CHAPTER VI

BRITISH JURY FINDS KAISER A MURDERER

“THE CRIME OF WHOLESALE MURDER”--CAPTAIN TURNER’S TESTIMONY -- SAW THE TORPEDO -- DOUBLE LOOKOUTS ON LINER -- NO WARNING GIVEN -- OTHER TESTIMONY -- CORONER HORGAN’S STATEMENT.

One of the first official acts with reference to the loss of the Lusitania was the impaneling, on May 10, of a coroner’s jury at Queenstown to fix the responsibility for the death of the passengers whose bodies were recovered and taken to that place. The inquest was conducted by Coroner John Horgan. The coroner’s proceedings were comparatively brief, and were concluded with the return of the following verdict of the jury:

“THE CRIME OF WHOLESALE MURDER”

“We find that the deceased met death from prolonged immersion and exhaustion in the sea eight miles south-southwest of Old Head of Kinsale, Friday, May 7, 1915, owing to the sinking of the Lusitania by torpedoes fired by a German submarine.

“We find that this appalling crime was committed contrary to international law and the conventions of all civilized nations.

“We also charge the officers of said submarine and the Emperor and Government of Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the crime of wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world.

“We desire to express sincere condolences and sympathy with the relatives of the deceased, the Cunard Company and the United States, many of whose citizens perished in this murderous attack on an unarmed liner.”

CAPTAIN TURNER’S TESTIMONY

Captain W. T. Turner, the Lusitania’s commander, was the chief witness at the inquest.

The Coroner asked the captain whether he had received a message concerning the sinking of a ship off Kinsale by a submarine. Captain Turner replied that he had not.

“Did you receive any special instructions as to the voyage?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you at liberty to tell us what they were?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you carry them out?”

“Yes, to the best of my ability.”

“You were aware threats had been made that the ship would be torpedoed?”

“We were,” the captain replied.

“Was she armed?”

“No, sir.”

“What precautions did you take?”

“We had all the boats swung when we came within the danger zone, between the passing of Fastnet and the time of the accident.”

“Tell us in your own words what happened after passing Fastnet.”

SAW THE TORPEDO

“The weather was clear,” Captain Turner answered. “We were going at a speed of eighteen knots. I was on the port side and heard Second Officer Hefford call out, ‘Here’s a torpedo.’

“I ran to the other side and saw clearly the wake of a torpedo. Smoke and steam came up between the last two funnels. There was a slight shock. Immediately after the first explosion there was another report, but that may possibly have been internal.

“I at once gave the order to lower the boats down to the rails, and I directed that women and children should get into them. I also had all the bulkheads closed.

“I also gave orders to stop the ship,” Captain Turner continued, “but we could not stop. We found that the engines were out of commission. It was not safe to lower boats until the speed was off the vessel. As a matter of fact, there was a perceptible headway on her up to the time she went down.

“When she was struck she listed to starboard. I stood on the bridge when she sank, and the Lusitania went down under me. She floated about eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck her. My watch stopped at 2.36. I was picked up from among the wreckage and afterward was brought aboard a trawler.

“No warship was convoying us. I saw no warship, and none was reported to me as having been seen. At the time I was picked up I noticed bodies floating on the surface, but saw no living persons.”

“Eighteen knots was not the normal speed of the Lusitania, was it?” he was asked.

“At ordinary times,” answered Captain Turner, “she could make twenty-five knots, but in war times her speed was reduced to twenty-one knots. My reason for going eighteen knots was that I wanted to arrive at Liverpool without stopping and within two or three hours of high water.”

DOUBLE LOOKOUTS ON LINER

“Was there a lookout kept for submarines, having regard to previous warnings?”

“Yes; we had double lookouts.”

“Were you going a zigzag course at the moment the torpedoing took place?”

“No; it was bright weather, and land was clearly visible.”

“Was it possible for a submarine to approach without being seen?”

“Oh, yes, quite possible.”

“Something has been said regarding the impossibility of launching the boats on the port side?”

“Yes,” said Captain Turner, “owing to the listing of the ship.”

“How many boats were launched safely?”

“I cannot say.”

“Were your orders promptly carried out?”

“Yes.”

“Was there any panic on board?”

“No, there was no panic at all; it was all most calm.”

By the foreman of the jury:

“In the face of the warnings at New York that the Lusitania would be torpedoed, did you make any application to the Admiralty for an escort?”

“No, I left that to them. It is their business, not mine. I simply had to carry out my orders to go, and I would do it again.”

Captain Turner uttered the last words of this reply with great emphasis.

By the coroner:

“I am very glad to hear you say so, Captain.”

By a juryman:

“Did you get a wireless to steer your vessel in a northerly direction?”

“No,” replied Captain Turner.

“Was the course of the vessel altered after the torpedoes struck her?”

“I headed straight for land, but it was useless. Previous to this the water-tight bulkheads were closed. I suppose the explosion forced them open. I don’t know the exact extent to which the Lusitania was damaged.”

“There must have been serious damage done to the water-tight bulkheads.”

“There certainly was, without doubt.”

“Were the passengers supplied with life-belts?”

“Yes.”

“Were any special orders given that morning that life-belts be put on?”

“No.”

NO WARNING GIVEN

“Was any warning given you before you were torpedoed?”

“None whatever. It was suddenly done and finished.”

“If there had been a patrol boat aboard; might it have been of assistance?”

“It might, but it is one of those things one never knows.”

With regard to the threats against his ship, Captain Turner said he saw nothing except what appeared in the New York papers the day before the Lusitania sailed. He never had heard the passengers talking about the threats, he said.

“Was a warning given to the lower decks after the ship had been struck?” Captain Turner was asked.

“All the passengers must have heard the explosion,” Captain Turner replied.

Captain Turner in answer to another question said he received no report from the lookout before the torpedo struck the Lusitania.

OTHER TESTIMONY

Cornelius Horrigan, a waiter aboard the Lusitania, testified that it was impossible to launch boats on the starboard side because of the steamer’s list. He went down with the ship, but came up and was rescued. Horrigan gave a partial identification of one of the bodies, which he thought to be that of Steward Cranston.

The ship’s bugler, Vernon Livermore, gave evidence that the water-tight compartments were closed, but thought that the explosion must have opened them. No one was able to identify a man in whose pocket was found a card bearing the name of John Wanamaker of New York, and in the left-hand corner “Notary Public MacQuerrie, Bureau of Information.”

CORONER HORGAN’S STATEMENT

Coroner Horgan said that the first torpedo fired by the German submarine did serious damage to the Lusitania, but that, not satisfied with this, the Germans had discharged another torpedo. The second torpedo, he said, must have been more deadly, because it went right through the ship, hastening the work of destruction.

He charged that the responsibility “lay on the German government and the whole people of Germany who collaborated in the terrible crime.

“This is a case,” he said, “in which a powerful war-like engine attacked an unarmed vessel without warning. It was simple barbarism and cold-blooded murder.

“I purpose to ask the jury to return the only verdict possible for a self-respecting jury--that the men in charge of the German submarine were guilty of willful murder.”