Passengers line the rails beneath a stack of collapsible lifeboats.

To conserve coal, only 19 of the Lusitania's 25 boilers are being used on the voyage, reducing the ship's speed to 21 knots. Most of the ship's passengers choose to avoid the topic of a possible U-boat attack. Captain Turner isn't about to bring up the subject either. He declines to conduct lifeboat drills, citing his fear that they "might cause panic or worry."

One of the few concerned passengers is college professor John Bernard "Ian" Holbourn, who had dreamed before the departure that the Lusitania would be torpedoed. Holbourn speaks out about the lack of emergency preparations, saying that everyone on board should at least known how to put on a lifebelt. A group of passengers, whom Holbourn nicknames the "Ostrich Club," approach him and insist that he stop being an alarmist. Meanwhile, the U-20 rounds the southwest tip of Ireland and unsuccessfully stalks several ships before spotting a small schooner, the Earl of Lathorn. Schwieger allows the schooner's crew to escape in their life rafts, and then destroys the craft with gunfire.