As part of its unrestricted submarine warfare campaign, the German government placed newspaper notices warning that vessels flying the British flag were liable to destruction in war zones around the British Isles. The warning ran alongside advertisements for the Lusitania's voyage, an eerie juxtaposition that foreshadowed the ship's sinking by a German U-boat just two days later, on May 7, killing 1,198 people.
On May 1, 1915, readers of several American newspapers encountered an unusual notice placed by the German Embassy in Washington, warning that any ship flying the flag of Great Britain or its allies was liable to destruction in the waters around the British Isles, and that travelers sailing on such vessels did so at their own risk. The warning appeared, by grim coincidence or deliberate intent, directly beside advertisements for the RMS Lusitania's imminent departure from New York.
Most passengers dismissed the warning as bluster; the Lusitania was among the fastest liners afloat, and many assumed speed alone would outrun any submarine. Captain William Turner reportedly reassured nervous travelers that the ship's swiftness made torpedo attack nearly impossible.
Two days after the warning ran, on May 7, a German U-boat torpedoed the Lusitania off the Irish coast, sinking it in eighteen minutes and killing 1,198 of the 1,959 aboard, including 128 Americans. The sinking became one of the pivotal propaganda moments of the First World War, hardening American public opinion against Germany and moving the United States closer to entering the war two years later.
Key people: William Turner