Essay Example: Did Technology Sink the Lusitania?

Technology, just like negligence is more often blamed when human ignorance causes fatal errors that lead to disasters be it air crashes, car accidents, collapsing of buildings or train accidents. With her might and uniqueness regarding better construction and development, it would be farfetched to claim that technology was the cause of the sinking of the Lusitania. This is because, ignorance of war policies, poor communication, negligence of the evasive maneuvers and the classification of the Lusitania are the causes of the sinking of the Lusitania.

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First, before the Lusitania started off traversing the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool, there had been warnings from the Germany Embassy. The majority of the US newspapers that some zones around the Great Britain Isles had been marked as zones of war and that any vessel is cruising through those waters and bearing the British flag or that of her allies, would be sunk without warning. Given the fact that the Lusitania was uniquely conspicuous and could be easily identified due to its enormous size and that the Admirals officially listed it as an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC), the Lusitania was already a target whether or not it participated in the war directly or indirectly. The partial funding of its construction made it partly a Great Britain government property, and in war, destruction of anything belonging to your enemy is considered an achievement regardless of the consequences and the other owners of that property.

When boarding the Lusitania, there was ease of access to the ship, be it for the passengers or relatives and friends of the passengers. Interestingly, access to the steamer too was very easy, and this could explain the presence of three Germany nationals and Leach who during his time in the US had met with known Germany agents. These three Germanys together with Leach and perhaps other agents who were not identified onboard could have been used to send signals of the exact location of the Lusitania thus making it easier to be targeted.

Captain Turner on his part played a significant role in letting the ship to be easily targeted and torpedoed. First, the captain had received instructions not to cruise near the coast of Ireland, but he nevertheless did it, the fact that he was cruising about 4miiles more than the distance from the coast that had been considered near doesnt make it safer for the ship. The captain had also received a warning of fresh submarine activity off the Irish coast. This was on the previous night before the tragedy, but he disregarded them and instead relied on the speed of the Lusitania for safety, something he didnt observe a few minutes before the attack and by his actions of shutting the fourth boiler to cut costs of coal and the crew. The Lusitania was cruising at 18 knots which were less than its speed of 22 knots with the fourth boiler shut or the maximum speed of 25 knots it would have been able to cruise at full power after the fog and mist had cleared for the bright sun.

The contents of the cargo of the ship are one of the mysteries that is yet to be unraveled. From its manifest, it is clear that the Lusitania was carrying 173 tons of war munitions for Britain regarding rifle cartridges and non-explosive shell casings. There seems to have been explosives on board the ship which had been declared as contraband containing dairy products. From simple reasoning, dairy products are easily perishable and thus could have made no sense in transporting them from the US to Britain (Larson, 2016). This point to the explosives theory which caused the second extremely loud explosion after the torpedo had hit the ship. For the ship the size of Lusitania, a single or two torpedoes could not have caused it to sink very quickly like it did. But rather, the mysterious item that caused the second explosion did.

Despite being a commercial vessel of British origin, the involvement of the Lusitania with British government was also another undoing that made it a target. The ship had admirals on board as it left New York for Liverpool. The offer by Britain naval forces to escort the Lusitania made it lose its civilian status and give it a military or warship status. Further, the concealing of information about the sinking of a ship that had happened on May 6th, 1915 on the Irish coast contributed to Captain Turner not taking enough precautionary measures. The disregard by Captain Turner of the naval escort ships given to the ship by the Admirals contributed greatly to the sinking of the Lusitania. Maybe, if the escort ships were closer to the Lusitania, they could have detected the submarine and sank it before it could launch the torpedo and hence averted the sinking of the Lusitania.

What role did the information that was passed from the Admirals play in the sinking of the Lusitania? This is another critical question that has been ignored. It was declared that there were no submarines off the south coast of Ireland after the fog and mist had cleared and that made captain Turner order the Lusitania head on a straight course with the confidence and assurance that all was clear and no impending dangers lied ahead. The fact that Germany submarines had decoded the key used for communication between the British war ships also might have played into this tragedy by using the element of surprise.

A lot has said and done about the sinking of the Lusitania, but the fact that its remains are still stay in the sea. The British governments audacious efforts to keep the contents of the ship to be a very big secret, points to the fact that human actions were the cause of the sinking of the Lusitania rather than the failure of technology. Despite all the human errors and mistakes, the civilian and innocent souls on board the Lusitania did not deserve to die, and it hurts that they are collateral of war.

References

Larson, E. (2016). Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Broadway Books.