u/Several_Border_8584

How much karma do I need to post videos on this subreddit? I can comment and post text, but can't post videos yet.

How much karma do I need to post vids?

May 7th 1915,

2:10 pm,

Off the coast of Ireland

The sea was unusually calm that afternoon, a deep blue expanse stretching out beneath a cloud-dappled sky. The RMS Lusitania, pride of the Cunard Line, cut through the waves with stately grace, her four towering funnels billowing smoke as she neared the coast of Ireland. For the 1,960 souls aboard, the war in Europe seemed distant, almost unreal.

It was hard to believe the rumors and warnings printed in American newspapers. Could anyone believe that a German submarine would attack a passenger ship?

Below deck in the engine rooms, stokers labored in the sweltering heat, shoveling coal into massive furnaces. They spoke in clipped sentences, already aware of a silent tension in the officers' movements. The Lusitania had been ordered to zigzag to avoid U-boats, but Captain Turner had kept her on a steady course, relying on speed and prestige for protection.

Aboard the German submarine U20, Walther Schwieger stood amazed. The unmistakable form of RMS Lusitania had just changed course and put them right in front of U20's path.

With no escorts in sight, U20's captain gave the order to fire a single torpedo at the ship.

The dining saloon was filled with people, having just been served lunch by Lusitania's cooks. On deck, passengers strolled and smoked cigars. No one noticed the torpedo as it approached its target.

Lookout Leslie Morton stood aboard Lusitania's starboard bow, scanning the sea for danger. Suddenly, the unmistakable track of white foam crossed his vision. Grabbing his megaphone, he shouted, "Torpedo closing in on the starboard bow!"

The second officer repeated the message to Captain Turner, who rushed to save his ship, but it was too late. Just 35 seconds later, the torpedo met its mark.

Captain Turner stepped toward the bridge, and in that moment, 350 pounds of explosives tore through Lusitania's hull like tissue paper.

The torpedo struck the ship on her starboard hull just under the bridge. A jet of water from the impact sent a column of water and debris into the air, knocking Lifeboat 5 overboard. There was silence for a minute, before all hell broke loose.

Down below the waterline, the torpedo had left a hole in the ship some 40 feet wide. The ocean roared in, flooding her coal bunkers and boiler room 1, rushing in at 100 tons per second.

The explosion was so much that the Lusitania began listing to the starboard side almost immediately following the torpedo strike.

Captain Turner knew he needed to make a decision. He had barely regained his bearings when a second explosion occurred. This was due to ammunition in the cargo holds igniting or the rupturing of steam pipes.

The second explosion sent a cloud of steam and dust swirling around the bridge and the base of the first funnel before it dissipated.

In the dining room, dishes crashed to the floor while Lusitania lurched. Amazingly, in some parts of the ship, there was absolute calm. The passengers simply got up and made for the boat deck.

Closer towards the front of the ship, people rushed to find an exit. A few of the passengers even took over the elevators for themselves.

Many passengers had expected something like this to happen, and now, it had.

On U20, its commander, Walther Schwieger, wrote about the attack in the submarine's logbook.

"Torpedo hits starboard side right behind the bridge. An unusually heavy detonation takes place with a very strong explosive cloud. The explosion of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one [boiler or coal powder?]... The ship immediately heels over to starboard very quickly, the name Lusitania becomes visible in golden letters."

Back on Lusitania, Captain Turner ordered helmsman Hugh Johnston to turn the ship towards Ireland in an effort to beach her before she foundered. Johnston put the wheel hard over, but the ship began to over-correct, turning to port.

Turner ordered the rudder back to starboard, but the ship's hydraulics and telegraphs failed to respond.

The ship's list to starboard rose to 13 degrees. Turner ordered the engines stopped, but the steam lines had ruptured from the second explosion.

While Lusitania continued moving ahead, Captain Turner ordered for the wireless operators to send out a distress call.

Turner soon realized they wouldn't be able to beach Lusitania. He ordered the lifeboats swung out and prepared. Captain Turner was then faced with another issue.

The ship was making about 18 knots from momentum alone, and it was too dangerous to lower and launch any of the lifeboats until she had stopped.

Lusitania continued forward, with no way to change her course or reduce her speed. She would have to rely on the sea to slow her down.

Lusitania's forward motion caused more and more seawater to pour into her interiors as the bow dipped lower and the list grew more severe.

Suddenly, Lusitania's lights gave out as her power completely died, plunging the ship into darkness. On the outside of the ship, it was a beautiful sunny day. On the inside, it was a maze of corridors, passageways, darkness, and water.

Those in the electric elevators were now trapped as Lusitania's power failed. Water began to rush in through dozens of open portholes throughout the ship at a rate of 260 tons per second.

Lusitania's list to starboard rose to 18 degrees, then past 20. The use of coal bunkers as longitudinal bulkheads meant that if the ship was damaged, water would be contained to one side.

At the time of Lusitania's construction, the worst damage that war could do to ships came from shells. In that case, longitudinal bulkheads would have doubled as protection for the ship's machinery.

With the invention of the torpedo, the longitudinal bulkheads worsened the damage Lusitania sustained. The longitudinal bulkheads caused the ship to list 7 degrees when one compartment was breached, 15 degrees when two were breached, and so on until the ship was in danger of capsizing or the ship's buoyancy was compromised.

The wireless operators, Robert Leith and Donald McCormack, sent an SOS using the emergency generator for the wireless machine. The distress call was received in Queenstown (Now Cobh) in Ireland.

Despite being 11 miles from the Irish coast, the fishing boats rushing to Lusitania's aid were not fast. Most would take two hours to reach the stricken ship, by which point Lusitania had already sunk.

May 7th 1915,

2:20 pm,

Off the coast of Ireland

Up on the boat deck, passengers and crew had waited for ten minutes since the torpedo strike for the ship to lose its momentum.

Now that her speed was no longer an issue, Lusitania's lifeboats could finally be launched. But a much larger problem loomed. Lusitania's list to starboard was so severe that it was impossible to launch any of the lifeboats on the port side.

As the ship's list rose to 25 degrees, her forecastle deck began to plunge underwater. Knowing there was nothing else he could do, Turner finally gave the order to abandon ship.

Suddenly, there was a dull boom. The machinery stored beside the third funnel exploded, sending people running towards the ship's stern.

As the crew attempted to launch the lifeboats, many of them capsized, spilling their human cargo into the water. Many people couldn't swim, and were dragged down with the wreckage.

Despite Lusitania having 48 lifeboats aboard, only 6 were launched successfully. All of the other boats were capsized, overturned, or dragged down with the ship.

On the starboard side, deck chairs were used to bridge the gap between the deck and the swinging lifeboats.

Second class passenger Ian Holbourn thought that by assisting his 12 year old friend Avis Dolphin and her nurses into Lifeboat 17 that he would be getting them to safety.

To Ian's horror, the lifeboat capsized just before it hit the water. Avis survived, but her nurses did not.

Through his periscope on German submarine U-20, Walther Schwieger could see the death and destruction he caused unfolding before him. By 2:25 pm, Schwieger had seen enough and ordered for U-20 to retreat.

As water continued to spill over the bulkheads, the ship seemed to right herself for a moment before returning to her starboard list.

Captain Turner remained on the bridge. As water reached the wheelhouse, he ordered Quartermaster Johnston to save himself.

While Johnston abandoned the wheelhouse, Turner climbed onto the roof of the bridge. He was washed overboard and ended up surviving the disaster.

Lusitania was now completely down by the head, her four bronze propellers rising out of the water.

Passengers who remained on the ship held on for dear life, thinking that the sinking ship was safer than the open ocean. They climbed towards the stern, if only to delay the inevitable.

As the ship's final moments approached, the crew raced to launch any remaining lifeboats and get as many people as possible away from the sinking ship.

Water raged through the entirety of Lusitania's interior, momentarily righting her list to 5 degrees. Violent explosions could be heard from deep within the hull as Lusitania's interior was gutted.

Just as quickly as she evened out, Lusitania began to plunge again, her funnels, masts and boats all breaking as she did.

Passengers swarmed towards Lusitania's stern as it rose out of the water. Slowly, the dying ship began to slide away for good.

May 7th 1915,

2:28 pm,

Off the coast of Ireland

Lusitania was 787 feet, or 240 meters long, but the stretch of water she was sinking in, was only 93 meters, or 300 feet deep.

From far below, there came a loud boom as Lusitania's bow, hundreds of feet underwater, struck the seafloor with a crunch.

Lusitania began to drop straight down, slipping beneath the waves. The wireless antenna, strung between the ship's masts and usually 180 feet, or 55 meters clear above the waterline, now slapped down into the ocean, the steel cables crushing dozens of people.

The towering funnels began to be dragged beneath the ocean, still connected to the boat deck. As the funnels were hollow, many people were pulled in by the suction, falling deep into the ship.

One woman was sucked into the first funnel as it went under, but was shot back up by a blast of hot air, presumably from a boiler explosion.

With a mighty roar, funnel number three came crashing down into the water, crushing any unfortunate to be in its path.

Those still on the ship actually had the gentlest escape. They simply stepped off the stern as the water rose to meet them.

By the time she sank, Lusitania had taken on over 2,000 tons of water.

RMS Lusitania sank in just 18 minutes, about 11 nautical miles (20 kilometers or 13 miles) off the Old Head of Kinsale in Ireland.

She had traveled 2 miles from where she had been torpedoed to her final resting place, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake.

Of the 1,960 people aboard Lusitania, only 767 survived. 1,193 people died in the sinking, including men, women, and 94 children.

I'm not sure if we'll get the Heroes of Olympus show, but I thought of a kinda perfect way to end the show if we get all five seasons (TLT - TLO).

My idea is similar to the end of Deadpool & Wolverine where they did a memorial to 20th Century fox and the Xmen films by showing behind the scenes.

That's kinda the gist of my idea. The credits for the final episode in The Last Olympian season would have pictures and short videos of behind the scenes from all the seasons while "Time of my life" by Green Day, Thalia's favorite band, would play in the background.

Let me know what you guys think.