07-05-2025
New gravestones in Kinsale mark today's 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania in World War 1
Ship stewards George Cranston and Richard Chamberlain, interred in a double grave, have new stones. The former was previously buried under the misnomer 'Craduck'.
Newlywed passenger Margaret Shineman is buried in the same graveyard. The remains of her husband of only two weeks, James, washed up in Co Clare months after the sinking and were interred in Carrigaholt.
The Cunard Line passenger vessel was about 20km off the Old Head of Kinsale when it was torpedoed without warning by the German submarine U-20, commanded by Walther Schwieger, on Friday, May 7, 1915.
A total of 1,198 people died in the tragedy, with justification for the act of war heavily disputed.
The German embassy in the US had taken out adverts proclaiming that passenger ships of belligerent countries were liable to attack in a zone drawn around these islands.
Few believed the threat would be carried out and there were only a handful of cancellations before the Lusitania – an Atlantic liner which could easily outrun any U-boat on the surface – left New York for Liverpool on its final voyage.
However, it was struck by Schwieger's last remaining torpedo as the U-boat headed home to Germany after a long patrol.
The ship sank in only 18 minutes, compared with the two hours and 40 minutes it took the Titanic to sink three years earlier after hitting an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic.
Last night, associates of the Signal Tower group, who administer a museum dedicated to the disaster, met at the Old Head to mark 10 years in existence, in the company of some relatives of victims and survivors.
There will be a further ceremony today from 2pm, marking the hour of the attack.
