Jones Steven - The Lusitania Story

Also by Mitch Peeke and Kevin Walsh-Johnson

Lusitania and Beyond:

The Life of Commodore William Thomas Turner

First published in Great Britain in 2002 by
LEO COOPER
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books,
47 Church Street,
Barnsley
South Yorkshire,
S70 2AS

Copyright 2002 Mitch Peeke, Steven Jones
and Kevin Walsh-Johnson

ISBN 0 85052 902 6

ISBN 9781783400386 (epub)
ISBN 9781783400126 (prc)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

Typeset in 11/13pt Sabon by
Phoenix Typesetting, Burley-in-Wharfedale, West Yorkshire.

Printed in England by
CPI UK

We would like to dedicate this book to:

The City and People of Liverpool, Lusitania's hometown,
who do so much to keep the memory of her alive.

Jay, my wife who is my Sunshine on a rainy day and whose
love, faith and support have always been to the fore.
(Even though she came very close to being
a Lusitania widow herself at times!)
Mitch

Sonja, my wife with much love and affection.
Kevin

Kim, my wife; also my children Sian and Matthew,
all of whom graciously endured the long hours
I spent on the computer!
Steven

by F. Gregg Bemis Jr., owner of the Lusitania wreck.

While on the lecture circuit, the most frequently asked question is how can you own the Lusitania? The answer is incredibly simple and straightforward. You buy it from whomever has the title, which in this case was the London-Liverpool War Reclamations Board. So far this ownership trail has been thoroughly tested first in the British Admiralty Court in 19856, then the Federal District Court in America in 19945, and finally the High Court in Ireland in 1996. In each and all cases my ownership of the wreck was confirmed. Strangely enough there are still people who find this to be inconclusive. You just can't please everybody.

But a much more interesting question that also gets asked is why would you want to own the Lusitania? This is even asked from time to time by members of my family. But of course that is a loaded question, just as may have been the case with the Lusitania herself. Despite her present condition she was and still is, a beauty to behold, all 790 feet of her. With the same blind pride that a parent has for its child, to me the Lusitania remains a magnificent creation as well as profound challenge.

In 1968 when my then partner, George Macomber, and I became involved with John Light in his obsession with the ship, we were trying to build a saturation diving system that could provide the facilities to solve the mysteries of her sinking, as well as the ability to salvage her valuables. Such systems at that time were basically laboratories. Today you can charter them for $50-$70,000 a day. We were ahead of our time by several years and, as it turned out, several dollars short of what was needed. Our failure to reach the brass ring in no way detracts from either her beauty or her immense place in history. It did whet my appetite to pursue, at the appropriate time, the challenges inherent in discovering the secrets of her untimely and rapid demise.

As surely as she is the second most famous wreck after the Titanic's confrontation with an iceberg, she is nevertheless number ONE in the diving world. Resting on the bottom at only about 300 feet, she is the Mount Everest of the Technical Diving community. Attainable only with great skills and at considerable risk, she sings her siren's song to all those adventurous divers who have a sense of history and challenge.

My efforts continue to be directed towards revealing her secrets as well as towards the creation of museum exhibits and educational displays to stimulate interest in the important place she holds in international history, along with related politics and practices. It would be my hope that books such as this will help fuel the curiosity of those capable of financing and filming a major forensic examination of this truly lovely and lonely lady.

Today the technology is available, the human skill and interest is all around us; it is only a question of time before we find out the crucial missing information. Where exactly, to the foot, did the torpedo hit the ship? (No one has seen the hole.) Where exactly did the well-reported major second explosion take place? And hence what was the likely cause? There have been many hypotheses but no hard proof, and yet the proof is just a few yards out of sight under the seabed, 300 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, just beckoning for revelation.

This book is styled as a biography of a great lady of history. I commend the authors for their excellent efforts to bring her alive for all of us. Similarly I will look forward to the time when we can close the story with a full and accurate explanation of her final cataclysmic death. It will be the final chapter only when we do the work beneath the waves that remains to be done.

Respectfully and thankfully.
F. Gregg Bemis Jr.

We would particularly like to acknowledge the tremendous help and information given to us by the following institutions:

National Maritime Museum, London, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, New York Public Library, The Museum of the City of New York, University of Liverpool (Cunard archives), Public Record Office, London, Archives department of Hill, Dickinson & Co. (Cunard's lawyers).

On a much more personal level we would like to thank:

Stephen Rodgers of GE Power Systems, Clydebank, (Formerly John Brown Engineering Ltd), Helmut Doeringhoff of the Bundesmilitrarchiv in Freiburg, Germany, Mrs Margaret Phillips of Kent County Library Services, Don Blows, for his computer work, Peter Engberg-Klarstrom, of the Scandinavian Titanic Society, Chief Engineer David Garstin RN (retired) who was a font of knowledge regarding the Lusitania's turbine engines, Dr John Bullen, Maritime Curator of the Imperial War Museum, London, Stan Walter, former curator of the Royal Artillery Museum, London, Colonel J. M. Phillips, BA MsocSC and his staff, of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust, Frederick Peeke, a former gunner with the Royal Artillery, Geoff Whitfield, Honorary Secretary of the British Titanic Society, whose invaluable research has made the passenger and crew list the comprehensive document that it now is and Peter Boyd-Smith of Cobwebs, Southampton, for allowing us to photograph the Lusitania artefacts in his possession and to use those photographs in this book. Lastly, though by no means least our sincere thanks and everlasting gratitude to F. Gregg Bemis Jr. for his continued support, for writing the foreword to this book and for his much-valued cooperation with the chapter The wreck of the Lusitania.

RMS Lusitania. The very mention of her name summons a vision of disaster. Ask anyone what they know of the Lusitania and the vague reply will invariably be something like, Wasn't that the big liner the Germans sank? First World War, wasn't it? Others may even go so far as to confuse the Lusitania with the ill-fated Titanic, or they may tell you that it was the sinking of the Lusitania that brought America into the war. Or was that Pearl Harbour? Can't remember now.

Prior to 1915 however, the mention of RMS Lusitania to anyone then living would not have brought any vague reply. Everyone knew of her, for she and her sister ship, RMS Mauretania, were the pride of the Cunard Line and supreme proof, if proof were needed, that Britannia, through her Royal and Merchant fleets, did indeed rule the waves.