Secrets of the LUSITANIA

Press, 28 August 1982, Page 15

Secrets of the LUSITANIA

By

COLIN SIMPSON

in the “Sunday Times”

® One of the abiding controversies of the First World War is about to be resolved: was the great liner Lusitania, sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. more than just a harmless passenger ship? Was

she, in fact, carrying a secret cache of explosives? The answer is crucial, since the disaster helped bring America into the war. But the allegation is still denied. Now an expedition has discovered sensational new evidence.

Shortly before noon on Saturday, August 7, a quietspoken Scots salvage operator called Jim Highlands made, in the course of his work, a remarkable discovery. Highlands's job is an unusual one. As an employee of Oceaneering. Ltd. the biggest salvage company in the world, he is in charge of a remote control submarine called Scorpio which explores the sea bed and transmits pictures of what it sees back to the surface. The scene Highlands was watching that morning on his video screen, as he guided Scorpio slowly forward from the control-room of the salvage ship, Myrevag, was one of utter chaos. The Palla-dian-style superstructure of the great liner had collapsed. On the main deck of the hull, crumpled metal, steel cables, sheared plates and sprung rivets made it look like a scrapyard in which the only living things were giant conger eels, cod and , a myriad of hermit crabs, all seemingly anxious to stare briefly into the camera lens. Suddenly, as . Highlands tracked his Scorpio up and over the foredeck, the scene changed. There the surface was clear of debris, and in the centre was a neat hole, about 15ft square, which had been cut into it. Scorpio was guided down the hole and the lights switched on to full power as she swam silently into what had once been the forward hold. "It's empty, as clean as a whistle," Highlands reported to his fascinated audience of salvors and reporters. "Someone has been in and cleared it out. Look!" He steered his Scorpio up to the walls of the hold where a series of triangular marks were scratched deep into the steel plate. “You can see where they have used a three toothed grab,” he reported. The evidence was unmistakable: the forehold of the Lusitania was stripped bare - as neat and tidy as a newly-swept living room, or as one observer remarked, "shipshape and Bristol fashion." Clearly someone had got to the Lusitania first. The question was who? And the next question was why? Who, for instance, would go to the lengths of mounting an enormously expensive salvage operation to clear the con-

tents of the forehold, yet ignore the many valuable items elsewhere in the wreck which were far more accessible? And why go to all that trouble when all that was officially loaded there were ship's stores and a strictly non-controversial consignment of small arms ammunition which would long since have begun to rust away? An intriguing clue appeared last Wednesday when a long telex message arrived at the Aberdeen offices of Oceaneering, where the directors were planning their next move. It was sent by the Salvage Association of Loc-fon and it read as iuiiuws: "THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE HAVE INSTRUCTED US TO INFORM ALL PARTIES THAT THEY CONFIRM ■ THAT THE ONLY EXPLOSIVES OF WHICH THE DEPARTMENT HAS ANY KNOWLEDGE IS THE CONSIGNMENT OF 5000 CASES OF SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION ... NEVERTHELESS, HAVING REGARD TO THE APPARENT PURPOSE OF YOUR EXPEDITION, WHICH IS BELIEVED TO BE TO DISCOVER AND POSSIBLY RECOVER OTHER EXPLOSIVES MATERIAL, IT WOULD BE IMPRUDENT NOT TO POINT OUT THE OBVIOUS BUT REAL DANGER INHERENT IF EXPLOSIVES DID HAPPEN TO BE PRESENT. IN THAT UNLIKELY EVENT, YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO STOP OPERATIONS AND CONSIDER YOUR POSITION MOST CAREFULLY, AS THERE COULD BE REAL DANGER TO LIFE AND LIMB.” It' was one of those denials that only serves to encourage suspicions. Why go to the length of warning an experienced salvage firm of a potential danger which did not, officially, exist? The telex went on to repeat: “THE MINISTRY DOES NOT KNOW OF ANY EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER THAT MIGHT SUBSTANTIATE RUMOURS OF OTHER EXPLOSIVES.” “Methinks they do protest too much" murmured one of those present. The operation carried on. - The Lusitania has been a focus for bitter controversy ever since she was torpedoed

by the German submarine, the U2O, on May 7, 1915, with the loss of 1201 lives — many of them American. The Germans responded to the international outcry by alleging that she was carrying munitions and was armed. The British Admiralty insisted that she was not. The evidence is distinctly two-edged. The Lusitania was built for the Cunard company in 1906, and financed with a massive government subsidy. In exchange for the money, Cunard agreed to build her so that she could be converted into an armed cruiser in the event of war. To this end, she had special revolving mountings built into her decks, to' take 12 six inch guns which could be fitted at short notice. There is no available evidence that (he guns were ever fitted, though there is both documentary and photographic evidence that two guns were delivered to Cunard during November 1913. The Germans and a considerable body oT public opinion believed that the guns were concealed on board her in a compartment below the foredeck, from whence they could be swung onto their

mountings by the foremast derrick in a matter of minutes. When war broke out in 1914, the Admiralty modified their plans for the vessel. They did not employ her as a navy cruiser, but ordered the Cunard company to maintain, their fast passenger service between New York and Liverpool. However, the Admiralty was to have sole control over which passengers and what cargo she carried. Although it is still officially denied, the evidence that the Lusitania's wartime voyages were not those of an innocent passenger liner is now overwhelming. On almost every voyage she was stuffed with war materials of one kind and another. On her final and fatal voyage there •is convincing evidence that apart from the five million rounds of ammunition, she carried a considerable quantity of explosive which was stowed in the forehold. In addition she carried over 2000 civilian passengers, predominantly women and children. Her role as a contraband ship was the subject of bitter complaints from the Germans who went to the

lengths of publishing advertisements in the American press warning passengers that they travelled in her at their own risk. The German submarine, the U2O, had been active off the south coast of Ireland for five days before the Lusitania arrived. It had been seen and reported from the shore and had attacked and sunk two ships, the Centurion and the Candidate. It had surfaced on both occasions and been fully identified. Incredibly, no steps were taken to protect the Lusitania, and her escorts were withdrawn from the area without her being told. It was an appalling error.

As the evidence of omissions like these mounted, so there were suspicions that the British, and in particular Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, had deliberately sent the Lusitania to its end in order to bring America into the war. President Wilson’s special envoy in London, Colonel Edward House, noted a curious exchange during an audience he had with King George V the day before the disaster. “The King toyed with some papers on his desk,” he noted in his diary, "and suddenly asked me, 'Colonel, what will America do if the Germans sink the Lusitania?' ” In the end this kind of evidence falls far short of proof — it is circumstantial only. But the way in which the Lusitania finally went down helps explain why the suspicions have lingered. And what is quite certain is that the liner was exposed to criminal risk. Ever since she sank there have been constant attempts to cover up the incompetence of those charged with her protection, and the activities of those who loaded her cargo. For the explosion which sent her to the bottom was far larger than anything that a single torpedo could be held responsible for. The Lusitania steamed into the U2o’s sights at 2.10 p.m., and her Captain, Walter Schwieger, noted laconically in his log “Pure bowshot at 700 metres. Angle of intersection 90 degrees. Shot strikes starboard side right behind the bridge.” Schwieger watched through the periscope and dictated what he saw to his watchkeeper. “An unusually

heavy detonation with a very strong explosion cloud far beyond the front funnel. The explosion of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one — boiler — or coal — or powder?" The Lusitania sank in 18 minutes, following the massive secondary explosion. The official explanation was that the German submarine had fired off another torpedo. No evidence for this has ever been produced. Attempts to explore the wreck of the Lusitania have been numerous but unsuccessful. The fickle Atlantic weather and her exposed position have made salvage a risky and very expensive business. The government indirectly controls salvage rights through the Department of Trade and the Receiver of Wrecks, and the Admiralty has met every salvage operation with open hostility. Few professional salvors care to risk official disapproval, great though the Lusitania’s rewards would be. Last April Oceaneering formed a consortium with John Pearce and Barry Lister, an inventive pair of aircraft engineers from Chirk in North Wales who had some original and daring theories on how to lift heavy weights from great depths. They decided to use the Lusitania as a test bed to try them out They also accepted that the only way to do it without being leant on by the Admiralty would be to do it publicly, so they approached the Sunday Times to monitor the project and arrange full TV coverage. The first stage was to make a full photographic survey of the complete wreck to marine archaeological standards. This they hoped would answer the question of what actually sunk the ship. The survey was Scorpio’s task. Scorpio is best described as an underwater helicopter about the size of the average kitchen table. It is equipped ■ with video cameras and powerful lights and transmits what it sees back to video screens in front of its pilot who can be up to 1000 yards away on the surWhat its survey has shown so far is that there is a vast hole on the underside of the port bow on the opposite side

to that from which the U2o's torpedo struck. It is the opinion of Oceaneering’s salvage master, Alf Lyden — who was formerly employed by the Admiralty's salvage agents — and of Douglas Brand — who is one of Oceaneering’s explosive experts — that this hole has been caused by a massive internal explosion of something stowed in the hold, and that the flash then travelled the length of the ship through its coal bunkers. Secondly, it has shown, as we have seen, that someone else has been down to the wreck and picked the forehold clean. There is really only one explanation for this.

The hold contained little of commercial value. According to the Admiralty cargo list it was mostly full of hogsheads of butter, lard and oysters, packets of candy, leather goods, and the cases of ammunition. So the object must have been to remove incriminating evidence. And this has been achieved. Even the gun mounting rings on the foredeck have been cut away. The question of who did it is easy to answer. The wreck site is visible from the Irish coastguard station on the Old Head of Kinsale, and only two recovery ships have been moored there since the war. One in 1946 was the

Reclaim, an Admiralty diving vessel. The second, in 1954, was the Recovery, a ship owned by Risdon Beazley Ltd, of Southampton and confirmed by' them as being under charter to the Admiralty. The next stage in Oceaneering’s programme is potentially the most lucrative, A team of divers breathing an oxyhelium gas mixture so that they work on the wreck for hours at a time plan to recover the purser’s safe and the contents of the mail, bullion and safe-deposit rooms which are believed to contain a fortune in gemstones and other valuables, together with numer-

ous artefacts such as the anchors and compasses. These will not be quite the first recovery. On August 7, after Scorpio’s dramatic recovery, it was decided to bring" back positive proof that they had been diving on the right ship and the logical answer was to recover the ship’s bell. Using their detailed knowledge of the wreck they recovered it in a breathtaking and daring hour and twenty minutes, and they hope that the next time it tolls it will awaken the collective memories of the Admiralty which has been so conspicuously silent for the last 67 years. (Copyright The “Sunday Times,” 1982).