It is probably true that Wilson was a pacifist at heart, but it is equally certain that he was not entirely the master of his own destiny. He was a transplanted college professor from the ivy-covered walls of Princeton, an internationalist at heart who dreamed of helping to create a world government and to usher in a millennium of peace. But he found himself surrounded by and dependent upon men of strong wills, astute political aptitudes, and powerful financial resources. Against these forces, he was all but powerless to act on his own, and there is good reason to believe that he inwardly suffered over many of the events in which he was compelled to participate. We shall leave it to others to moralize about a man who, by his deliberate refusal to warn his countrymen of their mortal peril, sends 195 of them to their watery graves. We may wonder, also, 1. Simpson, p. 97.
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about how such a man can commit the ultimate hypocrisy of condemning the Germans for this act and then doing everything possible to prevent the American public from learning the truth. It would be surprising if the extent of his private remorse was not greater than merely a few sleepless hours.
THE FINAL VOYAGE
But we are getting slightly ahead of the story. While Morgan and Wilson were setting the deadly stage on the American side of the Atlantic, Churchill was playing his part on the European side.
When the Lusitania left New York Harbor on May 1, her orders were to rendezvous with a British destroyer, the Juno, just off the coast of Ireland so she would have naval protection as she entered hostile waters. When the Lusitania reached the rendezvous point, however, she was alone, and the captain assumed they had missed each other in the fog. In truth, the Juno had been called out of the area at the last minute and ordered to return to Queenstown. And this was done with the full knowledge that the Lusitania was on a direct course into an area where a German submarine was known to be operating. To make matters worse, the Lusitania had been ordered to cut back on the use of coal, not because of shortages, but because it would be less expensive. Slow targets, of course, are much easier to hit. Yet, she was required to shut down one of her four boilers and, consequently, was now entering submarine-infested waters at only 75% of her potential speed.
As the Lusitania drew closer to hostile waters, almost everyone knew she was in grave danger. Newspapers in London were alive with the story of German warnings and recent sinkings. In the map room of the British Admiralty, Churchill watched the play unfold and coldly called the shots. Small disks marked the places where two ships had been torpedoed the day before. A circle indicated the area within which the U-boat must still be operating. A larger disk represented the Lusitania travelling at nineteen knots directly into the circle. Yet, nothing was done to help her. Admiral Coke at Queenstown was given perfunctory instructions to protect her as best he could, but he had no means to do so and, in fact, no one even bothered to notify the captain of the Lusitania that the rendezvous with the Juno had been canceled.
One of the officers present in the high-command map room on that fateful day was Commander Joseph Kenworthy, who pre-SINK THE LUSITANIA!
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viously had been called upon by Churchill to submit a paper on what would be the political results of an ocean liner being sunk with American passengers aboard. He left the room in disgust at the cynicism of his superiors. In 1927, in his book, The Freedom of the Seas, he wrote without further comment: 'The Lusitania was sent at considerably reduced speed into an area where a U-boat was known to be waiting and with her escorts withdrawn.' Further comment is not needed.
Colonel House was in England at that time and, on the day of the sinking, was scheduled to have an audience with King
George V. He was accompanied by Sir Edward Grey and, on the way, Sir Grey asked him: 'What will America do if the Germans sink an ocean liner with American passengers on board?' As recorded in House's diaries, he replied: 'I told him if this were done, a flame of indignation would sweep America, which would in itself probably carry us into the war.'2 Once at Buckingham Palace, King George also brought up the subject and was even more specific about the possible target. He asked, 'Suppose they should sink the Lusitania with American passengers on board....'
A MIGHTY EXPLOSION, A WATERY GRAVE
Four hours after this conversation, the black smoke of the Lusitania was spotted on the horizon through the periscope of the German submarine, U-20. The ship came directly toward the U-boat, allowing it to full-throttle out of her path and swing around for a ninety-degree shot at her bow as she passed only 750 yards away. The torpedo struck nine feet below the water line on the starboard side slightly forward of the bridge. A second torpedo was readied but not needed. Quickly after the explosion of the impact, there was a second and much larger explosion that literally blew the side off of cargo hold number two and started the great ship immediately toward the bottom. And what a hole it must have been. The Lusitania, one of the largest ships ever built, sank in less than eighteen minutes!
1. Joseph M. Kenworthy and George Young, The Freedom of the Seas (New York: Ayer Company, 1929), p. 211.
2. Seymour, Vol I, p. 432
3. Ibid., p. 432.
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Survivors among the crew who were working in the boiler
rooms during the attack have attested that the boilers did not blow at that time. Simpson tells us:
The G torpedo had failed to blow in the inner bulkhead of No 1
boiler room, but just further forward something blew out most of the b o t t o m of the b o w of the ship. It m a y have been the Bethlehem Company's 3-inch shells, the six million rounds of rifle ammunition or the h i g h l y d u b i o u s c o n t e n t s o f the b a l e s o f f u r s o r the s m a l l forty-pound boxes of cheese. Divers who have been down to the wreck unanimously testify that the b o w was blasted by a massive internal explosion, and large pieces of the b o w plating, buckled from the inside, are to be
