Sinking of the Tuscania, 1918

SS Tuscania (1914)

SS Tuscania. Wikipedia Image.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Tuscania, February 5, 1918. The ship was a luxury liner of the Cunard Line, and was serving as a troop transport, carrying American troops to Europe. The ship left Hoboken with 384 crew and 2013 army personnel aboard. On the morning of February 5, a German submarine sighted the convoy and stalked it until darkness. At 6:40 p.m., it fired two torpedoes, one of which sent the ship to the bottom of the Irish Sea. 210 men were killed in the attack.

Color picture; An elderly man holding a glass and wearing a hat stands in front of a wooden lodge.

Harry Truman. Wikipedia image.

One of the notable survivors was 20-year-old soldier Harry R. Truman (not to be confused with the President), notable for becoming a victim of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.free-vector-poppy-remembrance-day-clip-art_106032_Poppy_Remembrance_Day_clip_art_small