Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Coral thrives at extreme depths on WWII shipwrecks in Gulf of Mexico
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CYBER DIVER News Network
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (29 Nov 2004) -- A University of Alabama scientist and other researchers have found coral growing at extreme depths in the Gulf of Mexico - on several ships sunk during World War II by Nazi submarines.
The research team spent more than two weeks off the coast looking at the war wreckage from U-boat attacks to see if deep-sea reefs are viable.
UA biological science professor William Schroeder said humans have put artificial coral reefs in shallow water with good results, but not much is known how man-made structures fare in deeper waters.
Deeper water is colder and has less food floating for coral, which is made up of tiny marine organisms. The scientists searched for coral grown on six vessels sunk at about the same time at depths ranging from 280 feet to 6,500 feet.
They found coral growing in unexpected places - and at least two ships thought to be too deep for growth were partially covered with coral.
Schroeder was impressed with growth on the Gulf Penn, an oil tanker sunk by a U-boat in 1942. The Gulf Penn sank 1,820 feet after the attack that killed 13 of 38 crew members.
"It's only been down 60 years, and here were these massive growths," Schroeder told The Tuscaloosa News in a story Monday.
The project was started by the Minerals Management Service, a federal agency in the Department of the Interior that manages the nation's mineral resources in deeper federal waters.
The agency chipped in toward the $1.2 million study. Twenty-seven researchers from universities, government and private companies joined the expedition.
Hundreds of hours of videotapes, specimens and data from the project that left from Port Fourchon, La., are still being studied.
Findings are due in the spring and could have implications for natural gas and oil rigs operating in those waters that may be converted to artificial reefs when they can no longer retrieve minerals.
Robert Church, the project leader and chief archaeologist, said the project helped map out the wreck sites and fill in some gaps on what is known about the attacks.
A 105-mm shell that sank the Alcoa Puritan, a freighter headed for Mobile from Spain, was recovered and is now on display at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Church said.
SOURCE - Tuscaloosa News
CYBER DIVER News Network
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (29 Nov 2004) -- A University of Alabama scientist and other researchers have found coral growing at extreme depths in the Gulf of Mexico - on several ships sunk during World War II by Nazi submarines.
The research team spent more than two weeks off the coast looking at the war wreckage from U-boat attacks to see if deep-sea reefs are viable.
UA biological science professor William Schroeder said humans have put artificial coral reefs in shallow water with good results, but not much is known how man-made structures fare in deeper waters.
Deeper water is colder and has less food floating for coral, which is made up of tiny marine organisms. The scientists searched for coral grown on six vessels sunk at about the same time at depths ranging from 280 feet to 6,500 feet.
They found coral growing in unexpected places - and at least two ships thought to be too deep for growth were partially covered with coral.
Schroeder was impressed with growth on the Gulf Penn, an oil tanker sunk by a U-boat in 1942. The Gulf Penn sank 1,820 feet after the attack that killed 13 of 38 crew members.
"It's only been down 60 years, and here were these massive growths," Schroeder told The Tuscaloosa News in a story Monday.
The project was started by the Minerals Management Service, a federal agency in the Department of the Interior that manages the nation's mineral resources in deeper federal waters.
The agency chipped in toward the $1.2 million study. Twenty-seven researchers from universities, government and private companies joined the expedition.
Hundreds of hours of videotapes, specimens and data from the project that left from Port Fourchon, La., are still being studied.
Findings are due in the spring and could have implications for natural gas and oil rigs operating in those waters that may be converted to artificial reefs when they can no longer retrieve minerals.
Robert Church, the project leader and chief archaeologist, said the project helped map out the wreck sites and fill in some gaps on what is known about the attacks.
A 105-mm shell that sank the Alcoa Puritan, a freighter headed for Mobile from Spain, was recovered and is now on display at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Church said.
SOURCE - Tuscaloosa News
Thames awash with Hindu Gods
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Newkerala.com
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ardhanarishwar.
London, The River Thames, as it flows through London, has become awash with Hindu deities.
Archaeologists from the Museum of London have admitted to being somewhat baffled by this apparently strange discovery.
But Hindus in the Capital are rather more blasi about the phenomenon, saying that this is nothing new and that the tradition of throwing sacred things into water is an age old tradition.
The archaeologists, who found an assortment of the Hindu artefacts on the banks of the river as it passes through the City of London, should perhaps have asked someone like Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, for an explanation of what they considered a great mystery.
As he says: "This doesn't surprise me at all, it is the most natural thing in the world. Hindus have always disposed of sacred things by burying, burning, or putting them into running water".
All perfectly reasonable, and only to be expected in, say, the Ganges; but to find the same thing happening in the Thames is, to say the least, a little surprising. And the religious images have clearly been put in the river over quite a long period of time.
As Nichola Burdon of the Museum of London observed: "Some of these Hindu objects are modern, including a plastic banner featuring three gods. But three of the statuettes and the copper yantra possibly date back to the nineteenth century".
It is probable that most, if not all of the artefacts, were taken to Britain from India, though given the enormous amount of shops and galleries selling such things in London, even this claim is open to doubt.
So, is the Thames acting as a stand-in for the Ganges? Ms Burdon certainly thinks so: "As the Ganges is not very accessible to the Anglo- Hindu community, it could be that they are utilising the next best thing".
And so it proves - not that the mystery was one that would tax any but the simplest of brains.
Sharmila Pratap, a devout Hindu from South London, was willing to spill the beans: "This is part of our annual family ritual when I clear out the mandir. I take things like the ashes of incense sticks and broken deities to the Woolwich ferry and slip them into the Thames when nobody is looking. What else can I do? I can't just throw them away".
So, is Sharmila Pratap, and countless others it seems, likely to be reprimanded, or worse, by the powers that be? It appears not.
As Theo Thomas, a water conservationist working on the Thames has said: "All we ask is for people to be responsible and not to use plastic bags. We welcome the use of the river for spiritual purposes". What a splendid and pragmatic conclusion to "The Mystery of the Hindu Gods". (ANI)
Newkerala.com
ardhanarishwar.
London, The River Thames, as it flows through London, has become awash with Hindu deities.
Archaeologists from the Museum of London have admitted to being somewhat baffled by this apparently strange discovery.
But Hindus in the Capital are rather more blasi about the phenomenon, saying that this is nothing new and that the tradition of throwing sacred things into water is an age old tradition.
The archaeologists, who found an assortment of the Hindu artefacts on the banks of the river as it passes through the City of London, should perhaps have asked someone like Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, for an explanation of what they considered a great mystery.
As he says: "This doesn't surprise me at all, it is the most natural thing in the world. Hindus have always disposed of sacred things by burying, burning, or putting them into running water".
All perfectly reasonable, and only to be expected in, say, the Ganges; but to find the same thing happening in the Thames is, to say the least, a little surprising. And the religious images have clearly been put in the river over quite a long period of time.
As Nichola Burdon of the Museum of London observed: "Some of these Hindu objects are modern, including a plastic banner featuring three gods. But three of the statuettes and the copper yantra possibly date back to the nineteenth century".
It is probable that most, if not all of the artefacts, were taken to Britain from India, though given the enormous amount of shops and galleries selling such things in London, even this claim is open to doubt.
So, is the Thames acting as a stand-in for the Ganges? Ms Burdon certainly thinks so: "As the Ganges is not very accessible to the Anglo- Hindu community, it could be that they are utilising the next best thing".
And so it proves - not that the mystery was one that would tax any but the simplest of brains.
Sharmila Pratap, a devout Hindu from South London, was willing to spill the beans: "This is part of our annual family ritual when I clear out the mandir. I take things like the ashes of incense sticks and broken deities to the Woolwich ferry and slip them into the Thames when nobody is looking. What else can I do? I can't just throw them away".
So, is Sharmila Pratap, and countless others it seems, likely to be reprimanded, or worse, by the powers that be? It appears not.
As Theo Thomas, a water conservationist working on the Thames has said: "All we ask is for people to be responsible and not to use plastic bags. We welcome the use of the river for spiritual purposes". What a splendid and pragmatic conclusion to "The Mystery of the Hindu Gods". (ANI)
New law expected to protect South Carolina warship wrecks
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Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The waters along the South Carolina coast are littered with the wrecks of warships and now a new federal law will help better protect them.
Under the law, federal agents can seize a treasure hunter's boat and fine him $100,000 a day for trying to loot such wrecks, which by law belong to the federal government. The law could allow criminal charges to be brought as well.
A recent survey by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology identified 46 wrecks in South Carolina waters, some accessible to small boats.
In Charleston Harbor, the location of the Confederate ships Chicora and Palmetto State as well as the Union ironclad Patapsco are commonly known.The law applies to military wrecks, but not to commercial vessels.
It was needed because new technology has made it easier to locate wrecks, said Bob Neyland, the head of underwater archaeology at the Naval Historical Center and the coordinator for the Hunley project.
"This will go a long way to protecting war graves; and it will go a long way toward protecting archaeological sites," he said.The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was raised off the coast in 2000 and is now in a conservation lab in North Charleston.
The act covers thousands of wrecks in waters worldwide and dozens of Civil War-era ships alone the South Carolina coast.State Archaeologist Jonathan Leader said the law targets those who would loot wrecks.
"Obviously they are not just going after people who stumble upon these wrecks," Leader said. "The real issue is people out for gain or profit off these wrecks. I have no sympathy for those people and am glad this is being done.
"James Hunter, a Naval Historical Center archaeologist working at the Hunley lab, said the law protects vessels in many places.
A few years ago, a Maine man found the remains of a Revolutionary-era naval vessel in the Penobscot River near Bangor. He told officials about the wreck and archaeologists from the center have conducted three surveys.
But almost anyone can reach the vessel.
"It's so close to shore you could hit it with a rock," Hunter said. "This will serve as protective legislation for these wrecks.
"Neyland said the government wants to first protect the sanctity of war graves and then learn more about the vessels."This is meant to protect these wrecks for the greatest public benefit," he said.
Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The waters along the South Carolina coast are littered with the wrecks of warships and now a new federal law will help better protect them.
Under the law, federal agents can seize a treasure hunter's boat and fine him $100,000 a day for trying to loot such wrecks, which by law belong to the federal government. The law could allow criminal charges to be brought as well.
A recent survey by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology identified 46 wrecks in South Carolina waters, some accessible to small boats.
In Charleston Harbor, the location of the Confederate ships Chicora and Palmetto State as well as the Union ironclad Patapsco are commonly known.The law applies to military wrecks, but not to commercial vessels.
It was needed because new technology has made it easier to locate wrecks, said Bob Neyland, the head of underwater archaeology at the Naval Historical Center and the coordinator for the Hunley project.
"This will go a long way to protecting war graves; and it will go a long way toward protecting archaeological sites," he said.The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was raised off the coast in 2000 and is now in a conservation lab in North Charleston.
The act covers thousands of wrecks in waters worldwide and dozens of Civil War-era ships alone the South Carolina coast.State Archaeologist Jonathan Leader said the law targets those who would loot wrecks.
"Obviously they are not just going after people who stumble upon these wrecks," Leader said. "The real issue is people out for gain or profit off these wrecks. I have no sympathy for those people and am glad this is being done.
"James Hunter, a Naval Historical Center archaeologist working at the Hunley lab, said the law protects vessels in many places.
A few years ago, a Maine man found the remains of a Revolutionary-era naval vessel in the Penobscot River near Bangor. He told officials about the wreck and archaeologists from the center have conducted three surveys.
But almost anyone can reach the vessel.
"It's so close to shore you could hit it with a rock," Hunter said. "This will serve as protective legislation for these wrecks.
"Neyland said the government wants to first protect the sanctity of war graves and then learn more about the vessels."This is meant to protect these wrecks for the greatest public benefit," he said.
Press Release: Dive South Africa Is Proud To Be Part of Operation Zembe
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PRWeb
From 3 to 28 November 2004 a SES-team under leadership of the world famous Monty Halls will be exploring and excavating potential sites from Table Bay to Cape Agulhas.
(PRWEB) November 20, 2004 -- In 1995 leading South African marine archaeologist Bruno Werz found a hand axe whilst surveying a shipwreck in False Bay off Cape Town.
This was identified as an Acheulean tool dating back 300 000 to a million years, the oldest under sea find ever recorded, an archaeological oddity that raised a series of fascinating questions.
Further brief explorations of this site over the next few years revealed another hand axe and some pieces of animal bone.
Realizing that this site has international significance, through SAIMA (South African Institute of Maritime Archaeology) Bruno has requested the assistance of the Dorset based Scientific Exploration Society (http://www.ses-explore.org/) to be the first group to truly investigate this and other sites.
The SES immediately accepted the challenge of launching an expedition.
From 3 to 28 November 2004 a SES-team under leadership of the world famous Monty Halls will be exploring and excavating potential sites from Table Bay to Cape Agulhas.
The divers will have to visualize the seabed, as it would have appeared millions of years ago, with teeming reefs as dry canyons. The idea is to scan areas of seabed, and identify where prehistoric man would have made camp. Once such areas are identified, they will be surveyed.
The main site is in 6 meter (20ft) of water just behind the surf zone. The conditions are demanding, with the added fear factor that this is Great White territory where this feared predator are out in the hunt for food.
The name Zembe is a direct translation of "axe" from the Nguni language.
PRWeb
From 3 to 28 November 2004 a SES-team under leadership of the world famous Monty Halls will be exploring and excavating potential sites from Table Bay to Cape Agulhas.
(PRWEB) November 20, 2004 -- In 1995 leading South African marine archaeologist Bruno Werz found a hand axe whilst surveying a shipwreck in False Bay off Cape Town.
This was identified as an Acheulean tool dating back 300 000 to a million years, the oldest under sea find ever recorded, an archaeological oddity that raised a series of fascinating questions.
Further brief explorations of this site over the next few years revealed another hand axe and some pieces of animal bone.
Realizing that this site has international significance, through SAIMA (South African Institute of Maritime Archaeology) Bruno has requested the assistance of the Dorset based Scientific Exploration Society (http://www.ses-explore.org/) to be the first group to truly investigate this and other sites.
The SES immediately accepted the challenge of launching an expedition.
From 3 to 28 November 2004 a SES-team under leadership of the world famous Monty Halls will be exploring and excavating potential sites from Table Bay to Cape Agulhas.
The divers will have to visualize the seabed, as it would have appeared millions of years ago, with teeming reefs as dry canyons. The idea is to scan areas of seabed, and identify where prehistoric man would have made camp. Once such areas are identified, they will be surveyed.
The main site is in 6 meter (20ft) of water just behind the surf zone. The conditions are demanding, with the added fear factor that this is Great White territory where this feared predator are out in the hunt for food.
The name Zembe is a direct translation of "axe" from the Nguni language.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Former hostage rekindles dream of finding treasure
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Chicago Sun-Times
By Jan Dennis
November 28, 2004
MORTON, Ill. -- The last time Scott Heimdal set out in search of sunken treasure he ended up being the bounty instead, kidnapped and held for ransom in the jungles of South America for two months, not knowing whether he would live or die.
Now, nearly 15 years after his central Illinois hometown raised the cash that bought his freedom, Heimdal is preparing to head back to Ecuador to resume a treasure-hunting dream that still burns hotter than his memories of 61 days at the mercy of Colombian rebels.
The 42-year-old former hostage says this trip will be much safer. Instead of guerrillas, his biggest worry will be finding a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of Ecuador in the late 1500s with a cargo he estimates could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
"I've always been someone who likes to see things through. If you decide to do something, do it,'' the Peoria native said with a laugh.
'Wrong place, wrong time'
Even his parents, who went to South America and negotiated their son's release in 1990, say they have no qualms about Heimdal rekindling a dream sparked by a documentary on shipwreck recoveries he saw as a teenager.
"What happened to him when he got kidnapped was just that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' said his father, Roy Heimdal.
At the time, though, he had feared his son would never be released by the rebels alive.
"It was awful, I almost lost my mind,'' he recalled.
Heimdal wound up within the rebels' reach after signing on with a mining company to support himself when the Ecuadorean government thwarted his bid for a permit to salvage a potential shipwreck he had spent years researching.
He was working on a gold mine being established deep in the jungle when rebels crossed over from Colombia and ambushed Heimdal's canoe from a riverbank. They killed his native navigator and abducted Heimdal, seeking ransom money to finance their efforts to overthrow Colombia's government.
Heimdal's captivity made international news as rebels demanded $1.5 million for his release, unaware the gold mine was not yet operating. They ultimately settled for $60,000, a deal negotiated by Heimdal's mother, Marge, using money from fund-raisers across central Illinois. More than 50 members of the insurgent group have since been arrested, though none has gone to trial.
Other rebel groups are still carrying on the insurgency, but Heimdal said he will be out of harm's way on this trip. He's working with the Ecuadorean navy on the project, operating under a deal based on a new Ecuadorean law to evenly split any coins, jewelry or artifacts that might be found on the ocean floor.
"It's like anywhere; it really depends on where you are. If you're out in the middle of the jungle and you're close to the Colombian border, you need to be careful. The rest of the country, it's a wonderful country,'' he said. AP
Chicago Sun-Times
By Jan Dennis
November 28, 2004
MORTON, Ill. -- The last time Scott Heimdal set out in search of sunken treasure he ended up being the bounty instead, kidnapped and held for ransom in the jungles of South America for two months, not knowing whether he would live or die.
Now, nearly 15 years after his central Illinois hometown raised the cash that bought his freedom, Heimdal is preparing to head back to Ecuador to resume a treasure-hunting dream that still burns hotter than his memories of 61 days at the mercy of Colombian rebels.
The 42-year-old former hostage says this trip will be much safer. Instead of guerrillas, his biggest worry will be finding a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of Ecuador in the late 1500s with a cargo he estimates could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
"I've always been someone who likes to see things through. If you decide to do something, do it,'' the Peoria native said with a laugh.
'Wrong place, wrong time'
Even his parents, who went to South America and negotiated their son's release in 1990, say they have no qualms about Heimdal rekindling a dream sparked by a documentary on shipwreck recoveries he saw as a teenager.
"What happened to him when he got kidnapped was just that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' said his father, Roy Heimdal.
At the time, though, he had feared his son would never be released by the rebels alive.
"It was awful, I almost lost my mind,'' he recalled.
Heimdal wound up within the rebels' reach after signing on with a mining company to support himself when the Ecuadorean government thwarted his bid for a permit to salvage a potential shipwreck he had spent years researching.
He was working on a gold mine being established deep in the jungle when rebels crossed over from Colombia and ambushed Heimdal's canoe from a riverbank. They killed his native navigator and abducted Heimdal, seeking ransom money to finance their efforts to overthrow Colombia's government.
Heimdal's captivity made international news as rebels demanded $1.5 million for his release, unaware the gold mine was not yet operating. They ultimately settled for $60,000, a deal negotiated by Heimdal's mother, Marge, using money from fund-raisers across central Illinois. More than 50 members of the insurgent group have since been arrested, though none has gone to trial.
Other rebel groups are still carrying on the insurgency, but Heimdal said he will be out of harm's way on this trip. He's working with the Ecuadorean navy on the project, operating under a deal based on a new Ecuadorean law to evenly split any coins, jewelry or artifacts that might be found on the ocean floor.
"It's like anywhere; it really depends on where you are. If you're out in the middle of the jungle and you're close to the Colombian border, you need to be careful. The rest of the country, it's a wonderful country,'' he said. AP
Malta participants in ANSER project
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Times of Malta
November 28, 2004
Participants of the first ANSER seminar outside
the Archaeology Museum of Alicante.
Over the past two and a half years the University of Malta, through the Foundation of International Studies, participated in the EU project Anciennes Routes Maritimes Méditerranéennes (ANSER), financed under the Interreg IIIB Medocc programme. Participating countries included Italy, France, Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Portugal.
From within these countries a number of institutions, including the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante, the Underwater Archaeology Centre of Catalonia, the National Centre of Maritime and Underwater Archaeology of Portugal and the Camille Jullian Centre of Aix-en-Provence, all contributed to the success of this project. Dr Nicholas Vella and Timmy Gambin served on the scientific and pilot committees alongside other members from the various participating institutions.
The focus of this project was varied and included the research of harbours, trade routes and commercial exchange in the western Mediterranean, and the communication of this research to the general public. A series of conferences, training courses, publication, and education campaigns were organised to achieve these aims.
The five seminars held so far included: "The evolution of the palaeo-environment of ports and harbours in the western Mediterranean" (Alicante, November 2003); "Ancient port structures" (Rome and Ostia, April this year); "The ancient western Mediterranean: trade and exchange" (Marseille, May); "Mediterranean trade routes and harbours after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West" (Genoa, June) and "Communicating memories of the Mediterranean: tools, experiences and projects aimed at giving value to maritime cultural heritage" (Pisa, October).
Malta participated in all seminars with Dr Vella and Mr Gambin delivering five papers on a variety of themes and chairing sessions at these events. The Regione Lazio is currently working on the publication of the proceedings of the seminars and all five volumes should be ready by early next year. The books will contain contributions by leading experts in archaeology, ancient history, landscape studies and museology.
Another tangible facet of the ANSER project was the organisation of a number of courses aimed at sharing information on the preservation and appreciation of maritime cultural heritage. Malta sent three participants, two archaeologists and a conservator, to two courses held in Italy during the month of June, one in Castiglioncello and the other in Ostia Antica.
Both courses were very intensive and all three participants returned enriched by the experiences gained (as well as a host of new friends and contacts). The third ANSER course was held at Villajoyosa in Spain and consisted of a ten-day training programme in underwater archaeology. In Spain, the three Maltese participants worked alongside divers and archaeologists from Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Italy. They also had the opportunity to dive on a Roman wreck that is being excavated.
One of the main objectives of ANSER is the setting up of a scientific database that can be used by researchers and students alike. This database contains information on objects and materials exchanged in the ancient Mediterranean. Works on its contents are currently in progress but part of it is already up and running. The project Website also contains details on the above-mentioned events as well as others that were organised in the scope of the ANSER project: http://www.projet-anser.net
Participation in the ANSER project has been a very positive experience for all concerned. The Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage all contributed in varying degrees to ensure that Malta's participation in such a high-profile project was a success. It is hoped that long-term benefits reaped by the individual participants will prove beneficial to the study and preservation of Malta's maritime heritage.
Times of Malta
November 28, 2004
Participants of the first ANSER seminar outside
the Archaeology Museum of Alicante.
Over the past two and a half years the University of Malta, through the Foundation of International Studies, participated in the EU project Anciennes Routes Maritimes Méditerranéennes (ANSER), financed under the Interreg IIIB Medocc programme. Participating countries included Italy, France, Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Portugal.
From within these countries a number of institutions, including the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante, the Underwater Archaeology Centre of Catalonia, the National Centre of Maritime and Underwater Archaeology of Portugal and the Camille Jullian Centre of Aix-en-Provence, all contributed to the success of this project. Dr Nicholas Vella and Timmy Gambin served on the scientific and pilot committees alongside other members from the various participating institutions.
The focus of this project was varied and included the research of harbours, trade routes and commercial exchange in the western Mediterranean, and the communication of this research to the general public. A series of conferences, training courses, publication, and education campaigns were organised to achieve these aims.
The five seminars held so far included: "The evolution of the palaeo-environment of ports and harbours in the western Mediterranean" (Alicante, November 2003); "Ancient port structures" (Rome and Ostia, April this year); "The ancient western Mediterranean: trade and exchange" (Marseille, May); "Mediterranean trade routes and harbours after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West" (Genoa, June) and "Communicating memories of the Mediterranean: tools, experiences and projects aimed at giving value to maritime cultural heritage" (Pisa, October).
Malta participated in all seminars with Dr Vella and Mr Gambin delivering five papers on a variety of themes and chairing sessions at these events. The Regione Lazio is currently working on the publication of the proceedings of the seminars and all five volumes should be ready by early next year. The books will contain contributions by leading experts in archaeology, ancient history, landscape studies and museology.
Another tangible facet of the ANSER project was the organisation of a number of courses aimed at sharing information on the preservation and appreciation of maritime cultural heritage. Malta sent three participants, two archaeologists and a conservator, to two courses held in Italy during the month of June, one in Castiglioncello and the other in Ostia Antica.
Both courses were very intensive and all three participants returned enriched by the experiences gained (as well as a host of new friends and contacts). The third ANSER course was held at Villajoyosa in Spain and consisted of a ten-day training programme in underwater archaeology. In Spain, the three Maltese participants worked alongside divers and archaeologists from Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Italy. They also had the opportunity to dive on a Roman wreck that is being excavated.
One of the main objectives of ANSER is the setting up of a scientific database that can be used by researchers and students alike. This database contains information on objects and materials exchanged in the ancient Mediterranean. Works on its contents are currently in progress but part of it is already up and running. The project Website also contains details on the above-mentioned events as well as others that were organised in the scope of the ANSER project: http://www.projet-anser.net
Participation in the ANSER project has been a very positive experience for all concerned. The Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage all contributed in varying degrees to ensure that Malta's participation in such a high-profile project was a success. It is hoped that long-term benefits reaped by the individual participants will prove beneficial to the study and preservation of Malta's maritime heritage.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
UK's undersea 'ticking timebombs'
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BBC News
By Alex Kirby
Environment correspondent
Out of sight but not out of mind.
Munitions dumped off the British coast nearly a century ago are dangerously unstable now, a salvage expert says.
Michael Fellows, a former Royal Navy diver, says the weapons, jettisoned in the Irish Sea, are "liable to go bang".
He also believes a World War II wreck in the Thames estuary is "a ticking timebomb", which cannot be ignored.
Mr Fellows says the freighter, which was carrying munitions from the US, may threaten a liquid gas terminal due to be constructed on the coast of Kent.
Mr Fellows was speaking to BBC Radio 4's programme Costing The Earth, which has examined the risks posed by discarded weapons, wrecks and nuclear reactors in the waters round the British Isles.
Underwater grave
One of the main concerns is Beaufort's Dyke, a deep submarine trench in the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland, used as a munitions dump since early last century.
The Ministry of Defence says more than one million tonnes of weapons were jettisoned there, though some are known to have been dumped short of the Dyke in shallow coastal waters.
Mr Fellows, who has worked for 40 years in bomb and mine clearance and was decorated for his work during the Falklands War, now heads his own munitions clearance company, Fellows International.
He told the programme: "Most of the weapons dumped in the Beaufort's Dyke... weren't designed to go under water.
"There are sporadic explosions two or three times a month, I should think, in the Irish Sea, popping off all the time."
Asked whether the oldest munitions in the Dyke were losing their ability to withstand corrosion, Mr Fellows said: "Yes. They are getting old and they're liable to go bang."
Beach hazard
A local councillor in Northern Ireland, Oliver McMullan, told Costing The Earth the Dyke contained sarin and tabun (both nerve gases), phosgene, mustard gas and explosives.
Incendiary bombs containing phosphate used to drift onto the shore each winter, said Mr McMullan.
"We had hundreds upon hundreds of these things getting washed up in a matter of days," he added.
"Out of the water, body heat will ignite them, or the heat of the sun, and then they just explode into flame.
"There was a couple of young boys here locally who got burns off them, and another in Scotland was burnt."
He fears the problem will worsen, telling the programme: "There's too much stuff down there that's only breaking up now."
Survey 'needed'
Michael Fellows is also worried about the wreck of the US freighter Richard Montgomery, which sank with its cargo of high explosives in August 1944 off Sheerness in the Thames estuary.
He said: "It's a ticking timebomb. It's likely to go pop at some stage. Areas of Sheerness within about 3km (1.9 miles) will feel the effects.
"And they really ought to be worried about the new liquid gas terminal they're going to build 2.5km (1.5 miles) from the wreck."
He rejected the opinion of the government's Receiver of Wrecks, who was advised that munitions would not explode spontaneously but needed a trigger.
Mr Fellows said: "We can't afford to just leave it as it is. One option is to do a survey, or to de-ammunition it.
"Something needs to be done. We can't just afford to leave it for another 50 years."
The Department of Transport said the wreck of the USS Richard Montgomery was checked by divers once a year and that no ships were allowed to pass over the wreck.
A spokeswoman said this summer that the last examination, in 2003, showed the site to be no more dangerous than in the past.
The Costing The Earth programme also explores the possible risk from obsolete Royal Navy nuclear submarines moored at Devonport, and from the reactors of similar Soviet vessels lost at sea.
BBC News
By Alex Kirby
Environment correspondent
Out of sight but not out of mind.
Munitions dumped off the British coast nearly a century ago are dangerously unstable now, a salvage expert says.
Michael Fellows, a former Royal Navy diver, says the weapons, jettisoned in the Irish Sea, are "liable to go bang".
He also believes a World War II wreck in the Thames estuary is "a ticking timebomb", which cannot be ignored.
Mr Fellows says the freighter, which was carrying munitions from the US, may threaten a liquid gas terminal due to be constructed on the coast of Kent.
Mr Fellows was speaking to BBC Radio 4's programme Costing The Earth, which has examined the risks posed by discarded weapons, wrecks and nuclear reactors in the waters round the British Isles.
Underwater grave
One of the main concerns is Beaufort's Dyke, a deep submarine trench in the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland, used as a munitions dump since early last century.
The Ministry of Defence says more than one million tonnes of weapons were jettisoned there, though some are known to have been dumped short of the Dyke in shallow coastal waters.
Mr Fellows, who has worked for 40 years in bomb and mine clearance and was decorated for his work during the Falklands War, now heads his own munitions clearance company, Fellows International.
He told the programme: "Most of the weapons dumped in the Beaufort's Dyke... weren't designed to go under water.
"There are sporadic explosions two or three times a month, I should think, in the Irish Sea, popping off all the time."
Asked whether the oldest munitions in the Dyke were losing their ability to withstand corrosion, Mr Fellows said: "Yes. They are getting old and they're liable to go bang."
Beach hazard
A local councillor in Northern Ireland, Oliver McMullan, told Costing The Earth the Dyke contained sarin and tabun (both nerve gases), phosgene, mustard gas and explosives.
Incendiary bombs containing phosphate used to drift onto the shore each winter, said Mr McMullan.
"We had hundreds upon hundreds of these things getting washed up in a matter of days," he added.
"Out of the water, body heat will ignite them, or the heat of the sun, and then they just explode into flame.
"There was a couple of young boys here locally who got burns off them, and another in Scotland was burnt."
He fears the problem will worsen, telling the programme: "There's too much stuff down there that's only breaking up now."
Survey 'needed'
Michael Fellows is also worried about the wreck of the US freighter Richard Montgomery, which sank with its cargo of high explosives in August 1944 off Sheerness in the Thames estuary.
He said: "It's a ticking timebomb. It's likely to go pop at some stage. Areas of Sheerness within about 3km (1.9 miles) will feel the effects.
"And they really ought to be worried about the new liquid gas terminal they're going to build 2.5km (1.5 miles) from the wreck."
He rejected the opinion of the government's Receiver of Wrecks, who was advised that munitions would not explode spontaneously but needed a trigger.
Mr Fellows said: "We can't afford to just leave it as it is. One option is to do a survey, or to de-ammunition it.
"Something needs to be done. We can't just afford to leave it for another 50 years."
The Department of Transport said the wreck of the USS Richard Montgomery was checked by divers once a year and that no ships were allowed to pass over the wreck.
A spokeswoman said this summer that the last examination, in 2003, showed the site to be no more dangerous than in the past.
The Costing The Earth programme also explores the possible risk from obsolete Royal Navy nuclear submarines moored at Devonport, and from the reactors of similar Soviet vessels lost at sea.
Viking map may rewrite US history
__________________________________________________________________________________
News in Science
Danish experts will travel to the U.S. to study evidence that the Vikings landed in the New World five centuries before Columbus.
A controversial parchment said to be the oldest map of America could, if authentic, support the theory that the Vikings arrived first.
The map is said to date from 1434 and was found in 1957. Some people believe it is evidence that Vikings, who departed from Greenland around the year 1000, were the first to land in the Americas.
The document is of Vinland, the part of North America believed to be what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland, and was supposedly discovered by the Viking Leif Eriksen, the son of Erik the Red.
Three researchers from the Danish Royal Library and School of Conservation hope that modern techniques developed in Denmark will be able to "shed more light on this document whose authenticity is questioned worldwide", said Rene Larsen, head of the School of Conservation in Copenhagen and the leader of the project.
The trio will on Monday begin their work on the map, which is kept at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Connecticut. The three have been "authorised to, for two to three days, photograph, analyse with microscope and undertake various studies of the document and its ink, but not alter it", Larsen said.
He said the results of the study would be presented early next year.
"We hope that the new techniques that we have developed in Denmark ... will help to better [date] the document and ink with which the map was drawn in order to lift the veil on its authenticity or counterfeit," he said.
The map was considered a sensation when it was found. Experts largely agree that the parchment dates from the 1400s, but by the 1970s some experts had begun arguing that the ink used contained materials that were only developed in the 20th century. U.K. chemist Professor Robin Clark, from University College London, has meanwhile said he believed the document was a fake.
He based his conclusion on the work of another researcher, Dr Walter McCrone, who in the 1970s found that the ink contained a derivative of titanium dioxide, which did not exist until the 1920s, according to the journal Analytical Chemistry.
News in Science
Danish experts will travel to the U.S. to study evidence that the Vikings landed in the New World five centuries before Columbus.
A controversial parchment said to be the oldest map of America could, if authentic, support the theory that the Vikings arrived first.
The map is said to date from 1434 and was found in 1957. Some people believe it is evidence that Vikings, who departed from Greenland around the year 1000, were the first to land in the Americas.
The document is of Vinland, the part of North America believed to be what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland, and was supposedly discovered by the Viking Leif Eriksen, the son of Erik the Red.
Three researchers from the Danish Royal Library and School of Conservation hope that modern techniques developed in Denmark will be able to "shed more light on this document whose authenticity is questioned worldwide", said Rene Larsen, head of the School of Conservation in Copenhagen and the leader of the project.
The trio will on Monday begin their work on the map, which is kept at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Connecticut. The three have been "authorised to, for two to three days, photograph, analyse with microscope and undertake various studies of the document and its ink, but not alter it", Larsen said.
He said the results of the study would be presented early next year.
"We hope that the new techniques that we have developed in Denmark ... will help to better [date] the document and ink with which the map was drawn in order to lift the veil on its authenticity or counterfeit," he said.
The map was considered a sensation when it was found. Experts largely agree that the parchment dates from the 1400s, but by the 1970s some experts had begun arguing that the ink used contained materials that were only developed in the 20th century. U.K. chemist Professor Robin Clark, from University College London, has meanwhile said he believed the document was a fake.
He based his conclusion on the work of another researcher, Dr Walter McCrone, who in the 1970s found that the ink contained a derivative of titanium dioxide, which did not exist until the 1920s, according to the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Connecticut archaeologist an expert at rooting out historical hooey
_________________________________________________________________
Boston.com News
By John Jurgensen
November 25, 2004
The lost land of Atlantis has been discovered. Again.
In a press conference last week, a U.S. researcher named Robert Sarmast announced that his six-day expedition had detected evidence of man-made structures on the Mediterranean seabed off Cyprus.
Not only had sonar scanners picked up the ghostly contours of walls and trenches on a rectangular landmass, he said, but these features matched the descriptions in the original account of Atlantis.
In the years before he died in 347 B.C., the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis as a wildly advanced civilization that was wiped out in a flash 9,000 years before his time.
"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar, as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment," Sarmast said in an accompanying press release, "but the circumstantial and other evidence is now irrefutable."
When he read about this declaration on the BBC's Web site, Kenneth Feder didn't even have to get out of his desk chair to dispute it.
An archaeologist who has taught at Central Connecticut State University for more than 25 years, Feder rejects Sarmast's claim and the countless others that have come before it with the same simple argument -- namely, that Atlantis' only location was in the imagination of the man who first described it.
But that rationale hasn't prevented Feder from using the myth for his own purposes.
"My agenda is to use this stuff to teach what we really know about the past," he says.
Feder, who lives in West Simsbury, focuses most of his own field work along the Farmington River, unearthing evidence of the Indians and settlers who subsisted there. But through the years, Feder has nurtured an expertise in historical hooey on the side.
First published in 1990, his book "Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology" is about to go into its fifth edition. Last month he lectured on Atlantis at a gathering of skeptics in Italy. And he holds forth on the watery mystery in a documentary scheduled for broadcast on the National Geographic Channel program "Naked Science."
Tucked in his stuffed campus office where the "Donner Party Cookbook" sits on a shelf below a cartoon of a pre-human Homer Simpson, Feder says he makes one demand of Atlantis enthusiasts.
"My rule is you can't even use the word Atlantis in a sentence unless you can tell me you've read Plato."
The legend of the lost continent emerges in dialogues between Socrates and his students that Plato wrote down. The point that many people miss, Feder says, is that most of these instructive dialogues were fictional, like conversations between characters in a play.
"Atlantis is a plot device. Plato has a very specific agenda in his mind, and he needs Atlantis to prove what he's trying to say," Feder says.
The student Critias tells his teacher the "true" story of the powerful but morally corrupt land of Atlantis, which goes to war with the weak but noble Athens. The evil empire gets whipped in battle by its worthier opponent before eventually getting swallowed in a cataclysm of floods and eruptions.
"That is the Atlantis story told by Plato," Feder says. "It's 'Star Wars' circa 350 B.C."
That's the line that a producer wanted Feder to use in a documentary a few years ago. But there was a catch. Would Feder be willing to tailor his yarn to make Atlantis seem real? Or at least leave its existence open-ended?
Feder refused and soon discovered that the "documentary film" was in fact a glorified advertisement for the 2001 animated Disney movie "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." Feder says several of his colleagues who had signed on unwittingly later watched in horror as their drastically edited words were spliced with cartoon scenes of underwater action.
But maybe that kind of appropriation explains why the legend still lingers. Severed long ago from the context that a famous Greek gave it, Atlantis becomes a ghost story, a lost treasure, a mysterious monster.
"For a lot of people, this would just be really cool if it were true," Feder says. "It would be really cool if Bigfoot were real. I don't really know that it is or isn't, but it's cool to tell stories about it at 2 in the morning."
The big legends wax and wane with the years. The Bermuda Triangle. Ancient astronauts. The UFO encounters at Roswell. But Feder thinks he's seen an increase in people's belief in the unbelievable.
The professor often starts new classes with a survey, asking students about their take on certain aspects of history. Twenty years ago, about 30 percent of his students said that Atlantis existed. But by 2000, almost half of the surveyed students were believers.
"I think that pattern directly reflects how many documentaries on (pseudoscientific subjects) show up on television, especially cable TV," Feder says.
Whether the media drives public interest or vice versa, it's obvious that legends like Atlantis will always hold cultural currency.
Perhaps that's why Robert Sarmast, who gave up a career in architecture to pursue Atlantis, rushed to announce his findings to the international press instead of trying to publish them in a peer-reviewed journal, the only way to secure credibility in the scientific community.
"I'm going to assume that the guy's honest and sincere and he really thinks there's this connection," Feder says of Sarmast. "But for anyone looking at it from the outside, there just isn't enough information."
Boston.com News
By John Jurgensen
November 25, 2004
The lost land of Atlantis has been discovered. Again.
In a press conference last week, a U.S. researcher named Robert Sarmast announced that his six-day expedition had detected evidence of man-made structures on the Mediterranean seabed off Cyprus.
Not only had sonar scanners picked up the ghostly contours of walls and trenches on a rectangular landmass, he said, but these features matched the descriptions in the original account of Atlantis.
In the years before he died in 347 B.C., the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis as a wildly advanced civilization that was wiped out in a flash 9,000 years before his time.
"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar, as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment," Sarmast said in an accompanying press release, "but the circumstantial and other evidence is now irrefutable."
When he read about this declaration on the BBC's Web site, Kenneth Feder didn't even have to get out of his desk chair to dispute it.
An archaeologist who has taught at Central Connecticut State University for more than 25 years, Feder rejects Sarmast's claim and the countless others that have come before it with the same simple argument -- namely, that Atlantis' only location was in the imagination of the man who first described it.
But that rationale hasn't prevented Feder from using the myth for his own purposes.
"My agenda is to use this stuff to teach what we really know about the past," he says.
Feder, who lives in West Simsbury, focuses most of his own field work along the Farmington River, unearthing evidence of the Indians and settlers who subsisted there. But through the years, Feder has nurtured an expertise in historical hooey on the side.
First published in 1990, his book "Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology" is about to go into its fifth edition. Last month he lectured on Atlantis at a gathering of skeptics in Italy. And he holds forth on the watery mystery in a documentary scheduled for broadcast on the National Geographic Channel program "Naked Science."
Tucked in his stuffed campus office where the "Donner Party Cookbook" sits on a shelf below a cartoon of a pre-human Homer Simpson, Feder says he makes one demand of Atlantis enthusiasts.
"My rule is you can't even use the word Atlantis in a sentence unless you can tell me you've read Plato."
The legend of the lost continent emerges in dialogues between Socrates and his students that Plato wrote down. The point that many people miss, Feder says, is that most of these instructive dialogues were fictional, like conversations between characters in a play.
"Atlantis is a plot device. Plato has a very specific agenda in his mind, and he needs Atlantis to prove what he's trying to say," Feder says.
The student Critias tells his teacher the "true" story of the powerful but morally corrupt land of Atlantis, which goes to war with the weak but noble Athens. The evil empire gets whipped in battle by its worthier opponent before eventually getting swallowed in a cataclysm of floods and eruptions.
"That is the Atlantis story told by Plato," Feder says. "It's 'Star Wars' circa 350 B.C."
That's the line that a producer wanted Feder to use in a documentary a few years ago. But there was a catch. Would Feder be willing to tailor his yarn to make Atlantis seem real? Or at least leave its existence open-ended?
Feder refused and soon discovered that the "documentary film" was in fact a glorified advertisement for the 2001 animated Disney movie "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." Feder says several of his colleagues who had signed on unwittingly later watched in horror as their drastically edited words were spliced with cartoon scenes of underwater action.
But maybe that kind of appropriation explains why the legend still lingers. Severed long ago from the context that a famous Greek gave it, Atlantis becomes a ghost story, a lost treasure, a mysterious monster.
"For a lot of people, this would just be really cool if it were true," Feder says. "It would be really cool if Bigfoot were real. I don't really know that it is or isn't, but it's cool to tell stories about it at 2 in the morning."
The big legends wax and wane with the years. The Bermuda Triangle. Ancient astronauts. The UFO encounters at Roswell. But Feder thinks he's seen an increase in people's belief in the unbelievable.
The professor often starts new classes with a survey, asking students about their take on certain aspects of history. Twenty years ago, about 30 percent of his students said that Atlantis existed. But by 2000, almost half of the surveyed students were believers.
"I think that pattern directly reflects how many documentaries on (pseudoscientific subjects) show up on television, especially cable TV," Feder says.
Whether the media drives public interest or vice versa, it's obvious that legends like Atlantis will always hold cultural currency.
Perhaps that's why Robert Sarmast, who gave up a career in architecture to pursue Atlantis, rushed to announce his findings to the international press instead of trying to publish them in a peer-reviewed journal, the only way to secure credibility in the scientific community.
"I'm going to assume that the guy's honest and sincere and he really thinks there's this connection," Feder says of Sarmast. "But for anyone looking at it from the outside, there just isn't enough information."
Row over Coke mineral water plan
__________________________________________________________________________________
BBC News
An application by Coca-Cola to re-open a well - closed for a century - to extract Malvern Hills mineral water has worried environmentalists.
The company said the move will not be detrimental to the area, but local people have questioned the claim.
There are records about Walms Well dating back to 250BC and calls have been made for more archaeological studies before water is extracted.
Coca-Cola is to meet local people next week to discuss their concerns.
Rose Garrard, Malvern Spa Association The company wants to substantially increase the extraction of the spa water, from the levels that were originally drawn.
Rose Garrard, Vice Chairman of the Malvern Spa Association, said she is unhappy about the way the planning application is being handled.
"The well is just inside Hereford's border, so they are dealing with the application," she said. "But all the environmental organisations are on the Worcestershire side, so there has been no consultation with us".
She told BBC News they wanted a professional archaeological survey carried out before any water was extracted.
"The well has a concrete cap and who knows what artefacts may be there," she said.
'Consistent flow'
"There are records of a Celtic trackway to the well in 250BC, so the site is of great historical interest, in an area of outstanding natural beauty."
Coca-Cola said in a statement their existing licence from the Environment Agency allows them to take 40m litres of water each year from the Malvern Hills, but is currently drawing only 27m litres.
It said its proposal to draw from Walms Well spring would not top the 40m litre level and would simply "ensure a consistent flow is available throughout the year".
As part of the legal requirement for the application, the firm contracted experts to carry out a preliminary environmental impact study, which it said has demonstrated extraction would not harm the area.
BBC News
An application by Coca-Cola to re-open a well - closed for a century - to extract Malvern Hills mineral water has worried environmentalists.
The company said the move will not be detrimental to the area, but local people have questioned the claim.
There are records about Walms Well dating back to 250BC and calls have been made for more archaeological studies before water is extracted.
Coca-Cola is to meet local people next week to discuss their concerns.
Rose Garrard, Malvern Spa Association The company wants to substantially increase the extraction of the spa water, from the levels that were originally drawn.
Rose Garrard, Vice Chairman of the Malvern Spa Association, said she is unhappy about the way the planning application is being handled.
"The well is just inside Hereford's border, so they are dealing with the application," she said. "But all the environmental organisations are on the Worcestershire side, so there has been no consultation with us".
She told BBC News they wanted a professional archaeological survey carried out before any water was extracted.
"The well has a concrete cap and who knows what artefacts may be there," she said.
'Consistent flow'
"There are records of a Celtic trackway to the well in 250BC, so the site is of great historical interest, in an area of outstanding natural beauty."
Coca-Cola said in a statement their existing licence from the Environment Agency allows them to take 40m litres of water each year from the Malvern Hills, but is currently drawing only 27m litres.
It said its proposal to draw from Walms Well spring would not top the 40m litre level and would simply "ensure a consistent flow is available throughout the year".
As part of the legal requirement for the application, the firm contracted experts to carry out a preliminary environmental impact study, which it said has demonstrated extraction would not harm the area.
Stone age relics found off coast
_________________________________________________________________
BBC News
Image of the stone age site courtesy
of All Dive Video Projects.
The site of a stone age settlement, preserved under layers of silt, has been discovered off the coast of the Isle of Wight.
Included in the find is a fire pit, presumed to be an oven, which was first used about 9,000 years ago.
The settlement, now thirty feet beneath the sea and 500 yards off the coast of Bouldnor, was found by divers.
The Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology hope to gather funds for a full investigation.
A small flint tool was also found embedded in a piece of wood near the oven.
More details of the finds will be given at a public lecture in Newport on Thursday.
BBC News
Image of the stone age site courtesy
of All Dive Video Projects.
The site of a stone age settlement, preserved under layers of silt, has been discovered off the coast of the Isle of Wight.
Included in the find is a fire pit, presumed to be an oven, which was first used about 9,000 years ago.
The settlement, now thirty feet beneath the sea and 500 yards off the coast of Bouldnor, was found by divers.
The Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology hope to gather funds for a full investigation.
A small flint tool was also found embedded in a piece of wood near the oven.
More details of the finds will be given at a public lecture in Newport on Thursday.
Friday, November 26, 2004
New Protection For Sunken Military Vessels And Aircraft Enacted
__________________________________________________________________________________
Navy News Stand
From Naval Historical Center Public Affairs
Story Number: NNS041124-07
Release Date: 11/24/2004 10:35:00 AM
Official U.S. Navy file photo of a 3”/50-caliber
gun mounted on the starboard bow side of the
USS Susan B. Anthony’ (AP-72). The Susan B.
Anthony, a troop transport, struck a sea-mine
and sank on June 7, 1944. The booms and
damage to the number one hold (at the bow)
are easy to see in this image. Title XIV of the
recently passed 2005 National Defense
Authorization Act (Public Law Number 108-375),
preserves the sovereign status of sunken U.S.
military vessels and aircraft by codifying both
their protected sovereign status and permanent
U.S. ownership regardless of the passage of time.
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- On October 28, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the fiscal year 2005 National Defense Authorization Act. Title XIV of the Act (Public Law Number 108-375), preserves the sovereign status of sunken U.S. military vessels and aircraft by codifying both their protected sovereign status and permanent U.S. ownership regardless of the passage of time Oct. 28.
The purpose of Title XIV, generally referred to as the Sunken Military Craft act (SMCa), is to protect sunken military vessels and aircraft and the remains of their crews from unauthorized disturbance.
"Thousands of U.S. government warships and military aircraft lie in waters around the world," said Dr. Robert Neyland, Underwater Archaeology Branch, Naval Historical Center. "Recent advances in technology have made these wrecks accessible to looters, treasure-hunters, and others who may cause damage. With this legal protection, the potential for irreversible harm to important historical resources is significantly reduced.”
Moreover, many military wrecks are the final resting places of Americans who died defending our country. Unauthorized disturbance threatens the sanctity of these war graves.
“This issue is a growing concern both nationally and internationally because in addition to war graves, many sunken warships and aircraft contain objects of a sensitive archaeological or historical nature”, said Neyland.
The new law codifies commonly understood principles of international law and existing case law confirming that sunken U.S. military vessels and aircraft are sovereign property. This new statute provides for archaeological research permits and civil enforcement measures, including substantial fines, to prevent unauthorized disturbance.
The Department of the Navy will issue implementing regulations authorized under this law consistent with present permitting procedures.
This law does not affect salvage of commercial merchant shipwrecks. It does not impact the traditional uses of the sea, including commercial fishing, recreational diving, laying of submarine cables and pipelines, and the routine operation of ships.
Information regarding Department of the Navy policy and procedures with regard to sunken Navy ship and aircraft wrecks is available online at www.history.navy.mil under the Underwater Archaeology Branch section.
The current application guidelines for archaeological research permits on ship and aircraft wrecks under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy are located in 32 Code of Regulations Chapter VI, Part 767.
For related news, visit the Naval Historical Center Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/navhist.
Navy News Stand
From Naval Historical Center Public Affairs
Story Number: NNS041124-07
Release Date: 11/24/2004 10:35:00 AM
Official U.S. Navy file photo of a 3”/50-caliber
gun mounted on the starboard bow side of the
USS Susan B. Anthony’ (AP-72). The Susan B.
Anthony, a troop transport, struck a sea-mine
and sank on June 7, 1944. The booms and
damage to the number one hold (at the bow)
are easy to see in this image. Title XIV of the
recently passed 2005 National Defense
Authorization Act (Public Law Number 108-375),
preserves the sovereign status of sunken U.S.
military vessels and aircraft by codifying both
their protected sovereign status and permanent
U.S. ownership regardless of the passage of time.
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- On October 28, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the fiscal year 2005 National Defense Authorization Act. Title XIV of the Act (Public Law Number 108-375), preserves the sovereign status of sunken U.S. military vessels and aircraft by codifying both their protected sovereign status and permanent U.S. ownership regardless of the passage of time Oct. 28.
The purpose of Title XIV, generally referred to as the Sunken Military Craft act (SMCa), is to protect sunken military vessels and aircraft and the remains of their crews from unauthorized disturbance.
"Thousands of U.S. government warships and military aircraft lie in waters around the world," said Dr. Robert Neyland, Underwater Archaeology Branch, Naval Historical Center. "Recent advances in technology have made these wrecks accessible to looters, treasure-hunters, and others who may cause damage. With this legal protection, the potential for irreversible harm to important historical resources is significantly reduced.”
Moreover, many military wrecks are the final resting places of Americans who died defending our country. Unauthorized disturbance threatens the sanctity of these war graves.
“This issue is a growing concern both nationally and internationally because in addition to war graves, many sunken warships and aircraft contain objects of a sensitive archaeological or historical nature”, said Neyland.
The new law codifies commonly understood principles of international law and existing case law confirming that sunken U.S. military vessels and aircraft are sovereign property. This new statute provides for archaeological research permits and civil enforcement measures, including substantial fines, to prevent unauthorized disturbance.
The Department of the Navy will issue implementing regulations authorized under this law consistent with present permitting procedures.
This law does not affect salvage of commercial merchant shipwrecks. It does not impact the traditional uses of the sea, including commercial fishing, recreational diving, laying of submarine cables and pipelines, and the routine operation of ships.
Information regarding Department of the Navy policy and procedures with regard to sunken Navy ship and aircraft wrecks is available online at www.history.navy.mil under the Underwater Archaeology Branch section.
The current application guidelines for archaeological research permits on ship and aircraft wrecks under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy are located in 32 Code of Regulations Chapter VI, Part 767.
For related news, visit the Naval Historical Center Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/navhist.
Ogivas nucleares "repousam" ao largo das ilhas açorianas
__________________________________________________________________________________
Expresso das Nove
Ruben Medeiros
17-09-2004
USS SCORPION (SSN-589)
Um submarino nuclear americano está afundado a 640 quilómetros dos Açores. Há 36 anos que os seus destroços repousam no fundo do mar sem que se saiba que perigos podem advir deste facto.
O caso continua envolto em mistério e secretismo. Há já algumas dezenas de anos que os habitantes do arquipélago podem estar expostos aos perigos da radioactividade sem que disso tenham real consciência.
O afundamento do USS Scorpion, submarino nuclear norte-americano, ao largo da Zona Económica Exclusiva açoriana, é, inclusivamente, desconhecido por várias personalidades políticas e científicas regionais.
Cerca de 400 milhas a sudoeste dos Açores encontra-se depositado no fundo do mar o que resta do submarino norte-americano USS Scorpion. Mas, mais importante do que isso é o facto de nunca terem sido retiradas dos destroços as duas ogivas nucleares nem os reactores nucleares que o submarino transportava à data do seu afundamento (22 de Maio de 1968).
Apesar do material estar localizado em águas internacionais, as autoridades norte-americanas têm impedido, até hoje, que outros estudiosos tenham acesso ao local e possam efectuar investigações.
Numa das últimas grandes avaliações levadas a cabo por cientistas dos Estados Unidos, há quase vinte anos, em 1986, a conclusão não poderia ter sido mais lacónica e intranquila: não está provado que haja perigo de libertação de material radioactivo. No entanto, também ninguém pode assegurar a 100% que tal não venha a acontecer ou já tenha acontecido.
Esta é uma resposta insuficiente face aos reais perigos - depositados a 3.048 metros de profundidade - que estão aqui em causa. E, até à data, mais de três décadas volvidas sobre o misterioso desaparecimento do submarino nuclear, a esmagadora maioria da documentação existente sobre o USS Scorpion continua classificada como secreta pelas autoridades militares norte-americanas.
Até ao momento, desconhecem-se as verdadeiras causas que levaram ao afundamento do Scorpion. No entanto, sabe-se que o nome do submarino é citado no pior escândalo da história da secreta norte-americana, a célebre CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) - no famoso caso Walker (ver na página seguinte).
Apesar deste dossiê ser desconhecido por grande parte da opinião pública, também há cientistas da Universidade dos Açores que têm conhecimento do caso. Alguns estabeleceram contacto com a armada americana, a fim de obter mais dados, já que os destroços estão localizados numa região vulcânica.
A informação recebida foi parca e adiantava que regularmente são feitas monitorizações no local do incidente para detectar se o material nuclear está ou não a ser corroído. Para além disso, a armada norte-americana já afirmou que os reactores utilizados em todos os submarinos e navios com origem em terras do tio Sam são concebidos para minimizar o impacto no meio ambiente em caso de acidente.
O que não deixa completamente tranquilo quem tem conhecimento do caso. Aliás, o EXPRESSO DAS NOVE apurou que há quem, na comunidade científica, admita a hipótese dos elevados índices de mercúrio detectados, há alguns anos, em determinadas espécies piscícolas, estarem directamente relacionados com o Scorpion.
Uma hipótese meramente académica, mas que, no entender de especialistas, não deve deixar de ser levada em conta.
A nossa reportagem tentou obter reacções de vários cientistas nacionais conhecedores do problema, bem como de diversos organismos oficiais, mas nenhuma das pessoas ou entidades contactadas aceitou prestar declarações sobre tão controverso, polémico e secreto dossiê.
Curiosamente, apesar de serem vários os que afirmam desconhecer a existência do USS Scorpion, a nossa reportagem apurou também que o mesmo já foi alvo de um trabalho académico realizado na Universidade dos Açores, no âmbito da disciplina de Poluição do departamento de Biologia. No entanto, todos os esforços encetados no sentido de contactar os autores do referido trabalho não foram bem sucedidos.
Governo Regional conhece o caso
O afundamento do submarino norte-americano, bem como o facto do material nuclear que este transportava a bordo nunca ter sido retirado do fundo do mar são dados que o Executivo Regional conhece.
Contactada pelo EXPRESSO DAS NOVE, fonte da Secretaria Regional do Ambiente adiantou que em 1993 a tutela recebeu um relatório com informação sobre o caso Scorpion, remetido pelo então Ministério do Ambiente.
No documento, eram citadas as conclusões do trabalho realizado em 1986 pelas autoridades americanas, as quais afirmavam que não tinham sido detectados quaisquer vestígios de contaminação radioactiva na zona do acidente.
A mesma fonte garantiu-nos ainda que das análises periódicas que são feitas às águas junto à costa e nas zonas balneares nunca foram detectados valores anormais ou que indiciassem qualquer atentado ambiental. O dossiê Scorpion está sob a responsabilidade do Governo da República. No entanto, o caso não parece merecer grande atenção do Executivo central.
A última missão do submarino USS Scorpion
Ninguém desconfiava da arma poderosa que os inimigos russos detinham: os códigos utilizados pelos submarinos americanos. A informação havia sido passada por Walker, um oficial da marinha norte-americana, que protagonizou o pior escândalo de espionagem do País e que poderá mesmo ter conduzido o Scorpion ao fundo do mar.
Desde o início da actividade, em 1959, que o submarino norte-americano navegava nas profundezas do mar vigiando os navios russos. A bordo do USS Scorpion seguia uma experiente equipa de marinheiros, entre os quais intérpretes de russo que interceptavam e traduziam as informações transmitidas pelos militares inimigos a outras unidades em terra.
A 17 de Maio de 1968, o USS Scorpion efectuou a sua última missão. Após três meses de serviço no Mediterrâneo, os militares preparavam-se para regressar a casa quando o comandante recebeu novas ordens. As ilhas Canárias eram o próximo destino.
A missão era clara: vigiar um grupo de embarcações soviéticas. O submarino demorou cinco dias numa viagem que terminaria, de forma abrupta, ao largo dos Açores, onde permanecem, ainda hoje, os respectivos destroços.
Os 99 tripulantes que iam a bordo morreram. Contudo, dois militares que faziam, inicialmente, parte desse grupo, e que, no entretanto, haviam saído do submersível, permanecem vivos.
O EXPRESSO DAS NOVE também tentou falar com um deles, mas até ao fecho da nossa reportagem não obtivemos qualquer resposta de Alan Stricklind, ex-membro da tripulação.
Nunca se chegou efectivamente a saber como ocorreu este desastre. Inicialmente, especulou-se que tinha sido um dos dois torpedos transportados pelo Scorpion a causar o afundamento.
No entanto, esta teoria foi rapidamente abandonada fruto de uma segunda investigação que encontrou as duas armas nucleares intactas no fundo do mar.
O caso continua a ser considerado pelo Pentágono como “top secret”. E há mesmo quem defenda a hipótese de o afundamento do Scorpion ter sido desencadeado pelas próprias autoridades norte-americanas em virtude dos soviéticos terem um alegado conhecimento pormenorizado acerca da embarcação norte-americana.
Outra teoria avançada revela que o afundamento do submarino poderá ter sido causado por um incidente com um submarino russo que, na altura, também se encontraria no local, mas nada disso é confirmado, quer pelas autoridades norte-americanas quer pelas russas. A última vez que se soube do submarino foi a 17 de Maio.
Cinco dias depois deu-se o afundamento. Foram necessários mais de cinco meses para detectar a respectiva localização.
Ainda hoje há quem defenda, quer nos EUA quer na ex-URSS, que com o afundamento do Scorpion ficou também guardado um dos maiores “segredos” da Guerra Fria, razão pela qual actualmente - mais de 36 anos depois - as autoridades russas e norte-americanas continuam a considerar o Scorpion um assunto da mais alta confidencialidade.
Mais material radioactivo no mar
MSC Carla.
A 110 milhas da costa norte da ilha de S. Miguel está “enterrado” mais uma embarcação que, à data do naufrágio, continha material radioactivo.
A 25 de Novembro de 1997, o cargueiro com registo no Panamá chamado MSC Carla fez a sua última viagem perto das águas açorianas.
A bordo seguiam 11 toneladas de césio 137 acondicionado em barris de aço de 330 TetraBq.
O césio 137 é um isótopo radioactivo, proveniente da fissão de urânio ou plutónio. Embora este componente químico não emita vapores, nem gases, é facilmente detectável pelos meios de radiação fruto da sua alta perigosidade.
Presentemente, os destroços desta embarcação com bandeira panamiana continuam a 3.000 metros de profundidade, a 110 milhas da maior ilha açoriana.
Apesar da legislação internacional, já ratificada por Portugal, relativamente ao transporte de materiais radioactivos ser clara, a mesma nem sempre é cumprida.
A lei determina que o material radioactivo seja transportado em cápsulas hermeticamente fechadas, passíveis de aguentar o desgaste, de modo a que a saúde humana e o meio ambiente estejam a salvo de um acidente.
USS Scorpion links (1, 2, 3)
MSC Carla links (1, 2, 3)
Expresso das Nove
Ruben Medeiros
17-09-2004
USS SCORPION (SSN-589)
Um submarino nuclear americano está afundado a 640 quilómetros dos Açores. Há 36 anos que os seus destroços repousam no fundo do mar sem que se saiba que perigos podem advir deste facto.
O caso continua envolto em mistério e secretismo. Há já algumas dezenas de anos que os habitantes do arquipélago podem estar expostos aos perigos da radioactividade sem que disso tenham real consciência.
O afundamento do USS Scorpion, submarino nuclear norte-americano, ao largo da Zona Económica Exclusiva açoriana, é, inclusivamente, desconhecido por várias personalidades políticas e científicas regionais.
Cerca de 400 milhas a sudoeste dos Açores encontra-se depositado no fundo do mar o que resta do submarino norte-americano USS Scorpion. Mas, mais importante do que isso é o facto de nunca terem sido retiradas dos destroços as duas ogivas nucleares nem os reactores nucleares que o submarino transportava à data do seu afundamento (22 de Maio de 1968).
Apesar do material estar localizado em águas internacionais, as autoridades norte-americanas têm impedido, até hoje, que outros estudiosos tenham acesso ao local e possam efectuar investigações.
Numa das últimas grandes avaliações levadas a cabo por cientistas dos Estados Unidos, há quase vinte anos, em 1986, a conclusão não poderia ter sido mais lacónica e intranquila: não está provado que haja perigo de libertação de material radioactivo. No entanto, também ninguém pode assegurar a 100% que tal não venha a acontecer ou já tenha acontecido.
Esta é uma resposta insuficiente face aos reais perigos - depositados a 3.048 metros de profundidade - que estão aqui em causa. E, até à data, mais de três décadas volvidas sobre o misterioso desaparecimento do submarino nuclear, a esmagadora maioria da documentação existente sobre o USS Scorpion continua classificada como secreta pelas autoridades militares norte-americanas.
Até ao momento, desconhecem-se as verdadeiras causas que levaram ao afundamento do Scorpion. No entanto, sabe-se que o nome do submarino é citado no pior escândalo da história da secreta norte-americana, a célebre CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) - no famoso caso Walker (ver na página seguinte).
Apesar deste dossiê ser desconhecido por grande parte da opinião pública, também há cientistas da Universidade dos Açores que têm conhecimento do caso. Alguns estabeleceram contacto com a armada americana, a fim de obter mais dados, já que os destroços estão localizados numa região vulcânica.
A informação recebida foi parca e adiantava que regularmente são feitas monitorizações no local do incidente para detectar se o material nuclear está ou não a ser corroído. Para além disso, a armada norte-americana já afirmou que os reactores utilizados em todos os submarinos e navios com origem em terras do tio Sam são concebidos para minimizar o impacto no meio ambiente em caso de acidente.
O que não deixa completamente tranquilo quem tem conhecimento do caso. Aliás, o EXPRESSO DAS NOVE apurou que há quem, na comunidade científica, admita a hipótese dos elevados índices de mercúrio detectados, há alguns anos, em determinadas espécies piscícolas, estarem directamente relacionados com o Scorpion.
Uma hipótese meramente académica, mas que, no entender de especialistas, não deve deixar de ser levada em conta.
A nossa reportagem tentou obter reacções de vários cientistas nacionais conhecedores do problema, bem como de diversos organismos oficiais, mas nenhuma das pessoas ou entidades contactadas aceitou prestar declarações sobre tão controverso, polémico e secreto dossiê.
Curiosamente, apesar de serem vários os que afirmam desconhecer a existência do USS Scorpion, a nossa reportagem apurou também que o mesmo já foi alvo de um trabalho académico realizado na Universidade dos Açores, no âmbito da disciplina de Poluição do departamento de Biologia. No entanto, todos os esforços encetados no sentido de contactar os autores do referido trabalho não foram bem sucedidos.
Governo Regional conhece o caso
O afundamento do submarino norte-americano, bem como o facto do material nuclear que este transportava a bordo nunca ter sido retirado do fundo do mar são dados que o Executivo Regional conhece.
Contactada pelo EXPRESSO DAS NOVE, fonte da Secretaria Regional do Ambiente adiantou que em 1993 a tutela recebeu um relatório com informação sobre o caso Scorpion, remetido pelo então Ministério do Ambiente.
No documento, eram citadas as conclusões do trabalho realizado em 1986 pelas autoridades americanas, as quais afirmavam que não tinham sido detectados quaisquer vestígios de contaminação radioactiva na zona do acidente.
A mesma fonte garantiu-nos ainda que das análises periódicas que são feitas às águas junto à costa e nas zonas balneares nunca foram detectados valores anormais ou que indiciassem qualquer atentado ambiental. O dossiê Scorpion está sob a responsabilidade do Governo da República. No entanto, o caso não parece merecer grande atenção do Executivo central.
A última missão do submarino USS Scorpion
Ninguém desconfiava da arma poderosa que os inimigos russos detinham: os códigos utilizados pelos submarinos americanos. A informação havia sido passada por Walker, um oficial da marinha norte-americana, que protagonizou o pior escândalo de espionagem do País e que poderá mesmo ter conduzido o Scorpion ao fundo do mar.
Desde o início da actividade, em 1959, que o submarino norte-americano navegava nas profundezas do mar vigiando os navios russos. A bordo do USS Scorpion seguia uma experiente equipa de marinheiros, entre os quais intérpretes de russo que interceptavam e traduziam as informações transmitidas pelos militares inimigos a outras unidades em terra.
A 17 de Maio de 1968, o USS Scorpion efectuou a sua última missão. Após três meses de serviço no Mediterrâneo, os militares preparavam-se para regressar a casa quando o comandante recebeu novas ordens. As ilhas Canárias eram o próximo destino.
A missão era clara: vigiar um grupo de embarcações soviéticas. O submarino demorou cinco dias numa viagem que terminaria, de forma abrupta, ao largo dos Açores, onde permanecem, ainda hoje, os respectivos destroços.
Os 99 tripulantes que iam a bordo morreram. Contudo, dois militares que faziam, inicialmente, parte desse grupo, e que, no entretanto, haviam saído do submersível, permanecem vivos.
O EXPRESSO DAS NOVE também tentou falar com um deles, mas até ao fecho da nossa reportagem não obtivemos qualquer resposta de Alan Stricklind, ex-membro da tripulação.
Nunca se chegou efectivamente a saber como ocorreu este desastre. Inicialmente, especulou-se que tinha sido um dos dois torpedos transportados pelo Scorpion a causar o afundamento.
No entanto, esta teoria foi rapidamente abandonada fruto de uma segunda investigação que encontrou as duas armas nucleares intactas no fundo do mar.
O caso continua a ser considerado pelo Pentágono como “top secret”. E há mesmo quem defenda a hipótese de o afundamento do Scorpion ter sido desencadeado pelas próprias autoridades norte-americanas em virtude dos soviéticos terem um alegado conhecimento pormenorizado acerca da embarcação norte-americana.
Outra teoria avançada revela que o afundamento do submarino poderá ter sido causado por um incidente com um submarino russo que, na altura, também se encontraria no local, mas nada disso é confirmado, quer pelas autoridades norte-americanas quer pelas russas. A última vez que se soube do submarino foi a 17 de Maio.
Cinco dias depois deu-se o afundamento. Foram necessários mais de cinco meses para detectar a respectiva localização.
Ainda hoje há quem defenda, quer nos EUA quer na ex-URSS, que com o afundamento do Scorpion ficou também guardado um dos maiores “segredos” da Guerra Fria, razão pela qual actualmente - mais de 36 anos depois - as autoridades russas e norte-americanas continuam a considerar o Scorpion um assunto da mais alta confidencialidade.
Mais material radioactivo no mar
MSC Carla.
A 110 milhas da costa norte da ilha de S. Miguel está “enterrado” mais uma embarcação que, à data do naufrágio, continha material radioactivo.
A 25 de Novembro de 1997, o cargueiro com registo no Panamá chamado MSC Carla fez a sua última viagem perto das águas açorianas.
A bordo seguiam 11 toneladas de césio 137 acondicionado em barris de aço de 330 TetraBq.
O césio 137 é um isótopo radioactivo, proveniente da fissão de urânio ou plutónio. Embora este componente químico não emita vapores, nem gases, é facilmente detectável pelos meios de radiação fruto da sua alta perigosidade.
Presentemente, os destroços desta embarcação com bandeira panamiana continuam a 3.000 metros de profundidade, a 110 milhas da maior ilha açoriana.
Apesar da legislação internacional, já ratificada por Portugal, relativamente ao transporte de materiais radioactivos ser clara, a mesma nem sempre é cumprida.
A lei determina que o material radioactivo seja transportado em cápsulas hermeticamente fechadas, passíveis de aguentar o desgaste, de modo a que a saúde humana e o meio ambiente estejam a salvo de um acidente.
USS Scorpion links (1, 2, 3)
MSC Carla links (1, 2, 3)
Shipworm threatens marine archeological remains in the Baltic
__________________________________________________________________________________
Innovations Report
Shipworm has spread to the Baltic Sea. If it continues to spread, it threatens to destroy still well-preserved and irreplaceable shipwrecks and other marine archeological remains along the coast of Sweden, according to Carl Olof Cederlund, professor of marine archeology at Södertörn University College in Stockholm and the Swedish representative in the EU project that has now determined the spread of shipworm to the Baltic for the first time.
“Up till now the Baltic has been regarded as a haven against shipworm. This is one of the reasons why it was possible to find the royal warship Wasa and other large wooden vessels in such excellent condition after centuries at the bottom of the sea,” adds Carl Olof Cederlund.
The EU project has been carried out by six countries and is now presenting its results regarding the protection and preservation of underwater cultural environments, primarily well-preserved shipwrecks in northern Europe.
One of the wrecks is the Dutch snaubrigg Vrouw Maria, which sank in the Finnish archipelago in 1771. It is still fully preserved, with its rigging intact. It has not been attacked by shipworm, which, on the other hand, is the case with a kogg from the 13th century off the German Baltic coast.
German scientists involved in the project have been able to show that the wreck evinces extensive damage from shipworm, Teredo Navalis. It remains to be determined just how shipworm has managed to get a foothold in the Baltic.
It may have been brought in with water of higher salinity that penetrated the Danish Belts, in connection with storms, for example. It may also be that shipworm from other marine areas has been carried onboard vessels into the Baltic and released with ballast water there.
In Sweden the EU project has focused on the steam wheeler E. Nordevall, launch in 1837, one of the first steamships built in Sweden, which sank in 1856. Today it lies intact at the bottom of Lake Vättern. The E. Nordevall played a central role in the discussion about and development of methods for bringing to life old shipwrecks.
One way of making a well-preserved shipwreck of advanced age available to the general public is to build a full-scale model of it. A replica, Eric Nordevall II, is now being built at the Forsvik Dockyards in the municipality of Karlsborg.
The aim is for the replica to ply the routes of the original ship, carrying passengers. Another thought is to be able to display the vessel to the public at the bottom of the lake. “It’s not unrealistic to use modern digital technology to transmit direct images of the ship from the bottom of the lake to a museum along Vätternstranden,” says Carl Olof Cederlund.
The three-year EU project is called Monitoring, Safeguarding and Visualizing North European Shipwreck Sites, abbreviated MoSS. The project is the first project in marine archeology to be supported by the EU’s European Community Culture 2000 Program. It is organized and executed by partners in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
The initiative and coordinating center is Finnish, the Section for Marine Archeology at the National Board of Antiquities in Finland. Södertörn University College is the Swedish partner, and Carl Olof Cederlund, professor of marine archeology there, is Sweden’s representative.
The Foundation for Baltic and Eastern European Studies has provided the Swedish part of the project funding.
The address to the project’s Web page is: http://www.mossproject.com
Innovations Report
Shipworm has spread to the Baltic Sea. If it continues to spread, it threatens to destroy still well-preserved and irreplaceable shipwrecks and other marine archeological remains along the coast of Sweden, according to Carl Olof Cederlund, professor of marine archeology at Södertörn University College in Stockholm and the Swedish representative in the EU project that has now determined the spread of shipworm to the Baltic for the first time.
“Up till now the Baltic has been regarded as a haven against shipworm. This is one of the reasons why it was possible to find the royal warship Wasa and other large wooden vessels in such excellent condition after centuries at the bottom of the sea,” adds Carl Olof Cederlund.
The EU project has been carried out by six countries and is now presenting its results regarding the protection and preservation of underwater cultural environments, primarily well-preserved shipwrecks in northern Europe.
One of the wrecks is the Dutch snaubrigg Vrouw Maria, which sank in the Finnish archipelago in 1771. It is still fully preserved, with its rigging intact. It has not been attacked by shipworm, which, on the other hand, is the case with a kogg from the 13th century off the German Baltic coast.
German scientists involved in the project have been able to show that the wreck evinces extensive damage from shipworm, Teredo Navalis. It remains to be determined just how shipworm has managed to get a foothold in the Baltic.
It may have been brought in with water of higher salinity that penetrated the Danish Belts, in connection with storms, for example. It may also be that shipworm from other marine areas has been carried onboard vessels into the Baltic and released with ballast water there.
In Sweden the EU project has focused on the steam wheeler E. Nordevall, launch in 1837, one of the first steamships built in Sweden, which sank in 1856. Today it lies intact at the bottom of Lake Vättern. The E. Nordevall played a central role in the discussion about and development of methods for bringing to life old shipwrecks.
One way of making a well-preserved shipwreck of advanced age available to the general public is to build a full-scale model of it. A replica, Eric Nordevall II, is now being built at the Forsvik Dockyards in the municipality of Karlsborg.
The aim is for the replica to ply the routes of the original ship, carrying passengers. Another thought is to be able to display the vessel to the public at the bottom of the lake. “It’s not unrealistic to use modern digital technology to transmit direct images of the ship from the bottom of the lake to a museum along Vätternstranden,” says Carl Olof Cederlund.
The three-year EU project is called Monitoring, Safeguarding and Visualizing North European Shipwreck Sites, abbreviated MoSS. The project is the first project in marine archeology to be supported by the EU’s European Community Culture 2000 Program. It is organized and executed by partners in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
The initiative and coordinating center is Finnish, the Section for Marine Archeology at the National Board of Antiquities in Finland. Södertörn University College is the Swedish partner, and Carl Olof Cederlund, professor of marine archeology there, is Sweden’s representative.
The Foundation for Baltic and Eastern European Studies has provided the Swedish part of the project funding.
The address to the project’s Web page is: http://www.mossproject.com
Harris wants national showcase for Island’s underwater artefacts
__________________________________________________________________________________
The Royal Gazette
By Eloisa Mayers
A national collection of precious underwater artefacts should be established through legislation and made fully accessible to the public, according to a well-known local historian and archaeologist.
Executive director of the Maritime Museum, Dr. Edward Harris, told The Royal Gazette that recent amendments to the Historic Wrecks Act protect artefacts from treasure hunters.
But it is also hoped that community will eventually have access to a national collection where artefacts are showcased and preserved.
The Historic Wrecks Act was passed in 2001 and conforms with UNESCO’s Convention on underwater culture also adopted that year. After the act was tabled during the last Parliamentary session, Dr. Philippe Rouja, a custodian of Historic Wrecks, was appointed.
The custodian acts as a licensing authority to protect underwater artefacts. Recent changes in the act were the redefining a historic wreck as being of at least 50 years old, rather than 100, and the removal of provisions for financially compensating divers who recover objects from wrecks.
The bill protects historic artefacts from shipwrecks and forbids the disturbance of a site without a licence. After the initial bill was passed, the bill allowed for a six-month amnesty period for people to report artefacts already in their private collections, but which were collected without a licence.
Dr. Harris said the legislation was practical and forward thinking, but that having a digital collection is not a replacement for an established and active national collection of the real artefacts. The issue is increasingly important to historians, said Dr. Harris particularly since the Maritime Museum is planning to have a exhibit on shipwrecks late next year.
“Government needs to actually own and possess a national collection,” he said. “They must be artefacts that belong to the nation and to the community which are kept for everyone to view for the future.”
There are a couple of thousand precious artefacts in the Bermuda collection, according to Dr. Harris, but they have not yet been officially defined as a national collection.
Shadow Environment Minister Cole Simons also spotted loopholes in the legislation including the reporting of precious artefacts.
Mr. Simons said divers must be given incentives to report their underwater finds with a reward or a system for compensation. Mr. Simons contends this would ensure no artefacts go missing.
Dr. Rouja told The Royal Gazette that several hundred historical artefacts had been recently received and several members of the public have come forward allowing Government access to their private collections.
The present collection of underwater artefacts includes hundreds of pieces of precious objects on display at the Maritime Museum and the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.
“At the moment we’re building policies and procedures that do engage the public as protection of these items is very high on our list of priorities,” said Dr. Rouja.
“There will be a virtual collection whereby the objects are accessible and can go on loans to different museums.” Mr. Simons said a well-known local diver has told him not one new finding has been submitted for registration over the last three years.
He also called for marine policing and education, as well as policies or regulations that apply to divers from other jurisdictions who may uncover historical artefacts in Bermuda’s waters.
He suggested a Maritime Coast Guard be appointed to work with the Marine Police and monitor diving activities.“If they’re concerned about culture and the collection of these items, then divers must be reimbursed for the cost of going down to the wreck to retrieve the items and for having them authenticated,” said Mr. Simons.
“If the Government is serious about preserving history, like anything else, they must work with stakeholders to encourage them to bring their findings to the surface.”
Failing to ensure proper recovery of artefacts, according to Mr. Simons, could result in illegal activity. “At the end of the day you don’t know what’s out there,” he said. “There could be a black market on the artefacts. It is very important to provide incentives to encourage people to turn in their findings and at least you can reward them for recovering these treasures.”
Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield did not respond to calls for comment on this story.
The Royal Gazette
By Eloisa Mayers
A national collection of precious underwater artefacts should be established through legislation and made fully accessible to the public, according to a well-known local historian and archaeologist.
Executive director of the Maritime Museum, Dr. Edward Harris, told The Royal Gazette that recent amendments to the Historic Wrecks Act protect artefacts from treasure hunters.
But it is also hoped that community will eventually have access to a national collection where artefacts are showcased and preserved.
The Historic Wrecks Act was passed in 2001 and conforms with UNESCO’s Convention on underwater culture also adopted that year. After the act was tabled during the last Parliamentary session, Dr. Philippe Rouja, a custodian of Historic Wrecks, was appointed.
The custodian acts as a licensing authority to protect underwater artefacts. Recent changes in the act were the redefining a historic wreck as being of at least 50 years old, rather than 100, and the removal of provisions for financially compensating divers who recover objects from wrecks.
The bill protects historic artefacts from shipwrecks and forbids the disturbance of a site without a licence. After the initial bill was passed, the bill allowed for a six-month amnesty period for people to report artefacts already in their private collections, but which were collected without a licence.
Dr. Harris said the legislation was practical and forward thinking, but that having a digital collection is not a replacement for an established and active national collection of the real artefacts. The issue is increasingly important to historians, said Dr. Harris particularly since the Maritime Museum is planning to have a exhibit on shipwrecks late next year.
“Government needs to actually own and possess a national collection,” he said. “They must be artefacts that belong to the nation and to the community which are kept for everyone to view for the future.”
There are a couple of thousand precious artefacts in the Bermuda collection, according to Dr. Harris, but they have not yet been officially defined as a national collection.
Shadow Environment Minister Cole Simons also spotted loopholes in the legislation including the reporting of precious artefacts.
Mr. Simons said divers must be given incentives to report their underwater finds with a reward or a system for compensation. Mr. Simons contends this would ensure no artefacts go missing.
Dr. Rouja told The Royal Gazette that several hundred historical artefacts had been recently received and several members of the public have come forward allowing Government access to their private collections.
The present collection of underwater artefacts includes hundreds of pieces of precious objects on display at the Maritime Museum and the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.
“At the moment we’re building policies and procedures that do engage the public as protection of these items is very high on our list of priorities,” said Dr. Rouja.
“There will be a virtual collection whereby the objects are accessible and can go on loans to different museums.” Mr. Simons said a well-known local diver has told him not one new finding has been submitted for registration over the last three years.
He also called for marine policing and education, as well as policies or regulations that apply to divers from other jurisdictions who may uncover historical artefacts in Bermuda’s waters.
He suggested a Maritime Coast Guard be appointed to work with the Marine Police and monitor diving activities.“If they’re concerned about culture and the collection of these items, then divers must be reimbursed for the cost of going down to the wreck to retrieve the items and for having them authenticated,” said Mr. Simons.
“If the Government is serious about preserving history, like anything else, they must work with stakeholders to encourage them to bring their findings to the surface.”
Failing to ensure proper recovery of artefacts, according to Mr. Simons, could result in illegal activity. “At the end of the day you don’t know what’s out there,” he said. “There could be a black market on the artefacts. It is very important to provide incentives to encourage people to turn in their findings and at least you can reward them for recovering these treasures.”
Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield did not respond to calls for comment on this story.
Cash backing for submarine museum
___________________________________________________________________________________
BBC News
An artist's impression of the proposed
submarine museum.
More than a century after Barrow-in-Furness built its first submarine, plans are being drawn up for a museum to celebrate its heritage.
The Submarine Heritage Centre has been given backing and provisional 50% funding from the urban regeneration company, West Lakes Renaissance (WLR).
The £5.5m project would be built alongside the existing Dock Museum.
It is hoped the key exhibit would be HMS Olympus, a Barrow-built submarine that served with the Canadian Navy.
'Robust' plan
Plans for a museum were first put forward three years ago by a group of submariners connected with the yard.
However, when Barrow's £10m regeneration master plan was being drawn up a more 'robust' business plan was demanded to justify what would be multi-million pound public funding.
After a change to the original site, and a focus group's findings that up to 50,000 visitors a year could be expected, WLR said it would provide 50% of the £5.5m capital, provided the rest could be raised.
Terry Spurling, chief executive of the centre, said: "We would have folded without their backing, but now we have got half the cash in the bag we can set about raising the rest.
"We are going locally, nationally and to Europe to try to access the money, and we are pretty certain we can get it."
HMS Olympus is currently in Canada, but there are hopes it could be brought across the Atlantic during the next towing season, which ends in September 2005.
BBC News
An artist's impression of the proposed
submarine museum.
More than a century after Barrow-in-Furness built its first submarine, plans are being drawn up for a museum to celebrate its heritage.
The Submarine Heritage Centre has been given backing and provisional 50% funding from the urban regeneration company, West Lakes Renaissance (WLR).
The £5.5m project would be built alongside the existing Dock Museum.
It is hoped the key exhibit would be HMS Olympus, a Barrow-built submarine that served with the Canadian Navy.
'Robust' plan
Plans for a museum were first put forward three years ago by a group of submariners connected with the yard.
However, when Barrow's £10m regeneration master plan was being drawn up a more 'robust' business plan was demanded to justify what would be multi-million pound public funding.
After a change to the original site, and a focus group's findings that up to 50,000 visitors a year could be expected, WLR said it would provide 50% of the £5.5m capital, provided the rest could be raised.
Terry Spurling, chief executive of the centre, said: "We would have folded without their backing, but now we have got half the cash in the bag we can set about raising the rest.
"We are going locally, nationally and to Europe to try to access the money, and we are pretty certain we can get it."
HMS Olympus is currently in Canada, but there are hopes it could be brought across the Atlantic during the next towing season, which ends in September 2005.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Cannons from shipwreck "HMS DeBraak" restored
__________________________________________________________________________________
Delawareonline.com
By Molly Murray
11/24/2004
The News Journal/GARY EMEIGH
Ed Gillespie (left), Manny Carrar and Claudia Leister,
all from the state Division of Historical and Cultural
Affairs, check out one of the recently restored cannons
from the HMS DeBraak. The cannons had been covered
in 500 pounds of growth and grime.
HMS DeBraak guns, under water nearly 200 years, now look like new
When they left Delaware two years ago in a truck, four cannons from the British shipwreck HMS DeBraak were encrusted with so much rust, sea life and crud they each looked like one-ton chicken nuggets.
They came back Tuesday in near-mint condition, rid of rust and grime and about 500 pounds of weight.
The cast iron was black and revealed tiny details from the cannons' days aboard a warship in the British Navy, providing new lessons about the ship that sank off the coast of Lewes in May 1798.
The restoration uncovered a broad arrow on the side of the cannon, foundry numbers and the gun's weight etched in the iron.
"Wow, this is cool," said Charles Fithian, a state archeologist who has studied and worked on the restoration of the DeBraak artifacts for more than a decade. The cannons were returned to the state Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs.
Fithian pointed to a small plug of rope wedged in the side of the cannon. State officials had no idea it was there when the cannons were sent off to northern New Jersey two years ago for restoration.
The rope plug filled a vent in the side of the cannon, Fithian said. On British ships, the cannons were supposed to be loaded and battle-ready at all times. The plug was pushed in the hole to keep the powder dry, he said.
Until now, the cannons were so covered with debris that no one could see what they were like. Fithian said he and other historians now have "a lot of research to do."
In all, 16 of the Debraak cannons will be restored in a joint effort by the state and Delaware River & Bay Authority. Each paid $250,000 to restore the large iron artifacts from the shipwreck.
Along with the cannons, anchors, an iron plate that protected the ship's bow and dozens of cannonballs were restored.
The last large remaining piece of the DeBraak to be restored is the massive hull section, which is housed at an undisclosed location in Lewes under a sprinkler.
Before money was set aside to restore the artifacts, state historians feared the cannons were in danger of flaking away.
They were stored in seawater in large casks before they were taken to Gary McGowan, who owns Cultural Preservation and Restoration in Newton, N.J.
Painting depicts the DeBraak under sail.
McGowan and his staff went through the long and tedious process of drying the cannons and then slowly and carefully chipping away the rust and debris that had accumulated during nearly two centuries at the bottom of the ocean.
"We had to literally create the tools to work on the cannons," McGowan said. "You can't go to a store and get Ye Old Cannon Cleaning equipment," he said.
As McGowan and his staff scraped away the debris, they found that some of the iron in the cannons had turned to graphite - the soft material used in pencils. They treated the cannons with specialized coatings and wax, but the final product remains fragile and will need to be kept in low humidity, he said.
The four cannons delivered Tuesday were the first to be returned to the state. McGowan is working on others and planned to take more back to his shop. Each cannon weighs about a ton after it is cleaned.
The cannons and other DeBraak artifacts will stay in a secure warehouse until they can be brought together for a display, said Dan Griffith, director of the state Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
Griffith said the state is designing a display area that would be in Lewes. The biggest issue is finding, or building, a structure that would house the 40-ton hull section, raised from the ocean floor in summer 1985.
Griffith said the hull would be the focal point of the exhibit. A sampling of the 20,000 DeBraak artifacts are on display at the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes. A second display is at Legislative Hall in Dover.
The ship capsized in a wind storm off Lewes in May 1798. About half of the crew, including Capt. James Drew, died. Drew is buried at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Lewes.
The British attempted to salvage the ship shortly after it sank, but failed.
Over the years, the DeBraak became known as a great treasure ship that sank in part because her decks were so laden with gold.
There were several unsuccessful attempts to find and salvage the DeBraak.
But in summer 1984, a team of divers and treasure hunters, under the name of Sub-Sal, used sonar to locate the ship just off Cape Henlopen in about 60 feet of water. They spent two summers bringing up thousands of artifacts, including a section of the hull.
In the end, the booty amounted to about 600 gold and silver coins.
For state officials, who have owned the collection for more than a decade, the collection has provided important insights into life in the British navy.
The collection includes a well-preserved woolen hat, dozens of pairs of leather shoes and many of the little things that would have been found on a naval ship in the late 18th century.
"It's a world-class collection," Griffith said. "The shipwreck of the DeBraak is a textbook. It is a time capsule."
Delawareonline.com
By Molly Murray
11/24/2004
The News Journal/GARY EMEIGH
Ed Gillespie (left), Manny Carrar and Claudia Leister,
all from the state Division of Historical and Cultural
Affairs, check out one of the recently restored cannons
from the HMS DeBraak. The cannons had been covered
in 500 pounds of growth and grime.
HMS DeBraak guns, under water nearly 200 years, now look like new
When they left Delaware two years ago in a truck, four cannons from the British shipwreck HMS DeBraak were encrusted with so much rust, sea life and crud they each looked like one-ton chicken nuggets.
They came back Tuesday in near-mint condition, rid of rust and grime and about 500 pounds of weight.
The cast iron was black and revealed tiny details from the cannons' days aboard a warship in the British Navy, providing new lessons about the ship that sank off the coast of Lewes in May 1798.
The restoration uncovered a broad arrow on the side of the cannon, foundry numbers and the gun's weight etched in the iron.
"Wow, this is cool," said Charles Fithian, a state archeologist who has studied and worked on the restoration of the DeBraak artifacts for more than a decade. The cannons were returned to the state Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs.
Fithian pointed to a small plug of rope wedged in the side of the cannon. State officials had no idea it was there when the cannons were sent off to northern New Jersey two years ago for restoration.
The rope plug filled a vent in the side of the cannon, Fithian said. On British ships, the cannons were supposed to be loaded and battle-ready at all times. The plug was pushed in the hole to keep the powder dry, he said.
Until now, the cannons were so covered with debris that no one could see what they were like. Fithian said he and other historians now have "a lot of research to do."
In all, 16 of the Debraak cannons will be restored in a joint effort by the state and Delaware River & Bay Authority. Each paid $250,000 to restore the large iron artifacts from the shipwreck.
Along with the cannons, anchors, an iron plate that protected the ship's bow and dozens of cannonballs were restored.
The last large remaining piece of the DeBraak to be restored is the massive hull section, which is housed at an undisclosed location in Lewes under a sprinkler.
Before money was set aside to restore the artifacts, state historians feared the cannons were in danger of flaking away.
They were stored in seawater in large casks before they were taken to Gary McGowan, who owns Cultural Preservation and Restoration in Newton, N.J.
Painting depicts the DeBraak under sail.
McGowan and his staff went through the long and tedious process of drying the cannons and then slowly and carefully chipping away the rust and debris that had accumulated during nearly two centuries at the bottom of the ocean.
"We had to literally create the tools to work on the cannons," McGowan said. "You can't go to a store and get Ye Old Cannon Cleaning equipment," he said.
As McGowan and his staff scraped away the debris, they found that some of the iron in the cannons had turned to graphite - the soft material used in pencils. They treated the cannons with specialized coatings and wax, but the final product remains fragile and will need to be kept in low humidity, he said.
The four cannons delivered Tuesday were the first to be returned to the state. McGowan is working on others and planned to take more back to his shop. Each cannon weighs about a ton after it is cleaned.
The cannons and other DeBraak artifacts will stay in a secure warehouse until they can be brought together for a display, said Dan Griffith, director of the state Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
Griffith said the state is designing a display area that would be in Lewes. The biggest issue is finding, or building, a structure that would house the 40-ton hull section, raised from the ocean floor in summer 1985.
Griffith said the hull would be the focal point of the exhibit. A sampling of the 20,000 DeBraak artifacts are on display at the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes. A second display is at Legislative Hall in Dover.
The ship capsized in a wind storm off Lewes in May 1798. About half of the crew, including Capt. James Drew, died. Drew is buried at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Lewes.
The British attempted to salvage the ship shortly after it sank, but failed.
Over the years, the DeBraak became known as a great treasure ship that sank in part because her decks were so laden with gold.
There were several unsuccessful attempts to find and salvage the DeBraak.
But in summer 1984, a team of divers and treasure hunters, under the name of Sub-Sal, used sonar to locate the ship just off Cape Henlopen in about 60 feet of water. They spent two summers bringing up thousands of artifacts, including a section of the hull.
In the end, the booty amounted to about 600 gold and silver coins.
For state officials, who have owned the collection for more than a decade, the collection has provided important insights into life in the British navy.
The collection includes a well-preserved woolen hat, dozens of pairs of leather shoes and many of the little things that would have been found on a naval ship in the late 18th century.
"It's a world-class collection," Griffith said. "The shipwreck of the DeBraak is a textbook. It is a time capsule."
Shipwreck Discovered Near Sodus
__________________________________________________________________________________
The Palladium Times
By Debra Lupien Robillard
SODUS POINT --A pre-Civil War era schooner, the Etta Belle, has been discovered in deep waters off Lake Ontario near Sodus Point by shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. According to newspaper accounts, the ship was on route from Little Sodus to Toronto, Canada, and was loaded with a full cargo of coal.
The oak-hulled schooner, which had reportedly sunk during calm weather in the early evening of Sept. 3, 1873, was found using the help of side scan sonar equipment specially-built by Kennard.
Kennard said in the fall of 2003, he and Scoville were searching an area northeast of Sodus on the way to Oswego.
"We were heading back late in the day and kept the sonar running," he said.
Fortunate find
He said they did spot something, but when they turned the boat around to check it out, it stalled. By the time they fixed the problem, it was getting dark and they had to head home.
Kennard said what they saw on the sonar did not really look like a ship.
"But, we knew we had something," he said. "I think the lake felt sorry for us and gave us (the ship)."
They were unable to return for two months and in November, Scoville made his first dive to the schooner.
"The schooner was found in approximately 200 feet of water, beyond the safe limits (135 feet) for recreational scuba divers," said Kennard.
Searching for clues
He said during the 2004 diving season, the schooner was extensively video-documented, measurements were collected and the cargo within its holds inspected.
Armed with data, the next step was to determine the identity of the ship.
Kennard said he uses the online databases of shipwrecks as a jump-off point and follows it up with newspaper research.
"I researched in eight different libraries in (about) four counties," said Kennard.
The result of the search turned up enrollment papers for the Etta Belle, confirming the exact dimensions of the sunken vessel and some additional details relating to owners and vessel registration.
The search culminated in the SUNY Oswego library with two newspaper articles about the shipwreck, one of which included an interview with the captain who visited Oswego two days after the sinking.
Piecing it together
The ship was rebuilt in 1871 from the hull of the schooner "Champion" which had wrecked at Port Hope, Canada, in 1870. The Champion was built in Oakville, Canada, in 1852.
In the Sept. 5, 1873, article of the then Oswego Palladium, Captain Pelow reported the leak was discovered about 6 p.m. on the bluff of the port bow. He said that the water rushed in with "such violence that the pumps were entirely useless."
The crew then took to the yawl and rowed to Big Sodus, losing most of their possessions, but not their lives.
Pelow stated the he believed that the cause of the leak may have happened while the cargo was being loaded, causing the butt end of one of the narrow boards that make up the side of the schooner to come loose.
"On video we can see where the hole is and it looks like a puncture," said Kennard. "We actually see something that looks like a gap or a hole."
He said this contradicts what the captain thought had happened as there is no board butting out.
"It looks like something hit it from the outside," said Kennard. "The schooner appears to have gone down stern first as there is extensive damage in the stern area."
He added the cabin roof has since collapsed down into the area of the cabin floor, the ship's rudder broke loose and lies under the ship's wheel along with portions of the stern railing and other debris and the entire ship is encrusted with zebra mussels.
"But the schooner Etta Belle is still a beautiful sight to see," said Kennard.
The technical team
Kennard has found over 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and inland waterways over the past 30 years. In 1983, with partner Scott Hill, he discovered a unique horse-powered ferryboat in Lake Champlain. National Geographic featured the ferryboat in its October 1989 issue.
In June of 2003, he and Scoville found the Canadian steamship Homer Warren in Lake Ontario near Pultneyville, several miles west of Sodus Bay. The steamer had sunk in 1919 with a crew of nine who died when it sank in a violent storm on its way from Oswego to Toronto.
Kennard is an electrical engineer who built his own side scan sonar equipment in the 1970s.
Dan Scoville is an experienced cave and "technical" diver. He uses custom gas mixtures of oxygen, helium and nitrogen to dive to depths of over 350 feet. He is the owner of StealthDive, a Rochester-based company specializing in the manufacture of underwater lighting and scuba diving accessories.
The Palladium Times
By Debra Lupien Robillard
SODUS POINT --A pre-Civil War era schooner, the Etta Belle, has been discovered in deep waters off Lake Ontario near Sodus Point by shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. According to newspaper accounts, the ship was on route from Little Sodus to Toronto, Canada, and was loaded with a full cargo of coal.
The oak-hulled schooner, which had reportedly sunk during calm weather in the early evening of Sept. 3, 1873, was found using the help of side scan sonar equipment specially-built by Kennard.
Kennard said in the fall of 2003, he and Scoville were searching an area northeast of Sodus on the way to Oswego.
"We were heading back late in the day and kept the sonar running," he said.
Fortunate find
He said they did spot something, but when they turned the boat around to check it out, it stalled. By the time they fixed the problem, it was getting dark and they had to head home.
Kennard said what they saw on the sonar did not really look like a ship.
"But, we knew we had something," he said. "I think the lake felt sorry for us and gave us (the ship)."
They were unable to return for two months and in November, Scoville made his first dive to the schooner.
"The schooner was found in approximately 200 feet of water, beyond the safe limits (135 feet) for recreational scuba divers," said Kennard.
Searching for clues
He said during the 2004 diving season, the schooner was extensively video-documented, measurements were collected and the cargo within its holds inspected.
Armed with data, the next step was to determine the identity of the ship.
Kennard said he uses the online databases of shipwrecks as a jump-off point and follows it up with newspaper research.
"I researched in eight different libraries in (about) four counties," said Kennard.
The result of the search turned up enrollment papers for the Etta Belle, confirming the exact dimensions of the sunken vessel and some additional details relating to owners and vessel registration.
The search culminated in the SUNY Oswego library with two newspaper articles about the shipwreck, one of which included an interview with the captain who visited Oswego two days after the sinking.
Piecing it together
The ship was rebuilt in 1871 from the hull of the schooner "Champion" which had wrecked at Port Hope, Canada, in 1870. The Champion was built in Oakville, Canada, in 1852.
In the Sept. 5, 1873, article of the then Oswego Palladium, Captain Pelow reported the leak was discovered about 6 p.m. on the bluff of the port bow. He said that the water rushed in with "such violence that the pumps were entirely useless."
The crew then took to the yawl and rowed to Big Sodus, losing most of their possessions, but not their lives.
Pelow stated the he believed that the cause of the leak may have happened while the cargo was being loaded, causing the butt end of one of the narrow boards that make up the side of the schooner to come loose.
"On video we can see where the hole is and it looks like a puncture," said Kennard. "We actually see something that looks like a gap or a hole."
He said this contradicts what the captain thought had happened as there is no board butting out.
"It looks like something hit it from the outside," said Kennard. "The schooner appears to have gone down stern first as there is extensive damage in the stern area."
He added the cabin roof has since collapsed down into the area of the cabin floor, the ship's rudder broke loose and lies under the ship's wheel along with portions of the stern railing and other debris and the entire ship is encrusted with zebra mussels.
"But the schooner Etta Belle is still a beautiful sight to see," said Kennard.
The technical team
Kennard has found over 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and inland waterways over the past 30 years. In 1983, with partner Scott Hill, he discovered a unique horse-powered ferryboat in Lake Champlain. National Geographic featured the ferryboat in its October 1989 issue.
In June of 2003, he and Scoville found the Canadian steamship Homer Warren in Lake Ontario near Pultneyville, several miles west of Sodus Bay. The steamer had sunk in 1919 with a crew of nine who died when it sank in a violent storm on its way from Oswego to Toronto.
Kennard is an electrical engineer who built his own side scan sonar equipment in the 1970s.
Dan Scoville is an experienced cave and "technical" diver. He uses custom gas mixtures of oxygen, helium and nitrogen to dive to depths of over 350 feet. He is the owner of StealthDive, a Rochester-based company specializing in the manufacture of underwater lighting and scuba diving accessories.
Sunken 19th-century ship discovered off St. Augustine shore
__________________________________________________________________________________
Jacksonville.com
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - A sunken 19th-century ship, uncovered by Hurricane Jeanne's beach erosion, has been discovered along the coast of this northeast Florida community.
Anastasia State Park rangers found the remnants of the vessel sticking up in the park's shoreline in October. Billy Morris, a St. Augustine-based maritime archaeologist, said the ship was a coastal trading vessel that could date back to earlier than 1835.
He said it would be difficult to study the ship because it remains covered by about 6 to 10 inches of sand. He estimated it could be between 130 and 150 feet long.
Morris said the ship's bow broke off from the rest of the vessel and is stuck in the park's shore.
The ship's location has been logged into a statewide database to keep it protected. Morris said both the state and the park would need to be consulted to excavate the ship, but it is usually better to leave ships where they're found.
"(Ships) become part of the environment and often times it's best to leave it alone," said Roger Smith of the Florida Bureau of Archaeology Research. Park officials said they plan to leave the ship in place.
Jeanne was the last of four hurricanes to strike the state this year, making landfall in late September near Stuart.
Jacksonville.com
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - A sunken 19th-century ship, uncovered by Hurricane Jeanne's beach erosion, has been discovered along the coast of this northeast Florida community.
Anastasia State Park rangers found the remnants of the vessel sticking up in the park's shoreline in October. Billy Morris, a St. Augustine-based maritime archaeologist, said the ship was a coastal trading vessel that could date back to earlier than 1835.
He said it would be difficult to study the ship because it remains covered by about 6 to 10 inches of sand. He estimated it could be between 130 and 150 feet long.
Morris said the ship's bow broke off from the rest of the vessel and is stuck in the park's shore.
The ship's location has been logged into a statewide database to keep it protected. Morris said both the state and the park would need to be consulted to excavate the ship, but it is usually better to leave ships where they're found.
"(Ships) become part of the environment and often times it's best to leave it alone," said Roger Smith of the Florida Bureau of Archaeology Research. Park officials said they plan to leave the ship in place.
Jeanne was the last of four hurricanes to strike the state this year, making landfall in late September near Stuart.
Dutch company may participate in recovering Russian submarine K-159
____________________________________________________________________________________
Interfax
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 23 (Interfax-Northwest) - The Dutch company Mammoet will likely participate in raising the K-159 submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea.
A company official told Interfax on Tuesday that the Russian Malakhit design board, which is planning the raising of the submarine, has invited Mammoet to share in the project but an official invitation will not likely be issued until Russia resolves the crucial financing issue.
The official did not rule out the possibility that Malakhit is engaged in similar talks with other companies.
No significant decisions are likely to be made before the end of the year, he said. What may be important for Russian though is that Mammoet cooperated with Russian organizations in raising the Kursk nuclear-powered submarine, the official said. He added that Mammoet is prepared to provide aid again.
Interfax
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 23 (Interfax-Northwest) - The Dutch company Mammoet will likely participate in raising the K-159 submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea.
A company official told Interfax on Tuesday that the Russian Malakhit design board, which is planning the raising of the submarine, has invited Mammoet to share in the project but an official invitation will not likely be issued until Russia resolves the crucial financing issue.
The official did not rule out the possibility that Malakhit is engaged in similar talks with other companies.
No significant decisions are likely to be made before the end of the year, he said. What may be important for Russian though is that Mammoet cooperated with Russian organizations in raising the Kursk nuclear-powered submarine, the official said. He added that Mammoet is prepared to provide aid again.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Anser Project
___________________________________________________________________________________
di-ve.com
Over the past two and a half years the University of Malta, through the Foundation of International Studies, participated in the EU project (ANSER) Anciennes Routes Maritimes Mediterraneennes financed under the Interreg IIIB Medocc programme.
Participating countries included Italy, France, Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Portugal. From within these countries a number of institutions, including MARQ (Museo Arqueologico Provincial de Alicante), CASC (Centre d'Arqueologia Subaquatica de Catalunya), CNANS (Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Nautica e Subaquatica Portugal) and the CNRS (Centre Camille Jullian Aix en Provence ), all contributed to the success of this project.
Dr Nicholas Vella and Mr Timmy Gambin served on the scientific and pilot committees alongside other members from the various participating institutions.
The focus of this project was varied and included the research of harbours, trade routes and commercial exchange in the western Mediterranean, and the communication of this research to the general public.
A series of conferences, training courses, publication, and education campaigns were organised in order to achieve these aims.
The five seminars included: The evolution of the palaeo-environment of ports and harbours in the western Mediterranean (Alicante, November 2003); Ancient port structures (Rome and Ostia, April 2004); The ancient western Mediterranean: trade and exchange (Marseille, May 2004); Mediterranean trade routes and harbours after the fall of the Roman empire in the west (Genoa, June 2004) and Communicating memories of the Mediterranean: tools, experiences and projects aimed at giving value to maritime cultural heritage (Pisa, October 2004).
Malta participated in all seminars with Dr Vella and Mr Gambin delivering five papers on a variety of themes. Both Maltese participants chaired sessions at these events.
The Regione Lazio is currently working on the publication of the proceedings of the seminars and all five volumes should be ready by early 2005. The books will contain contributions by leading experts in archaeology, ancient history, landscape studies and museology.
Another tangible facet of the ANSER project was the organisation of a number of courses aimed at sharing information on the preservation and appreciation of maritime cultural heritage.
Malta sent three participants, two archaeologists and a conservator, to two courses held in Italy during the month of June, one in Castiglioncello and the other in Ostia antica. Both courses were very intense and all three participants returned enriched by the experiences gained (as well as a host of new friends and contacts).
The third ANSER course was held at Villajoyosa in Spain and consisted of a ten-day training programme in underwater archaeology. In Spain, the three Maltese participants worked alongside divers and archaeologists from Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Italy. They also had the opportunity to dive on a Roman wreck that is in the process of being excavated.
One of the main objectives of ANSER is the setting up of a scientific database that can be used by researchers and students alike. This database contains information on objects and materials exchanged in the ancient Mediterranean. Works on its contents are currently in progress but part of it is already up and running.
The project website also contains details on the above-mentioned events as well as others that were organised in the scope of the ANSER project: www.projet-anser.net Participation in the ANSER project has been a very positive experience for all involved.
The Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage all contributed in varying degrees to ensure that Malta's participation in such a high-profile project was a success.
It is hoped that long-term benefits reaped by the individual participants will prove beneficial to the study and preservation of Malta's maritime heritage.
di-ve.com
Over the past two and a half years the University of Malta, through the Foundation of International Studies, participated in the EU project (ANSER) Anciennes Routes Maritimes Mediterraneennes financed under the Interreg IIIB Medocc programme.
Participating countries included Italy, France, Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Portugal. From within these countries a number of institutions, including MARQ (Museo Arqueologico Provincial de Alicante), CASC (Centre d'Arqueologia Subaquatica de Catalunya), CNANS (Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Nautica e Subaquatica Portugal) and the CNRS (Centre Camille Jullian Aix en Provence ), all contributed to the success of this project.
Dr Nicholas Vella and Mr Timmy Gambin served on the scientific and pilot committees alongside other members from the various participating institutions.
The focus of this project was varied and included the research of harbours, trade routes and commercial exchange in the western Mediterranean, and the communication of this research to the general public.
A series of conferences, training courses, publication, and education campaigns were organised in order to achieve these aims.
The five seminars included: The evolution of the palaeo-environment of ports and harbours in the western Mediterranean (Alicante, November 2003); Ancient port structures (Rome and Ostia, April 2004); The ancient western Mediterranean: trade and exchange (Marseille, May 2004); Mediterranean trade routes and harbours after the fall of the Roman empire in the west (Genoa, June 2004) and Communicating memories of the Mediterranean: tools, experiences and projects aimed at giving value to maritime cultural heritage (Pisa, October 2004).
Malta participated in all seminars with Dr Vella and Mr Gambin delivering five papers on a variety of themes. Both Maltese participants chaired sessions at these events.
The Regione Lazio is currently working on the publication of the proceedings of the seminars and all five volumes should be ready by early 2005. The books will contain contributions by leading experts in archaeology, ancient history, landscape studies and museology.
Another tangible facet of the ANSER project was the organisation of a number of courses aimed at sharing information on the preservation and appreciation of maritime cultural heritage.
Malta sent three participants, two archaeologists and a conservator, to two courses held in Italy during the month of June, one in Castiglioncello and the other in Ostia antica. Both courses were very intense and all three participants returned enriched by the experiences gained (as well as a host of new friends and contacts).
The third ANSER course was held at Villajoyosa in Spain and consisted of a ten-day training programme in underwater archaeology. In Spain, the three Maltese participants worked alongside divers and archaeologists from Spain, Algeria, Morocco and Italy. They also had the opportunity to dive on a Roman wreck that is in the process of being excavated.
One of the main objectives of ANSER is the setting up of a scientific database that can be used by researchers and students alike. This database contains information on objects and materials exchanged in the ancient Mediterranean. Works on its contents are currently in progress but part of it is already up and running.
The project website also contains details on the above-mentioned events as well as others that were organised in the scope of the ANSER project: www.projet-anser.net Participation in the ANSER project has been a very positive experience for all involved.
The Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta, Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage all contributed in varying degrees to ensure that Malta's participation in such a high-profile project was a success.
It is hoped that long-term benefits reaped by the individual participants will prove beneficial to the study and preservation of Malta's maritime heritage.
Divers find ancient homes
____________________________________________________________________________________
News24.com
By Andre Gouws
The team of divers looking for ancient cave dwellings
off the Cape coast. At the back, from left to right, are
Mike Millest, Janet Davies and Greshon de Beer. In the
centre are Monty Halls, Kelley Diekman, Tinita Hughes
and Kevin Bateman, and Brundo Werz sits in front.
(Jo-Anne Cavanagh, Die Burger)
Cape Town - International divers have discovered several cave sites along the Cape Peninsula coast where ancient lost civilisations might have lived.
The team embarked on their search earlier this month after Dr Bruno Werz, a marine archaeologist, found a prehistoric axe, that could be 1.5m years old, in Table Bay nine years ago.
Werz said in Simon's Town on Friday there were indications that more remnants of prehistoric civilisations could be found under the water.
He said the divers were looking for caves where people could have lived. A number of caves, also above the present water level, looked promising. In prehistoric times, the water levels in the Cape were lower than they are now.
Werz didn't want to divulge too much information about the caves' location lest curious people investigate on their own and ruin possible excavation sites.
A video clip of the most promising underwater cave shows that it could very well have been a safe and comfortable shelter for humans. There is even a "step" at the entrance.
Monty Halls, a former British marine, said the divers, all members of the Scientific Exploration Society, were volunteers who paid to take part in the expedition.
Ancient artefacts
Halls said there was great excitement among divers about the possibility of ancient civilisations waiting to be discovered along the Cape Coast.
Halls said: "So far, the search has been a resounding success, and we've got more than a week to go."
Werz said the team planned to identify a number of underwater sites where people might have dwelled.
He would then apply for the necessary permits to start excavations to search for prehistoric artefacts. Excavations could take several years.
"A search like this has never been done before," Werz said.
The oldest artefacts found off Greece were 45 000 years old. The number of axes Werz found subsequent to the first one, could be anything from 300 000 to 1.5m years old.
Reon Coetzee of Umkomaas, who provides the team's logistic support, said the search would continue at De Kelders, Arniston and possibly even Cape Agulhas, where more evidence of ancient cave dwellers was found.
News24.com
By Andre Gouws
The team of divers looking for ancient cave dwellings
off the Cape coast. At the back, from left to right, are
Mike Millest, Janet Davies and Greshon de Beer. In the
centre are Monty Halls, Kelley Diekman, Tinita Hughes
and Kevin Bateman, and Brundo Werz sits in front.
(Jo-Anne Cavanagh, Die Burger)
Cape Town - International divers have discovered several cave sites along the Cape Peninsula coast where ancient lost civilisations might have lived.
The team embarked on their search earlier this month after Dr Bruno Werz, a marine archaeologist, found a prehistoric axe, that could be 1.5m years old, in Table Bay nine years ago.
Werz said in Simon's Town on Friday there were indications that more remnants of prehistoric civilisations could be found under the water.
He said the divers were looking for caves where people could have lived. A number of caves, also above the present water level, looked promising. In prehistoric times, the water levels in the Cape were lower than they are now.
Werz didn't want to divulge too much information about the caves' location lest curious people investigate on their own and ruin possible excavation sites.
A video clip of the most promising underwater cave shows that it could very well have been a safe and comfortable shelter for humans. There is even a "step" at the entrance.
Monty Halls, a former British marine, said the divers, all members of the Scientific Exploration Society, were volunteers who paid to take part in the expedition.
Ancient artefacts
Halls said there was great excitement among divers about the possibility of ancient civilisations waiting to be discovered along the Cape Coast.
Halls said: "So far, the search has been a resounding success, and we've got more than a week to go."
Werz said the team planned to identify a number of underwater sites where people might have dwelled.
He would then apply for the necessary permits to start excavations to search for prehistoric artefacts. Excavations could take several years.
"A search like this has never been done before," Werz said.
The oldest artefacts found off Greece were 45 000 years old. The number of axes Werz found subsequent to the first one, could be anything from 300 000 to 1.5m years old.
Reon Coetzee of Umkomaas, who provides the team's logistic support, said the search would continue at De Kelders, Arniston and possibly even Cape Agulhas, where more evidence of ancient cave dwellers was found.
Prehistoric site found in underwater cave
____________________________________________________________________________________
IOL
By Daniel Ashby
A team of international scuba divers have located an underwater cave which reveals "promising signs" of prehistoric human activity.
Maritime archaeologist Dr Bruno Werz described the site in False Bay on the Cape coast as "worthy of international exploration and excavation". He said: "The cave has the correct overhang and orientation for prehistoric cave dwellers.
It would have been raised above the landscape allowing the inhabitants to spot game and command a strategic view.
"There is evidence around the cave of the type of vegetation that prehistoric man would have eaten. These are all promising signs that we may discover traces of human activity in the cave.
"The archaeological search, named Operation Zembe (Axe), has been running for two years and ends on Saturday.
Described as the "Indiana Jones team" of diving, the 12 international members of Operation Zembe were selected from hundreds of applicants by the Scientific Exploration Society. Former Royal Marine Monty Hall, one of the divers who discovered an underwater city off India, is the skipper of Operation Zembe.
He said: "This kind of discovery is huge and should be commanding the attention of publications like National Geographic.
But we are trying to focus on generating local interest and so are currently working with (M-Net's) Carte Blanche.
"Should the cave reveal traces of prehistoric man, then scientists will be able to use the cave to do further geological and archaeological research. The cave could give an indication of the pattern of rising and falling sea levels and reveal new information about global warming.
It could also be used in the study of the movements and location of people. Interest in the False Bay area began in 1995 after Werz discovered the world's oldest underwater artefact.
The stone hand-axe was located in Table Bay and is believed to be between 300 000 to 1,4 million years old.
American dive rescuer Kevin Bateman said: "We are already planning to meet again next year to continue our work."
IOL
By Daniel Ashby
A team of international scuba divers have located an underwater cave which reveals "promising signs" of prehistoric human activity.
Maritime archaeologist Dr Bruno Werz described the site in False Bay on the Cape coast as "worthy of international exploration and excavation". He said: "The cave has the correct overhang and orientation for prehistoric cave dwellers.
It would have been raised above the landscape allowing the inhabitants to spot game and command a strategic view.
"There is evidence around the cave of the type of vegetation that prehistoric man would have eaten. These are all promising signs that we may discover traces of human activity in the cave.
"The archaeological search, named Operation Zembe (Axe), has been running for two years and ends on Saturday.
Described as the "Indiana Jones team" of diving, the 12 international members of Operation Zembe were selected from hundreds of applicants by the Scientific Exploration Society. Former Royal Marine Monty Hall, one of the divers who discovered an underwater city off India, is the skipper of Operation Zembe.
He said: "This kind of discovery is huge and should be commanding the attention of publications like National Geographic.
But we are trying to focus on generating local interest and so are currently working with (M-Net's) Carte Blanche.
"Should the cave reveal traces of prehistoric man, then scientists will be able to use the cave to do further geological and archaeological research. The cave could give an indication of the pattern of rising and falling sea levels and reveal new information about global warming.
It could also be used in the study of the movements and location of people. Interest in the False Bay area began in 1995 after Werz discovered the world's oldest underwater artefact.
The stone hand-axe was located in Table Bay and is believed to be between 300 000 to 1,4 million years old.
American dive rescuer Kevin Bateman said: "We are already planning to meet again next year to continue our work."
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Cannons and haul
____________________________________________________________________________________
News Shopper
By Tim Ashton
The cannon.
A 16TH-CENTURY cannon, believed to be the most significant find since the Mary Rose, has been recovered by marine archaeologists.
Experts from Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority (PLA) found the wrought-iron cannon during the recovery of a shipwreck from the bed of the Thames Estuary near Gravesend.
The cannon bears a grasshopper mark belonging to the coat of arms of Sir Thomas Gresham.
Sir Thomas, whose company cast cannons between 1567 and 1579, was a financial advisor to Queen Elizabeth I and founded the Royal Exchange in 1565.
The cannon, one of four found but the only one to bear the mark, is now at the Royal Armouries National Museum of Artillery at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth.
A museum spokesman said: "This is by far the most important gun to be discovered since the raising of the Mary Rose in 1982 but it is very unlikely Gresham was aboard the ship."
The archaeology team took a year to recover three timber sections of the wreck including the bow, one of only three 16th-century bows to be found anywhere in the world.
At the time of the ship's construction in 1574, William Shakespeare was 10 years old. Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose sank in 1545.
The wreck, which gave up personal effects including leather shoes and ornaments, was discovered during PLA's routine dredging surveys.
The 35m English merchant ship probably had three masts and 10 cannons in total and was a carrying a cargo of tin, iron and lead to an unknown destination.
Scientists believe it ran aground on the estuary's treacherous sandbanks and capsized with 50 or 60 hands on deck.
The timbers will be stored in Horsea Lake, Portsmouth, which serves as an underwater museum, by the Nautical Archaeology Society.
Leading the archaeology team Dr Anthony Firth said: "This is a very exciting discovery. The ship's sinking would have been noticed at the time because of the presence of the Gresham cannon.
"Almost certainly some investors were hit and insurers would have been out of pocket."
News Shopper
By Tim Ashton
The cannon.
A 16TH-CENTURY cannon, believed to be the most significant find since the Mary Rose, has been recovered by marine archaeologists.
Experts from Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority (PLA) found the wrought-iron cannon during the recovery of a shipwreck from the bed of the Thames Estuary near Gravesend.
The cannon bears a grasshopper mark belonging to the coat of arms of Sir Thomas Gresham.
Sir Thomas, whose company cast cannons between 1567 and 1579, was a financial advisor to Queen Elizabeth I and founded the Royal Exchange in 1565.
The cannon, one of four found but the only one to bear the mark, is now at the Royal Armouries National Museum of Artillery at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth.
A museum spokesman said: "This is by far the most important gun to be discovered since the raising of the Mary Rose in 1982 but it is very unlikely Gresham was aboard the ship."
The archaeology team took a year to recover three timber sections of the wreck including the bow, one of only three 16th-century bows to be found anywhere in the world.
At the time of the ship's construction in 1574, William Shakespeare was 10 years old. Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose sank in 1545.
The wreck, which gave up personal effects including leather shoes and ornaments, was discovered during PLA's routine dredging surveys.
The 35m English merchant ship probably had three masts and 10 cannons in total and was a carrying a cargo of tin, iron and lead to an unknown destination.
Scientists believe it ran aground on the estuary's treacherous sandbanks and capsized with 50 or 60 hands on deck.
The timbers will be stored in Horsea Lake, Portsmouth, which serves as an underwater museum, by the Nautical Archaeology Society.
Leading the archaeology team Dr Anthony Firth said: "This is a very exciting discovery. The ship's sinking would have been noticed at the time because of the presence of the Gresham cannon.
"Almost certainly some investors were hit and insurers would have been out of pocket."
Canadian wreck hunter expects to find gold bars, jewellery in bay off Cape Breton
____________________________________________________________________________________
National Post
Off the tip of Cape Breton, over seven metres below the ocean's surface, lies more than $5-million in buried treasure.
Or so Terry Dwyer hopes. Last summer, the Cole Harbour, N.S., diver's company, Deep Star Explorations, obtained a treasure-hunter's licence for a section of Aspy Bay, where Mr. Dwyer believes he'll nd millions of dollars' worth of coins and gold bars, jewellery and artifacts from the stern of a 243-year-old shipwreck.
He plans to start exploring next summer. "Some of the richest ships in the world are off the coast of Cape Breton and they've never been found," Mr. Dwyer, who will soon publish his book Wreck Hunter, told The Daily News in Halifax.
In 1761, the Auguste, carrying wealthy French settlers deported from Quebec, sank in Aspy Bay. There's no record of what the ship carried, but one survivor was Luc de La Corne, a wealthy fur trader and army officer.
National Post
Off the tip of Cape Breton, over seven metres below the ocean's surface, lies more than $5-million in buried treasure.
Or so Terry Dwyer hopes. Last summer, the Cole Harbour, N.S., diver's company, Deep Star Explorations, obtained a treasure-hunter's licence for a section of Aspy Bay, where Mr. Dwyer believes he'll nd millions of dollars' worth of coins and gold bars, jewellery and artifacts from the stern of a 243-year-old shipwreck.
He plans to start exploring next summer. "Some of the richest ships in the world are off the coast of Cape Breton and they've never been found," Mr. Dwyer, who will soon publish his book Wreck Hunter, told The Daily News in Halifax.
In 1761, the Auguste, carrying wealthy French settlers deported from Quebec, sank in Aspy Bay. There's no record of what the ship carried, but one survivor was Luc de La Corne, a wealthy fur trader and army officer.
USS Archerfish is 'sub'-ject of biography
____________________________________________________________________________________
North County Times
By: Associated Press
USS Archerfish in WWII.
Although Ken Henry and Don Keith's book "Gallant Lady" is about a ship, it is a biography of sorts. It follows the life of the Navy submarine USS Archerfish from birth (its launching on May 28, 1943) to death (its destruction on Oct. 17, 1968, as a practice target for another sub).
The book also deals extensively with the three peacetime commissions for oceanographic research that occupied most of the sub's lifetime.
Archerfish had a long career -- 25 years. After the war, it was decommissioned and recommissioned twice, and was useful even on its last day.
During the war, Archerfish carried out seven patrols. The first four were not noteworthy, but the fifth signaled its entry into naval history in a big way: In late 1944, Archerfish torpedoed and sank the huge new aircraft carrier Shinano in Japanese waters.
Displacing 72,000 tons, the Shinano was the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine. It never got to launch a single airplane; it was unfinished when sunk during its transfer from Tokyo Bay to the Inland Sea to escape increasing aerial bombing raids.
When the skipper of the Archerfish, Joseph E. Enright, had been in command of the submarine Dace, he had missed a chance to sink the Japanese carrier Shokaku, which had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Disappointed in himself, Enright took the unusual step of asking to be relieved of his command, and went on shore duty. When he was ready to return to the sea, he was given Archerfish and later scored his historic sinking.
Another irony is that when the Shinano was sunk, naval intelligence had not even known the ship existed; it was initially reluctant to believe that Enright had sunk an aircraft carrier, and refused to credit him with its enormous tonnage.
Archerfish was present in Tokyo Bay for the signing of Japan's surrender in September 1945. Later, it was used to train sonar operators and torpedo men, and it participated in mock combat exercises with other subs and in monitoring gravity's effects on the trajectories of ballistic missiles.
Since they usually worked during the day, the crewmen of the Archerfish had plenty of opportunity to entertain themselves ashore at night, which earned them a reputation throughout the service for being a wild group. Also around this time, the Archerfish "went Hollywood," serving as a backdrop for the 1959 film "Operation Petticoat.
"In 1960, the Archerfish became the tool of long-term hydrographic research in an operation that involved taking magnetic and gravitational readings over vast areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The collected data greatly contributed to the Navy's knowledge of the ocean floor in various locales.
Since such work required the Archerfish to be at sea about 65 percent of the time, Navy brass decided that the crew should consist only of bachelors, to minimize family conflicts. The arrangement, unique in Navy annals, worked well.
On Feb. 21, 1968, the Archerfish dived and surfaced for the last -- and a record 5,388th -- time. Later that year, it served as practice prey for the nuclear-powered submarine USS Snook, which fired three torpedoes at it. Archerfish was split neatly in half and sank. It had lived up to its reputation as a "Gallant Lady.
"Henry had served on the Archerfish and the story he helps tell is moving and worthwhile reading.
Know more about the USS Archerfish (SS/AGSS-311).
North County Times
By: Associated Press
USS Archerfish in WWII.
Although Ken Henry and Don Keith's book "Gallant Lady" is about a ship, it is a biography of sorts. It follows the life of the Navy submarine USS Archerfish from birth (its launching on May 28, 1943) to death (its destruction on Oct. 17, 1968, as a practice target for another sub).
The book also deals extensively with the three peacetime commissions for oceanographic research that occupied most of the sub's lifetime.
Archerfish had a long career -- 25 years. After the war, it was decommissioned and recommissioned twice, and was useful even on its last day.
During the war, Archerfish carried out seven patrols. The first four were not noteworthy, but the fifth signaled its entry into naval history in a big way: In late 1944, Archerfish torpedoed and sank the huge new aircraft carrier Shinano in Japanese waters.
Displacing 72,000 tons, the Shinano was the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine. It never got to launch a single airplane; it was unfinished when sunk during its transfer from Tokyo Bay to the Inland Sea to escape increasing aerial bombing raids.
When the skipper of the Archerfish, Joseph E. Enright, had been in command of the submarine Dace, he had missed a chance to sink the Japanese carrier Shokaku, which had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Disappointed in himself, Enright took the unusual step of asking to be relieved of his command, and went on shore duty. When he was ready to return to the sea, he was given Archerfish and later scored his historic sinking.
Another irony is that when the Shinano was sunk, naval intelligence had not even known the ship existed; it was initially reluctant to believe that Enright had sunk an aircraft carrier, and refused to credit him with its enormous tonnage.
Archerfish was present in Tokyo Bay for the signing of Japan's surrender in September 1945. Later, it was used to train sonar operators and torpedo men, and it participated in mock combat exercises with other subs and in monitoring gravity's effects on the trajectories of ballistic missiles.
Since they usually worked during the day, the crewmen of the Archerfish had plenty of opportunity to entertain themselves ashore at night, which earned them a reputation throughout the service for being a wild group. Also around this time, the Archerfish "went Hollywood," serving as a backdrop for the 1959 film "Operation Petticoat.
"In 1960, the Archerfish became the tool of long-term hydrographic research in an operation that involved taking magnetic and gravitational readings over vast areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The collected data greatly contributed to the Navy's knowledge of the ocean floor in various locales.
Since such work required the Archerfish to be at sea about 65 percent of the time, Navy brass decided that the crew should consist only of bachelors, to minimize family conflicts. The arrangement, unique in Navy annals, worked well.
On Feb. 21, 1968, the Archerfish dived and surfaced for the last -- and a record 5,388th -- time. Later that year, it served as practice prey for the nuclear-powered submarine USS Snook, which fired three torpedoes at it. Archerfish was split neatly in half and sank. It had lived up to its reputation as a "Gallant Lady.
"Henry had served on the Archerfish and the story he helps tell is moving and worthwhile reading.
Know more about the USS Archerfish (SS/AGSS-311).
Monday, November 22, 2004
World War II-era sub could stay docked in Muskegon
__________________________________________________________________________________
Freep
USS Silversides (SS-236) was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on December 15,
1941, just eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She left for the
first of her 14 war patrols on April 30, 1942.
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) -- More than 15 years after the World War II era submarine USS Silversides docked in its first temporary location, directors of the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum say it should stay where it is.
"We just think this is where we want to stay," Robert G. Morin Sr., chairman of the museum board, told The Muskegon Chronicle for a recent story.
The first step will be to secure a long-term lease for the channel-side property from its owner, the city of Muskegon. A proposed 30-year lease is scheduled to go before city commissioners Tuesday.
"I think it's a good idea. I'd rather see development there than on the Lake Michigan beachfront," said Commissioner Kevin Davis.
The museum board also is considering several building plans drawn up by Hooker/deJong Architects and Engineers, but has not approved a final design.
Shortly after it was towed to Muskegon from Chicago on Aug. 8, 1987, the Silversides was berthed along the south side of the channel, next to a U.S. Navy Reserve Center that has since been displaced by the museum.
It was an attractive spot, especially because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had offered to lease space along the channel wall for two years at no cost. But the long-range goal has always been to locate the submarine closer to downtown.
"It's a temporary site until we can get something permanent," Morin, then serving as president of the Muskegon Historic Ships Association, said at the time.
Several other sites nearer downtown have been considered over the years, notably Heritage Landing. The idea, which was widely supported, was to enhance the sub's visibility to visitors, especially with the anticipated completion of Shoreline Drive.
In April 1991, the submarine was moved to new site on the Muskegon Lake shoreline opposite the Union Depot. The submarine was towed back to the channel in the summer of 1992, although Morin said again that it would be only temporary.
Several years later, an effort was launched to combine the Silversides with LST-393, a veteran of the D-Day invasion. However, the museum board and the Mart Dock never consummated the agreement.
Since then, museum officials have been quietly working with the city for a long-term lease agreement for land along the south side of the channel.
Check out the link: http://www.silversides.org/
Freep
USS Silversides (SS-236) was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on December 15,
1941, just eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She left for the
first of her 14 war patrols on April 30, 1942.
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) -- More than 15 years after the World War II era submarine USS Silversides docked in its first temporary location, directors of the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum say it should stay where it is.
"We just think this is where we want to stay," Robert G. Morin Sr., chairman of the museum board, told The Muskegon Chronicle for a recent story.
The first step will be to secure a long-term lease for the channel-side property from its owner, the city of Muskegon. A proposed 30-year lease is scheduled to go before city commissioners Tuesday.
"I think it's a good idea. I'd rather see development there than on the Lake Michigan beachfront," said Commissioner Kevin Davis.
The museum board also is considering several building plans drawn up by Hooker/deJong Architects and Engineers, but has not approved a final design.
Shortly after it was towed to Muskegon from Chicago on Aug. 8, 1987, the Silversides was berthed along the south side of the channel, next to a U.S. Navy Reserve Center that has since been displaced by the museum.
It was an attractive spot, especially because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had offered to lease space along the channel wall for two years at no cost. But the long-range goal has always been to locate the submarine closer to downtown.
"It's a temporary site until we can get something permanent," Morin, then serving as president of the Muskegon Historic Ships Association, said at the time.
Several other sites nearer downtown have been considered over the years, notably Heritage Landing. The idea, which was widely supported, was to enhance the sub's visibility to visitors, especially with the anticipated completion of Shoreline Drive.
In April 1991, the submarine was moved to new site on the Muskegon Lake shoreline opposite the Union Depot. The submarine was towed back to the channel in the summer of 1992, although Morin said again that it would be only temporary.
Several years later, an effort was launched to combine the Silversides with LST-393, a veteran of the D-Day invasion. However, the museum board and the Mart Dock never consummated the agreement.
Since then, museum officials have been quietly working with the city for a long-term lease agreement for land along the south side of the channel.
Check out the link: http://www.silversides.org/
Refit to give Cousteau boat new lease of life
___________________________________________________________________________________
Taipei Times
La Rochelle - Calypso, the celebrated oceanographic research ship of French underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is to get a new US$1.3 million lease of life after repining in harbour here, a US firm said Friday.
Carnival Corporation said it would finance plans to restore Calypso, from which Captain Cousteau conducted expeditions made world famous in cinema and television documentaries starting in the 1950s.
Cousteau, who died in 1997 aged 87, was undersea explorer, photographer, inventor of diving devices, scuba pioneer, writer, television producer and filmmaker.
He co-invented the aqualung, developed a one-person, jet-propelled submarine and helped start the first manned undersea colonies.
Calypso, a converted United States minesweeper, has been rusting for the last six years in La Rochelle harbour on France's Atlantic seaboard whither it was towed after sinking in Singapore harbour in 1996.
"The Cousteau Society and Carnival Corporation have reached an agreement in principle to restore the Calypso, the legendary research and expedition vessel of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau," Carnival Corporation said on its website.
"Once restored, Calypso will become an exhibit and a center for science and the environment."
The ship would be refitted at a yard in The Bahamas at an estimated cost of US$1.3 million, with work expected to be completed by the end of 2005.
The vessel's new location would be announced later, the company said.
Cousteau, with his trademark red wool cap, became a household name through his television series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.
Previous attempts to refurbish his famous boat have been frustrated by differences between the Cousteau Society, an association chaired by the late explorer's widow Francine, and Loel Guinness, whose grandfather, a member of the Irish brewing family, bought the boat in Malta in 1950 and put it at Cousteau's disposal.
Guinness had now agreed to arrangements to settle the donation of the vessel to the Cousteau Society, his Paris attorney said.
< Cousteau once said of Calypso she had "acquired a buoyant personality that has never left her.
"I decided from the beginning that those on board were companions in the adventure, whatever their jobs might be."
Taipei Times
La Rochelle - Calypso, the celebrated oceanographic research ship of French underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is to get a new US$1.3 million lease of life after repining in harbour here, a US firm said Friday.
Carnival Corporation said it would finance plans to restore Calypso, from which Captain Cousteau conducted expeditions made world famous in cinema and television documentaries starting in the 1950s.
Cousteau, who died in 1997 aged 87, was undersea explorer, photographer, inventor of diving devices, scuba pioneer, writer, television producer and filmmaker.
He co-invented the aqualung, developed a one-person, jet-propelled submarine and helped start the first manned undersea colonies.
Calypso, a converted United States minesweeper, has been rusting for the last six years in La Rochelle harbour on France's Atlantic seaboard whither it was towed after sinking in Singapore harbour in 1996.
"The Cousteau Society and Carnival Corporation have reached an agreement in principle to restore the Calypso, the legendary research and expedition vessel of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau," Carnival Corporation said on its website.
"Once restored, Calypso will become an exhibit and a center for science and the environment."
The ship would be refitted at a yard in The Bahamas at an estimated cost of US$1.3 million, with work expected to be completed by the end of 2005.
The vessel's new location would be announced later, the company said.
Cousteau, with his trademark red wool cap, became a household name through his television series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.
Previous attempts to refurbish his famous boat have been frustrated by differences between the Cousteau Society, an association chaired by the late explorer's widow Francine, and Loel Guinness, whose grandfather, a member of the Irish brewing family, bought the boat in Malta in 1950 and put it at Cousteau's disposal.
Guinness had now agreed to arrangements to settle the donation of the vessel to the Cousteau Society, his Paris attorney said.
< Cousteau once said of Calypso she had "acquired a buoyant personality that has never left her.
"I decided from the beginning that those on board were companions in the adventure, whatever their jobs might be."
