Lusitania

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shipstamps
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Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:12 pm

Lusitania

Post by shipstamps » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:15 am




A ship of the Cunard Line of 31,500 tons, was built in 1906 quadruple screw express liner. She captured the Atlantic 'blue riband' in 1907 by crossing from Liverpool to New York at a speed of 23-99 knots. She continued monthly sailings from Liverpool to New York and back after the outbreak of war in 1914.
Before she left New York on 1 May 1915 the German authorities in the U.S.A. published warnings that she would be attacked by submarines, and advised passengers not to sail. The warnings were not regarded as serious, and it appears that warnings of German U-boat activity in the area were not signaled to her by the British Admiraralty on 6th May 1915 as she approached southern Ireland on a return passage from New York. According to her sailing orders she should have been steering a zig-zag course and had been instructed to keep away from landfalls. These instructions were ignored and she approached the Old Head of Kinsale on a steady course at a reduced speed of 21 knots when at 2.15 p.m. on 7 May two torpedoes struck her starboard side, fired from the German submarine U.20. Great loss of life was caused by the rapidity with which she sank-she went under in 20 minutes and because she was listing so heavily and was at so steep an angle bows down when she sank that it was difficult to get her lifeboats away.
The number of passengers and crew lost was 1,198. According to one theory by apologists for the brutal manner in which she was attacked without warning. She was struck by only one torpedo and the second explosion was caused by the detonation of contraband cargo; it was also averred that she was deliberately ordered into the path of the submarine by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, and by Sir John Fisher, First Sea Lord, as an attempt to bring the U.S.A. into the war. There is no apparent basis for either of these allegations.
It was said, however, that the outrage felt in the U.S.A. was a factor in bringing America into the war in 1917: in the words of Theodore Roosevelt at the time it was 'piracy on a vaster scale than the worst pirates of history'. But this was an overstatement probably made under stress by the fact that 124 American citizens were among those lost. The Germans claimed that the LUSITANIA was an armed merchant cruiser carrying troops from Canada, but at the time it was stated in London that she carried no troops and no guns, and that her only war cargo was 5,000 cases of cartridges. Later evidence suggests that included in her cargo was a small quantity of fulminate of mercury fuses in addition to the ammunition.
Nevertheless, since she had no guns mounted and was not an armed merchant cruiser, it was contrary to the rules laid down at the Hague Convention of 1907 for such a vessel to be sunk without first visiting her to establish the fact that she was carrying contraband and then making provision for the safety of her passengers and crew. SG1991
Suggested further reading: "Willful Murder" by Diana Preston
Log Book March 2005

john sefton
Posts: 1816
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:59 pm

Re: Lusitania

Post by john sefton » Wed May 27, 2009 10:20 pm

Postcard and more stamps.
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Lusitania.JPG
Lusitania (Small).JPG
SG879
SG879

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Lusitania

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:35 pm

Turks & Caicos Islands 1995 60c sg1392, scott1194a
Malagasy 1998 sg?, scott?
Grenada Carriacou&Petite Martinique 2014 $3.25 sg?, scott?
Great Britain 2015.
Isle of Man 2015 £1.00 sg?, scott?

More is given on: posting.php?mode=edit&f=2&p=17086
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1998 Malagasy 1385.JPG
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Last edited by aukepalmhof on Sat May 04, 2019 12:09 am, edited 5 times in total.

ibiscus1
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue May 12, 2009 6:33 pm

Re: Lusitania

Post by ibiscus1 » Mon Mar 18, 2013 5:09 pm

As well as the stamp from Turks and Caicos 1996 SG 1392there is also the stamp also from Turks and Caicos from 1995 SG1361 which shows diving on the Lusitania in a Peress armoured diving suit in 1935.

Stewart Wilson

Arturo
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:11 pm

Re: Lusitania

Post by Arturo » Tue Dec 02, 2014 9:35 pm

Lusitania

Grenada 1998, S.G.?, Scott: 2749.
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Lusitania.jpg

Arturo
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:11 pm

Re: Lusitania

Post by Arturo » Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:19 pm

Lusitania

Grenada
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Lusitania.jpg

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