The sinking of the Lusitania: Reviewing the evidence

On the afternoon of 7 May 1915 the Cunard Liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat whilst en route to Liverpool. Consequently it sank with the loss of 1,195 lives. A series of investigative and formal research exercises, undertaken in the light of eye-witness accounts of the events surrounding that tragedy, has given rise to a number of hypotheses concerning the loss of this vessel. In this paper all the available evidence concerning the attack, and the one or more explosions that occurred, is summarised. The conclusions regarding the torpedo effects and the most likely causes of the secondary events are reported.