RMS Lusitania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland which entered service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907. She was named after the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, which is part of present day Portugal. During World War I as Germany waged submarine warfare against Britain, the ship was identified and torpedoed by a German U-boat U-20 on 7 May 1915 and sank in eighteen minutes. It went down eleven miles (19 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard, leaving 761 survivors. The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, contributed to the American entry into World War I and became an iconic symbol in recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought.

in drydock in Halifax Nova Scotia in 1900

at Liverpool landing stage

in 1911