The SS Tuscania was a luxury liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 of the Cunard

Cunard Line

Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...

 subsidiary Anchor Line, named after a town in Italy

Tuscania

Tuscania is a town and comune in the province of Viterbo, Lazio Region, Italy. Until the late 19th century the town was known as Toscanella.-Ancient times:...

. She was torpedoed in 1918 by the German U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 UB-77

German type UB III submarine

The Type UB III submarine was a class of U-boat built during World War I by the Kaiserliche Marine.UB III boats carried 10 torpedoes and were armed with one 88 mm deck gun. They carried a crew of 34 and had a cruising range of around 9,000 miles...

 while carrying American troops to Europe and sank with a loss of 210 lives.

Commercial career

The Tuscania carried passengers between New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 while in service with the Anchor Line, on a route that had previously been assigned to her sistership Transylvania

SS Transylvania (1914)

The SS Transylvania was a passenger liner of the Cunard subsidiary Anchor Line, and a sister ship to SS Tuscania. She was torpedoed and sunk on May 4, 1917 by the German U-boat U-63 while carrying Allied troops to Egypt and sank with a loss of 412 lives.Completed just before the outbreak of World...

. She continued to run this route even as World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 broke out in Europe and Germany initiated. She also made at least one run from Bombay to Liverpool. Unrestricted submarine warfare in British territorial waters, put neutral ships like the Tuscania at risk of being misidentified and attacked. The Tuscania made international headlines for rescuing passengers and crew from the burning Greek steamer SS Athinai

SS Athinai (1908)

SS Athinai was a Greek transatlantic steamer that burned and sank on 19 September 1915.-Commercial career:The SS Athinai was commissioned by the Hellenic Transatlantic Steam Navigation Company to operate between Piraeus, Kalamata, Patras, and New York...

 on September 20, 1915, and made the news again in March 1917 by evading a submarine and a suspected German commerce raider.

Notable passengers

• Harry Randall Truman, who later died in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
  1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
  The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located in Washington state, in the United States, was a major volcanic eruption. The eruption was the only significant one to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California...
  
  .
• Sydney Brooks
  Sydney Brooks
  Sydney Brooks was a British author and critic. Brooks was a frequent contributor to the Saturday Review and was in England writing reviews in late 1895 through January 1896, when he left to visit Chicago...
  
  , British critic.
• Leonard Read
  Leonard Read
  Leonard E. Read was an American economist and the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, which was the first modern free market think tank in the United States....
  
  , founder of Foundation for Economic Education
  Foundation for Economic Education
  The Foundation for Economic Education is one of the oldest free-market organizations established in the United States to study and advance the freedom philosophy. Murray Rothbard recognizes FEE for creating a "crucial open center" that he credits with launching the movement...
  
   (survived sinking).

Army units on board

• 100th Aero Squadron
  100th Aero Squadron
  The 100th Aero Squadron was a Day Bombardment squadron during World War I, but never saw combat.-History:The 100th Aero Squadron was activated August 20, 1917 at Kelly Field, Texas, and trained there until it moved to Mineola, Long Island on the October 14, 1917...
  
  
• 158th Aero Squadron
• 213th Aero Squadron
• 32nd Infantry Division (United States)
• 20th Engineers
• 357th Infantry
• 165th Depot

External links

• Tuscania, an American History
• http://www.footnote.com/image/#19120039 100th history
• http://www.footnote.com/image/#19743002 158th history
• http://www.footnote.com/image/#19052811 213th history