Lex Anteinternet: The White Star liner Laurentic sunk by mines

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

The White Star liner Laurentic sunk by mines

White Star's SS Laurentic struck two mines on this date in 1917 and sunk off the coast of Ireland. The mines had been placed in that location by a German mine laying submarine. The Laurentic was on her way to the UK from Halifax.

She had not originally been scheduled to be in that area but had stopped at a British naval base in Ireland to disembark four passengers with symptoms of yellow fever. 354 passengers lost their lives in the sinking. 121 survived. Bodies washed up on shore for weeks.

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Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

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