Riddle of Lusitania sinking may finally be solved

The Times (London) ^

[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,

[TheBattman]

I don’t believe a shipwreck should be “bought and sold: if control remains in the hands of a government.

[null and void]

Do you own your own home?

[BlazingArizona]

Buchanan has stated that he feels Churchill betrayed Poland, and I am unable to fault this argument...

So allow me. Buchanan's specific claim is that Churchill caused WW II by forming a mutual defense pact with Poland, requiring Btritain to declare war on Germany of it attacked Poland. He goes on to claim that Hitler did not form the thought of harming Jews until after the war started.

First of all, Germany started the war, by attacking Poland. He knoew that Britain had no force in the field capable of resisting the blitzkrieg on Poland, and further that Britain's declaration of war would give him leave to bomb London. It's likely that he intended to finish off Russia first (late fall of '41, tops) before invading Britain. Oops!

Oh, and Kristallnacht occurred in 1938. If that didn't demonstrate hostile intent toward Jews, I don't know what did.

[LAforme2008]

He bought the rights to the wreck in 1982 or 1983. The Irish government stepped in declaring it an archeological site in 1994.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, was conscripted into service as a hospital ship in 1915 and made five successful runs to the Middle East to evacuate casualties from the campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. During the first leg of her sixth trip to the war zone, Britannic was passing through the Kea Channel off Greece when she struck a mine laid by U-73 and sank. Two days later, another passenger liner-turned hospital ship, the HMHS Braemar Castle, struck another mine laid by this submarine and was severely damaged. Fortunately both ships were on their way to the war zone, so casualties were minimal.

[nina0113]

Diplomats *I* like?

John Bolton and Jeane Kirkpatrick.

You didn’t say they had to be current, or on the Iran trip...

[beebuster2000]

has been granted an imaging licence by the Department of the Environment.

You need a licence now to take a picture of something you own?

[beebuster2000]

the russians started WWI by mobilizing. the germans just followed that move and then the whole thing got out of control.

[Redleg Duke]

That is quite a heritage and yes, the use of submarines was "over the top" for that era.

Initially, U-boats would surface and allow the crews of merchant ships to take to the lifeboats before sinking the ship, but the appearance of Q-ships, merchant ships with disgused armament which were used to lure U-boats to the surface and into gun range, put a stop to the "courtesies rendered" at the beginning of the war. Just as the American Civil War introduced modern weaponry into Napoleonic Tactics with horrendeous results, the airplane, machine gun and submarine introduced total war, touching combatants and non-combatants alike. It was the end of an era.

The Islamofascist movement has now moved us on to another era, where the unarmed civilian is the preferred target as opposed to the armed combatant. The era of Full Terrorism.

[null and void]

Bolton was why I asked for two.

I assumed you’d stick with live ones, though...

[nkycincinnatikid]

By the fall of 1914 the Royal navy had declared the North Sea a war zone, stategically mined it and told all neutral nations that their ships must put into British ports for inspection and confiscation of proscribed cargo. Failure to surrender to this British demand, would, at the very least, subject neutral shipping to indiscriminate sinking in the British mine fields. As leader of the most powerful and affected “neutral” nation did Wilson protest this? Was the US Navy sent to clear mines and escort American merchantmen in order to carry on American trade and assert American sovereigty and neutrality?

[LS]

Reagan didn’t need to declare war to win in Grenada and to crush Kaddhafi. But he would have immediately sought a declaration from Congress, and gotten it.

[LS]

Or, as the military historians call it, “asymmetrical warfare.”

[null and void]

Nope and nope.

[null and void]

Not since WWII have we fought an officially declared war. (with the possible exception of the current conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan).

No war. No war crimes...

A 1914 Reagan would not have started shooting without a congressional declaration of war.

BUT, as you say, he would have immediately sought a declaration from Congress, and gotten it.

Could Bush winkle a declaration of war out of the current congress even if, pick a number, say, 5? American cities were smoking craters?

I rather doubt it.

Particularly if they were in red states...

[SunkenCiv]

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[bannie]

I saw a documentary a few years ago that blamed the coal dust which was jolted into an ignited “cloud” by the first explosion.

[allmendream]

The Lusitania was the excuse used to enter the USA into WWI. The REAL reason was the Zimmerman telegram that showed Germany was conspiring with Mexico and attempting to conspire with Japan to attack us. But we could hardly admit, on the eve of the war, that the British had broken the German code....so the Lusitania made a convenient excuse.

[Mr. K]

Your logic is faulty. If they were carrying ammunition then they were no longer just civilian passenger boats.

This is the same problem we are having in the Middle East where terrorists attack us, then run into Mosques for sanctuary, where they re-arm from weapons stored inside.

When is a mosque a military storage facility?

If I was president that would make it a target. I would make it known we will attack any miliary targets. We should also dip all our arms in bacon grease too.

[LS]

Not faulty at all. No other passenger ship was shown to be carrying ammunition. No one on the German side had the slightest clue there was heavy ammo on there, and therefore no reason whatsoever to attack. The U-Boat attacked what its captain thought was a passenger ship and the German High Command printed medals celebrating the sinking of a passenger ship. It has no connection at all to militants, who are known to be militants, hiding in a mosque. Now, that is poor logic.