RMS Lusitania
The
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner, owned and operated by the Cunard
Company. Lusitania was first launched in 1906, and sailed between Liverpool and
New York from September 7, 1907 through May 7, 1915 when she was sunk off the
southern coast of Ireland. Her original purpose was to carry civilians and
goods across the Atlantic Ocean but was put on the official list of Armed
Merchant Cruisers at the outbreak of World War One.
It was because; the British
government had subsidized her construction and operating coast so long as the
Lusitania would turn in to a Merchant Cruiser if needed that the RMS Lusitania
was put on the list. Even though she was listed as an Armed Merchant Cruiser
she was never outfitted for battle. At the time she was one of the largest and
most recognized ships in the world, so smaller and more cost efficient were
transformed in her stead. The Lusitania remained on the list for the rest of
the war, not once used for battle.
In 1915 Germany declared that the
seas around the British Isles were a war zone, and used U-boats to sink allied
ships without any warning, while avoiding neutral ships such as cruise liners.
During that time the German Embassy in Washington issued a warning to cruise
liners, hoping to prevent any civilian deaths:
NOTICE!
TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are
reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great
Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the
British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German
Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are
liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the
ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915.
Unfortunately
this did not dissuade the captain of the Lusitania, Captain William Thomas
Turner, from taking that last trip. For protection the Lusitania had been
repainted from its normal paint job of red, gold, and white to grey to help it
not stand out, giving the captain and crew a false sense of security. Captain
Turner also assured the passengers that the Lusitania going at her top speed of
25.5 knots could out run any U-boat. But that day the ship was not running at
25.5 knots, to cut back on costs Captain Turner had one of the four boiler
rooms shut off to conserve coal which left the boat running somewhere around 22
knots at top speed.
At
around 14:10 (2:10 in the afternoon) on May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was hit by a
torpedo from German U-20 captained by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. In his
own logs Schwieger captured the event:
“Torpedo hits starboard side right behind the bridge. An unusually
heavy
detonation takes place with a very strong explosive cloud. The
explosion
of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one [boiler or
coal
or powder?]... The ship stops immediately and heels over to
starboard
very quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow... the name
Lusitania
becomes visible in golden letters”
The ship quickly begins to sink, leading
some to believe that the ship was hit more than once by the U-20. Out of the
1,959 on board only 761 people survive.
It was this attack that lead to the
USA’s involvement in WW1. Though it was believe to be just an attack on
innocent civilians, some say that cruise liner was more involved it the war
than first believed. The Lusitania may have been carrying ammunition, which
caused the second explosion when it was hit by the German torpedo.
RMS Queen Mary
The
RMS Queen Mary is another British cruise liner, owned and operated by the same
company Cunard Line, which was called Cunard White Star when the Queen Mary was
in service. She sailed from 1963 to 1967 between Southampton, Cherbourg and New
York City. Having three class decks, she accommodated any one from the poor to
the incredibility rich. During her time as a civilian cruise liner she carried
celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn and Bob Hope back and forth across the
Atlantic. In fact Bob and his wife Delores were on the ship when the Nazis
invaded Poland.
Shortly
after the invasion, The Queen Mary arrived in New York and received orders to
sail to Australia to be refitted to hold troops and ammunition. From that point
on the Queen Mary dropped her regal name and became the Grey Ghost. She was
outfitted with cannon turrets and space for over 5,000 men.
Though
she was not used for much battle, except in the D-day invasions, she did see a
lot of bloodshed. For example on October 2, 1942 the Grey Ghost ran completely
through the cruiser Curacoa splitting it in half. To repair the Grey Ghost it
took 70 tons of cement to patch the bow. For the Curacoa, it was too late for
repairs and now lies at the bottom of the ocean, along with members of its
crew.
Along
with tearing apart smaller cruise ships, the Grey Ghost also transported Winston
Churchill back in forth from England to the USA. On one of the first occasions
he also came with a few extra carry ons, namely 5,000 German prisoners of war. Other
than Churchill and troops, thousands of troops, the Grey Ghost transported
refugee women and children from war-torn Europe into the United States.
Connections to Against The Day
S.S. Stupendica & S.M.S
Emperor Maximilian
So
this of course connects to my favorite part of the novel (meant sarcastically
and honestly) where Kit and Dally fall for each other. In the beginning of this
section it was all one ship that was separated much like the Queen Mary, in
which there were two living decks. The Zombinis and Kit were in the first class
accommodations but Kit preferred slumming it with the other students on the
lower class decks. The Queen Mary was notorious for small crime on its lower
decks, which is why Kit preferred the lower decks on the Stupendica because it
reminded him of the lawless Colorado he was from. And finally the main correlation
between the novel and these ships was the literal splitting of the ship into
the Stupendica and the Emperor Maximilian.
Sources
Schmidt, Donald
E. (2005-06-29). The Folly Of War: American Foreign Policy, 1898–2004.
Algora Publishing. p. 70
http://www.queenmary.com/our-story/Our-Story.php
http://ww2troopships.com/ships/q/queenmary/default.htm
http://www.ssmaritime.com/queenmary.htm
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