Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) THE LUSITANIA’S LAST VOYAGE [Illustration: A Photo of The Lusitania under steam] THE LUSITANIA’S LAST VOYAGE _Being a Narrative of the Torpedoing and Sinking of the R. M. S. Lusitania by a German Submarine off the Irish Coast May 7, 1915_ BY CHARLES E. LAURIAT, JR. ONE OF THE SURVIVORS _With Illustrations_ [Illustration: colophon] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY CHARLES E. LAURIAT, JR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Published October 1915_ Copyright in Great Britain, Ireland, and British Colonies, and in all countries under the Convention, by Charles E. Lauriat, Jr. TO MY FATHER WHO TAUGHT ME IN BOYHOOD TO SWIM, AND TO KNOW NO FEAR OF THE SEA AND TO MY MOTHER WHO FOUNDED THE FAITH THAT HAS BROUGHT ME THROUGH ALL THINGS I DEDICATE THIS BOOK THE ZONE Avert Thy gaze, O God, close tight Thine eyes! Glance down no longer on the ocean foam, Lest Thou behold such horrors as can turn Men’s burning hearts to ice, and chill their souls. Keep Thine heart warm and full of charity That Thou mayst yet be able to forgive, And pity feel for those who know not when To pause in deeds of ruthless sacrifice. Restrain Thy wrath, and keep Thine hand in check; Smite not, nor fiercely thrust without the pale Those who can dare to strew the ocean waste With fellow creatures, innocent of wrong. Forget the studied purpose to destroy; The launching of the missile through the deep; The shattered hull; the crushed and bleeding forms; The seething swirl of wreckage, women, men. Remember that they know not what they do Who strike in deadly fear and ghastly hate; Remember that somehow, and at some time, Each crime exacts its human penalty.