THE vessel which was to bring Roger Casement's guns to Banna Strand on the ill fated mission which led to his execution, was the Aud. When the mission had to be aborted, the Aud was scuttled in Cork harbour.
The Aud had arrived off the Kerry coast on April 20th, 1916, to assist with the planned rising of that year. It was laden with 20,000 rifles, a million rounds of ammunition and three machine guns. Casement was not on board, he was to be landed at Banna by German submarine.
Contact between the Irish revolutionaries and the German government was routed through Washington, but it is now clear that the British authorities had cracked the German codes, so from the beginning, the plot had been rumbled.
Because of poor communicalions - the Aud had no radio - and a combination of mix ups as well as bad weather, Capt Karl Spindler, who was in command of the vessel, decided to abort the attempt to land the guns.
However, while trying to escape patrolling British vessels, he was arrested and ordered to Cobh, then Queenstown. He scuttled the Aud near the Daunt Rock lightship and the crew took to the lifeboats. They were arrested and became prisoners of war.
Last weekend, the first official dive on the wreck of the Aud took place. Over the years, of course, there have been many unofficial dives and much of the weaponry has wound up on the collector's shelf.
To compound matters, during the second World War, the British navy depth charged the wreck in the belief that it might be a
German submarine waiting to pounce on shipping in a vital chipping lane. This left it scattered over a wide area of the seabed.
The dive which took place last weekend involved the Office of Public Works and divers from the Irish Underwater Archeological Research Team. Its purpose is to evaluate what remains of the wreck and determine whether a preservation order should be placed on it.
The divers, led by Mr Andrew Thoma of Kenmare, used underwater video cameras and this footage will be assessed by the Office of Public Works, 81 years after the Aud went down.