[2banana]

Like sailing a ship delivering war goods into a war zone is not a good idea...?

[nickcarraway]

Like sailing a ship delivering war goods into a war zone is not a good idea...?

Ireland was not a war zone. It was a passenger ship. It may have been carrying munitions, but it seems like that hasn't been proved.

[katana]

Not aboard a passenger vessel carrying almost two thousand civilians. No. Munition shipments were supposed to be restricted to merchant vessels. And under American neutrality I'm not sure U.S. flag merchantmen were permitted to carry them. The German Embassy had declared in American papers that they'd sink the Lusitania because they knew it was carrying contraband munitions. But the attack in any case reaffirmed their "savage Hun" image and the loss of American lives changed opinions on this side of the water. Then the leaked (by British intelligence but confirmed as genuine by the Germans themselves) Zimmermann telegram outlining Germany's promise to Mexico to help them recover the Southwest U.S., after Wilson had won reelection on the platform "He kept us out of war", was the final straw.