anted
to surround Great Britain with a sea of death so full of mines and
submarines that no ship could live. The mines were not placed at
random, but where they would either kill their victims best or make
them try another way where the lurking submarines could kill them. The
sea-roads into great ports like London and Liverpool converge, just as
railway tracks converge toward some great central junction. So
submarines lying in wait near these crowded waters had a great
advantage in the earlier part of the war, when people still believed
that the Germans would not sink unarmed merchantmen on purpose,
especially when women and children were known to be on board.

On the 7th of May, 1915, the _Lusitania_, from New York for Liverpool,
was rounding the south of Ireland, when the starboard (right-hand)
look-out in the crow's nest (away up the mast) called to his mate on
the port side, "Good God, Frank, here's a torpedo!" The next minute it
struck and exploded, fifteen feet under water, with a noise like the
slamming of a big heavy door. Another minute and a second torpedo
struck and exploded. Meanwhile the crew had dashed to their danger
posts and begun duties for which they had been carefully drilled,
though very few people ever thought the Germans would torpedo a
passenger steamer known to be full of women and children, carrying many
Americans, and completely unarmed. The ship at once took a list to
starboard (tilt to the right) so that the deck soon became as steep as
a railway embankment. This made it impossible to lower boats on the up
side, as they would have swung inboard, slithered across the steeply
sloping deck, and upset. The captain, cool and ready as British
captains always are, gave his orders from the up end of the bridge,
while the other officers were helping the passengers into the boats.
The sea soon came lapping over the down side of the deck, and people
began slipping into it. The full boats shoved off; but not half of
them on the down side were clear before the gigantic ship, with an
appalling plunge, sank head first. It all happened so quickly that
many had not been able to get on deck before this final plunge. They
must have been crushed by the hurtling of all loose gear when the ship
stood on her bows going down, then smothered and drowned, if not
smashed dead at the first. The captain stood on the bridge to the
last, went down with the ship, came up again among the wreckage, and
was save