Carter Roy

And remember, this is not long after the Titanic.

This would be an issue on people's minds.

Then, as the Lusitania's distress signals went out, one nearby British naval cruiser, the Juno, sailed out to rescue passengers, only to be suddenly recalled.

Smaller, slower ships came to the rescue instead, inevitably leading to more deaths.

Oddly, the Juno was the same ship originally assigned to be the Lusitania's military escort, the one that never came.

Apparently, it was deemed more important to keep the Juno safe from U-boat 20 than to save drowning civilians.

Or perhaps the turnaround was to ensure that Americans died and limit witnesses.

And it gets sketchier.

Most of the recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, many before their loved ones could see or identify them.

Identifying Lusitania victims came down more to who couldn't be found alive than who was found dead.

Maybe the mass graves were an easier way to deal with such a disaster.

Remember, over a thousand people died, but then there's the wreckage.

In the 1970s, investigative journalist Colin Simpson wrote that divers who'd seen the wreckage were sworn not to discuss it,

to protect state secrets.

Then, in 1982, millionaire Greg Bemis purchased sole ownership of the Lusitania.

Bemis spent years self-funding dives and investigations and concluded there was a cover-up.

In the 1990s, Bemis authorized a dive led by Robert Ballard, who famously located the Titanic wreckage.

Ballard's team found unexploded hedgehog mines from the 1940s and 50s, evidence that someone had tried to blow up the wreckage of the Lusitania long after it sank.

And the hedgehog mines?

They matched those used by the British Navy.