Sinking of the RMS Lusitania

RMS Lusitania. taken from www.times.co.uk

 
 May 7th  marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Lusitania by German submarine U-20 off the coast of Ireland  killing 1,198 and leaving 761 survivors. While not directly related to Ballarat, the sinking of the Cunard ship was a key event in the early stages of the war.   The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany. It also contributed to the American entry into the war as a large number of the passengers that perished were American.  It also became an iconic symbol in military recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought.

As Joan Beaumont ponits out although the Lusitania was probably carring contrband, its sinking was seen at the time as a cold-blooded and premeditated outrage, yet another German atrocity.  As a patrriotic Australian wrote on 14 May:

                      Would you have us fight with your own vile tools?
                      If we've no choice we must do the same
                     But we don't  sink boats with civilian crews
                     We leave that to you - tis a cowards game

                     Joan Beaumont Broken nation:Australians in the Great War

To commemorate the anniversary a book has been published which is available through Ballarat Library.  Dead wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson.

Front page of the Ballarat Star reporting the sinking.  May 10 1915

 

Painting of the sinking. Taken from www.images.google.com

Recruiting poster used as a result of the sinking.  Taken from www.images.google.com

Ballarat’s first casualty of the Great War …

You might have heard news reports this week regarding Australia’s entry into World War 1 and the brief but fatal battle at Bita Paka.

In August 1914, over 100 Victorian naval reservists joined the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) in order to seize and destroy German wireless stations in German New Guinea in the south-west Pacific. With troops from New South Wales and Queensland, the AN&MEF was ultimately successful in its task, but lives were lost at the battle of Bita Paka, where Victorian Able Seaman William Williams became the first Australian serviceman of WW 1 to die in battle (on 11 September 1914). You can read more here.

 Australia’s first submarine the AE1 was also involved, patrolling the area with other ships.  The AE1 disappeared without a trace on 14^th September 1914, and you can read an account of the current search for the submarine here.  The loss of this vessel was the worst submarine disaster in the world, to that time, and remains a mystery to this day.  There is a website dedicated to the memory of the crew of the AE1 which gives the history of these submarines and provides excellent photographs.

What makes the AE1 important for Ballarat is that Engine Room Artificer John Messenger was on board.  He was the son of John and Elizabeth Messenger of Humffray St  South.  At the Victorian Railways Institute, in Lydiard St, the Messenger name is commemorated by Messenger Hall.  ERA John Messenger, sadly, is Ballarat’s first casualty of the Great War.

Photograph of John Messenger taken from "Dinkum Oil", by Amanda Taylor, in the Australiana Room collection