A telegraph from iconic WW1 liner wreck the Lusitania has been recovered from a depth of more than 90m off the coast of Cork in Ireland.
Technical diver Eoin McGarry from Dungarvan and his team raised the artefact from the seabed last weekend, according to reports in the Irish press.
McGarry, who has been exploring the wreck for the past 15 years, had already brought up the pedestal for the Lusitania‘s bridge telegraph during the summer, and hopes to recover the instrument itself in 2017.
The recent recovery, carried out under licence from Ireland’s Heritage Ministry, was reportedly made challenging by weather, tides and poor visibility.
Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys said that the wreck’s US owner Gregg Bemis hoped “to place the artefacts recovered from the Lusitania on display locally, which of course would be of great benefit to the people of Kinsale”.
The fast liner was sunk by a torpedo from German submarine U20 on 7 May, 1915, following a transatlantic crossing from New York, causing the deaths of almost 1200 people.
The rapid 18-minute sinking led to rumours that Lusitania was carrying a clandestine cargo of explosives for Britain’s war effort, but the death-toll was a significant factor in bringing the USA into the war.
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03-Nov-16
