In the last months of World War I , Whiddy became the site of a US naval air station . The US Navy 's Air Wing established a seaplane base on the eastern end of the island ; this became operational on 25 September 1918 when the first two Curtiss Model H planes arrived . These air crews patrolled shipping lanes around Fastnet Rock – close to where the RMS Lusitania had been sunk some years earlier . One of the base 's planes crashed on 22 October 1918 , killing one airman , Walford August Anderson
RMS Lusitania had been sunk some years earlier
Sinking of the RMS Lusitania
Whiddy Island