| Accident type | : Explosion |
| Vessel involved | : RMS Lusitania |
| Date | : May 7, 1915 |
| Casualties | : 1,198 people died |
VESSEL INFO:
| Name | : RMS Lusitania |
| Built in | : 1904 |
| Type | : Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | : 31,550 GRT |
| Length | : 787 ft (239.9 m) |
| Beam | : 87 ft (26.5 m) |
The RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner, holder of the Blue Riband and briefly the world’s largest passenger ship, until the completion of her running mate Mauretania. She was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. She had made a total of 202 trans-Atlantic crossings.
On 7 May 1915, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. The 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers and the vessel went down 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland in 18 minutes. Of the 1,266 passengers and 696 crew aboard Lusitania at the time of the sinking, 1,198 lost their lives.
Source: Wikipedia
