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 ...
“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 believe dives have already brought up explosive armaments? I recall seeing a program some time ago where they showed caps made by bethlehem steel that had been recovered.
Hey, I’m glad we got into WWI but munitions should not have been shipped in passenger liners. Bad idea.
Only to those who are confused over their wars :)
Read it was coal dust that caused the major damage when it exploded from the torpedo ....
Their kind of gumbmt is headed our way. Vote Republican!
The Germans were sinking hundreds of American ships before we entered the war 1917. Their aggressive subjugation of Europe and their lunatic Kaiser were unbearable, as were their barbaric cutthroat Ottoman buddies. It was the German Empire which also enabled the Bolshevik Revolution under Lenin. They started a heck of a mess globally. They had to be stopped. The post-war politics and Versailles Treaty were screw-ups however.
There is speculation that churchill (head of the admiralty until the Lusitania sinking iirc) was in fact having passenger liners carry armaments, making them *valid* war targets, in order to try to get one/more sunk and draw the americans into the war.
Horse sh..., uh road apples:
The first clear indication of increased peril to LUSITANIA was the extraordinary notice placed in American newspapers by the German Embassy on 1 May 1915, the day the Cunarder sailed: "Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk."
“If it’s his, why does he have to get permission to take pictures of it?”
Because the Irish government claimed the wreck as an archaeological site to protect it from the scavengers that had been diving to her and removing relics, as well as various naval entities that had been using her for target practice over the years.
RMS Lusitania was supposedly an “auxiliary cruiser”
of the Royal Navy. Perhaps that was the justification.
Of course its possible that a German sympathizer among
the longshoremen reported the cargo to the embassy.
Fascinating if a message from the embassy in Washington DC
turnsed up in the German archives..
I think the German Army should bring back those spikey helmets. Man those were the bee's knees. Why can't OUR army have spikes on our helmets?
Yeah. Same reason you need a permit to replace your own leaking water heater.
Really? That will stop it? Evidence please?
I know it has become fashionable in certain circles lately to demonize Churchill but I won't buy this until I see some documentation.
“Hey, I’m glad we got into WWI but munitions should not have been shipped in passenger liners. Bad idea.”
Unfortunately because the British government subsidized a good deal of the construction of the Cunard and White Star fleets, there was an agreement in place that during wartime they could use those ships for the war effort, whether it be taking them out of passenger service and conscripting them as troop ships or to carry materials to aid the war effort in the course of their regular travels.
AND the Zimmerman note....
Only to those who are confused over their wars :)
It was attitudes like yours that led to the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor...
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