The
renewed negotiations were continuing when the torpedoing of the
cross-channel passenger ship Sussex, without warning, on March 24th,
impelled the United States to issue a virtual ultimatum, demanding that
the Germans immediately cease their present methods of naval warfare on
pain of the rupture of diplomatic relations with the most powerful
existing neutral nation.
The Lusitania, previous to her sinking, had figured in the war news,
first at the conflict, when it was feared she had been captured by a
German cruiser while she was dashing across the Atlantic toward
Liverpool, and again in February of 1915, when she flew the American
flag as a ruse to deceive submarines while crossing the Irish Sea. This
latter incident called forth a protest from the United States.
On her fatal trip the cargo of the Lusitania was worth $735,000.
As a great transatlantic liner, the Lusitania was a product of the race
for speed, which was carried on for years among larger steamship
companies, particularly of England and Germany. When the Lusitania was
launched, it was the wonder of the maritime world. Its mastery of the
sea, from the standpoint of speed, was undisputed.
Progress of the Lusitania on its first voyage to New York, September 7,
1907, was watched by the world. The vessel made the voyage in five days
and fifty-four minutes, at that time a record.
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