#LectureLusitania - The Winter lecture 2015/16 season of the Glenua Sailing Centre resumes with the return to the venue of the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Ringsend, Dublin, this Thursday, 1st October at 8pm.

The topic for this season’s opening lecture “The Sinking of the Lusitania” will be illustrated and presented by Cormac F. Lowth. An entry fee of €5 is in aid of the R.N.L.I.

Cormac is well-known as a superb researcher, lecturer and writer on many aspects of Irish maritime history. This lecture will examine, with many rare images of her interior, various aspects of the Lusitania focusing on the innovative nature of her construction and prominence as a luxury Trans-Atlantic passenger liner.

The lecture will also delve into the mysteries surrounding the last fateful voyage of the Lusitania from New York to include the alleged cargo of the ship, the activities of British Naval Intelligence and the involvement of ‘Room 40’ in breaking German codes, the German U-20 torpedo attack on the Lusitania and the massive second explosion that sank the ship.

Cormac will then describe the rescue of the survivors, the propaganda campaign that followed the sinking and the tragic aftermath, when, despite an inquest, an official enquiry, various salvage attempts and diving investigations of the wreck, conspiracy theories and rumours abound right up to 2015, a hundred years later.

Among the reports earlier this year on Afloat.ie was the RMS Lusitania commemoration centenary ceremony hosted by Cunard and the Port of Cork, led by President Michael D Higgins in Cobh to mark the 100th anniversary of the liner's sinking off the Cork coast.

Notable, the Cunard liner 'Queen Victoria' arrived at Cobh cruise terminal with 2,144 passengers as part of a seven night 'Lusitania Remembered' voyage, following a wreath-laying ceremony held on board in the early hours off the wreck site off Old Head of Kinsale.

Later that same day ashore, four glass headstones were unveiled, having been commissioned for the centenary by the Port of Cork and Cunard, at the Old Church Graveyard where 170 victims of the Lusitania are buried in what were previously unmarked graves.