Riddle of Lusitania sinking may finally be solved

The Times (London) ^

[C19fan]

This is going by memory so I could be wrong but I thought I saw a TV doc about the Lusitania sinking and it claimed the liner had an escort part of the journey across the Atlantic then when the liner was near the Irish coast the escorts went away eventhough the coast off Ireland was a favorite U-Boat hunting ground. This was part of the theory the Brits wanted the Lusitania torpodeod to bring the US into the war.

[libstripper]

Bob Ballard, the man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, has also investigated the Lusitania's wreck. His conclusion, which sounds eminently reasonable, is that the secondary explosion that sank the ship was caused by the torpedo detonating coal dust in the ship's bunkers.

His theory is based on the fact that, to keep a very large ship like Lusitania in trim, the engine crew (aka Black Gang) had to be constantly moving the coal from one bunker to another; hence keeping the boilers fired involved what amounted to continuous coal mining, a process that produced huge amounts of highly explosive (when mixed with the oxygen in the air) coal dust. Then, when the torpedo entered this explosive environment it functioned as a super detonator, igniting the clouds of coal dust the same way an electric spark can operate in a grain elevator filed with grain dust.

[nickcarraway]

The Mexicans declined the offer, after deciding it was not feasible in the slightest.

[SolidWood]

US merchant ships lost in WW1:

http://www.usmm.org/ww1merchant.html

I concede that the majority were targeted after our entrance to war. Of course these do not include Americans on British ships.

[TheBattman]

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.

Someone please explain how you buy a shipwreck, and then have to get a license from the government to take pictures of what you purchased???

[Arthur McGowan]

You are pro-German! Therefore you are pro-Hitler!

[elcid1970]

“scavengers”

I read somewhere that in 1982 a salvage diver succeeded in detaching three of the Lusitania’s four propellers.

Later saw on TV one of those turning up in a salvage yard.

The hull of the wreck has mostly collapsed. Since it lies starboard side down, I wonder how the explorer-owner will locate the torpedo impact point.

Kind of like will some Titanic wrecksite expedition bore into the ocean bottom and reveal the exact nature of the rip in Titanic’s starboard side.

[null and void]

Too bad it was pacified by muslims...

[Arthur McGowan]

My point was subtler than you are giving me credit for.

And I know which war was which.

[ScaniaBoy]

You are correct on both points. The myth that Churchill sacrificed Coventry to keep the Ultra decryption secret was (I think) first brought up in the book Intrepid. The British historian and politician Nigel West (real name Rupert Allason) has debunked the story in one of his books. (I think it was Counterfeit Spies, but like you I am not quite sure.)

[Continental Soldier]

Maybe the Lusitania was carrying contraband munitions. That would account for the secondary explosions and for its targeting by the German navy.

[nina0113]

I guess that's why we are planning on sending diplomats to Iran, again...

But are they diplomats we LIKE?

[Billthedrill]

That always was a controversial claim. The difficulty was that the small-arms ammunition that was carried (~4000 boxes IIRC) wasn't sufficient to explain the secondary explosion and probably wouldn't have "exploded" anyway (the stuff will burn). If it were artillery shells, which has long been suspected but for which there isn't really any documentation, then it would likely have been a bigger explosion. The theory that seems to make the most sense to me is some sort of a ruptured boiler or HP steam line. That and 18 knots through the water after the integrity of the hull was breached will put a lot of water in a very bad location. And, too, the secondary explosion was in a location quite apart from where the torpedo hit, which throws some doubt on the ammunition theory.

It will be fascinating to see if they actually can photograph the area in question or if there is enough left to draw any conclusions. If the sea bed were littered with artillery projectiles that'd be pretty conclusive but that's an awful lot to expect after nearly 100 years in shallow water.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I don't remember where, but I think I read the Lusitania was transporting war materiel. Lumber was being transported as ballast.

I understood that it was “always” known that a “some” munitions were aboard (cases of weapons ?) but only a small amount, and that the amount (or kind) of listed weapons should not have either caused that big of an explosion, or that the second explosion was in the wrong place for what was listed.

??

Coal dust exploding is usually associated with the USS Maine explosion in Havana, not the Lusitania. (Rickover's analysis ?)

[Redleg Duke]

I understand your point, but, if the Lusitania was indeed carrying munitions, then the British were committing war crimes by using a civilian transport to carry war munitions and worse, using civilians as human shields.

History is written by the victors and before you say anything, my late Maternal Grandfather, son of German immigrants, was a Corporal in the Infantry, 42nd Infantry Division, AEF in the trenches in France. He came home with Krupp steel in his hip along with his own bone splinters. Grandpa believed in what he did and the rightness of it. I respect his memory, but I am also trying to be objective about history.

[Wil H]

Coal dust is quite explosive.

Did the Lusitania burn coal or anthracite?

Anthracite is comparatively dustless and burns hotter.

[null and void]

Name two.

[BlazingArizona]

Aw, fer cryin’ out loud!!!!! Do I need an “Imaging Licence” to take a picture of the Blarney Stone, too?????

Fortunately, the Blarney Stone is not located in New York City.

[ScaniaBoy]

A very interesting discussion and for sure Beamis photo documentation will be well worth watching. From a marine archeological point of view it will be very interesting to get more information on the sinking of the Lusitania. However, whether she was carrying munitions or not is a moot point.

She would have been torpedoed anyway - for the simple reason that the German U-boat commander, Kapitanleutnant Walter Shwieger on the U-20, did not know it was the Lusitania he had hit until she started to sink. (The U-boat war 1914 - 1918, Edwyn A. Gray).