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October 31, 2007
US court dispute over Spanish shipwreck treasure far from over
By MITCH STACY – 9 hours ago
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The legal grappling between deep-sea explorers and the Spanish government over an estimated $500 million in sunken treasure could drag on for another year or more, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
A case management report filed in federal court indicated that Odyssey Marine Exploration, based in Tampa, and attorneys for the Spanish government agree on little beyond their ability to be ready for a trial sometime after Oct. 1, 2008.
Spain has filed claims to the vast treasure of Colonial-era silver and gold coins and other artifacts that Odyssey salvaged from an undisclosed shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean this year.
Spain contends it is entitled to the treasure if it or the ship belonged to Spain, or if the treasure was removed from Spain's territorial waters.
Odyssey, citing security concerns, has said publicly only that the wreck was situated in international waters, but an export document filed with the court last month indicated the treasure was found about 200 miles west of Gibraltar, a British territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.
An attorney for Spain has asked a judge to order Odyssey to disclose the exact location and identity of the shipwreck, which the company has code-named "Black Swan."
"They've yet to provide any of the information that has been demanded of them," said James A. Goold, an attorney for the Spanish government. "This has been going on for a long time, and it's increasingly disturbing."
Odyssey has argued in court filings that it has followed proper legal channels in seeking exclusive rights to the wreck site in U.S. District Court and must continue to keep the wreck's location secret to protect it from competing salvagers.
Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm said Tuesday that the company has offered to share information with opposing attorneys if they agree to keep it secret. But Goold said Spain is pushing for full, unconditional disclosure of all details — especially regarding the types and characteristics of the coins. He did say, however, that he would agree not to disclose the wreck's exact location.
The legal challenge could be resolved within the next year, Stemm said.
"We want to go to trial as quickly as we possibly can," he said.
The situation has led to deteriorating relations between Odyssey and the Spanish government, which briefly detained the company's two vessels leaving Gibraltar.
Stemm said the company has been unfairly portrayed as modern-day pirates looting archeologically significant shipwrecks for profit, a reputation that has been perpetuated in the European press.
It is routine for other countries or parties to challenge treasure finds in U.S. federal court if they believe they have a claim, he said, and a judge will ultimately decide if the claim has merit.
Posted by victoria at 09:38 AM
October 26, 2007
Civil War Shipwreck Evidence in Georgia River
Experts Find Shipwreck Evidence in River
By RUSS BYNUM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Captured by Confederate sailors in a bloody midnight sneak attack in 1864, the gunboat Water Witch became one of the few Civil War ships to sail under the flags of both the Confederate and Union navies. Archaeologists say they found strong evidence Thursday they've located the Water Witch's wreckage buried under more than 10 feet of mud in the Vernon River south of Savannah.
Divers pushed a 20-foot metal rod through the river mud Thursday and tapped solid wood and metal underneath. It was the same location where an 1865 survey map showed Confederate sailors burned the ship to prevent Union Gen. William T. Sherman's army from recapturing it.
"In all likelihood, it is the Water Witch," said Gordon Watts, an underwater archaeologist hired by the state of Georgia. "We'd have to absolutely dig something up to say for sure."
If Watts is correct, the Water Witch would be just the third Civil War shipwreck — along with the ironclad CSS Georgia and the blockade runner CSS Nashville — to be found out of dozens known to have been sunk in Georgia waters, said Dave Crass, Georgia's state archaeologist.
"There are lots more that are out there and we know where the are, but it's cost prohibitive" to go after them, Crass said.
Archaeologists got lucky with the Water Witch. The state Department of Transportation had to survey a part of the Vernon River it plans to bridge with a parkway extension. The agency agreed to go ahead and check a spot just two miles away where the Water Witch was believed to have burned.
Using a magnetometer, a giant metal detector, surveyors detected large iron objects scattered beneath the river's surface in an area 200 feet long. An 1865 map marked the same spot as the Water Witch's grave.
Crass said the state will consult with the federal government, which technically owns the wreckage, to see if they support funding an expedition to verify whether the diver found the Water Witch.
The 160-foot, wooden-hulled Water Witch was built by the U.S. Navy in 1851 as a sort of hybrid of old and new seafaring technologies. Though outfitted with a steam engine and side-mounted paddle wheels, the ship also had 90-foot masts for sailing.
During the Civil War, the Water Witch patrolled blockades off the coasts of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, but mostly in the waters of Ossabaw Sound between Ossabaw Island and the Georgia mainland 15 miles south of Savannah.
That's where Confederate Navy Lt. Thomas Pelot got assigned to lead a raid to capture the ship in the early morning darkness on June 3, 1864.
Pelot led a group of about 120 men who used small boats to slip alongside the Water Witch undetected. Their numbers gave them a healthy advantage over the ship's crew of 65 sailors.
Taken by surprise, the Union sailors still put up a fight, engaging the Confederates in close quarters combat with sabers and revolvers. Luther Billings, the assistant paymaster aboard the Water Witch, later estimated 40 men were killed or wounded in the raid.
The dead included Pelot, who led the assault, and Dallas Moses, a slave who was also paid a $100 monthly salary as a Confederate river pilot.
Moses piloted the lead boat in the sneak attack, and was supposed to steer the captured Water Witch back to Savannah — under the flag of the Confederate Navy.
Though numerous ships were captured by both sides in the Civil War, few actually served on both sides during the war, said Bruce Smith, executive director of the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus.
"It was fairly uncommon," Smith said. "It did happen a number of times, less than a handful."
Because Moses was killed before he could pilot the captured Water Witch, the ship never made it back to Savannah. Confederate sailors dared not take their prize back to sea, where Union battleships watched for it, and the inland waterways to the city were too shallow.
The Water Witch remained in the waters near Ossabaw Sound for about six months until December, when Sherman's Union troops closed in on Savannah. Fearing the Union would reclaim the ship, Confederate sailors burned it in the water.
Smith said written orders from the period show that sailors stripped the Water Witch of its guns, ammunition and most of its supplies before burning it. But he said any artifacts that could be recovered would be valuable.
"If it was just doorknobs, that would be fantastic as far as I'm concerned, if it was the real deal," Smith said.
Posted by victoria at 10:18 AM
October 25, 2007
Shipwreck Added to US National Register of Historic Places
Wisconsin gains 28th shipwreck on historic registry
The Associated Press
ALGOMA, Wis. (AP) — The wooden schooner Daniel Lyons, which has rested at the bottom of Lake Michigan for nearly 130 years, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The three-masted, 143-foot long vessel struck and nearly sliced the ship named Kate Gillett on Oct. 18, 1878, about nine miles northeast of Algoma, according to a news release from the University of Wisconsin's Sea Grant Institute.
Gillett's captain worked to keep the bow of his ship lodged in the Lyons hull to keep it from flooding, so the five crew members could get onto the Gillett, according to the institute. When the boats separated, the Lyons settled at the stern, rolled to its side and sank bow first.
The vessel was built to fit through the locks of Welland Canal, which bypass the Niagara Falls between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It transported grain from ports on western Lake Michigan, collected from newly settled farmlands of the Midwest, to eastern ports on Lakes Erie and Ontario, according to the institute.
Wisconsin now has 28 shipwrecks listed on the National Register, more than any other state, according to Keith Meverden, an underwater archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Meverden led a team of nautical archeologists and other divers to conduct a survey of the wreck in 2005, getting the information in order to nominate the vessel.
Posted by victoria at 10:16 AM
October 22, 2007
Halifax Harbour
Natural Resources Canada just launched a new website dedicated to Halifax Harbour - the home port of Shipwreck Central. www.nrcan.gc.ca/halifax/
Here are some facts to get you started:
Halifax Harbour is the second largest ice free harbour in the world. The harbour is called Chebucto by the Mi'kmaq Nation and runs in a northwest-southeast direction.
Based on average vessel speeds, the harbour is strategically located approximately one hour sailing time north of the Great Circle Route between the Eastern Seaboard and Europe. As such, it is the first inbound and last outbound port of call in eastern North America with trans-continental rail connections.
The harbour is largely formed by a drowned river valley which succumbed to sea level rise since glaciation. The Sackville River now empties into the upper end of the harbour in Bedford Basin, however its original river bed has been charted by the Canadian Hydrographic Service throughout the length of the harbour and beyond.
The harbour includes the following geographic areas:
* Northwest Arm Another drowned river valley now largely used by pleasure boats.
* The Narrows A constricted passage to Bedford Basin.
* Bedford Basin A sheltered bay and the largest part of the harbour.
Posted by victoria at 09:56 AM
October 17, 2007
WIN THE DOXA BOOK
Hello DOXA fans
Every one at Shipwreck Central loves DOXA they make the best dive watches in the world and they have always been generous to both Shipwreck Central and the Sea Hunters. But we are not their only fan.
Dr. Peter Millar has just published a stunning book chronicling 40 years of DOXA.
There are only 1000 copies of this book in print and the two we have to give away are the only ones signed by both the author and Mike Fletcher, who wrote a forward for the book.
In addition to the book we will include an Orange Jenny logo ball cap in the grand prize pack and we will also give away 8 more ball caps as secondary prizes.
How can you win?
Click on the launch entry link below and fill out the form, include your Name, age, address, telephone number, email address and correctly answer the question then hit submit.
Once you have the correct answer you can enter once a day until the contest closes on October 31th.
Two Grand prize winner of a DOXA SUB FORTY YEARS 1947- 2007 and Orange Jenny logo ball cap will be drawn from all correct entries received before the contest deadline
Eight second prize winners of an Orange DOXA Jenny Logo baseball cap will be drawn from the remaining correct entries
Check back for the winners!
Posted by victoria at 10:27 AM
October 16, 2007
Probing ancient shipwrecks with DNA
Special to World Science
Studying an ancient Greek shipwreck, scientists say, they’ve found they can decode ancient DNA to learn about the original contents of jars sunken for over 2,000 years.
It’s a feat “no one thought was even possible,” wrote Maria Hansson of Lund University in Sweden, one of the researchers, in an email. The discovery “opens up a whole new field of molecular archaeology,” she added, as scientists could could use the technique to gain insights into ancient agriculture and trading networks.
Ancient amphorae, or storage jars, at the Chios shipwreck site. (Courtesy Chios 2005 Shipwreck Survey - WHOI, Hellenic Ministry of Culture: Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Hellenic Center for Marine Research)
Ancient Mediterranean civilizations, some of the world’s earliest, often used ceramic jars called amphorae as shipping containers. Invented by the Canaanites of the Near East in the 16th century B.C., amphorae took on varied styles in different regions and time periods, wrote Hansson and a colleague in a paper reporting their work.
Piles of amphorae often remain as lone, mute witnesses to ancient shipwrecks where the boats themselves have been long since eaten away.
But researchers trying to learn the jars’ original contents usually come up dry, according to Hansson and colleague Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. That’s because the amphorae only infrequently contain visible clues, such as olive pits.
Ancient DNA molecules, though degraded with time, could supply some of the needed evidence, wrote the pair, whose findings appear in the advance online edition of The Journal of Archaeological Science.
The researchers scraped ceramic from inside two amphorae from a 4th-century B.C. shipwreck found near the Greek island of Chios in 2004. The wreck, about 60 meters (200 feet) underwater, has drawn headlines before because—being to deep to explore by conventional diving—investigators have mapped it using robotic devices.
Model of an 4th-century B.C. Greek merchant ship based on the Kyrenia, a wreck salvaged in 1967.
Adding another new technology to the project, Hansson and Foley analyzed small DNA fragments found trapped in the pottery.
They determined that one vessel probably contained olive oil flavored with oregano, a surprise because historians have believed that amphorae of that style from Chios usually carried wine, they wrote. Chios was known for “fine and distinctive vintages,” they noted, but the find suggests Chian agricultural exports might have been more diverse than generally assumed.
The other jar, they wrote, contained DNA of mastic—a shrub cultivated on Chios—or of pistachio, a related plant. Scholars have hypothesized that ancient Chians used mastic resin as a wine preservative and flavoring, Hansson and Foley wrote.
Some ancient foods, they added, are more likely than others to leave genetic calling cards behind. For instance, because the second jar was thought to have likely contained wine, they checked for grape DNA, but found none. It may have washed away because wine dissolves in water better than oil or resin, Hansson and Foley observed. But overall, they wrote, the findings “contribute definite evidence for Classical Greek commodity exchange and open new vistas for molecular archeological analyses.”
Posted by victoria at 10:48 AM
October 10, 2007
Oldest American shipwreck discovered in Alaska
Shipwreck Found Off Alaskan Coast
By JEANNETTE J. LEE
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A private dive team has discovered the wreckage of an American ship that sank off the south-central Alaska coast 139 years ago. The Torrent sank in Cook Inlet in 1868 after tidal currents rammed it into a reef south of the Kenai Peninsula. Documents from the period show that all 155 people on board survived.
The U.S. had purchased Alaska from Russia less than a year earlier, and about 130 Army soldiers had come north on the Torrent to build the first U.S. military fort in south-central Alaska.
The shipwreck is the oldest American wreck ever found in Alaska.
"It's a very significant find because it's right after the purchase, during the transition from Russian to American authority," said Judy Bittner, a state historic preservation officer. "It's the very beginning of federal presence in Alaska and the establishment of order."
A four-man dive team led by Steve Lloyd, owner of Anchorage's largest independent book store, found remnants of the wreckage in July. They kept the discovery secret at the request of state officials, who wanted more time to document the site before any looters arrive. Its discovery was announced Monday.
An array of objects, from guns, cannons, shoes and plates, are hidden beneath the broad leaves of giant kelp beds or concealed in caverns and crevices among massive boulders, Lloyd said.
"It's like walking through a field of tall grass and undergrowth looking for a baseball that you've lost," Lloyd said.
Big finds include the two anchors, sections of hull and heavy bronze rudder hinges weighing about 100 lbs.
About 2,500 ships have wrecked off the Alaska coast since Russian explorers first arrived in 1741, according to Mike Burwell, a cultural anthropologist for the federal Minerals Management Service. A partial database on the service's Web site lists Japanese submarines and fishing trawlers, Liberian freighters and New England whaling ships, among others.
The Torrent is now being considered for listing in the National Registry of Historic Places. Bittner said state or federal archaeologists may study the wreck if they can secure enough funding.
Posted by victoria at 01:55 PM
October 09, 2007
Employment oppurtunity at NURC/UNCW
Closing date: October 12, 2007
http://www.uncw.edu/hr/employment.html
Position Information
Job Title Research Operations Manager
Job Category: Marine Science
Position Number 008158
License or Certification Required by Statute or Regulation: The candidate must be capable of passing mandatory swim test and a NOAA/AAUS annual dive physical examination. Dive certification by a nationally recognized sport Scuba diving agency (or military equivalent) is mandatory.
Summary of Position Assists scientists in conducting undersea research activities by planning and coordinating projects, serving as a diver and divemaster, overseeing dive training, and maintaining dive equipment and ancillary research tools.
Minimum Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Graduation from a four-year college or university and two years of general research experience preferably including supervision; or an equivalent combination of training and experience. Familiarity with a variety of the research fields concepts, practices and procedures. Demonstrated experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities - Ability to maintain and service scuba diving equipment a must.
- Ability to operate research vessels (16-42' LOA).
- Possesses DMT certification or has the ability to become certified as a first responder/diver medic.
Preferred Qualifications: - Certified scuba instructor
Contact UNCW for employment posting/application information.
Douglas E. Kesling, BSN, M.A., DMT-A Manager, Advanced Diving Technology NOAA Undersea Research Center University of North Carolina Wilmington 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane Wilmington, NC 28409
910.962.2445 wk 910.962.2410 fax
Posted by victoria at 09:07 AM
October 04, 2007
U-Boat diver's body is recovered
The body of a 45-year-old diver who died at the site of a sunken German U-boat has been recovered.
Michael Hanrahan, (extreme right) a father of four from Dublin, died during a dive at the submarine, 16 miles off Malin Head on the County Donegal coast on Tuesday.
Paul Lewis, another member of the dive team, said he tried to save Mr Hanrahan's life.
"Out of the blue, Mick just fell back onto the wreck and I think he had some sort of a seizure," Mr Lewis said.
"Instantly I went to his aid, but it was of no help to him."
The dive team was filming the U-boat while assessing the chances of recovering it.
Mr Hanrahan's body was recovered by fellow members of his diving club in Dublin.
Paul Moore, from BBC Radio Ulster's Your Place and Mine, spent Tuesday with the divers at Malin Head, for a feature he was doing for the programme.
"It was just such a huge shock, because they were just so excited about it and they seemed to know just what they were doing," Mr Moore said.
"It's just such a tragedy for the family."
He said later he was looking at photographs he had taken of the divers.
"I was looking at these photographs and realising that one of these divers was still there, had had this accident and was now dead," he said.
Derry City councillor Shaun Gallagher paid tribute to Mr Hanrahan.
"He was a gentle giant and a lovely man - we're just devastated," he said.
The dive team leaving for the U-boat site on Tuesday
It is the second fatal diving incident off the north-west coast in the last two months.
At the end of July, Paul Jackson, a police officer from Humberside, had been looking at wrecks off Tory Island but failed to resurface.
The U-boat, which did not see any war action, sank while being towed from Scotland to Londonderry to be scrapped.
Derry City Council plans to raise U-778 and house it in a museum. The boat is lying in about 70 metres of water.
It is estimated there are about 150 such boats lying off Malin Head, all vivid reminders of the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II.
The council said that "because of the depth of the waters involved, the procedure was expected to be highly technical".
Posted by victoria at 09:31 AM
