Carter Roy

And this is the most important fact about the Lusitania.

It was a passenger liner.

Yes, it transported some goods, but its primary function was transporting people.

Lusitania passengers put their trust in Captain William Turner.

No, not Orlando Bloom's character in the Pirates of the Caribbean.

This Will Turner was an experienced and decorated seafarer in his 50s.

Ironically, the day before the Lusitania's last trip, he served as an expert witness in a civil suit for Titanic survivors.

His testimony helped prove that the White Star Line screwed up.

No one in the courtroom expected that barely a week later, Captain Turner would be on his own sinking ship.

The trouble began on May 1st, 1915, when the Lusitania set sail on its 202nd voyage after two and a half hours of delays.

Once at sea, the Lusitania didn't even get up to its record-setting high speed.

War-induced labor shortages meant the ship was understaffed, missing 83 people in the boiler rooms alone.

They could only run three of the four boilers.

Typically, the ship hit close to 30 miles per hour, but on this voyage, it went more like 20.

This slower speed added an entire day to the voyage, six days instead of five.

Bummer for everyone in the third-class bunk beds.

It also made the ship an easier target, especially as they headed away from the safe, neutral United States and directly into a war zone.

For those who might need it, here's a quick World War I refresher.

In 1915, Britain, France, and Russia teamed up as the Allied Powers, fighting Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, aka the Central Powers.

With France and Russia mounting a land campaign, Britain took on a naval campaign, strangling the ocean shipping lanes to Germany's northern coast.