Lusitania & Capt John D Craig - Tom Whiteley's life in full. Survivor of the Titanic. Actor.on stage and film.

THE LUSITANIA

In August 1935 the Salvage Ship Orphir out of Liverpool started to chart the 1000 yards square area where the Lusitania was reckoned to be. The ship was using echo sounding equipment for perhaps the first time commercially in open seas. It had been developed starting eight years before by the British Admiralty. The wreck was pinpointed on October 6^th.

Tom Whiteley saw an opportunity for Capt. John D. Craig to make an underwater film sequence for a feature film about the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7^th 1915 by the German submarine U-20. There had been long-standing rumours about the richness of the cargo. Craig had extensive experience of underwater filming starting in 1922 when he and Tom had first met.

So Tom went to Puerto Rico over Christmas ‘35 to make plans for the project.

In the photos below are:

Tom, Craig's wife Gloria Rovzar, and John D. Craig.

Tom and John are on board on the way back to the United States.

Tom Whiteley, Gloria Rovzar and John D Craig Tom Whiteley and John D Craig

Maybe the trip to Chicago in January was to meet Gene Nohl and check his thoughts. Gene Nohl was a leading edge technologist in deep diving. He had developed a much more advanced diving suit which would allow greater flexibility when filming at depth.

In the photos below Tom is with an early diving suit; possibly the type first introduced in 1904.

In the other photo John D Craig, on the left, is with Gene Nohl. They are both wearing Nohl's improved design.

Tom Whiteley with early diving suit JOHN D CRAIG and GENE NOHL

So in early February 1936 Craig and Tom were back in the UK together. Tom’s Press Release featured Capt. John D. Craig, preparing the media for trials on filming the Lusitania, in contract with the Tritonia Co. Ltd, the company responsible for the salvage of the valuables. In the middle of March the project was declared feasible by Craig.

While Capt. Craig is in this country, Tom contracts to write ‘six adventure articles relating to the experiences of Capt. John Craig in filming under-water and jungle pictures’. These were written and published.

What happened with the Lusitania project? It appears that Gene Nohl may have preferred to stay in the States in order to set up a World Record dive depth in Lake Michigan. That may well have been preferable to the much riskier Atlantic open sea venture with no guarantee at all of salvaging any wealth. The projected film came to nothing.

So ended Tom’s dream of hitting the big time again. He had spent a lot of money and achieved nothing except the modest fee for writing the articles.