She was the Queen of the Seas, occupying the very pride of place on the gameboard of international rivalry. Surely the most remarkable moving object ever created by man, the splendour of Cunard's Lusitania was dazzling even by the affluent standards of the early twentieth century.
The unique legacy of the Lusitania lies in the very violence of her death. On the first day of May 1915 almost 2000 people would alight upon the decks of the Lusitania either in ignorance or in outright denial of their own peril. Aboard what was regarded the finest liner in the world, passengers were unaware that destiny had assigned them the roll of sacrificial pawns in a deadly global chess match. On a quiet May afternoon off the Irish coast destiny called checkmate and the Lusitania earned her place in the history of wartime tragedy.
No record of the U-Boat war could be complete without the tale of the U-20, the elusive submarine that sank the Lusitania and thereby set the world aflame with the fiercest anger and horror of the time. British Newspaper reports told of the outrage to humanity and disregard for the 'rules' of warfare, describing the sinking as 'a dastardly piratical act' and 'the ghastliest crime in history'. Previously war had been a small, romantic business, fought by career soldiers in exotic, far away locations. The spirit of 1914 - naïve but enthusiastic optimism - was to prove distinctly at odds with the reality. In London, Liverpool and Manchester angry citizens took to the streets, hurling bricks at shops and restaurants with German associations. U-20's orders had been to patrol the waters to the Southwest of Ireland and to enforce the submarine blockade that Germany had declared against England. Many thought she had been sent specifically to encounter and sink Lusitania and the propaganda war would be fuelled by the disaster. With oil supplies running low and only two torpedoes left, surrounded by dense fog, the U-20 turned its nose homeward for Wilhelmshaven keeping its course until 2.20 that afternoon. In his log Walther Schwieger, commander of the U-20, wrote of the sighting of a large steamer directly in front of his vessel south-Southwest towards Galley head, unrecognised, according to official records of the time, as the Lusitania. At 3.10 his log read:
'Torpedo shot at distance of 700m going 3m below the surface. Hits steering centre behind bridge. Unusually great detonation with large cloud of smoke and debris shot above funnels. In addition to torpedo, a second explosion must have taken place. (Boiler, coal, or powder?) Bridge and part of ship where the torpedo hit are torn apart, and fire follows'.
Schwieger went on later to write of how, from his very soul within, he could not have sent a second torpedo into the crowd of passengers trying to save themselves from the dying liner. Only 764 of the 1,916 who had sailed on the Lusitania lived to tell the tale. 1,152 innocent travellers had been sent to their death by the hand of one man - that man a German.
Kapitanleutnant Schwieger was one of the few U-Boat officers who was in the submarine service when the war began, one of the few commanders who were consulted by Grand Admiral von Tirpitz and on whose advice Von Tirpitz relied. The records credit him with having sunk 190,000 tons of allied shipping. Everyone who had known him spoke of him with regard, affection, and perhaps a little pity. The case of the man who sank the Lusitania represents one of the curious, poignant tragedies which occur all too frequently during wartime.
Conspiracy theorists ever since have questioned whether Schwieger knew what he was shooting at. One popular suggestion is that he did, but that he thought the Lusitania was being used as troop transport and therefore a legitimate target, others claim he made no attempt at all to identify the ship. Either way, his torpedo produced unexpected and unintended dividends for Britain and her allies. Following the sinking American opinion began to turn against Germany and the incident signalled the beginning of the end of unrestricted U-Boat activity in the Atlantic. The popular belief that the sinking of the Lusitania brought America into the war is simply a misunderstanding, rather it was a gift to the propaganda war. US President Woodrow Wilson, devastated by the sinking, never recovered his ability to maintain an isolationist position, though America's declaration of war was not proclaimed until nearly two years after the sinking on 6 April 1917.
Why Lusitania had sailed so close to a coastline where U-boats were known to lurk remained a mystery which again spawned conspiracy theories including claims that the first Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, secretly intended to allow the Lusitania every chance of being sunk as a means of persuading the US to join the war alongside England. For her part, Germany was quick to assert her right to justify the sinking by claiming that Lusitania had carried munitions from the US to assist in the European war effort. Despite contemporary and continued allegations admiralty officials neither denied nor took any action to conceal the fact that Lusitania carried ammunition deep in her holds on her final voyage.
During the 84 years since Lusitania succumbed to her final resting place in the cold depths off the Irish coast she has been far from short of visitors. The Lusitania '99 expedition was led by Mark Jones of the Tunbridge wells BASC. Mark himself had become one of the first to claim official government and ownership permission allowing his team of sport divers the chance to explore the wreck. The Irish government treats the historic wreck that lies within their territorial 12 mile limit with serious concern. Heritage officials watched on as the week passed as did Mr Jerry Greenaway, the Irish Receiver of Wreck. On arrival over the site of Lusitania a nearby Naval frigate, also watching, approached with a boarding party in order to check that the team was officially licensed to operate within the area - let alone on the wreck. Overseeing the whole operation was the owner of the Lusitania, Mr F Gregg Bemis Jr. His ownership of the wreck has been confirmed by courts in England, America, and Ireland. Deep wreck explorer and oceanographer Bob Ballard also briefly joined the expedition one morning during the week, in order to gather some footage for his next film project, which will include the Lusitania. Having been invited to photograph the wreck as part of a team of eight, I was only too pleased to take up Mark Jones' offer as a team member. Each day we had a journey of approximately two hours out to the wreck and each time, as we passed the old head of Kinsale, I took the opportunity to ask Gregg Bemis about some of the political influences at work behind the story of the Lusitania.
Unlike White Star's huge liner Titanic, which had gone largely forgotten for almost eighty years, Cunard's Lusitania has been and still remains a centre point of maritime controversy since the day she sank. Today her fate may well be almost settled, although her name itself has become legendary. Hers is a story of conspiracy and obsession, courtroom battles and ambition. It comes as no surprise to learn that schemes were being assessed as to the prospect of salvaging the Lusitania's treasures as early as 1919. By 1922 estimates of her valuables had escalated from a few thousand dollars to a suggested value of $5.000,000 in gold and a further $1,000,000 of gold and jewellery said to be in the purser's safe. No one has yet given a plausible reason why anyone would have been shipping gold into a war zone.
At this time the 'Lusitania Salvage Company' claimed that the investing public had not purchased adequate stock in the enterprise and at the end of the year turned its efforts to the calmer waters of the Mediterranean. Just as a few thousand dollars had escalated into millions so too did German claims as to the alleged contraband on board, leading to accusations that the intended salvage was in fact an attempt to remove contraband thereby robbing their country of its justification for torpedoing a legitimate target.
By the early 1930s many ludicrous and fanciful inventions had been proposed in order to explore Lusitania and bring home her riches - actual or sentimental. In 1935 the highly publicised salvaged gold from the liner Egypt, sunk at great depth, had proved to the world that operations to such depths were not as ludicrous as the imagination of some individuals might suggest. Rumour permeated the salvage world to the effect that the Italian company, Sorima, had taken their vessel Artiglio and her sister and focused their efforts towards the Lusitania - accusations vigorously denied by company officials. By the mid thirties the wreck had been found by means of early locating methods and by 1938 the first visit to the wreck in its 23 years on the seabed had been made. Using a one-atmosphere suit similar to a Davis observation chamber Jim Jarratt made a brief visit to the wreck for identification purposes. His visit had been cut short due to anchor problems experienced in the 3 knot current and with the onset of winter further diving was postponed. By the following year the German invasion of Poland suspended any further plans to dive Lusitania.
During the next two decades occasional whispers swept the Irish coast that British authorities were conducting blasting operations on the wreck. It is a fact that the salvage company Rizdon Beezley had spent some time over the wreck in 1953, having been the official salvors to the government. The conspiracy theorists, at work again, claimed that Churchill had commissioned Beezley to remove all evidence of contraband thus clearing himself of propaganda tactics. Rizdon Beezley had died by 1982 and the salvage was taken over by Ulrich Harms who in turn were bought out by Smitak of Rotterdam, now regarded as the largest salvage company in the world. Attempts to question the actions of the company over the Lusitania result in claims that all records have been lost long ago and a denial to all unsubstantiated claims of conspiracy.
On 20 July 1960, at the age of 27, John Light claims he became the second man to touch down on the decks of Lusitania. This freelance photographer and ex-Navy diver had made it his lifetime ambition to reveal the great liner's deepest secrets. Over the following two years Light, accompanied by colleagues Palmer Williams and Chuck Osbourne, claim they made over 100 dives to Lusitania. Osbourne was an ex-Navy Lt Commander who was later hired in 1970 to supervise construction projects which Light and Bemis were involved in. Diving to 90m on air their conflicting reports, being rather scattered and imaginary, caused speculation as to whether it was the Lusitania they were actually diving. By 1965 the Liverpool & London War Risks Association Ltd (The British government insurance agency), who owned Lusitania after paying off Cunard, were now past their 50 year government war restriction time limit and were in a position to sell the rights to the wreck. In 1967 the wreck went to a closed bid auction where John Light came out with title to ownership for a sum of 1000 British pounds. The following year Light met up with partners Gregg Bemis and George Macomber who between them helped finance Light's projects.
Today 71 years old, Gregg Bemis is not only the chairman of Ocean Corp (the world's leading school for commercial divers) but also chairman of the 20 year old company Deep Ocean engineering responsible for the manufacture of over 400 ROVs and submersibles. Mr Bemis told me that he and Macomber had designed a mobile saturation system that could be used on salvage jobs around the globe. Back then these were practically unavailable and they had chosen Lusitania for trials simply because of the historic value of the wreck and the fact that between them they had ownership. Eventually the efforts collapsed and the project ran out of capital. John Light put up his share of the wreck against the capital that had been put in, leaving Bemis and Macomber sole owners of the wreck. Light continued research into the wreck and finally passed away in 1993.
During 1982 two independent parties completed separate dives to the wreck. The Houston company Oceaneering had enjoyed a good year in the oil fields and as a result rewarded their divers of the Aberdeen unit with a chance to dive Lusitania. The company had recognised Bemis' ownership and approached with a non-commercial view to diving the wreck. As a result Macomber, wanting no further liability, sold his ownership to Bemis. Gregg Bemis agreed to a contract and would subsequently gain if Oceaneering recovered their costs from the project. Several items were recovered from the wreck including three of the four props, however Oceaneering claim never to have recovered their costs from the operation.
The same year, prior to the Oceaneering project, dives were conducted on the wreck overlooked by a Mr John Pierce. It appears that Pierce was a fine promoter of his own interests, Bemis cannot recall his permission prior to any salvage that Pierce and his group carried out. During the operation Lusitania's bell had been recovered and both Pierce and Bemis had come to an amicable agreement afterwards on how they would deal with the situation. The Bell was subsequently sold to a private buyer at auction whereupon it is said to have raised a sum of £50,000. An element of mystery surrounds the true accounts of the 82 dives and, according to Bemis, is best left that way.
The following year Oceaneering planned to go back to the wreck but nothing more was heard of their plans. Lusitania would have no visitors for the next decade.
In September 1990 oceanographer Bob Ballard made the short journey from Woods Hole in North America to meet Bemis at his second home at Cohasset in Massachusetts Bay. Ballard had been looking for his next adventure and had found it with Lusitania. During July 1993 Ballard's submersibles landed on the decks of the great wreck, the expedition involved huge logistics and was funded by National Geographic. When, in August, the expedition drew to an end, Ballard claimed he was positive that coal dust was responsible for the second explosion. This was the strong opinion of Cyril Spurr, a British naval explosives expert Ballard had along for the ride, and one that Bemis and his naval engineering associates find to be quite dubious. In the summer of 1994 British and American divers began a series of dives to Lusitania. After talks with Bemis over the right to dive failed to reach agreement, the divers chose to ignore his ownership, which had been well established in their own British Admiralty court, and proceeded with their planned dives. The British courts had issued their ruling after the Oceaneering dives of 1982 when Bemis went to court to gain the release of his property from the Receiver of Wreck in England where all the recovered salvage had been turned in as required by law. Delaware based corporation, Fifty Fathoms Ventures, rejected Bemis' claim and found themselves battling in the US District Court whereupon Judge J Calvitt Clarke Jr ruled in Bemis' favour at his own jurisdiction.
It is claimed that 27 works by artists including Rubens, Titian and Monet sank with the ship. Paintings worth an estimated $60 million may have survived the many years on the seabed because they were stored in special watertight lead containers on the instructions of a nervous insurance company. Until 1995 it was assumed that the paintings, stored in the luggage of Sir Hugh Lane, then director of the National Gallery in Ireland, had perished with him. According to Bemis the cases consigned to Lane containing the paintings were never signed for on the manifest, giving reason to believe they were never on the ship in the first place.
Members of the 1994 expedition claimed to have seen containers similar to the description lying close to the wreck. As a result Minister Higgins of the Irish government placed a preservation order on the site and banned any further dives until intense archival research had been carried out. This was the first such order on a shipwreck less than 100 years old. The Ministry refuses to accede to requests to view any report made when officials travelled to the UK and US to further investigate the paintings. Although the wreck lies within Irish territorial waters, if a painting by Monet was to be found it could become the subject of an ownership claim by the National Gallery in London. Having had a premonition of the disaster, Lane added a codicil to his will shortly before the voyage, leaving his Impressionist collection to London.
Needless to say Bemis was not pleased by the fact that the order may well affect personal long term projects on what is his own property. In 1995 Bemis came over to Ireland to negotiate with the government and was told that his ownership would not be recognised. Despite verdicts in his favour in both UK and US courts, the Irish government stated that they would not recognise his ownership unless he filed a declaratory judgement suit through the Irish court system claiming himself as sole owner. Bemis eventually wound his way through the Irish courts after filing his suit for ownership, whereupon he states that the Irish Government reneged on a promise not to contest his case. Ultimately he received a favourable ruling in 1996.
For three years since the ruling Bemis has been trying to negotiate with the government to work together on respective research projects. His long range objectives are purely historical and educational and he hopes to undertake forensic examinations to try to determine the cause of the second explosion. It is possible to go through either the decks or the Port side to where the explosion took place, take chemical scrapings and determine if the damaged area was caused by torpedo or by another source. Once inside the area it is possible, Bemis claims, to collect photographic evidence and recreate the explosion. As the situation stands nobody within the Heritage Department has been willing to make an agreement as yet.
During the '99 expedition a small piece of hull plating was recovered for forensic analysis, permission finally being granted from the Heritage Department. So, I asked, when history has been resolved, what next? Bemis replies that eventually he would like the wreck to be enjoyed by sport divers. As for the artefacts that litter the wreck, he has proposed donations to several Irish Museums as well as a travelling exhibit. Gregg Bemis seems to be in no hurry to make a profit from them.
Diving on Lusitania is certainly a golden privilege in itself. One unquestionably feels a great sense of history just by being there. On the surface support vessels are watched over by the old head of Kinsale and accompanied by whales and dolphins. Descending to the wreck the diver leaves the clear waters and ambient light behind soon to become enveloped by the dark cold water where they will explore Lusitania in only a few metres of visibility. Lying on her starboard side the wreck is extensively broken and in no way makes for easy navigation. Quite clearly a wreck of this size cannot be fully explored in the limited time that the '99 expedition had on its hands.
During one of the early dives, using the Inspiration rebreather, Richard Stevenson used a 30 minute bottom time to lay a line quite some distance through the debris field that litters the seabed. Alex Vassallo and Geraint-Ffoulkes-Jones used Aquazepp DPVs to explore further distances from the shot line. My Partner Chris Hutchinson and I quite literally used as much gas as we could physically carry and made for times of up to 28 minutes at 93m.
All exploration divers were self contained and the topside support team were ready to assist at any time. All decompression was carried out on a free-floating station as per normal UK practice. The choice of gases is a compromise between what is optimal for decompression and what is practical to carry in sufficient quantities - this includes the practicality of getting into the water. The initial travel gas and first deco gas of Nitrox 35% was chosen as it gave a good deco profile. 35% also roughly balanced the required quantity of gas for the two side mounted cylinders (the other being nitrox 70%) which were nicely balanced 10-12li on each side, 35% also avoiding a large Helium to Nitrogen swing which is typical from deeper switches to air etc.
A Bottom gas of HeliAir 11/47 was chosen as it gave an END of 35m & ppO2 of 0.94 bar at the absolute top of the Lusitania. This choice gave an END of 45m and ppO2 of 1.13 bar on the seabed in the debris field (93m) where most of the dives took place. Being a HeliAir this was easy to make and continuously top off on site from day to day. The lowish bottom ppO2 (nearer 1.0 bar, than 1.4 bar) enabled higher O2%s to be used during the decompression, yet keeping the overall CNS below 100% for bottom times up to 25 minutes. The deco schedules also included times that would get the divers out of the water using only 70% in the absence of O2. O2 (i.e. zero inert gas) on the final stop was important, especially on repeated deep dives. A 5m break on N35% was inserted following every 25 mins on O2.
The '99 team consisted of eight exploration divers - Mark Jones (expedition leader), Nichola Thompson, Richard Stevenson, Kevin Emans, Alex Vassallo, Geraint-Ffoulkes-Jones, Chris Hutchinson and Leigh Bishop. The support team consisted of Mark Leman and three divers - Helen Finn, Oliver Dicketts and John Mayo Evans - who also had a chance to descend to the wreck.
Members of the team would like to thank O'Three Dry Suits, C-Bear under-suits as well as Custom Divers for their continued support and for the use of a CD company on site engineer. As for the support vessel, MV Inga Solvejg, used for the project, I asked skipper Gary Goodyear where his travels would take him next. Revealing no secrets at the time, I wasn't at home long before the phone rang. They had eventually found the Carpathia - the liner which picked up the Titanic survivors that fateful night off Newfoundland. He told us that the wreck lies upright in 155m of water 180miles off the south West Coast - another Liner awaits our arrival!

By Leigh Bishop.