An American has won his High Court challenge to the State's refusal to grant him a licence to carry out a $2 million research expedition on the wreck of the Lusitania. The 762ft vessel was sunk off the southwest coast by a German submarine on May 7th, 1915, with the loss of 1,195 people.
Mr Justice Daniel Herbert yesterday held that a decision by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands that F Gregg Bemis, of New Mexico, should have sought an "excavation" licence under a section of the National Monuments Act, 1930, was based on a misinterpretation of the legislation and was "irrational and unreasonable".
He held the refusal of a licence to Mr Bemis under section 3(5) of the National Monuments Act 1987 was outside the Minister's powers.
In May 1996, the High Court made an order declaring that Mr Bemis was owner of the Lusitania, which lies on the seabed 11.5 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork. An Underwater Heritage Order was made in January 1995 under the National Monuments Act providing that the site be "protected". But a section of the Act provides that an application may be made for a licence to conduct certain activities.
Mr Justice Herbert said Mr Bemis, as lawful and sole owner, wanted to be permitted to salvage and sell objects from the wreck to defray some of the $3 million he spent acquiring the wreck.
The items Mr Bemis had indicated were individual pieces of coal, rivets, small pieces of ship's metal and 20th century table and sanitary ware. There were other more important items which Mr Bemis would wish to be permitted to raise for preservation and subsequent permanent display in museums in this State, primarily in Cork and Kinsale, and to form travelling exhibitions for display in other countries, particularly the US, the judge noted.