The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-07
Germanys U-Boat Building Raises Spectre Of
Lustania Tragedy Just 20 Years Ago Today
BY WILLIS THORNTON


statesman and man-in-th e-street
halted IN their tracks 10 devom
the extra that screamed the sink
ing OF the Lusitania.
To-Day, the attention Of certain
men here. more thoughtful than
the dav they read with horror OF
the 1895 men. women and children
who went down with the luxury
liner. was fixed on two things.
First. the efforts of the Senate
Munitions Committee and the
State Department TO carry out
presidential direction to find ways
10 keep another Lusitania of some
future war from dragging Amer
lea in.
And second. an ominOus admls-
sion that Germany is assembling
and has been building for six
months. a new submarine flotilla
NTHILE the bones of la
w Americans were whitening
on the bottom of St. George
channel and round-eyed fish
poked their way through the gid
ed salons 50 silent these 20 year,
under their 40 fathoms of water.
a new generation of Americans has
grown up. They do not remember
the fatal Friday when the LuSi-
tania sighted the Old Head OF
Kinsale near Queenstown, Ireland.
1t had been a rather carefree
passage, without incident. But
some of the 1857 passengers car
ried newspaper clippings of the
ominous warning published in New
York papers just before the Lus1-
tania sailed:
Travellers Gt re2d) are remind
ed that a state of war exists
that the zone OF war includes the
waters adjacent to the British
Isles. that vessels flying the
flag of Great Britain 80. are liable
10 destruction in those water, and
that travellers sailing in the war
zone on ships of Great Britain or
her allies do so at their own risk.
Imperial German Embassy
ID UT to the 1859 souls aboard the
ID Lusitania, all this seemed un-
real. Unreal seemed the long
wrangle over the rights Of neu-
trails. the constant infringement
by both sides on what we're then
considered neutral rights. Far
away seemed the strangling naval
blockade of Germany by Britain,
and the ever-more-ruthless Ger
man submarine campaign against
British shipping.
The 159 Americans among them
may have remembered President
Wilson's note three months before,
promising to hold Germany to
strict accountability" if American
lives we're lost. Six weeks before,
the first American life had been
lost. in the sinking of the British
ship Falaba.
But the trip seemed to have
been made in safety. The irish
coast looked comfortably close.
only 10 miles off. The great ship
emerged from a fog bank before
noon. and at p. m was steaming
at l8 knots through smooth sea
under bright spring weather.
Suddenly a lookout cried out,
and many eyes glimpSed a seeth-
ing white streak shaking its way
toward the ship. Almost before a
word could be uttered, the torpedo
struck home. There was a ter
rife explosion, debris leaped to
the masthead, and the ship felt
shudder like the slamming of a
heavy door Some said there we're
two explosions, but this has not
even today been settled with final
ity. The great ship listed almost
Immediately to starboard and be-
gan to sink. There was confusion,
but no panic.
IT was hard TO launch the life
II boats. though they had pre-
viously been uncovered and swung
out. Those on the starboard side
hung far out from the ship; those
on the port side raSped and splin-
tered on the side of the ship as
they we're lowered. The engine
controls having been put out of
commission. Roadway OF ethe big
ship could not be stopped. adding
to the difficulty
And the time was so horribly
short Even the Titanic f1oated
nearly three hours after the ice
berg stove in her plates. But in
Is minutes the Lusitania went
down by the bow Nobody knows
even now why she sank so quick
l. ! H.