100 years since the sinking of Lusitania

100 years ago this week the famous Lusitania ship was sunk by German U-boats as it headed for Liverpool. Almost 1200 people died, many of them from the city.

The ship's captain William Turner, who survived after the ship went down, had received messages on the morning of the disaster that there were German submarines in the area and he altered course.

But a German sub, U-20, captained by Walther Schwieger, spotted the Lusitania 14 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale in Ireland and fired a torpedo that hit the vessel which quickly sank.

There had been time to send out an SOS and the Courtmacsherry lifeboat launched at 3pm. By the time they arrived, other rescue craft were on the scene and they were only able to pick up dead bodies. The Wanderer, a fishing boat from the Isle of Man, managed to pick up about 200 survivors. A memorial service will be held on Thursday at St Nicolas Church.