Lusitania puppet Kingdom of Northern Lusitania as one of the successor states to Portugal under the assumption that such a campaign would result in an easy French victory. The province was also the namesake of the North Atlantic Ocean Liner RMS Lusitania infamous for being torpedoed by a German Uboat in 1915. The ship’s owners the Cunard Line commonly named their vessels after Roman provinces with the Lusitania so being called after the Roman Iberian province to the north of the Strait of Gibraltar while her sistership RMS Mauretania was named after the Roman North African province on the south side
RMS Lusitania 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing. In the early 20th century German shipping lines were aggressive competitors in the transatlantic trade. In the face of the competition, Cunard responded by trying to outdo them in speed, capacity, and luxury. Cunard used assistance from the British Admiralty to build Lusitania, with the convit that the ship was available as a light merchant cruiser in time of war. Lusitania had gun mounts for deck cannons, but no guns were ever installed. Both "Lusitania" and "Mauretania" were fitted with revolutionary new turbine engines that enabled them to maintain a service speed of . They were equipped