Shipwreck

North Dakotans have sometimes found themselves in the thick of historical disasters. In 1915, early in World War One, a German U-boat torpedoed the SS Lusitania off the Irish coast. The ocean liner sank within 20 minutes. Over 60% of the passengers died.

The SS Admiral Sampson was a cargo and passenger steamship built for the American Mail Steamship Company in 1898. In 1909 both the Sampson and her sister…