RMS Lusitania

RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. The Royal Mail Ship, the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister Mauretania three months later, in 1907 regained for Britain the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing after it was held by German ships for a decade.

During World War I, Lusitania was listed as armed merchant cruiser and carried both British ammunitions and US citizens on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing, when on 7 May 1915 at 14:10 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, the German submarine U-20 fired a single torpedo, triggering a second explosion and the sinking about 18 minutes later. Only 6 of several dozen lifeboats and rafts were successfully lowered, and of 1,960 persons on board, 767 survived and 1,193 perished.