Sinking the Lusitania is a Centenary year book which revisits the myriad questions surrounding the fatal voyage and the impact it had on the western world. The old rules of war sank with the Cunard liner on 7 May 1915. The bronze torpedo from the German submarine U-20 penetrated the hull and the secondary explosion ripped the bottom from the majestic ship and 1,200 lives were lost ten miles off the Old Head of Kinsale on Ireland's southern shores. What contraband war materials aboard could have created such horrendous destruction? The new rule was that there were now no rules. Charges were made that the Lusitania was a floating arsenal, that passengers acted as a protective shield and that civilians were unknowingly used as guardian angels against being attacked Sinking the Lusitania - Shadows of Doubt presents the Great War as the first war in history to involve millions of human beings being slaughtered with the prize of winning being world-wide commercial markets. Propaganda helped determine policy and conspiracy was the fabric covering all. In the turmoil of war, huge and costly mistakes were made and the modernized propaganda media of Great Britain made Germany's counter-efforts an exercise in futility. Efforts to mediate the conflict by President Woodrow Wilson were equally futile and caste aside. Blunders in land and sea battles are brought forth in the Gallipoli Campaign for which Winston Churchill drew the blame. British Intelligence under Capt Reginald Hall knew the location of every ship and submarine the German Navy had sent to the south coast of Ireland, yet the Lusitania traveled unescorted into the most dangerous waters of Great Britain. Was she set up to be damaged or sunk? Would this bring the United States into the war on Britain's side and keep revolutionary Ireland tethered to Britain's side? The shadows of doubt remain.
About the Author: Rod Hunt ROD was also born in the 1920's. He joined the US Navy at the age of 17 during WWII and served on board an amphibious landing craft as navigator, signalman and helmsman. At the end of the conflict, Hunt and his ship were dispatched to China where they acted as a medical supply and service vessel during a cholera epidemic on the Yangtze River. He also served in the Korean War with the Medical Company of the 9th Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division and was cited by the Division Commander and the Regimental Surgeon. He married the late Norma Kolbinger in 1964 and they spent three years as teachers in the remote Alaskan Eskimo village of Kotzebue. He survived a fishing boat sinking and rescue and an emergency bush aircraft landing. Most of his life has been a series of adventures from stock broker in Texas to teacher, Entertainment Director for the US Air Force, a brief Oxford stint at St Antony's, the University of Mexico, the University of Alaska, entrepreneur, corporate founder to gold miner in Alaska and the Yukon Territory and life-long gob-smacked amateur historian. Rod currently lives in Minnesota where he and the company Kopet-Dag team raise Akhal-Teke purebred horses, he works in Canada and has spent 30 years as a friend of Eugene's and as a contented blow-in in Kinsale. Eugene Gillan EUGENE was born in the 1920's of a sea-going family in Sligo. He has spent his life along the coasts of Ireland. He proudly served for 40 years with the Irish Lights as lighthouse keeper in every one of the then-manned lighthouses which surround the nation. In his retirement years he was Curator to the Kinsale Regional Museum which houses many remnants of the Lusitania and has acted as guide and authority to thousands of visitors. He has been the capstan of resourcing first hand knowledge and personal information as regards the sinking, the Irish rescue efforts and the stories of the survivors. He has been a member, officer and contributor to the Kinsale Historical Society for more than 30 years. Eugene has appeared in interviews on radio and television in world-wide BBC and National Geographic productions which portray the events surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania. Gregg Bemis III, the owner of the Lusitania wreck is a frequent visitor and friend. Now widowed from his beloved Breda, his wife of more than 60 years, he lives in Kinsale and follows his lifetime passion for drawing and painting.