Lusitania Controversy

A German propaganda piece, courtesy of Cliff McMullen

Keith Allen (KEACLA1@aol.com) originally posted this multi-part article on WW1-L in March, 1999 - it appears here by permission of the author. It is well worth reading, and provides an excellent summary of the controversies surrounding the loss of the Lusitania and the book by Colin Simpson.

Table of Contents

• I. Introduction and Chronology
• II. THE POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC SETTING
  • The British and German Blockades
  • U.S. Policy Toward the Belligerents
  • Colin Simpson on U.S. Policy and German Ships
  • Lansing's Abortive Modus Vivendi, January 1916
  • Merchant Ships: Arming, Ramming, and Warning
• III. LUSITANIA: ARMAMENT AND CARGO
  • The Alleged Arming of Lusitania
  • The Munitions Cargo
• IV. WARNING AND CONSPIRACY
  • U-20 and Kapitanleutnant Schwieger
  • Early British Intelligence and Dispositions
  • The Admiralty Conference of 5 May
  • The Strange Case of Lieutenant Commander Kenworthy
  • The Question of Escorts
  • Warnings to Lusitania
  • The Queenstown-Diversion Story
  • Broader Aspects of the Conspiracy Thesis
• V. THE SINKING OF LUSITANIA
  • Captain Turner's Responsibility
  • The Second Explosion
  • Conclusions

Bibliography

Bailey, Thomas A. and Ryan, Paul B. The Lusitania Disaster: An Episode in Modern Warfare and Diplomacy. New York: Free Press, 1975.

Ballard, Robert D. with Spencer Dunmore. Exploring the Lusitania: Probing the Mysteries of the Sinking that Changed History. New York and Toronto: Warner Books and Madison Press, 1995.

Beesly, Patrick. Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914-18. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.

Clarkson, Grosvenor B. Industrial America in the World War: The Strategy Behind theLine 1917-1918. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.

Devlin, Patrick. Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Du Pont Company. Du Pont: The Autobiography of an American Enterprise. Wilmington, Delaware: Du Pont Company, 1952.

Du Pont Company. A History of the Du Pont Company's Relations with the United States Government 1802-1927. Wilmington, Delaware: Du Pont Company, 1928.

Engelbrecht, H. C. and Hanighen, F. C. Merchants of Death: A Study of the International Armament Industry. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1934.

Ferrell, Robert H. Woodrow Wilson and World War I. New York: Harper & Row, 1985 (New American Nation series).

Kenworthy, J. M. and Young, George. Freedom of the Seas. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1928. American edition published in New York by Horace Liveright.

Kenworthy, J. M. Sailors, Statesmen--and Others: An Autobiography. London: Rich & Cowan, 1933.

Lansing, Robert. The War Memoirs of Robert Lansing. Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1935.

Link, Arthur. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era 1910-1917. New York: Harper & Row, 1954 (New American Nation series).

Simpson, Colin. Lusitania. Originally published by Longman of London, 1972. All citations in this paper are from the Penguin paperback edition, 1983.

 Return to WWI The Maritime War

 Return to WWI Archive main page.