THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995              TAG: 9504190468
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Short :   43 lines

BUSINESSMAN AWARDED OWNERSHIP OF LUSITANIA

A New Mexico businessman was awarded ownership rights without exclusive salvage rights Tuesday to the sunken British passenger liner Lusitania, and then accused the Irish government of trying to ``seize my property.''

The Lusitania's 1915 sinking by a German submarine about 12 miles off the Irish coast helped propel the United States into World War I.

``I'm very pleased to have won,'' F. Gregg Bemis Jr. said of the decision by U.S. District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke. Bemis had been seeking rights to the ship for more than a year and had fought off two challengers.

But in a prepared statement from his Santa Fe office, Bemis said the Irish government was ``stepping into the picture'' and appeared to be attempting to claim the wreck by issuing a protective ``heritage order'' that prevents dives on the site without permission from Dublin.

``My long-term efforts at research concerning the mystery of the rapid sinking, as well as my salvage of valuable artifacts from my ship, could be severely hurt by such a seizure,'' Bemis said.

Efforts to immediately reach Irish government officials were unsuccessful. A spokesman for Ireland's Department of Arts and Culture had said last month that Dublin officials were watching the U.S. case but had not decided what to do.

The ship and its debris field straddle a line between international and Irish territorial waters.

In a 25-page decision, Clarke concluded that Bemis had established ``an accurate and complete chain'' of title to the Lusitania, but not to the sunken ship's cargo and the personal effects of the passengers.

Accordingly, Clarke ruled, Bemis cannot lay claim to such items already salvaged in past expeditions and he cannot be granted exclusive salvage rights for future expeditions.

Clarke said Bemis could keep items he already has salvaged.

KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT LUSITANIA by CNB