The current (Jan/Feb 2009) issue of Archaeology magazine has a news item detailing the recovery of munitions from the wreck of the Lusitania. Most adults are familiar with the story, which can be reviewed at Wiki. For almost a century now a debate has smoldered and flared as to whether the Lusitania was transporting a significant cargo of war munitions, which would have rendered it a valid target for the German U-boat.
The Archaeology article indicates that a diving team has recovered live ammunition from the wreck. Using an ROV, they were able to identify a "vast amount of ammunition in an area of Lusitania not believed to have carried cargo."
The munitions brought to the surface by this team were Remington .303 caliber bullets, the presence of which were first documented several years ago, so I'm not sure to what extent the current recovery is different.
It's also not clear to me whether rifle bullets are "explosive" enough to be responsible for the damage to the ship. The German U-boat commander insists he fired just one torpedo; the ship incurred significant damage, but was then destroyed by a secondary explosion. The controversy has been whether that second explosion was due to a) a second torpedo, b) exploding coal dust, or c) exploding munitions aboard the ship.
What had caused the second huge explosion? The Lusitania's secret cargo manifest gives some clues. Among the mundane items were 3863 "boxes of cheese", each weighing 40 pounds. Their destination was a Liverpool post-office box number, which turned out to belong to the Superintendent of the Naval Experimental Establishment at Shoeburyness! Then there were the 323 bales of "furs", destined for the Liverpool firm of B.F. Babcock and Co. Babcock's had never dealt in fur, but had previously received several shipments of gun-cotton, a commodity known to be highly explosive when coming into contact with water..The historical relevance is of the story is huge, because the sinking of the ship was one of the factors which pushed the United States to enter the First World War. Conspiracy theorists have even surmised that information about the presence of munitions on the Lusitania was secretly leaked to the Germans so they would target the ship (this seems unlikely since the U-boat captain's own narrative described meeting the Lusitania as a chance encounter).
Here is the link to Archaeology magazine, but as of today the story of the recovered Lusitania munitions has not yet been posted online. The Discovery channel has a good report on original sinking.
The image above shows a panorama view of the Lusitania at dock in 1907 after her maiden voyage. Click to enlarge; it's particularly interesting because of the array of horse-drawn buggies waiting dockside. I presume that's a turn-of-the-century equivalent of a taxi stand.
That Archeology Magazine article did not have much research behind it. The munitions on board the Lusitania and "discovered" by Bemis have been known since 1915. They were on the ships manifest, cited in American newspapers, and noted in the British Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster. The same munitions had previously been seen in other dives to the wreck during the 1990's. Bemis is a conspiracy theorist who wants to prove that the ship carried more than this and as such, was a legitimate target for the Imperial German government.
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