Lusitania

RMS Lusitania was a Cunard express liner, briefly the world’s fastest, torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the Old Head of Kinsale on 7 May 1915, sinking in 18 minutes with the loss of 1,198 of about 1,960 aboard, including 128 Americans. The sinking inflamed US opinion and is often cited among the causes that drew the United States toward war in 1917. Debate continues over the secondary explosion and the munitions she carried. The wreck off Ireland is regularly surveyed.