0.2 The great war (part i)  (Page 7/14)

After numerous English violations of international agreements, Germany declared that they would alter their tactics to include firing on suspected merchant ships that were armed or English ships trying to evade attack by flying the flags of neutral countries. Ultimately, Germany warned all ships flying neutral flags to stay away from English waters. In August of 1915 a German U-boat attacked a British ship and when a nearby merchant ship ( Arabic ) flying the English flag came to rescue the survivors, that ship too was torpedoed. The dead included two Americans. The German government was quick to apologize and promised the US to never fire on merchant ships without offering sufficient warnings and only after securing the safety of non-combatants. In 1916 German officials authorized its naval commanders to attack armed merchant ships, but not passenger ships. A French passenger ferry, the Sussex , was torpedoed by a German U-boat, resulting in the deaths of many French, but no American, citizens. Wilson once again waged his diplomatic finger in the face of Germany demanding that they cease these attacks. Germany, probably fearing that the US might enter the war after all, declared that they will no longer attack any civilian ship without first securing the safety of its non-combatants. This was known as the Sussex Pledge.

Interestingly enough, these attacks, promises, threats, and pledges all followed on the heels of the greatest loss of civilian life on the high seas. In the early spring of 1915, carrying nearly 2,000 passengers from the US to England, the British luxury liner Lusitania was hit by a single torpedo from a German submarine. The ship sunk in less than ten minutes and with the loss of nearly 1200 of its passengers, including many Americans. The German government tried to warn Americans by taking out advertising in dozens of US newspapers:

“ TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk. ”

American businessmen, possibly in cooperation with the Wilson administration, did indeed place arms, explosives, and other forms of ammunition aboard the Lusitania , which was a clear violation of the separation of civilian and military ships. That may have something to do with the sinking of the ship in but one torpedo (German intelligence indeed found the weapons of mass destruction). Other theories include the torpedo explosion triggered the explosion of coal dust, as well as problems with the ship’s authorities’ inability to order the hatches and other doors shut on time (the same issues plagued the Lusitania’s twin ship, Titanic just a few years earlier). Nevertheless, the sinking of the largest, fastest, luxury ship in the world did not propel the US to officially enter the war even though some of America’s leading families lost loved ones (such as the Vanderbilts). The US will not declare war until there is a direct threat to American sovereignty.