Product Details

• Actors: Will Lyman
• Producers: John Booth
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Pbs (Direct)
• VHS Release Date: March 27, 2001
• Run Time: 57 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000059MYU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,140 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even-handed description of a tragedy of war, December 30, 2005

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sinking the Lusitania [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For decades, one of the greatest points of national pride among European nations was having the fastest ship in the world. A prize was awarded to the ship able to cross the Atlantic in the shortest possible time. Late in the nineteenth century, British national pride was wounded when a German ship managed to take the prize. The British response was to build two mighty luxury liners, the Mauritania and the Lusitania. They were so expensive that a loan from the British government was necessary to finance them. In order to get the loan; the owners of the ships were required to cede control to the British military in time of war. If war were to break out, the ships could be used to ferry troops and supplies to war zones. After it was built, the Lusitania was able to win back the prize from the Germans and the speed of the ship was a significant source of pride.

The First World War broke out in Europe in 1914 and fairly quickly the British used their naval superiority to impose a blockade on Germany. All goods, including food, were considered war materials, so the consequences were that the German people were slowly being starved. In response to this, the German high command used their submarine fleet to sink British merchant ships. According to the rules of war, if a war zone had been declared, then the following could be done.

*) A warship could stop any ship, including passenger liners.

*) The ship was to be boarded and searched for war materials.

*) If war materials were discovered, then the crew and passengers were given time to get into the lifeboats. Or the warship could take the crew and passengers aboard their ship as prisoners.

*) The warship could then sink the ship.

However, due to their size and vulnerability on the surface, the submarines could only attack without warning. This meant that only the last item in the previous list could be done.

The Lusitania set sail from the United States on a cruise to the British Isles. Along with over 2,000 people, it carried a large amount of ammunition for the British war effort. This meant that it was a legitimate military target, a point that seems to have been lost to history. Because it was such a fast ship, the captain and the passengers considered it to be safe from attack by submarine. As Captain William Turner said, "A torpedo can't get the Lusitania. She runs too fast." Unfortunately, while he was probably right, he failed to take into account the fact that they had to slow down due to fog. A German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania within sight of land and there was a second internal explosion that caused it to sunk so fast that over 1,000 died before they could make it to the lifeboats.

This tape recapitulates those events in an even-handed way. When it happened, the world was shocked at the supposed barbarism of the Germans and the British played it a to a tremendous propaganda victory. The Germans argued, and there is a very good chance that they are correct, that the secondary explosion was caused by the ammunition it was carrying and that was the reason that it sunk so fast. Warnings had been issued by the British naval command that there were German submarines operating in the area. Yet, they were not taken seriously by the captain of the Lusitania. The passengers were given no instructions as to what to do in the event of an attack and no procedural changes were made when the ship entered the war zone.

The sinking of the Lusitania was one of the major events of World War I. It caused a significant change in public opinion in the United States and in other neutral countries around the world. Neither side was without fault and the producers of this video went to great lengths to present all aspects of this avoidable tragedy. It is well worth watching.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great documentary., February 4, 2008

By 

Boz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sinking the Lusitania [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A great documentary, very factual and interesting. I do, however, have one correction. Kaiser Wilhelm was not Queen Victoria's nephew. He was her grandson. A bit of sloppy research there!