The Lusitania Poem by John Weber

The Lusitania

Rating: 5.0


More than twelve hundred souls
Meet their watery grave.
German U-boat patrols
Spark a fatal shockwave.

This echo of the past
Resounds throughout history.
Rousing war unsurpassed,
Deadly shroud of mystery.

The empire aids Cunard,
Loaning millions in pounds.
Lord Inverclyde toils hard
On deceptions unsound.

They hide admiralty
Within their merchant fleet,
And in reality
War barons plot deceit.

Famed cruiser so agile
Brings home the Blue Riband.
Propellers prove fragile,
New designs would respond.

While retooling the craft,
Gun mountings are installed.
Hidden away most daft
Down where the ropes are hauled.

However they decide
To switch their new design.
Large cargo holds shall hide
Munitions in her spine.

War with Germany starts
With land mines and blockades.
America builds parts
While Britain launches raids.

The Isles become war zones
With no sure passage back.
Submarines would throw stones
To sink the Union Jack.

So Daniel Dow protests
This British smuggling ring.
The prior chief suggests
Attacks these loads will bring.

A German message warns:
'Huge risk at British sea!
If allied flags adorn,
They'll be hacked to debris! '

Captain Turner is picked
To lead the merchant ship.
'Speed shall avoid conflict
On this momentous trip.'

Voyage two hundred-one
Departs Pier 54
Under a watchful sun,
Fresh ammo in her store.

Steaming toward Fastnet Rock,
Bowler Bill seeks advice.
Three ships are sunk in shock,
Warnings are confirmed twice.

Posting double look-outs,
They ready the lifeboats.
Bill secures a black out
While taking careful notes.

Thirty miles from Cape Clear,
The vessel enters fog.
Weather thwarts so severe
The captain slows their slog.

The periscope spots them
As orders are passed down.
One button shall condemn,
Destruction all around.

The Old Head of Kinsale
Watches the missile glide.
The bomb shreds to assail
Those weapons stowed inside.

Explosions rock the boat;
Ocean gushes inside.
The battered stern won't float,
All controls lock their slide.

Listing fifteen degrees,
The lifeboats fail to launch.
Swift decent lugs a squeeze
Impossible to staunch.

After mounting seconds
The vessel starts to slow,
While the stark deep beckons
To swallow them below.

Schweiger spies the turmoil
From aboard U-20.
Acts of rage shall embroil.
Outcomes destroy plenty.

Along the starboard side,
Crewmen sadly lose grip.
Force and terror collide-
Rag dolls plummet and flip.

The Merseyside Bowler,
Captain Bill Turner stays
As the helm controller
Until the sea betrays.

He scoops the chart and log
Before tossed by the wave
To splash down in the fog
As deck chairs bob to save.

Eighteen minutes stalk down
As the queen disappears,
This vessel of the crown
Sheds life essence like tears.

Of the forty-eight rafts,
Only six salvage lives.
Few are plucked from the craft,
Rescued before the dive.

Bodies scramble for life
As the rouge flotsam floats.
Survivors torn by strife
Wait for swift rescue boats.

The massive toll of grief
Demands a quick response.
Liars sell disbelief,
More soldiers to ensconce.

Freedom dies from deceit
Since justice needs to thrive.
Heroes wail in defeat
When covert acts contrive.

So Schweiger falls denounced
For his sinister role.
Yet U-boats do fall trounced
By the British patrol.

Bounties Cunard offers
To captains ramming foes
Offer tempting coffers
For quelling danger woes.

Poor Lusitania!
Dashed by corruptive lies.
Megalomania,
Shielding truth in disguise.

The sleeping giant stirs
Due to brutal accounts,
Sparking violent slurs
With omissive recounts.

Woodrow Wilson blusters
At the German attack
While the bankers muster
To break our nation’s back.

Indignant elites rule
Behind grim deception.
Lessons untaught in school
Show wicked inception.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Billy Joe Collins 18 November 2008

very well wrote tells the whole sad story long but worth the time to read it very well done

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John Weber

John Weber

Milwaukee, WI
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