There was competition to get this award the "Blue Riband" for the fastest ship on teh Atlantic. In 1897 a German ship Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse got the Blue Riband from the Cunard ships Campania and Lucania. To get the Blue Riband back for Britain, the British government and Cunard decided to build 2 superliners witch would be the Lusitania and sister ship Mauretania.

In 1903 the British government gave money to Cunard to build 2 ships that can go 24-25 knots and pay Cunard yearly that the two ships can be armed and the governemtn can use them for war.

The Lusitania was built at John and Brown&Co Ltd in Glasgow and launched at River Clyde in June 16, 1906.

At that time the Lusitania was the biggest ship. It could carry 563 passengers in 1st class, 464 passengers in 2nd class and 1138 passengers in 3rd class. The Lusitania went on it's maiden voyage in September 7, 1907 going from Queenstown to New York. It did not get the Blue Riband on its maiden voyage. But on it's second voyage it got the Blue Riband. the Lusitania and Mauretaniaboth got the Blue Riband. That made the White Star Line decided to build the 3 biggest ships Olympic,Titanic and Gigantic (which later got changed to Britannic after the Titanic sank.

When World War 1 started the British Admiralty took the Mauretania, Aquitania,Britannic, and Olympic to move troops and wounded soldiers in the Mediterranean. Lusitania didn't have any orders for the war stayed as passenger ship

The 202nd voyage was Lusitania's last voyage. On April 30, 1915 when Lusitania was in New York going back to Liverpool, England, Kapitanleutanant Walther Schweiger have to take U-boat 20 (German submarine) to north of Great Britain, back south on Atlantic side then east to Irish Channel to sink ships that are going to and from Liverpool, England. Then he have to go around Ireland and back to Germany.

Schweiger is known to attack ships witout giving any warnings and torpedo any ships that are not on any side that he thought to be British.

Also there was a warning beside the Cunard advertisement telling passengers who are going on Allied ships they have to be carful. Most passengers did not take the warning seriously. they thought it was to threaten them. On May 1, 1915 Lusitania went on its voyage back to Liverpool.

By May 7 Lusitania was sailing in danger zone where enemy submarines might be Captain Turner ordered all lifeboats to be swung out, close all bulk head doors, look-outs to be doubled, slowed the ship down, and kept steam pressure high to give the ship more speed in case there is a emergency.

Around 12:40 pm when Lusitania got closer to land, it changed course. Then it was 10-15 miles near Old Head of Kinsale. that when distaster strikes...

Lusitania got torpedoed when passengers were finshing lunch. Then there was an explosion on the right side of the ship between 3rd and 4th funnel. Then few seconds after there was another explosion inside the ship. The passengers thought it was a second torpedo. What made the second explosion is unknown because according to Schweiger's log he only fired one.

Captain Turner tried to steer Lusitania to land. Then the Lusitania tilted to the right. That made lifeboats on the left side can't get lowered. Lifeboats on the right side of the ship were swung out so far because of the tilt that many passengers had to jump from the deck to get to the lifeboats. Few lifeboats that are lowered had only crew members. Even thought Lusitania had enough lifeboats for everybody, most of it cannot be lowered.

The Lusitania took about 20 minutes to sink. 1198 people did not survive the sinking.