Poor weather sinks attempts to explore wreck of torpedoed liner Lusitania

A TORPEDO sank the Lusitania in the First World War and today the weather is doing its best to sink plans to explore her.

Sub-aqua teams were meant to carry out investigative dives on the wreck of the passenger liner this summer, but the appalling conditions of the past few months scuppered all chances.

“We had seven scheduled dives and we managed to get two,” said disappointed project head, American entrepreneur F Gregg Bemis.

“The two we did get in, the visibility was terrible — just one to two metres — so it was extremely dangerous and very unproductive.”

Unbowed, the veteran adventurer is working behind the scenes at his home in the US state of New Mexico to prepare a major dive expedition next summer that will involve professional underwater wreck explorers and highly specialised recording and retrieval equipment that can operate at length at the 90m depths.

To date he has been using mainly highly-experienced Irish amateur divers who were also disappointed not to be able to proceed with the historic ventures.

“We have a couple more dives scheduled for later this month with these guys and again in September if necessary so there is still hope that we’ll get some work done before the winter.

“I won’t get over myself — I understand the weather is beginning to show an improvement in Ireland but the trouble is, I can’t commute just whenever there’s a break in the clouds — but any information these guys can gather will be a big help.”

The meteorological hurdles are the latest in a long series of obstacles Mr Bemis has faced in trying to realise his three decades long dream of uncovering the sad secrets of the Lusitania, which went down off the Old Head of Kinsale in May 1915 with the loss of 1,195 lives.

Legally he is the owner of the vessel, having bought it from a historical trust in 1968, but he had to go to courts in Britain, the US and finally Ireland to secure the rights to explore it. Designated a heritage site, Irish law has always prohibited interference with it or its contents but after an 11-year battle, the Supreme Court finally ruled earlier this year that the State could grant him an exploration licence.

The licence lasts for five years and all dives must be approved by Dúchas, the Irish Heritage Service, which is monitoring the activities. But Mr Bemis said he remained confident the €3 million project would succeed.

“The weather will improve. We’ve waited this long and we can wait a little longer.”

The Lusitania has long remained a source of intrigue to military and marine historians. It was categorised as a passenger and merchant ship so it was not a legitimate war target and its sinking by a German U-boat, which resulted in the deaths of 124 American citizens, was the defining factor in bringing the US into the war.

Germany, however, claimed the ship was carrying munitions for the British army. Accounts from some of the 764 survivors lent weight to that theory as they reported a second explosion after the torpedo blast, suggesting there was gunpowder on board.

Some theories accuse the British of using innocent civilians as human shields to protect munitions convoys and some even say the passengers were deliberately sacrificed to draw the American army into the conflict.

Mr Bemis said he hoped his explorations would uncover the truth.