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Show GERMAN SUBMARINE ' SINKS THE LUSITANIA Passenger Vessel Sent to Bottom Off Coast of Ireland, Over One Thousand Lives Being Lost, Many Americans Among Victims. The Cunard liner Lusitania, a Brit-Ssli Brit-Ssli owned passenger vessel, was torpedoed tor-pedoed by a German submarine off the an'sh coast on Friday, May 7, and went down twenty minutes after being Struck by two torpedoes, 1,200 lives 'being lost, 120 of this number being American citizens, of the dead many being women and children. When the Lusitania left New York May 1 she had on board 1,901 souls, 1,251 passengers and 650 crew. The passengers were made up of 291 in the first cabin, 599 in the second and 361 in the steerage. The list of survivors shows so far that about 90 first-class and 75 second-class passengers were saved. It is noticeable that comparatively compara-tively few first-class passengers were saved. Either two or three torpedoes struck the Lusitania. One report says the first projectile was followed by two others, striking in quick succession. Another report, has it that two submarines sub-marines took part in the onslaught, one attacking from the port and the other from the starboard side. The Lusitania was nearing the end of her journey when a submarine suddenly sud-denly appeared and began firing. The first torpedo struck between the first and second funnels. The Lusitania shook and settled down a bit. Two other torpedoes quickly followed and soon finished the ship. Four or five of the lifeboats went dwon with her and the tremendous suction as the liner was engulfed dragged many people peo-ple down also. Many of the passengers did not believe be-lieve the Lusitania would sink as quickly as she did. Consequently they did not join in the rush for the lifeboats, life-boats, but evidently preferred to trust in their belief that the watertight compartments com-partments of the vessel would keep her afloat until such time as help came out from the Irish shore, less than ten miles away. Many prominent Americans were on the boat, and among those who went down with the ship were Charles Froh-man Froh-man of New York, the theatrical producer, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Charles Klein, the playwright, Justin M. Forman and Elbert Hubbard and his wife. ' The stories from Queenstown describe de-scribe the bringing in of the bodies of a great number of women, many of them still unidentified. The Queens-town Queens-town docks are the temporary resting places also of the bodies of several children. One dead mother still is clasping in her rigid arms the body of her three months old baby. All the evidence goes to show that the first-class and many of the second-class second-class passengers had such confidence in the ability of the Lusitania, because be-cause of her watertight compartments, to remain afloat after she received the first blow that they did not concern themselves about taking to the boats or even providing themselves with life preservers. When the passengers did realize that the Lusitania was doomed, they found that most of the boats on the port side were so jammed, because of (he great list of the vessel, that they could not be lowered, and the last seen of them by the most fortunate passengers passen-gers who had secured places on the starboard boats or who had jumped overboard and had been picked up they were lined on the sloping decks awaiting their fate, doubtless even then believing that with land so close they would still be saved. However, the torpedoes had torn such gaping holes in the liner that she did not remain afloat for more than twenty minutes, and the calls for help which the wireless sent out, although al-though answered quickly, could not bring the rescuing steamers to the spot in time to be of any service. Marine Superintendent Dodd of the Cunard line said that the Lusitania sank in sixty fathoms of water and would never be raised. The names of seventy-three, survivors surviv-ors of the 188 Americans aboard the Lusitania has been reported to the state department at Washington. Insurance on the Lusitania, it is said, amounted to $7, 500, 000. The vessel ves-sel was valued in round figures at $10,000,000. The worth of the cargo she carried was reckoned at $735,000. An Irish coast guard, who witnessed the sinking of the ship believes she sank within eight minutes. His story is confirmed by a farmer, who was working near Old Head Kinsale, when fee heard shots and looking seaward saw a steamer with her bows in the air. He said hardly ten minutes later she keeled over and sank. A resident of Ardfield, Ireland, estimated esti-mated the ship was five miles from shore when he heard the crash of the torpedo when it pierced her side. For a moment she seemed to move slowly straight ahead, then turned suddenly and then stopped, her bow sinking and the stern rising. Then she keeled over and disappeared from sight. Within With-in a few minutes ten rescue boats had reached the spot where she went down. |