May 10, 2008
Shipwreck Central - Scheduled System Downtime
We will be performing some scheduled maintenance on the Shipwreck Central server at 6:00 AM (AST) May 11. The site will not be available for approximately 1 hour.
Thanks,
SWC
Posted by livedive at 06:24 PM
December 13, 2007
GHOSTSHIPS OF THE GREAT LAKES - PART 4
Ghostship of the Great Lakes part 4
When New York's most prominent shipyard, Bidwell and Banta, launched the Niagara in 1846, the vessel was one of the largest, fastest, and most luxurious steamboats the world had ever seen. Seeing the much-heralded Niagara for the first time, one reporter wrote that "we had been lead to anticipate a most magnificent boat, but the reality far exceeded our anticipations."
Posted by victoria at 12:46 PM
December 10, 2007
Ghostship of the Great Lakes Part 3
Ghostship of the Great Lakes Part 3
Mike and Warren prep for a deep dive in Lake Erie that requires commercial dive gear, including a dive helmet.
Posted by victoria at 01:19 PM
December 07, 2007
December 7th 1941 - Pearl Harbor
At 6:00 a.m. on December 7th six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters on Pearl Harbour. Caught off guard by the subsequent waves of attack within the first 10 minutes the USS Arizona had been hit twice. The devastating explosion that resulted ripped through the forward part of the ship igniting brutal fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford Island and the surrounding area. The Arizona had been struck down taking with her 1103 lives, over half the casualties of that infamous day.
The Japanese attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. Overall, twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged, aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, and there were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.
Battleship Row
USS Arizona Memorial
For more information find the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma on the map.
Posted by victoria at 09:43 AM
GHOSTSHIPS OF THE GREAT LAKES - PART 2
Ghostship of the Great Lakes Part 2
Mike and the dive team continue the search with a helmet dive on an unidentified wreck.
Survivors of the Niagara disaster estimated that only 20 minutes elapsed between the outbreak of the fire and the total abandonment of the ship. Since the passengers and crew had little time to collect their belongings, the Niagara took an abundance of cultural artifacts down with it when it sank. In about 50 feet of water, the remains of the Niagara settled to the bottom of Lake Michigan about one mile off shore. Memories of the disaster persisted and were occasionally revisited in newspapers and by maritime buffs, but deeper knowledge of the Niagara and Great Lakes palace steamers faded.
Posted by victoria at 09:35 AM
December 06, 2007
Halifax Explosion Remembered
On December 6, 1917, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb occurred.
At 8:45 in the morning a French ammunition ship, the Mont Blanc and the Norwegian cargo ship Imo collided in the narrows of Halifax harbour. Vapors from vats of benzol, which were wrongly stored on the deck of the Mont Blanc, were set afire by sparks from the collision. The Mont Blanc was shipping large quantities of munitions to Europe as part of the war effort. She was carrying over 2700 tons of explosives, such as TNT, guncotton, and picric acid. The fire engulfed the Mont Blanc and the crew quickly abandoned ship upon the Captain's orders. They rowed to safety in two rowboats and reached safety on the Dartmouth shore as the burning ship continued to drift toward the busy port of Halifax.
At 9:04:35, with firefighters on the scene and school children gathering to watch, a massive explosion ensued. More than 2.5 km2 of Halifax was leveled and windows were shattered as far as Truro, Nova Scotia, 100 kilometres away. An anchor from the Mont Blanc was found five kilometres from the harbour. The disaster resulted in approximately 1635 deaths (approx. 1000 died instantaneously from the blast), nine thousand injured and approximately 30 million dollars in damage. 325 acres of city was destroyed. 1500 people became homeless as a result of the devastation. The following day a blizzard hit the city, crippling recovery efforts.
If not for the efforts of neighboring Provinces, the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee the devastation would have escalated further. Each year, Nova Scotia donates a giant evergreen to the people of Boston as a thank you for their assistance following the Halifax Explosion.
Click Here To view rare film footage shot in the aftermath of the 1917 Halifax Explosion. Six minutes of black-and-white moving images, attributed to professional cameraman W.G. MacLaughlan, document in eerie silence and jerky movements the waste and devastation of a city destroyed, and the efforts that went into rebuilding it.
For more information on the Halifax Explosion find the Mont Blanc on the map.
Every Christmas since 1917, Nova Scotia has donated a large Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided in the time of major need. The tree is Boston's premier Christmas tree and is lit in the Boston Common throughout the holiday season.
Posted by victoria at 09:41 AM
December 05, 2007
GHOSTSHIPS OF THE GREAT LAKES - PART 1
PLAY GHOSTSHIPS OF THE GREAT LAKES PART ONE
For more than a century, the ship and its contents laid undisturbed, frozen in time. However, with the invention and popularization of scuba gear during the 1950s and 1960s, this suddenly changed. In the mid-1960s, divers discovered the remains of the Niagara. For more than two decades, treasure hunters and salvagers thoroughly stripped artifacts and fittings from what was probably Wisconsin's greatest treasure trove of nineteenth century cultural artifacts. Rumors tell of entire crates of unbroken china and other artifacts being hauled off to the garages of Wisconsin and Illinois. Unfortunately, the knowledge that could have been gained by studying those artifacts is lost forever.
The structure of the wreck itself suffered additional damage by looters. One of the Niagara's two great paddlewheels, 30 feet in diameter, survived upright and largely intact into the 1980s, until a diver toppled it in a search for artifacts. Today, fragments of the wheel lie on the port side of the hull, directly abeam the engine assembly.
Despite the unfortunate pillage, the wreck of the Niagara remains a rich source of information about mid-nineteenth century shipbuilding technology and maritime culture. In 1993, the Wisconsin Historical Society began archaeological and historical research on the Niagara, one of the few examples of sidewheel steamers still in existence.
Check back tomorrow for part 2 of Ghostships of the Great Lakes and go to the Shipwreck Map > to learn more about the Niagara now!
Posted by victoria at 10:23 AM
November 29, 2007
Clive Cussler's -The Chase - The Limited Edition Prints!!!
Maurizio Manzieri is a professional artist living in Turin, Italy. Since 1994 he has been collaborating with leading publishers and magazines such as Mondadori, Editrice Nord, Rizzoli, Longanesi, TEA, Fanucci, Dario Flaccovio Editore, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (USA), Interzone (UK). His artwork has appeared in many international exhibits and renowned annuals including Spectrum, The Best in Fantastic Contemporary Art. Among the most prestigious awards conquered in the fantastic field there are: the Italia Award and the Europe Award - both as Best Illustrator -and the Chesley Award for Best Unpublished Monochrome Artwork.
YOU CAN PRE-ORDER NOW!
PRINTS SHIPMENT WILL BEGIN IN A FEW DAYS!!!
THE CHASE novel will be on sale on November 6th! I've just received the following note from the Penguin Art Department:
" Maurizio, we will send finish printed samples of THE CHASE soon. They just came in. Looks terrific."
As you can imagine, I look forward to my copy of the book, yet at the moment we have to compensate our thirst only with the artistic output. My Studio is practically ready to ship the brand-new production and the quickest Collectors will be able to grab one copy well before the volume hits the shops.
Take a glance at the revamped Cussler Store! It keeps slowly expanding while my collaborations go on! If you click on the images, you will be teleported straight away to the Prints page. Message to the buyers: please free to inquire about anything, from the packaging to the methods of shipments even though I'm pleased to assure you that each one of the Deluxe Prints will reach your door safe and sound!
(click on the below images if you wish to be teleported to the Store)
Price: EURO 45,00
Price: EURO 45,00
Each print comes numbered and hand signed on high quality Archival Matte Paper. Thanks to the special Ultrachrome pigment inks - water and smudge resistant -,each illustration delivers superb color expression and long lasting light fastness up to 75 years.The Artworks are shipped worldwide by Prioritaire Registered Post.
Posted by victoria at 01:34 PM
November 27, 2007
Winners of Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 1
The Four Grand prize winners of Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 1 signed by Mike and Warren Fletcher are:
Nicholas Piscitelli
Philadelphia, PA
Nicole Austin
Seymour, Australia
Douglas Armstrong
Exeter, ON
Vic Sauve
Sudbury, Ont
Your DVD sets are on the way!
Don't forget you can still buy Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 1 in the Shipwreck Central online shop.
Check back soon for exclusive clips from Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 2
Posted by victoria at 10:02 AM
November 11, 2007
November 11th
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— John McCrae
Lest we forget.
Posted by victoria at 10:38 AM
November 06, 2007
WIN Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 1
Please take some time this week to check out the clips in the feature video player from our dive off Juno Beach - one of the episodes included in this DVD set.
Sure you can easily buy your own copy of Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 1 on DVD but these 4 sets are the only ones signed by both Mike and Warren Fletcher!
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 November 20th.
Four Grand prize winners of Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters: Set 1 signed by Mike and Warren Fletcher will be drawn from all correct entries received before the contest deadline
Good Luck!
Check back for the winners!
Posted by victoria at 02:23 PM
November 05, 2007
DOXA BOOK WINNERS
Thanks to everyone who entered! Check back this week for a new contest!
Grand Prize Winners of the book DOXA SUB FORTY YEARS 1947- 2007 and an Orange Jenny logo ball cap are:
- John Cameron - Oxnard, Ca
- Glenn Douglas - Westminster, CO
The winners of an Orange Jenny Logo ball cap are:
- Michael Keels - Mount Pearl, Newfoundland
- Len Sussman - North Hills, CA
- Troy Vail - Loves Park, IL
- James Higbie - Humble, TX
- Christine Willaeys - Langton, Ontario
- Warren Bush - Peterborough, Ontario
- Karen Bradfield - Victoria, Australia
- Jamie Smith - Malahat, BC
Kudos to everyone who got the answer correct - for those who may have missed it the answer is:
Serial number 001/1000 is dedicated to Dr. Clive Cussler, famous US author well known for his popular Dirk Pitt® action-adventure novels, founder and chairman of the National Underwater & Marine Agency NUMA.
Serial number 001/3000 of the orange face DOXA SUB 600T Professional was sent to Dr. Clive Cussler in November 2003. Clive Cussler also received serial number 001/1000 of the SUB 300T Seahunter re-edition and 001/1000 of the SUB 300T Professional in May 2002
Posted by victoria at 10:49 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 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
July 26, 2007
The Search for Shipwrecks
By Katy Wheeler
Explorer and scuba diving enthusiast Ken Barella is taking to the seas with his boat Nautilus to research old shipwrecks
The diving support boat has been a labour of love for the 55-year-old who has spent the last five years restoring the 16.5-tonne vessel.
Now he hopes the boat will help him explore, identify and research the shipwrecks hidden beneath the surface of the North Sea,
Ken, from Roker, said: "The boat had been on the quayside since the early 1990s and would have probably been scrapped due to its neglected condition.
"I saw the potential to turn her into a nice boat through hard work, which others wouldn't have been prepared to take on. I couldn't have managed without the help and patience of my friends and family.
"I will be able to relax once sea trials are complete and any teething troubles have been ironed out."
The £25,000 boat was lifted into the Wear's half-tide basin on Friday night – a proud moment for Ken, the chief attendant at Sunderland Central Library.
Over the years he has meticulously carried out the major overhaul, which included shot-blasting and painting the hull, installing a new 210 horsepower engine, fitting out the foredeck saloon and renewing steering, gearbox and wiring.
He said: "It's extremely rewarding to discover an item which can lead to the positive identification of one of the many wrecks off the local coastline. "
Discovering a ship's name puts life and meaning into what is otherwise just a lump of metal."
Posted by victoria at 10:51 AM
Treasure Trove 'found by octopus'
An octopus with a porcelain plate stuck to its suckers has led to the discovery of a hoard of ancient pottery, South Korean scientists say.
A fisherman caught the octopus off South Korea's west coast in May. He said the animal appeared to be hiding under a plate.
Archaeologists searched the area and discovered a 12th Century wooden wreck buried in mudflats.
They said more than 500 pieces of porcelain had been recovered so far.
"These are the highest quality artefacts ever discovered in our seas," said Yun Yong-i, a Korean art history professor from Myongji University.
Moon Whan-suk, from the National Maritime Museum, expressed surprise that the tiny octopus - about the size of an orange - had managed to hold on to the plate.
He told Reuters news agency: "I can't believe how such a small octopus managed to cover its shell with such a large plate.
"I guess it meant for us to discover the artefacts."
The porcelain, found near Taean, south-west of the capital Seoul, is thought to date from the Goryeo dynasty, which ruled Korea from the 10th to the 14th Century.
Experts say the 7.7m-long (25ft) wreck could contain up to 2,000 further pieces, including ancient bowls, plates and other types of pottery.
Several shipwrecks laden with relics have already been found along the west coast of South Korea.
Posted by victoria at 10:48 AM
July 25, 2007
Diving the Andrea Doria
Due to the luxurious appointments and relatively good condition of the wreck, with the top of the wreck lying initially in only 160 feet (50 m) of water, Andrea Doria is a frequent target of treasure divers and is commonly referred to as the "Mount Everest of scuba diving."
The day after Andrea Doria sank, divers Peter Gimbel and Joseph Fox managed to locate the wreck of the ship, and published pictures of the wreck in TIME magazine. Gimbel later conducted a number of salvage operations on the ship, including salvaging the First Class Bank Safe in 1981. Despite speculation that passengers had deposited many valuables, the safe, opened on live television in 1984, yielded little other than American silver certificates and Italian bank notes. This disappointing outcome apparently confirmed other speculation that most Andrea Doria passengers, in anticipation of the ship's scheduled arrival in New York City the following morning, had already retrieved their valuables prior to the collision. The ship's bell was taken in the late 1980s, and the statue of Genoese Admiral Andrea Doria, for whom the ship was named, was removed from the first-class lounge, being cut off at the ankles to accomplish this. Examples of the ship's china have long been considered valuable mementos of diving the wreck. However, after years of removal of artifacts by divers, little of value is thought to remain.
As of 2007, years of ocean submersion have taken their toll. The wreck has aged and deteriorated extensively, with the hull now fractured and collapsed. The upper decks have slowly slid off the wreck to the seabed below. As a result of this transformation, a large debris field flows out from the hull of the liner. Once-popular access points frequented by divers, such as Gimbel's Hole, no longer exist. Divers call the Andrea Doria a "noisy" wreck as it emits various noises due to continual deterioration and the currents' moving broken metal around inside the hull. However, due to this decay new access areas are constantly opening up for future divers on the ever-changing wreck.
Deaths
Artifact recovery on the Andrea Doria has not been without additional loss of life. Fourteen scuba divers have lost their lives diving the wreck, and diving conditions at the wreck site are considered very treacherous. Strong currents and heavy sediment that can reduce visibility to zero pose as serious hazards to diving this site. Dr. Robert Ballard, who visited the site in a U.S. Navy submersible in 1995, reported that thick fishing nets draped the hull. An invisible web of thin fishing lines, which can easily snag scuba gear, provides more danger. Furthermore, the wreck is slowly collapsing; the top of the wreck is now at 190 feet (60 m), and many of the passageways have begun to collapse.
- 1985 — John Ormsby dies of being caught in wires and of drowning
- 1998 — Craig Sicola, Richard Roost and Vincent Napoliello all died diving on the Andrea Doria.
- 1999 — Christopher Murley died of an apparent heart attack preparing to dive.
- Also, in 1999, Charles J. McGurr died of a heart attack preparing to dive the Andrea Doria the second time in a day.
- 2002 — William Schmoldt died from decompression sickness.
- In 2006 researcher David Bright died from decompression sickness.
Posted by victoria at 10:08 AM
Andrea Doria
By Jack Kelly
Fifty one years ago today, on July 25, 1956, two large passenger liners off Massachusetts were steaming toward each other through the night at a combined speed of 40 knots. In spite of ample room to maneuver, in spite of the radar that let them spot each other from a distance, and in spite of clear rules intended to avoid collisions, the Stockholm crashed into the Andrea Doria and ripped the luxurious ship open amidships. It was to be the last great drama of the age of transatlantic passenger liners.
The reason for the accident 50 miles south of Nantucket would be debated down the years. For the time being, a much more pressing issue loomed. The Andrea Doria was listing alarmingly to starboard, and seawater was pouring in. The enormous ship was in danger of sinking. Its 1,660 passengers and crew were in imminent peril.
The Andrea Doria had put to sea in 1951 from Genoa to accommodate the booming postwar demand for ocean travel. Almost 700 feet long, she ship could cruise at a brisk 23 knots and was noted for her luxurious appointments. The Italian Line had spent a million dollars on art and decoration, the food and service were superb, and even third-class passengers enjoyed an on-deck swimming pool. Many observers considered the Doria the most beautiful ocean liner ever launched.
The Stockholm, which had left New York that afternoon, was a more modest ship, 525 feet long and capable of carrying 570 passengers. She was fitted with a reinforced icebreaker prow to handle northern winter waters.
Several factors contributed to the collision. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea stipulated that ships in fog “go at a moderate speed.” The Andrea Doria’s captain, Piero Calamai, was steaming ahead at nearly 22 knots through dense fog in order to keep to his schedule. At that speed, it would take the vessel three miles to stop. Those same rules dictated that when ships were meeting nearly head-on “each shall alter her course to starboard” to avoid a collision—keep to the right. But the rule did not apply to ships that were likely to “pass clear of each other.”
Assuming the ships had plenty of room to pass on the left, Calamai veered slightly to port to allow more clearance. Johan-Ernst Carstens, the Stockholm third mate who was commanding the bridge, turned his ship to the right for the same reason, putting the two vessels on a collision course. When the Andrea Doria emerged from the fog, the crew saw the oncoming lights of the Stockholm. Carstens ordered a turn 20 degrees farther to the right, but failed to signal the maneuver with his ship’s whistle.
Aboard the Doria, Captain Calamai had seconds to make a decision. He chose wrong, sending his ship into a hard left turn. The 29,000-ton vessel skidded across the path of the Stockholm and received her ice-cutter bow at almost a 90-degree angle.
The ships rammed together just after 11:00 p.m. to the sound of sirens and bending steel. The Stockholm’s prow crashed 40 feet into the side of the Andrea Doria, through cabins filled with sleeping passengers. Forty-six of them were killed in the collision, along with five Swedish crewmen who slept in cabins in the bow of the Stockholm.
The ships hung together for a few seconds, then parted. Though her bow had been sheared off, the Stockholm was in no danger of sinking. But the Andrea Doria, with 500 tons of seawater rushing into her empty starboard fuel tanks, listed 20 degrees. Because she was leaning over so badly, her crew could not lower the port lifeboats. The Doria, like the Titanic 44 years earlier, now had lifeboats for only half its passengers.
Crewmen from the Stockholm began to ferry passengers from the stricken ship in their own motorized lifeboats. It was a slow process; Andrea Doria passengers were forced to negotiate steeply sloping decks and clamber down ropes or netting to reach the floating lifeboats. Some panicked and jumped. One man tossed his young daughter into a boat, fracturing her skull. She later died.
On board the Stockholm, a sailor discovered 14-year-old Linda Morgan entangled in the wreckage near the bow. He could not find her name on the ship’s passenger list. He was startled when she revealed that she was a passenger on the Andrea Doria. Linda, who became known at the “miracle girl,” had been thrown from her bed onto the other ship during the collision, which had killed her half-sister and stepfather.
A distress signal announcing “need of immediate assistance” quickly brought help, including the freighter Cape Ann and a Navy transport vessel. But by two o’clock almost a thousand people were still awaiting rescue on the Andrea Doria, which was listing even more steeply. At that point the passenger liner Ile de France arrived, having turned back from its own crossing to Europe. Its blazing lights produced “incredible joy” among those on the Andrea Doria and created a surreal scene reminiscent of a movie set.
By dawn all of the passengers and crew had abandoned the Andrea Doria. Captain Calamai had held out hope she could be towed to shallow water and saved, but he now knew that was impossible.
“There were exclamations of surprise and awe,” one survivor remembered, “as the Andrea Doria trembled and lurched to one side.” The great vessel rolled over and went down in 225 feet of water. Her captain telegraphed a terse message to his employers: “Doria sank 10:09—Calamai.”
A $30-million ship had been lost and 51 persons had died, but seamen had also pulled off the greatest peacetime rescue in history, saving more than 1,600 lives.
No final adjudication was ever made of who was to blame for the accident; the numerous lawsuits were settled out of court. New rules were put into place afterward, dictating certification of radar operators and requiring approaching ships to establish radio contact.
The Andrea Doria still rests on the sea floor. Because the ship lies well below the maximum safe scuba-diving depth, she has taken on the role of the Everest of diving. Hundreds of souvenir hunters have explored her wreck; a dozen have died trying.
The sinking of the Andrea Doria did not mark the end of the ocean liner. It simply sounded a melancholy note in the dirge of an industry already doomed. In 1958, two years after the collision, airlines began offering nonstop jet travel between the United States and Europe. The leisurely five-day crossing on a well-appointed passenger ship became a relic of a bygone era.
Posted by victoria at 10:06 AM
July 18, 2007
USS Truxtun to sail once again - Lanier Phillips update
Those of you familiar with our site probably know the story of Lanier Phillips. Growing up in fear in the Klan controlled State of Georgia; Phillips joined a segregated Navy as a teenager. One February night in 1942, his ship was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland. When a local resident saved him from hypothermia, Phillips thought, "Here is a white man who wants me to live." The kindness he received from these white strangers as they nursed him through the night was a miracle that allowed him to recognize his future was worth fighting for. The love and hope he found in the community of St. Lawrence would continue to empower him throughout the course of his life.
His inspiring story was told in the documentary Dead Reckoning: The Lanier Phillips Story. Last month Lanier Philips was on hand as they christened the sixth USS Truxun, the ship Phillips was on the night of the wreck.
USS Truxtun (DDG-103) is a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer currently under construction. Her keel was laid down on April 11, 2005. DDG-103 suffered a major electrical fire during construction at NGSS Ingalls, Pascagoula, Mississippi May 20, 2006 engulfing two levels and causing damaged believed to be in the millions of dollars. She was christened on June 2, 2007 at NGSS Ingalls in Pascagoula Mississippi.
For more information on Lanier Philips you can order a copy of the documentary from our Shop. You can find the wreck of the Truxtun on our Shipwreck Map (including video) or you can watch a pieces on Lanier Phillips from the CBC.
"They that go down to the sea in ships;
That do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep."
Posted by victoria at 10:29 AM
July 16, 2007
Reading Shipwreck Ceramics
Old porcelains recovered from shipwrecks aren’t just pretty objects – they’re a window on the past.
By JOHNNI WONG
Ancient shipwrecks with Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese ceramics are important in that they can tell us how maritime trade in South-East Asia had an impact on kingdoms like Sirivijaya, Angkor, Ayutthaya and Malacca.
According to Bangkok-based South-East Asian Ceramics Museums director, Dr Roxanna Brown, the ceramics offer an insight into how the maritime trade enriched these centres of development.
Treasure from the sea: Dr Roxanna Brown with blue and white ceramic recovered from the Desaru wreck off Johor.
Based on the types of ceramics found, as well as excavation sites, a chronological order of trading activities, empire development, and even the building of temples like Angkor and Borobudur can be verified, said Dr Brown who will be delivering a lecture on Shipwreck Ceramics and the Fall of Malacca at the 31st annual general meeting of the South-East Asian Ceramics Society, West Malaysia Chapter on July 21 at Muzium Negara, Kuala Lumpur.
In her lecture, Dr Brown will make her case that Chinese ceramics dating to the Ming (1368-1644) and pre-Ming dynasties are important historical markers. In an e-mail interview, she cautioned collectors against buying ceramics that come from undocumented wrecks.
“History is destroyed if ceramics are looted and sold before there is a proper excavation and documentation of a shipwreck site. I hope participants to my lecture will see how trade ceramics are more than just pretty objects. I will show how they can be used to open new windows on old historical events.
“Since 1974, more than 150 shipwreck sites have been reported in South-East and East Asia. There are enough sites now that one can begin to mine them for new perspectives on historical questions.
“An average five to six new shipwreck sites seem to be discovered every year,” added Dr Brown.
However, looters, as well as unwitting buyers of such shipwreck artefacts, contribute to the destruction of historical evidence. The treasures are often smuggled out of territorial waters to be sold in private transactions for profit or to fund more such “expeditions”.
Dr Brown thinks bulk trade in Chinese ceramics started around AD800-850 with Srivijayan ships. The trade contributed immensely to the empire’s coffers, leading to temple construction activities.
“It is very difficult to escape the conclusion that the early shipping of Chinese ceramics was in Indonesian – NOT Chinese – hands. This situation persisted for perhaps 400 years, until the 13th century when written records indicate that Chinese ships sailed as far as India,” said Dr Brown.
The sudden increase in wealth being concentrated in Indonesia, contends Dr Brown, must have sent jitters to other places in South-East Asia.
Pretty but fake: Dr Brown holding up a fake antique she found in an antiques shop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. — DR ROXANNA BROWN
“One imagines the timing for the beginnings of the bulk trade, the building of Borobudur, and the founding of an Angkorian dynasty are not a coincidence.”
Then Ming emperor, Hongwu (1328-1398), banned private overseas trade in Chinese ceramics at the beginning of his reign. The 50% drop in Chinese ceramics found in shipwreck cargoes dating from those years – discovered so far – must have been a reaction to the ban.
The surprise is that the amount of Chinese ceramics dropped even more dramatically at the end of the Yongle’s (1403-24) reign. This second drop in market share must have been a reaction to Zheng He’s voyages being suddenly curbed in 1424. One consequence from these shortages in Chinese trade ware was that South-East Asian manufacturers filled the void – the so-called Ming Gap.
Based on the percentage of Chinese, Thai (Siamese) and Vietnamese (Champa) ceramics found in shipwreck cargoes of the Ming era, Dr Brown can draw conclusions on the impact of China’s maritime trade policy on empires in South-East Asia.
“The end of Zheng He’s voyages had two major effects. First, the proportion of Chinese trade ceramics dropped to 1% and less during the middle 15th century. Second, this shortage was filled by massive cargoes of Thai classic celadon.
“Ayutthaya experienced a sudden windfall of amazing proportions as a result of this. After 1424, until about 1470, Thai ceramics made up some 95% of shipwreck cargoes. And not only did Thailand take over the production and export of ceramics, it seems it also became a shipping base.”
Although more and more shipwreck ceramics are becoming available in the market, fake ones have started appearing on the scene. Dr Brown enclosed a photograph of some which she had encountered, saying, “The antiques dealer said he went regularly to the seashore to ask fishermen if they had found ceramics. He said he only bought the best ones, and that they came from many different sites. Of course, he could not name a single site.
“A buyer should be able to look up the published finds from a shipwreck site. If there is nothing published, then the material is fake or has been looted, and he is wilfully participating in destroying history.”
Dr Brown describes herself as an art historian. Her studies began at the University of Singapore where she did her Master’s degree from 1971 to 1974 under William Willetts, the late founder of the South-East Asian Ceramics Society.
Asked what attracted her to this field, she said, “I’ve had fun using trade ceramics to help explain historical events like the beginnings of major temple-building in South-East Asia, the fall of the Angkor Empire, the Ming Gap, etc.”
And how did she end up in Bangkok?
“I visited Thailand several times during the Vietnam War. I was a freelance journalist in Vietnam 1968-1975, and did my degree at University of Singapore during that time. I moved to Bangkok full-time in 1980, but in 1982 I was badly injured in a traffic accident and spent 14 years in and out of hospital and mostly in a wheelchair.
“Finally technology caught up and I was able to have an artificial leg that fitted well enough that I was finally able to walk without pain,” she revealed.
The director of Bangkok’s South-East Asian Ceramics Museum said, “Our staff continuously keeps up to date on new finds and research of all kinds concerning Thai ceramics and the types of foreign ceramics found in Thailand.”
Posted by victoria at 10:01 AM
July 13, 2007
Cussler's Airplane Search Continues
BY JAMES PRICHARD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRAND RAPIDS — The quest to locate the Lake Michigan site where an airliner carrying 58 people went down decades ago could help uncover the cause of the mysterious crash, even if the wreckage itself never is found, says the woman leading the search.
“I feel very strongly that it’s not so much finding the wreckage that’s going to provide the answers. I think we’re getting the answers in the course of the search for the plane,” Valerie van Heest said Wednesday from her Holland home.
From late April through late May, the expert diver and her group, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, scoured a 23-square-mile area of the lake off South Haven but found no sign of the crash site of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501. They were helped by a three-member underwater-search team provided by author and shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler.
The flight, a DC-4 carrying 55 passengers and three crew members, originated in New York City and was ultimately bound for Seattle. It crashed into the lake late on June 23, 1950, killing all aboard in the nation’s deadliest airliner accident up to that time.
The crash happened during a raging thunderstorm but no cause could be determined.
While a Coast Guard cutter found debris in the water about 18 miles north-northwest of Benton Harbor, no one is certain exactly where the aircraft went down.
Van Heest hopes to pin down the site by finding at least one of the plane’s four engines on the lake’s bottom.
Her organization, with Cussler’s assistance, started searching for Flight 2501 in fall 2004. The team conducted additional searches in spring 2005, spring 2006 and again this past spring, and plans to return to southern Lake Michigan next year.
Van Heest, who has put her marketing and graphic design career on hold to focus on the search, has tracked down representatives of more than 30 families who lost loved ones in the crash and updates them on her efforts. She contacted each one to give them the bad news about the latest unsuccessful search.
Van Heest has obtained courtroom transcripts from a liability lawsuit that some of the victims’ relatives filed years ago against Northwest. So far, she has read about 300 of the 2,500 pages of transcribed testimony from witnesses and crash experts that she believes contains information that will be of great help during her next search.
“As much as I am distressed that it’s been four years and we haven’t found this, I’m almost looking forward to another year because I think in that year, I’ll learn more than I would learn if we’d found the wreck this year,” she said.
Posted by victoria at 03:58 PM
July 03, 2007
Lake Erie's 'holy grail' of Shipwrecks
Competing quests hunt the lake's most elusive shipwreck this summer.
By DEBORA VAN BRENK, SUN MEDIA
At least two dedicated quests for the "holy grail" of Lake Erie shipwrecks are set to take place this summer -- one originating in Port Dover and one in Ohio.
The Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 vanished in a winter gale on Dec. 7, 1909, somewhere between Conneaut, Ohio, and its Port Stanley destination.
Laden with 30 railcars full of coal, it had no gate at its stern and the roiling waves probably swamped it.
The ship has never been found.
Some claim -- late at night, if you strain to listen -- you can still hear its whistle.
Port Dover diver Rob Cromwell plans to head out onto the lake starting this week, in a search that will use side-scan sonar and a torpedo-like metal detector called a magnetometer.
"It's not a really valuable ship -- but it's the last big one that hasn't been found," he told The Free Press.
"This is the holy grail of shipwrecks now," says Ohio researcher David Frew, author of Long Gone, considered a definitive book on the Marquette & Bessemer No. 2.
Hundreds of other ships dot the floor of the shallowest Great Lake, but few have attracted the same attention as this coal-hauling ferry.
Perhaps that's because few other lost wrecks are 100 metres long.
"It's a football field long. It's enormous. Where is it?" asks Chris Gillcrist, executive director of the Great Lakes Historical Society, based in Vermilion, Ohio (www.inlandseas.org). "We are searching for it this summer."
Last month, his group announced it had found the long-lost General Anthony B. Wayne steamship that went down in 1850 about 12 kilometres from Vermilion.
Port Stanley historian Frank Prothero, who has written his own book on the Marquette & Bessemer No. 2, says it's a great story -- "a Port Stanley story" -- that has sparked the imaginations of mariners and historians.
Theories abound about the ship's whereabouts.
Ohio researcher Frew believes its captain turned her back toward Conneaut when he realized she wasn't going to find harbour in Port Stanley. He says some of the crew left the ship in a life raft near the Ontario shore and the rest stayed aboard until it sank.
Frew believes the boat is upside-down and mostly silted over. "I'm one of those that believes it was near enough to Conneaut that the captain's wife heard the whistle."
Gillcrist, of the Great Lakes Historical Society, also believes she's on the American side of Erie.
Port Dover diver Cromwell will search across from Long Point, on the Canadian side of the middle of the lake, where he believes the boat is lying on her side.
Prothero believes it's in deep water off Long Point.
He says a customs agent spotted her battling the 70-knot gale off Port Stanley on Dec. 7, 1909.
"She reportedly turned westward and was never seen again," Prothero says.
Maybe it headed for Erieau, a port with even less protection. More likely, her captain changed direction and made for the deeper waters of Long Point, where dozens of other ships had found shelter.
"From an historian's point of view, it's certainly the most mysterious of the shallow-lake shipwrecks," Prothero says.
"It's been called the Mount Everest of Great Lake shipwrecks."
Prothero is pleased the Ohio group is searching, but "I don't think their chances are much better than anybody else's."
Cromwell's theory of her location is based on wind direction, currents and drift rates. "The lake that night was like a big milkshake."
But finding it might take a while. "I think it's anybody's game right now," he says.
If found in Ohio waters, the wreck would become property of the state; and it would be Ontario's to manage if found on this side.
Finding the Marquette & Bessemer "is just a matter of time," Gillcrist says. "We hear the rumour about every two years it's been found by divers using it as their personal sanctuary" while keeping it secret. He doubts that.
Prothero is also skeptical:
"Divers are people who, when they are under the water, can't open their mouths. When they're out of the water, they can't shut them."
Meanwhile, the Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 is a ship of mystery.
Is it a ghost ship?
Seasoned mariners dismiss the idea, but some say they've heard its distinct whistle when no other boat is nearby.
What about the tale that one man jumped aboard the ship at the last minute, his pockets full of cash to buy a Port Stanley fish company?
Prothero has his doubts. For one thing, the purported $50,000 would have been enough to buy every boat in Port Stanley, never mind a single company. And the man couldn't have stashed the cash inside the ship safe, as the story goes -- because, Prothero points out, the ship didn't have one.
No, the biggest secret remains its resting place.
"History is about trying to find answers to the unknown," says Gillcrist.
"I think now the Marquette-Bessemer is one of the top five wrecks to be found on the Great Lakes."
THE MARQUETTE & BESSEMER NO. 2
- 335 feet (100 metres) long, steel ferry, with a cargo of 30 railroad hopper cars full of coal
- Left Conneaut, Ohio, Dec. 7, 1909, for Port Stanley
- Encountered a winter storm blowing 70 knots.
- Some accounts say a customs official saw her off the Port Stanley coast, headed west. Others say the captain's wife, in Conneaut, heard its whistle.
- A lifeboat with nine frozen bodies, and the ice-encrusted clothing of a 10th person, found three days later.
- Despite numerous ventures by sport divers and scientific searchers, the ship has never been found.
Posted by victoria at 01:14 PM
June 28, 2007
Shipwreck Central Antiques Roadshow
Hello Shipwreck Central Folks,
I have often urged our forum members who have questions or need help with research to ask for assistance on line because I know we have a lot of well informed contributors every week.
Now I have a question. Recently my father set me a document that has been in our family for many years. My grandfather gave it to my dad back in the 1940’s, unfortunately my father does not know anything of its history prior to that date.
My family has lived in New England, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, for nearly 400 years and have had involvement with maritime trade and shipping over that timeframe. The document might relate to early family activity or it might be a document that came to my grandfather by some other means.
The document is a Presidential decree asking safe passage for the Ship “Marcia”, a merchant vessel of 314 tons, carrying no guns and navigated with a crew of 12 men, Master and Commander being a Captain Stinson.
The decree is signed by President John Quincy Adams and by Secretary of State Henry Clay and Dated December 03, 1828.
It was counter signed by J. M. Swenton (the spelling is hard to read) in Bath Maine. The ship “Marcia” was a Maine Vessel.
Clay and Adams go back a long way in US politics and to see their signatures together on the same document reminds me that they were both “War Hawks” prior to and during the War of 1812 and both of them were signatures to the Treaty of Ghent, which officially ended that war on December 24, 1814. Now 14 years later we have their signatures again, this time on a decree demanding safe passage for a vessel owned by a citizen of the United States. If anyone out there has any information on this type of decree, on Capt. Stinson or the vessel “Marcia” I would be glad to hear from you. You can review a PDF of the Document by clicking the link.
Thanks for your help
John Davis
Please post comments and information in the related post in the Forum under Research and Information.
To view the full PDF of the document click here>
Posted by victoria at 10:44 AM
June 26, 2007
'Pirates' promo snares Odyssey
Secret work on the movie tie-in escalated its dispute with Spain.
By SCOTT BARANIK
Published June 26, 2007
When Volvo decided to bury the grand prize for its online treasure hunt at sea, it asked Odyssey Marine Exploration for help.
Odyssey was up to the task. The publicly traded Tampa company makes its living searching the world's oceans for shipwrecked treasure. Like Volvo, it already had a promotional deal with Disney to promote the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which debuted in theaters last month.
Odyssey stuffed a treasure chest with $50,000 in gold coins, added the keys to a Volvo XC90 and then sank it somewhere in the western Mediterranean.
But plans for a triumphant return to the burial site last week never materialized. Thanks to a recent row with Spain over a shipwreck code-named "Black Swan, " Odyssey's ships could be seized if they leave Gibraltar's port. On Friday, Volvo said it would go ahead and cut the winner a $50,0000 check.
"Odyssey's been trying to find ways to get our treasure out of the bottom of the ocean," said Linda Gangeri, Volvo's U.S. advertising manager. "But they're at a stalemate right now."
Volvo's The Hunt contest drew roughly 50,000 contestants from around the world last month. The winner, a 23-year-old Russian woman, solved a series of 22 puzzles that appeared over several weeks. In addition to the $50,000 in "doubloons" -- South African Krugerrands, actually, according to the contest's fine print - she would receive up to $37,500 to compensate for taxes, a silver metallic Volvo worth $45,000 and a two-day trip on Odyssey's ship to retrieve the chest.
Under a nondisclosure agreement Odyssey signed, its role was to remain a secret until the very end of the contest. A shrewd contestant might track its ships' movements and figure out the treasure's location.
In an unrelated development, Odyssey announced in mid May that it had found 500,000 silver coins aboard a 17th-century merchant ship that wrecked in the Atlantic Ocean. An avalanche of global media attention boosted Odyssey's stock price by 80 percent in one day. It also made Volvo and Disney look very, very smart. But before long, the Black Swan's discovery would plague Volvo's contest, and vice-versa.
For months, Spanish authorities -- already suspicious of Odyssey due to battles over another shipwreck -- had been tracking Odyssey's ships near Gibraltar. When Odyssey announced its Black Swan find, Spanish officials believed it might have gotten the coins not from the Atlantic but a Spanish warship, the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, that sank near Gibraltar.
Odyssey officials wanted to tell the world that it was all a big misunderstanding -- that its unexplained activity near Gibraltar was part of the Volvo operation; Volvo told Spanish authorities as much in an affidavit.
But Odyssey's nondisclosure clause forced it to stay quiet. When Volvo finally disclosed the arrangement Friday, it said it hoped the information would help end Odyssey's battle with Spain.
"Without a real explanation of why we had deep-sea exploration equipment out there, it's easy to see how imaginations could run wild," Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm said in a statement. The damage to its stock price has been very real. Odyssey's stock fell 6 percent Monday to close at $5.75 per share and is down 31 percent since the day after it announced the Black Swan find.
Gangeri said Volvo hasn't given up on getting Odyssey to recover the treasure chest. The company wants to fulfill its pledge to the contest winner. Besides, such promotions help counter the carmaker's "stodgy" image.
"The reason we went with Odyssey was we wanted an authentic experience," she said. "And boy, we got it."
Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.com or 727 893-8751.
Posted by victoria at 09:36 AM
June 22, 2007
157 year old shipwreck found in Lake Erie
VERMILION, Ohio – The wreckage of a steamship that sank in 1850 after its boilers exploded has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Erie.
Thomas Kowalczk, an amateur shipwreck prospector, used sonar on his boat to discover the General Anthony Wayne in 50 feet of water, about eight miles north of this northeast Ohio city, the Great Lakes Historical Society announced Wednesday.
The side-wheel steamship, named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne, sank in April 1850 while en route from the Toledo area to Buffalo, N.Y. Thirty-eight of the 93 passengers and crew on board died.
“I researched everything I could about it and knew the general area where the ship went down,” Kowalczk said. “I laid out a grid search pattern and starting hunting.”
Kowalczk saw an image of the wreckage on his sonar screen in September. He dived down in May and photographed the wreckage, which is in two sections.
Kowalczk and other members of the Cleveland Underwater Explorers plan to survey the wreck later this summer when underwater visibility improves.
The wreck belongs to the state and salvaging it is illegal, but divers can visit what is left of the ship after it is surveyed and the coordinates are disclosed, said Christopher Gillcrist, executive director of the historical society.
Posted by victoria at 02:59 PM
June 15, 2007
Curators Under the Sea
By ROBERT KURSON
Published: June 8, 2007
Chicago
LAST month, a Florida-based treasure-hunting company made perhaps the richest undersea score ever. It discovered, somewhere in the Atlantic, a Colonial-era shipwreck containing more than 500,000 silver coins and hundreds of gold coins. Total estimated value, according to one coin marketer: $500 million.
In days of yore, pirates would have swarmed to such a bounty, declaring the treasure their own. Today, it attracts a new breed of raiders who believe just as strongly that the treasure is rightfully theirs — and who get just as angry when things don’t go their way. They are the academics — professors, curators, historians and others who study, archive and preserve historical artifacts. Many of them despise the commercial treasure hunters for, as they see it, rampaging through shipwrecks with little regard for the delicate history at hand.
They claim that because the professional treasure hunter’s first priority is to sell what he finds, artifacts will be rushed from shipwreck to market without being carefully preserved or photographed and cataloged to record their historic value. They charge that even if the treasure hunter cared to preserve and catalog his discoveries, he couldn’t, because he is not properly trained to do such subtle and delicate work.
One professor recently summed up these arguments by saying, “If these guys went and planted a bunch of dynamite around the Sphinx, or tore up the floor of the Acropolis, they’d be in jail in a minute.”
The same case was made in 1991, when two recreational scuba divers discovered a World War II German U-boat — complete with its 56-man crew — that had sunk just off New Jersey. No military expert or historian had known of this wreck, its sailors or its story, and so it fell to these two ordinary men to embark on a six-year, fantastically dangerous quest to solve the mystery.
As it happened, there was no treasure aboard this U-boat, but academics made virtually the same accusation: the divers, they said, were going to trample history in their quest to put a name on the warship.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Not for the divers who undertook huge risks to preserve the U-boat. And not for treasure hunters, who have even greater incentives to be careful with their finds.
The treasure hunter’s livelihood depends on keeping his discoveries in pristine condition. He knows that coins and gold and pottery must be handled with exquisite care in order to bring the highest possible price. He must use a surgeon’s touch with every artifact, because even that last lonely vase has value if it is deftly handled. The roughest and toughest of these treasure hunters have some of the gentlest hands in the world.
Do they know how to handle the rarities they find? The academics scoff at the idea. But many of the finest conservation labs, the most up-to-date equipment and the best-trained archaeologists can be found on just the kind of treasure hunting quest that discovered the recent Colonial-era wreck.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, the company that recovered the treasure, had two archaeologists supervise the effort, and it tested various processes for preserving the coins before choosing the one that was most effective. This preservation work continues. But even on smaller operations, it’s a good bet that a grizzled, lifelong salvage diver has better real-life, tight-squeeze shipwreck experience than an archaeologist who writes up guidelines for this work from his office near the student union.
It is true that not all treasure hunters photograph and document every square inch of the shipwrecks they discover. Most of them cannot fathom a reason to do so. Waves and storms have been throwing shipwrecks around for centuries, constantly shifting their contents. “I could take some pictures and make some notes,” they’ll tell you, “but that’ll only show what it looked like this afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon it will be different.” Some treasure hunters think the academics’ desire to catalog the location of every bent tin of beans is a bit excessive, though that’s not always the word they use.
The real bottom line is this: if treasure hunters didn’t do this kind of work, no one would. Without them and the people they work with — the divers, fishermen, tipsters and amateur historians — many of these wrecks would stay lost forever. Without the lure of a big and romantic payoff, no one would even look.
Academics don’t drag magnetometers and side-scan sonar equipment across the seas. They don’t risk their lives, as the U-boat divers did, by removing their air tanks and corkscrewing through a labyrinth. They are not infected by the need to search, not bound to feed their families by keeping history beautiful. The treasure hunter needs to look, and that is always the way things lost forever get found.
Robert Kurson is the author of “Shadow Divers” and, most recently, "Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure and the Man Who Dared to See."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/opinion/08kurson.html#
Posted by victoria at 01:14 PM
Chinese shipwreck gives up treasure
Associated Press
BEIJING - Archaeologists have discovered a sunken ship laden with Ming Dynasty porcelain after being tipped off by local police who learned that fishing boats were carrying out illegal salvage operations off the south China coast, state media reported.
The ship, dubbed the South China Sea II, was probably built during the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday, citing the Guangdong Archaeology Institute.
Archaeologists used GPS earlier this month to locate the approximately 59-foot ship, which is 66 feet below the surface of the South China Sea.
Police in Nanao County of Guangdong province have confiscated more than 130 pieces of the porcelain from three fishing boats, Xinhua said. One boat owner said divers he had hired for deep-sea fishing found the pieces by accident.
Authorities stepped up monitoring and told residents not to loot the ship. On June 1, two residents turned over 124 porcelain items to police, Xinhua said.
A preliminary study showed the ship may have sunk about 400 years ago after striking a reef, Xinhua quoted Wei Jun of the Guangdong Archaeology Institute as saying.
Posted by victoria at 10:28 AM
June 14, 2007
Ship gets heritage protection
Ben Doherty
June 14, 2007
THE SS Alert, the ill-fated cargo ship that met its demise more than 100 years ago off the Victorian coast, will be preserved and protected for evermore in its watery grave.
Yesterday, The Age revealed that after nearly two years of painstaking work combing the ocean floor, a group of volunteer marine archaeologists had found the Alert, sitting beneath 80 metres of water in Bass Strait off Cape Schanck.
Now, the Victorian Government has moved to preserve the Alert permanently, affording it the highest level of heritage protection.
Disturbing, damaging or removing items from historic shipwrecks, such as the Alert, can attract a prison sentence or fines of up to $10,000 for a person, and $50,000 for a company.
Planning Minister Justin Madden said the Alert was an important part of Victoria's extensive sea history.
"I would like to congratulate the Southern Ocean Exploration team, a committed group of volunteers, for this marvellous discovery, which is yet another wonderful contribution to our maritime heritage," he said.
The SS Alert sank the night of December 28, 1893, after being caught in a ferocious storm. The ship was ill-equipped for the open water (it had been built for placid Scottish lochs) and sank without a trace.
Fifteen people went down with the ship, and only the Alert's cook, Robert Ponting, survived, by clinging to a piece of cabin door for more than 16 hours.
Until this month, the exact location of the SS Alert was not known, until Southern Ocean Exploration, led by Mark Ryan, discovered it, still largely intact.
The exact location of the wreck has been passed on to Heritage Victoria, but it will not be released publicly. At 80 metres below the surface, it is too deep for most divers to reach anyway.
The Alert is officially in Commonwealth waters. Planning Minister Justin Madden said Heritage Victoria would write to the Federal Government to recommend it be made off limits to anyone without a heritage permit.
Posted by victoria at 10:26 AM
June 11, 2007
Divers Explore USS Narcissus' Watery Grave
By STEVE KORNACKI The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 10, 2007
EGMONT KEY - There is little sign of the horror U.S. Navy crewmembers experienced offshore of this island on Jan. 3, 1866, when the Union Civil War tugboat the USS Narcissus ran into a shoal during a storm and exploded.
All 29 perished and were never found. However, the remains of the 115-ton tug are nestled above and beneath the ever-churning sands northwest of Egmont Key.
The vessel's shattered steam engine boiler - which burst like a bomb when the cold Gulf waters hit it - is about three miles from shore, along with its A-frame engine, drive shaft, huge propeller, double walls and other parts now covered by barnacles, sponges, algae and worms.
The tugboat graveyard, home to feeding saltwater fish for the past 141 years, now has frequent visitors wearing dive tanks, masks and wet suits. Divers from The Florida Aquarium have been studying it since last summer when the downtown Tampa aquarium received grant money from the state's Bureau of Historic Preservation.
Mike Terrell, the aquarium's dive training coordinator, is supervising the project along with contracted St. Augustine archaeologist John W. "Billy" Morris. Terrell says The Florida Aquarium plans to replicate the wreckage for display in its 93,000-gallon Shark Bay exhibit. They also hope to have it declared an underwater archaeological preserve by the state.
"There is so little Civil War history in this state," Terrell said, "and now everyone will be able to see some of it without getting wet."
For now, the privilege of perusing the boat is only for the aquarium's staff and volunteer divers. On Wednesday, a group of six ventured out to check its wreckage and another sunken vessel within a mile of it.
As the 25-foot Miss Bee Gee research boat motored past Egmont Key, Morris squinted into the rushing wind and raised his voice, saying, "Egmont looked just like that when the Narcissus went down, only the waters were much rougher. The lighthouse was there, but the light was turned out."
Confederates had turned off the lighthouse's beacon to prevent its use by Union blockade purposes. Had the light provided better guidance into Tampa Bay, would the Narcissus have missed the shoal? We'll never know.
'Damn The Torpedoes!'
The 82-foot tug, named the Mary Cook until commissioned by the Navy, took part in the Battle of Mobile Bay, where Union Adm. David Farragut exclaimed, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"
The Narcissus survived that naval operation and a blockade of New Orleans, but was sunk by a Confederate torpedo - the term then for exploding mines - in Mobile Bay on Dec. 7, 1864. It went down in 15 minutes but no lives were lost. The Narcissus was raised and taken to Pensacola for repairs. It finished out the war there before departing to New York on New Year's Day 1866 for decommissioning.
Two days later, the tug exploded in one of the worst U.S. Navy disasters up to that point. Morris, who specializes in underwater ship archaeology, said he was part of a Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research crew that discovered the Narcissus in 1992. When he returned last August, Morris was surprised to find how much more of the remains had become exposed.
"The hurricanes from a couple years ago had something to do with it," Morris said, "but it was left more exposed mostly by the recent dredgings in the area. That all moved away 10 feet of sand.
"I'm fascinated by how intact the engine is. The details of it are spectacular. It was an inverted single-cylinder engine, and it fell over the port side upon the explosion. When we found this much of it preserved, I suggested we replicate it."
Photographs and precise measurements have been taken to assure the fiberglass version of the Narcissus is just like the actual wreckage.
An Accurate Depiction
The undisturbed pieces of the tug were mapped by staff divers and 10 trained volunteers who averaged 11 dives each. Morris said the remains belong to the Navy, and no excavating is allowed.
"When you are down there, you are focused on the task at hand," Morris said. "But on the way back in the boat, it hits you what you've just seen and touched."
Morris has been to the wreckage more than 50 times. He became hooked on underwater archaeology as a teenager in Wilmington, N.C., when the USS Monitor, the storied Civil War ironclad, was discovered in 1973.
"I fell in love with it and have done lots of Civil War naval archaeology," he said.
"Billy knows so much about ship construction that it's crazy," Terrell said.
Each of the dozens of dives to the Narcissus led by Morris followed the same procedures and disciplines.
After ship captain and aquarium staff diver supervisor Jason Minnear dropped anchor at the global positioning system coordinates for the Narcissus, Morris did a back roll off the research boat and dived to locate it before calling for the rest.
Other divers, each with a predetermined role in that day's plotting, took to the water with tape measures, level lines, plumb bobs, compasses, pencils and a slate covered with a special plastic paper to record details.
"These are field trips that people pay to go out on with National Geographic," said Dan Rosenthal of Tampa, a trained aquarium diving volunteer. "This is the kind of thing you read about in magazines."
Their efforts eventually will bring the Narcissus to the public with the aquarium exhibit, which Terrell says should be realized by late 2008 or in 2009. He also hopes that the site becomes the 14th shipwreck site recognized by the state as an underwater archaeological preserve.
Terrell said, "It's not skeletons hanging on the ship's wheel, the vision of shipwrecks for most people. But you go down there or see photos of the ship, and you can be told a very dramatic, very engaging story."
Posted by victoria at 11:07 AM
June 07, 2007
NOAA Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary Shipwreck Paul Palmer Listed on National Register of Historic Places
June 5, 2007 — NOAA announced that the wreck of the coal schooner Paul Palmer, which rests on the seafloor within Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. (Click NOAA image for larger view of the coal schooner Paul Palmer is pictured in this early 20th century postcard as it unloads coal. Please credit “NOAA.”)
Paul Palmer’s historical, architectural and archaeological significance contributed to its listing. In compliance with President Bush's Preserve America Executive Order, NOAA is increasing efforts to inventory, preserve and protect historic resources in the agency's care, from shipwrecks to historic buildings.
“The schooner’s involvement in the coal trade connected it to Americans throughout the East Coast,” said Stellwagen Bank sanctuary superintendent Craig MacDonald. “Coal carried in schooners like the Paul Palmer powered the industrialization of the northeastern states, one of the greatest economic and social forces in American history.”
Built in Waldoboro, Maine, the five-masted, 276-foot schooner Paul Palmer was part of William F. Palmer’s “Great White Fleet,” which at its peak consisted of 15 schooners that carried bulk cargos throughout the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. During its 12-year career, the schooner Paul Palmer transported 280,000 tons of coal, as well as phosphate, railroad ties, ice, and sugar.
After unloading coal in Bangor, Paul Palmer departed Rockport, Maine, for Virginia on Friday, June 13, 1913. Sailing south, the schooner caught fire off Cape Cod. Several vessels responded to the stricken schooner, but were unable to extinguish the fire. The schooner’s crew abandoned ship and was picked up by a waiting fishing boat. The Paul Palmer burned to its waterline and then sank. The Paul Palmer was the only five-masted East Coast schooner to be lost to fire. (Click NOAA image for larger view of divers examining the Paul Palmer’s windlass, a mechanical device used to raise and lower the schooner’s anchors, which lies at the shipwreck’s bow. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)
The Paul Palmer was no stranger to fire. In 1907, the schooner sustained light damage when it was nearly caught in a conflagration that consumed Baltimore’s coal docks. The following year, a fire swept across East Boston’s docks, catching the schooner’s top rigging on fire. Tugs pulled Paul Palmer away from its dock and put out the fire before flames engulfed the schooner. The fire destroyed a quarter-mile stretch of the waterfront and caused $1.6 million in property damage.
Since NOAA’s discovery of the then-unknown shipwreck in 2000, the sanctuary has investigated the site with divers, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles capturing detailed video and still imagery to document the vessel’s construction and artifacts. This research led to the schooner’s identification in 2002. The Paul Palmer’s partially buried remains lie on the flat, sandy seafloor atop Stellwagen Bank.
The schooner’s location within Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary provides protection unavailable in other federal waters off Massachusetts. Sanctuary regulations prohibit moving, removing, or injuring, or any attempt to move, remove, or injure any sanctuary historical resource, including artifacts and pieces from shipwrecks. Anyone violating this regulation is subject to civil penalties.
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 842 square miles of ocean, stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod offshore of Massachusetts. Renowned for its scenic beauty and remarkable productivity, the sanctuary is renowned as a whale watching destination and supports a rich assortment of marine life, including marine mammals, seabirds, fishes and marine invertebrates. The sanctuary’s position astride the historic shipping routes and fishing grounds for Massachusetts’ oldest ports also make it a repository for shipwrecks representing several hundred years of maritime transportation.
NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program seeks to increase the public awareness of America's marine resources and maritime heritage by conducting scientific research, monitoring, exploration and educational programs. Today, the sanctuary program manages 13 national marine sanctuaries and one marine national monument that together encompass more than 150,000 square miles of America's ocean and Great Lakes natural and cultural resources.
NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.
NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with our federal partners and 60 countries to develop a global Earth observation network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
Posted by victoria at 03:43 PM
June 04, 2007
Research continues at supposed Blackbeard shipwreck
The Associated Press
June 4, 2007 8:01 am
Ten years and $2 million have yet to result in a "smoking blunderbuss" that proves a shipwreck off the coast of Beaufort belonged to the notorious pirate Blackbeard.
But researchers say they haven't found anything among the cannons, coins, anchors, and other artifacts that rules it out.
"Ten years of archaeological and historical research all say it's the Queen Anne's Revenge," said Lindley Butler, of Wentworth, the historian on the shipwreck project.
Some state officials stop short of confirming the oldest shipwreck ever found in North Carolina waters belonged to Blackbeard. They say it's best to remain cautious because the state's reputation is on the line.
"I ... won't let them," said Jeffrey Crow, a deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. "There's a slim possibility that it could be another shipwreck."
But even if it turns out not to be the French slave ship many believe Blackbeard captured in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge before it ran aground off Atlantic Beach a year later, the decade of research and examination have been worth the effort, said Jerry Cashion, chairman of the N.C. Historical Commission.
"This is the most important maritime wreck in North Carolina regardless of what it is," Cashion said. " ... It's a treasure trove."
The French frigate measured about 100 feet long with three masts and a crew of 150 to 200. The shipwreck, discovered in late 1996, is within sight of Fort Macon State Park in 23 feet of water.
"What you see is the ballast stone pile, large anchors and stacks of cannons," Butler said of the 3-foot-high pile of artifacts that covers an area about 20 feet by 25 feet. "I have never seen anything like that."
Scientists believe the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge has laid buried under the shifting sands of Beaufort Inlet.
Florida-based Intersal, a private research firm, received a state permit in 1989 to search for the QAR, the Adventure – one of Blackbeard's smaller ships, and El Salvador, a Spanish treasure ship that sank in the area in 1750.
What's believed to be the QAR was discovered by an Intersal crew on Nov. 21, 1996.
The following March, state officials announced the find and said it "may be" Blackbeard's flagship.
Archaeologists thought it would take five to six years to recover all the artifacts when they began the process in 1997. But they say a lack of money has slowed the effort. The state has spent about $1.2 million on the project with another $600,000-plus coming from grants and other private sources. Further excavation and conservation will likely cost another $1.4 million.
"As high-profile as it is, it has been indifferently funded," said Charlie Ewen, an anthropology professor at East Carolina University.
Only about 15 percent of artifacts have been recovered to date, including jewelry, dishes and thousands of other items that are being preserved and studied at a lab at East Carolina University.
Blackbeard, whose real name was widely believed to be Edward Teach or Thatch, settled in Bath and received a governor's pardon. Some experts believe he grew bored with land life and returned to piracy.
Five months after the ship thought to be Queen Anne's Revenge sank in June 1718, Blackbeard was killed by volunteers from the Royal Navy.
Divers plan to return to the site – weather permitting – later this week to recover more artifacts and, they hope, eventually remove any doubt the ship belonged to the most fearsome and famous among pirates.
"We haven't found ... the smoking blunderbuss," Crow said. "It's like a crime-scene investigation, just like 'CSI,' just like 'Law & Order.' "
But they might find that indisputable link.
"We are not going to find a license plate on it that says Blackbeard," said Steve Claggett, the state archaeologist. "These guys didn't keep diaries."
Posted by victoria at 09:44 AM
June 02, 2007
Shipwreck Treasure Swimming In Controversy
Spain Files Claim In U.S. Federal Courts
POSTED: 9:07 am EDT June 1, 2007
TAMPA, Fla. -- The Spanish government has filed claims in U.S. federal court over a shipwreck that a Florida firm found laden with Colonial-era treasure, an attorney said Thursday.
If the vessel was Spanish or was removed from that country's waters, any treasure would belong to Spain, said James Goold, an attorney representing the government.
"It's a very well established principle under Spanish, U.S. and international law that a government such as the kingdom of Spain has not abandoned its sunken ships or sunken property, and that a company like Odyssey Marine Exploration may not conduct recovery operations without authorization by the government," he said.
"The kingdom of Spain has not authorized any such operations by Odyssey, and by these legal actions it will see the return of any Spanish property Odyssey has recovered," Goold said of the claims filed Wednesday.
Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. CEO John Morris said in a statement Thursday that "such a move was anticipated by Odyssey and is considered normal in Admiralty cases."
The company has previously said Odyssey would notify all claimants once it conclusively determined the ship's identity. Odyssey said it was not found in Spanish territorial waters.
"If there is anything Spanish involved, they want to work with the Spanish government and be certain the Spanish government is completely satisfied with the result," said Allen Von Spiegelfeld, Odyssey's attorney in Tampa. "I don't think the rights of the Spanish government would have been threatened."
The company announced two weeks ago that it had discovered a shipwreck containing 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Tampa-based company said the site was outside any country's territorial waters but would not give the exact location or name of the ship.
Odyssey has said that the ship was not in Spanish territorial waters and was not the HMS Sussex, a shipwreck that Odyssey recently got permission from the Spanish government to search for in the Strait of Gibraltar.
But Spain has called the new discovery suspicious and said the booty may have come from a wrecked Spanish galleon.
In Britain, the find generated press reports that Odyssey had salvaged the wreck of the long-sought British vessel Merchant Royal, which sank in bad weather off England in 1641. Odyssey has not confirmed or denied these reports.
Spain is using the U.S. law firm Covington & Burling, which has represented Spain over shipwreck cases before, including the recovery of material from two ships, Juno and La Galga, in a 2000 court case. The Spanish government won the case at that time.
Odyssey shares closed down 20 cents, about 3 percent, to $6.60 in volatile trading Thursday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $1.52 to $9.45.
Posted by victoria at 09:45 AM
June 01, 2007
Was it the first shipwreck in Kings County, Nova Scotia?
It’s late in 1760 and several shiploads of settlers out of New England have reached Kings County to take up Acadian land and are busy settling in. In December of that year, a brigantine arrives. Sailing up the Canard River for about two miles, the brigantine docks and unloads troops and provisions for the settlers of Horton and Cornwallis.
Once offloading is completed, the brig retraces its course back down the Canard River. Unfortunately, it’s low tide. The brig strikes a sandbar, topples over, is stranded, and eventually is demolished by the high tide.
James Martell records this event in his 1933 paper on early settlements around Minas Basin, citing government records as his source of information. While this may only have been a minor catastrophe, this could qualify as the first recorded shipwreck in Kings County waters. Unfortunately, Martell doesn’t give the name of the brigantine, but maybe one of you history buffs can come up with it.
You could call it a shipwreck record of sorts and it’s mentioned by David Fairbank White in his book Bitter Ocean, the Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1945. White writes that a Canadian steamer built in Pictou was the final merchant ship to die in the last battle of the Atlantic. This was the Avondale Park. She almost made it to harbor, White says, going down on the last day of the war.
Here’s another shipwreck, one also in Kings County, involving a ship with an unusual name. Under the heading “A Marine Mishap,” the late Leon Barron found this record in the April 26, 1889, issue of the Wolfville Acadian:
“The schnr. Sparkling Billow, Capt. L. R. Morris, left this port (Wolfville) on Tuesday evening in ballast for Cornwallis and missed her course (and) ran upon the flats on the north side of the Cornwallis River.”
As a result, the 25-ton Sparkling Billow “tipped over and split in two from stem to stern, and now lies a wreck just north of this village.” The news story concludes by informing readers that the ship “has been stripped of her sails and rigging and abandoned.”
Posted by victoria at 09:47 AM
May 28, 2007
Cuban Underwater Archeology Attracts Experts
Havana, May 25 (Prensa Latina) Museologists from 12 countries noted the high value of Cuba's underwater archeology, due to its unprecedented capacity to preserve the submerged cultural and patrimonial wealth.
Cuban expert Alessandro Lopez gave a lecture on underwater archeology at the Fourth Ibero-American Meeting of Museums and Historic Centers, which opened on Tuesday in Havana and is being attended by 167 specialists from the region.
The frigate Arrow, from which 2,000 pieces of English chinaware were recovered, and the brigantine Ines de Soto, which carried 33,000 of the first coins minted in the Americas, both from the 16th century, are examples of the wealth resting in the Caribbean's sea bottoms.
"We have 1,341 references of shipwrecks documented by historians, but just 130 have been discovered over the past 20 years, said Lopez, who has more than three decades' experiences as an archeologist.
Adverse weather conditions and constant attacks by corsairs and pirates in the Caribbean, in addition to bad sailing conditions in the 16th century, contributed to a large number of shipwrecks off Cuban coasts.
Lopez noted Cuba's non-lucrative interest in archeology, backed by prominent personalities like French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997), who worked with Cuban scientists for several years.
Salvage operations carried out in the 1970s by the Cuban company CARISUB were recorded in photos, films and videos by renowned filmmakers such as Fernando Perez (Havana Suite) and Rogelio Paris (Caravan).
Posted by victoria at 12:09 PM
May 25, 2007
What are the rules when you discover Pirate Treasure?
Updated May 24, 2007
By Steve Morales
The name and location of the wreck salvaged by Odyssey Marine Exploration are carefully guarded secrets.(Jonathan Blair/Associated Press)
An American company makes off with an estimated $500 million in gold and silver coins from a mystery ship code-named "Black Swan."
The Spanish government cries foul, suggesting the Americans plundered the treasure from its sovereign waters.
All that's missing is the Jolly Roger, Sir Francis Drake (Johnny Depp?), or yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.
And now the American firm says it may partner with Disney to put its deep-sea adventures onto the big screen.
Call it Pirates of the Somewhere in the Atlantic: The Curse of the Black Swan.
Well, that may be a stretch. But this story has some elements of a high seas corsair drama.
Whose gold?
It revolves around Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration, an undersea salvage and exploration firm. On May 18, Odyssey revealed details of a staggering find : some 17 tonnes of silver coins along with gold coins and artifacts recovered from a ship somewhere in the Atlantic.
Odyssey won't reveal the name or location of its find. The firm cites security concerns, but the Spanish government wonders if it's because the booty was plucked from its waters, meaning Spain is due a big part of the proceeds.
The Spanish government has cause to be suspicious.
Odyssey recently concluded negotiations with Spain and Britain to explore HMS Sussex, a British treasure ship that sank near Gibraltar, in Spanish waters, in 1694. It's believed that the Sussex sank with nearly nine tonnes of gold coins. That treasure is estimated to be worth anywhere from $500 million to $4 billion US, project officials say.
Odyssey, however, does not have permission to remove any treasure from the shipwreck.
And "finders keepers" is not the law of the sea.
Determining ownership
There are laws that govern deep-sea treasure hunting and exploration, but it's difficult to tell which ones apply in this case, since Odyssey won't reveal any information about the ship.
An important question is who owns the wreck, since that can determine whether cases like this count as treasure hunting or salvage. Salvage means the "salvor" (Odyssey, in this case) returns the found goods to the original owner in return for some reward. Treasure hunting is different. William Moreira, president of the Canadian Maritime Law Association, says that's a critical distinction.
"Treasure hunting is not necessarily salvage, because salvage is the right to be compensated by the owner where the owner is known and you're in a position to return the property to him," he says. "It may be that that's the case here, but typically in treasure hunting cases, that's not so, just because the stuff's been lost for so long that no owner could come forward.
"If this is some galleon that sank in the 15th century, then I don't think it's salvage, I think it's beyond that into treasure hunting, because the true owner simply can't exist anymore."
Location, location, location
Another vital consideration in any treasure-hunting case is whether the find lies within a country's territorial waters, a concept set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Most countries have a limit of 12 nautical miles (approximately 22 kilometres) from their coastlines, and if Odyssey's treasure ship ventured inside that limit, the company could forfeit its claim to the booty. Moreira says that's a standard rule.
"Usually, for this kind of case, there's a law saying that [the find] is owned by the government, so if it's in territorial waters, the law of the sea convention comes in and … the state would decide who owns and what compensation [the finder] is entitled to."
But if Odyssey made its find in Spanish waters and didn't tell the Spanish, the company won't end up with much.
The 1989 International Convention on Salvage says the salvor "may be deprived of the whole or part of the payment due … if the salvor has been guilty of fraud or other dishonest conduct."
"Dishonest conduct" isn't clearly defined, but if Odyssey unilaterally salvaged treasure from a ship in Spanish waters without consulting Madrid, that definitely counts as fraud, and Odyssey would lose its big payday.
"If one commits fraud, that is dishonesty with intention to deceive, then you become disentitled to whatever you'd otherwise be able to get," Moreira says.
But if this find lies in international waters and there's no one to claim ownership, Odyssey is probably in the clear — for now.
UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) is currently at work creating an Underwater Cultural Heritage agreement that would protect shipwrecks based on their archeological value. But the high seas are loosely regulated until that treaty is signed, sealed and delivered.
"If that treaty is not yet in force and if [Black Swan] is in international waters, I expect it's fair game for whoever can find it," says Moreira. "If someone can't say 'I'm the true owner of this,' then the diver could well be able to put it in his pocket and walk away with it.
"That's the reason for UNCITRAL's work on this, because there's a legal vacuum right now and that's the reason they think they need this treaty to regulate what goes on out there."
Treasure's origin 'dubious,' Spain says
For its part, Odyssey denies that "Black Swan" is the Sussex or any other ship that Spain could have some claim to.
"We can confirm that the 'Black Swan' is not HMS Sussex, and that the 'Black Swan' was not found in waters anywhere near the shipwreck believed to be HMS Sussex. Beyond that, we cannot confirm the identity of the shipwreck because we are not certain ourselves," reads a statement on the company's website.
But regardless of the ship's identity, Odyssey expressed confidence that Spain has no claim to the wreck or the recovered treasure.
"There was no point at which any aspect of the 'Black Swan' operation was within the jurisdiction of Spanish authorities, and we will be pleased to provide proof of that fact to the Spanish government if requested officially."
Spanish authorities have not blatantly accused Odyssey of any skulduggery, but have voiced suspicion.
"At the very least, the origin of the treasure is dubious," Spanish Culture Ministry spokeswoman Susana Tello told the Associated Press.
The Spanish have also expressed a determined stance to fight for what's theirs, provided that it is theirs.
"We will exercise all of our jurisdiction and rights in the hypothetical event that the find is part of Spain's heritage," said Spanish Culture Minister Carmen Calvo.
Odyssey sounds no less determined to keep its find.
"We do believe that most shipwrecks that we recover, including the 'Black Swan,' will likely result in claims by other parties," reads the online statement. "Many will be spurious claims, but we anticipate that there might be some legitimate ones as well. In the case of the 'Black Swan, it is the opinion of our legal counsel that even if a claim is deemed to be legitimate by the courts, Odyssey should still receive title to a significant majority of the recovered goods."
But until Odyssey reveals more about its mystery ship, the ultimate fate of the recovered fortune remains uncertain.
Posted by victoria at 03:13 PM
May 24, 2007
Spain severs relations with US company over shipwreck treasure
Madrid (dpa) - Spain has broken relations with a US treasure-hunting company it had allowed to search for a sunken British warship in the Strait of Gibraltar over suspicions that it has illegally exported a coin treasure found in Spanish waters, the daily El Pais reported Thursday.
Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration says the treasure was found in international waters and imported legally into the United States.
Odyssey had been authorized to search for the British warship HMS Sussex, which sank in 1694. The Spanish government says the company did not have permission to extract any objects on board.
Instead, Odyssey announced the discovery of another shipwreck which contained more than 500,000 silver and gold coins. The treasure is estimated to be worth half a billion dollars (370 million euros).
Spain feels the company has not given sufficient information about the operation, and suspects the wreck could be Spanish or in Spanish waters, in which case Madrid could claim the treasure.
Odyssey says it does not yet know the nationality of the wreck.
The government was investigating all the movements of Odyssey's two vessels over the past 20 days, Culture Minister Carmen Calvo said. The ministry has also requested information from the United States and Britain about an alleged Odyssey flight from Gibraltar and its cargo.
Spain has cancelled the permission to Odyssey to search for the Sussex, and does not intend to cooperate with the company again, the report said.
The search for the Sussex was based on an agreement between the US company and the British government, which would have allowed Odyssey to keep a part of the treasure of gold coins believed to be on board.
An estimated 400 shipwrecks lie in the Strait of Gibraltar alone, and Spain is wary of treasure-hunters who could loot them for commercial purposes.
Odyssey accused Spain of contradictory behaviour, saying the Spanish authorities had not even contacted the company, nor sent Spanish archaeologists to watch over the search for the Sussex as had been agreed.
Posted by victoria at 10:10 AM
UN body adopts new shipwreck rules
Thursday, 24 May 2007 10:05
The International Maritime Organisation, the United Nations agency responsible for safety and security at sea, has adopted the first-ever set of international rules for the removal of shipwrecks.
The new rules provide strong powers to act, with no legal responsibility relating to the removal of wrecks or the goods carried.
They were agreed at a five-day meeting held in Nairobi, and represents the first sweeping set of rules of its kind and which each country will sign into law.
Ireland is a member of the organisation and up to now Government's around the world have faced complex legal difficulties ín dealing with vessels wrecked on their coastlines.
According to the IMO there are an estimated 1300 potentially hazardous shipwrecks on coastlines around the world, which have been abandoned by owners trying to avoid responsibility for removing them.
This does not include listed historic or protected wrecks but are more recent shipping casualties causing environmental pollution, or threatening the safe navigation of other shipping.
The Secretary-General of the IMO, Efthimios Mitropoulos, said coastal States had been pressing for strong international laws to deal with abandoned shipwrecks and the legal framework had now been provided.
Story from RTÉ News
Posted by victoria at 10:08 AM
May 23, 2007
Recovering Artifacts From 200-year-old Shipwreck, Deep In Gulf Of Mexico
A team of Texas A&M University researchers will soon be recovering artifacts from a 200-year-old shipwreck that lies more than 4,000 feet beneath the Gulf of Mexico, making it the deepest such recovery effort ever attempted in the gulf.
The $4.8 million project, funded by the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company, will begin today (May 22) says William Bryant, professor of oceanography, and Donny Hamilton, professor of anthropology at Texas A&M. Peter Hitchcock, a doctoral student and team leader of the project, says the vessel could be one of the most historically significant shipwrecks found in the gulf.
The recovery effort is named the "Mardi Gras Shipwreck Project" after a gas pipeline in the area. While the work has been an ongoing effort for the researchers over the past two years, the fieldwork phase of the project is just beginning as the team prepares to work southwest of the Louisiana coast where the Mississippi River flows into the gulf.
Ten researchers from Texas A&M and its Department of Oceanography and Center for Maritime Archaeology will participate in the effort, as well as members of the Minerals Management Service, a division of the Department of the Interior. The group anticipates the fieldwork to be completed in about a month and an announcement of their findings could come in late June.
"This will be the first academic excavation of a deepwater shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico," Bryant explains. "The waters are much too deep for human diving, so we use remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to retrieve objects we find. We want to stress that at this time we are focusing our efforts on retrieving items and artifacts visible on the surface, and do not plan to excavate the entire hull."
The vessel's identity and origin remain a mystery, Hitchcock adds.
Based on analysis of video documentation from previous visits to the site, the artifacts scattered on the seafloor suggest it was likely from the late 1700s or early 1800s, he notes.
"We can see a cannon, a box of weapons, navigational instruments, plates and bottles, but there really is no way to tell what else is down there," he adds.
Ultimately, the team hopes the fieldwork and conservation that follows will answer the questions surrounding the ship and provide a better understanding of its historical context.
The project will be extensively recorded and a documentary film about it is planned, the organizers say.
The team has contracted with a private firm to use the recovery ship Toisa Vigilant leased by Veolia Environmental Services. Once the artifacts are recovered and conserved at the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M, they will be delivered to the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. Eventually, many of the objects will be displayed by the Louisiana State Museum.
"This is an exciting time for us, but also very challenging," adds Bryant, who has conducted such underwater efforts for more than 40 years.
"At this depth, the pressure is about 1,700 pounds per cubic inch. The next few weeks are going to be interesting, to say the least."
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Texas A&M University.
A website hosted by the Florida Public Archaeology Network will provide regular updates on the expedition. It can be viewed here.
Posted by victoria at 03:26 PM
Shipwreck treasure 'hits a nerve,' says company
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 | 9:56 AM ET
CBC News
Spain is warning it will claim rights to a shipwrecked fortune if it was taken from its waters, as the Florida-based company that found the wreck said it's been overwhelmed by the world reaction to the discovery.
Odyssey Marine Exploration on Friday announced the recovery of more than 500,000 Colonial-era silver and gold coins possibly worth $500 million US as part of a project code-named "Black Swan."
The exploration company from Tampa has withheld details about the shipwreck, where it was found or even what kind of coins it took back to the United States in hundreds of plastic containers.
"We are overwhelmed by the worldwide interest in this project, and it reinforces our belief that shipwreck exploration hits a nerve with the public. I wasn't prepared for the response," Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm said Monday.
Stemm spoke from Los Angeles, where he was meeting with Disney about possible projects for the large and small screens. Disney said the discussions with Odyssey started long before the company knew about the ship's treasure.
Merchant Royal or Sussex?
The discovery has made headlines around the world, with experts narrowing the possibilities down to two ships.
Spain's Culture Ministry on Monday said it was suspicious of the find because it recently gave Odyssey permission to hunt for the wreck of the HMS Sussex in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship had been delivering a massive shipment of coins to northern Italy when it sank.
Culture Minister Carmen Calvo has said Spain will claim the treasure if it was Spanish loot or was removed from its territorial waters.
British experts believe the wreck is not the Sussex but is a British ship called the Merchant Royal, which sank near the Isles of Scilly, off the southern tip of the U.K. Historians say it took on water and sank while transporting loot from Spain to Belgium.
"The Spanish government was living off the products of mines in Mexico, Lima and Peru," British shipwreck historian Richard Larn said Wednesday.
"The money was transported once a year to mainland Spain where it went into the National Exchequer, and kept the money afloat. In this particular occasion, they needed this particular sum of money to pay 30,000 troops that were in the Netherlands."
Odyssey has said the wreck is not the Sussex, but wouldn't confirm or deny reports it is the Merchant Royal.
"The 'Black Swan' bears characteristics of one shipwreck in particular, but some of the evidence gathered to date is inconsistent with our research, so we want to be sure of the identity before we announce it," the company said in a statement.
Company says recovery was legal
Odyssey said Monday that its recovery conformed with salvage laws, the site was beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country and the coins were legally exported to the United States.
"We do not believe that the recovery is subject to sovereign immunity by any nation pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention," the company said in a statement.
Last year, Odyssey petitioned a U.S. federal court for exclusive rights to salvage a shipwreck site near the English Channel.
At the time, the company said it had likely found the remains of a 17th-century merchant vessel that sank with valuable cargo aboard about 65 kilometres off the southwestern tip of England. A judge signed an order granting those rights last month.
With files from the Associated Press
Posted by victoria at 03:23 PM
May 22, 2007
Japan WWII sailors stay in wreck
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney
The submarine was involved in an attack on Sydney Harbour
The bodies of two Japanese sailors are to be left in the wreck of their submarine, which was involved in an attack on Sydney harbour in 1942.
The Australian government has said it will present a jar of sand from the seabed to the families of the two men.
The government has also declared the location of the wreck, 50km (31 miles) off the coast, an historic site.
The submarine was part of an operation at the height of World War II, aimed at disrupting US and Australian shipping.
Protected site
Three submarines were involved in the operation, evading protective nets stretched across the entrance to Sydney harbour and sinking an Australian naval vessel, killing 19 sailors and two Britons.
Two of the submarines were damaged during the attack, and then scuttled by their crews. But a third escaped, only to be discovered on the ocean floor by amateur divers more than 60 years later.
Now elite navy divers have managed to reach the barnacle-encrusted wreck, and are convinced that the remains of its two-man crew - Lt Katsuhisa Ban and PO Mamoru Ashibe - are still on board.
They found the ladder the pair would have used to escape stowed on the outside of the vessel.
Sand gathered from close to the wreckage during the dive will now be sent to the submariners' families in Japan.
But raising the vessel and retrieving the remains has been ruled out, because of the cost and difficulty of salvage operations in the open sea.
Instead the government has declared the wreck an historic site, protected from curious divers by sonar alarms and underwater cameras.
Posted by victoria at 03:36 PM
May 21, 2007
Cutty Sark needs money as police hunt for clues
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article18...
Times Online and PA news
Aerial photograph of the remains of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, East London after a fire yesterday. (Tim Ockenden/PA)
Forensic scientists and fire investigators combed the burned remains of the Cutty Sark today for clues about yesterday's suspicious fire.
Police photographers were among the first to be allowed onto the site of the blaze at a dry dock in Greenwich, south east London.
Detectives are treating the fire on the ship as suspicious and are examining CCTV footage taken in the hours before emergency services were alerted at 4.46am yesterday. London Fire Brigade investigators are concentrating on finding the source of the fire, reported by witnesses to be near the middle of the ship.
The Cutty Sark Trust, which manages the tea clipper, which once sailed from Australia to London in just 67 days, said the wreckage is a crime scene and only investigators have access.
Conservation workers must wait to find out whether the ship's wrought iron hull, built in 1860s to maximise her grace and speed, may have buckled in the heat. So far, conservationists have expressed cautious optimism that many of the Cutty Sark's main timbers only suffered burns to their surface but the damage to the hull will only be determined by structural engineers.
The Trust is appealing to supporters across the world to help raise the millions of pounds needed to rebuild the clipper. The Duke of Edinburgh was expected to see the scale of the task for himself on a visit to Greenwich this afternoon.
Prince Philip, president of the Cutty Sark Trust, is a keen naval historian and already a supporter of the £25 million restoration project which was already underway and may have saved the ship because it involved the removal of many parts, including its masts, coach houses and planking from the dry dock where the fire took place.
The fire damage is expected to add millions to the final restoration bill and seriously delay the anticipated public reopening date in 2009.
Richard Doughty, chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, said: “The Cutty Sark is a national treasure, a piece of maritime history that we must save. We have already been overwhelmed by the public response from all corners of the world, who are so saddened by yesterday’s fire. “We are calling on people everywhere to donate funds to help us preserve this glorious ship for future generations.”
The trust said that an anonymous donor has already pledged £100,000 to the restoration appeal fund. Louise Massara, of the Trust, said the sum was a welcome kick-start for the appeal and that many smaller donations had already been made to a dedicated website, which had raised more than £14,000 as of this afternoon. “All of the small amounts coming in are making a huge difference as well and are greatly appreciated," she said.
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Posted by victoria at 03:07 PM
May 18, 2007
Shipwreck yields historic riches -- $500M worth
TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have mined what could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history, bringing home 17 tons of colonial-era silver and gold coins from an undisclosed site in the Atlantic Ocean.
Estimated value: $500 million.
A jet chartered by Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration landed in the United States recently with hundreds of plastic containers brimming with coins raised from the ocean floor, Odyssey co-chairman Greg Stemm said. The more than 500,000 pieces are expected to fetch an average of $1,000 each from collectors and investors.
"For this colonial era, I think (the find) is unprecedented," said rare coin expert Nick Bruyer, who examined a batch of coins from the wreck. "I don't know of anything equal or comparable to it."
Citing security concerns, the company declined to release any details about the ship or the wreck site Friday. Stemm said a formal announcement will come later, but court records indicate the coins might come from a 400-year-old ship found off England.
Because the shipwreck was found in a lane where many colonial-era vessels went down, there is still some uncertainty about its nationality, size and age, Stemm said, although evidence points to a specific known shipwreck. The site is beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country, he said.
"Rather than a shout of glee, it's more being able to exhale for the first time in a long time," Stemm said of the haul, by far the biggest in Odyssey's 13-year history.
He wouldn't say if the loot was taken from the same wreck site near the English Channel that Odyssey recently petitioned a federal court for permission to salvage.
In seeking exclusive rights to that site, an Odyssey attorney told a federal judge last fall that the company likely had found the remains of a 17th-century merchant vessel that sank with valuable cargo aboard, about 40 miles off the southwestern tip of England. A judge signed an order granting those rights last month.
Secret project
In keeping with the secretive nature of the project dubbed "Black Swan," Odyssey also isn't talking yet about the types, denominations and country of origin of the coins.
Bruyer said he observed a wide range of varieties and dates of likely uncirculated currency in much better condition than artifacts yielded by most shipwrecks of a similar age.
The Black Swan coins -- mostly silver pieces -- likely will fetch several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars each, with some possibly commanding much more, he said. Value is determined by rarity, condition and the story behind them.
Controlled release of the coins into the market along with their expected high value to collectors likely will keep prices at a premium, he said.
The richest ever shipwreck haul was yielded by the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. Treasure-hunting pioneer Mel Fisher found it in 1985, retrieving a reported $400 million in coins and other loot.
Odyssey likely will return to the same spot for more coins and artifacts.
"We have treated this site with kid gloves and the archaeological work done by our team out there is unsurpassed," Odyssey CEO John Morris said. "We are thoroughly documenting and recording the site, which we believe will have immense historical significance."
Publicly traded company
The news is timely for Odyssey, the only publicly traded company of its kind.
The company salvaged more than 50,000 coins and other artifacts from the wreck of the SS Republic off Savannah, Georgia, in 2003, making millions. But Odyssey posted losses in 2005 and 2006 while using its expensive, state-of-the-art ships and deep-water robotic equipment to hunt for the next mother lode.
"The outside world now understands that what we do is a real business and is repeatable and not just a lucky one shot deal," Stemm said. "I don't know of anybody else who has hit more than one economically significant shipwreck."
In January, Odyssey won permission from the Spanish government to resume a suspended search for the wreck of the HMS Sussex, which was leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for a war against France in 1694 when it sank in a storm off Gibraltar.
Historians believe the 157-foot warship was carrying nine tons of gold coins to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France. Odyssey believes those coins could also fetch more than $500 million.
But under the terms of a historic agreement Odyssey will have to share any finds with the British government. The company will get 80 percent of the first $45 million and about 50 percent of the proceeds thereafter.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Posted by victoria at 12:39 PM
May 17, 2007
Revealing wreckage of Maine-built ship re-emerges
Pacific Ocean currents unearth a mid-1800s clipper -- again -- and offer a look at nautical history.
— By DAVID HENCH
Staff Writer
Weathered timbers have been rising gradually from a San Francisco beach in recent days, promising a rare glimpse of a 150-year-old Maine shipbuilding tradition well-preserved by its sandy burial.
The King Philip, a prestigious medium clipper launched in 1856 in Alna, ran aground in this West Coast harbor 22 years later, a tired, outmoded vessel that had endured two mutinies, been set on fire and been relegated to hauling bird manure and lumber.
"She could have sunk deep or she could have been burned, but because she sank where she did and buried herself, we have an exciting and tangible reminder of ships long past and the days of wooden sail," said maritime archaeologist James Delgado, executive director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.
"We also have a well-preserved example of naval architecture at a time when Maine led the nation in shipbuilding and ships like this waved the American flag all over the seven seas."
Delgado did the initial mapping of the wreck when it first emerged from the sand in the 1980s, documenting the ship and getting it placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
His research took him to Alna, where the homestead of the shipbuilder, Dennett Wemouth, still stands, and where he was able to find the ship's sail plan in the attic.
The structures emerging from the sand right now are the bow and stern, which rise three feet higher than the rest of the ship, he said.
"The entire bottom of the ship is there beneath the sand," he said. "Everything from just below 'tween' deck to the keel has survived."
Had the ship's end been more spectacular, such as being dashed onto the rocks, it would not have been as intact, he said.
"This is about the best-preserved prototypical downeaster that we know of," he said. "Maine built the bulk of America's wooden ships after the Civil War. The majority of those were either downeasters or the large schooners. King Philip is at the beginning of that tradition."
The King Philip is a medium clipper. It was not technically a clipper ship, being built bigger to haul more cargo, but was still built for some speed, he said. It was 182 feet long, 36 feet wide and 24 feet deep, weighing 1,189 tons, according to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.
The King Philip was launched from Alna for its Boston-based owners and traveled all over the world, including Australia and the South Pacific.
There was a mutiny in Honolulu, Hawaii, and another off Annapolis, Md., where the crew set fire to the ship.
The mutinies were a sign of the economic decline of that class of wooden sailing ships, as companies sought to remain competitive with other boats, including steamships.
Owners sought to save money by cutting back on maintenance and on the size of the crew, which was responsible for sailing the vessel and handling its cargo, Delgado said.
By 1878, the ship was hauling lumber from Puget Sound to San Francisco, "a workaday trade where she had been built for loftier dreams, of hauling riches from the South Pacific," Delgado said.
When the King Philip pulled its anchor and ran aground on the western shore of San Francisco, the hull was sold for $1,000 to a local storeowner, who recovered what items he could and then used dynamite on the upper decks so he could more easily salvage the copper and bronze used in its construction.
Like the feet of a beachcomber standing in the surf, the hull gradually sank into the sand and disappeared for more than 100 years.
A confluence of currents exposed it in the 1980s, when Delgado surveyed it, but sand from road construction buried it again. Now it is back and is causing a flurry of excitement among tourists, locals and historians.
"People love it," said Stephen Haller, historian for the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Artea. "It's been a magnet for locals and out-of-town visitors alike that really reminds them of the romance of the sea or the mystery of shipwrecks, that sort of thing."
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
Posted by victoria at 08:44 AM
May 07, 2007
Shipwreck survivors' camp to be excavated
Archaeologists have won a Federal Government grant to excavate the camp used by the survivors of Tasmania's first shipwreck.
The crew of the Sydney Cove beached their ship on Preservation Island in 1797, because it was taking on water.
In the past 20 years the ship itself and parts of the survivors' camp have been dug up and studied, and the wreck project will now share in $400,000 worth of federal funding.
A conservator at Launceston's Queen Victoria Museum, Linda Clark, says the Sydney Cove's cargo has helped historians bring to life the earliest years of Australian settlement.
"It was only eight or nine years after the colony was established and although there were about five merchant ships that came from India to Australia, this is the earliest wreck," Ms Clark said.
"So it really gives us a fantastic insight into what goods were available to people living in the colony."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1915869.htm
Posted by victoria at 11:57 AM
May 04, 2007
Burt Reynolds museum head presses North Carolina to accelerate work on shipwreck
By KIT BRADSHAW
kit.bradshaw@scripps.com
May 2, 2007
Beneath his quiet manner is the heart of an adventurer.
Mike Daniel, known locally as head of the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum, wears an entirely different hat when he travels north.
In the waters off Atlantic Beach, N.C., Daniel has found wreckage of the ship that belonged to the notorious pirate Blackbeard. It was a vessel called "Queen Anne's Revenge."
Ten years ago, Daniel brought up the largest and most valuable artifact to date, the ship's bell. In a few days, most of the booty from the shipwreck is now part of a museum.
"I gave my 10 percent share of the treasure to the state of North Carolina," Daniel said, "And this share would be worth about $10 million. But in the 10 years the state has been working on it, they have dived the shipwreck for a total of 50 days, recovering artifacts. They dive for about two weeks a year. It is a typical government running a project. I look at it and I throw my hands up."
Daniel said the find is one of the most important shipwrecks ever found, and the oldest in found in North Carolina. And, he adds, it is a find of which he is particularly proud.
"It is extremely rich in artifacts, because pirates were like drug dealers today, they stole everything. The bell, which is to date the most important piece, we found on Nov. 21, 1996, and we found it in just 15 minutes," Daniel said.
"But you get into the government's department and they aren't that qualified, and I think they are a little bit afraid of it. Mostly, it is just getting the money," said Daniel.
According to information from North Carolina's Queen Anne's Revenge Web site, divers with Intersal Inc. had been conducting surveys of the area near the Beaufort Inlet for about 10 years. They hired Daniel, who has a reputation as a shipwreck researcher, to direct the field operations. Daniel used historical accounts provided by Intersal and selected an area to survey that he felt encompassed the inlet's 18th century entrance channel area.
The crew soon brought up the bronze bell, dated 1705 as well as other artifacts including a brass blunderbuss barrel.
Following the find, which was determined most likely that of Queen Anne's Revenge, agreements were made with Intersal, its nonprofit Maritime Research Institute and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.
The treasure hunter said hundreds of artifacts remain in the water, and many of them could be brought to the surface more efficiently if North Carolina officials would devote more time to diving for the items and working to preserve them.
Artifacts brought from the sea must first be put into water so they can gradually lose the salts that are in them.
"They want to bring up a cannon," Daniel said. "But it takes three or four years to preserve a cannon — you can get it and put it into a canal or water to preserve it. But they still should be getting a lot of the good stuff, and they are not."
North Carolina officials say that the shipwreck could be fully excavated in three years, but Daniel said that at this point, perhaps 15 percent of the wreck has been excavated.
"Every time they dive, I go to North Carolina," Daniel said. "I keep the fire lit so they continue to work. This past year, because I went to the Legislature, they worked a total of 18 days, and, they said, recovered about 15 percent of the shipwreck."
Daniel said the recovery work is even more important now that the Army Corps of Engineers has created a 600-foot sandbar to protect the shipwreck. "It works great until you get 20-foot seas and they break on the sandbar," he said.
Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground in 1718. Some believe it was a French slave ship, La Concorde, that had been captured a year before and renamed when Blackbeard captured it.
"This is an extremely valuable find, and could be one of the greatest collections of all time, if they get it out of the water and on tour," Daniel said.
QUICK FACTS ABOUT BLACKBEARD
• Real name is either Edward Thatch or Edward Teach
• Was a privateer in Queen Anne's War (1701-1714), then turned to piracy
• Operated off Delaware and Chesapeake Bay until 1717, when he went to the eastern Caribbean.
• Captured French slave ship, "La Concorde," and renamed it "Queen Anne's Revenge."
• After plundering ships in the Caribbean, he sailed to South Carolina where he blockaded Charleston for a week.
• Queen Anne's Revenge grounded near Beaufort Inlet, N.C. and was abandoned.
• Blackbeard was later killed in battle with authorities.
Posted by victoria at 07:01 AM
May 02, 2007
DOXA WINNERS APRIL 2007
Thanks to all who entered. Stay tuned to SWC for more contests and news are our next expedition.
ANSWERS
WARREN: ENDURANCE \ MIKE: THISTLEGORM \ JIM: SAVANNAH, S.S.
WINNERS
DOXA SUB750T
Johns Harvey GLOUCESTER, MA
DOXA Orange Jenny Logo Ball Caps
Nicholas Cea STONY BROOK, NY
Kristi Mathis ERIE, CO
Ian Rome HOLLAND LANDING, ONT
Heather Palmer CHRISTCHURCH DORSET, UK
Grant Elder WICHITA, KS
Bruce Mahanke MARCO, ISLAND, FL
Tracy McDermott WAMBERAL, NEW SOUTH WALES
Omitted from the video (sorry)
Jennifer Ploeger BELLEVILLE, ONT
Posted by victoria at 04:46 PM
April 17, 2007
Mystery Vessel??
John Davis gives his insights on a group of Mystery Vessels.
Posted by victoria at 12:56 PM
April 14, 2007
See RMS TITANIC
The idea of finding the wreck of Titanic and even raising the ship from the ocean floor had been perpetuated since shortly after the ship sank. No attempts even to locate the ship were successful until 1 September 1985, when a joint American-French expedition, sailing on the Research Vessel Knorr, discovered the wreck using the video camera sled Argo. It was found at a depth of 12,500 feet (3800 m), south-east of Newfoundland at 41°43′55″N, 49°56′45″W, 13 nautical miles (24 km) from where Titanic was originally thought to rest.
See the Titanic at her final resting place on the ocean floor>
Why is it important to recover and conserve artifacts from the Titanic's wreck site?
The bottom of the deep ocean is a hostile environment. Over time, man-made objects will be consumed by bacteria, abraded by sediments, and corroded by salt and acids. Even the Ship itself is slowly being destroyed by iron-eating microorganisms and will one day collapse on the ocean floor. Artifacts that are not recovered from the wreck site will eventually be lost. RMS Titanic, Inc. is committed to recovering, conserving, and exhibiting artifacts from the Titanic’s wreck site to help preserve the physical memory of the Ship and the people who perished in the disaster. Through these activities, people all over the world have the opportunity to see and touch three-dimensional objects that bore witness to the sinking and to gain new insights into the human dimensions of the tragedy.
Find out more about at wwwRMSTitanic.net
Posted by victoria at 06:16 PM
April 09, 2007
Coast Guard Boat Battered by Giant Waves
Posted by victoria at 04:13 PM
April 03, 2007
Happy 10th Anniversary Bell Fund
Shipwreck Central and The Sea Hunters would like to Congratulate the Bell Fund on 10 years and we look forward to working with you for many more!!
Watch the 10th anniversary promo now>>
Posted by victoria at 10:46 AM
April 01, 2007
New DOXA SUB750T Contest
Greetings All.
Although it is April 1st I can assure you that this contest is not a joke. DOXA has given Shipwreck Central more watches to give out as prizes. We love DOXA they make the best dive watches in the world and they have always been generous to both Shipwreck Central and the Sea Hunters.
In January we gave a DOXA SUB750T away, for the first time, in a member’s only draw. In the future we will give more DOXA’s away in member’s only draws but this month we are launching a new contest and making a SUB750T, worn by the Sea Hunters and Dirk Pitt, available to everyone. This is a once in a life time chance to own the world’s most famous dive watch.
How can you win?
Since this contest is open we had to raise the stakes and here is how it will work:
Step 1:
Hidden in 3 separate Shipwreck Profiles on our Shipwreck Map are 3 images, one each of Sea Hunters: Mike Fletcher, Warren Fletcher and Jim Delgado. (see sample images below)
You need to search the Shipwreck map to find the 3 wrecks that are housing each image
Write down your answers – The names of each wreck
Step 2:
Click on the launch entry link below and fill out the form, include your Name, age, address, telephone number, email address and all 3 correct answers then hit submit.
Once you have the correct answers you can enter once a day until the contest closes on April 30th.
One Grand prize winner of a DOXA SUB750T will be drawn from all correct entries received before the contest deadline (see rules on the entry form – link below)
Eight second prize winners of an Orange DOXA Jenny Logo baseball cap will be drawn from the remaining correct entries
The contest has ended check back for the winners!
Posted by victoria at 12:06 AM
March 24, 2007
Brig’s artifacts believed from War of 1812 era
Archeologists to describe ship’s excavation during museum talk
By BILL POWER Staff Reporter
Archeologists believe many dramatic tales about one of Nova Scotia’s more exciting historical periods will be extracted from some remains of a 200-year-old ship found buried in clay prior to the commencement of the Halifax Harbour cleanup.
"This is a significant find," archeologist Michael Sanders said Wednesday as artifacts from the wreck site, about 200 metres north of the Woodside ferry terminal, were prepared for a rare public viewing.
"The hull uncovered at the site is an excellent example of a brig from this era in spectacular condition," the researcher said of an ongoing assessment of data and samples collected at the site.
A musket ball, a button and a comb carved out of bone are just some the artifacts found at the site. One especially intriguing find is a piece of a pocket knife handle with the initials "E.W." emblazoned on one side.
An enormous amount of archeological data was also collected.
"We know of only three other similar vessels that have had similar archeological work undertaken and there is certainly a lot more to be learned about this particular brig."
Teams of archeologists and volunteers co-ordinated by Cultural Resource Management Group Ltd. in Halifax converged on the Woodside location and a major portion of the harbour cleanup was rescheduled after questions were raised about the potential significance of some wooden ship remnants, originally spotted buried under clay and rubble about a decade earlier.
There was some initial speculation it was an abandoned ferry that was in the path of the massive harbour cleanup project. It was not long before archeologists realized they were dealing with something more significant.
Remnants of a brig from the 1800s, a workhorse of a vessel with two masts, slightly bigger than a schooner like the Bluenose, appeared as mud was cleared away.
Mr. Sanders and colleague Darryl Kelman will cover details of the excavation of the shipwreck and their analysis of the site during a March 27 presentation, beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History on Summer Street in Halifax.
The general public is invited, but seating is limited.
The archeologists determined by examining construction techniques and components the vessel is from the War of 1812 era and could very well have been destroyed during a powerful hurricane that hit the bustling wartime Port of Halifax in 1813, killing 14 people.
An examination of newspaper reports of the time indicate as many as 116 ships were severely damaged and about 40 were beached on the Dartmouth side of the harbour in the huge windstorm.
Among the big man-of-war battleships and commercial schooners destroyed was a mysterious two-masted, square-rigged brig, and this is where the story becomes more complex and interesting.
Halifax was a very busy Royal Navy base supporting a blockade against U.S. and French shipping in the big war, often described as America’s second battle for independence.
Pirates and privateers loved the quick-turning brigs and so did the fledging U.S. Navy. Who owned this ship? Had it been captured? Many questions remain to be answered about this ship’s history and its possible involvement in the war.
There is also a possibility the vessel was constructed in Nova Scotia, which could add a new level of significance to ongoing and future archeological research.
"It is a time when you could have seen sailing ships passing offshore from just about anywhere in Nova Scotia," said Mr. Sanders. "Halifax was booming because of the war and the harbour was chock full of vessels. . . . It’s a fascinating period."
Posted by victoria at 01:54 PM
March 20, 2007
Trailer: 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'
Posted by victoria at 04:36 PM
March 16, 2007
New Doxa Book
Click here for more information on the DOXA Book
by Dr. Peter McClean Millar
Posted by victoria at 11:50 AM
March 12, 2007
DOXA WINNER
Check out Kris, the winner of a brand new DOXA SUB750T
Posted by victoria at 12:51 PM
March 05, 2007
Queen Anne's Revenge
The Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of the pirate Blackbeard's infamous flagship.
Originally named Concord, the vessel was built by Britain in 1710, but captured by the French a year later. The ship was modified to hold more cargo and renamed La Concorde. The slave-ship was captured again by the pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold on November 28, 1717 near the island of Martinique. Hornigold turned the ship over to one of his pirates - Edward Teach, who was later known as Blackbeard, and made him captain. Blackbeard converted La Concorde into his flagship, adding 20 more cannon and renaming it the Queen Anne's Revenge. With it he ranged the west coast of Africa and the Caribbean, attacking British, Dutch and Portuguese ships.
Queen Anne's Revenge was described as a 300-ton frigate armed with 40 cannons. Her name may have come from the War of the Spanish Succession, which was known in the Americas as Queen Anne's War, and in which Blackbeard was known to have fought.
Shortly after ransoming Charleston harbour and refusing to accept the Governor's pardon, Blackbeard ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground while attempting to enter Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. Blackbeard disbanded the flotilla, and escaped by transferring supplies onto a smaller ship, Adventure. The pirate captain abandoned several crew members on a small island nearby, who were later rescued by Captain Stede Bonnet. Some sources suggest that Blackbeard purposefully grounded the ships as an excuse to disperse the crew. Shortly afterward he accepted a royal pardon for himself and his remaining crew from governor Charles Eden at Bath, NC.
In 1996, Intersall, Inc, a private research and recovery company, discovered the remains of a vessel which they believe to be the Queen Anne's Revenge. Many cannon and more than 16,000 artifacts have been recovered from the wreckage, however none of them appear to be of French origin (as would be expected from a French slave ship), but are mainly British. This therefore raises doubts about the identification of the vessel as the Queen Anne's Revenge. Recovery of artifacts from the site continues in the current 2006 field season, under the supervision of Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing of the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch.
Both the identity of the vessel and the ethics of the state of North Carolina's collaboration with Intersall, Inc, have been questioned by members of the professional archaeological community in a 2005 article in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
In November 2006, more artifacts were discovered at the site and brought to the surface. The additional artifacts appear to support the claim that the wreck is that of the Queen Anne's Revenge. But criticism over recovery efforts and the apparent lack of progress was lodged by the discoverer of the wreck against the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources and the project director in the Carteret County News-Times, a newspaper in Morehead City, North Carolina.
* North Carolina Office of Archives and History: Special Section on BlackBeard
* Queen Anne's Revenge Archaeological Site
Posted by victoria at 10:30 AM
March 04, 2007
Shipwreck off North Carolina Coast could be Blackbeard's
Story Highlights
• 1718 shipwreck off N.C. coast could be fully excavated in three years
• Archaeologists, historians to review 10 years of research on the shipwreck
• Many researchers say it's Blackbeard's plundered ship, Queen Anne's Revenge
• Treasures from deep are clues to era's naval technology, slave trade, pirate life
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- A shipwreck off the North Carolina coast believed to be that of notorious pirate Blackbeard could be fully excavated in three years, officials working on the project said.
"That's really our target," Steve Claggett, the state archaeologist, said Friday while discussing 10 years of research that has been conducted since the shipwreck was found just off Atlantic Beach.
Archaeologists and historians planned Friday to review 10 years of research on the shipwreck. It is the oldest shipwreck discovered off the North Carolina coast
The ship ran aground in 1718, and some researchers believe it was a French slave ship Blackbeard captured in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge.
Several officials said historical data and coral-covered artifacts recovered from the site -- including 25 cannons, which experts said was an uncommonly large number to find on a ship in the region in the early 18th century -- remove any doubt the wreckage belonged to Blackbeard.
Three university professors, including two from East Carolina University, have challenged the findings. But officials working on the excavation said Friday that the more they find, the stronger their case becomes.
"Historians have really looked at it thoroughly and don't feel that there's any possibility anything else is in there that was not recorded," said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge Project. "And the artifacts continue to support it."
Wilde-Ramsing said a coin weight recovered last fall bearing a likeness of Britain's Queen Anne and a King George cup, both dated before the shipwreck, further bolster their position.
So far, only 15 percent of shipwreck recovered
So far, about 15 percent of the shipwreck has been recovered including jewelry, dishes and thousands of other artifacts. The items are being preserved and studied at a lab at East Carolina University, and eventually more will become available for the public to view, Claggett said.
Nearly 2 million people have viewed shipwreck artifacts since 1998, including at a permanent exhibit at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort and at a maritime museum in Paris, project officials said.
Researchers shared some of their findings Friday at the North Carolina Museum of History. They said studying the artifacts will provide insight into the era's naval technology, slave trade and pirate life.
Blackbeard, whose real name was widely believed to be Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, settled in Bath and received a governor's pardon. Some experts believe he grew bored with land life and returned to piracy.
He was killed by volunteers from the Royal Navy in November 1718 -- five months after the ship thought to be Queen Anne's Revenge sank.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Posted by victoria at 09:07 AM
March 01, 2007
Mystery shipwreck could be city's namesake
By CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA
An uncharted shipwreck discovered at the bottom of ice-covered Lake Superior recently may solve a century-old mystery with loose ties to Winnipeg.
No one is certain what ship an angler spotted through the ice a week ago, but some people in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin are wondering if it is the remains of a missing vessel named City of Winnipeg.
"It's starting to look like that unidentified wreck could be a part of the City of Winnipeg," Laura Jacobs, an archivist with the University of Wisconsin-Superior, wrote in an e-mail to the Winnipeg Sun.
The wooden ship caught fire and sank July 19, 1881, while passengers slept and a crew unloaded its cargo -- whiskey and horses destined for Manitoba -- at Northern Pacific Railway's dock in the harbour at Duluth, Minn., records state.
Four people -- a firefighter and three crew members -- died, along with most of the horses, a newspaper report stated following the fire.
OUTSIDE HARBOUR
Lake Superior Transit Company operated the vessel, described as a "first-class boat" in reports.
The discovered wreck is outside the harbour, submerged in about three metres of water and about 45 metres from Duluth's shore.
What makes people suspect it could be City of Winnipeg are historical records that indicate its remains were raised in the harbour, towed to a different spot on Lake Superior, and re-sunk.
The location of the burial ground has been a mystery for decades, however.
The puzzle took a new twist Friday when a diver found evidence that supports the theory, Jacobs stated.
"He found an obscure note that indicated that after a number of years, and many salvagers going out after that whiskey, somebody finally pulled up the wreck and hauled it into the lake so ships in the harbour would stop getting fouled up on it," Jacobs wrote.
What the historians or divers haven't stumbled upon is concrete proof. Work continues to positively identify the ship.
Based on pictures of the wreck on the lake's floor, the vessel appears to be shorter than the City of Winnipeg, said Thom Holden, director of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitors Centre.
It's unclear how City of Winnipeg, built in 1870 in Michigan, got its name. Holden thinks it may be because it transported people and supplies to the West from eastern Ontario at a time before Canada had a coast-to-coast railway.
Posted by victoria at 10:21 AM
February 20, 2007
Lost Ring Found By Divers After 20 Years
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio (AP) -- A college ring lost more than 20 years ago by a former undercover officer for the CIA has been found in an underwater cave off the coast of Africa.
Steve Ruic, a writer on staff at Notre Dame College, received an e-mail about two weeks ago from a professional diver from Germany. Wilfried Thiesen wrote that he had found a class ring bearing the college's name while diving off Mauritius.
The ring was engraved with the year '76. The ring was missing the thin portion on the underside that ordinarily carries its owner's name.
Ruic publicized the discovery in both an e-mail to college staff and a newsletter to alumni, but no one came forward to claim it.
Then, while interviewing a member of the class of 1976 for an unrelated alumni magazine story, Ruic asked Dr. Maryellen Amato Stratmann if she'd ever been to Mauritius.
"I couldn't believe it," Ruic said. "She said, 'No, but Clare Cavoli Lopez has."'
Lopez, a 1976 Notre Dame College graduate and former CIA undercover officer, was stationed at Port Louis, Mauritius, from 1983 to 1985. During a dive, the ring slipped from her finger.
Ruic sent Thiesen's address to Lopez. She has exchanged e-mails with Thiesen, she said Monday, and they're arranging for him to mail it.
Posted by victoria at 03:09 PM
February 12, 2007
Lake Erie Bottom Covered with Wrecks
Geologists use sonar to scan the lake bottom for shipwrecks that prove popular with recreational divers.
By MIKE LAFFERTY, AP
COLUMBUS, OHIO -- The George Dunbar left Cleveland at 6 p.m. on June 29, 1902, bound for Alpena, Mich.
Loaded with coal, the 41.5-metre ship rode low in the water as it steamed northwest into rough Lake Erie weather, her boilers running full steam.
By nightfall, the Dunbar struggled past Kelleys Island, the wind and waves pulling at her seams. In the darkness, the ship began to take on more water than her crew could pump out. To lessen the strain, the Dunbar's skipper turned his ship into the wind.
But she already was lost. At 4 a.m., her hull split.
The skipper, his wife and daughter escaped the Dunbar, but seven crew members were lost to Erie, which has claimed an estimated 2,000 ships.
The Dunbar has survived more than a century of summer squalls, November gales and winter ice and the shipwreck remains preserved 14 metres below the surface, just over the international line in Canadian waters.
In 2003, Dale Liebenthal cruised over the wreck and took a ghostly picture of the ship, still heavy with coal, revealing her stern, bow and bulwarks. Her smokestack lies broken, about 12 metres off the port stern.
Liebenthal led a team of Ohio state Geological Survey scientists in a pilot study using a tool called side-scan sonar to produce images of 25 shipwrecks around Kelleys Island and the Bass Islands to the west.
Their work, just recently published because of budget cuts, helps the Ohio Department of Natural Resources comply with a state law that orders the agency to inventory, evaluate, protect and designate underwater shipwreck locations.
Archeologists and historians said they need this information to conserve wrecks, as well as provide information to divers and the general public. Side-scan sonar produces images similar to aerial photography but at an oblique angle.
Geologists already use the sonar to study the lake's bottom. Distinguishing between sand, mud and rock provides insights into fish-spawning areas, beach erosion and mineral production.
"We come across things using the sonar all the time. We wonder if they're ships," Liebenthal said.
The side-scan sonar is lowered into the water on a brace attached to the bow of the division's eight-metre research launch.
It operates just below the surface by bouncing sound waves off the lake bottom. Images are produced as the boat is slowly piloted in a series of precise, calibrated runs over wreck areas.
The sound echoes are recorded in shades of black and grey, depending on how reflective and hard a target is. Scientists look for the straight lines and angles that might indicate a hull or superstructure. Some images are more obvious than others.
The western basin of the lake is fairly shallow and the waters around the islands are popular with recreational divers. Some wreck sites have been similarly scanned with sonar by private diving clubs.
Still, Lake Erie remains almost totally unexplored. Ohio waters alone contain an estimated 600 wrecks.
"We're pretty far behind in terms of other Great Lake states," said Charles Herdendorf, a geologist and archeological diver who served as a consultant on the study.
"The Canadians are way ahead of us in mapping their shipwrecks and opening them up for diving."
The islands area is particularly rich in wrecks, thanks in part to two shoals north of Kelleys Island. Herdendorf estimated as many as 50 wrecks might litter the lake bottom around the islands.
"If ships got hit by storms, they could easily hit the shoals," said Constance Livchak, a Geological Survey scientist working on the project.
And many did.
Nineteen of the 25 wrecks in the study surround Kelleys and eight of those went down on the rocks.
Only the general locations of most shipwrecks are known. One purpose in searching them out was to fix their exact positions, because wrecks can move with time and the elements. Ice, in particular, acts like a bulldozer.
"The ice covering the lake cracks and grinds together, pushing up and down . . . and then it scours the bottom," Liebenthal said.
Five wrecks were recorded on Gull Island Shoal but the sonar failed to find much of anything left.
Around the islands, wreck sites can be close together. A ship's identity can be uncertain, even when sonar reveals a vessel.
For example, images recorded off the northwestern shore of Kelleys show either the Oak Valley or the L.B. Crocker.
Sonar also can reveal why a ship went down. The C.H. Plummer, which burned at its dock in 1888, probably was lost to a boiler fire and not to the spontaneous combustion of its cargo of lime, Herdendorf said.
"Where the coal was stored is the only place in the shipwreck where the fire had burned completely through. The rest of the shipwreck was intact," he said.
Carrie Sowden, a marine archeologist with the Great Lakes Historical Society in Vermillion, said she plans to use the data to plan dives at the sites.
Posted by victoria at 09:49 AM
January 30, 2007
Shipwreck Yields Cargo of Treasured Porcelain
By Karla Klein Albertson
For The Philadelphia Inquirer
Next week in Amsterdam, Sotheby's will begin selling 76,000 pieces of Chinese Export porcelain recovered from a circa 1725 shipwreck off the coast of present-day Vietnam. Because it was bound for the western market, the cargo reveals the era's fads and fashions in Europe, and precise details about the arduous journey made by goods in demand.
The tale of the Cau Mau shipwreck involves connoisseurship, a treasure-hunting adventure suitable for television, and the legendary East India Trading Company (which itself has recently resurfaced in Pirates of the Caribbean dialogue).
Today, we'd be short on shoes, hair dryers and electronics without massive container shipments from Asia. What's surprising is that while the journey 250 years ago was infinitely more dangerous, huge cargoes made it through to English and Dutch retailers.
"In the 18th century, if it took two years to get something, it was still worthwhile doing," says Marcus Linell, Sotheby's Export-porcelain expert in London. "There was this incredible passion in Europe, and America as well, for tea and for coffee - stimulating drinks that were not alcoholic. And if you want to drink a hot drink, unless you have porcelain to drink out of, it's something of a problem."
Along the Eastern seaboard, the social life of well-to-do families revolved around entertaining, and eating, drinking and being merry in proper fashion required the latest porcelain. George Washington, for one, wrote his London agent about an expected shipment of a "Compleat sett fine Image china."
The goods - Chinese Export with figural decoration - finally arrived in March 1758 and became the best "china," a term that derives from its origin in Ching-te Chen. Pieces from the original service are on display in the new Museum at Mount Vernon; even closer is the superb Hodroff Collection of Chinese porcelain on display at Winterthur.
In addition to tea and coffee wares, Chinese factories produced punch bowls (Washington had several), serving platters, tureens for soups, decorative urns, and figurines. In many cases, the decoration and forms were designed to appeal to European taste, or even custom-made to order.
The cargo to be sold at Sotheby's Monday through Wednesday includes thousands of tea bowls, teapots, jugs, mantel vases and figural pieces, such as a rare ewer in the form of a monkey. Though many pieces were recoverable in good condition, the sale also includes lots of fascinating "sea sculptures" - nested porcelain pieces welded together by encrustations.
The sale is being held in Amsterdam because the wreck took place on the trading route of the Dutch East India Company, as the loaded junk made its way from Canton to the trading center at Batavia (modern-day Jakarta).
"Inevitably in the days of sail, shipping porcelain was a risky venture," Linell says.
"The cargo was an accidental find by Vietnamese fishermen. They pulled up their nets, and there was porcelain in them. They quickly discovered that the porcelain was valuable, and they went out day after day trawling for porcelain. In fact, they brought up 35,000 pieces."
When news of the find reached the Vietnamese press in 1998, Linell says: "The government jumped in, mounted an official salvage operation, and forced the fishermen to return what they had found." Eventually, 130,000 pieces were recovered from one ship, an indication of the huge amounts that were exported each year.
Sotheby's "Made in Imperial China" catalog (available at www.sothebys.com, along with auction information) will be an important reference for collectors. The volume contains information-filled essays by Vietnamese and Dutch scholars on the ship's route and cargo. Encouraging for collectors are the estimates for these artistic bits of history - some lots are under $500, many are under $1,000.
The trade in Chinese Export porcelain is still an active one shared by American, English, European and Asian sources. One of the best-known local dealers is Elinor Gordon of Villanova, exhibiting at New York's Winter Antiques Show through Sunday and at the Philadelphia Antiques Show in April.
London dealers Michael and Ewa Cohen were exhibitors at the New York Ceramics Fair Jan. 17-21, where they sold a fine pair of Kangxi period vases and a delightful figurine of two dancers.
The Cohens specialize in the more spectacular pieces, such as large vases two to four feet high, decorated fish tanks, and massive chargers. A current prize is a very large punch bowl, made for the American or European market, decorated with a "Four Seasons" scene copied from an Italian engraving. Price: $140,000.
Sunken treasures have turned up before, Michael Cohen says: "We ended up selling 22,000 pieces from a cargo about 20 years ago."
And it seems American and Swedish consumers had similar tastes back in the heyday of Chinese Export porcelain. "In one year in the mid-18th century, the Swedish East India Company brought in six million pieces," Cohen adds.
Such porcelain still demands a premium. But with import numbers like these, there are enough examples on today's market that every collector of 18th-century antiques can have a piece for the china cabinet.
Posted by victoria at 01:45 PM
January 25, 2007
DOXA Winners Circle
SWC MEMBERS WINNERS
DOXA SUB750T orange face professional dive watch
Winner
- Krysztof Zawadzki, CANADA
DOXA Jenny Logo Hats
Winners
- Stephan Kleemeyer, USA
- Ian Rome, CANADA
NON MEMBERS DOXA Jenny Logo Hat Winners
- Susan Harris, USA
- Thom Yuneman, USA
- Andrew Barber, UK
- Paun Gabriel, NR
- Charles Taylor, USA
Congratulations to all our winners. New, exciting contests start soon so check back often!
Posted by victoria at 11:15 AM
January 24, 2007
Shark Attack Survivor Describes being Almost Swallowed Alive
By The Assosciated Press
SYDNEY, Australia — A diver who was almost swallowed head first by a huge shark said Wednesday he survived by poking the animal in the eye, and credited the lead-lined vest he was wearing as saving him from being chomped in half.
Abalone diver Eric Nerhus, 41, described Tuesday's terrifying attack by a shark estimated by witnesses to be three metres long off the fishing town of Eden, about 400 kilometres south of Sydney.
Nerhus was working with his son and other divers collecting the shellfish when the shark struck from nowhere at about eight metres below the surface, grabbing him by the head and shoulders, he said.
``Half my body was in its mouth,'' Nerhus told Australian television's Nine Network.
Nerhus said he fought desperately.
``I felt down to the eye socket with my two fingers and poked them into the socket,'' he said. ``The shark reacted by opening its mouth and I just tried to wriggle out.''
``It was still trying to bite me. It crushed my goggles into my nose and they fell into its mouth.''
He said he managed to finally escape the shark's jaws after jabbing at its eye with a chisel he used to chip abalone from rocks, and was still holding despite the attack.
Nerhus, who estimated he spent two minutes inside the shark's mouth, said his chest was protected from the shark's rows of teeth by a lead-lined vest used to weight him down in the water.
As he swam to the surface in a cloud of his own blood, Nerhus said he could still see the shark and feared it would attack again.
``It was just circling around my flippers, round in round in tight circles,'' he said. ``The big round black eye, five inches wide, was staring straight into my face with just not one hint of fear, of any boat, or any human, or any other animal in the sea."
He was helped into his boat by his son, and rushed to hospital, where he was being treated for severe cuts to his head, torso and left arm.
An expert said the shark that attacked Nerhus probably mistook him for a seal, which are common in waters off southeastern Australia and attract sharks to near the coast.
Grant Willis of the Sydney Aquarium said that after the shark bit Nerhus, it probably realized ``he didn't taste anything like a seal — sort of a bit bony and horrible and nothing like a seal at all — so possibly it spat back out.''
``He's had a run-in with one of the ocean's most formidable predators and he's lived to tell the story,'' Willis said. ``He's a very, very lucky man.''
Scientists say there are an average of 15 shark attacks a year in Australian waters — one of the highest rates in the world — and on average just over one per year are fatal.
Posted by victoria at 04:46 PM
January 16, 2007
Thousand year old Shipwreck to be Raised
China plans to salvage a ship that sank more than a thousand years ago in the South China Sea.
Song Jiahui, director of the salvage department for the Ministry of Communications, told a news conference the ship will be lifted from the sea as a whole.
Song says it would be the MOC's largest salvage operation.
The sunken ship, named the South China Sea-I, dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 A.D.). It was discovered in 1986 and divers have been exploring the wreck since then.
The salvage operation will be launched in the first half of this year by the city of Guangzhou's salvage bureau. A ship capable of hoisting 4,000 tons will be used to lift the wreck.
However, Song neither explained how the ship has remained intact after a millennium underwater nor provided the ship's general location, how much water it is under or how large it is.
Source: Xinhua
Posted by victoria at 02:56 PM
December 21, 2006
German WWII Sub Continues to Spread Fear
By DOUG MELLGREN
the Associated Press
OSLO, Norway -- More than 60 years after being torpedoed by the British navy, a Nazi submarine built to threaten Allied ships continues to spread fear off the coast of Norway.
The rusting wreckage of the U-864, sunk while on a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced weapons technology, poses a major environmental threat because of its poisonous cargo: 70 tons of mercury.
Residents on the tiny island of Fedje in the North Sea want the sub removed. But authorities fear that a salvage operation could result in a catastrophic spill, and they suggest entombing the wreck in the seabed with rocks, cement and sand.
The U-864 tried to skirt Allied navy patrols on a last-ditch secret mission code-named "Caesar" to bring jet-engine parts, missile-guidance systems and mercury for weapons production to Germany's ally, Japan. British experts discovered the mission by breaking a German code.
In a rare underwater duel, the British submarine HMS Venturer stalked the U-864 for three hours before sinking it Feb. 9, 1945, off Fedje.
The German submarine was only 14 months old when it went down with a crew of 73 in 500 feet of water.
The wreck lay undisturbed for almost 60 years until Norway's Royal Navy discovered it in March 2003. The mercury containers are rusting, and some are leaking. Studies showed elevated mercury levels in the silt around the wreck, but so far only fish that live inside have been contaminated, according the Norwegian Food Protection Authority. Fishing is not allowed in the area.
After spending three years and about $6.5 million researching the problem, the Norwegian Coastal Administration recommended encasing the submarine with sand to prevent the spread of mercury. The method, it said in a report released Tuesday, has worked 30 times worldwide and is said to be less risky than attempting to lift the 2,400-ton sub.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs said it will review the report before making a final decision.
For the people of Fedje, near Bergen, Norway's second-largest city, leaving the wreck where it lies means the sub's toxic cargo will continue to threaten their port -- possibly for generations.
Adolf Hitler sent the U-864 to Japan with then-revolutionary jet-engine technology. By strengthening the Japanese, the Germans hoped to divert Allied troops and materiel away from Europe.
The U-864, under Capt. Ralf-Reimar Wolfram, had stopped in Bergen in Nazi-occupied Norway on its way from Kiel, Germany, to Japan. A short time later, the crew of the Venturer, under Capt. James Launders, detected the sound of the U-boat's engines.
After hours of playing cat and mouse, the Venturer fired four torpedoes in a span of 17 seconds. Three missed. The fourth broke the U-864 in half.
The Venturer was given to Norway after the war and renamed KNM Utstein.
NORWEGIAN COASTAL ADMINISTRATION/SCANPIX NORWAY VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The German U-864 was sunk Feb. 9, 1945, by a British submarine off the coast of the island of Fedje. The Royal Norwgian Navy found it in March 2003. It is believed to have 70 tons of mercury on board.
Posted by victoria at 03:46 PM
December 18, 2006
Shipwreck From 1849 Found in Lake Ontario
Associated Press
ROCHESTER — A 19th-century commercial sailing ship, its twin masts still intact, sits upright in deep, frigid waters off the southern shore of Lake Ontario.
Shipwreck explorers Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville said they located the schooner Milan in summer 2005 about five miles off Point Breeze, 30 miles west of Rochester. They videotaped the 93-foot-long, square-stern vessel this year using an unmanned submersible built with the help of college students.
“It’s not unheard of to have well-preserved ships, but this one is in so good a shape,” Scoville said Monday. “It almost looks like it could be floated” to the surface.
The Milan was hauling 1,000 barrels of salt when it sprung a leak and sank in October 1849. Its crew of nine clambered aboard a yawl and was rescued by a passing ship along with a Newfoundland dog. The animal was carried down with the sinking ship but then popped to the surface and swam to the yawl.
The ship sits evenly on the lake bed, its masts extending 70 feet upward in a dark, almost oxygen-free setting. And while its rigging and sails have long since disintegrated, much else appears largely undamaged.
Both anchors are firmly in place near the bow. The bowsprit — a large, tapered spar extending forward from the bow — is intact, as is the tiller, a large handle for turning the rudder.
“If a ship goes down in a big storm, it usually gets broken up,” Scoville said. “If it goes down on a nice day, it usually breaks when it hits the bottom. This one looks like it just drifted down and set upon the bottom nice and easy.
“At those depths, and the water being so cold, there’s not a lot of oxygen” or light, he added. “It basically helps preserve the wood. If a shipwreck is in shallow, fresh water, the ice will get it or storms will beat it up.”
Built in 1845, the Milan ferried corn, flour, wheat, salt and lumber to ports on lakes Ontario and Erie. It was sailing to Cleveland from Oswego, a port 80 miles east of Rochester, when crew members said they were awakened in the forecastle by splashing water, historical records show.
The inflow was already 18 inches deep when they started pumping out. They removed salt bags from the forward hold and steered south in an effort to get to shore. But the ship ran into southerly winds, made little headway and was abandoned soon before it went under.
While hundreds of ships have been wrecked in Lake Ontario’s harbors and along its shores, fewer than 200 have been lost in the lake, which is 800 foot deep in places, Scoville estimated. About 100 of those wrecks have already been found, many in or near the St. Lawrence Seaway, he said.
The Milan is “the oldest and the prettiest” of at least five wrecks that Scoville and Kennard, both electrical engineers and deep-water divers, have discovered since teaming up five years ago. They undertook months of historical research before announcing their find this month.
“From the Niagara River up to the St. Lawrence, there’s about a dozen that haven’t been found that we think we are capable of finding,” Scoville said.
An obscure newspaper reference to the sinking got the pair started on the Milan’s trail three years ago, and they used sonar equipment to finally locate it.
Because many Ontario shipwrecks lie in water too deep to dive safely, they enlisted a team of seniors at Rochester Institute of Technology last fall to help them build a remote-operated vehicle equipped with cameras to explore the Milan.
Most wrecks and their contents found on the American side of the lake belong to New York.
Posted by victoria at 10:26 AM
December 08, 2006
Get Ready to Upload Your Video
Hello All,
Starting next week we will be set up for you to upload your Shipwreck and dive video to a special SWC player.
With our new Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) services SWC will be able to accept consumer-submitted video that we will review and publish.
Family friendly content only.
Keep and eye out next week for the launch and get your video ready.
FAQ
What file formats can be uploaded?
• .3GP
• .AVI
• .DV
• h.264
• .MPEG2
• .MPEG4
• .MOV
• .WMV
What is the maximum file size or video length that can be uploaded?
The maximum file size that can be uploaded is 100 MB, which for most formats above is 2-3 minutes in length. We recommend that you limit the length of any submission to 2 minutes.
Posted by victoria at 09:52 AM
December 07, 2006
Pearl Harbor Remembered
At 6:00 a.m. on December 7th six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters on Pearl Harbour. Caught off guard by the subsequent waves of attack within the first 10 minutes the USS Arizona had been hit twice. The devastating explosion that resulted ripped through the forward part of the ship igniting brutal fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford Island and the surrounding area. The Arizona had been struck down taking with her 1103 lives, over half the casualties of that infamous day.
The Japanese attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. Overall, twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged, aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, and there were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.
Battleship Row
USS Arizona Memorial
For more information find the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma on the map.
Posted by victoria at 03:15 AM
December 06, 2006
Halifax Explosion
On December 6, 1917, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb occurred.
At 8:45 in the morning a French ammunition ship, the Mont Blanc and the Norwegian cargo ship Imo collided in the narrows of Halifax harbour. Vapors from vats of benzol, which were wrongly stored on the deck of the Mont Blanc, were set afire by sparks from the collision. The Mont Blanc was shipping large quantities of munitions to Europe as part of the war effort. She was carrying over 2700 tons of explosives, such as TNT, guncotton, and picric acid. The fire engulfed the Mont Blanc and the crew quickly abandoned ship upon the Captain's orders. They rowed to safety in two rowboats and reached safety on the Dartmouth shore as the burning ship continued to drift toward the busy port of Halifax.
At 9:04:35, with firefighters on the scene and school children gathering to watch, a massive explosion ensued. More than 2.5 km2 of Halifax was leveled and windows were shattered as far as Truro, Nova Scotia, 100 kilometres away. An anchor from the Mont Blanc was found five kilometres from the harbour. The disaster resulted in approximately 1635 deaths (approx. 1000 died instantaneously from the blast), nine thousand injured and approximately 30 million dollars in damage. 325 acres of city was destroyed. 1500 people became homeless as a result of the devastation. The following day a blizzard hit the city, crippling recovery efforts.
If not for the efforts of neighboring Provinces, the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee the devastation would have escalated further. Each year, Nova Scotia donates a giant evergreen to the people of Boston as a thank you for their assistance following the Halifax Explosion.
Click Here To view rare film footage shot in the aftermath of the 1917 Halifax Explosion. Six minutes of black-and-white moving images, attributed to professional cameraman W.G. MacLaughlan, document in eerie silence and jerky movements the waste and devastation of a city destroyed, and the efforts that went into rebuilding it.
For more information on the Halifax Explosion find the Mont Blanc on the map.
Every Christmas since 1917, Nova Scotia has donated a large Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided in the time of major need. The tree is Boston's premier Christmas tree and is lit in the Boston Common throughout the holiday season.
Posted by victoria at 10:01 AM
December 02, 2006
DOXA CONTEST
THIS JUST IN.....
We have a DOXA Ball Cap give away starting December 11 on the open section of the site. All Members are also eligible to enter to win the world’s first orange face dive watch a DOXA SUB750T, just like the Sea Hunters wear.
Key Features
* water-resistant to 750 m / 2460 ft
* satin brushed solid steel (316L) case
* 100% replica of the original 1960s watch
* 44.70mm diameter, 13.50mm height
* anti-reflective coated, scratch-resistant 3mm sapphire crystal
* secure screw-in case back
* solid stainless steel unidirectional bezel with US Navy no-decomcression limits
* high grade Swiss made automatic (self winding) movement with hacking seconds
* incabloc shock protection
* 2 years limited warranty
p.s. Member also double their chances of also winning the cap!
Stay tuned.
Posted by victoria at 10:13 AM
November 11, 2006
Lest We Forget
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Lieut.-Col. John McCrae, M.D.
Posted by victoria at 10:19 AM
November 10, 2006
Remembrance Day
Posted by victoria at 09:16 AM
November 07, 2006
Force Z - HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse
The Sea Hunters dive off the east coast of Malaysia to the graves of two proud warriors whose sinking changed naval warfare forever. Bathed in the warm crystal waters of the South China Sea lay the pristine wrecks of two giant warships - HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. The sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse sent shock waves through the British Admiralty in the same way Pearl Harbor totally disrupted Washington. Inexpensive little planes with cheap torpedoes were taking out capital ships with near total impunity. The rules of naval warfare were being rewritten and aircraft and carriers were moving to the forefront.
Posted by victoria at 02:05 PM
November 06, 2006
Remembrance Day
This Saturday, November 11 is Remembrance Day here in Canada. Remembrance Day (Australia, Canada, Colombia, UK and Ireland), also known as Poppy Day (South Africa), and Armistice Day (UK, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries; and the original name of the holiday internationally) is a day to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. The observance is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V of the United Kingdom on November 7, 1919, possibly upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey though Wellesley Tudor Pole established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.
Over the next few days we will be posting video on Live from the Dive related to WWII shipwrecks.
Stay tuned
Posted by victoria at 10:08 AM
October 17, 2006
Shipwreck Week
‘Graveyard of the Pacific’ Shipwreck Week, Oct. 21 through 29, 2006 - Long Beach Peninsula, Washington State
Shipwreck Week Acivities
Search and Rescue Demonstration
Oct. 27, 11AM, by the U.S. Coast Guard at Cape Disappointment Station, Ilwaco, and visible from the Viewing Room at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center;
U.S. Coast Guard Open House
Oct. 27 from 1-3PM at the U.S. Coast Guard Station, Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco;
Descendant of the Peter Iredale Tells the Story of Peter Iredale, the Man
At Ilwaco Heritage Museum, Oct. 25, from 7 to 9PM. Admission is free. The program features Thomas Peter Iredale, who will discuss the colorful history of Peter Iredale, the shipping magnate who owned the vessel;
Shipwreck Stories and Sea Shanties at the Ilwaco Heritage Museum
Oct. 29, from 2 to 4PM. Admission is free. The program features living history presentations of characters from the Columbia River’s past as well as performances of traditional sea shanties by Hank Cramer and the Constellation Crew;
Ranger talks at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center
Perched on a 200-foot high cliff in Cape Disappointment State Park, daily from Oct. 21 to 29 at 1PM. From a vantage point overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River, talks will focus on how the nickname ‘Graveyard of the Pacific’ was earned, why the Cape has two lighthouses, how Cape Disappointment was named, and more. Talks will run about 30 minutes. Regular admission prices apply.
While at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, visitors also can view the Columbia River Bar shipwrecks exhibit, a first order Fresnel Lighthouse Lens -- one of the oldest in the U.S, and a Life Saving Service Boat, over 100 years old. Admission to the Interpretive Center is $3 for adults and $1 for youth age 7 to 17, with free admission for children under age 7. The Center is open daily from 10AM to 5PM. Tours of North Head Lighthouse are $1 per person.
Additional Shipwreck Week activities will take place in Oregon at the Columbia River Maritime Museum and Fort Stevens State Park.
Built of iron and steel in 1890, the Peter Iredale is one of nearly 2,000 vessels that have been lost to the tumultuous waters at the mouth of the Columbia River. Among the others is the Isabella, one of only two intact wooden wrecks from the 1830s era on the West Coast.
Posted by victoria at 05:00 PM
October 16, 2006
Beached Shipwreck Peter Iredale
Watch the Sea Hunters as they visit the beached shipwreck Peter Iredale.
Posted by victoria at 10:54 AM
October 11, 2006
South African sea treasures losing cultural heritage
South Africa has a rich underwater cultural heritage involving as many as 2 500 shipwrecks from 37 nations and dating back to at least 1505, and possibly even earlier.
And if the highly effective, inter-tidal stone fish traps are included like those on the southern Cape coast near Arniston which archaeologists suggest constitute one of the oldest forms of human technology, then that heritage stretches back perhaps as much as 100 000 years.
Much of this maritime heritage fundamentally helped shape South Africa's history and the make-up of its present society, but it has been and continues to be plundered by treasure seekers, amateur souvenir hunters and professional salvors, or is succumbing to Mother Nature, developers, mining interests or even government action.
We know people are taking stuff off shipwrecks, we know things are disappearing, and that we're losing cultural heritage every day," said maritime archaeologist Jonathan Sharfman of the SA Heritage Resources Agency.
'Things are disappearing'
Is the best way to protect it through South Africa signing the 2001 United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage?
That's the question that the Department of Arts and Culture asked participants at a two-day workshop held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre last week.
The workshop did not agree on whether South Africa should sign the convention.
The convention, under the auspices of Unesco (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), defines underwater cultural heritage as "all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character which have been partially or totally under water, periodically or continuously, for at least 100 years".
The convention bans any commercial exploitation of shipwrecks or other underwater heritage.
The workshop decided that the department should organise further discussion on the issue.
South Africa's current heritage legislation recognises shipwrecks older than 60 years as archaeological sites which require permits to work on in any way. But the permit system has not been effective, Sharfman explained.
Between 1982 and 2000, there were 141 applications for permits to dive on 105 wrecks, of which 106 were issued, 78 percent for commercial ventures.
But only 53 percent of permit holders submitted the required annual reports and most of those reports were only a few lines long.
Formal research data was only published in 10 cases, Sharfman said.
"Clearly, as archaeologists and historians, this wasn't acceptable."
This article was originally published on page 9 of Cape Argus on October 11, 2006>>
If you know of wrecks off the South African coast please submit them to the Shipwreck Map
Posted by victoria at 09:12 AM
October 07, 2006
Cunard Line and Halifax Foundation to Make History
Sir Samuel Cunard Monument Is Unveiled in Halifax on Saturday, October 7, 2006
Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Cunard Line and The Halifax Foundation made history today with the dedication of a bronze statue of Sir Samuel Cunard, the Halifax native credited with revolutionizing commerce and communications between continents by successfully introducing steamships to the North Atlantic nearly two centuries ago.
Prominently presiding over the Port of Halifax waterfront, the towering bronze statue appropriately depicts Cunard standing beside a ship's telegraph, an iconic symbol of steamship travel.
Joining the celebration were Sir Samuel Cunard's great, great, great, great grandsons Benjamin and Samuel Paton.
The project has received moral and financial support from several sponsors including Cunard Line which made the initial contribution to start the fundraising efforts, CN (Canadian National Railway), The Halifax Foundation, The Halifax Port Authority, Secunda Marine Limited, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and The Waterfront Development Corporation and the committee members.
About Cunard Line
Cunard Line has operated the most famous ocean liners in the world since 1840. Cunard vessels have a classic British heritage and include the legendary Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2. Queen Victoria joins the fleet in 2007.
Cunard Line is a proud member of World's Leading Cruise Lines. The exclusive alliance also includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises, Windstar Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn. Sharing a passion to please each guest, and a commitment to quality and value, member lines appeal to a wide range of lifestyles and budgets. Together they offer exciting and enriching cruise vacations to the world's most desirable destinations.
About The Halifax Foundation
The Halifax Foundation is the only community foundation in Nova Scotia, serving the whole of the Halifax Regional Municipality and representing it in the Canadian Capital Cities Organization. The Halifax Foundation differs from most other charitable organizations in that it customarily invests capital contributions and spends only from earnings, rather than capital, in this way guaranteeing performance forever of the purpose(s) sought by donor(s). All of the Halifax Foundation's Directors are volunteers, appointed by a committee of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, Mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Deputy Minister of Justice of Nova Scotia, and the President of the Metropolitan Halifax Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by victoria at 09:22 AM
October 04, 2006
Shipwreck found at Hawaiian marine area
NEW SHIPWRECK DISCOVERED DURING FIRST EXPEDITION TO NORTHWESTERN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS SINCE MARINE MONUMENT DESIGNATION
Oct. 4, 2006 — NOAA marine archaeologists have confirmed the identity of a shipwreck discovered on July 3 in the waters of the recently designated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. The team has identified the wreck, found at Kure Atoll, as that of the 258-foot iron hulled cargo ship Dunnottar Castle. The discovery was made during the first research expedition to the NWHI since it was designated a marine national monument on June 15.
"The Dunnottar Castle is an incredible heritage resource from the days of the sailing ships like the Falls of Clyde, Balcalutha and Star of India, when our maritime commerce was driven by steel masts and canvas, and by wind power and human hands," said Hans Van Tilburg, maritime heritage coordinator for the Pacific Islands regional office of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program.
NOAA marine archaeologists working from the NOAA Ship Hi`ialakai confirmed the wreck's identity following its initial discovery by a volunteer with the state of Hawaii division of forestry and wildlife, Brad Vanderlip.
Built in 1874 and home ported in Scotland, the Dunnottar Castle was bound from Sydney, Australia, to Wilmington, Calif., with a load of coal when it struck a reef at full speed.
During the 28-day expedition to the NWHI, which concluded on July 20, marine archaeologists with the NOAA Maritime Heritage Program also investigated other shipwrecks, including a 19th-century American whaling ship and a U.S. Navy side-wheel steamer lost in 1870.
Also during the expedition, a team of oceanographers and coastal geologists used state-of-the-art seafloor imaging technology to create detailed maps of the seafloor. Educators and outreach specialists chronicled the expedition in daily logs.
"Scientific research is critical to understanding the unique marine ecosystem and rich maritime history of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands," said Aulani Wilhelm, NWHI Marine National Monument superintendent. "Whether we're talking about shipwrecks like the Dunnottar Castle or new marine species, discovery begins with exploration."
"Discovery and understanding of the unique natural, cultural and maritime heritage resources of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is critical to our ability to manage and protect these resources for Hawaii and the world as a part of our heritage for present and future generations." said Peter Young, Hawai'i department of land and natural resources chairperson.
NWHI is home to 7,000 marine species, of which approximately a quarter are unique to the Hawaiian Island chain. Among the species found there are the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, threatened green sea turtle, and endangered leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles. The island chain also contains some of the world's most untouched submerged cultural resources. The NWHI Marine National Monument, which stretches 1,200 hundred miles north of Kauai and spans 140,000 square miles, is the world's largest marine conservation area.
The NWHI Marine National Monument and Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve are managed by the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program as a co-trustee with with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Hawaii.
The NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program seeks to increase public awareness of America's marine resources and maritime heritage by conducting scientific research, monitoring, exploration and educational programs. Today, the sanctuary program manages 13 national marine sanctuaries and one marine national monument that together encompass more than 150,000 square miles of America's ocean and Great Lakes natural and cultural resources.
In 2007 NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates 200 years of science and service to the nation. Starting with the establishment of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. The agency is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
Related Links:
NOAA Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument
NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program
Posted by victoria at 09:33 AM
September 19, 2006
Do you use RSS?
RSS is a simple XML-based system that allows users to subscribe to their favorite websites. Using RSS, a webmaster can put their content into a standardised format, which can be viewed and organised through a RSS-aware software.
A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check a list of feeds on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds.
Here on Shipwreck Central there are some RSS feeds that you can use. Copy and paste these links into your reader:
Featured Video
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid896795?action=rss
Live from the Dive
http://www.shipwreckcentral.com/livedive/index.rdf
And members can subcribe their video player as well. Just click the share button under the video. Then click RSS feed and choose how you want to get it. I get my through my email program (I use thunderbird) and on my Google customized home page.
Posted by victoria at 11:51 AM
Social Bookmarking - Share your Favorites
Has anyone here tired social bookmarking? You can use sites like Blink List or del.icio.us.
These are social bookmarks managers. Using bookmarklets, you can add bookmarks to your list and categorize them. You can share them with your friends and you can login on any computer to see you links. Its great to have your favorites at home and at work. It's a great way to find links from people with similar interests.
Try it and don't forget to add Shipwreck Central to your list!!
Posted by victoria at 10:18 AM
September 14, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 12
Posted by victoria at 10:29 AM
September 07, 2006
Early Dive Gear
Watch this great video of divers using some early dive equipment.
Posted by victoria at 09:56 AM
August 23, 2006
Amistad Atlantic Freedom Tour
Earlier this month, as part of the Amistad Atlantic Freedom Tour, Halifax was visited by the Amistad, hosted by The Amistad Freedom Society of Nova Scotia which is made up of members from the African Nova Scotian community, government and private sector partners. During her stay the Amistad wasbe moored at the Halifax watefront at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic wharf. Take a look >>
Posted by victoria at 03:41 PM
August 21, 2006
Shipwreck Activity on Lake Michigan
There has been a lot of Shipwreck Activity on Lake Michigan lately. Check out these articles:
Lake Michigan shipwreck discoveries announced
Saturday, August 19, 2006
By Myron Kukla
The Grand Rapids Press
HOLLAND -- Michigan shipwreck experts say a "treasure trove of history" in the form of a wood-hulled cargo ship has been discovered off South Haven nearly 80 years after it went to the bottom of Lake Michigan. more >>
The graves of Thunder Bay - The sunken bones of 200 Lake Huron shipwrecks tell tales of long ago
August 20, 2006
BY SUSAN AGER
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST-Before my parents' parents' parents were born, a crew of men built a wooden ship a few miles downriver from the city of Detroit.
Before my ancestors traveled from Poland to America to make their living mining coal and making steel, that ship sank in Lake Huron. Hauling coal, it caught fire in the night. more >>
Posted by victoria at 01:23 PM
July 25, 2006
Let Them Eat cake
Last Friday, while the entire Shipwreck Central Team (minus a few happy vacationers) was trapped inside hiding from Post-Tropical Storm Beryl, we received a delicious homemade thank you from non-diver. We were overwhelmed by her generosity. Take a look at what she sent us.
Posted by victoria at 03:16 PM
July 21, 2006
Quiz 11
How many quizzes are there? Who knows? I do....
Posted by victoria at 11:31 AM
July 20, 2006
Summer Preview
Whether it's a heatwave or Tropical Storm Beryl keeping you inside this weekend, you'll have time to check out some great episodes of the Sea Hunters, airing on History Television
p.s. This is a different video player. It has three videos insted of one!
Posted by victoria at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2006
Mike Fletcher Interview with questions from Non-Diver
Well it took a while but Mike finally got around to answering non-diver's early question on camera. This clip is about 2 minutes long to see the full interview check out the new Live Dive Video Line Up in the Members Section video player.
Not a member? Join now>>
Posted by victoria at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2006
The Search For Bonhomme Richard
Check out the new video in the Feature Player on the Home Page. Want more video? Become a Member!
Posted by victoria at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2006
USS Monitor
USS Monitor was the first ever ironclad warship of the United States Navy. She is most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships, the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 during the American Civil War, in which Monitor fought the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy.
In previous decades, nearly all warships were made primarily of wood. In the decade before Hampton Roads, the design of ships and the nature of naval warfare changed dramatically with the introduction of armor.
On June 6, 2006 John Davis, James Delgado, and Clive Cussler were at the Monitor Center to see the replica christened.
For more information check out Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
and The USS Monitor Center | The Mariners' Museum.
Posted by victoria at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2006
Quiz 10
Summer starts next week. Get out and find some adventure!
Posted by victoria at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2006
Officials find a surprise in old shipwreck — oil
Last February a Seattle storm revealed the remains of the S.S. Catala. She had keeled over in high winds and buried itself on the beach forty-one years ago.
But it wasn't until April, when a beachcomber shoved in a stick and pulled out a tarry substance, that environmental officials learned the ship still carries a cargo of black goo — unknown quantities of oil.
Read the entire article by Craig Welch of The Seattke Times here>>
Posted by victoria at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
May 01, 2006
Submarine- Explorer
Recently. James P. Delgado has been in the news regarding his discovery of Julius H. Kroehl's Early Submarine Explorer. Today's video features Jim describing how he came to find Explorer and some of the first diving the Sea Hunters did at the site.
Read more about Jim Delgado's Discovery of Julius Kroehl's submarine Explorer >>
Posted by victoria at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)
Server Upgrades
We're in the process of doing some server upgrades for the members launch so please expect a few intermittent outages to various sections of the site today.
We thank you for your patience.
SWC Team
Posted by administrator at 09:19 AM
April 27, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 9
Enjoy another quiz - finally some video without me in it. lol. victoria
Posted by victoria at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 8
Posted by victoria at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2006
Titanic Anniversary
Join us Live from the Dive, in our Home Port of Halifax, as we bring you to one of the three grave sites that hold victims of the Titanic disaster.
Posted by victoria at 08:18 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
Congratulations Shipwreck Central Team
Today it was announced that Shipwreck Central.com is a Finalist for the Canadian New Media Awards in the Category of Excellence in Cross Platform. We would like to thank the National Advisory Board for the CNMA and offer best wishes to all the nominees in all categories. Good Luck!
Check out the other nominees here
Posted by victoria at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2006
Behind the Scenes - Part 3
In this installment of Behind the Scenes animators Dale and Greg explain the new animations for the upcoming "Ship of Ice" episode.
Posted by victoria at 06:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
Behind the Scenes - Part 2
In our second installment of Behind the Scenes you will meet Bev, the Graphic Designer on The Sea Hunters and Shipwreck Central. In this clip Bev shows us her Photoshop skills as she prepares images for the special HD episode Ship of Ice.
Posted by victoria at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2006
Behind the Scenes - Part 1
Spring is here and what better time to meet the team at Ghostship Studio. We work day in and day out to bring you Shipwreck Central, Live from the Dive and all of the animation and compositing for The Sea Hunters.
Today in our first installment you will meet me, Victoria. I am the Content Editor on Shipwreck Central and I am usually your first contact person. Thanks for watching and Enjoy!
A special thanks to our Editor, Todd, for putting these clips together.
Posted by victoria at 06:53 AM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
All the Shipwreck - None of the Diving
Though most shipwrecks are found underwater it is not entirely uncommon to find some on the land. In the Sea Hunters episode The Search for "Tonquin", the team visits the Peter Iredale, whose wreck still visible at low tide. The almost skeletal remain of the old ship jets out from the wet sand and is a major tourist attraction for Fort Stevens State Park, Astoria.
This week in the news we hear of another such wreck, perfect for Shipwreck enthusiasts not so keen on diving. In Ocean Shores, Washington, about 170 km south of Astoria, the S.S. Catala has emerged from beneath the sand.
On New Year's Day, 1965, a storm with 113 km/ph winds and high seas tipped the Catala 30 degrees on its side in the sand and she could not be righted.
Over the next twenty years she was looted, set on fire, partied on and written on. No one seemed to be bothered by her place on the beach until a young woman injured her back and sued; a contractor was hired to cut the ship up for scrap. What couldn't be reached by cutting torches was covered with sand. And like that she was gone.
It was in the winter of 2002 that S.S. Catala once again saw the light of day. By early February 2003 high winds and seas that rearranged beaches at Damon Point State Park, and the ship that carried Northwest loggers and miners, housed visitors to the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and served as a charter fishing base emerged like a phoenix from the ashes.
A dramatic shift of the sand on the Protection Island spit uncovered about 100 feet of the hull maybe 4 or 5 feet deep. Hundreds of people have crunched through the sand since then to look at the shipwreck. The corroding rust is part of an evolving sculpture with sand, carved by wind and water.
The 229-foot Catala was launched in 1925 in Glasgow, Scotland, and carried coastal freight and passengers from Vancouver, British Columbia, to southeast Alaska.
It ended its career with the Union Steamship Co. in April 1958 and was to be turned into a fish-buying ship when developers refurbished it as a floating hotel on the Seattle waterfront for World's Fair visitors. Engines were removed to make room for a theater, she said.
The emerging Catala will never float again, but thanks to the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center she will never again be forgotten.
Watch the Sea Hunters as they visit the beached shipwreck Peter Iredale.
Posted by victoria at 01:12 PM
March 08, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 7
Finish the quiz and watch the entire episode Monday March 13th on History Television.
Posted by victoria at 07:49 AM
February 14, 2006
100 Year Old Shipwreck Victim Finds Her Way to Shore
A jawbone found on an Australian beach could be from a woman who died in a shipwreck more than 100 years ago.
The bone was found last year by 10-year-old Nicholas Nott while collecting shells on East Beach, in Port Fairy, Victoria, on the South Coast, the location of many shipwrecks.
Police searched the beach for other remains, but found nothing. Scientists from the Institute of Forensic Medicine told the Coroner's Court yesterday the bone was most likely from a woman in her mid-20s to 30s and showed no sign of trauma. They also said that the jawbone had evidence of post-mortem breaks that had smooth edges consistent with being rolled in water.
In the month leading up to the discovery, the weather along Victoria's south-west "shipwreck" coast had been unusually rough, with many wrecks along East Beach being uncovered for the first time in decades.
Learn more about the Shipwreck Victim from the Melbourne Herald Sun
Posted by victoria at 08:43 AM
February 13, 2006
This Week on History Televison Feb 13-18
The Search for "Tonquin" and "Isabella" airs Monday, February 13 at 8:00 AM EST (CC)
The Search for "Tonquin" and "Isabella" airs Monday, February 13 at 4:00 PM EST (CC)
The Search for Bonhomme Richard airs Tuesday, February 14 at 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM EST (CC)
Juno Beach D-Day Underwater airs Wednesday, February 15 at 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM EST (CC)
NEW Queen of Nassau airs Friday, February 17 at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM EST (CC)
NEWQueen of Nassau airs Saturday, February 18 at 12:00 AM EST (CC)
Posted by victoria at 07:14 AM
February 08, 2006
Underwater Photo Mosaic
Last summer while filming the Sea Hunters Episode on the HMCS Canada/Queen of Nassau, Mike and Warren were present while the researches from NOAA/NURC made a Video Mosaic of the wreck.
Mike had seen these photo mosaics done before; the versions he had seen were made with still photographs of a wreck site, developed, and assembled into a jagged image.
This mosaic would be made from video to create a remarkable panoramic visual record of the wreck site. How do the do it? As you can see in the show it takes 2 divers, one to drive the battery operated under water scooter, while another diver is towed behind with a harness so that they can operate the video camera. By making one smooth pass over the wreck site the researchers are then able to extract still images from the video to make a single snap shot of the wreckage.
Very little diving gets more serious than this. The wreck site is in 230 feet of water; this is some of the is some of the deepest underwater archaeology on earth. Any dive at that depth is no recreational dive. Safety has to be the main priority for the dive team at all times; an accident or death could shut down the work and research being done.
One way to resolve the safety issue is through the use of underwater robots. There have been great strides in underwater robotics since the ARGO found Titanic. Just this month researchers from, MIT, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), are releasing a few photographs of a fourth century B.C., a Greek merchant ship.
The images show details of some of the remnants of the ship's cargo lying on the ocean floor, where it's been since about 350 B.C. The researchers took more than 7,000 images, which will eventually be combined into one mosaic of the entire wreck site. A more sophisticated version of what we made off the Florida Keys.
This robot can be used on shallower sites as well and can help underwater archaeologist accomplish tasks safely and in less time. This research project, off the coast of Greece, will last ten years, and they feel that when that time is up history will be changed by what they have learned.
Follow the Link to learn more about this Deep-Sea Robot
Posted by victoria at 07:11 AM
February 06, 2006
2006 OWUSS Summer internships
For more than 30 years the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society (OWUSS) has offered a variety of internships and scholarships. Their goal is to foster development of the future leaders of the marine environment. They continue to believe that by investing in special young people, by exposing them to a broad array of activities in the underwater community and giving them opportunities to work with influential people who are leaders in aquatic disciplines, we are investing in the future of our oceans and lakes.
The 2006 OWUSS Summer internships are offered for a 1 to 3 month period and are primarily directed at college undergraduates and graduating seniors. Internship recipients will receive a grant to help fund travel to/from site, room and board, and a stipend to cover living expenses.
For full details check out www.owuscholarship.org
Posted by victoria at 08:40 AM
January 24, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 06
Watch this video and try our newest quiz.
Posted by victoria at 06:55 AM
January 16, 2006
Update on the Hunley
Hunley Team Discovers Clue to Legendary Sub's Disappearance
By Kellen Correia, Naval Historical Center Public Affairs
CHARLESTON, S.C (NNS) -- Scientists working with the Naval Historical
Center (NHC) to try to solve the mystery of the Confederate submarine H.L.
Hunley's disappearance in 1864, stumbled onto yet another mystery in
December.
A view port on the left front side of the submarine is completely missing,
possibly a catastrophic result of the Hunley's historic battle with the
Housatonic.
Some have speculated Sailors aboard Housatonic may have shot out the view
port, causing the submarine to fill with water. That theory fails to explain
why scientists have not found any of the view port's glass inside the
submarine. Mysteriously, they have also found no traces of the port itself.
There is just a hole where it once was.
"This view port has always held the promise of being the smoking gun, but it
appears the gun is missing," Hunley Commission Chairman Sen. Glenn McConnell
said. "Whether this is just damage the Hunley suffered from being lost at
sea for more than a century, or it's something else, is a question we hope
to answer in the coming months. One clue may come when we take off the
concretion on the conning tower. We'll be looking closely for the indention
of gunshots in that metal."
Scientists recently made an important discovery that may support this
theory. While working to remove glass from the Hunley's view ports, they
found not all the windows of the Hunley are alike.
The deadlights running along the top of the submarine had covers that could
be closed to block the glow of candle light from emitting through the glass.
The conservation team said it appears the forward conning tower's view ports
did not have that capability.
The light shining from the forward conning tower's view ports may have
helped Sailors aboard the Housatonic detect Hunley's presence. Historical
records reveal Hunley was spotted and fired upon moments before she
deployed the explosive torpedo that sent Housatonic to the bottom of the
sea. Since the forward conning tower's view ports could not be covered,
those shooting at Hunley may have used the illuminated view ports as their
bull's eye target.
The missing view port could have been a result of this gunfire. If the view
port were successfully shot at, portions of the glass would have shattered,
falling into Hunley. At this time, no glass associated with this port has
been found, but Hunley archaeologist James Hunter said it's possible some
glass could still be buried in the thick concretion covering the bottom of
the submarine.
The lack of covers for the forward conning tower's view port was not a
design oversight, but rather a necessity. On the night of Hunley's historic
mission, crew commander George Dixon placed his head in the forward conning
tower and used the view ports to navigate toward his target. The ability to
close the view ports simply was not needed because it would have been
impossible to steer the submarine blind to the outside world.
Also, the conning tower is only about 15 inches wide, leaving little room
for Dixon to quickly close and open the view ports while the submarine
approached the enemy. "The Hunley was built to maximize her ability to
travel smoothly and quickly beneath the water's surface. The small conning
towers contribute to the Hunley's overall design as a hydrodynamic
underwater weapon," Hunter said.
Ultimately, scientists will use the clue of the missing view port, along
with hundreds of others, to piece together the complex mystery of Hunley's
disappearance.
You can view the original
story here.
Posted by victoria at 07:17 AM
January 12, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 05
How many quizes will there be? Well at least 5.... Good Luck!
Posted by victoria at 07:44 AM
January 10, 2006
Shipwreck Central Quiz 04
Have a go at Quiz 04!
Posted by victoria at 07:42 AM
December 15, 2005
Video Interruption
Saturday, December 17. Our new Brightcove Players will be receiving upgrades and will be unavailable from 11 am EST through 3 am EST.
All older Windows Media Player and QuickTime videos will not be effected.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Happy Holidays,
Victoria
Posted by victoria at 06:32 AM
December 12, 2005
Stealth Dive Craft Revealed
Jim Delagdo reveals the Sea Hunter's latest piece of high tech equipment.
Posted by victoria at 02:32 PM
December 07, 2005
Shipwreck Central Quiz 03
Happy Holidays! Here is another quiz for you and a new game. Can you find Santa on the Shipwreck Map?
Posted by victoria at 07:42 AM
December 06, 2005
Guess the Sea Hunter- Revealed
If you guessed Warren then you guessed Right!! He almost has the same expression in the picture below as in his baby picture.
Posted by victoria at 12:11 PM
November 23, 2005
Shipwreck Central Quiz 02
A new Quiz for a new week. Good luck!
Posted by victoria at 01:45 PM
November 21, 2005
Site of the Day
The team at Shipwreck Central would like to thank www.RedOrbit.com for making us Site of the Day. Keep up the good work!
Posted by victoria at 12:24 PM
November 18, 2005
Behind the Scenes
The Sea Hunters ham it up at Dominion Diving.
Posted by victoria at 01:48 PM
November 16, 2005
Shipwreck Central Quiz 01
As winter starts to appear we will need something to keep our minds sharp. Try your luck at our Shipwreck Central Video Quiz.
Posted by victoria at 12:55 PM
November 14, 2005
Calling All Sea Hunters
Shipwreck Central has been communicating with Russell Parrott about a possible shipwreck in the approach to Saint John Harbour, New Brunswick. Mr. Parrott has compiled a PDF (click here to view PDF) of the research relating to this wreck.
We would be interested in hearing about any information you may have on this site. Please post any information or question in our forum.
Thanks
Victoria
Posted by victoria at 01:30 PM
November 11, 2005
Remembrance Day
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Lieut.-Col. John McCrae, M.D.
Posted by victoria at 08:21 AM
November 10, 2005
Video Upgrades
Our video server will be experiencing some upgrades tomorrow, November, 11, that may interfere with the video play. We apologize in advance for any trouble. In the meantime enjoy this dive on the Kingfisher.
Posted by victoria at 08:14 AM
November 01, 2005
New Video Format Version 2.0
We are trying another version of the new player. This should let the Live Dive main page load a bit quicker.
Posted by victoria at 12:18 PM
October 20, 2005
Inside look at an ROV
Get an inside look at an ROV fom Mike and the team at Dominion Diving.
Posted by victoria at 09:17 AM
October 19, 2005
Dominion Diving
The Sea Hunters have a long and happy relationship with Dominion Diving. Ghostship Studio even created their recently re-launched web site, www.dominiondiving.com. Watch as Mike gives us a tour of their facility.
Posted by victoria at 02:42 PM
October 07, 2005
New Video Format
Warren double checks the gear before the dive. Learn about the mixed gases of a deep dive.
Posted by victoria at 03:13 PM
Welcome New York Times Readers
We'd like to extend a warm welcome those of you who found us through the recent article in the New York Times. Saul Hansell wrote a fine article but unfortunately mentioned only our previous series, "Oceans of Mystery", and missed mentioning our current series for History Television Canada and National Geographic Channel International, "The Sea Hunters". Nevertheless, welcome to you all.
Yes, it is true, we will be working with "Brightcove", an exciting new company delivering video on the Internet to offer our visitors some really great new video content and options. We have been under a non-disclosure agreement with them as we worked through the Beta phase but now that it has been announced we're happy to finally be able to talk about it. You'll start seeing the changes here in the coming days and weeks as we make the switch over to their system.
Many of you have been writing and asking about the progress of our members area. Our apologies for not being able to talk much about it, but rest assured we've been very busy behind the scenes putting things in place, (such as our work with Brightcove in making available to members exclusive footage from our extensive library.) There will be much more about this in the VERY near future. It's an ambitious and exciting vision that John Davis has. At the heart of it is creating a democratic community of members directly involved in choosing, researching and eventually diving on historic shipwrecks. We can bring a certain amount of expertise to the table, but it is the members themselves, working together as peers, who will really make it all happen. If that sounds interesting to you drop us a line to let us know you are out there. (To the hundreds who have already contacted us, the answer you are looking for is "this month".)
To our Canadian friends, have a great Thanksgiving weekend. To the rest of you, have a great weekend and we hope you spend at least some of it exploring the interactive map and catching up on previous Live Dives using the navigation over to the right hand side of the page.
Posted by administrator at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)
Man or Machine?
Warren takes us on a guided tour of his dive equipment. How much do you think it weighs?
Posted by victoria at 09:03 AM
September 28, 2005
James P. Delgado Online
Are you looking for more info on your favorite Sea Hunter? Well, the answer is yes, and Jim Delgado is your pick look no further. Jim has recently lauched his own web site at www.jamesdelgado.com
With loads of pictures, and info on the busy life of a Sea Hunter away from the camera, you are sure to be impressed.
Posted by victoria at 07:31 AM
September 27, 2005
Vince Capone Saves the Day
Watch this clip and see why it is important to have Vince, an expert in remote sensing, on the Sea Hunters team. For more info on marine technology check out Vince's web site www.blacklaserlearning.com.
Posted by victoria at 10:30 AM
September 26, 2005
Back to Turkey
We are pullimg more clips from this season as the post production moves forward. Enjoy this never before seen clip from the waters off Turkey.
Posted by victoria at 10:20 AM
September 21, 2005
Mike Fletcher on Location
Thanks to everyone who posted questions for Clive Cussler in our forum. Mike is on his way home from Clive's place in Arizona today. Hopefully he will have answers to some or all of your questions.
In the mean time check out our last Q&A from November 09, 2004. It could be your questions answered next!
Posted by victoria at 08:14 AM
September 11, 2005
Red Cross Hurricane Relief
Shipwreck Central and the Eco-Nova Media Group extends our sympathy and support to the people and families affected by the recent natural disaster.
To make a donation to the American Red Cross relief efforts, please call 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-435-7669).
To make a donation online, visit www.redcross.org.
Posted by victoria at 01:44 PM
September 01, 2005
Answers from Mike
Some more answers for Becky and Jennifer.
Posted by victoria at 11:46 AM
Answers from Jim
Before leaving for the Alexander Macomb expedition there were some questions posted in the forum by Becky and Jennifer (aka Paperqueen). It took me a while to get the clips away from the editors but here are the asweres to your excellent questions.
Posted by victoria at 10:08 AM
August 30, 2005
Web Developer
In a post unrelated to Turkey, Ghostship Studio, (We developed Shipwreck Central) is looking for a talented Web Developer. We would prefer it if you were in the Halifax area but all of Canada is welcomed to join us. http://www.ghostship.ca/
We are seeking a freelance Web Developer for contract work on various web applications. Must possess at least a year of work experience and an indepth knowledge of current web standards for HTML and CSS. You must be fluent in PHP, MySQL and have experience using Javascript in interface development. Actionscripting an asset.
Experience working in collaboration with a web designer is preferred.
Please forward a cover letter, your resume and a list of links to your work to victoria@ghostship.ca
No phone calls, please reference web developer in the subject line.
Posted by victoria at 07:29 AM
August 07, 2005
A Day at the Beach
With the entire team still at homeport a small group of us took advantage of the nice weather with a trip to Lawrencetown Beach, located off Highway 207, right here in Nova Scotia. The only camera we had with us was on a cell phone and the action shots didn't really come out. However, Warren , Chris (Chris-wreck Central), me (Victoria) and some other friends had a great time, swimming, surfing, body boarding, and picnicing. We enjoy all aquatic activities, not just diving. This picture is from last summer (oh well). It was even nicer out yesterday the water was 14 degrees celcius. Pretty good for the North Atlantic.
Posted by victoria at 12:52 PM
August 03, 2005
Welcome To the Web
Shipwreck Central would like to welcome the Nova Scotia and the Sea site to the web. Produced by Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management it has information on everything from our Lighthouses to our harbours. Check it out.
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/nsandsea/
Posted by victoria at 09:34 AM
June 30, 2005
Friends We've Made Along the Way
Shipwreck Central would like to give a shout out to Carola Gajardo, our Chilean translator. She was visiting Halifax, our home port, with her fiancé, Ken Gallant, in June. Ken is from Montreal, and Carola is from Santiago. Go figure!
The Sea Hunters have had the pleasure of working with Carola over the last three years. She did an amazing job during the last trip to Punta Arenas for the Doterel show where she was integral in getting our gear shipped to us from Santiago. (Check out the blog entries from Doterel if you missed our gear/luggage saga.)
Carola’s company is called 2Translate, based in Santiago,Chile. Her website is www.2translate.cl. She is a super person and we look forward to working with her again!
Posted by victoria at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2005
Researching Ships
We get lots of comments and emails requesting information on shipwrecks both famous and not-so famous. These questions are great and we are glad to help where we can. However, I suspect there are many of you out there who don't need help with your research and have stock piled vast amounts of information on wrecks all over the globe.
I invite those of you who haven't yet, to submit your cherished wrecks to our map, and if the tales are particularly interesting you can also post information in the community to enlighten those of us who aren't in your corner of the world.
Remember that the Shipwreck Map belongs to all of us. It is your portal to shipwreck information around the planet, and we have just begun to build the shipwreck record.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Victoria
A shipwreck I have always been interested in is the Mont Blanc. She was one of 2 ships that collided in Halifax harbour causing the Halifax Explosion in 1917. Did you also know that the HMCS Canada/Queen of Nassau, from our March Live from the Dive was in port at Halifax that day? Check it out!
Posted by victoria at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2005
ESRI: GIS and Mapping Software
For those of you who don't know our Shipwreck Map is powered by ESRI mapping software ArcGIS 9. We worked closely with our ESRI programmer (Thank you to Bruce Dobson) to make our map the most interactive map on the web. We are very proud of how works and how it looks.
You might recognize ESRI and ArcGIS because they also provide mapping software to schools all over North America. Check out their Geography Network
In the Spring/Summer issue of ArcNews,their magazine, Shipwreck Central is featured in a article about the tecnical aspects of our Shipwreck Map. The article is also posted on their site and we'd love for you to read it.
Go to Article Now >>
Thanks ESRI!
Posted by victoria at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2005
Introducing Project Habbakuk
The Sea Hunters are in home port for a few weeks. They are finishing up the Doterel and Prince of Wales/Repulse episodes (which are looking great). Soon our band of explorers will be off to Alberta, Canada to dive the remains of the Habbakuk.
Read on to get your first taste of Habbakuk and tonight make sure you watch the Sea Hunters on National Geographic Channel Canada. Airing tonight at 10 pm EST is Operation Overlord, The Search of Juno Beach:
Join “The Sea Hunters” as they dive the beaches of Normandy and search for artifacts of the largest and most famous maritime invasion of all time. Just outside the active surf areas of Juno, Utah and Omaha beaches rest the visual remnants of “Operation Overlord”; the action which turned the tide in WWII and marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany in Europe.
Project Habbakuk was a plan by the British in World War II to construct an "unsinkable" aircraft carrier out of ice, for use against German U-boats in the mid-Atlantic, which was out of range of land-based planes.
During the war the life blood for England was the convoys which made their way across the North Atlantic from Canada. While close to shore the convoys could be protected by aircraft. In the middle of the Atlantic, beyond the range of the land-based aircraft, was the area known as U-boat alley. This stretch of open ocean was the "playground" for the German U-boats. Churchill knew that if aircraft could patrol over U-boat alley, more shipping would get through.
The Habbakuk was to be approximately 600 m long and have a displacement of an amazing 2,000,000 tons or more, constructed in Canada from 280,000 blocks of ice. The Habbakuk would have been virtually impossible to sink, as it would have effectively been a streamlined iceberg kept afloat by the buoyancy of its construction materials.
The name Habbakuk was an Admiralty clerk's misspelling of the biblical name Habakkuk. The choice of this name is said to be a reference to the project's ambitious goal: "... be utterly amazed, for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." (Habakkuk 1:5, NIV)
Join us in June as we dive Patricia Lake for the remains of Habbakuk!
Posted by victoria at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
Titanic
April 14th, 1912
Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of her launching. During her maiden voyage, she struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on a Sunday evening, and sank two hours and forty minutes later, off the coast of Newfoundland. The sinking captured the fascination of the world.
Watch as Sea Hunters James Delgado and Mike Fletcher talk about their experiences diving the Titanic and finding the ship that rescued her survivors, the Carpathia.
Posted by victoria at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
Can anyone help us blog in Singapore/Malaysia?
We interrupt our regular blogramming with an appeal for help from anyone in Singapore/Malaysia. (I read the visitor logs, I know you are out there.) The Sea Hunters next trip is to Singapore and Malaysia in late April/early May. Our plans are to stay on a boat for most of the trip, in water off of Singapore. that makes video blogging difficult.
Can anyone who knows the area help us figure out how we can best connect to Shipwreck Central from there? I'm thinking that a data connection fast enough to upload movies might be difficult, but perhaps we'll be in range of a cell service that would allows us to moblog, using SMS text messaging along with pictures and video taken with the phone. Luckily Singapore seems like a pretty wired place, now how about wireless?
Is there anyone out there who can help us navigate these waters for our next trip? You can use the comment form below, or stop in to our discussion forums and leave us a note there.
(Click "continue reading" below to read all about the HMS “Prince of Wales” & HMS “Repulse”.)
Season V Episode 3. Vessel(s): HMS “Prince of Wales” & HMS “Repulse”
Location: Outside of Singapore in 240 ft of water
History: HMS Prince of Wales, a 35,000-ton King George V class battleship built Birkenhead, England, was completed in March 1941. In late May, while still not fully operational, she was sent into action with the German battleship Bismarck and received significant damage from heavy gunfire. Following repairs, Prince of Wales carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. There, on 9-12 August, Churchill joined U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Atlantic Charter conference, the first meeting between the two English-speaking leaders of what was emerging as the "Grand Alliance" against the Axis powers. Following her return to British waters, Prince of Wales went to the Mediterranean, where she successfully engaged Italian planes off Malta in late September. Sent to the Far East with the battle cruiser HMS Repulse to counter the swiftly developing Japanese threat in the region, she arrived on 2 December 1941. On 8 December, the day of the Pearl Harbor raid on the other side of the International Date Line, the Japanese landed in northern Malaya. Prince of Wales, Repulse and four destroyers were sent to attack the invasion force. After finding no targets, the British ships were returning to Singapore when, late in the morning of 10 December, they were attacked by a strong force of Japanese high-level bombers and torpedo planes. With no friendly planes to protect them, both heavy ships were hit several times. Repulse sank at about 1230. Prince of Wales capsized and followed her to the bottom less than an hour later. They were the first capital ships to be sunk by air attack while operating on the high seas. Their loss further shocked a naval world already stunned by the events at Pearl Harbor only a few days earlier. The sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse sent shock waves through the British Admiralty in the same way Pearl Harbor totally disrupted Washington. Inexpensive little planes with cheap little torpedoes where destroying capital ships with near total impunity. The rules of naval warfare were being rewritten and aircraft and the concept of the carrier fleet were moving to the forefront.
The loss the “Prince of Wales” and “Repulse” started a process which rewrote the rules of naval warfare. No longer were “capital” ships, the pride of the British and all other modern navies able to move with impunity over the oceans of the world. Aircraft carriers would soon become the central part of any active fleet and naval battles would now be first fought in the air prior to any direct engagement of enemy fleets. This new style of naval warfare was born in the death throws of “Prince of Wales” and “Repulse”.
Posted by administrator at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2005
Announcing the ShipwreckCentral.com RSS Feed
Were you aware that there is an RSS feed available for the Shipwreck Central Live Dive reports? The updates will be coming fast and furious from Chile, and an RSS newsreader can help you stay on top of them.
RSS files provide news updates from a website in a simple form for your computer. You read these files in a program called an aggregator, which collects news from various websites and provides it to you in a simple form. But what aggregator to use? Here are some choices:
Top Picks
Mac OS X: NetNewsWire
This elegant Mac-like aggregator is easy to use and powerful.
Windows: SharpReader
Simple, but gets the job done.
Linux: Straw
The best aggregator for GNOME.
Web: Bloglines
Check all your feeds from any web browser.
Posted by administrator at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)
Introducing Christine Barker, your new Videoblographer
As you are may no doubt be aware, we have been hard at work behind the scenes here at SWC getting ready for the new season of "The Sea Hunters", and a massive expansion of Shipwreck Central which is beginning this week.
We had over 200 applications for our call for a "Videoblographer", the person who will be travelling with the team, reporting back to you, "Live from the Dive". We were absolutely blown away, both by the number of applicants, (well, it's a cool job so you'd expect a fair bit of interest), but also by the quality of the applicants. It made our job extremely difficult in choosing just one person, because there were a number of people who would have been just great.
At a fairly late stage in the process we received this email, and it piqued our interest to say the least. In our follow up discussions we quickly realized that we had found our person.
So without further ado and in her own words, we'd like to introduce to you the newest member of our team, in the same way that we first heard of her, Videoblographer, Christine Barker.
You'll be hearing, and seeing, a whole lot more from Christine soon.
A friend that I haven't seen for two years forwarded me your listing with the subject heading "Ohmigawd This is perfect for you!". She's right, I'm an aquatic scientist, a film-maker, an actor, a writer, a scuba diver, and I can parallel park a 40' boat. Read on, pls.
I left a 12 yr. successful career as ecotoxicologist (specializing in aquatic environments) to pursue film-making. So I know aquatic life, I know science, and I looove talking about it.
A film I wrote, produced and directed a 16 mm film that plays on the Independent Film Channel...IE, I can do this - techy stuff, creative stuff, all of it.
I finished a feature script this year and got it into the hands of Michael Douglas (to consider producing it). He took the time to read it, and took the time to write me back. The letter started with "this is the hardest kind of pass letter to write because you really show talent"....see? I can write. Even Michael Douglas thinks so, and he's a very busy guy. And I'm resourceful - got the script to him, didn't I?
I'm a certified diver, and pretty close to getting my captain's license. In fact, although I live in NYC, I just sold my boat literally yesterday ( a 30' classic wood Chris Craft).
I love to travel. Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, seen lots of it. I won't bail on you.
I never, ever hard sell myself.....but I want this. I'm your woman! I'm even funny, I swear on it.
Interested?? I can send you a photo if so. I think look good on camera....I was in a hosiery commercial, if that's an endorsement!
Really looking froward to hearing from you,
Christine Barker
Posted by administrator at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2004
Helping Tsunami Victims
Everyone at Shipwreck Central would like to express our deepest regret to all those effected by the December 26th tsunami in Southern Asia. At this time we would like to provide the following information for those wanting to donate to the relief effort. International users should contact your local Red Cross office to donate.
Canadian Red Cross
1-800-418-1111
(or donate through your local Red Cross office)
UNICEF Canada
1-800-567-4483
UNICEF Canada
2200 Yonge St., Suite 1100
Toronto, Ont.
M4S 2C6
Oxfam Canada
1-800-466-9326
Asian Earthquake/Floods Relief, Oxfam Canada
200-215 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, Ont.
M5T 2C7
Posted by victoria at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2004
Pear Harbour Remembered
At 6:00 a.m. on December 7th six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters on Pearl Harbour. Caught off guard by the subsequent waves of attack within the first 10 minutes the USS Arizona had been hit twice. The devastating explosion that resulted ripped through the forward part of the ship igniting brutal fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford Island and the surrounding area. The Arizona had been struck down taking with her 1103 lives, over half the casualties of that infamous day.
The Japanese attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. Overall, twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged, aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, and there were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.
For more information find the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma on the map.
Posted by victoria at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2004
Halifax Explosion Remembered
On December 6, 1917, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb occurred.
At 8:45 in the morning a French ammunition ship, the Mont Blanc and the Norwegian cargo ship Imo collided in the narrows of Halifax harbour. Vapors from vats of benzol, which were wrongly stored on the deck of the Mont Blanc, were set afire by sparks from the collision. The Mont Blanc was shipping large quantities of munitions to Europe as part of the war effort. She was carrying over 2700 tons of explosives, such as TNT, guncotton, and picric acid. The fire engulfed the Mont Blanc and the crew quickly abandoned ship upon the Captain's orders. They rowed to safety in two rowboats and reached safety on the Dartmouth shore as the burning ship continued to drift toward the busy port of Halifax.
At 9:04:35, with firefighters on the scene and school children gathering to watch, a massive explosion ensued. More than 2.5 km2 of Halifax was leveled and windows were shattered as far as Truro, Nova Scotia, 100 kilometres away. An anchor from the Mont Blanc was found five kilometres from the harbour. The disaster resulted in approximately 1635 deaths (approx. 1000 died instantaneously from the blast), nine thousand injured and approximately 30 million dollars in damage. 325 acres of city was destroyed. 1500 people became homeless as a result of the devastation. The following day a blizzard hit the city, crippling recovery efforts.
If not for the efforts of neighboring Provinces, the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee the devastation would have escalated further. Each year, Nova Scotia donates a giant evergreen to the people of Boston as a thank you for their assistance following the Halifax Explosion.
For more information on the Halifax Explosion find the Mont Blanc on the map.
Posted by victoria at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2004
Job Posting: Opportunity of a Lifetime
Techno-cool Videoblographer/Web TV Host Required
Must be at one with their Power Book, Final Cut Pro and Sorenson Squeeze. Valid passport and love of transcontinental travel required. Videography experience requires a solid background in location production, especially on-site editing. We put creativity first, but applicant should be able to technically execute ideas and have plenty of their own.
If you are interested contact us at: jobs@shipwreckcentral.com
No phone calls please.
Posted by victoria at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2004
The Sea Hunters Saturday Night
Death on Christmas Eve: The discovery of the U-boats aired last Saturday. Watching that episode again made me wonder; what other stories are out there beneath the sea waiting to be told?
The Sea Hunters are preparing to leave in a few weeks to film the last show of the next season. So, keep an eye out on the blog for updates as they arrange to leave for the waters of the coast of France.
Also check out the episode this Saturday on History Television: Marie Celeste, Ghost Ship: An unmanned ship, seen off the Azores, later wrecks off Haiti.
Victoria
Posted by victoria at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2004
A Great Reason to Stay in Saturday Night
This Saturday, August 14, 2004, on History Television Canada you can watch a great episode of The Sea Hunters (check your local listings for times).
Death on Christmas Eve: The discovery of the U-boats - the American troop ship Leopoldville off the coast of France and the Clayoquot four miles off the shores of North America - that sank on December 24, 1944.
To view some awesome clips from this episode search the Leopoldville on our interactive map.
Victoria
Posted by victoria at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
What's Happening on Monday, August 9, 2004?
Shipwreck Central has been up and running for more than 2 weeks and we have been growing constantly. In the past 3 days 18 new wrecks have been added and over the weekend more than 60 new video clips have made their way on board.
Here at command central progress is being made and the research continues. I am spending the next few days uploading some newly received images and adding all of the Shipwrecks you have been submitting online.
Some new wrecks submitted by viewers, which are now on the map, include the Llandovery Castle and the Edmund Fitzgerald (Thanks Bev & Graeme). Keep sending us your wreck info and we will keep putting them on the map.
Thanks
Victoria
Posted by victoria at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
