The German embassy in the United States also placed fifty newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing on a British ship in the area, which happened to appear just as RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915.

[7]: 273 [8][9][10][11] After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no "munitions" (apart from small arms ammunition) on board Lusitania, and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel.

[4][5] War was eventually declared in 1917 after the German Government chose to violate these restrictions, deliberately attacking American shipping and preparing the way for conflict with the Zimmermann Telegram.

Lusitania and Mauretania were commissioned by Cunard, responding to increasing competition from rival transatlantic passenger companies, particularly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

They had larger, faster, more modern and more luxurious ships than Cunard, and were better placed, starting from German ports, to capture the lucrative trade in emigrants leaving Europe for North America.

In order to gain some experience of these new engines, Cunard asked John Brown to fit turbines on Carmania, the second of a pair of 19,500g-intermediate liners under construction at the yard.

The Admiralty contract required that all machinery be below the waterline, where it was considered to be better protected from gunfire, and the aft third of the ship below water was used to house the turbines, the steering motors and four 375-kilowatt (503 hp) steam-driven turbo-generators.

[26] The first-class lounge was decorated in Georgian style with inlaid mahogany panels surrounding a jade green carpet with a yellow floral pattern, measuring overall 68 ft (21 m).

The new slipway took up the space of two existing ones and was built on reinforcing piles driven deeply into the ground to ensure it could take the temporary concentrated weight of the whole ship as it slid into the water.

Although significantly faster than the Olympic class would be, the speed of Cunard's vessels was not sufficient to allow the line to run a weekly two-ship transatlantic service from each side of the Atlantic.

Both Olympic and Titanic offered swimming pools, Victorian-style Turkish baths, a gymnasium, a squash court, large reception rooms, À la Carte restaurants separate from the dining saloons, and many more staterooms with private bathroom facilities than their two Cunard rivals.

Lusitania, commanded by Commodore James Watt, moored at the Liverpool landing stage for her maiden voyage at 4:30 pm on Saturday 7 September 1907 as the onetime Blue Riband holder RMS Lucania vacated the pier.

These required that the lives of the crew and passengers be safeguarded when the ship is confiscated or sunk, unless out of urgent, unforeseen reasons of strict military necessity out of the control of the belligerent (such as forcible resistance), this is not possible.

This was not wholly unrestricted submarine warfare as efforts would be taken to avoid sinking neutral ships, but "enemy" passenger craft were included as targets, despite the demand of the US for "strict accountability".

[72][73] A few hours after the vessel's departure, the Saturday evening edition of The Washington Times published two articles on its front page, both referring to the previous day's warnings.

[3] HMS Juno sortied briefly in contravention of Royal Navy policy, but turned back believing erroneously (as initial reports suggested) that there was no "urgent necessity".

[77] The sinking caused an international outcry, especially in Britain and across the British Empire, as well as in the United States, since 128 out of 159 U.S. citizens aboard the ship lost their lives (different numbers were believed and given in the media at the time).

Dernburg claimed warnings given by the German Embassy before the sailing, plus the 18 February note declaring the existence of "war zones", relieved Germany of any responsibility for the deaths of American citizens aboard.

The key issue was the savagery in the German failure to allow passengers to escape on life boats as required by international law, and Germany's attempts to defend the attack only increased anger.

[94] Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz stated it was sad that many Americans "in wanton recklessness, and in spite of the warnings of our Ambassador, had embarked in this armed cruiser, heavily laden with munitions" and had died, but that Germany had been within her rights to sink the ship.

This together with the Zimmermann Telegram pushed U.S. public opinion over the tipping point, and on 6 April 1917 the United States Congress followed President Wilson's request to declare war on Germany.

Senior diplomat Noel Marshall wrote in a memo that "Successive British governments have always maintained that there was no munitions on board the Lusitania (and that the Germans were therefore in the wrong to claim to the contrary as an excuse for sinking the ship) ...

After a search of records, the Ministry of Defence said they could find no evidence to substantiate the rumours of a secret munitions store, and the internal inquiry concluded that the Lusitania was not carrying any explosives or any "special ammunition".

But it was still felt to be prudent to warn the salvage company of the "obvious but real danger inherent if explosives did happen to be present", accepting that "always been public knowledge that the Lusitania's cargo included some 5,000 cases of small arms ammunition."

Complex litigation ensued when employees of Bemis brought various artifacts ashore into the UK, with all parties settling their differences apart from the salvors and the British government, which asserted "droits of admiralty" over the recovered items.

The judge eventually ruled in The Lusitania, [1986] QB 384, [1986] 1 All ER 1011, that the Crown has no rights over wrecks outside British territorial waters, even if the recovered items are subsequently brought into the United Kingdom.

Any fine art recovered—such as the paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt and Monet, among other artists, believed to have been in lead tubes in the possession of Sir Hugh Lane—would remain in the ownership of the Irish Government.

The Department of the Environment's Underwater Archaeology Unit was to join the survey team to ensure that research would be carried out in a non-invasive manner, and a film crew from the Discovery Channel was also to be on hand.

[122] Results from the dives were provided to researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who in 2012 concluded that this showed that the ship was sunk mainly by the effect of the torpedo, with a secondary explosion due to the boilers that did not significantly affect subsequent events.

[128] Regardless of the unconfirmed presence of secret WWI explosives, mixed gases must be used to reach the wreckage, which purportedly is littered with British depth charges and hedgehog mines[clarification needed], covered in fishing nets, and where sediment limits visibility.