look at the following image, if the Lusitania was hit on the starboard side, surley this drawing is wrong.?

Question

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Naval/War%20Illustrated%20Dluxe%20-%20vol%203%20Lusitania%20001.jpg

the lusitania was hit on the starboard side with a torpedo (please confim me on this fact)

there is a drawing of the incident published in a newspaper in 1915
here is a link to it:
http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Naval/War%20Illustrated%20Dluxe%20-%20vol%203%20Lusitania%20001.jpg


does this show the ship being hit on the left side instead of the right (starboard) side???

starboard does mean the right side, doesn't it????

and the back of the boat is facing us????

thanks

the end of the ship out of the water - is it the front or the back of the boat...

if front - drawing is corret

if back - drawing is not totally accurate

it matters because, ive got to say how accurate the image is!

Answer 1

The easiest way to remember direction while onboard a ship is this:

PORT has 4 letters and LEFT has 4 letters, so PORT=LEFT.

As to your drawing, remember, it is an artist's rendition not a photo, you must allow for artistic license, besides, what does it really matter as to which side the torpedo went into? The U-boat still fired without allowing the passengers a chance to get to safety before sinking her, where exactly the torpedo hit is irrelevant.

whale

Answer 2

It's the back. the front of any ship built for ocean going in the last two hundred years doesn't look like that...
The picture may well be accurate even though the ship was hit on the starboard side.
How a ship sinks is not always down to where the water is coming in. It is also dependent on where that water ends up within the ship. The plan of watertight bulkheads and decks may have concentrated the water in the bows towards the port side as she began to settle in the water.
The picture, however, might not be entirely accurate for several reasons. Eyewitness accounts vary enormously. Only a few survivors of the Titanic reported it splitting in two, a fact which was only verified when the wreck was found in 1986.

The picture was made well after the event and memory alters everything. To my knowledge, there are no actual photographs of the sinking so everything you'll see is conjecture based on witness accounts.

Answer 3

OK, the drawing is of the stern of the ship viewed from the port (lefthand) side. I have read many accounts of the sinking and most state that the ship's stern was raised in the air before she went down, so that part is right. Looking at the picture, it shows two lifeboats actually going back to the ship, very unlikely as they would have been sucked down with it. Secondly it shows a lifeboat descending on an even keel, even though the ship is depicted bow down and listing to port - very unlikely to have been the case as evidenced by some contemporary eyewitness accounts. The captain of the U-Boat also stated that the ship was listing to starboard (right), so that part of the drawing would appear to be wrong. Nothing from the drawing indicates that the torpedo hit the port side and all accounts state that it was hit on the starboard side, so that part of it is ok.

Walter Schwieger was captain of the U-Boat that sank the Lusitania. He watched through his periscope as the torpedo exploded and noted the result in his log, "The ship stops immediately and heals over to starboard quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow. It appears as if the ship were going to capsize very shortly. Great confusion is rife on board; the boats are made ready and some of them lowered into the water. In connection therewith great panic must have reigned; some boats, full to capacity are rushed from above, touch the water with either stem or stern first and founder immediately." The ship sank in 18 minutes.

So there you go.

Answer 4

the drawing does indeed show Lusitania from the left, (port), after side.....that's her name on the transom you read; the thinghy on the rear of the ship, clear of the water, is the rudder.

She was indeed hit by a torpedo on the starboard side ( the right, or the other side in this drawing) forward of the bridge, which in this picture is just going under water.

There is conflicting testimony, both from the U Boat and survivors, about whether there was a second explosion just after the torpedo hit. The torp hit very near the forward cargo hold; some say Lusitania was carrying munitions and they exploded, which would help explain why she sank so fast.

She sank on an even keel, not tilted to either side but went down bow first, much like Titanic....but Titanic took 2 and a half odd hours to go down, with much of her side ripped open; Lusitania sank in something like 40 minutes...

So yes, this picture is pretty damn accurate. Maybe a few more lifeboats in the water than actually got away, but I'd go with it......

Answer 5

Hi Bexy, see if these links shine some light on the matter:

This picture is showing the port side of the ship:
RMS Lusitania

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWlusitania.htm


This image is of the starboard side of the ship.

http://www.beyondmagazine.co.uk/wreck/hlusi.htm

On the May 1, 1915 Lusitania left New York for the final time. A number of Americans were aboard, including the wealthy Alfred Vanderbilt and noted theatre producer Charles Frohman. On May 7 with the coast of Ireland in sight, German U-boat U-20 torpedoed Lusitania. She sank in 18 short minutes taking 1,195 lives - 123 of them American. Although America did not immediately declare war on Germany, that would occur in April 1917, her sinking contributed to the mood that turned the tide of American public opinion against Germany and led the United States to join the Allied cause in World War I.

http://members.aol.com/bry1976/lusi.htm

2 of my Mother’s Great Uncles were on board, returning to Ireland to visit relations they hadn’t seen for many years, both died in the disaster.

Answer 6

that image, as the caption indicates was drawn up for propaganda purposes or raising morale, I'm guessing by a British based newspaper, or possibly a postcard printer.

It depicts the port side of the boat viewed from the port quarter (the rear left of the boat). you can tell this by the rounded nature of the visible end and the appearance of the rudder and rudder stock), the appearance of the ships name and port of registry

Lusitania is an emotive issue, some Americans believe it was the trigger that brought America into the 1914-18 World War. Some conspiracy theorists have suggested it was carrying war material in contradiction of normal practice.

Answer 7

Yes it was hit on the starboard side. The artiest was doing the best he could with the limited info he had. He had to go on traumatized survivors and coast watchmen. The watchmen could only see the left or port side of the ship. He may not even had any information at all and was just painting it for the newspaper quickly to make it into their special print about the sinking of the ship

Answer 8

yes, the Lusitania was hit on the starboard side, and the end out of the water in the picture is the stern. yes, starboard means right. this doesn't really show where the ship was hit, except it was near the bow

Answer 9

There is no way to tell from this drawing which side of the ship has been hit. It only shows it is going down from the bow and it is drawn from the stern of the ships Port side.
Bailey (1935: 55) provides a translation of the war diary of Kommandant Kapitanleutnant Schwieger:

"Ahead and to starboard four funnels and two masts of a steamer with course perpendicular to us come into sight (coming from SSW it steered toward Galley Head). Ship is made out to be large passenger steamer. [We] submerged to a depth of eleven meters and went ahead at full speed, taking a course converging with the one of the steamer, hoping it might change its course to starboard along the Irish coast. The steamer turns to starboard, takes course to Queenstown thus making possible an approach for a shot. Until 3 P. M. we ran at high speed in order to gain position directly ahead. Clean bow shot at a distance of 700 meters (G-torpedo, three meters depth adjustment); angle 90°, estimated speed twenty-two knots. Torpedo hits starboard side right behind the bridge. An unusually heavy explosion takes place with a very strong explosion cloud (cloud reaches far beyond front funnel). The explosion of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one (boiler or coal or powder?). The superstructure right above the point of impact and the bridge are torn asunder, fire breaks out, and smoke envelops the high bridge. The ship stops immediately and heels over to starboard very quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow. It appears as if the ship were going to capsize very shortly. Great confusion ensues on board; the boats are made clear and some of them are lowered to the water. In doing so great confusion must have reigned; some boats, full to capacity, are lowered, rushed from above, touch the water with either stem or stern first and founder immediately. On the port side fewer boats are made clear than on the starboard side on account of the ship's list. The ship blows off [steam]; painted black, no flag was set astern. Ship was running twenty knots. Since it seems as if the steamer will keep above water only a short time, we dived to a depth of twenty-four meters and ran out to sea. It would have been impossible for me, anyhow, to fire a second torpedo into this crowd of people struggling to save their lives."

Answer 10

port left starboard right but it depends on what compartments were sealed off to stop flooding the ship carries a lot of water as ballast so as this water could not be pumped out before she was hit plus the water flooding in she could easily list to port