I believe the animated documentary The Sinking of the Lusitania (Winsor McCay, 1918) was not made for entertainment. Instead, it served as propaganda, using animation to recreate a real maritime disaster that changed history. Its core purpose was strong political messaging.
The film is far from a simple record of the event. It was created during World War I (1914–1918). The sinking of the Lusitania, especially the death of many American civilians, caused great public anger in the United States.
Unlike the artist’s earlier works like Gertie the Dinosaur, this film aimed for a serious and realistic style. McCay used advanced layered acetate cel techniques for that time, drawing about 25,000 frames by hand. This was an astonishing amount of work. He also applied careful depth-of-field effects and multi-layer photography to vividly show the ship being hit by a torpedo, tilting, passengers falling into the water, and finally sinking，the scenes were very powerful. I believe they mean no warning before firing. Like a warning shot, a warning to the ship. (Not saying this is logical in a war zone)，The propaganda is absolutely the most obvious is gets though.
Moreover, text explanations were added throughout the animation to emphasize the truth of the event and specific data (such as the death toll). This strengthened its persuasive power as a “documentary” for propaganda.
This is not just an animation, but also a historical document—a necessary work for us to remember.
