What is Lusitania?

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What is Lusitania?

Lusitania or RMS Lusitania is a passenger ship or ocean liner which was built by British company – John Brown and Company. This particular company was based in Scotland and offered passenger services with the Cunard Line back in 1907. At the time, this ship which was designed by Leonard Peskett, was considered the biggest in the world. This ship was said to be named after the ancient province of Lusitania which is now part of Portugal.

The Lusitania served the trans-Atlantic route between the UK and the US along with other vessels from Germany. During the time, competition was stiff between different ocean liners with those offering luxury services and faster travel times considered the best. But aside from its use as a passenger ship, the Lusitania was specifically designed for easy conversion to being an auxiliary ship that can be used in times of war. This feature eventually became apparent in 1915 when this particular ship was sunk by a torpedo from the German U-boats. This was during World War I and many have allegedly reported that the Lusitania was also carrying explosives at the time which made it sunk quickly. This particular incident led to the death of more than a thousand people with most of them Americans. Many believe that this was one of the many reasons that the US joined World War 1. But the alleged reports of explosives and the smuggling of arms from the US to the UK was never proven though. But since many civilian people died in the incident, people from the UK and the US became more supportive of their respective government’s efforts in the war against Germany. The US also acknowledged repeatedly that part of the reasons in joining the First World War was because of the attack on the Lusitania and other supposedly neutral and passenger ships and vessels.

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