Famous Boats & Underwater Search Central: R.M.S. Lusitania & Bacteria Decaying Trouble

R.M.S. Lusitania
The R.M.S. Lusitania is one of the most famous shipwrecks in history. It was built 4-5 years before another famous ship, the Titanic. The Lusitania lasted a lot longer, until World War I. Like the H.M.S. Victory, the Lusitania was the technological wonder of its time.
Today, it's a boat of mysteries. In WWI, a German sub shot a torpedo at the Lusitania. Thing was, the Lusitania was a passenger boat bringing folks from New York to England. The torpedo hit the bow, just under the water level. But the real killer was a mysterious second explosion in the bow. Most of the lifeboats were useless, and the Lusitania sank in under 20 minutes. Most of the people on-board died, and the few passengers were picked up by fishermen and sent to the nearby Irish town of Cobh (sp?). The Lusitania was a big factor into bringing the USA into WWI simply two years later.
What was the second explosion about? There are many rumors and theories about this... one of them is that there were illegal big-time explosives aboard. These supposedly big ammunitions (sp?) would probably have been being sent for the British war effort. These might have exploded. No one knows for sure.
But the legend of the Lusitania doesn't stop there. Some folks believe that a government bombed the area with depth charges somewhere in the 1950s. While there is evidence of British depth-charges, no government takes claim for this supposed bombing, and denies that they ever did this thing.
The shipwreck of the Lusitania is only 11 miles from the shore. Being this close, the Irish government of course took an interest in it. It was discovered that an artist was bringing highly-valuable oil paintings across the sea in lead tubes. Once the Irish government heard this, they had the area turned into a protected zone.
This didn't stop the fishing industry. Since shipwrecks are like coral reefs, a lot of fish gathers there, and the fishermen soon follow. But this has caused problems. Their fishing nets have become a huge, and dangerous, maze around certain parts of the shipwreck. And this fishing activity can be a threat to the ship itself!


Bacteria  Decaying Trouble
Fishing isn't the only trouble a shipwreck can face. Believe-it-or-not, organisms can cause trouble for a shipwreck! And it doesn't matter if it's a big, strong, steel ship or not! And I'm definitely not talking about humans wrecking these sites...
You'll definitely be asking "Then what the heck are you talking about?" by now. Put simply... I'm talking about bacteria. It may be hard to believe such tiny organisms can cause trouble to a huge shipwreck, but they can! Some bacterial colonies pull out the iron out of metal, and make it weaker. This could lead to structures collapsing on a ship. Bacterial colonies can also boost the chances of rusting and decay faster as well.
Now, the conditions have to be right. Cold water can stem the growth and activities of bacterial growth, as well as deep water. A combo of these two is a nice slow-down-bacteria-colonies formula. But if the wreck is too warm, or too high (AKA, closer to sunlight), bacteria could grow very fast. So when you're checking out wreck sites, testing the water for bacterial growth and other conditions is a very good idea, so you know how much time you have to check out this site before it becomes nothing more than an unexplorable (sp?) junkyard! And, if the growth is fast enough, that may be a very short time...