ADVERTISEMENTS MAY be placed by the Receiver of Wrecks to determine the "owner" of a quantity of munitions recovered from the wreck of the Lusitaniaseveral days ago.
A sample of 10 Remington .303 cartridges retrieved by divers employed by the ship's owner, New Mexico businessman Gregg Bemis, was handed in to the Cork Receiver of Wrecks early this week. The Customs Service says it must make inquiries about the material's owner under the 1993 Salvage and Wreck Act, by advertisement if need be. If within a year the owner cannot be found, the material reverts to the salvor.
Mr Bemis believes the "owner" may never materialise, as the British government denied there were any munitions on board the Lusitaniawhen it sank in 100m of water almost 12 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork, on May 7th, 1915. A total of 1,198 passengers and crew were lost.
The ship was en route to Liverpool from New York when hit by a torpedo from a German submarine, but there is still mystery over the cause of the substantial and fatal second blast heard by survivors about 18 minutes later.
Mr Bemis believes the British authorities attempted to destroy the wreck in the 1950s before any more research into the second blast's cause could be carried out.
He engaged in a legal battle with the State over his right to dive on the wreck and was granted a five-year licence for a "forensic" expedition. The wreck is subject to a heritage order, and his latest dive licence permitted a sample of munitions to be recovered only.
Confirmation of the presence of munitions was finally admitted after the sinking. A quantity was spotted by Cork Sub Aqua Club divers in the wreck two years ago.