[LUSITANIA]: A very interesting A.L.S., H[arry] R[obinson] Frost, one of the Lusitania survivors, three pages, 8vo ...

[LUSITANIA]: A very interesting A.L.S., H[arry] R[obinson] Frost, one of the Lusitania survivors, three pages, 8vo, Barcelone, 23rd January 1917, in French. Frost refers to the horrifying experience lived as one of the Lusitania passengers, entitling his letter ''Tristes Souvenirs du Lusitania, 7 Mai 1915'' ('' Sad souvenirs of the Lusitania, 7th May 1915''), and explains what he saw and some of the situations he went through on 7th May 1915, stating `I would like to forget the three phases of this terrible drama. The ten minutes immediately after the torpedo, when everybody was saying that we would remain afloat, but with the officers faces expressing that we had no chance. And then the agony in the water, without any boat around to help, the screaming of desperation, the calls without response. The repeated goodbyes to all the ones we love - until the exhaustion.´ and further saying `The day after the catastrophe was very hard too - at Queenstown, full of dead bodies, having to verify the absence of friends, trying to relieve the despair of poor children looking for their fathers and mothers in vain - and then we wonder how have we ended here. We all owe this to the genius of Guglielmo Marconi. And me, who was not in a rescue boat like many others, I owe it to a courageous sailor who gave me a life jacket two minutes before being thrown out to the sea as a result of the explosion of the ship, and further to the officer and the twelve sailors who found me almost dead at 07h in the evening and who brought me back to life´. Frost concludes saying `I am alive thanks to God who guided all of us, who did the miracle of letting my heart beating despite the 5 hours of submersion. The pages have been removed from an autograph album, and are professionally repaired to one edge. Very small overall, minor age wear. G £200-300 Harry Robinson Frost, American passenger and survivor of the last Lusitania trip from New York to Liverpool on 7th May 1915. Lusitania was a British Ocean liner that a German U-20 submarine sank on 7th May 1915, close to the south coast of Ireland, during WWI. The world´s largest passenger ship of its time. Aboard 1,266 passengers and crew of 696. The commanding officer of the U-boat, gave the order to fire one torpedo, which struck Lusitania on the starboard bow, moments later, a second explosion erupted from within Lusitania's hull, and the ship began to founder rapidly. Only six out of 48 lifeboats were launched successfully, and 1,198 passengers lost their lives. It has been known many years later that the Lusitania was carrying undeclared war munitions among its cargo, including 750 tons of rifles and machine-guns, as well as aluminum powder for explosives manufacture. Queenstown is the former name of Cobh, a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork Ireland. In 1920 the name was changed.