The Lusitania (Part Two)

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.