World  History

The SS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat on May 17,1915. Killing 1,198 people in the process. The reason that the Germans sunk the ship was because they believed the ship was sending ammunition for Britain to fight. This wasn’t the one thing that made the U.S go into WW1 but it was definitely one of the events that led up to it. The ship was owned by the British and very well admired. It had a lot of new things that other ships didn’t have and it could hold a lot more passengers than other ships. Now their are certain theories that people have made because of the mystery behind the sinking of the ship. One being that Winston Churchill had this planned out to bring the U.S into war, as in he sank a boat from his country to get another country to join the war. Although this could be possible it’s very unlikely because why would a government sink a valuable ship of theirs for help in the war? There is a letter that seemed suspicious and was sent from Winston Churchill to Britain's Board of Trade. It could be interpreted many ways and might not be of much importance but it could also be key evidence that shows Britain sabotaged one of its ships.

   SS Lusitania sunk in 18 minutes. Many people argue that that time is too short for a ship of the multitude to sink in, some even use the titanic as an example, since the titanic completely sank hours after it hit the iceberg. This could be argued against because the Titanic hit an iceberg and SS Lusitania was hit by a U-Boat. SS Lusitania at the time was one of the fastest ships yet it couldn’t go faster than a U-boat? This is a commonly asked question and while it is a valid question there are a lot of factors we have to consider such as weather. Another thing is that years after the SS Lusitania sunk it turns out that there was weapons that were being delivered to the British Military. If they could do this what else were they capable of doing?

   

 

 Now my opinion on what really happened to the SS Lusitania is that although there are many factors that we have to consider, I do believe there was some foul-play. What I mean by foul-play is that someone from Britain or even the U.S had something to do with sinking the ship. The British hid the fact that they actually did have weapons on the ship which was why the Germans sunk it, to the general public. This could’ve been good for the allied powers. Since about 140 people from the U.S died on the ship the American people were angry at the Germans and if they were angry they might consider irrational things like perhaps, go to war. As previously stated the U.S didn’t go to WW1 just because of the ship but because of various reasons, so what if the British knew that they could plot something like this and make the U.S help them in war. Germany also did not want the U.S to enter the war so why would they sink a ship that they knew had Americans in it because it was coming from America? So yes I do believe there is much more to what we already know about the Lusitania. There is a lot of mystery surrounding what really happened to the SS Lusitania. For all we know there could be hidden evidence to help prove that it was purposely sunk or it might just be what we already know. Germany also did not want the U.S to enter the war so why would they sink a ship that they knew was theirs?