US businessman dives down to Lusitania

A US businessman has completed a dive off the south coast to the wreckage of the liner Lusitania, sunk by a German U-boat in 1915.

Gregg Bemis, a Santa Fe businessman who trained for more than a year for the 300ft dive, said he reached the ship in six minutes and spent about four minutes looking around before ascending.

He said the ship was still beautiful despite being badly damaged by depth charges dropped by the British in the 1950s.

Visibility is 20 feet or less at that depth, but Bemis said he noticed magnificent skylights lying around with broken pipes, steel bars and other rubbish.

“There is so much there that should be brought up and put in a museum,” said Bemis, aged 76.

An Irish court is considering Bemis’s request to conduct a forensic dive that could solve mysteries about the sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915, about 12 miles off Kinsale in Co Cork.

The Government has banned unauthorised diving at the site to keep treasure hunters from ransacking the wreck.

The submarine attack on the British liner killed 1,200 people, including 128 Americans, and helped bring the US into the war.

The 785ft liner went down in 18 minutes after the torpedo slammed into its starboard side.

Survivors reported a second explosion shortly after the torpedo struck. The cause of the second blast remains a mystery, although some have speculated the ship also was carrying munitions.

Bemis claimed sole ownership of the Lusitania several years ago by acquiring shares from those who had bought the ship from its insurer.