:00:16. > :00:23.# Last call now for those going abroad! #
:00:24. > :00:27.They people were ordinary people like ourselves.
:00:28. > :00:30.Some were on board because they thought it was their duty to
:00:31. > :00:41.If they were going to travel on any ship across the Atlantic,
:00:42. > :00:44.the Lusitania was particularly a safe bet.
:00:45. > :00:54.# Last call now for those going abroad! #
:00:55. > :01:11.Fast, luxurious and consumed by a century of mystery.
:01:12. > :01:15.The Lusitania was the super liner of her day.
:01:16. > :01:26.But why was she targeted and why did she sink so quickly?
:01:27. > :01:29.There was no alternative for getting from America over to Britain.
:01:30. > :01:38.It was 1915, the Lusitania was about to leave New York for Liverpool,
:01:39. > :01:50.the passenger ship supposedly safe from German U-boats.
:01:51. > :01:53.Up until the sinking of the Lusitania, there had not been any
:01:54. > :02:02.There was a threat made, but many people thought it was an idle
:02:03. > :02:06.threat because the Germans had not carried through on any of these
:02:07. > :02:16.But German U-boat tactics were about to change.
:02:17. > :02:21.We know that the Germans put advertisements in New York
:02:22. > :02:24.newspapers before the ship left, warning people not to get on the
:02:25. > :02:33.Lusitania, that it was carrying arms which were against the laws of the
:02:34. > :02:40.sea at that time, and therefore the ship was subject to attack.
:02:41. > :02:43.They got on board that ship and they must have been worried,
:02:44. > :02:57.For those who boarded, the final journey was about to begin.
:02:58. > :03:02.# They called it the Greyhound of the Sea.
:03:03. > :03:06.# The biggest, fastest ship of her day.
:03:07. > :03:09.# For her speed, size and power, 25 knots an hour.
:03:10. > :03:19.# She was known as the Greyhound of the Sea.
:03:20. > :03:21.With 2,000 passengers and crew on board,
:03:22. > :03:36.But as she neared Ireland, the British Admiralty began issuing
:03:37. > :03:57.Passengers were told not to light their cigarettes on deck for fear
:03:58. > :04:14.They'd heard the rumours that they were going to be torpedoed but the
:04:15. > :04:17.crew weren't afraid, because they didn't believe it. They thought
:04:18. > :04:20.the ship was too fast and too modern and nothing could catch it.
:04:21. > :04:44.The following morning, the Admiralty sent this.
:04:45. > :04:46.But it seems what the Lusitania's Captain William Turner didn't
:04:47. > :04:50.know was that the Admiralty would not or could not be more specific.
:04:51. > :04:54.It did not want to reveal it had broken German naval codes.
:04:55. > :05:08.There had been thick fog that morning but by lunchtime, it had
:05:09. > :05:10.cleared. It was a lovely spring morning. Very still.
:05:11. > :05:19.Another message arrived shortly after.
:05:20. > :05:21.The south-east coast of Ireland was sighted.
:05:22. > :05:28.Turner thought the fog had saved them.
:05:29. > :05:35.The ship came closer inland and changed direction.
:05:36. > :05:38.Unbeknownst to them at this point, they were being watched by U-boat
:05:39. > :05:45.This is U-20, a German attack submarine.
:05:46. > :05:47.It was captained by Walther Schwieger, an ambitious 30-year-old
:05:48. > :06:02.he gave the order to fire one torpedo.
:06:03. > :06:06.There is no footage of the actual attack.
:06:07. > :06:09.What followed was later recreated in this extraordinary 1918 animated
:06:10. > :06:34.The German U-boat commander was watching,
:06:35. > :06:43.Shot struck starboard side close behind the bridge.
:06:44. > :06:44.An extraordinarily heavy detonation followed,
:06:45. > :07:03.Billy Burrows was just 15. He was the ship's bellboy.
:07:04. > :07:05.He was about three floors down in the washroom, I believe.
:07:06. > :07:08.He heard this explosion and all the lights went out.
:07:09. > :07:14.Robert Leith was the Lusitania's wireless operator.
:07:15. > :07:17.When the torpedo hit, my grandfather was in the dining room.
:07:18. > :07:22.I think it was the second-class dining room.
:07:23. > :07:24.He immediately went to the wireless-operator room
:07:25. > :07:35.The ship was going too fast for the crew to launch some lifeboats.
:07:36. > :07:46.One that has never been fully explained.
:07:47. > :07:48.Fred Russell was a waiter in first class.
:07:49. > :08:03.I helped to lower one boat on the port side. You could do
:08:04. > :08:07.nothing on the starboard, she had such a list. And not
:08:08. > :08:10.fancying staying too long, I beat it down to the lower deck, thinking to
:08:11. > :08:16.Able seaman Joseph Parry was among the crew members who scrambled
:08:17. > :08:28.The lifeboat snagged and did not end up in the water.
:08:29. > :08:33.The next thing, he was thrown into the water with the ship tilting.
:08:34. > :08:36.I am told by my mother that one of the people he pulled out
:08:37. > :08:42.of the water was a lady who he pulled out by her hair.
:08:43. > :08:44.The radio operator, Robert Leith, kept sending SOS messages
:08:45. > :08:56.The power failed and there was some sort of emergency
:08:57. > :09:11.And I gather, really, he stayed until the very last minute.
:09:12. > :09:20.The 15-year-old bellboy, Billy Burrows, waded into a life raft.
:09:21. > :09:23.He pulled quite a few people into the boat, even
:09:24. > :09:29.They got to about 50 yards out, and they heard this whoosh
:09:30. > :10:07.It took just 18 minutes for the Lusitania to go down here, some 11
:10:08. > :10:13.Those who managed to get their life jackets on lasted two or
:10:14. > :10:17.But those that didn't, or couldn't, only survived a few minutes
:10:18. > :10:54.More than half the 2,000 people on board the Lusitania were killed.
:10:55. > :10:58.The lifeboat crew from Courtmacsherry rowed from 11 miles
:10:59. > :11:15.It took three hours, because it was six o'clock, you can see.
:11:16. > :11:18.Brian O'Donovan's great granduncle, Timothy Keohane,
:11:19. > :11:29.But they simply couldn't get there in time.
:11:30. > :11:32.If they'd had a bit of wind on the night they probably would
:11:33. > :11:36.have felt they could have got there sooner, and might have been able to
:11:37. > :11:40.But I suppose it is a big thing, too, to even be able to recover
:11:41. > :11:47.Survivors who reached shore wandered around Cobh and other towns,
:11:48. > :11:55.But as Ireland reeled from the tragedy, information filtered
:11:56. > :12:04.With no television or radio, it took hours for news of the
:12:05. > :12:06.disaster to reach the Lusitania's home port here in Liverpool.
:12:07. > :12:10.But when the details of the tragedy did emerge, it was met by a
:12:11. > :12:18.I've come here today to see the exhibition.
:12:19. > :12:20.Liverpool's Maritime Museum has captured the city's stunned reaction
:12:21. > :12:22.in the family accounts from people like David Knowles.
:12:23. > :12:25.His grandfather, Joseph Parry, was an able seaman on board.
:12:26. > :12:35.He saved a lady and her baby, and in the lifeboat, at one stage, she
:12:36. > :12:39.was so grateful that she gave my grandfather one of the shoes of the
:12:40. > :12:48.baby, which he obviously treasured, because it came ashore, it was
:12:49. > :12:53.passed down through the family once he was on land again.
:12:54. > :12:57.And he inscribed it, underneath, with "Lusitania 1915."
:12:58. > :13:00.And I think the words "Lest we forget."
:13:01. > :13:03.So he obviously treasured that, and since then,
:13:04. > :13:12.Fred Russell, the first-class waiter, also survived.
:13:13. > :13:16.And in letters now in the museum, he spoke of his relief at escaping
:13:17. > :13:22.and making it back to Liverpool, to the relief of his family.
:13:23. > :13:25.Uncle Fred came home, but there were a lot of families who probably
:13:26. > :13:32.suffered greatly because they had lost their income, you know?
:13:33. > :13:35.They have lost their family member, and they probably suffered greatly
:13:36. > :13:48.But hundreds of other families didn't get good news.
:13:49. > :13:51.Norman Ross's grandfather had been a barkeeper on the ship,
:13:52. > :13:57.but Henry Ross was never found, despite the yearnings of his wife.
:13:58. > :13:59.He was such an excellent swimmer, according to my grandmother,
:14:00. > :14:03.that she really didn't think - she thought if anyone was going to
:14:04. > :14:11.And she was always of the opinion that he may have lost his memory,
:14:12. > :14:14.a knock on the head, and could perhaps be somewhere in Ireland.
:14:15. > :14:16.And so people went out to look for him.
:14:17. > :14:27.Communities on both sides of the Irish Sea went into mourning, grief
:14:28. > :14:30.that is to this day re-enacted by groups like these in Ireland, where
:14:31. > :14:54.Most simply couldn't believe that a civilian ship had been targeted
:14:55. > :15:06.We moved into an area of almost kind of total war, where civilians were
:15:07. > :15:14.It was still kind of a learning process, a journey into the unknown
:15:15. > :15:20.for the crews and passengers during the First World War.
:15:21. > :15:27.The small Irish town of Cobh struggled to deal with so many dead.
:15:28. > :15:39.The world had never seen civilians attacked like this in war before.
:15:40. > :15:41.100 years on, those graves are still tended to, victims
:15:42. > :15:44.of a tragedy that didn't distinguish between age, class or nationality.
:15:45. > :15:51.Just over 120 Americans lost their lives, and nearly 200
:15:52. > :15:59.In all, just under 1200 civilians perished
:16:00. > :16:05.The shock of the Lusitania was felt across Britain and America,
:16:06. > :16:27.It was overwhelmingly an attack on a civilian ship.
:16:28. > :16:30.I think those kind of men, women and children who were caught
:16:31. > :16:33.up in that attack, you know, the horror of that is still felt.
:16:34. > :16:37.It was new at the time, but it still has that impact
:16:38. > :16:48.It is still felt as a kind of horrific, horrific act.
:16:49. > :16:50.But within months, Britain was using the sinking
:16:51. > :17:00.The author of War Horse, Michael Morpurgo, touches on this in
:17:01. > :17:09.His wife Claire's family were among thousands who bought specially
:17:10. > :17:13.made medals issued soon after the disaster.
:17:14. > :17:17.And there's the medal, where she found it, aged seven.
:17:18. > :17:19.The medals were exact copies of ones released in Germany,
:17:20. > :17:25.The British cleverly turned this triumphalist sentiment on its head,
:17:26. > :17:27.and issued 300,000 of their own, to show the public how barbaric
:17:28. > :17:40.For months afterwards there was great anti-German feeling.
:17:41. > :17:43.Up until that time this notion that somehow everyone was very happy to
:17:44. > :17:45.go off and join this war, there were plenty
:17:46. > :17:49.of people who were, but there were also plenty of people who were not.
:17:50. > :17:56.Many of those now felt, "This is an enemy that has got to be stopped."
:17:57. > :17:59.100 years on, the Lusitania now lies in 90 metres of water,
:18:00. > :18:09.But what has never been fully answered is whether she was
:18:10. > :18:17.a legitimate target, and why did she sink in just 18 minutes?
:18:18. > :18:20.For nearly 50 years, the wreck has been owned by this
:18:21. > :18:26.Intrigued by the tragedy, he has always wanted answers to
:18:27. > :18:36.He has spent millions on diving operations to find out.
:18:37. > :18:39.He is now convinced the British government was secretly using
:18:40. > :18:41.passenger liners like the Lusitania to carrying munitions
:18:42. > :18:47.And it was these, not the ship's boiler, that caused
:18:48. > :18:55.There is no question in my mind that there were explosives on board.
:18:56. > :18:56.Whether the explosives were gunpowder or
:18:57. > :18:59.whether they were the shrapnel shells which were supposedly not
:19:00. > :19:02.charged, but in fact were, whatever it was, it was certainly a
:19:03. > :19:15.The explosives theory is controversial, because there
:19:16. > :19:24.He says she was also laden with millions of rounds of ammunition,
:19:25. > :19:36.A deadly cargo completely unknown to the passengers.
:19:37. > :19:38.If the British and American authorities were responsible
:19:39. > :19:41.for putting high explosives on board a passenger ship, I think
:19:42. > :19:44.It shouldn't be left to the imagination of people,
:19:45. > :19:53.Now, a century on, the British Foreign Office has made
:19:54. > :20:16.For increasing numbers of historians,
:20:17. > :20:31.that admission suggests the Lusitania was a legitimate target.
:20:32. > :20:34.I think there are several people to blame here.
:20:35. > :20:37.The German submarine commander has to take responsibility for the death
:20:38. > :20:40.of 1200 civilians, but so too must the Admiralty and the British
:20:41. > :20:42.government for introducing civilians into the mix, by using civilian
:20:43. > :20:57.But getting proof of the munitions to the surface has been impossible.
:20:58. > :21:03.One problem is the wreck is disintegrating.
:21:04. > :21:05.You have the trauma that she experienced at
:21:06. > :21:08.the time of her sinking, the first torpedo, the second explosion.
:21:09. > :21:11.It's like going into a crime scene 100 years later.
:21:12. > :21:13.Can you find that evidence you're looking for?
:21:14. > :21:23.We don't know, but we have to have a good attempt at trying.
:21:24. > :21:28.Ireland's president, Michael Higgins, is
:21:29. > :21:34.among those who say the wreck should be left untouched as a war grave.
:21:35. > :21:38.It was, if you like, to assure respect.
:21:39. > :21:40.It also was to enable such investigation to take place
:21:41. > :21:49.in a regulated and a responsive environment.
:21:50. > :21:53.# They say its darkest before the dawn.
:21:54. > :22:02.So for now, the Lusitania must be recalled in other ways.
:22:03. > :22:06.# We should make port before the morning.#
:22:07. > :22:10.In songs and stories passed down through generations.
:22:11. > :22:16.# We should make port before the morning.#
:22:17. > :22:19.And for victims and descendants, the once opulent Lusitania has now
:22:20. > :22:21.journeyed into history as a liner shrouded in grief,
:22:22. > :22:46.# We will make port before the morning.#
:22:47. > :22:52.It was a tragedy that should never have happened.
:22:53. > :22:54.She was so affectionately regarded in Liverpool.
:22:55. > :23:03.War, now, is completely universal in its destruction, and this was,
:23:04. > :23:13.When there has been a mass loss of life like this, I think people
:23:14. > :24:04.Wet and windy weather in the forecast. Quite an unsettled festive
:24:05. > :24:07.period to come. At the moment, storm Ivar, named by the Irish Met
:24:08. > :24:08.service, pushing from the