At 3:10 o'clock one torpedo was fired at the Lusitania, which hit her
starboard side below the Captain's bridge. The detonation of the torpedo
was followed immediately by a further explosion of extremely strong
effect. The ship quickly listed to starboard and began to sink.
The second explosion must be traced back to the ignition of quantities
of ammunition inside the ship.
_It appears from this report that the submarine sighted the Lusitania at
1:20 o'clock, London time, and fired the torpedo at 2:10 o'clock, London
time. The Lusitania, according to all reports, was traveling at the rate
of eighteen knots an hour. As fifty minutes elapsed between the sighting
and the torpedoing, the Lusitania when first seen from the submarine
must have been distant nearly fifteen knots, or about seventeen land
miles. The Lusitania must have been recognized at the first appearance
of the tops of her funnels above the horizon. To the Captain on the
bridge of the Lusitania the submarine would have been at that time
invisible, being below the horizon._
[Illustration: Map Showing Locations of Ships Attacked in Submarine War
Zone with American Citizens Aboard.
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