| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
I can't drink anything stronger than ginger ale while I'm reading or I fall asleep, even with a book as interesting as this one.Maybe coffee?
And I'd forgotten that women still wore long skirts. That must have made it hard for those who fell in the water! (If it was daytime when the boat went down.)One of my college classmates learned to swim from her grandmother. Someone asked her, what was that peculiar flip at the end of her kick. She didn't know, she just copied what she was shown. So she asked her grandmother. "Oh, that's how you keep your bathing dress from tangling up your ankles."
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
Welcome aboard David's Mom! This is a great discussion group. Different backgrounds make for lively discussions. Enjoy.Barb, I was actually born in a little town in Ohio. I taught mostly first grade, but taught other grades, too: preschool through sixth grade. I liked third grade best.
I think it's only good manners to at least make some effort to learn the local language when you're in another country.I wish everybody felt that way. It doesn't take that much to learn "please" and "thank you", some numbers, and a few key phrases, and it shows some respect for your hosts.
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
I noticed that Cunard learned from the Titanic disaster, and had many more lifeboats. (but of course the economy passengers got a cheaper kind).It wasn't just Cunard. The rules were changed; linerswere required to have enough lifeboats for everybody.
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
We haven't yet heard from the attorney for the defense. Anyone?
I move the charges be dismissed.
I think it's neglect without intent and I move they be exonerated.
Captain Schweiger would possibly have fired on it, he wanted another prize to add to his record.
Hello,
Could someone tell me what exactly happened to Captain Walther Schwieger, the man who sank the Lusitania? Was he celebrated as a hero in Germany or was he shunned? I heard he was awarded a medal, but I want to know if that's true.
Likewise, did he ever have any regrets for sinking the ship or did he believe he was just doing his duty? If someone could give me a little biography about the man, I'd be most grateful. Best regards, Lawrence
After the storm of protest caused by the Lusitania disaster, the Kaiser called a halt to unrestricted submarine warfare. This caused a temporary lull in sinkings, though Schwieger and U-20 managed to sink the defensively armed White Star liner Cymric during this period. Unbeknownst to Schwieger, the liner was carrying the body of one of the Lusitania victims home to America at the time.
On November 5th, 1916 whilst trying to assist another U-boat, the U20 ran aground in fog off the Danish coast. She resisted all attempts to refloat her and during the attempt to rescue Schwieger and his crew, the German Battleship KronPrinz Wilhelm, which was providing protective screening for the rescue operation, was torpedoed by the British submarine J1.
The stranded wreck of the U-20 off Denmark, seen here after Schwieger's hasty attempt to blow her up, to prevent her from falling into enemy hands.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/U_20_grounded_Denmark_1916.JPG/220px-U_20_grounded_Denmark_1916.JPG)
KronPrinz Wilhelm limped back to base, only to end her days at the bottom of Scapa Flow, in Scotland, when the interned German warships scuttled themselves in a last great act of defiance in 1919. The Danish government eventually removed the wreck of U20 some years later, as she was a hazard to navigation. The remains of U-20 are now a static display in Denmark, open to the public.
After U20 was lost, Schwieger was given command of the slightly larger U88 on April 7th, 1917 and on 30th July 1917, he was awarded Germany's highest decoration for gallantry; the "Pour Le Merite" medal, or "Blue Max" as it was more popularly known, in recognition of his having sunk a total of 190,000 tons of allied shipping. He was the 8th U-boat commander to receive this covetted award. The citation for his award did not mention his largest victim; the Lusitania.
The "Blue Max".
Schwieger was killed in action six weeks later, on September 5th 1917.
Whilst being pursued by the Q-Ship HMS Stonecrop, the submerged U88 struck a British laid mine off the Frisian island of Terschelling in the North Sea. The British were quick to credit HMS Stonecrop with this "kill" as it made for good propaganda, but the mine that proved fatal to Schwieger was not laid by HMS Stonecrop at all, and she certainly had not fired upon U-20 with any effect during the chase.
Walther Schwieger was seven months short of his 33rd birthday when his worst nightmare became a reality. There were no survivors from the U88, whose last recorded resting place is 53,57N - 04,55E.
At the time of his death, Schwieger ranked 6th in the league table of top-scoring U-boat commanders and was therefore officially a U-boat "Ace".
In May of 1918, the first boat of "Project 46" was launched. Project 46 was a class of U-Cruiser and the very first was U139, which was named "Kapitan-Leutnant Schwieger" in honour of his memory.
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
Considering shock, injury, the 55 degree temperatures...and the time in the water before rescue - it was a miracle there were any survivors, don't you think?Yes, and they only successfully deployed 6 of the lifeboats.
236: I'm not smart enough to understand why one ship traveling at 22 knots (estimated by Schweiger) could not be overtaken by a torpedo travelling 44 mph from a ship going at a max of 15 knots behind.Yes, a torpedo could overtake a ship under those conditions. Schwieger wasn't firing from behind Lusitania, He was pointed toward the side of the ship, which was moving across his field of vision. He had to fire ahead of where the ship was, so that by the time the torpedo reached the ship's path, the ship would have caught up and the two would intersect. He calculated for a perfect 90 degree hit amidships, but Lusitania could have spotted the torpedo and quickly turned, or slowed, causing a miss, hence the suspense. She didn't, but he also miscalculated her speed, so hit farther forward than he meant to.
Has anyone seen the movie - THE IMITATION GAME? I think that's about this very story, is that true?I posted early I had seen the movie. I don't think it is about this actual story. But yes, Turing did break the codes and invent the first computer in the Imitation game. As far as I can remember, and I could be foggy since it was a few years back, I don't remember the Lusitania being mentioned in the movie. The movie dealt mostly with the code breaking and it bringing a sooner end to the war and saving thousands of lives in doing so.
I think Captain Turner decided, in the midst of those confusing messages, to proceed as he regularly had.
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
Few events in human history were as evil and as powerful as the Nazi holocaust, but hiding among the horror it is heartening to know that one of the best things of which we are capable—love—can survive and flourish even under the worst circumstances.
The story of Manya and Meyer Korenblit has been described by their son as one of miracles. They were two Jewish teenagers in love when Nazis began rounding up people in their Polish town of Hrubieszow. At first, they were placed in ghettos, but they were later carted away to a concentration camp. By the end of the war, 98 percent of the town’s Jewish population had been killed by the Nazis.
The lovers went to the same camp, Budzyn. Meyer would sneak to the fence between the men’s and women’s sections to talk to Manya, and it was there they made a promise. Once everything ended, if they both survived, they would return to their hometown to wait for each other. They were separated shortly afterward and spent the next three years in 11 different camps.
When they were liberated, they weighed 64 kilograms (143 lb) combined. That’s less than the average weight of a single European adult today. Meyer had escaped a death march from Dachau concentration camp and hidden on a farm before Americans found him. Manya was the first to make it back to Hrubieszow. She had to wait six weeks, not knowing Meyer’s fate—but he made it home to her.
David Szumiraj went to Auschwitz in late 1942. During his time there, he tended potato fields, where he worked near a young woman named Perla. The two weren’t allowed to speak, but when guards weren’t looking they made eye contact.
The shared glances were enough for the two to develop feelings for each other. Once they were able to talk for the first time, David says, “It was already inside us, the idea that we were a couple, that we were going to get married.” Their first conversation ended with their first kiss.
In January 1945, with Soviet forces approaching, the Nazis began moving prisoners. The evacuation of Auschwitz was one of the most notorious death marches in history, killing 15,000 people. After a week of passengers eating nothing but snow, David’s train was attacked by British planes. Weighing just 38 kilograms (83 lb), he survived by eating grass until American soldiers picked him up. Today, he still won’t eat lettuce.
David had no idea where Perla was. He sent a friend to a camp in Hamburg that housed lots of women—and she was there. The first David knew of his friend’s success was when Perla jumped out from behind a tree at the army base where David was staying.
They married, had a daughter, and decided to move to Argentina to be with some of David’s surviving family. They couldn’t afford the $20,000 immigration fees, so they had themselves smuggled into the country from Paraguay instead—and remained happily married for the next six decades.
Love was forbidden among the Jews in Nazi concentration camps. However, Joseph Bau and Rebecca Tennenbaum were not people who gave in to the Nazis. Before he was imprisoned, Joseph had used his skill as an artist to create fake documents that saved hundreds of lives. On February 13, 1944, the couple married in the women’s barracks of the Plaszow forced-labor camp. If they’d been caught, everyone present would have been killed.
The couple had crafted their wedding rings from a spoon. Joseph was later freed from the camp by Oskar Schindler, and their wedding was featured in the film Schindler’s List. That list originally contained Rebecca’s name, but she switched Joseph’s in instead, sending herself to Auschwitz and almost certain death. Amazingly, she survived, and the couple reunited after the war.
Today, their wedding is still celebrated as a symbol of hope. Following festivities for what would have been their 70th anniversary in 2014, the couple’s daughter Cilia said, “According to Jewish tradition, in times of deep desperation, a wedding ceremony would be held in the cemetery, symbolically linking the living and the dead.” The Plaszow camp had been built on a cemetery.
QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE CRIPPLED KAISER is the tale of a terrified little boy with a secret disability, and a story that reveals how a poisoned family relationship helped shape the future of a continent. This carefully crafted documentary which features a long hidden cache of Royal letters was produced for Channel 4 in the U.K. for the Secret History series, which showcases the best in historical journalism.
When Queen Victoria's eldest child, Vicky, married the German Crown Prince Frederick William in 1858, it was not just a marriage of love but an attempt to strengthen ties between two of Europe's greatest powers. But the plan went disastrously wrong. One year after her wedding, Vicky endured a difficult birth which almost ended her life and left her baby - the future Kaiser Wilhelm II - with a permanently paralyzed arm. His mother wrote she was haunted by the idea of him "remaining a cripple" and insisted that he hide his paralyzed arm throughout his life. QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE CRIPPLED KAISER, narrated by Jim Carter (Downton Abbey's Mr. Carson), is the story of Wilhelm II, revealing a secret story of child cruelty, shame and dark, incestuous desires, which begins behind palace doors and ends in the carnage of World War I.
During Wilhelm's life, Vicky presided over a series of bizarre and often cruel attempts to cure him of his disability, one which was considered shameful at the time. Rather than being curative, these forced procedures created a highly dysfunctional relationship between mother and son. Wilhelm developed a growing hatred for his mother's country, while, at the same time, expressing his desire for "forbidden love" with her. According to experts who have uncovered new evidence of an incestuous obsession, this unnatural love for his royal mother was at the heart of Kaiser Wilhelm II's hatred of Britain in the years before the First World War.
I read the notes in the back on Schweiger and it appears that the quote about how he could not believe the outcome, how awful it was, which I quoted above, is "unlike" him but it's in the log. So Lanz recognized the Lusitania immediately but apparently Schweiger didn't know before he shot the torpedo, that makes sense, given his remarks in the log when he saw the devastation.
One site mentioned that the very minute he stepped off his sub the German govt. confiscated his log and it was felt "they" had substituted one.
Was the Lusitania actually carrying munitions?
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
Schwieger did what any trained soldier, sailor, pilot does in time of war; when your country is at war. I don't think we can fault him for doing his duty; our soldiers and sailors were doing the same when we entered the war.
Can there be any doubt that blame is an essential in a civilized society concerned with ideals, morality, conscience and liability? But in wartime, and May 7 was eight months into the 'great war', with horrendous loss of life, restraint goes out the window.
A man can be too proud to fight. Is that an option?
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |
Wouldn't it be interesting to learn who gave the order to abandon the Lusitania to sail dangerous waters unaccompanied.
Do we still believe in his vision of America as a special place, a beacon of democracy?
My guess is 'intent' - The German Uboat captain said he did not realize till after the fact that it was the Lusitania - a second torpedo would have kept him longer on the periscope - more time to ascertain the ship - just a guess.
it was revealed that the Lusitania was carrying about 173 tons of war munitions for Britain, which gave Germany its justification.
| (http://seniorlearn.org/latin/graphics/Lusitania2.jpg) | "Few tales in history are more haunting, more tangled with investigatory mazes or more fraught with toxic secrets than that of the final voyage of the Lusitania, one of the colossal tragedies of maritime history. It’s the other Titanic, the story of a mighty ship sunk not by the grandeur of nature but by the grimness of man." - ~ New York Times. |