For some time since war had been declared, the Lusitania had been used as a high-speed munitions carrier by the Admiralty's trade department. On her final voyage, she was carrying considerably more contraband than usual, including eighteen cases of fuses for various calibre artillery shells, which were listed on her manifest, and a large consignment of gun-cotton, an explosive used in the manufacture of propellant charges for big-gun shells, which wasn't listed on the manifest. These two items caused a minor sensation when their presence aboard the Lusitania was first revealed in the American press shortly after the sinking. The fuses carried in eighteen cases as cargo aboard the Lusitania were far from complete fuses and formed part of a mixed consignment of percussion fuse mechanisms for the British Army's 4.5-inch and 6-inch calibre high explosive shells, and the 13-pounder shrapnel shell. Despite being incomplete, they did contain a small quantity of explosive, which is why all eighteen cases were stored in the ship's magazine, aft. The gun-cotton was quite a large consignment and was stored in part of the new space created by the Admiralty, forward on E deck. It is worth recording that this large consignment was not packed in the proper containers usually employed to transport this explosive, due to a sudden shortage of them. According to the original ship's manifest, the 1, 271 cases of ammunition that are listed on page one of the manifest right, are actually '1,248 cases  of shrapnel', (supposedly just the lead musket balls with which to fill shrapnel shells). Also, the large consignments of Lard, Butter and Cheese mentioned on page one of this manifest were actually consigned to the Royal Navy's Weapons Testing Establishment at Shoeburyness, Essex. Quite why such an establishment would want some ninety tons of rancid dairy products has never been explained. The 1,248 cases of shrapnel came  from the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and their shipping note was a little  more specific than the ship's cargo manifest. The shipping note, dated 28 April 1915, shows 'consignment number 23' as being '1,248 cases of three-inch calibre shrapnel shells, filled; four shells to each case'. These shells were consigned to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and as our own subsequent research, aided by the Royal Artillery Historical Trust has revealed, they were for use by the Royal Artillery in the 13-pounder field gun. So why was such a large consignment of live artillery shells being carried aboard the Lusitania, a passenger liner? Iit must be remembered that due to the deepening munitions crisis, speed was of the absolute essence. The British Army was firing more shells per week than the factories produced. Britain's factories were producing only one quarter of the daily output of shells that French munitions factories produced. Even more lamentable was the fact that Germany's armament factories were producing more than double the amount of the combined daily production totals of the British and French factories. Therefore, corners had to be cut and usual, time consuming peacetime practices such as stockpiling and using shells in rotation according to date of manufacture, were of necessity quickly abandoned, in the desperate rush to get the shells to the front. The American-made shells were indistinguishable from their British-made counterparts apart from the manufacturer's mark, and to save a considerable amount of precious time, as Colonel Phillips' staff confirmed to us in writing, they were imported from America as complete rounds, with a simple transit plug in place of the 'Type 80 Time and Percussion fuze' It is therefore important at this point to properly explain the difference between a shell and a complete round, and to explain a little about the anatomy of this ammunition and how it was packed, transported and used. The shell, or more properly, 'projectile', actually weighed 12.5 pounds and contained 234 lead musket balls, forty-one of which combined to weigh one pound, which were suspended in resin. The projectile itself contained only a small 'burster' charge, designed to discharge the shrapnel balls in flight, ahead of advancing enemy troops, like a shotgun blast. Against advancing troops, a fusillade of shrapnel was unrivalled as a killer of men en masse. The complete round, as imported from America, was made up of the unfused  projectile, fitted with its cartridge, which contained a propellant charge  of 1.25 pounds of cordite MD extruded into rods or 'cords'. Cordite MD was a modification to standard cordite and was designed to help prevent erosion of the gun's barrel. The propellant charge was sufficient when the gun was fired, to give the 12.5 pound projectile a maximum range of 5,900 yards and the 13-pounder field gun a muzzle velocity of 1,675 feet per second. Each of these unfused complete rounds weighed 16.5 pounds. Hereafter, for the sake of convenience, we shall simply refer to the complete round as a 'round'.The wooden crates containing the imported rounds were also made in America, to the War Office specification. They were made of deal (untreated pine) with elm ends, had two metal bands running around them and two heavy wire handles, one at each end. The crates were unlined, contained no packing other than two wooden support spacers, and each empty crate weighed 6 pounds. A crate containing four complete 13-pounder shrapnel rounds without fuses would therefore weigh a hefty 72 pounds, hence the thick wire handles. The Type 80 time and percussion fuse was peculiar to shrapnel and anti-aircraft shells, both of which were designed to explode in flight. The fuse carried a percussion mechanism in case the timer failed and the projectile returned to earth. Upon receipt of the imported shrapnel rounds at the Royal Arsenal, they would simply be mixed in with other outbound consignments of ammunition destined for the front. In the case of the imported fuse parts though, it was a little different. The workers at the arsenal had to assemble and then arm each fuse. This involved inserting the fuse detonator into the imported percussion mechanisms and, in the case of those fuses destined to be fitted to shrapnel and anti-aircraft shells, fitting this assembly into a nose cone, which would also include the powder-operated timer rings. The now complete fuse would then be fitted with a protective soft lead cover. The assembled fuses would be packed into their own,separate, wooden boxes.The fuses were never packed with nor fitted to, the rounds until the two separate lots reached the gun battery's fusing station in the reserve lines. It was there that the round's transit plug was removed and the fuse, still with its protective cover, was finally fitted to the round to make it ready. Each round was then stencilled with the word `fused', reboxed again in their original wooden crates (four rounds per crate) and then sent on the short journey up the line, for immediate use. The consignments of shrapnel rounds and fuse mechanisms carried aboard the Lusitania, were just part of a very large order supplied by Bethlehem Steel, totalling 214 consignments. The manifest featured on this page is a somewhat generalised and largely inaccurate manifest, and is based upon the manifest that appeared in the American press shortly after the sinking of the Lusitania. There were a number of manifests printed in different newspapers, all of which are inaccurate and different to the one above. The "supplementary manifest" (which would give a truer picture!) was filed after the Lusitania left New York and is for the attention of the President of the United States of America. It has never been made public. What must be remembered is that DEFINITELY aboard the ship, in the enlarged forward hold, was a total of 1,248 cases of LIVE 3" shrapnel shells (four shells per case) destined for use by the Royal Artillery, as well as two consignments of unrefrigerated "butter" and "cheese" that together weighed nearly 90 tons and were both destined for the Royal Navy Weapons Testing Establishment in Essex. Quite what such an establishment wanted with such a large quantity of rancid dairy products remains a mystery to this day! Curiously though, both those items were insured at the special government insurance rate and even more curious is the fact that the insurance was never claimed. Above image couretsy of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust. Cutaway view of the 13pdr shrapnel projectile. Lusitania Online. Cargo stowage plan, viewed from starboard. (Likely impact point of the torpedo marked by the two concentric circles). Lusitania Online. Likely area of Torpedo impact. Lusitania Online. Lusitania Online A much fuller account, is mentioned in "THE LUSITANIA STORY" Schwieger’s Plan of Attack. When Schwieger planned his opportunist attack on the passing Lusitania,   it was of necessity, a case of rapid response planning. He didn’t have time  to study her movements thoroughly, as he perhaps would have wanted to.   Once U20’s pilot had positively identified her, Schwieger knew that his   target was capable of 26 knots, that was no secret, but his experienced eye   told him she was not moving as fast as that. He estimated her speed initially   as being 22 knots, an educated guess. To be sure his torpedo found its   mark on such a fast target he planned to hit her in a fairly centralised   location, between the second and third funnels.  The essential data of the attack is as follows: Shot distance of 700 meters. Torpedo Speed = 37 knots  (19.03 meters per second).    Time to Target  (700 meters / 19.03 m/s) 36.8 seconds. Schwieger noticed through his periscope that his shot hit the ship much   further forward of where he’d planned. He realised that he’d over-estimated   his target’s speed. Lusitania was in fact making just 18 knots at the time, not 22. Because the water column from the explosion took some time to reach its full size, Schwieger; watching through his perscope, was ultimately   somewhat disappointed with the actual hit position. He was not to know   that his shot had hit the Lusitania in the one place that would render fatal   damage to her: her cargo hold.  Target’s speed ​​difference (calculated speed 22 knots – real speed 18 knots) = 4 knots =  2.06 m/s Hit shift = 2.06 m/s,  36.8 seconds = 75.7 meters = 248.3 feet forward of intended impact point. The control system of the torpedo should have had a maximum rate of 1% deviation at 700 meters = 7 meters = 23 feet. Allowing for this deviation in the calculation, thus gives us a range of the original 248.3 feet forward of the intended impact point +/- a further 23 feet. This gives us a final range of the hit being 225.3 to 271.3 feet further forward of where Schwieger had hoped to hit the ship, which is easily sufficient to reach as far as the middle of the cargo hold area. The above data was made available to us by Herr Ralf Bartzke from Germany. Ralf is a highly accomplished student of U Boat tactics and he was able to run U20’s attack on the Lusitania through a computer simulator for us. The computer simulation has confirmed the liklihood of Schwieger’s torpedo having hit the ship in her forward hold, in the vicinity of her foremast and three meters below her waterline.