RMS Lusitania RMS Lusitania RMS "Lusitania" was a British ocean liner and briefly the world's largest passenger ship. The ship was sunk on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat off the southern coast of Ireland. The sinking presaged the United States declaration of war on Germany in 1917. The ship was a holder of the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing and was briefly the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister ship . The Cunard Line launched "Lusitania" in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. She sank on her
German Type U 66 submarine under the command of "Kapitänleutnant" Ludwig Güntzel. Six days into her first war patrol, "U-68" encountered the British Q-ship (Q-ship number five) off Dingle and was sunk with all hands. "U-68" sank no ships during her brief service career. "U-69" was laid down on 7 February 1914 (yard number 206) by Germaniawerft at Kiel and launched on 24 June 1915. She was commissioned on 4 September 1915 under the command of "Kapitänleutnant" Ernst Wilhelms. During her service career, "U-69" sank 31 ships with a combined gross register tonnage of 102,875, the largest among them, the 13,441-ton armed merchant cruiser .