YourLocalShipNerd - Hobbyist, General Artist | DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Literature

CQD MFA: Death on the Atlantic

May 7, 1915. ~12pm Local Time. 15 miles south of Kinsale Head, Ireland. The day had started out calm and clear. The sun shone bright in a wide blue sky. The wind whistled around the sleek, streamlined hull of Lusitania, the first of Cunard Line’s Atlantic Greyhounds. Lucy was enjoying lunch with her officers and captain when something struck the ship, shaking tea into her lap. She jumped up from her seat with the rest of her command to see what had happened. The doors were ordered shut, and the engines ordered to maximum speed, the helm turned hard to port. Little did anyone know that a torpedo had slammed into the liner’s side, and the explosion had jammed one of the doors in its frame. Four minutes after this first rocking a second explosion echoed throughout the ship, and everyone onboard was plunged into darkness. The rudder wouldn’t respond to the helm, the engines wouldn’t respond to the telegraphs, the wireless was on its backup battery. Lusitania began heeling toward her