Winsor McCay animated and released The Sinking of the Lusitania in 1918. In order to do so, McCay had to draw over 20,000 detailed drawings by himself. The short 12 minute film attempted to capture the event as realistically as possible. This task was difficult to accomplish in that there was no live action footage of the sinking. McCay had to base his drawings on mere reports and pictures of the boat from before its departure.