Lusitania Sunk! Over A Thousand Lives Believed Lost!

Headlines like this one dominated newspapers 95 years ago this week, as word filtered back to the United States of the sinking of the British luxury liner by a lone German submarine limping back to port with just one torpedo in her chambers. The attack took place on May 7, 1915, just eight miles from the shore of Ireland in waters the German government had weeks earlier declared a restricted military war zone.

Among the 1198 passengers who died that clear, beautiful Friday morning were Alice and Elbert Hubbard, the founder and managers of the Roycroft Shops. Despite the published warnings and concerns over their safety (the Hubbards had refused to let any of their children travel with them aboard the Lusitania), Alice and Elbert Hubbard were determined to assess the war situation in Europe for themselves.

The sinking of the Lusitania followed that of the Titanic by just three years, sending shock waves throughout the country. America’s earliest version of twin catastrophes on the level of the World Trade Center took a total of 2715 lives, just 45 fewer than perished in New York City on September 11, 2001.

Just as the Hubbards’ lives were surrounded by controversy, rumor, myth and scandal, so were their deaths. Minutes after the German torpedo exploded inside the forward boiler room, a second explosion tore a gaping hole in her side, sending the Lusitania to the ocean floor in a brief, panic-stricken 18 minutes.

From that moment in history to this very day, historians have argued over what caused the second explosion that sealed the fate of the Hubbards and eleven hundred other men, women and children. Was it an exploding boiler, combustible coal dust, a second torpedo or millions of rounds of rifle shells that caused the mysterious second explosion – or was it illegal explosives being smuggled to England? And why was the British military escort scheduled to meet and protect the Lusitania ordered held in port that fateful morning?

Was it all a calculated gamble to draw America and her desperately needed resources into the war England was waging against Germany?

For decades afterwards, the story circulated that the final sighting of Alice and Elbert Hubbard was that of the pair, arm in arm, calmly and gallantly making their way against the frantic mob as the couple headed back to their stateroom to await their watery fate.

In contrast, a letter written in 1923 by one of the 761 survivors reports that the Hubbards had climbed with him aboard lifeboat #14, but that the lifeboat was damaged in the lowering. Minutes after watching the Lusitania sink beneath the waves, the Hubbards and others watched helplessly as their lifeboat slowly sank beneath them. While some were able to remain afloat, Alice and Elbert Hubbard were never seen again.

Three weeks later, a memorial service in East Aurora drew an estimated 3000 people wishing to pay tribute to the couple whose impact on the Arts & Crafts movement in America is still being felt today.

-bj