Date of Award
8-31-2014
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Paul Bookbinder
Second Advisor
Vincent Cannato
Third Advisor
Spencer Di Scala
Abstract
The last voyage of the RMS Lusitania is examined. The Cunard liner left New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915 as the conflict in Europe began to escalate. The research separates the act of war from the actions of the ship's command and control infrastructure and the seamanship of its crew. This distinction is made under a thesis that more lives could have and should have been saved. The central question of the research was therefore: to what extent should the captain and crew of RMS Lusitania be held to account for the elevated loss of life in the hostile sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 and to what degree did this singular tragedy influence American public opinion toward the War.
Recommended Citation
Goulding, Robert J., "Lusitania: An Examination of Captaincy and Seamanship in the Face of Disaster" (2014). Graduate Masters Theses. 269.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/269