an submarine _U-5_, and sank, carrying with her 552 men.

On April 28, 1915, there occurred another incident which gave rise to
diplomatic exchanges between Germany and the United States. On that
date a German seaplane attacked the American merchantman in broad
daylight in the North Sea, but fortunately for its crew the ship was
not sent to the bottom. The first American ship to be struck by a
torpedo in the war zone established by the German admiralty's
proclamation of February 5, 1915, was the _Gulflight_. This tank
steamer was hit by a torpedo fired by a German submarine off the
Scilly Islands, on the 1st of May, 1915.

But of more importance, because of the number of American lives lost,
the standing of the matter in international law and the prominence of
the vessel, was the sinking of the Cunard liner _Lusitania_, on May 7,
1915. This is fully described in the chapter on submarines, and in the
diplomatic developments discussed in the chapter on the United States
and the War. The _Lusitania_ had left New York for Liverpool on the
1st of May, 1915. She was one of the fastest ships plying between the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Larger than any warship afloat at the
time, she was able to make the trip from Liverpool to New York in a
little under five days. On her last crossing she carried 2,160
persons, including passengers and crew, many of the former being
Americans, some of them of great prominence. While off Old Head of
Kinsale, on the southeastern end of Ireland, at about half past two,
on the afternoon of May 7, 1915, with a calm sea and no wind, she was
hit by one or more torpedoes from a German submarine without warning.

Those on board immediately went to the life boats, but it was only
twenty minutes after she had first been hit that she sank, and not
enough of the small craft could be gotten over her side in that time
to rescue all those on board. Out of the 2,160 souls aboard at least
1,398 were lost. Of these 107 were American citizens. Small boats in
the neighborhood of the disaster hurried to the scene and rescued
those whom they could reach in the water and brought them to
Queenstown. The sacks of mail which the liner carried and which went
down with her were the first American mail sacks ever lost at sea as a
result of war. The controversies which this disaster gave rise to
between England, Germany and the United States are given elsewhere.

Against British warships the submarine warfare was a