port-hole
Report a Mistake- Object Number 19910113-001
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Event
1914-1919 First World War
1915 Sinking of the RMS Lusitania - Affiliation --
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer Sam Cunard
- Date Made 1915/05/07
- Place of Use Continent - Europe, Country - United Kingdom
- Category Distribution and transportation artifacts
- Sub-category Water transportation equipment
- Department Arms and Technology
- Museum CWM
- Earliest 1915/05/07
- Latest 1915/05/07
- Materials Metal, Glass
- Service Component Merchant Navy
- Unit RMS Lusitania
- Measurements Height 12.5 cm, Outside Diameter 40.0 cm
- Caption Porthole, RMS Lusitania
- Additional Information This porthole was recovered in 1982 from the ocean liner RMS Lusitania, sunk in 1915 with heavy loss of life. In early 1915, Germany had warned Allied governments that U-Boats would sink without warning any ships carrying war supplies to Britain. On 7 May, the German submarine U-20 torpedoed the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. The ship, carrying both civilian passengers and war supplies, sank very quickly, killing 1,198, including dozens of Canadian women and children. The sinking helped galvanize public opinion against Germany.
- Caption The Lusitania
- Additional Information The Lusitania. Nearly 1,200 civilians, including hundreds of Canadians, drowned when a German U-Boat (submarine) torpedoed the passenger ship Lusitania in May 1915. With its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, under which all ships were potential targets, Germany hoped to strangle the British war economy. But the killing of women and children sparked widespread outrage. Lusitania medals. A German medal maker produced a satirical medal following the sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915. The British government, learning of the medal, stamped its own medallion, insinuating that the attack had been premeditated. The Germans, it appeared, were celebrating the killing of women and children. The British medals, sold for pennies, were a propaganda coup for the Allies.Lusitania memorial card. Hundreds of Canadians died in the sinking of the Lusitania. These victims, the Rogers, were on their honeymoon.