THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412080476
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
A federal judge on Wednesday threw out four American divers' claim that they own the World War I shipwreck Lusitania - yet, moments later, the divers declared the ruling a victory.
``We won! We won!'' declared the divers' attorney, Philip N. Davey of Norfolk, shortly after the judge's ruling.
The divers' bizarre elation hinged on a remark by the judge immediately after his ruling. He said the divers could participate in another hearing today to determine whether the Lusitania dispute belongs in Norfolk's federal court. The shipwreck lies 12 miles off the Irish coast.
The divers hope to use today's hearing to demolish a rival claim by New Mexican businessman F. Gregg Bemis Jr. They say they want to open the wreck site to public diving. They say Bemis would restrict such diving.
``We don't want to own the wreck. We never did,'' said Gary Gentile, the group's president, after the ruling by Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. ``That was just the legal posture we needed to get into these hearings. . . .
``We want to go back and dive again. And we want other people to be able to dive, too. If Bemis wins, he won't let anyone else dive it. . . . We don't want to win. We just want Bemis to lose.''
Gentile, a Philadelphia diver and author, is best known for his five-year legal battle to open the Civil War ironclad Monitor to public diving off the North Carolina coast.
But Bemis, who attended Wednesday's hearing and will testify today, was puzzled by the divers' reaction to Wednesday's ruling. He said he also was pleased with the ruling.
Bemis also said after the hearing that he simply wants to preserve his ownership rights. Bemis, a 65-year-old Santa Fe businessman who ran unsuccessfully for Congress this year, says he bought the shipwreck from the ship's insurers in the 1960s.
He said he is happy to have others dive the wreck, as long as they acknowledge his ownership and sign a licensing agreement with him. National Geographic did that last year to produce a TV special and magazine story on the Lusitania.
``This is about recognizing private property rights,'' Bemis said.
The Lusitania, a British luxury liner, was sunk by a German torpedo in 1915. About 1,198 passengers and crew were killed. The uproar over that sinking hastened America's entry into the war in 1917.
The ship lies in about 300 feet of water. It has little inherent value - there are no gold bars or coins aboard, for example - but it is, like the Titanic, a potential gold mine for anyone who can properly photograph and write about it.
Bemis claims he owns not only the wreckage but also its photographic and ``intellectual property'' rights.
A third claimant, a Massachusetts widow whose husband once worked with Bemis to salvage the wreck, also says she owns the ship. Her claim is pending.
The divers' group, called Fifty Fathom Ventures, based its claim on a two-week dive to the wreckage in June. They said Bemis had effectively abandoned the ship by not salvaging it quickly enough.
In a separate action, Bemis is suing the divers for $240,000 for taking some artifacts - a porthole, a soap dish, some tiles and two prisms - from the ship without his permission.
On Wednesday, Judge Clarke ruled that the divers did not file their claim to the Lusitania on time. Bemis filed his claim in February. The divers filed their response claim in September, saying they had not had proper notice of Bemis' lawsuit.
Clarke ruled that the divers had no good reason for missing the court's filing deadline last summer. He added that the divers ``did not act in good faith or with clean hands'' because they knew Bemis had some ownership claim to the Lusitania yet evaded him in undertaking the June dive.
The hearing will resume at 10 a.m. today. Bemis is expected to be the first witness. ILLUSTRATION: B&W photo
Lusitania
Color staff map
Location of the Lusitania
KEYWORDS: LUSITANIA LAWSUIT RULING by CNB