Sinking Of The Lusitania

Among the startling conclusions of this riveting Discovery Channel examination of the sinking of the Cunard luxury liner in 1915 is that the Germans were perfectly within their rights to fire the torpedo that destroyed her. Great Britain had illegally blockaded German ports in an effort to starve the country. In retaliation, German U-boats prowled the seas in search of English shipping. The British Admiralty was very much aware of the danger to the Lusitania once she entered the waters around the British Isles. Despite repeated urging by one of its staff members, the Admiralty refused to warn the liner except in the most vague of terms. The U-20 that fired the torpedo expected it to do minimal damage to the huge ship. The initial explosion was followed by a second, much larger detonation. Although it has been determined that the second blast was probably not the munitions that the ship was transporting, an unconscionable betrayal of the passengers (and over the objections of the liner's captain, William Turner), the Lusitania went to the bottom 18 minutes later with a loss of over 1,100 lives. This meticulously produced program goes on to document the efforts to minimize the British government's considerable culpability for the disaster by placing the blame upon Captain Turner's blameless shoulders.