Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania — John Shaqi
Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the LusitaniaMarshall, Logan
History
Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania
Marshall, Logan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
[Illustration: PROMINENT AMERICAN VICTIMS OF THE LUSITANIA HORROR.
Alfred G. Vanderbilt, New York Millionaire. (_C. Underwood &
Underwood._)
Charles Frohman, Theatrical Magnate. (_C. Underwood & Underwood._)
Elbert Hubbard, Editor and Lecturer. (_C. Int. News Service._)
Charles Klein, well-known Playwright. (_C. Int. News Service._)]
[Illustration: SORROWFUL BURIAL OF SOME OF THE LUSITANIA VICTIMS.
Sixty-six coffins were placed in one grave at the Queenstown graveyard.
In the presence of a large crowd they were buried with full military
honors. The view shows a few of the caskets in the grave. (_C. Int. News
Service._)]
MANY CHILDREN DROWNED
G. D. Lane, a youthful but cool-headed second-cabin passenger, who was
returning to Wales from New York, was in a life-boat which was capsized
by the davits as the Lusitania heeled over.
“I was on the B deck,” he said, “when I saw the wake of a torpedo. I
hardly realized what it meant when the big ship seemed to stagger and
almost immediately listed to starboard. I rushed to get a life-belt, but
stopped to help get children on the boat deck. The second cabin was a
veritable nursery.
“Many youngsters must have drowned, but I had the satisfaction of seeing
one boat get away filled with women and children. When the water reached
the deck I saw another life-boat with a vacant seat, which I took, as no
one else was in sight, but we were too late. The Lusitania reeled so
suddenly our boat was swamped, but we righted it again.
“We now witnessed the most horrible scene of human futility it is
possible to imagine. When the Lusitania had turned almost over she
suddenly plunged bow foremost into the water, leaving her stern high in
the air. People on the aft deck were fighting with wild desperation to
retain a footing on the almost perpendicular deck while they fell over
the slippery stern like crippled flies.
“Their cries and shrieks could be heard above the hiss of escaping steam
and the crash of bursting boilers. Then the water mercifully closed over
them and the big liner disappeared, leaving scarcely a ripple behind
her.
“Twelve life-boats were all that were left of our floating home. In time
which could be measured by seconds swimmers, bodies and wreckage
appeared in the space where she went down. I was almost exhausted by the
work of rescue when taken aboard the trawler. It seems like a horrible
dream now.”
WOMEN RUSHED FOR THE BOATS
According to another American survivor, W. H. Brooks, “there was a scene
of great confusion as women and children rushed for the boats which were
launched with the greatest difficulty and danger, owing to the tilting
of the ship.
“I heard the captain order that no more boats be launched, so I leaped
into the sea. After I reached the water there was another explosion
which sent up a shower of wreckage.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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