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Did anyone survive Lusitania?

Of the 1,960 verified people on board Lusitania, 767 survived. Four survivors (marked with “*”) died of trauma related to the sinking shortly afterwards, reducing the number saved to 763.



Yes, out of the 1,960 passengers and crew on board the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, there were 763 survivors. Because the ship sank in just 18 minutes, the evacuation was chaotic, and only about 39% of those on board made it to safety. Notable survivors included scenic designer Oliver Percy Bernard, Canadian businessman Sir Frederick Orr-Lewis, and the famous British suffragist Margaret Mackworth. The high-value tragedy of the Lusitania is that it was a civilian liner, and the loss of nearly 1,200 lives—including 128 Americans—played a critical role in shifting global public opinion against Germany during World War I. For historians, the stories of the survivors provide a harrowing account of the speed and brutality of early 20th-century submarine warfare. While the Titanic is more famous for its iceberg, the Lusitania's survivors bore witness to a "man-made" disaster that changed the course of military history and international maritime law regarding the protection of non-combatant vessels.

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