After the sinking of this British ocean liner with Americans aboard, Germany promised that no more merchant ships would be torpedoed without warning:
After the sinking of the British ocean liner Arabic on August 19, 1915, Germany promised that no more merchant ships would be torpedoed without warning. Two Americans were aboard and Germany feared U.S. entry into World War I. Earlier, in May 1915, a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania, killing 60 percent of those on board?some 1,198?of whom 128 were Americans. The threat of American intervention receded until the beleaguered Germans believed it was necessary to resume unrestricted submarine warfare to break the British blockade. On January 31, 1917, Berlin’s announcement that its submarines would "sink on sight? brought the United States into the war.
