The truth behind the sinking of the Lusitania off Co Cork in 1915 will never be established if the Government maintains its overly "bureaucratic" approach towards the shipwreck, the ship's owner, Greg Beamis, has said.
The US owner and diver, who is awaiting the outcome of his latest legal action against the State over the ship, said the cause of the sinking would remain the subject of rumour and conjecture until a detailed forensic examination could be carried out.
Mr Beamis told a marine archaeology conference in University College, Dublin at the weekend he had made repeated efforts to seek approval for such an examination. These efforts included a legal challenge of the decision by former arts minister Michael D Higgins to attach a cultural heritage order to the shipwreck, which lies in 100m of water about 12 miles south of the Old Head of Kinsale.
The owner, who was formerly part of a group which bought the title from Cunard in 1982, does not believe the second explosion which sank the liner was caused by a boiler or coal dust.
Some 1,200 people lost their lives when the ship sank while en route from New York to Liverpool.
On May 7th, 1915, the ship was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine, but there is still mystery over the cause of the substantial and fatal blast which occurred an estimated 18 minutes later.
Claims that the liner was carrying wartime munitions have been denied by official authorities, and in the 1950s the British authorities attempted to destroy the wreck, claims Mr Beamis.
The US owner and partners sponsored several exploration dives to the wreck, including that undertaken by Robert Ballard in 1993. However, Mr Beamis does not subscribe to Mr Ballard's theory about "coal dust" as the boilers had all been identified as intact.
"No one in the US has ever heard of a coal dust explosion on a ship, and the fact is that if there were explosives on board, neither the US nor the British governments will want to admit this."
Mr Beamis was one of a number of speakers at the UCD conference, Landscapes to Liners, hosted by the Tayleur Project.
The project is carrying out authorised dives on the sailing ship Tayleur, which sank off Lambay island, north Dublin, with the loss of 400 to 450 lives in 1854.
