Preserving The RMS LUSITANIA

08/29/2026

LUSITANIA

The long overdue update on our upcoming virtual museum experience "...

08/14/2026

LUSITANIA

‘Lusitania 100 years later: never forget’ is the tenth and final blog post in a series by J. Kent Layton, maritime historian and author of Lusitania: An Illustrated Biography, accompanying the exhibition Lusitania: Life, Loss, Legacy at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England.

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/lusitania-100-years-later-never-forget

Please note that the Maritime Museum is currently closed for essential maintenance works ahead of a major redevelopment project. Please check the museum’s website before making plans to visit.

For more information about their Lusitania: Life, Loss, Legacy exhibition, visit: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime-museum/maritime-museum-floor-plan/lusitania-life-loss-legacy

Following the war, the Lusitania was used as a propaganda tool. This dramatic image shows the sinking liner, while encouraging Irishmen to join an Irish regiment and 'avenge the Lusitania'. © Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division/J Kent Layton Collection

07/26/2026

7,400 of you!

I created this page in April 2015, in the run-up to the centenary of the sinking, to draw attention to something at risk of being lost to the elements and to history: the Lusitania wreck herself, lying off the Old Head of Kinsale. She deserves to be explored, documented, and protected. Promoting this cause was, and still is, the entire purpose of this page.

The road since has been longer than I ever expected. As a volunteer with more conviction than means, I first met Gregg Bemis in Dublin in January 2014, hoping to help secure funding for another expedition to the wreck. That same year, I pitched the project to a major European television documentary channel and, in late 2019, to A&E's History Channel in the United States. Gregg passed away in May 2020, and his final expedition never came to fruition. Yet the Lusitania still waits for the protection and careful exploration she has long deserved.

In the years that followed, one of my main efforts became The Ocean Liner Conservancy, an initiative built around an online store offering limited-edition ocean liner prints signed by the artists, with part of the proceeds intended to support the cause. Despite a great deal of work, the project never gained enough momentum to become financially sustainable. Since 2023, I have therefore been exploring new fundraising ideas and partnership concepts to help support maritime heritage preservation.

What has kept this journey alive is you: descendants who carry the Lusitania in your family stories, divers who have visited the wreck, historians and researchers who preserve her history, and everyone who refuses to let her become a footnote. You are the reason this page is still here.

So let me ask you, what brought you here? Do you have a family connection to the ship, or was there a particular moment when her story captured your imagination? I read every reply.

Thank you for being part of this journey and for helping ensure that the story of the Lusitania continues to be remembered.

Stay tuned.

Nikolaus

Founder, Preserving The RMS LUSITANIA

07/25/2026

LUSITANIA

This beautiful photograph captures Lusitania‘s port-side boat deck, looking forward toward the bridge and the foremast with its crow’s nest. On the right-hand side, you can see part of the sun deck, along with a ventilator and a portion of one of the ship’s funnels.

07/24/2026

LUSITANIA

The Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool has posted a series of blog posts about the Lusitania written by maritime historian J Kent Layton.

Today I'm sharing Part 9: ‘Lusitania: 7 May 1915’. Enjoy!

An artist's conception of the torpedo impact on the Lusitania. © Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division/J Kent Layton Collection

07/22/2026

LUSITANIA

Here's another wonderful photograph of the Lusitania sailing down the Hudson River as she departs New York City. In the faint distance on the left, you can even make out the Statue of Liberty 🚢🌊🗽

Credit: National Archives

07/21/2026

LUSITANIA

Just discovered this mysterious-looking painting, "Lusitania Leaving N. Y. on Her Maiden Voyage," by Charles Frederick William Mielatz (1864–1919), a German-born American painter. A fascinating and atmospheric depiction of the Lusitania as she departs New York to return to Liverpool in September 1907.