Lusitania: Is This The Last Footage?

[@ryana3298]

Was having a crappy day until I saw our friend Mike Brady uploaded a new video.

[@tturi2]

I've had a pretty long day and feel pretty down rn, but videos help with getting through the slump

[@Mogamishu]

@@tturi2girlfriend broke up with you?

[@paulie-Gualtieri.]

Life can be exhausting, but make sure to make time for yourselves.

[@TVonthePorch]

I always really enjoy...I always Really enjoy...I always really Enjoy his takes! Even the alternate takes.

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

wise up you do not know him and never will. plus he is a youtuber. won't be long until he is in a video exposing him. seems to be the way these days

[@Maritime_History]

I have watched this footage hundreds of times and can't believe that I have missed so many details all this time. Thank you for sharing so much interesting information!

[@Titanic_person-1912]

MARITIME, I know about the live stream on Historic travels...you have won the battle, BUT NOT THE WAR!! WE WILL RISE AGAINST YOU IN THE NEXT HISTORIC TRAVELS Q&A! (Also to anyone who doesn't know, Historic travels chat and Maritime have some beef, including me.)

[@paulie-Gualtieri.]

It's also very poignant seeing all those people out on deck and wondering who survived and those souls who unfortunately didn't.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

I grew up in Chelsea in the 1960s, and the Chelsea piers were still being used by ocean liners, at least early in the 60s. I remember going down to the piers to see them docking. The one that sticks in my mind the most is the SS France, with her deep, sonorous horn. It's weird to think that at the time only 45-to-50 years had passed since the Lusitania had left on her final voyage. Nearly 70 years have passed since then. In other words, I'm OLD!

[@3UZFE]

Old perhaps but you got to witness things that are long gone, so theres certainly a silver lining to that

[@j_taylor]

Thank you for sharing your experiences here. You bring the rest of us a little closer to these events. Not that you're old, I mean. 😅

[@roguetheotter]

i can't even begin imagine the majesty of it all. there's definitely a beauty to the 'liners that i feel like we've lost.

[@giggiddy]

You lived through some of the worlds worst and best days. These days are mostly crap and people are not the same anymore. Be happy you lived when you did. Young people will not grow up with the same wonderful things you saw. Old isn't always a negative. Cheers and God bless. 😊

[@wayneantoniazzi2706]

A priceless piece of film! And it's a bit like looking at ghosts, isn't it? Even the survivors have all passed away. Thanks Mike!

[@matthewcox6615]

It was a long time ago.

[@SummitHill79]

My dumb Dad Joke to the kids: What do all the people in this film have in common? They’re all dead.

[@Coco2128]

Great video Mike but there’s one mistake you made. The three stacker seen in the background of the Lusitania was not the Imperator but the Vaterland. The Imperator was in Germany when war broke out and was thus laid up in Hamburg while the Vaterland was trapped in the US when war broke out and was thus laid up in Hoboken until 1917 when America entered the war.

[@johnv7317]

The four funnels ocean liner next to the SS Vaterland could possibly be either SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, SS Kaiser Wilhelm II or the SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie. Those three liners were in New York when World War I started.

[@Titanic_person-1912]

2:04 most authentic genuine footage experience of Mike Brady.

[@bellemeri8155]

Based on the women's attire at the beginning of the footage and a look at historic weather data, I'd put the odds at 80% of this being the final voyage. The ladies are wearing car coats, fur stoles, and hats but not heavier weight coats or capes. The high temperature on departure day was 60, so a medium weight coat for traveling from home or hotel to the ship would make sense. I suspect a lot of the ladies traveling then went to their staterooms to unpack and prepare for the trip. Women's fashion changes quickly enough that you can narrow down dates based on it.

[@TheSaneHatter]

Elementary. 🕵

[@CollinCat100]

I know this comment will most definitely get buried, but I am learning "Lusitania Intermezzo" on the flute!

[@jeffpotipco736]

Lusitania is what the Romans called Portugal.

[@jericho86]

Bump

[@meeseification]

I'm going to try to find it, and give it a listen. 😊

[@jaynorris3722]

Mike, you make life happier. Thank you

[@captainwolfe1147]

I'm so glad the folks at the National Archives were able to digitize this piece of footage for us to see, I can only imagine the backlog of unprocessed items they have! It also looks like the record of the film in the archives catalog has some interesting ephemera that goes along with the film print as well, worth a look! Thanks for a nice quick video to watch on a day I'm feeling under the weather :)

[@julieputney4317]

This is so fascinating and thought provoking . It's eerie to imagine we're watching people from over a century ago sailing to their doom.

[@deepseadirt1]

sometimes the Chelsea Piers scenes are used in Titanic/White Star Line Offices footage; that is people going to the White Star Line Offices to inquire about loved ones ie one lady wiping her teary face with her apron. But most of this footage is the May 1, 1915 final voyage start --- the fact that Captain Turner is on the bridge,(previously it was Daniel Dow) . Turner had been on the Aquitania in 1914, as with that insert pic 11:10. This was Turner's first or second voyage on Lusitania since coming back and taking over from Dow and after the war started. He was ticked at how much of the ship was in disrepair. Some of the Chelsea footage appears in the CBS television program "WORLD WAR ONE: They Sank The Lusitania"(1964) and one shot shows 4 funnels up over the Pier buildings with taller vent vappings meaning that it is Mauretania in that particular shot. 16:48 The large ship with 3 funnels in the background is Vaterland, rather than Imperator, after the US internment of her in Hoboken. Imperator's funnels were cut by 15 feet in her first year of service because of stability issues and she was in Germany at the time. Some of the footage shows the coils of docking rope covering the gun mounts that had been installed in 1913. The men who shot the footage(I forget their names) made a point of heading down there and the intertitle states they were the only film people who were allowed to the dock to film. As the ship was sunk the footage immediately became valuable. The 1918 silent film LEST WE FORGET which starred survivor & actress Rita Jolivet may or may not have used some of this footage; the film survives but in fragments.

[@legiran9564]

Vaterland was interned in New York. Imperator was moored in Hamburg.

[@RobertCraft-re5sf]

Thanks for always qualifying the reality of Lusitania being a valid war target and that people were at least aware of the danger. Important to get history right.

[@miapdx503]

Yes, a lot people like to think that everyone was a victim. The passengers were aware of everything going on. They took a chance...and it didn't go well.

[@DookieMcPoo]

If Mike Brady wasnt my friend, i dont think i could bear it.

[@chriswilliams1944]

Been watching Tombstone again, huh? 😉

[@ozziemederos]

Awesome video Mike brady well done

[@drewintampa]

Thank you Mike for another outstanding video. AS FAR AS THE FILM GOES, I am no rocket scientist, but I highly doubt there would be news crews filming an 8 year old liner that has come and gone from this pier a million times unless there was a reason. I think that reason is absolutely because of the warning given to her passengers. I greatly appreciate you bringing my hobby to life. I always walk away feeling as though I had just sailed on one of these magnificent liners.

[@brianwilcox3478]

could that single funnel have been Carpathia? Excellent as always Mike!

[@jilkat25]

I was wondering the same thing. Any way to prove it was not Carpathia? Also, if it was sunny day, why do there seem to be no shadows cast by the people or any of the structures in the film? Could we possibly narrow down the most likely day this was filmed by knowing what the weather was actually like at each of Lusitania's last departures by using weather service archives? Excellent presentation, as always!

[@40ounce58]

Very cool video. I’ve always been fascinated with the liners of that time period. (I loved the old time voice you did )!

[@robertsmith-dr5tm]

It’s interesting that someone was displaying an American flag, a very patriotic statement. It doesn’t seem as likely that someone would be waving a flag at an earlier less contentious sailing

[@NikkiKuehnemund]

Wow, this is amazing.. Not only because it's a film of Lusitania, but all the other things happening during this film. All the people, cars, just life happening. It was just a "normal" day in the early 1900.. Another thing that just entered my mind was that not one of the people you see in this film is alive today.. This is history, both at its most beautiful and sad at the same time.. Thank you, Mike😊

[@dufushead]

Good work, love it. My old man was a Cunard Yank circa 1941-55, so it's facinating to see the other end of the journey, Pier 54, the start being the Pier Head in Liverpool. I've tons of his old stuff, he kept everything. He loved the Edwardian liners, thought they were a class above the rest, more sturdy and that mattered to him on the North Atlantic troopships during the war. I like your style, thanks.

[@htos1av]

I hope you get to scan everything and post for us!

[@RG-Models86]

I agree with you, Mike. This is very likely the last footage of Lusitania filmed. If it is, then it's very sad when you stop and realise that she only had a week left before her tragic demise.

[@noodlethesnake6927]

Mike bradys videos always manages to cheer us all up

[@RhodesyYT]

A new chopin waltz was found today now this video of lusitania? Oh boy this is brilliant

[@sooz1999]

Enjoyable video Mike. I am a massive Titanic fan, but have not been as hugely interested in the Lusitania. I looked up Elbert Hubbard and it seems he and his wife died very similarly to the Strauss's. However, it seems they could have saved themselves, but chose to die instead of being seperated in the water. Very sad!

[@DeepSkyObject-c9e]

Look it's our friend Mike Bradey and I love his videos!

[@WayneSmall-bn6tu]

And his haircut.

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

wise up and grow up

[@DeepSkyObject-c9e]

@JohnKobaRuddy Keep your opinion to yourself

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

@@DeepSkyObject-c9e and yours is better and allowed is it? go get excited over your almost invisible friend you will never meet. sad af.

[@average.6079]

@@JohnKobaRuddy Why are you upset about people being happy?

[@JuliaMans1]

Your videos are like little masterpieces. Thank you for your talent and effort.☯️📸🌹

[@towgod7985]

13,366 views in 4 hours! Mike, you're doing something right! Cheers.

[@seraph_prime]

Absolutely love this content! Learning about other ships besides Titanic is so fascinating. Don’t get me wrong Titanic is still my favorite, but it’s cool learning about other ship history.

[@connorredshaw5650]

It's quite hard to believe that a ship the size of the Lusitania would sink in just 18 minutes. May all those poor souls lost in the sinking rest in peace.🙏😔

[@stephenpresdorf8923]

There is no smoke coming out of the 4th stack, which collates with the fact that to save coal the fourth boiler room was shut down on that final voyage.

[@AricBolf]

To find the angle at which the Lusitania was positioned when the bow hit the sea floor, we can use some basic trigonometry. Given that: * The length of the ship, L=787 feet * The depth of the sea floor, D=305 feet We can picture the scenario as a right triangle, where: * The hypotenuse is the length of the ship (L). * The vertical side is the depth of the sea floor (D). The angle θ between the ship and the sea floor is given by the sine function: sin(θ)=D/L Then, solving for θ: θ=arcsin(D/L) The angle of the Lusitania when the bow touched the sea floor was approximately 22.8∘

[@michaelmagnus9]

Great stuff as always. Might not the four funnels to the right of Vaterland (not Imperator as others have pointed out) belong to the interned NDL liner Kaiser Wilhelm II? The distinctive 2 funnels - gap - 2 funnels stands out.

[@AshBrockFanGaming]

Hey, Nice Video! Made my day better.

[@lynners42]

Hello from Michigan, Mike! Love the channel 😄

[@toddkurzbard]

There IS one thing that never rung a bell with me before, but it just occurred to me now: That one thing against this being "the final footage", is that the ship's name is VERY clearly visible on the bow. It was my belief that it was painted out and not visible at the time, because they didn't want her to be so easily identifiable to an enemy who might sight her. From what I've read, the U-20's pilot, Lanz, didn't know what ship she was at first. After the torpedoing, he was ALLEGED to have cried out, "Mein gott!! Ja das ja der LUSITANIA!!!" ("My G*d!! Why that is the LUSITANIA!!!") At the distance the U-20 was at, the name should probably been visible, and he wouldn't have had any doubt what ship they'd fired upon (of course, it could ALSO be pointed out that just her SILHOUETTE would identify her as one of 4 ships in the world that have that 4-stack profile: MAURETANIA, AQUITANIA, OLYMPIC......and LUSITANIA. OLYMPIC would have been a stretch, and Lanz would probably been able to easily distinguish it wasn't her from close-up. So, that would leave one of the 3 Cunard 4-stackers (the BRITANNIC wasn't completed yet). And I've read that he would have had the sailing schedules of the various "potential target ships", so he should know from that which ship was crossing his periscope crosshairs. Of course, I could ALSO be completely incorrect. P.S. IT'S OUR FRIEND, MIKE BRADY (NOT Robert Reed) FROM OCEANLINER DESIGNS!!!

[@retro_451]

Love your videos, Mike! Keep em coming.

[@Captainwhiskers1234]

Hi Mike again ur my favourite KZbinr

[@arronjones6985]

Mike, your videos are absolute gold. Iv watched pretty much all your channel has to offer. Your new stuff is good enough for tv and im amazed you haven't been snapped up. One ship iv always wondered about is the herald of free enterprise. In 1987 a week or so before she sank/capsized I was on board returning from a skiing trip in Austria with my cousin and grandparents. I vividly remember my mum waking me up the morning of the disaster. I was only 7 at the time. It sat heavy on my mind for what seemed like months afterwards. A video on this would be great. I have watched videos on it but, your videos are easy to take in and make sense of.

[@wendlebury8802]

I remember this too we were at some sort of function and the news came thro , not sure how , whilst we were eating I remember how shocked everyone was

[@THE_AETHER]

I believe that ship on the other side could be the SS Orduna. It was being chartered by the Cunard Line around this time. I lined up an image of the Orduna with the top of the masts and funnel and it matches near perfectly (accounting for the fact that the ship in the video and in the photo are at different angles). I narrowed it down to the Orduna using the Imperial German Embassy warning.

[@patcraft508]

Small correction, the three-funneled liner described as Imperator in this video is actually her sister the Vaterland, as the Imperator was laid up in Hamburg at that time. Otherwise its an amazing video as always. :) Best regards Pat.

[@Reimu__Hakurei]

Wowie [stopping those kids from saying “it’s our friend mike Brady from Oceanliner designs]

[@mikedrown2721]

👍🙂

[@RaeCarson]

14:50 While the stories of the people are definitely what I tend to be most interested in, there's many aspects of history that catch my eye. As one example, I thank you for using the proper term for this type of photography!! I'd heard it years and years ago and couldn't recall what it was. Orthochromatic film is definitely different than just the garden-variety black-and-white films that our parents and grandparents were familiar with in the 40s-70s. I'm a dabbling film nerd and I appreciate it that much more when you're able to use found footage within your already excellent videos, footage analyses, and blueprint-graphic-reconstructions. Fun historical fact for fellow viewers: For a clue that even later film types still had difficulty with color saturation even in b&w....film makers were well-aware of that fact and when making fictional movies, they used it to their advantage. For example, earlier Alfred Hitchcock films often used black- or dark brown-colorized things in order to represent blood. In the shower scene during the movie Psycho, Hershey's syrup was used as a blood substitute.

[@roadweary5252]

Just sat down to fold laundry and what pops up? A Mike Brady upload to help pass the time 👍

[@francissandy4404]

A totally absorbing, informative and enjoyable site.

[@zeddeka]

The abandoned New York piers in the 1970s and 1980s gained a life of their own, as they were used for all kinds of nefarious purposes. People regularly had to be fished out of the river on a regular basis as they were falling though the rotten floorboards. Some local photographers documented some of the stuff that was going on there. Not for the easily offended.

[@michaelmagnus9]

Yeah, they “fell through the floorboards”. Totally an accident. That’s the ticket.

[@jiwonkim1675]

Next time you should try and look/analyze the footage of scrapping of the RMS Berengaria!

[@Feline_Frenzy53]

Fantastic video, Mike. Great detective work, too. Thank you.

[@htos1av]

Nice forensics work! Good stuff!

[@SaanviWadhwa-g4d]

Thanks for posting this! Lusitania is one of my favorite oceanliner!

[@E9Project]

My family immigrated to the US on the last safe voyage. If it had been sunk on its way to the US, there is a high chance I would not be here to type this message. Thank you for the wonderful work you do, I really enjoy your channel!

[@paulie-Gualtieri.]

Our friend and Captain Mike.

[@rvx5818]

Here within the first 5 minutes of posting! This is a new record even for the chronically online me! 😆 Love your work! ♥

[@keneniahwilliams4374]

Hey Mike when is the Morro Castle Documentary coming?

[@gecko2gecko2]

We need to crowd fund a liner so our friend Mike Brady can be the captain.

[@WhiteArrow76]

I did some looking into Lusitania's last westbound crossing from Liverpool. Interestingly enough I found some striking parallels between that crossing and her final voyage. She departed Liverpool for the last time on April 17, arriving in New York on April 24. She hadn't made any calls at Queenstown since October 1913. She sailed with 1,109 passengers. Just like on her final crossing, Second Class was HEAVILY overbooked at 617 passengers, including 67 children. First Class had 183 and Third Class had 309.

[@ericcriteser4001]

Great. Thanks for sharing, as always.

[@bethkoch11]

Really outstanding! The person waving the American flag made me think that it might have been a thumbing of the nose at the Germans and their warnings, which would place the date possibly as May 1915.

[@RichardJoganah]

Very nice footage the lovely titanic and lusitania are my favourite liners of all time ⏲️

[@mikeprevost8650]

The presence of Turner on the bridge is a huge clue because he had relieved Daniel "Paddy" Dow as the ship's Master sometime in March or April of 1915. The stress of wartime crossings with the U-boat threat caused Dow to request being relieved of the command, as his nerves had become frazzled. On a prior crossing he ordered the US flag to be flown at the stern as the ship neared the Irish coast.

[@atopaz1]

Wow! What a treat this morning ❤

[@sledzilla]

Great video. Where is the link to the source of the video?

[@DaystromDataConcepts]

Did I detect a catch in your voice at one point? Your love of these beautiful old ships is palpable.

[@davinp]

The British Board of Trade failed to update the lifeboat laws as ships became larger. They measured the number of lifeboats by the ship's gross tonnage, not the number of passengers aboard. Also, back then lifeboats not seen as lifesavers but to transport people from a distressed ship to a rescue ship

[@ShelterCats]

Used to roam around those old piers as a kid and remember them being demolished when I was in HS.

[@Siansonea]

Do we know which ships were berthed at the adjacent docks on the morning of Lusitania's final departure? If the funnel/mast configuration matches those known ships, that would help clarify whether this was her final voyage. Of course, then you'd have to compare every other Lusitania departure that meets the other criteria that lend credence to the claim that this is the final voyage. If the same ships or the same mast/funnel configurations are not present at those departures, then it's definitive. Also, is there other footage of other Lusitania or Mauretania departures from different time periods that can be used to compare/contrast with this one? I'm sure the scholars have already researched all this, but I am definitely curious as to what they found.

[@zeddeka]

I suppose we know that this was during war time as the funnels are painted black, so that narrows it down somewhat.

[@jonathanberner5501]

I had never realized that the perfect impression of an old timey American broadcaster accent is identical to an Aussie impersonating an American accent with a nasal tone. Well done!

[@jtmschneider]

One of the things I noticed was the clothing the passengers were wearing when they boarded the ship and on deck; they certainly were not bundled up for a winter crossing and their coats seemed more appropriate for an early spring. the other thing I thought when I bean seeing this, and Mike affirmed it, was the news crew would want to rush down there and get footage after the threat in the papers. They would want to see if there was any panic. And on a more macabre note, if anything happened then they would have the "last" footage to capitalize - they had "learned"from not having Titanic footage 3 years before.

[@dorothywillis1]

I knew a woman whose family emigrated from England to the USA when she was a child. She said the ship her family was on passed the Lusitania on its final journey. She said it was a beautiful ship and they enjoyed waving to the passengers. Then when they arrived in New York and heard what had happened it was an enormous shock and she never forgot it.

[@SanktaLo]

There must be some way to cross check Hubbard’s trips on Lusitania and the other info we have. The woman next to him does look a great deal like his wife, Alice. I tried looking for passenger manifestos for voyages other than May 1, but had a hard time finding any. Maybe some of the historical dress aficionados can help date the clothing we see (though it might be difficult with so few women clearly seen). Great video! I always love a good mystery. I think if it’s not the final trip, it’s one of the last for sure

[@bucknaykid4236]

Yjanks for another great video

[@rebeccaranda2278]

I’m from Upstate New York , I’ve spent some time in New York City , and I gotta say you definitely know your way around The City, you’ve been naming the correct names of the locations and the names of the places that you would be going through and looking at with incredible accuracy and depth. Thank You , If You Were Not Obviously An Australian Man, I Swear You Would Be A Good Old American Man, A Yankee Or A Yank As I’m sure You Folks Call Us .. lol .. Thank You.

[@Tantalis77]

my god, mike brady's done it again

[@Bobbymaccys]

Awesome video and awesome drip. New subscriber right here!

[@mbvoelker8448]

That was much more than I expected. Even my husband, who doesn't share my interest in shipwrecks, found it interesting.

[@OathTaker3]

Yep! I knew our friend Mike Brady would slip the Titanic into another ships video, just let it go...😮‍💨

[@Th.G.M.]

Whenever you put up a new video I know it will be fascinating! There never was one boring. You are doing such a great job narrating! Thank you!

[@pattik789]

Absolutely enjoyed that.

[@williamdunklin]

I would love to see your team remaster this film to correct for the slower film speed that was common at that time.

[@MattAShine]

If this is the May 1 footage, it’s kind of eerie to see all those people on her decks. It’s like the Browne photos of the Titanic where you see nameless passengers and crew, knowing that in less than a week many of them would be dead.

[@njjeff201]

Shouldn’tve sailed knowing what might occur. Thank you for sharing Sir

[@davidhatton583]

2 other things my unprofessional self might add. There has been no modification of the film like you have pointed out in other Titanic film clips. And as you mentioned, given the recent history and current risk to large ocean liners… it seems appropriate for a large newspaper company to pay for a guy and a bit of film to record this for the potential Windfall if something were to happen.

[@danielintheantipodes6741]

I am wondering if what is shown of the NYC skyline may help? Also, the clothes, particularly the women's clothes, may indicate the date of the voyage? Fashion having carried on through WWI? Thank you for the video! Wonderfully evocative footage!

[@mlann2333]

You missed that she only had 3 boilers running. Wasn't she saving coal for the final stretch where they would turn it on and try outrun any subs ? Either that or it was out of action for some reason, don't remember... I'd recommend the book Dead Wake to anyone interested in this ships final voyage.

[@ericrisinger1241]

It's our friend Mike Brady from Linear Designs!

[@bradwalton3977]

"It seems pretty likely..." Yes. The evidence that this footage records the initiation of the Lusitania's last voyage is overwhelming. It seems to me that any skepticism as to this is hyper-skepticism.

[@jeffpotipco736]

It's my friend Mike Brady with a new video.

[@MarksModz]

I would love you to discuss the history and life of the SS Traffic. Titanics forgotten tender

[@MikayelBousseksou-w3p]

It’s a shame it’s gone, it was such a beautiful ship.

[@mattcharles1505]

It's so sad. I feel so empathic about seeing those people who were hoping to reach dry land, but never did!

[@vblake530530]

I love your skepticism.❤

[@deepseadirt1]

Orthochromatic film needs a tad more lighting than the later Panchromatic motion picture film. I'm sure the cameramen were shooting with plain daylight with no telephoto lenses, just trying to encompass the whole ship. They did a good enough shop in lieu of the conditions.

[@colinleat8309]

Chilling footage. I would say there's enough evidence to strongly suggest the final voyage.

[@MrDiggityaus]

I’m surprised that there aren’t any departure schedules surviving from that time. Like newspaper archives or dock archives that say what ship is departing from which pier.

[@wendlebury8802]

Thanks as always for another interesting post. It all started with Titanic and I can't believe how I've become interested in "ships" of all types ...who'd have thought lol

[@lukas_2004]

16:52 You mean the Vaterland, right? Because the Imperator was in Hamburg during WW1 I believe.

[@rmmvfazbearentertainment1054]

I was thinking of that as well

[@DrewAdamick]

Yes, Vaterland was stuck in New York.

[@Inquisitor-0-1]

Hello Mike ❤ if you see this there are a few more ship stories I like to hear like the (MV wilhelm gustloff , SS cap arcona and the lancastria)

[@JoeSlish-q2e]

another great video, so what else is new