Lusitania machine lost during mission
A TELEGRAPH machine from the Clyde-built Lusitania thought to hold vital clues to its sinking after being torpedoed, has been lost during an unsupervised recovery mission.
It is thought the vital piece of equipment held vital clues to the vessel’s sinking with the loss of 1,201 lives off the County Cork coast in May 1915. Questions have been raised by an Irish parliamentary watchdog as to why a diver was allowed to carry out the botched recovery without an archaeologist with him.
The Cunard British cruise liner was the largest ship in the world when she was built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank.
She was torpedoed by a German U-boat, 11 nautical miles off the Old Head of Kinsale. She is a war grave and protected by an Underwater Heritage Order under Ireland’s National Monuments Acts.
Terry Allen, of the National Monuments Service, told a parliamentary committee in Dublin that a telegraph from the wreck was lost during a dive on July 13 last year.
The operation was carried out by deep sea diver Eoin McGarry, on behalf of the US businessman Gregg Bemis, who owns the wreck.
Commitee chairman Peadar Toibin said the ship was one of the most important wrecks off Ireland and the decision to allow a dive without supervision was a “significant break” in standard procedure.
Mr Toibin said the country’s heritage minister has “questions to answer.”