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222 THE MARINE REVIEW DEVOTED TO MARINE ENGINEERING, SHIP BUILDING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Published Monthly by The Penton Publishing Company Penton Building, Cleveland. RO ee ela 1521-23 Lytton Bldg. CINCINNATI - - - - - - 312 Johnston Bldg. NEW YORK - - - Redes rote Ne 507 West Street. Bldg. PITTSBURGH - - - - - - 2148-49 Oliver Bldg. 206 Corcoran Bldg. . Prince’s Chambers WASHINGTON, D, C. - - : “ : BIRMINGHAM, ENG. - - 5 i 2 Subscription, $2 delivered free anywhere in the world. Single copies, 20 cents. Back numbefs over three months, 50 cents. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on or before the first of each month, The Cleveland News Co. ‘will supply the trade with THE MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Co., Breams building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C., England. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. (Copyright 1914, by Penton Publishing Company) © June, 1915 The Sinking of the Lusitania If we set aside the Carmania as an experiment in large units, the Lusitania was the first of the giant liners to be equipped with turbines, and though the Mauretania exceeded her somewhat in displace- ment and speed, the Lusitania as the pioneer held first place in our esteem. She had carried thousands of Americans to Europe on business and on pleasure and she had brought them safely home again. . Dur- ing the nine years of her existence she had become a part of our national household and her graceful form was a familiar object in the greatest of our harbors. There is something about a ship that creates affection such as no other inanimate object can inspire. She is the greatest triumph of man’s constructive abilities and it might with modesty be recorded that nothing finer as an example of man’s handiwork existed in the world than the Lusitania. While engaged in peaceful passenger traffic with- out arms or munitions, without convoy, without power of offense or defense, this splendid creature of the sea was sunk by a German submarine off the - coast of Ireland and over 1,200 persons who were traveling well within their natural rights and who were violating no canon of international law, either of peace or war, were drowned. It is difficult to conceive of anything more horrible than this act of premeditated wholesale murder. Whole families were sent to their account without the slightest chance of escape, for the Lusitania had headway on her when she sank, and it was impossible to launch the life boats. What manner of man.must that THE MARINE REVIEW June, 1915 . German commander have been that he should have sent so deadly a missile against the undefended sides of a ship: freighted with such cargo. No amount of persuasion or coercion, no threats or entreaties, no power on earth could ever make an American or English commander do a deed like that. ; It is obviously impossible that an outrage so colossal as to shake the moral fiber of a man to its roots can go unchallenged. No nation under heaven can suffer the lives of its women and chil- dren to be ruthlessly extinguished. Nations are judged by the times through which they pass and the verdict of posterity is inexorable. Our conduct on this occasion must be such as to preserve our national self-respect or the pages of our history . will be blotted with a shameful record. A deed has been done that has made the whole world ashamed of its perpetrators. Of that there is no doubt whatever. The feeling in this country is one of deep resentment. ‘The fact is that. the act has violated our innate sense of the fitness of things. Germany is on trial at the bar of every man’s con- science. Our sense of primal justice surmounts and survives all other emotions, and in the end it always triumphs. Therefore the sinking of the Lusitania was the greatest military blunder that Germany could create. It has not intimidated Great Britain, but has increased her resolution ; it has not alarmed neutral countries, but has alienated and incensed them. | We do not believe this country will.go to war over the affair. War will not restore the lives that were sacrificed on the Lusitania; but it is important that Germany must be made to understand that American citizens have the right to travel on the high seas unmolested, whether traveling on enemy or neutral ships when these ships are engaged in peaceful passenger traffic, and every other neutral country should take the same stand in relation to its own citizens. Then if Germany chooses to conduct herself as an outlaw she should be treated as one, and all diplomatic relations with her severed. Meanwhile is it not the height of folly that we continue a policy that deprives us of ships? The season of 1915 on the Great Lakes bids fair to be a good one. It opened somewhat earlier than was expected and is steadily growing - throughout May. June will probably experience a marked impetus, as the new rail rate from the Mesabi range is to be put into effect on the first of the month. There are pronounced indications that the ore ship- pers expect a good movement of ore. The volume of the country’s business is growing and activity 1s not confined fo “any particular line of industry. Merchant shipbuilding, almost a lost art, has suddenly revived on the Atlantic seaboard. No yard is without orders and some have all that they can attend to during the next two years. Approximately 35 orders have been distributed among the Atlantic coast yards.