How can someone own the lusitania

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A venture capitalist, Bemis left his last corporate job in , at the age of 51, to focus full time on private investments. A Harvard Business School story stated that Bemis had participated in over 40 start ups.

He ascribed his success and his ability to evolve with the times to his Protestant work ethic. He also had an interest in public service, having made three unsuccessful bids for the New Mexico legislature as a Republican in a Democratic district.

Bemis first acquired joint ownership in the Lusitania in In , it held a silent auction, drawing two bidders: British intelligence and an ex-U. From to , Light had made a name for himself by diving the feet down to the Lusitania wreck 42 times.

With only basic scuba gear and primitive gas-mixing technology available at the time, he suffered severe nitrogen narcosis on his dives. After his purchase, Light needed funding to lead a salvage operation and entered into a contract with businessman George Macomber, who recruited Bemis.

Bemis earned a one-third share of the ship as collateral. Bemis and Macomber assumed ownership of the Lusitania in the liquidation. Busy with his life as a corporate executive, for years, Bemis had almost forgot about his 50 percent ownership of the wreck.

But by , diving technology had improved dramatically, and he hoped to start a new salvage operation. He became particularly invested in the questions: why did the ship sink so quickly?

I like to stick to things, I like to see them through to the end. And stick with the Lusitania he did. German claims that the British were using women and children as human shields to transport munitions, if confirmed, would strain British-American relations, especially since the sinking had drawn the United States into World War I.

They were not the large explosives that Bemis had hoped or that the British Government had feared they would find. Despite the cheap initial cost of ownership, Bemis had to fight decades of expensive legal battles in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States to verify his ownership. Bemis believed the Lusitania wreck to be his property and, thus, that there should be no government interference.

His court victory over the British Government led to Bemis alone owning the wreck but not the cargo or personal effects. Anything that he salvaged would belong to him unless anyone else claimed the property, but Irish authorities disagreed. The trouble began in when Bemis denied a British team of technical divers, led by Polly Tapson, access to the ship. Despite Bemis filing a lawsuit to stop the dive, Tapson and her team went ahead anyway.

This news attracted the attention of the then arts minister and future Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, who subsequently placed an underwater heritage order on the Lusitania wreck in Thus began 12 years of litigation between Bemis and the Irish government, holding up his proposals to analyze the wreck and film a documentary at the site.

The case reached the Irish Supreme Court, which, in , awarded Bemis the right to access the wreck, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Irish Government.

Even so, Bemis still needed permission and licenses through the Irish bureaucracy to conduct expeditions. In , Bemis invited Dr. Of the more than 1, passengers and crew members on board, more than 1, perished, including more than Americans. Nearly two years would pass before the United States formally entered World War I, but the sinking of the Lusitania played a significant role in turning public opinion against Germany, both in the United States and abroad.

Several U. The announcement was placed on the same page as an advertisement of the imminent sailing of the Lusitania liner from New York back to Liverpool. It was revealed that the Lusitania was carrying about tons of war munitions for Britain, which the Germans cited as further justification for the attack. The United States eventually protested the action, and Germany apologized and pledged to end unrestricted submarine warfare. However, in November of that same year a U-boat sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing more than people, including more than 25 Americans.

Public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. On January 31, , Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced it would resume unrestricted warfare in war-zone waters.

Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American ship Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. In late March, Germany sunk four more U.