The Greyhound of the Seas

Things you might not know about the Cunard Line steamship Lusitania:

• She was the fastest thing on the high seas in her day, hence the “Greyhound” nickname.
• That speed came at a cost – she burned over 40 tons of coal per hour.
• She was not the victim of an unprovoked attack by a German U-boat.

We drove to nearby Old Head to visit the small museum and memorial to the sinking of the Lusitania. Why is it here? Because the event occurred just seventeen miles offshore.

Fishermen, who were the first to arrive, tried to take survivors to Kinsale, but were prevented by Cunard representatives who insisted on transferring the victims to other boats and taking them to Cork. Why? Not for the benefit of the injured. Today, we’d say the motivation was spin control.

Cunard didn’t want survivors to report there had been a second, larger explosion after the German torpedo. When the story began to come out, various “reasons” were given, none true. The cause was American munitions being secretly carried to Britain. On a passenger ship with two thousand civilians aboard. And the Germans knew about it because it had been done before.

Germany placed advertisements in American newspapers warning that passenger ships passing through a war zone were subject to attack. No one seemed to take the threat seriously.

I’m not saying that torpedoing a ship of innocents was justified. I’m saying that Cunard gambled with the lives of unknowing customers and lost. Then, when things went bad, tried to play the blameless victim.

This is the only restored British-built signal tower along the Irish coastline. Once there were 81 of them, each within sight of the next, stretching all along the west coast from Cork to Donegal. Signal flags were used to communicate from one tower to the next.

What were they looking for? Warships, principally French. France and England were enemies; Ireland wanted independence from England. The principle, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” applied.

Although the tower looks clad in modern shingles, it is not. The siding, as was done originally, is slate to protect the underlying stone from the weather.

Inside is the Lusitania museum.

The memorial lies outside. The curving metal strip lists the names of all the victims.

Bonus: the map shows today’s journey along the Wild Atlantic Way from Kinsale to Kenmare. The route is beautiful and full of sights to see, but driving a manual transmission car on the left side of a road that feels barely wider than the vehicle can be a stressor.