According to
A People's History of the United States by
Howard Zinn, the
Lusitania was carrying the following from the US to
Britain:
- 1,248 cases of 3-inch shells
- 4,927 boxes of cartriges (1000 rounds per box)
- 2,000 cases of small-arms ammunition.
Zinn says that the
manifests were
falsified to hide this information, and that both the
US and the
UK lied about it. He does not say from where he got the above numbers, although a quick scan of his
bibliography suggests his source was
Lusitania, by
Colin Simpson.
The sinking of the Lusitania was significant, because it provided a good reason for the United States to enter World War I.