Centuries of military history off the Cork coast

National Geographic had a TV premiere on Sunday 15 Jul on the diving expedition last year to the transatlantic passenger liner, the Lusitania, sunk by one torpedo from a German submarine 11 miles off Cork’s Old Head of Kinsale in 1915.

The Germans believed she was carrying ammunition to help the Allied forces during WWI. She sank in 18 minutes with not enough time to release the lifeboats, with the loss of more than 1,000 lives. More than 700 survivors were rescued.

A two-week archaeological dig began on Bere Island recently. One of the team has said that he hopes they will find an intact British coastal gun emplacement with 18-pound cannons which were built from 1790 and maintained until about 1850 in anticipation of an expected invasion attempt by the French in response to requests from Irish leaders such as Wolf Tone in the 1790s. He said if the gunners were good at their job, they could have posed considerable problems for the French navy with 15,000 soldiers — who abandoned their attempt with Wolfe Tone to land in December 1796 because of atrocious weather. If they had landed, success could not be certain as the British coastal signalling defences were well organised.