An introduction to the history of the lusitania

Construction had begun in with the goal of building the fastest liner afloat. Her engines produced 68,horse power and pushed the giant through the water at an The Lusitania leaves New York May 1, average speed over 25 knots. Dubbed the "Greyhound of the Seas" she soon captured the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing. The British Admiralty had secretly subsidized her construction and she was built to Admiralty specifications with the understanding that at the outbreak of war the ship would be consigned to government service.

They had larger, faster, more modern, more luxurious ships than Cunard and were better placed, starting from German ports, to capture the lucrative trade in emigrants leaving Europe for North America. Cunard saw their passenger numbers affected as a result of the so-called " Kaiser-class ocean liners ".

Faced with the impending collapse of the British liner fleet and the consequent loss of national prestige, as well as the reserve of shipping for war purposes which it represented, they agreed to help.

In return the ships would be built to Admiralty specifications so that they could be used as auxiliary cruisers in wartime. Other members included Rear Admiral H. Oram, who had been involved in designs for steam turbine powered ships for the navy, and Charles Parsonswhose company Parsons Marine was now producing revolutionary turbine engines.

Turbines offered the advantages of generating less vibration than the reciprocating engines and greater reliability in operation at high speeds, combined with lower fuel consumption. It was agreed that a trial would be made by fitting turbines to Carmaniawhich was already under construction.

The result was a ship 1. A fourth funnel was implemented into the design in as it was necessary to vent the exhaust from additional boilers fitted after steam turbines had been settled on as the power plant.

The original plan called for three propellers, but this was altered to four because it was felt the necessary power could not be transmitted through just three. Four turbines would drive four separate propellers, with additional reversing turbines to drive the two inboard shafts only.

To improve efficiency, the two inboard propellers rotated inwards, while those outboard rotated outwards.

The outboard turbines operated at high pressure; the exhaust steam then passing to those inboard at relatively low pressure. The propellers were driven directly by the turbines, since sufficiently robust gearboxes had not yet been developed, and only became available in Instead, the turbines had to be designed to run at a much lower speed than those normally accepted as being optimum.

Thus, the efficiency of the turbines installed was less at low speeds than a conventional reciprocating piston in cylinder steam engine, but significantly better when the engines were run at high speed, as was usually the case for an express liner.

The ship was fitted with 23 double-ended, and two single-ended boilers which fitted the forward space where the ship narrowedoperating at a maximum psi and containing individual furnaces.

By the lifeboat arrangement had been changed to 11 fixed boats either side, plus collapsible boats stored under each lifeboat and on the poop deck. Work to refine the hull shape was conducted in the Admiralty experimental tank at HaslarGosport.

As a result of experiments, the beam of the ship was increased by 10 feet 3. The central half contained four boiler rooms, with the remaining space at the forward end of the ship being reserved for cargo and other storage.

Coal bunkers were placed along the length of the ship outboard of the boiler rooms, with a large transverse bunker immediately in front of that most forward number 1 boiler room.

Apart from convenience ready for use, the coal was considered to provide added protection for the central spaces against attack. The hull space was divided into twelve watertight compartments, any two of which could be flooded without risk of the ship sinking, connected by 35 hydraulically operated watertight doors.

A critical flaw in the arrangement of the watertight compartments was that sliding doors to the coal bunkers needed to be open to provide a constant feed of coal whilst the ship was operating, and closing these in emergency conditions could be problematic.

The ship had a double bottom with the space between divided into separate watertight cells. This allowed a reduction in plate thickness, reducing weight but still providing 26 per cent greater strength than otherwise.Lusitania, in one month the North would have been saying they were so glad he kept them out of the war and that they were too proud to fight and that at all hazards fratricidal war must be averted.

*Lusitania, Sinking of the* ().On 3 November , Great Britain [1] began mining the North Sea [2] as part of a blockade of Germany [3], during World War I [4], ultimately including foodstuffs. RMS Lusitania was regularly transporting war munitions, she operated under the control of the Admiralty, she could be converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser to join the war, her identity had been disguised and she flew no flags.

Remember the Lusitania: 3 pieces of World War I propaganda | National Museum of American History

She was a non-neutral vessel in a declared war zone, with orders to evade capture and ram challenging submarines. The Lusitania made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in September Construction had begun in with the goal of building the fastest liner afloat.

Her engines produced 68,horse power and pushed the giant through the water at an. marks the centennial anniversary of one of the worst maritime disasters in the history of the great trans-Atlantic liners: the sinking of the RMS caninariojana.com volume helps to commemorate the th anniversary of the disaster by telling the complete story of the life and loss of the Lusitania.

Today, the Lusitania is mostly remembered for her /5(17). The sinking of the Lusitania changed the thinking of Americans, even though the German government apologized for it (Unger, 1). The sinking of the RMS Lusitania is a historical event in history. It led to becoming one of the decisions why the United States joined in World War I.