100 Years Ago: German Torpedo Sinks Lusitania

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- One-hundred years ago this Thursday, a German U-boat torpedoed the ocean liner RMS Lusitania. The ship sank in less than 20 minutes, killing nearly 1,200 people.

Among those passengers were 128 Americans. Many believe the event was the tipping point for the U.S. to become involved in World War I, though historians dispute the claim.

Our sister station in Chicago filed a report about a Kenosha man's experience surviving the shipwreck.

"I was in the smoking room of the Lusitania when the explosion took place. It shook the whole ship," Charles Jeffery wrote for the Chicago Daily Tribune a few days after the disaster. "I went down with (the ship). ... Around me a great number of persons were struggling in the water."

The Lusitania and its sister ship, the Mauretania, were the fastest ocean liners of their day, and the largest until the construction of the White Star Line's Olympic and Titanic.

To commemorate the sinking, the Cunard line's Queen Victoria liner is traveling to Cork, Ireland.