Posted on 07/23/2008 1:00:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
American entrepreneur Gregg Bemis finally gets courts go-ahead to explore the wreck off Ireland
It is the best known shipwreck lying on the Irish seabed, but it is only today that the owner of the Lusitania will finally begin the first extensive visual documentation of the luxury liner that sank 93 years ago.
Gregg Bemis, who bought the remains of the vessel for £1,000 from former partners in a diving business in 1968, has been granted an imaging licence by the Department of the Environment. This allows him to photograph and film the entire structure, and should allow him to produce the first high-resolution pictures of the historic vessel.
The RMS Lusitania sank off the coast of Cork in May 1915 when a German U-boat torpedoed it. An undetermined second explosion is believed to have speeded its sinking, with 1,198 passengers and crew losing their lives.
Bemis is hoping that the week-long filming project, which begins today, will prove his theory that the Lusitania was carrying explosives, and that these were the cause of the mysterious second blast.
“I want to find out where the second explosion took place and why,” he said. “I believe there were explosives on board. I can tell the whole world that, but they’re not going to believe me until we get down there and get proof.”
JWM Productions will film the project for a television series to be shown on the Discovery Channel next year.
The 80-year-old entrepreneur only won the right to explore the wreckage,
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I have a couple of those in my collection as well.
They were much later proven to be merely a propaganda tool and all issued by the British government, even the supposed “Goetz” version printed in German.
Oddly enough, it was in an article about that very medallion that I first heard of the Lusitania.
Yep — and one of the biggest German propaganda blunders of all time.
It would be a bit like our “Our Dear Friends, the Saudis” issuing a commemorative medallion celebrating the success of the WTC attack. (154 Israelis killed, maybe 2 or 3 people from muslim countries)...
lol! Yep.
Except the Germans never issues the medallions.
They were all later proved to have been issued by the British government in the guise of having been issued by Germany as a “trophy.”
British Intel then issued a copy of the first medallion.
The Germans actually advertised in the shipping pages of the New York papers that they could not guarantee the safety of passengers embarking on the Lusitania. This was routine during the Great War.
The Lustitania was operating in war zone. Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom. Further, she was carrying Canadian Army officers, bound for Flanders, as well as some of their wives. She was also laden with cargo, including cotton. Any cargo had military signifigance. She also had a Royal Navy contingent and two deck mounted six inch guns which would have precluded any possibility for a U-Boat to have issued a challenge or a warning. (The Lusitania had a great speed advantage over any U-Boat. The U-Boats depended on passenger ships running into their path.)
btt
“It was attitudes like yours that led to the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor...”
Miscreant! The Germans were not then in posession of a single bomb that could do all of that damage. Of course neither were the Japs. So the question among SERIOUS Historians is WHO bombed Pearl and HOW did they frame the hapless Japs for the atrocity?
VERY sharp uniforms!
The central spike on the "Pickelhaube" helmet of the Imperial German Army of WWI had only one purpose. To deflect the stroke of a cavalryman's saber. Since the machinegun made a cavalry charge even more insane than an infantry charge, and the base helmet design was only hardened leather, it was quickly replaced by the "coal scuttle" helmet which was still in use in WWII...
the infowarrior
Entangling alliances helped start WWI,but Serbia was guilty of state sponsored Terrorism
History is written by the victors
So they invaded Belgium. Germans: some military competence, lousy sense of direction.
< troofer > It was an inside job. The fires inside our battleships didn’t get hot enough to melt steel... < /troofer >
Riddle solved.
That wouldn't be enough to sink it wnless a hole was made in the hull so seawater could enter. Then it would sink
Senator Blutarsky knows...
No Canadian troops on the passenger manifest. And you got any photographs of those 6" guns Sparky?
The Canadians were traveling in mufti and registered as civilians so as not to violate U.S. neutrality. New York port officials were sympathetic to Britain and did not pry into details about passengers or cargo.
Almost all large passenger ships carried deck guns and the captain of the U-Boat had to assume the Lusitania did. Simpson, a Brit, maintains that the Lusitania did.
Clearly, the Lusitania was a legimate target.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.