There was really not much mystery to the Lusitania sinking, if you find
your information in the right places. I have a paperback book from probably
35-40 years ago,which told the whole story. The ship was armed, with
concealed gun mounts, and was carrying a lot of munitions in its hold. The
German government published a full page ad in the New York papers, telling
that the ship was a warship, nand that if it were sighted on the high seas,
it would be torpedoed, as a routine act of war. If any Americans set sail
on the ship, they would do so at their own risk. I've seen this ad
reproduced elsewhere since. Reprints from the ship's manifest are shown in
this book, and show tons of munitions aboard.
In addition, the captain had orders, after he sailed, tht brought him into
the area where it was torpedoed.
After the torpedo hit the ship, there were numerous secondary explosions
from the ship. Guess why. The tale tells rthat the sub commander didn't
realize the ship's identity until the torpedo was under way. He was said
the remark "My God, That's the Lusitania!!".
.
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Steven Medved [email protected]
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:53:57 -0400
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Phono-L] Lusitania
And just to add to that........Elbert Hubbard was on his way to England,
on
the Lusitania, to speak out against World War I, when it was sunk by the
Germans......he didn't survive. Monday, August 08, 2011AN AMERICAN
multi-millionaire has moved a step closer to realising one of his life’s
great ambitions — solving the enduring mystery of the sinking of the
Lusitania. Gregg Bemis, 83, who has owned the wreck since 1968, oversaw
operations off the south coast on Saturday as divers began cutting through
the hull of the wreck. It was 25 nautical miles south of the Old Head of
Kinsale en route from New York to Liverpool in May 1915 when it was hit
under its bridge by a torpedo fired from a German U-boat.
The explosion triggered a mystery secondary explosion which ripped the
hull of the 790ft (241m) vessel apart.
It sank by the head in less than 18 minutes, killing 1,198 of the 1,959
people on board, including 39 children and dozens of Americans.
The sinking caused massive controversy because the vessel was carrying
civilian passengers, including eminent and wealthy politicians, artists,
the art collector Hugh Lane, academics and businessmen.
Read more:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/kfgbmhojidcw/rss2/#ixzz1YX2wRsEr
http://www.archaeology.org/0901/trenches/lusitania.html The nearly
century-old debate about whether the passenger liner
Lusitania was transporting British war munitions when torpedoed by a
German U-boat is over. Physical evidence of just such a cargo has been
recovered
from the wreck, which rests 12 miles off the Irish coast in 300 feet of
murky,
turbulent water.
Bullets from the ship now confirm it was
carrying military cargo. Lusitania was sunk off County Cork on May 7, 1915.
The attack killed
1,198 people, including 128 Americans, and helped push the United States
into
World War I. Ever since the ship went down, there have been suspicions that
Lusitania was carrying live munitions. Under the rules of war, that would
have made the liner a legitimate target, as the Germans maintained at the
time.
The British government has always been evasive about the presence of
munitions on Lusitania. Two cargo manifests were submitted; the second,
filed after the ship sailed, indicated there were light munitions on board.
Some
believe the ship was carrying much more, however, and that the British Navy
attempted to destroy the wreck in the 1950s to conceal its military cargo.
Now a team led by County Waterford-based diver Eoin McGarry, on behalf of
Lusitania's American owner, Gregg Bemis, has recovered live ammunition
from the wreck. Bemis was granted a five-year license in 2007 by the Irish
government to conduct limited excavations at the site. He originally bought
the
vessel in 1968 for $2,400 from the Liverpool& London War Risks Insurance
Association.
This past September, Bemis's team used a remotely operated vehicle to
penetrate the wreck. They were able to clearly identify a vast amount of
ammunition in an area of Lusitania not believed to have carried cargo.
The Remington .303 caliber bullets the team discovered on the ship had been
used
by the British military during World War I. Ten of the bullets were brought
to
the surface.
"Further research needs to be conducted, but if the discovered ammunition
was
found in an area where cargo was not known to be stored on board, it
strongly
supports the argument that the Lusitania was functioning as more than a
passenger liner," says Fionnbar Moore, senior archaeologist with the
Underwater
Archaeology Unit of the Irish Department of Environment, which monitored
the
dive.
The bullets are in the hands of Irish authorities, who under maritime law
are
now responsible for establishing their owner. Further expeditions will
search
for additional evidence of munitions.
"The charge that the Lusitania was carrying war materiel is valid,"
says Bemis. "She was a legitimate target for the German submarine."
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