Built by John Brown & Company for the Cunard Line, the Lusitania was launched at Clydebank to reclaim British prestige in transatlantic travel from German rivals. She would go on to set speed records before being torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, killing nearly 1,200 people and helping draw the United States toward World War I.
In the early 1900s, German liners like the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse had begun outpacing British ships for speed and luxury, wounding national pride. The British government, eager to reclaim the prestigious Blue Riband for fastest Atlantic crossing, offered Cunard low-interest loans on the condition the resulting ships could be requisitioned as armed cruisers in wartime.
The Lusitania's launch at the John Brown shipyard on the Clyde drew an enormous crowd, estimated at 300,000, who watched the 787-foot hull, built with unusually thin steel plates to save weight for speed, slide into the water. She was fitted out with then-unheard-of luxuries: elevators, wireless telegraphy, and an ornate first-class dining saloon crowned by a dome.
The ship's fame turned to tragedy nine years later. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed her off the Irish coast; she sank in just 18 minutes, killing 1,198 of the roughly 1,960 aboard, including 128 Americans. The disaster, though not the sole cause, hardened American public opinion against Germany and became a rallying point two years later when the U.S. entered the war.