102 years on from Lusitania disaster – do you know these survivors?
THE hunt is on to identify three survivors of the Lusitania disaster, more than 100 years after the sinking off Kinsale.
The National Library has two photographs in its possession showing three women who are believed to have overcome the trauma caused by the torpedoing of the vessel on May 7, 1915. But it does not have any clue as to their names.
Now it is enlisting the public’s help to identify the women, whose pictures appeared with a notice distributed in Cobh, then Queenstown, in the wake of the sinking, 11 miles south-southwest of the Old Head of Kinsale.
It has been speculated that the women may be Scottish. Two photos showing two women, possibly a mother and daughter, and then a solo woman were framed by a Glasgow firm, John Ryan & Co, beneath the notice to survivors issued by the Cunard Line.
The four-funnel Lusitania was destroyed by a torpedo, fired without warning by the German submarine U-20.
It sank in just 18 minutes – by contrast, three years earlier, the Titanic took two hours and 40 minutes to sink after her collision with an iceberg. A total of 1,198 people lost their lives on the Lusitania, with 715 rescued – it’s believed that the three women are among their numbers.
Experts on the era have noted that the woman pictured by herself has a regimental cap badge on her white blouse, a tiny gesture that suggests she may have had a sweetheart serving in the Great War.
It was common practice for both married and single women to wear a cap badge as a sign of solidarity with their menfolk in the military, as well as to display their own sacrifice and to encourage others to join up.
Earlier this year, a memorial garden was opened on the Old Head of Kinsale on the 102nd anniversary of the sinking.
It included a breathtaking bronze sculpture entitled ‘The Wave,’ which names everyone travelling on board the Cunarder when struck on its fatal voyage from New York to Liverpool.
The 35,000-ton liner was within hours of making landfall – with many passengers celebrating the sight of the Irish coast when a torpedo struck the bridge on the starboard side. Within seconds there was a second explosion, the cause of which has been debated ever since, with many suspecting that it was caused by munitions illegally stowed aboard the passenger vessel. A ‘revised’ cargo manifest later issued in New York confirmed that the Lusitania was secretly carrying four million rounds of .303 Winchester rifle ammunition to Britain, along with detonators and shell casings. Meanwhile, some researchers have queried why the Lusitania would be carrying 30,000 boxes of cheese, as listed on the manifest.
Other claimed causes of the second explosion are said to be a ruptured main steam pipe, a boiler explosion, coal dust suspended in the air, and aluminium shavings.
The captain of the German Uboat Walther Schwieger noted in his war diary that the Lusitania immediately took a sharp list to starboard, and her momentum drove her forward, making the lowering of lifeboats particularly difficult.
A British Inquiry explained the second explosion by falsely claiming there had been two U-boats lying in wait for the vessel and that both had found their mark. It was chaired by Lord Mersey, who had previously brought in dubious findings in the case of the sinking of the Titanic.