Centenary of Lusitania sinking marked in Liverpool.

Every 7th of May, Merseyside Maritime Museum pays tribute to the people who lost their lives on the Lusitania, with a commemoration by the ship’s propeller on the quayside.

With the centenary anniversary of the tragedy coming up, the museum has launched a major exhibition to commemorate the Cunard’s liner. Lusitania: life, loss and legacy tells the story of the city’s most loved ship, its passengers and crew.

On May 7th, 1915 the luxury liner was torpedoed by a German U-boat. With the loss of 1,191 lives, it is one of the most horrific incidents at sea during the First World War. Only 771 people survived.

As many as 600 people aboard the Lusitania had connections with Liverpool. This event devastated the dockland communities in Liverpool and provoked outrage especially in Britain and the US, with rioters attacking German shops all over the country.

Life

The exhibition is split into three main sections which flow into each other. The first section really introduces the Lusitania and it tells about her beginnings and how she came to be in the first place. It looks at her early history and how she very quickly gain this reputation, not only locally or nationally but internationally.

Wooden model of the Lusitania, made out of a piece of the ship. It was made out of a piece of a damaged handrail.

Lusitania was the largest, fastest, and most luxurious ship in the world at the time of her launch. She was a record breaking luxury super liner with new technology at that time, and she was a very important ship.

The RMS Lusitania was a British liner, owned and operated by the Cunard Company. She was launched on 7 June 1906. Lusitania began her maiden voyage out of Liverpool, England on 7 September 1907 and arrived in New York, United States, on 13 September. She would make 101 round-trip voyages during her 7-year-and-9-month career.

Loss

Eleanor Moffat, curator at the Merseyside Maritime Museum talks about this piece of music which was inspired by hearing the news of the sinking. Charles Yves was the composer. He was in New York when the news broke there and he talks about the reactions of the people.

On 7 May 1915, Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German submarine, U-20. It only took 18 minutes for the Lusitania to sink, compared to nearly three hours for the Titanic.

Of the known 1,960 people on board only 771 survived. As many as 600 people aboard the Lusitania had connections with Liverpool. This event devastated the dockland communities in north Liverpool, where most of Lusitania’s crew lived. 405 crew members died, including many Liverpool Irish sailors.

The disaster was of one of the most infamous and dramatic atrocities of the First World War and the political reaction changed the path of the conflict. It provoked outrage especially in Britain and the US, and rioters attacked German shops in Merseyside, Manchester and London.

Before the Lusitania sailed from New York on 1 May 1915, passengers had been warned that enemy action was possible. U-boats had begun to target merchant vessels and that February Germany had declared the sea around Britain a war zone.

Legacy

Interactive map. The people of the Lusitania.

On the gallery you can find a large touch screen unit which is titled ‘The people of the Lusitania’ and it is a tool that people can use to search all the crew passengers who were on board during the final voyage of the Lusitania.

“We wanted to demonstrate people the strong local connection with the map and it really does when you see all these hot spots all over the place, you really see the impact it must have had when she was lost.” — Eleanor Moffat, curator at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Survivor’s Joseph Parry grandson, David Knowles, talking about the story of his grandfather.

You can also find a letter from Alice and her husband, Joseph Bishop, who were third class passengers and they had been living out in Canada but they were not doing very well so they decided to come back to Lancashire where they were originally from. Alice, in planning to come had written this letter to her son and daughter back in Lancashire to tell them that they were on their way. In the letter she refers to the fact that she is looking for a way to have money kept in case something happens to her.

“It is an insight into people’s minds at that time, they were very aware of the threat and they believed to accept the risk because that was just what they had to do, it was the only way for them to get from one place to another and they had to accept that.” — Eleanor Moffat.

‘Lusitania: Life, Loss and Legacy’ is located on the first floor at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool. It is open daily from 10 am to 5pm and the entry is free. To find out more, please visit the Merseyside Maritime Museum.