuries. The most famous liner with the RMS title was
7946-514: The civil war, but this time, Mexican President Venustiano Carranza , recently installed, threatened to destroy the oil fields if the US Marines landed there. The Japanese government, another nation mentioned in the Zimmerman telegram, was already involved in World War I , on the side of the Allies against Germany. The government later released a statement that Japan was not interested in changing sides or attacking America. In October 2005, it
8083-542: The contract to furnish the whole ship, but failing to obtain this still supplied a number of the furnishings. 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
8220-628: The crew had more time to evacuate passengers. Lusitania , commanded by Commodore James Watt, moored at the Liverpool landing stage for her maiden voyage at 4:30 pm on Saturday 7 September 1907 as the onetime Blue Riband holder RMS Lucania vacated the pier. At the time Lusitania was the largest ocean liner in service and would continue to be until the introduction of Mauretania in November that year. A crowd of 200,000 people gathered to see her departure at 9:00 pm for Queenstown , where she
8357-581: The custom of transatlantic passengers in the early 20th century, and Cunard responded by building two new 'ocean greyhounds': Lusitania and RMS 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 Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with turbine engines that enabled them to maintain
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#17328440842008494-405: 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,
8631-474: The disclosure would expose the German codes broken in Room 40 and British eavesdropping on United States diplomatic traffic. Hall waited three weeks during which de Grey and cryptographer William Montgomery completed the decryption. On February 1, Germany announced resumption of "unrestricted" submarine warfare, an act that led the United States to break off diplomatic relations with Germany on February 3. Hall passed
8768-500: The employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few month [ sic ]. – Zimmerman. (The signature dropped the second n of the name Zimmermann for telegraphic purposes. ) Germany had long sought to incite a war between Mexico and the United States, which would have tied down American forces and slowed the export of American arms to the Allies . The Germans had aided in arming Mexico, as shown by
8905-539: The first 24 hours she achieved 561 mi (903 km), with further daily totals of 575, 570, 593 and 493 mi (793 km) before arriving at Sandy Hook at 9:05 am Friday 13 September, taking in total 5 days and 54 minutes, 30 minutes outside the record time held by Kaiser Wilhelm II of the North German Lloyd line. Fog had delayed the ship on two days, and her engines were not yet run in. In New York hundreds of thousands of people gathered on
9042-466: The forward space where the ship narrowed), operating at a maximum 195 psi (1,340 kPa) and containing 192 individual furnaces. 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 ft (3.0 m) over that initially intended to improve stability. The hull immediately in front of
9179-506: The general warning given to all ships in the war zone was sufficient. After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no "munitions" (apart from small arms ammunition) on board Lusitania , and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. But the most important protests at the time came from the US. Under neutrality inspections, the US
9316-669: The highest volume, was between Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire ), in Ireland , and Holyhead in Wales . The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company (CDSPCo) won the contract. They bought RMS St Columba and RMS Llewellyn from the Admiralty to supplement their Prince Arthur . In the CDSPCo contract, in 1860, there was a penalty clause of £1 1s 4d for every minute's delay. The Canadian Pacific Railway 's trans-Pacific Royal Mail contract required
9453-482: The highly-provocative war proposal to Mexico, the telegram also mentioned "ruthless employment of our submarines". Public opinion demanded action. Wilson had refused to assign US Navy crews and guns to the merchant ships, but once the Zimmermann note was public, Wilson called for arming the merchant ships although antiwar members of the US Senate blocked his proposal. The Wilson administration nevertheless remained with
9590-405: The honour fell to Inverclyde's widow Mary. The launch was attended by 600 invited guests and thousands of spectators. One thousand tons of drag chains were attached to the hull by temporary rings to slow it once it entered the water. 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
9727-608: The hull and move it to the fitting out berth. 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
9864-442: 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. Under the terms of 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
10001-529: 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
10138-418: 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
10275-502: 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
10412-405: The newest advancement in steamship technology. A newer mode of travel was the aeroplane . Wilbur Wright had brought a Flyer to Governors Island and made demonstration flights before millions of New Yorkers who had never seen an aeroplane. Some of Wright's trips were directly over Lusitania ; several photographs of Lusitania from that week still exist. On 10 January 1910, Lusitania was on
10549-492: The order and relaxed the wireless rules to allow coded messages to be sent. Thus the Germans were able to persuade US Ambassador James W. Gerard to accept Zimmermann's note in coded form, and it was transmitted on January 16, 1917. All traffic passing through British hands came to British intelligence , particularly to the codebreakers and analysts in Room 40 at the Admiralty . In Room 40, Nigel de Grey had partially decoded
10686-689: 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
10823-438: The prefix only while contracted to carry mail, and would revert at other times to a standard designation such as " SS ". Originally, the British Admiralty operated these ships. The designation "RMS" has been used since 1840. In 1850 contracts were awarded to private companies. Having the title "RMS" was seen as a mark of quality and a competitive advantage, because the mail had to be on time. The most valuable route, with
10960-501: The rapidity of the sinking did not allow the remaining lifeboats that could be directly lowered (as these were rigged under davits) to be filled and launched with passengers. When Britannic , working as a hospital ship during World War I , sank in 1916 after hitting a mine in the Kea Channel the already davited boats were swiftly lowered saving nearly all on board, but the ship took nearly three times as long to sink as Lusitania and thus
11097-446: The record for the fastest eastbound crossing. Lusitania made her fastest westbound crossing in 1909 after her propellers were changed, averaging 25.85 knots (47.87 km/h). She briefly recovered the record in July of that year, but Mauretania recaptured the Blue Riband the same month, retaining it until 1929, when it was taken by SS Bremen . During her eight-year service, she made
11234-409: 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
11371-464: 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
11508-409: The ship could become uninhabitable. In contrast, the Olympic -class liners used two traditional reciprocating engines and only one turbine for the central propeller, which greatly reduced vibration. Because of their greater tonnage and wider beam, the Olympic -class liners were also more stable at sea and less prone to rolling. Lusitania and Mauretania both featured straight prows in contrast to
11645-541: 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
11782-412: 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
11919-431: 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
12056-406: 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
12193-432: 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. In
12330-410: The small declared cargo of 173 tons of war materials on board the 44,000 ton displacement ship, and false claims that she was an armed warship and carried Canadian troops. In defence of indiscriminately sinking ships without warning, they asserted that cruiser rules were obsolete, as British merchant ships could be armed and had been instructed to evade or ram U-boats if the opportunity arose, and that
12467-429: 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
12604-417: 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
12741-560: The telegram by the next day. By 1917, the diplomatic code 13040 had been in use for many years. Since there had been ample time for Room 40 to reconstruct the code cryptanalytically, it was readable to a fair degree. Room 40 had obtained German cryptographic documents, including the diplomatic code 3512 (captured during the Mesopotamian campaign ), which was a later updated code that was similar to but not really related to code 13040, and naval code SKM (Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine), which
12878-468: The telegram further inflamed tensions between the United States and Mexico. However, many Americans, particularly those with German or Irish ancestry, wished to avoid the conflict in Europe. Since the public had been told falsely that the telegram had been stolen in a decoded form in Mexico, the message was at first widely believed to be an elaborate forgery created by British intelligence. That belief, which
13015-429: The telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on February 1, which the German government presumed would almost certainly lead to war with the United States. The telegram instructed Von Eckardt that if the United States appeared certain to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican government with a proposal for military alliance with funding from Germany. The decoded telegram
13152-474: The telegram to the British Foreign Office on February 5 but still warned against releasing it. Meanwhile, the British discussed possible cover stories to explain to the Americans how they obtained the coded text of the telegram and to explain how they obtained the cleartext of the telegram without letting anyone know that the codes had been broken. Furthermore, the British needed to find a way to convince
13289-551: The telegram was genuine. It helped to generate support for the American declaration of war on Germany in April 1917. The decryption has been described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I and it marked one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signals intelligence influenced world events. The decryption was possible after the failure of the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition to Afghanistan , when Wilhelm Wassmuss abandoned his codebook, which
13426-656: The telegram was impossible because the British had cut the German international cables at the outbreak of war. However, Germany could communicate wirelessly through the Telefunken plant, operating under Atlantic Communication Company in West Sayville, New York , where the telegram was relayed to the Mexican Consulate. Ironically, the station was under the control of the US Navy , which operated it for Atlantic Communication Company,
13563-408: The telegram without revealing the extent to which the latest German codes had been broken. (At worst, the Germans might have realized that the 13040 code had been compromised, but that was a risk worth taking against the possibility of United States entry into the war.) Finally, since copies of the 13040 code text would also have been deposited in the records of the American commercial telegraph company,
13700-537: The time of her maiden voyage (carrying four lifeboats fewer than Titanic would carry in 1912). This was a common practice for large passenger ships at the time, since the belief was that in busy shipping lanes help would always be nearby and the few boats available would be adequate to ferry all aboard to rescue ships before a sinking. After the Titanic sank, Lusitania and Mauretania were equipped with an additional six clinker-built wooden boats under davits , making for
13837-424: 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 considerably superior 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
13974-418: 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,
14111-434: 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. The shipyard at John Brown had to be reorganised because of her size so that she could be launched diagonally across
14248-434: 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 13 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
14385-408: The vessel. The British commission that had investigated the sinking of Titanic in 1912 heard testimony on the flooding of coal bunkers lying outside longitudinal bulkheads. Being of considerable length, when flooded, these could increase the ship's list and "make the lowering of the boats on the other side impracticable"—and this was precisely what later happened with Lusitania . The ship's stability
14522-454: 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. Construction commenced at the bow working backwards, rather than the traditional approach of building both ends towards the middle. This
14659-451: 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
14796-467: The widest available part of the river Clyde where it met a tributary (the River Cart ), 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
14933-496: 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
15070-486: The words: "This is the one handed to Dr Page and exposed by the President." Since many of the secret documents in this incident had been destroyed, it had previously been assumed that the original typed "decrypt" was gone forever. However, after the discovery of this document, the GCHQ official historian said: "I believe that this is indeed the same document that Balfour handed to Page." As of 2006, there were six "closed" files on
15207-527: Was 5 days 4 hours and 19 minutes, again delayed by fog. On her second voyage in better weather, Lusitania arrived at Sandy Hook on 11 October 1907 in the Blue Riband record time of 4 days, 19 hours and 53 minutes. She had to wait for the tide to enter harbour where news had preceded her and she was met by a fleet of small craft, whistles blaring. Lusitania averaged 23.99 knots (44.43 km/h) westbound and 23.61 knots (43.73 km/h) eastbound. In December 1907, Mauretania entered service and took
15344-402: 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. At the time of their introduction onto
15481-714: Was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office on January 17, 1917, that proposed a military contract between the German Empire and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany. With Germany's aid, Mexico would recover Texas , Arizona , and New Mexico . The telegram was intercepted by British intelligence . Revelation of the contents enraged Americans, especially after German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted on March 3, 1917, that
15618-1147: Was as follows: Original (German): Wir beabsichtigen am 1. Februar uneingeschränkten Ubootkrieg zu beginnen. Es wird Versucht werden, Amerika trotzdem neutral zu halten. Für den Fall, daß dies nicht gelingen sollte, schlagen wir Mexico mit folgender Grundlage Bündnis vor; Gemeinsame Kriegführung, gemeinsamer Friedensschluß. Reichliche finzanzielle Unterstützung und Einverständnis unsererseits, daß Mexiko in Texas, Neu Mexiko, Arizona früher verlorenes Gebiet zurückerobert. Regelung im einzelnen Euer Hochwohlgeboren überlassen. Euer pp. wollen Vorstehendes Präsidenten streng geheim eröffnen, sobald Kriegsausbruch mit Vereinigten Staaten feststeht und Anregung hinzufügen, Japan von sich aus zu fortigem Beitritt einzuladen und gleichzeitig zwischen uns und Japan zu vermitteln. Bitte Präsidenten darauf hinweisen, daß rücksichtslose Anwendung unserer U-boote jetzt Aussicht bietet, England in wenigen Monaten zum Frieden zu zwingen. Empfang bestätigen. Zimmerman. Translated: On February 1 we intend to begin submarine warfare without restriction. In spite of this it
15755-416: Was aware the ship was not armed, was acting in accordance with American law, and was chiefly a passenger vessel carrying almost two thousand civilian passengers and crew, including over a hundred American citizens (including many celebrities) among the dead. The US government argued that whatever the circumstances, nothing could justify the killing of large numbers of un-resisting civilians, and that America had
15892-644: 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 about 16,000 tons. The ship's stockless bower anchors weighed 10 1 ⁄ 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 ft (7.6 m) long with 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter rotors,
16029-496: Was designed by Leonard Peskett 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 Peninsula —the 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
16166-401: 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
16303-767: Was eventually declared in 1917 after the German Government chose to violate these restrictions, deliberately attacking American shipping and preparing the way for conflict with the Zimmermann Telegram . 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
16440-465: 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
16577-435: Was insufficient for the bulkhead arrangement used: flooding of only three coal bunkers on one side could result in negative metacentric height . On the other hand, Titanic was given ample stability and sank with only a few degrees list, the design being such that there was very little risk of unequal flooding and possible capsize. Lusitania did not carry enough lifeboats for all her passengers, officers and crew on board at
16714-488: 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
16851-485: Was needed for a weekly service, and in response to White Star's announced plan to build the three Olympic -class ships, Cunard ordered a third ship: Aquitania . Like Olympic , Cunard's Aquitania had a lower service speed, but was a larger and more luxurious vessel. Due to their increased size the Olympic -class liners could offer many more amenities than Lusitania and Mauretania . Both Olympic and Titanic offered swimming pools, Victorian-style Turkish baths ,
16988-557: Was not restricted to pacifist and pro-German lobbies, was promoted by German and Mexican diplomats alongside some antiwar American newspapers, especially those of the Hearst press empire. On February 1, 1917, Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the Atlantic bearing the American flag, both passenger and merchant ships. Two ships were sunk in February, and most American shipping companies held their ships in port. Besides
17125-427: Was part of an effort carried out by the Germans to postpone the transportation of supplies and other war materials from the United States to the Allies, which were at war against Germany. The main purpose of the telegram was to make the Mexican government declare war on the United States in hopes of tying down American forces and slowing the export of American arms. The German High Command believed that it could defeat
17262-453: 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
17399-466: Was possibly responsible for the July 1916 Black Tom explosion in New Jersey. The failure of United States troops to capture Pancho Villa in 1916 and the movement of President Carranza in favor of Germany emboldened the Germans to send the Zimmermann note. The German provocations were partially successful. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the military invasion of Veracruz in 1914 in the context of
17536-416: 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
17673-513: Was reported that an original typescript of the decoded Zimmermann telegram had recently been discovered by an unnamed historian who was researching and preparing a history of the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters . The document is believed to be the actual telegram shown to the American ambassador in London in 1917. Marked in Admiral Hall's handwriting at the top of the document are
17810-436: Was secure and so used it extensively. However, that put German diplomats in a precarious situation since they relied on the United States to transmit Zimmermann's note to its final destination, but the message's unencrypted contents would be deeply alarming to the Americans. The United States had placed conditions on German usage, most notably that all messages had to be in cleartext (uncoded). However, Wilson had later reversed
17947-494: Was sunk on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing, on 7 May 1915 by the German submarine U-20 , 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale , Ireland , killing 1,197 passengers, crew and stowaways. The sinking occurred about two years before the United States declaration of war on Germany , but significantly increased American domestic public support for entering the war . German shipping lines were Cunard's main competitors for
18084-449: 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
18221-415: 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
18358-568: 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
18495-469: Was to take on more passengers. She anchored again at Roche's Point , off Queenstown, at 9:20 am the following morning, where she was shortly joined by Lucania , which she had passed in the night, and 120 passengers were brought out to the ship by tender bringing her total of passengers to 2,320. At 12:10 pm on Sunday Lusitania was again under way and passing the Daunt Rock Lightship. In
18632-484: Was useless for decoding the Zimmermann telegram but valuable to decode naval traffic, which had been retrieved from the wrecked cruiser SMS Magdeburg by the Russians, who passed it to the British. Disclosure of the telegram would sway American public opinion against Germany if the British could convince the Americans that the text was genuine, but the Room 40 chief William Reginald Hall was reluctant to let it out because
18769-501: 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 occurred. The damage caused her to sink in 18 minutes, killing 1,197 passengers and crew. Only 12 bodies were ever recovered or found from the wreck. The German government attempted to find justifications for sinking Lusitania . Special justifications focused on
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