WWI / Naval Warfare. British ocean liner Lusitania, launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. On the afternoon of 7 May 1915, while on its return journey from the US to Liverpool, a German U-boat torpedoed Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland. Of the 1,962 passengers and crew aboard Lusitania at the time of the sinking, 1,198 lost their lives. "Der Untergang der Lusitania" (The sinking of the Lusitania). Print, from watercolour by Carl Engelien. From: Our Marines in the World War 1914-1918, editor: E. von Mantey, 1927, p. 341.