Beschreibung:

ANONYMOUS, Cunard Line New York-Liverpool, offset lithograph in colors on tin, depicting a starboard bow view of the R.M.S. "Lusitania" bound for New York, with passengers on deck, enclosed by a faux rope work frame-- 28 x 38½in. (71 x 97.5cm.) Had "Lusitania" survived World War I, she and her sister "Mauretania" may well have become the most successful pair of liners ever to ply the North Atlantic trade. Conceived as Cunard's response to J.P. Morgan's acquisition of the White Star Line, the two ships were ordered in 1905 and "Lusitania" was completed first in August 1907. Registered at 31,550 tons, she measured 787 feet in length with an 87 foot beam, and was the largest vessel in the world when she entered service in September 1907. Capturing the Blue Riband from the German liner "Kaiser Wilhelm II" on her second crossing, her average speed reached 23.99 knots for which she burned 850 tons of best steam coal every 24 hours. Soon surrendering her record to "Mauretania", "Lusitania" nevertheless turned in fast, regular passages in the years prior to the Great War and was a hugely popular ship with the travelling public. Clearing New York on 1 May 1915 with over 2,000 persons aboard, "Lusitania" entered the Irish Sea on the 7th and was off the Old Head of Kinsale at 2:00pm. when, without warning, she was struck by two torpedoes from the German submarine U-20. Within 18 minutes she had sunk with massive loss of life including 124 American citizens. The riddle of her rapid sinking has remained controversial to this day and argument still rages as to whether she was or was not illegally carrying munitions in direct contravention of her role as a passenger ship.