Carter Roy

Flashback to the early 1900s.

Steamships were the private jets of the era.

And like airlines today, boat lines were always one-upping each other, which got expensive.

So the Cunard line struck a deal with the British Navy.

The Navy would finance two top-of-the-line ships, and the Cunard line would secretly outfit them for war.

Yep, fact.

In 1904, the Lusitania and its sister ship, the Mauritania, were built with gun mounts, reinforced defenses, and high-speed engines, all hidden underneath the luxury accommodations.

The deal remained a military secret.

No one outside the British Navy and the Cunard Line knew that their luxury cruisers were secretly warships.

In 1915, the British Navy cashed in their chips, requisitioning the Mauritania to transport troops.

Publicly, the Lusitania wasn't performing military operations,

But the Germans believed that it secretly was.

So from the very beginning, the British Navy had put a target on the Lusitania.

Meanwhile, passengers had no idea about the Lusitania's secret identity.

Though they may have had an inkling they were in danger.

A few weeks before the Lusitania attack, an ad in the New York Times warned that any American sailing on a British ship did so at their own risk.

It was signed Imperial German Embassy, but actually placed by Germans living in New York City.

They'd heard rumblings about possible attacks on ships carrying Americans.

The German immigrants feared being ostracized if their new home went to war with their old one and hoped that if they could dissuade Americans from traveling to Europe, the country would remain neutral.

Only one couple took the warning seriously enough to cancel their tickets.