The sinking of the Lusitania happened 100 years ago this month (May 7, 1915). The captain, William Turner, survived despite being on the bridge when it went down in 18 minutes. He went on to captain another ship, the SS Ivernia. The Ivernia was torpedoed and sunk on new years day, 1917. Captain Turner survived that sinking as well. But one of his sons also became a captain of a ship that was torpedoed and did not survive.
I am reading a book about that right now. Apparently a woman was in the water when the ship went down and she was sucked into one of the funnels. Normally a steam boiler explosion would be considered "a bad thing" but in this particular case, a boiler explosion caused this woman to be forcibly ejected; she was not seriously injured, was picked up by a passing lifeboat and survived the sinking.
In a lot of ways, it is a more interesting incident than the sinking of the Titanic three years earlier. Apparently it never got the 'ink' that the Titanic did though because by 1915, everyone knew a ship that size could be sunk and so it was much less of a surprise.
The last survivor of the sinking of the ship died on 11 Jan., 2011, aged 95 years.
Brian
Would that book be "Dead Wake" by Erik Larson by any chance? Just finished it. Great book! Well researched, accurate documentary that reads like a novel.
That survivor must have been an infant.
Stayed at an inn in Pennsylvania that was built in 1794, it is very nice and swathed in early U.S. history, the area was prominent in the "Whiskey Rebellion" where western PA farmers rebelled against a tax levied in 1791 on distilled spirits by President Washington to help pay for the War of Independence. It cause quite a ruckus and 13,000 troops were dispatched to the area to quell the insurrection. President Thomas Jefferson repealed it in 1801, and pushed forward the ideas of political parties in this country which was already happening but this incident seemed to have helped that movement. Kinda cool sitting in a pub built in 1794, sipping a shot of whiskey with the flag of the rebellion movement on the wall, and the original velum printed deed to the property owner framed above my head.
More about Lusitania: Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the "wireless", although being offered free passage on the Titanic, sailed on the Lusitania 3 days before the Titanic. But he was on the Lusitania on the fateful voyage when it was sunk. He survived. I'm surprised that Erik Larson didn't mention this in his book.
The outside pane of glass in my double paned living room picture window seems to have spontaneously shattered yesterday for no apparent reason.
I was grilling some ribs in the back yard and came into the house for another beer. I looked out the front window and it didn't look right. I couldn't understand why it looked so 'dirty'. I walked up to the window and heard this strange cracking sound. It took me a moment to realize that the cracking sound was the window. Its tempered glass and it was still in the process of cracking into a million pieces. I couldn't find any reason for the glass to break. I looked on the front porch for some evidence of a rock or something that could have caused the breakage but found nothing. It's VERY strange but fortunately I have a lifetime warranty against breakage. I'll be giving the window company a call this morn and see what they have to say.
The outside pane of glass in my double paned living room picture window seems to have spontaneously shattered yesterday for no apparent reason.
I was grilling some ribs in the back yard and came into the house for another beer. I looked out the front window and it didn't look right. I couldn't understand why it looked so 'dirty'. I walked up to the window and heard this strange cracking sound. It took me a moment to realize that the cracking sound was the window. Its tempered glass and it was still in the process of cracking into a million pieces. I couldn't find any reason for the glass to break. I looked on the front porch for some evidence of a rock or something that could have caused the breakage but found nothing. It's VERY strange but fortunately I have a lifetime warranty against breakage. I'll be giving the window company a call this morn and see what they have to say.
House settling?
Wow, that happened to my beer glass!You had a sinkhole under your beer glass, Jim?
Make sure you don't have a sink hole opening up under your house...