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(More customer reviews)This Discovery Channel special 90-minute feature is the closets thing to a movie that has been released on the world's second most famous shipwreck after Titanic. In many ways, it can be considered a movie because it fully renacts the events which led up to the most famous sinking of World War I. Actor John Hannah, who was in all three "Mummy" movies as Jonathan, is the star of this docu-drama. The set used as the Lusitania herself does look almost identitcal to the real ship. Newsreel footage allegedly taken on May 1, 1915 the day the Lusitania set sail from New York on her fatal voyage is included. Also included is a full recreation of the infamous German submarine U-20 and her crew, who were responsible for torpedoing the Lusitania off the southern Irish coast on May 7, 1915, killing 1,195 innocent men, women and children. In just 18 minutes, the 785-foot long ship sank after listing completly to her starboard (right) side, the same side where the torpedo struck. Within seconds of the torpedo's impact, a secondary mysterious explosion occured farther forward; this is believed to have been the TRUE cause for the Lusitania's rapid destruction. To this day, no one can say for sure what caused it; whether it was a coal dust explosion, boilers or even the war supplies rumored to have been aboard near where the torpedo hit. Unfortunatley, the docu-drama does not go into detail as to what may have caused the secondary explosion. The feature does recreate the heart-breaking aftermath of the sinking; the recovery of floating bodies in Queenstown (now Cobh) Southern Ireland; the trial held the month after; and the fate of some of those who survivied. Hopefully, a movie shall be made one day to help keep the memory of those who perished alive; and to promote further education into World War I, for there are not a lot of movies based on the First World War as there are about World War II. The story of the Lusitania coincides with her great rival TITANIC; its the story of one of the world's most luxurious, biggest and fastest ships that ever existed. And like the story of Titanic, the richest people in the world traveled aboard her during this final voyage. In many ways, the sinking of the Lusitania is perhaps somewhat more tragic than TITANIC; it was a deliberate murderous act of war upon a ship of innocent souls.
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The passenger ship Lusitania was en route home when a German sub blew it out of the water, killing more than 1,000 men, women and children. The sinking of this great ocean liner shocked the world, and "Avenge the Lusitania!" was the rallying cry that lured many young American men to enlist during World War I. In this dramatic 85-minute special, Discovery Channel brings you the story of the doomed ship and, for the first time, goes inside the cramped, foul-smelling hull of the U-boat that fired the fateful torpedo.
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