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 ...
Did they sink the Housatonic with one of their Hunley class subs? ;-)
LOL. No, it was one of their Merrimac-class subs.
The Lusitania was sunk two years before we entered the war. It turned a lot of opinion against the Germans but it wasn't the cause of our entering the war. The cause was Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, which the US as a naval power couldn't tolerate.
“Repeated acts of war” was the stated reason. Among those acts of war was the sinking of the Lusitania.
Text Of The Declaration Of War Against Germany
World War I
Joint Resolution Passed by the United States Senate and House of Representatives
Effective April 6, 1917, at 1:18 p.m.
WHEREAS, The Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America; therefore, be it
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government, which has thus been thrust upon the United States, is hereby formally declared; and
That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
Interesting. Thanks for the text. That being said, I still believe that the final act, the straw that broke the camels back, was the declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare. German planners assumed that would drive the US into the war, they just figured they could starve Britain into submission before we could mobilize.
The Brits had for some time been flying AMERICAN flags on British ships sailing into u-boat infested waters around Britain.
Wilson, an avowed Anglophile, allowed British agents to patrol U.S. ports while the U.S. was ostensibly a “neutral” in the war, to try and stop legal shipments of goods to Germany.
The Brits wanted to drag the U.S. into the war they unfortunately and stupidly blundered into to save the FRENCH and Czarist Russians.
WW1 was one of the dumbest adventures a Democrat Administration ever got the U.S. into. It set the stage for Hitler, and WW2 - besides getting thousands of brave Americans killed for a bunch of damn Frenchmen, and the doltist British government.
I believe Wilson, FDR (the U.S. Naval Secretry) and the British Government deliberately contrived the Lusitania incident in a further attempt to involve us in WW1.
The Germans weren’t fools. They KNEW Wilson was conspriring with the Brits to get the U.S. into the War.
There was also evidence that Zimmerman had acted on his own in this instance and the Kaiser’s government disavowed such a stupid document as soon as it was brought to light.
We should have staye dout of WW1.
The Brits, French and Germans were perfectly capable of killing each othe roff without any help from us. They had been practising for centuries.
WW1 was the U.S.’ first involvement in “foreign entaglements” George Washington had warned us against.
Hard to say. Generally it’s better to avoid war.
Would the US have become a Super Power without our involvement in The War To End All Wars??
I think so. On the other hand, as long as you are powerful enough to protect your citizens and your interests, that is fine enough.
Its expensive being the world’s policeman and nobody appreciates it anyway. Let the rest of the world go on their way as long as they don’t interfere with us.
We’re sane - they are the crazies and there’s very little we will ever be able to do about it.
I believe in the Bible but I don’t think the part about being your brothers’ keeper extends to every other human being. People get the goverment they deserve.
It’s possible the British concocted a paln to get the US into the war.
“Colin Simpson, author of “The Lusitania,” wrote that Winston Churchill, head of the British Admiralty during the war, had ordered a report to predict the political impact if a passenger ship carrying Americans was sunk. German naval codes had been broken by the British, who knew approximately where all U-boats near the British Isles were located.
According to Simpson, Commander Joseph Kenworthy, of British Naval Intelligence, stated: “The Lusitania was deliberately sent at considerably reduced speed into an area where a U-boat was known to be waiting...escorts withdrawn.” Thus, even though Wilson had been reelected in 1916 with the slogan “He kept us out of war,” America soon found itself fighting a European war.”
Second, the L was out of its lanes. So Churchill would have had to have the powers of God to pull that one off. More anti-British/anti-monarchy hysteria.
This was an easy war to pick sides in, and I'm a German. The Germans were, indeed, the bad guys from A to Z, and the only time they got hosed was at Versailles. But even then, rather than JUST look at it from the perspective of 1914-1918, one needs to remember that they had invaded France twice in just under 50 years, and more than a few nations were sick of it.
The author examined manifests and tracked them backto manufacturers. His conclusion is that the ship was carrying not only ammunition but gun cotton packed in boxes marked as cheese.
When the sea water hit the gun cotton it set it off and blew out the bottom of the ship.
The author also makes a strong case that the ship had been outfitted as an auxiliary cruiser.
Interestingly, he also hints that she was guided toward the submarine; the British hoping that the ships sinking would induce Wilson to declare war.
Yes, this has been a stalking horse of the Old Wing Libertarians and the anti-monarchists for years. The only groups missing are the Masons and the Bilderburgers.
This wasn't the era of total situational awareness with GPS, satnav and instant communication. German Naval Command had no idea where the U-20 was, the British Admiralty only had an approximate idea where the Lusitania was. Heck even the Captain of the Lusitania wasn't exactly sure where he was, having misidentified Brow Head on the Irish coast earlier.
And the reason the Lusitania was sailing straight at constant speed was to take a four point bearing off the Head of Kinsale. It was a choice: take the bearing, or zig-zag to make yourself a harder target for a U-boat that might not exist, and be out of position and possibly run onto a rock that you know does exist (you're just not sure where you are relative to it).
Well, that's silly. In the first place, the U-boat in question (I forget the number) was out of his normal lanes and down to only two torpedoes, if I recall. He was returning from a mission and didn't expect any action.
Not actually returning, as it never reached assigned primary patrol area off Liverpool. Kaptainlleutnant Schweiger entered in his log, that, due to excess fuel consumption on the outward voyage, he had decided not to proceed North through the Irish Sea, but would patrol south of Ireland.
German Naval Command would learn this when the U-20 returned to port. I doubt they would then send a coded message.
“Would the US have become a Super Power without our involvement in WW1?”
My own opinion is that our decisive support of the Entente powers from 1914 to 1920, financing, provisioning, and finally winning the war with our armed forces, left us with worthless debts, a ginned up economy with no vital partners to trade with, and a revulsion at Wilsons blundering which led to knee-jerk isolationism.
But in a perverse way, by providing the final coup de grace to declining England and the ending of any stability in Central Europe, American became much larger in a much smaller world.
So you have made my point entirely. There is no way this was “manipulated” by anyone, let alone Churchill. Hence, Germans=bad guys. Case closed.
Personally I would like for Clive Cussler to write a novel about the Lusitania and involve a conspiracy theory as well, with the Raise the Titanic it was about byzanium, with the Empess of Ireland it was about a North American Treaty, there was also several others like the Andrea Doria and such.
The inquest also stated that although the Lusitania could outrun the subs, it was going at a much slower pace, and not zig-zagging as Admiralty practise dictated in its orders, especially as the destroyer escort H.M.S. Juno had been instructed to abandon the Lusitania some while previously.
Winston Churchill was in charge at the Admiralty, the intelligence received by him. Lord Rothschild, his mentor and benefactor, who also had access to all the admiralty documentation, and his war team pointed to the fact that the many German émigrés to America had been effective in keeping America out of the war. The worry to Churchill was simply that the U.S.A. would remain isolationist, or worse. Although America could swing either way, it may yet support Germany.
So a plot was hatched by Churchill, a 33rd degree mason, in the naval Masonic lodge, and Admiralty H.Q. with the bosses of Cunard, and the War Dept. to sacrifice Capt. William Turner, the Lusitania, and 1198 crew and passengers.
The passenger ship that was barred form carrying any armaments, would be loaded with both heavy and light armaments with ammunition, within sight of the many German dock workers.
This plan to load weaponry was known to be reported back to the German embassy, which it was. The German reply was to place advertisements in the newspapers of the U.S.A. and repeat the warnings to both governments of the ships vulnerability, that any ships carrying weapons would be classed as warships.
British and U.S forces officially dismissed this as scaremongering.
Churchill planned the sinking of several ships, among them the H.M.S Hampshire and the Lusitania, counting on American feelings being high....
So Capt. William Turner was under orders to continue with the voyage. Even though the destroyer escort was recalled, he was told to go slow. His path was plotted by the Admiralty to put the ship ”in direct danger”, the words used in Admiralty documents.
Naval apologists have suggested that the captain may not have known of the weapons on board, but the first mate not only knew, but was issued with a side arm, so if he knew why not captain William Turner?
Certainly statements by a New York celebrity, Mrs. E. Jacobs, say many in the Jewish community knew that it contained weapons and would be sunk.
The single page cargo manifest was signed by Capt. Turner, but a supplementary cargo manifest 24 pages long was produced after sailing time; this caused a row with the harbourmaster.
This 24 page cargo manifest was destroyed in the mass culling of incriminating war documents pulled together from various sources in the 1960’s. Much other incriminating documentation was destroyed 2 years ago, on the orders of Tony Blair.
Be assured it contained a list of light to very heavy weaponry.
The ship went down in under 18 minutes from one German torpedo. One torpedo[1] was seen as giving long enough for the passengers and crew to reach the lifeboats, yet we are told from the very few survivors, that after impact, a huge explosion occurred on board, away- from the point of impact.
It was always the intention of the Churchill/Rothschild alliance that the Lusitania would be a sacrifice to bring in the U.S.A. to join the British war effort against Germany.
Underwater explorer and investigator, the highly reputable Robert Ballard, is alleged to have told a reporter with intelligence back-grounding, that the ship wreck he saw on the seabed, had a small torpedo entry hole, but significant and unconnected explosive damage which had sunk the ship.
The inference from this and other info, being a controlled explosion on board was designed to insure the ship sunk.
Rothschild, whose banks loaned the British the finances for all wars at colossal interest rates, was part of a syndicate with J.P Morgan who was threatening to buy up the North Atlantic shipping lines, including Britain’s White Star, so the Lusitania would have been rendered useless anyway. And in 1903, Cunard boss Lord Inverclyde took the threats seriously and lobbied the Balfour administration for a £2’6 million loan to build the Lusitania and the Mauritania. Britain agreed to pay the annual sum of £150,000 to keep the ships available for war. This was down to Rothschild lobbying against Germany for some considerable time previously, while Nathan Rothschild plotted the downfall of the Russian royal family and the revolution, confiscating the Romanov wealth and bank accounts. Critics have said that Rothschild representatives planned the war to bring about their plans for profit and world government...
Churchill and the Rothschild syndicate planned to push the German authorities in every way into sinking the Lusitania. This is known in intelligence circles slang as a “dangle”.
See also regarding the tip on the Lusitania's contraband:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9402E4DC1338E633A25752C1A9639C946496D6CF&oref=slogin
.
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.