Lusitania mystery ‘must be solved’
US multimillionaire Gregg Bemis said the only way to solve the century-old mystery of the ‘second blast’, which he believes was caused by an illegal cargo of ammunition, is to get inside the buckled hull, which lies some 20km off the Old Head of Kinsale.
“In order to stop spinning our wheels we have to get inside the wreck — whatever it takes to get inside the ship where we can get the answers conclusively; the location of the torpedo, the second explosion, the boilers’ condition,” he said.
He and his dive adviser, Eoin McGarry, will discuss the project with Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan and state archaeologists today.
“Getting permission to dive is not the problem. It’s how do you treat the site and any artifacts that may be recovered. That’s what we’ll be discussing today,” Mr McGarry said
The new expedition follows a €1.5m National Geographic dive expedition last year for the Dark Secrets of the Lusitania documentary, one of the largest and most complex projects undertaken in Ireland.
It set out to uncover what really happened to the passenger liner, which was sunk by a torpedo fired from a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, with the loss of 1,198 lives.
Mr Bemis has always believed the suggestion that the ship was carrying ammunition.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California tested four explosion theories for the documentary.
They ruled out coal dust, aluminium, and nitroglycerine as the cause, and said a boiler explosion was the most likely cause of the second explosion.
Mr Bemis said their tests had serious shortcomings.
“I don’t think they have put all the relevant material in their analysis,” he said.
“They do not know exactly where the torpedo hit. They don’t know which compartment the torpedo penetrated and exploded.
“That makes a huge difference. They don’t know about the bulk head doors.
“They do not know if they were closed or open. There’s no one to know that. Those are two vital bits of knowledge.”
Mr McGarry said the only way to resolve the issue is to examine the explosion blast cavity.
It is embedded in the seabed so the only way to get at it is to dive inside the wreck and examine it from the inside out, he said.
In recent years, Mr McGarry has recovered artifacts from the wreck including the bridge turbine tell-tale indicator, which gave a crucial insight into the speed of the engines at the time of the torpedo impact, the telemotor, part of the ship’s steering system, and four portholes.
They are destined for Irish museums and the talks today will examine how they could form a key part of centenary commemorations of the vessel’s sinking.
Mr Bemis and Mr McGarry will be in Cork tonight to attend the worldwide launch of The Dark Secrets of the Lusitania, produced by LA-based Creative Differences and Cork-based M3 TV.
The crew use an array of hi-tech devices including mini-submarines, an underwater ‘space suit’ with its own atmosphere, and remotely operated vehicles.
An Irish-led dive team and a specialised cutting crew from the oil exploration industry dived on the wreck off the ‘Granuaile’ vessel over 10 days.
The documentary is now being released on National Geographic channels worldwide network to a potential audience of over 302m.
Tonight’s launch at the Port of Cork will also discuss the tourism potential of the centenary of the ship’s sinking in 2015.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
