Life — August 12, 1915 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Sea Monster" - Life Magazine, August 12, 1915 This illustration depicts children at a beach encountering what appears to be a large, dark spherical object in the shallow water. Given the 1915 date and title "The Sea Monster," this likely references the **RMS Lusitania**, the British ocean liner torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915—a major news event that killed nearly 1,200 people, including 128 Americans. The cartoon satirizes public anxiety about German submarines as a tangible threat. By showing innocent children discovering this "monster" at an ordinary beach, Life emphasizes how the war—previously distant—now threatened American civilians and domestic spaces. The image transforms the abstract naval conflict into something physically present and menacing on American shores.