Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom

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Delmarva Now
By Bruce Pringle
July 27, 2005

History-laden shipwrecks aren't discovered in Delaware very often. So perhaps it was understandable that when such a find was made off the Lewes shore last fall, a bit of confusion followed.

By the time state officials acted to close the beach where pieces of centuries-old pottery and other relics had appeared, much of that treasure had been removed by curious beachgoers.
But if a similar situation arises, a new set of rules will apply.

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner this month signed into law House Bill 229, specifying that the contents of any historic shipwreck found in Delaware waters belong to the state, putting the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs in charge of protecting those relics, and empowering state and local police to assist the division in carrying out its mission.

"There was unclear jurisdiction," said state Rep. Joe Booth, R-Georgetown, who sponsored H.B. 29. "Hopefully this will clear it up."

The new law authorizes the director of the division -- currently Tim Slavin -- to make shipwrecks off-limits to anyone not approved by the division to inspect them.

Several hundred yards out in the Delaware Bay last fall, a crew that was dredging sand to rebuild the shoreline around Lewes' Roosevelt Inlet dredged up something else. It hit what is now regarded as a ship from the early days of colonial America. As the crew pumped sand to the beach, it inadvertently pumped -- and broke -- pottery and other objects from the ship.

Now, Slavin could halt such dredging as soon as he learned that historically significant items were jeopardized.

H.B. 229 was approved unanimously in both the House and Senate. But Booth said he faced questions about whether concern for underwater artifacts could unduly disrupt dredging projects.

"The intention is not to stop dredging," but temporary halts may be necessary, he said. "If you hit the underwater continent of Atlantis, shouldn't you stop to check it out?"


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Tampa Bay Business Journal
July 29, 2005

Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.'s newest attraction is set to open in New Orleans.

Odyssey's Shipwreck and Treasure Adventure will have its grand opening on Saturday, Aug. 27.
The festivities will begin with a traditional parade through the streets of the French Quarter, followed by welcoming remarks and a ribbon cutting ceremony with New Orleans dignitaries. The attraction will then open to the public at noon.

Located in the Jax Brewery in the French Quarter, Odyssey's Shipwreck & Treasure Adventure reveals the stories behind some of the world's most famous shipwrecks, their treasure and historical artifacts, and it allows visitors to experience the adventure and excitement of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration through multiple hands-on exhibits.

The attraction will feature the SS Republic, a Civil War-era ship with a connection to New Orleans. The ship sank in a hurricane off the coast of Georgia while sailing from New York to New Orleans in 1865.

Odyssey discovered the Republic nearly 1,700 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 2003 - nearly 138 years after the ship went down. More than 51,000 gold and silver coins, and approximately 13,000 additional artifacts, were recovered in the deep-ocean archaeological excavation.

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Muskegon Chronicle
By Terry Judd
July 27, 2005


The S.S. Milwaukee.

Filmmakers from the History Channel's "Deep Sea Detectives" show are coming to Muskegon and Grand Haven Thursday to shoot footage on the loss of two Coast Guard cutters in 1944 and the sinking of the car ferry S.S. Milwaukee and its 52 sailors 76 years ago.

The History Channel crew -- including executive production Kirk Wolfinger, and hosts Richie Kohler and John Chatterton of the "Deep Sea Detectives" show -- will be aboard the retired Coast Guard Cutter McLane Thursday as it is being towed from Muskegon to Grand Haven for the upcoming Coast Guard Festival.

Later, crews will be at the Tri-Cities Historical Museum to take advantage of the museum's extensive collection of photographs and artifacts related to the S.S. Milwaukee.

The footage will be used next year for two separate shows of Deep Sea Detectives, a popular History Channel program that explores shipwrecks and the stories behind the sinking.

Dave Warfield, a writer and producer with the Lone Wolf documentary group, said the McLane will be used as a backdrop while two survivors of the sinking of the Coast Guard Cutter Jackson are interviewed on board.

The Jackson, along with the Cutter Bedloe, sank Sept. 14, 1944, off the North Carolina coast when they were hit by a huge storm dubbed "The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944." Like the McLane, both cutters were known as "buck and a quarters" because they were 125 feet in length.

Warfield said the two cutters, along with two tow vessels, were dispatched to assist the liberty ship freighter George Ade, which was disabled after its rudder was torpedoed by a German submarine. The vessels intercepted the liberty ship and were towing it to Norfolk, Va., when the storm struck.

The tow lines broke and all five ships were separated. The Jackson, with a crew of 41, sank at 10:30 a.m.; the Bedloe, with a crew of 38 sank at 1:30 p.m.

Most of the crew made it to life rafts but had to endure two days on the ocean under hurricane conditions. In all, 26 of the Bedloe's crew and 22 of the Jackson's crew died before being rescued Sept. 16.

Ironically, the disabled liberty ship and the two tow vessels, all larger than the two cutters, survived the storm.

For Thursday taping, Jackson survivors Jessie Maddix of Oregon and Bernard Sternsher of Ohio will be placed aboard the McLane and interviewed.

The video crew also will visit both sites of the Tri-Cities Historical Museum to record images of the S.S. Milwaukee, a Grand Trunk Railroad car ferry that operated out of Grand Haven.

The car ferry sank Oct. 22, 1929, about 3 miles northeast of Milwaukee in a raging Lake Michigan storm. The entire crew of 52 aboard, more than half residents Grand Haven, died.

"Bodies from 'Milwaukee' are picked off Racine," Chronicle headlines bannered two days later as the magnitude of the sinking unfolded.

The exact location of the sinking was not known until 1972 when the wreck was discovered. The ship lies upright in about 122 feet of water and its bow is pointed toward Milwaukee, a sign that its captain had decided to turn back because of the storm.

Although the location of the ship was a mystery for 43 years, the cause of sinking was known because of a hastily written note discovered in an empty lifeboat near Grand Haven five days after the sinking.

Purser A.R. Sadon wrote, "Pumps working but sea gate is bent and can't keep water out. Thing look bad."

The Milwaukee originally was built in Cleveland in 1903 and measured 338 feet in length and 56 feet in width. The ship was sold five years later to the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Co. and renamed the Milwaukee.

The ship had an uneventful 23-year career and in its final years was piloted by Capt. Robert McKay, whose nickname was "Heavy Weather Bob" and had a reputation of being a skilled navigator in storms. On the morning of Oct. 22, 1929, McKay sailed the Milwaukee through a raging storm from Grand Haven to Milwaukee.

Despite the storm, the ship arrived without incident and was loaded with 25 railroad cars.

Although several crew members were so convinced the day's return trip to Grand Haven would be canceled that they went to a movie, McKay steamed out of Milwaukee at 2:30 p.m. that day.

When the ferry failed to arrive in Grand Haven, it was believed that McKay simply had taken refuge from the storm. Concern mounted when the weather cleared Oct. 24 and the Milwaukee remained missing.

Worst fears were confirmed the next day when the wreckage and two bodies clad in "S.S. Milwaukee" lift preservers were picked up off Kenosha.

The sinking of the Milwaukee spawned several safety moves. Sea gate heights on ferries were increased and wireless radios installed.

The History Channel crew also will travel to Lake Huron for another program being taped on the 1875 sinking of the Cornelia B. Windiat.

The SS Milwaukee

* Launched: Dec. 6, 1902.

* Sank: Oct. 22, 1929.

* Lost: The ferry left Milwaukee in a storm bound for Grand Haven. A theory is that its cargo of 27 loaded railroad cars and 30 vehicles came loose in the gale and crashed through the ship's seagate, allowing water to pour in over the stern. The captain turned the ship back to Milwaukee, but never made it. All 52 hands perished.

* Found: The shipwreck was discovered in 1972 three miles offshore and seven miles northeast of Milwaukee.

Source: Pirate's Cove Diving Inc.


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LTVNews.com
By Darren Taylor
July 27, 2005



There is a public fascination with shipwrecks.

Countless people have watched the eerie images of the Titanic wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic, while closer to home, everyone is familiar with the haunting underwater photos and videos of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior nearly 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, the Sault Ste. Marie Museum invites the public to drop by—anytime between now and October 22nd—to check out an impressive travelling exhibit dealing with the many ships and lives that were lost on the Great Lakes in the Great Storm of November 1913. Blinding snow and hurricane force winds struck the Lakes on November 8th and lasted through to the 11th. 19 ships and 244 sailors were lost on both sides of the Lakes—only one of the Great Lakes was spared the carnage.

SSM Museum Director Kim Forbes says people who have visited the exhibit so far have enjoyed the impressive display of artifacts salvaged from the wrecks, as well as a video that features harrowing reproduction of on-board ship conditions during the Great Storm.

Admission is five dollars for adults, three dollars for seniors and students, two dollars for children, ten dollars for a family and free admission for children under 6.


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GLRC
By Mike Simonson
July 25, 2005


Edmund Fitzgerald in St. Marys River.

The doomed ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald lies in the Canadian waters of eastern Lake Superior. Now, the Ontario government is making expeditions to the shipwreck off-limits.

Twenty-nine men were lost in hurricane-force winds November 10th, 1975 in Lake Superior. For years, families of the crew have asked that the ship be left alone. None of the bodies were recovered and are believed to be in or around the ship.

The director of the Great Lakes Shipwrecks Museum on Whitefish Point near the sinking site admitted to an unlicensed dive in 2002. So earlier this year, the Ontario Ministry of Culture warned him and anyone else to stop commercial dives to the Fitzgerald.

Ministry Spokesman Guy LePage doubts they'll grant any more permits for expeditions to anyone.

"So the Ministry of Culture in Ontario regard the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck site as a watery grave for the twenty-nine people who lost their lives in the sinking. Given that the tragedy didn't happen all that long ago and there are living next of kin, we've not supported diving on the wreck."

Even though this is the 30th anniversary of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, LePage says no one has applied for an expedition permit.


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The Japan Times
July 25, 2005


A replica of an ancient boat towing a
raft carrying a stone coffin sets off
Sunday morning on a monthlong
experimental journey to Osaka.

KUMAMOTO (Kyodo) A replica of an ancient boat set off Sunday on a monthlong experimental voyage from Kumamoto to Osaka in a bid to resolve an archaeological mystery -- how heavy stone coffins were shipped in the sixth to seventh centuries to emperors' tombs in the Kinki region some 800 km away.

The 12-meter-long wooden boat, rowed by 18 people, set off in the Ariake Sea from Uto, Kumamoto Prefecture, towing rafts carrying a "makadoishi" stone coffin and lid.

The stone is volcanic tuff created by the eruption of Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture 80,000 to 90,000 years ago.

The pinkish stone is unique to areas of Kumamoto, and has been found as material for coffins in the burial mounds of ancient emperors and local rulers in the Kinki region. The region is around current Osaka and where Japan's early city states were formed.

A group of archaeologists and the city of Uto are carrying out the voyage project. They hope they can find out how the stone coffins were shipped.

Escorted by three motor vessels, the boat and coffin are expected to stop at 22 ports through the Seto Inland Sea and arrive at a port in Osaka Bay around Aug. 26.


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click2houston.com
July 25, 2005


The Mallory Line steamer City of Waco, in a painting by the famous maritime artist Antonio Jacobsen.Yellow discoloration around the ship is due to the original varnish on the painting surface, which was only partially removed in an incomplete restoration job. Image courtesy the Mariners Museum.

HOUSTON -- The rediscovered remains of the state's deadliest shipwreck has officials with the Texas Historical Commission along with professional and amateur archaeologists working together to explore the wreck site.

The steamship City of Waco, full of the volatile fuel aster oil, was anchored off Galveston on Nov. 8, 1875 when it burst into flames, possibly due to a lightning strike.

All aboard the ship -- 56 passengers and crewmembers -- were killed. The only survivor was believed to be a large Labrador retriever.

The wreckage had been forgotten for years until it was found again 40 feet below the Gulf's surface.

Now, additional dives are planned for later this year and officials are trying to get more funding to excavate the site.

Texas A&M University at Galveston might conduct a magnetometer survey of the sea floor -- an effort that could locate anchors or portions of the ship that have migrated from the main wreck site.

"What we've done thus far basically was a visual examination," said state marine archaeologist Steve Hoyt. "We haven't really been able to go down with a tape measure or to start making drawings or address those types of details."

Weather, currents and limited visibility make diving at the wreck site difficult, said Andrew Hall, a former president of the Southwest Underwater Archaeological Society.

"We've barely begun this project and will have plenty to keep us busy on this one for a long time to come," Hall said.

The wreck site has been included on navigational charts since the ship's sinking. But it was essentially forgotten until rediscovered by a U.S. Corps of Engineers crew two years ago.

Corps staffers at first thought they had found the remains of the Galveston, a dredge lost in a 1943 hurricane. It's on of about 2,000 wrecks that dot Texas waters.

But the Galveston had actually sunk miles away. Hoyt and a volunteer assistant then found historical evidence supporting the rediscovered wreck might be the City of Waco.

However, only serial numbers on the engines will conclusively establish the identity of the ship, Hoyt said.

The 242-foot-long, iron-hulled steamer began its career in 1873 and made 20 round trips between New York City and Galveston before it burned and sank.


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Christian Week
By Diane Trail
July 14, 2005

MONCTON, NB—At his desk in front of a myriad of cords and server engines that are the computer nerve center for Atlantic Baptist University (ABU), David Graves seems an improbable candidate for an archaeological expedition in search of Noah’s Ark. He is the sole Canadian on the 18-member team with ArcImaging, an evangelical Christian archaeological research group preparing to scale Mount Ararat in Turkey this summer.

Graves, director of computer services and a part-time faculty memberat ABU, is more than a little excited about the prospect of climbingMount Ararat. He is working on his doctorate in Biblical Studies fromthe University of Aberdeen and Highland Theological College inScotland, and teaches archaeology as part of an ABU-Oxford program inEngland.The 48-year-old has visited many archaeological sites in Israel,Turkey and Egypt, but this will be his first "dig." Graves' main taskon the mountain will be to run the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) tomap slices of everything beneath the ice to the mountain's volcanicsurface. Ararat is 17,274 feet high -- the highest mountain in Turkeyand the largest mountain in the world by mass. The mountain's peakabove 15,000-foot elevation is under an icecap of 200-300 feet."When [Rex] Geissler asked me if I would consider joining him on theexpedition, I said 'Let me think about it. Yes!'" says Graves,sporting a shy smile and spiked white hair.Geissler is president of ArcImaging (Archaeological Imaging ResearchConsortium), based in Colorado. Geissler and Graves only met in Marchof this year when they were together on a tour of archaeological sitesin Egypt."We just hit it off," says Graves. "We have a lot in common with ourbackgrounds in computers. He owns a database company. We were bothvery interested in Turkey and archaeology . . . Next thing I knew Iwas director of operations and logistics for the expedition and incharge of the GPR for the site."Graves is undergoing rigorous physical training to improve stamina andcardiovascular fitness in preparation for the climb. He also hopes thetraining will help him avoid altitude sickness, a potentially fatalrespiratory illness associated with oxygen-thin mountain air. Otherhazards of the climb and mountaintop work site include lightning; notrees to protect from sudden snowstorms; steep, icy cliffs; plus wilddogs and scorpions at lower elevations.Graves is also endeavouring to raise $14,000 for his winter clothing,specialized ice-climbing equipment, training and general expenses.As a biblical scholar, Graves believes the _biblical narrative_(http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=genesis%206-9&version=31)of the Great Flood, which says that Noah's Ark went aground in MountArarat region. Faith and science can co-exist, he says and he believesthis expedition is about seeking scientific proof for biblical fact.In defence of their search for Noah's Ark, ArcImaging's websitestates, "Liberal scholars [have] criticized many things throughout theBible. Archaeology has shown many of these criticisms to be wrong,from Genesis 12 through Revelation. But Genesis 1-11 is still viewedas myth. If part of Noah's Ark were substantiated, it would supportthe Bible and Noah back to Genesis 5 . . .Noah's Ark would actually give support for all three major [Abrahamic]world religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.""This [expedition] is much more about adventure and raw research. It'snot a holy pilgrimage," says Graves.ArcImaging is the first organization to receive permission from theTurkish government to survey Mount Ararat since 1981. The archaeological organization conducted previous research in 2001 on one part of Ararat. The group is conducting its search in co-operation with the Archaeology Department of _Ataturk University_(http://www.atauni.edu.tr/english/english.htm) and the Turkishministries in Ankara.

"ArcImaging does the research, but the artefacts remains in Turkey,"says Graves. "If we find something, we melt a tunnel and takesamples.

"The team hopes the Turkish government will grant research visas forthe trip. The threat of military manoeuvers -- the cause of visa refusals for the last couple of years -- may prove their biggest obstacle. Mount Ararat is on the border of Iraq and Iran, with Middle East tensions posing danger to outsiders.

Although Graves is inexperienced in some ways, Geissler has greatconfidence in him.

"What stood out was his organization and computer skills, and hisability to put together plans," Geissler told Times-Transcript byphone from Colorado.

"He exhibited a real sense of excitement about the project as well,and that's one thing that attracts me to people when they're excitedabout being a part of it and helping out with it."

"He becomes one of most valuable members of our team because of his[GPR] training," Geissler said.

The international team, including nine Christian archaeologists, glaciologists, experienced Ararat climbers and photographers, is beingrecruited to investigate the site sometime between July 15 and August15.


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BBC
July 22, 2005


The wall was thought to been have
completely demolished.

A major piece of Plymouth's heritage as a naval port has been discovered.
For more than 100 years, the exact whereabouts of a stone wall built to defend the city's dockyard against invasion foxed archaeologists.

But a 2m (6.6ft) stretch of the wall dating back to the 1860s has been found at Brickfields in Devonport where new sports facilities are being built.

The remains are from the last in a series of walls started in 1780 known as the Devonport Dock Lines wall.

Threat subsides
The wall has now been reburied after being recorded and photographed. ´

The series of walls were built as a major line of defence for the Royal Dockyard against possible French invasion.

Although the wall was known from maps of the period, it was thought to have been completely demolished when the threat of invasion subsided.

During development of the Brickfields site, some clues were found.

In 2005, the council's Historic Environment Officer Dr John Salvatore asked for the historic value of the site to be surveyed before the proposed development took place.

During excavations for the new sports hall and grandstand, Exeter Archaeology carried out site investigations, unearthing a section of the 2m (6.6ft) wide wall 20cm (9ins) below ground level.

Archaeologists were asked to make sure the foundations for the new sports hall did not disturb or damage the wall before it was covered over again.


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PRWeb
July 24, 2005

Nautical Research Group has returned from a highly successful scientific research expedition to RMS Titanic. Two startling observations of note were discovered. Preliminary findings have revealed that Titanic is in an advanced state of deterioration and some data may provide new clues to how she broke up near the surface.

New York -- Nautical Research Group has returned from a highly successful scientific research expedition to RMS Titanic. In the course of processing the high quality digital video shot on Titanic last week, two startling observations of note were discovered. Preliminary findings have revealed that Titanic is in an advanced state of deterioration and some data may provide new clues to how she broke up near the surface.

The first significant observation was that the mast has finally collapsed in the area above the bell stanchion. In a recent scientific article that Nautical Research Group president, David Bright will present at Oceans 2005, our corporation reported from our 2003 Titanic expedition significant morphological changes in the bow structures on Titanic. In particular, the 2003 photometric data revealed a split in on the left side of the mast above the crow's nest with very distinctive crumbling of the metal on the right side of this same portion of the mast.

Last year, Dr. Robert Ballard filmed this area extensively and although they were able to verify our observations of the mast being damaged in this area, it was still rigid and intact. Over the past year, this area has weakened and we can report that the mast has now collapsed exactly at this position. Although the mast is intact, it now looks like an "L" supported upward by the forecastle of the ship. We will be publishing digital footage of this mast position in the next 6 weeks.

The second observation of note was one that was not expected. We found a life boat davit on the stern section of the ship, more than a half mile away from the bow section of Titanic. Many historians have thought that the break-up of Titanic was more aft than any of these davits and therefore the discovery of a davit in this area is most significant. This piece of data may suggest that Titanic broke up more forward than what was originally thought. Further analysis of this observation will need to be done. For the latest information on the analysis of the Titanic data, visit our corporate weblog at http://shipwreck.blogs.com/ .


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News-Record.com
By Donald W. Patterson
July 21, 2005

Barbara Buchanan recorded the moment in her logbook.
"(On) Oct. 29, 2004, I traveled back in time," Buchanan wrote. "My imagination was running wild."

That day last fall, Buchanan became one of the state's most unusual tourists.

She and about 14 others became the first members of the public to dive to a wreck off the North Carolina coast that state officials believe is Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard.

"Wow! What a dive," says Buchanan, an agent with Piedmont Travel, which has offices in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. "It was just an overwhelming feeling ... to dive on a piece of history."

This fall, others will get the chance to become underwater tourists, too.

In a program called "Dive Down," the state plans to allow recreational divers to visit the site off Beaufort Inlet. The cost will be $500 per person.

Visits are being arranged through 17 dive shops and clubs across the state, including three in the Triad.

They include Stingray Dive Club, where Buchanan sits on the board of directors.

"Once I let everybody know I had some spots," Buchanan says, "they couldn't wait to do it."

State officials say that since the wreck was discovered in 1996, access to the site has been tightly restricted. But that hasn't stopped people from asking to peruse the ship.

Previously, the answer had always been no -- not at such a historically sensitive site.

But now, after a year and a half study, state officials believe they can take visitors to the wreck without damaging it.

The study included the dive last fall that involved Buchanan, a dive travel specialist and underwater videographer and photographer, and other area divers.

The dives this fall will be considered a test run and will take place Sept. 18 to Nov. 10.

State officials say the dives will be closely supervised and limited in size. Only eight to 10 people at one time will be allowed on the site, which measures 30 feet by 20 feet.

At least two of the divers will act as docents, moving visitors from station to station."

It will be very similar to visiting a museum like Tryon Palace, except it is underwater," says Mark Wilde-Ramsing, who heads the Queen Anne's Revenge project for the state. "I think the benefits will outweigh any problems."

Others aren't so certain.

Critics of the plan include Mike Daniel, a Florida diver who helped discover the wreck, and Donny Hamilton, director of the nautical archaeology program at Texas A&M University.

Daniel and a partner found the wreck while looking for the El Salvador, a gold-laden Spanish galleon that ran aground during a hurricane in 1750.

He believes the state should recover more artifacts before allowing sport divers to visit the wreck. And he fears that some might pilfer it because of insufficient security.

Hamilton has complained to North Carolina legislators that they aren't doing enough to recover, promote and protect the shipwreck. Opening it to divers, he says, adds still another threat.

Efforts to reach Daniel and Hamilton for comment were unsuccessful.State officials contend the dives won't threaten the wreck.

"I don't see people taking things," Wilde-Ramsing says. "I just think this is a good way to promote conservation ethics and promote (the divers') understanding of the site."

Wilde-Ramsing said the state will use part of the $500 fees to pay for increased monitoring of the wreck. The rest will cover expenses for the 21/2-day excursions.

This fall's dives will involve 300 divers who will visit during a two-month period. Each diver will take part in classroom sessions on maritime history, underwater archaeology, coastal geology and maritime ecology, in addition to a practice dive.

The public dives will continue for a maximum of five years. By that time, state officials hope to have recovered the thousands of artifacts still on the bottom.

Those include anchors and several cannons.

The remains of the ship, which sank in 1718, rests in about 24 feet of water about a mile from Fort Macon.

Diving at the site requires an advanced open water scuba certification.

It's no place for a beginner. Below the surface, its an always murky, often turbulent world.

So says Rick Allen, a free-lance videographer who filmed the site for a UNC-TV documentary.

"Take your washing machine, fill it with coffee, jump in and turn it on," Allen once said. "That's what it's like diving at this site."

When Buchanan visited the wreck last fall, the day was chilly but clear. The water temperature was 68 degrees, visibility 10 feet, the tidal surge strong.

"As I swam over the cannon, ballast rocks, ship's rigging, barrel hoops and anchors... I felt I was a part of history," she says. "I'd have to say the QAR is my most exciting dive."


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artdaily.com
July 22, 2005

LONDON, ENGLAND. -Culture Minister David Lammy has today announced that the wreck site of what is believed to be an early 17th century ship has been designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The Order will protect the site from being damaged by unauthorised interference from divers.

The site, reported to English Heritage in 2004 by local diver, Richard Edmonds, lies just to the west of the Outer Pollock Reef in the approaches to West Bay harbour in Lyme Bay, Dorset. Two dive investigations by Wessex Archaeology confirmed the presence of a bronze gun as well as a large quantity of iron bars, a small iron gun and a small anchor.

David Lammy said: “This is an important wreck site both in archaeological and historical terms. It is rare for such a well-preserved and potentially important bronze gun to have survived historical salvage attempts in situ. If this site proves to be from the 17th Century then it will provide us with important information regarding the maritime trade and history of this era and will greatly enhance our knowledge of the maritime context of Lyme Bay.”

“This Order is particularly timely as the location of the bronze gun has been publicised and we need to protect it as well as the wreck from potential damage or salvage. “


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The Ledger
By Jason Geary
July 21, 2005


The S.S. Central America.

BARTOW -- The small gold coin's strange odyssey didn't end when it was plucked from an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of the Carolinas.The coin -- with an estimated value of about $8,000 -- now rests in safekeeping in the Lakeland Police Department's evidence room. Whom it belongs to remains unclear.

Both a Maryland coin-seller and a Lakeland jewelry shop are claiming ownership. If they can't reach a compromise, the Police Department filed paperwork Monday to have a Polk County judge make a final decision about who should pocket the rare coin.

"We feel these individuals should come to an agreement," said Lakeland police spokesman Jack Gillen.

Julian Leidman, 58, of Silver Spring, Md., says the coin was stolen from his shop, Bonanza Coins, on Oct. 26, 2004.

Munchel's Fine Jewelry on South Florida Avenue says it purchased the coin Oct. 28, 2004, according to court records filed by the Police Department. Representatives from the store declined to comment.

Police reports state that Bill Munchel bought the coin from a person who came to the store seeking to sell it.

Gillen said police don't know the identity of the person who sold the coin to Munchel's because the name and address on the receipt appear to be false.

Gabe Elton, a gold and rare coin specialist, said the coin is moderately rare, but its true value is in its history.

The coin and thousands of others like it were cargo on the ill-fated voyage of the S.S. Central America, said Elton, who works for Austin Rare Coins in Austin, Texas.

These coins were created after the 1849 gold rush at the United States branch mint in San Francisco, Elton said.

While on its way to New York from Panama, the S.S. Central America sank in 1857 during a hurricane, Elton said. More than 400 people perished in the tragedy, he said.

In the late 1980s, a salvage expedition recovered treasure from the wreckage, Elton said. For years, the coins couldn't be sold because they were tied up in lawsuits and legal wrangling between salvagers and insurance companies, he said.

Leidman said he got three coins from a trade with a Texas dealer. He sold two and kept the third in a display case.

Leidman said a customer came into his store to look at some coins, and slowly opened the display case while he wasn't looking.

Later that day, Leidman said he reached inside for the coin. "Bingo, it's gone," he said.

Leidman filed a police report and conducted an ongoing search on the Internet auction site eBay in case someone attempted to sell it.

In late January, Leidman said, he spotted his coin on eBay. He said he knew it was the stolen coin because of a distinctive "streak" or imperfection found between the forehead of Miss Liberty's face and the stars surrounding its perimeter.

"There isn't another coin exactly like it," he said.

Leidman said he learned that a fellow coin dealer had bought the coin from Munchel's and put it up for auction.

When the coin dealer learned there were questions about ownership of the coin, he returned it to the Lakeland jewelry shop and got his money back, Leidman said.

Leidman said he is willing to buy the coin back from Munchel's for $1,200.


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BBC
July 23, 2005


A number of historical items
have been found on the shore.

Londoners will be able to find out about the history of the Thames when the foreshore at the Tower of London opens to the public this weekend.

As part of National Archaeology Weekend the World Heritage site of Tower Beach will host a number of walks and talks.

Previous finds there include a medieval knife and Roman glass as well as clay pipes, animal bones and pottery pieces.

Environmental charity Thames 21 will be cleaning up litter. The free events run during the two mornings.

Anyone who wants to lend a hand with the clear-up will be provided with equipment.

The beach is open during low-tide which is from 1000 BST until 1200 BST on Saturday and 1000 BST and 1230 BST on Sunday.


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Payvand's Iran News
July 20, 2005



Tehran -- After studying 47 non-Iranian and Iranian historical resources, an Achaemenid ship's original design was re-sketched. The archetype of this ship, which is a kind of "Three Room" model, was used as a battleship during Achaemenid dynasty. Now a small model of that ship has been made in Shiraz, Iran.

In the construction of a new model of an Achaemenid battleship, which is made by experts of aero-marine research centre of Malek Ashtar University, all traditional and old techniques were respected.

Kambiz Alampour, administrator of "Marine and Navigation Museum of Persian Gulf" and the head of the executive team in charge of the project for construction a collection of ancient Iranian ship replicas said, "After studying 47 different resources including Iranian and non-Iranian resources we achieved the original design of the archetype. The genuine model of this ship was a kind of "three room" which was used as a battleship during Achaemenid dynasty.

Now a replica in smaller size has been constructed in this centre using the traditional methods."
This is the first ship of the collection which is made in the centre. According to Alampour the models of Qajar and Safavid ships are in the list to be made in future.

Alampour explained about the Achaemenid ship, "The model of this three-oar ship has been made in the size of 120 by 40 by 60 centimeters. According to the research has done so far, this ship had 2 big sails which are imitated exactly on the model ship as well."

The method by which the timbers are bent and used for construction completely complies with those common methods and techniques during Achaemenid era.

Based on available resources it is widely known that Iranians had a long experience in navigation and ship making so that Iranian sailors and navy has always had an active role in bordering seas including Persian Gulf.

Achaemenids had such a powerful fleet that even nowadays marine archaeologists from Canadian archaeological institute and Greek centre for archaeological services are combing seabed off the Greek coast to find the remains of Persian battleships.

In his book, the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, has explained about the catastrophic event which caused the Iranian fleet to capsize after colliding mount Atus in 492 BC. According to available documents the commercial marine course from southern part of Iran to the farthest ports of China were highly active during the reign of Darius the great of Achaemenid dynasty and Anoushirvan, Sasanid king of Persia.


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Star Beacon Daily
July 21, 2005

ROGERS CITY, Mich. - The Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum will celebrate its 15th anniversary Aug. 19 and 20 with a gathering of shipwreck survivors and the induction of honored mariners.

Although no mariners from Ashtabula County will be honored this year, Dennis Hale, sole survivor of the Daniel J. Morrell sinking, will participate in a panel discussion of lake storms and tragedies. Joining Hale on that panel will be Frank Mays, the only remaining survivor of the Carl D. Bradley sinking; Dave Erickson, Ss. Cedarville survivor; and Peter Hann, rescuer from the German vessel Weissenberg.

The panel discussion is 7 p.m. Aug. 19 in the Rogers City Theater, 253 N. Third St., Rogers City, Mich. Cost is $5. Hale and Mays will sign their books prior to the panel discussion.

Also on Friday, there will be a free bus trip to the calcite stone quarry and plant – Rogers City is the location of the world’s largest limestone quarry. Reservations for the tour are required.

Buses will leave the museum 1:30 p.m.The Gathering, an induction ceremony for honored retirees of the industry, is 11 a.m. Aug. 20 at St. Ignatius School, 545 S. Third St., Rogers City.

Warren Toussaint, medical officer of the Sundew (Carl D. Bradley rescue), will be speaker for the induction luncheon. Cost is $12 adults and is by reservation only.

The Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum honors the men and women who sailed in the Great Lakes shipping industry. Artifacts in the museum include cabin furniture, foul weather gear, lockers, lifeboats and other items common to the lifestyle of the Great Lakes sailor.

The annual gathering brings together Great Lakes merchant sailors to honor and enshrine fellow sailors in the Great Lakes Hall of Fame. Several Ashtabula County sailors have been inducted in prior years.

For more information, go online to www.glmm.org.


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Do Fundo do Mar
July 23, 2005





Durante dois dias, obras do artista plástico brasileiro Menelau Sete estarão expostas nas águas da arrábida (Pedra do Leão). Ânforas e potes de barro alentejano pintadas por aquele que ficou conhecido como o "Picasso das Américas" compõem a mostra subaquática que tem como tema geral a Arte, a Arrábida, a Água.

Do curriculum de Menelau Sete constam mais de quinze exposições nos EUA e na Europa. Algumas das suas obras estão expostas no Consulado Brasileiro, em Atlanta no Museu de Antropologia, em Frankfurt, e nas casa das Américas, em Bruxelas.

Dia 29
. Instalação (CNANS)

Dia 30
. Exercícios de arqueologia subaquática (CNANS)
. Filmagem
. Visita livre

Dia 31
. Concurso de fotografia suabquática (FPAS/Foto Plus/Mundo Submerso/Vega)
. Visita livre





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CDNN
by David Irland
20 July 2005


RMS Republic.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass -- Ninety-six years ago, in January fog, a very large ship went down about 50 miles off Nantucket. Norman Gardiner, John Farrington, William "Dougie" Campbell, and at least one other Vineyard man were among the crew of divers when the wreck of the RMS Republic, 570 feet long and older White Star Line sister of the notorious Titanic, was discovered in 1981. She lay in more than 200 feet of water, six miles from the official coordinates made public by British and American authorities just after she sank.

The RMS (for "Royal Mail Ship") Republic was notable for many reasons but most spectacularly for the amount of gold she purportedly had stashed in her second-class deck, emptied of passengers perhaps for that purpose. Anywhere between $1 and $15 billion worth in today's money went to the bottom with the Republic after she was struck by the Italian liner Florida, according to Martin Bayerle, 54, of New York, the impassioned human engine behind the search, discovery, and rescue efforts that have stretched over the last 25 years.

Last week, Mr. Bayerle again made news with the decision handed down by US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner granting him world salvage rights to the RMS Republic, thus clearing the way for Mr. Bayerle's total commitment to the recovery project.

On the day the Republic was found, John Farrington, 54, and Dougie Campbell, now dead, his diving partner, were among the first crews to go down. According to Mr. Farrington, they dove to a level at which disorientation sets in, around 180 feet.

Mr. Farrington a certified "hard-hat" and salvage diver at the time, said the expedition was "on a shoestring. Really we were just trying to locate it. I can't tell you how far down we went after 180, whether it was 10, 20, 30 feet more. I think we found parts of the ship around 220, 230. We had to have lights that deep."

He describes the ship that may eventually dwarf every other treasure find in the world as "a big hunk of red rusted material" in the dark before him. "We had the two tanks and then a bail out tank. We didn't have much margin for error." The "bail out" tank, Mr. Farrington said, is a small tank of air divers carry to help them out of a jam.

"We were young, and it was exciting," said Mr. Farrington. "It was the lure of gold."

In the summer of 2006, when the salvage effort starts in earnest, Mr. Gardiner will once again be part of Mr. Bayerle's crew, though his new job description will be videographer, whereas in 1981 he was signed on because he "fit the billet," he said. "I was a certified diver and could cook."

Mr. Gardiner, who retired from his Coast Guard diver's job many years ago, was stationed on Martha's Vineyard, in Menemsha, in the early 1960s.

Islanders may remember Mr. Bayerle's MV Scuba Headquarters, Inc. located in the building that now houses galleries and a restaurant across from the Black Dog Tavern. At the time, in the mid-70s, the storefront was "more of a headquarters than a dive shop," Mr. Bayerle said. Part of the original backing team included Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, who wrote checks imprinted with "Black Ball Production Company." And one of the crew's initial meetings was held at James Taylor's house, according to Mr. Bayerle. "He wasn't there, but a friend of his said, come on over, so that's where we met."

MV Scuba HQ, Inc. closed in 1981 after Mr. Bayerle's initial research on the Republic paid off, at which time he began to concentrate his energy on the wreck that he and his team had found after years of homework and two-and-a-half days of searching.

The partial, highly debatable list of the Republic's theoretical cargo reads:

. 5 tons of newly minted American Gold Eagle coins valued at $3 million in 1909.

. 15 tons of gold bars.

. A Navy payroll with estimated current value around $70 million.

. Several tons of silver, as well as passengers' jewelry.

Mr. Bayerle told The Times that his company is now looking around for a vessel larger than the one being currently employed, according to Mr. Bayerle, "something large enough to accommodate the recovery effort we're mounting, which will involve a 3D map of the entire search area." The inexhaustibly knowledgeable Mr. Bayerle said the composition of a 3D map involves "three or four pingers [sonar devices] on the bottom combined with a towed sonar array used with GPS to map exact coordinates," resulting in an exact map of the topography of the area. The murkiness of the Atlantic, the depth of water and the wreck size make photography impractical.

The project now is waiting out the mandatory 180-day advance notice period to allow the Coast Guard to broadcast a notice to mariners that a salvage effort will be taking place in a major shipping lane, effectively closing off this summer to any recovery efforts.

The sinking of the RMS Republic is shrouded in unanswered questions, such as why no formal inquiry into the sinking was held and why the second class deck area was methodically emptied of passengers, according to White Star Line records.

SOURCE - Martha's Vineyard Times


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Minnesota Public Radio
By Cara Hetland
July 19, 2005


Artifact hunting is popular because people want to
find a perfect point like this one. This was found
along the banks of the Missouri River.
(MPR Photo/Cara Hetland)

It's against the law to take anything from federal parks or protected land. That includes driftwood, plants, and even rocks. Some federal land is prime hunting ground for Native American artifacts. Even more so now, along the banks of the Missouri River.

Artifacts such as arrowheads, points and scrapers are exposed because of low river levels due to a five-year drought. Looters are hitting the jackpot, and law enforcement is cracking down.

Pierre, S.D. — There's an attraction for some people in finding a perfect arrowhead. The attraction is holding history in your hands. For Native Americans, those artifacts mean something else. They are confirmation of a history passed down from generation to generation.

Alfred LeBeau, the cultural preservationist for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, says when one artifact is removed it's like removing part of a picture.

"Some of the other bigger sites may have a whole story of how this site came to be, and what happened at that site. It might have been someone had a dream or a vision, and they marked this area on a rock," says LeBeau.

LeBeau says it's important for Native Americans to understand their own history before anyone else does. And when pieces are removed, the stories scatter. He suggests people leave the rock where it's found, and take a picture of it instead.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for policing the artifacts. Corps archeologist Rich Harnois has a file cabinet in his office that's full of small plastic bags -- bags that contain artifacts confiscated from looters. Harnois refers to one of the looters as a human vacuum cleaner, who had collected 15 bags of artifacts from the banks of the Missouri River.

Harnois says there's an art to finding artifacts, and the serious looters know where to look.

"They will try and find burial areas if they can, in order to find the artifacts," says Harnois.

"They aren't after the human remains themselves. What they hope to do is find grave goods that were included in the burial."

It's these burial sites that are being exposed by low water levels along the Missouri River.

Some of the grave goods Harnois refers to are things like jewelry made of bones or sea shells. He says where there is a burial site, there's often an old campsite nearby. And that's the jackpot for a looter, because it will likely hold a cache of arrowheads, scrapers, spears and pottery.

Harnois says he's stumped as to why people want to collect things they know they have stolen.

"When they do that, the only one they're enriching is themselves. They take it home and put it on the wall in their basement. Nobody gets to see it," says Harnois. "And of course they know they collected it illegally, so it never sees the light of day, and the rest of the population never gets to enjoy that or learn anything from it."

Some looters take to keep; others take to sell. There's a big market for such artifacts, and it's easy to find them for sale on the Internet. A recent search for "arrowheads" on the eBay online auction site turned up more than 2,000 items for sale. The growing market for these items is part of what worries South Dakota officials.

The artifacts may not all be from South Dakota, but people are willing to pay. The prices range from 99 cents to more than $200. People are selling their personal collections still under glass, and some are selling individual points they've found.

Rich Harnois says the artifacts mean nothing when they are taken out of context. Because of that, archeologists no longer remove artifacts found at an excavation site. Instead, they map and categorize them as they are found.

Harnois says looters and law enforcement officials alike know where the popular sites are along the Missouri River, and they're monitored for any activity. Even the general public keeps an eye out, and can call a new tip line to report looters.

Harnois says looters found with arrowheads or other artifacts in their pocket face fines ranging from $250 for a first offense to $250,000 for multiple offenses.


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Rednova
July 21, 2005

Never-before-seen areas of ship revealed in 2-hour television event premiering Sunday, July 24 at 9 PM in Discovery Channel.

James Cameron, Oscar-winning writer/director/producer of the blockbuster film Titanic, will make his last trip to the doomed ship this summer as part of an unprecedented television event.
LAST MYSTERIES OF THE TITANIC, a poignant farewell to the most spectacular shipwreck in history, will have its world premiere Sunday, July 24th at 9 PM on Discovery Channel.

Utilizing newly developed technology, Cameron and his team present history’s best look yet at the ship’s interior, including some areas not seen since Titanic’s lone voyage in 1912.

And since time and the harsh conditions of the ocean floor have taken their toll on the ship, these may be the last images ever gathered of the Titanic before it is surrendered to the deep forever.
The majestic Titanic has been an object of fascination and study for decades, but many tantalizing questions still remain about the ship and its catastrophic sinking. This expedition, Cameron’s final and most comprehensive dive yet, attempts to uncover clues and solve some of the Titanic’s most haunting mysteries.

Throughout LAST MYSTERIES OF THE TITANIC, Cameron’s specially designed remotely operated vehicles explore the Turkish Baths (the best-preserved and most opulent remaining space in the ship’s interior), Scotland Road (the crew quarters), the first class cabins (which are full of countless personal possessions of the Titanic’s wealthy passengers), the mysterious boiler room #6 and the cargo holds (which housed the luggage of the ship’s first class passengers and remain largely unexplored).

LAST MYSTERIES OF THE TITANIC combines re-enactments, archival footage, and the results of two new Titanic dives with live updates from James Cameron from aboard one of the two MIR submersibles while at the wreck and from the Keldysh, his research vessel.

Re-enactments were filmed using sets built during the production of the feature film, Titanic, and present a vivid look at rarely-seen areas of the vessel. As this is his last expedition to the doomed ship, the special also features Cameron’s live farewell to the Titanic.

About the Show
LAST MYSTERIES OF THE TITANIC is sponsored by Chevy; directed by James Cameron and produced by Andrew Wight. For Discovery Channel, executive producer is David McKillop.

About Discovery
Discovery Channel is the United States’ largest cable television network, serving 90.2 million households across the nation with the finest in informative entertainment. Discovery Networks, U.S., a unit of Discovery Communications, Inc., operates and manages Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery HD Theater, Discovery Kids Channel, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Military Channel, Discovery en Español and FitTV. The unit also distributes BBC AMERICA.
-----

On the Web:
Last Mysteries of the Titanic Website


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Star Tribune
By Larry Oakes
July 20, 2005


Benjamin Noble.

DULUTH -- For more than 90 years it was a secret Lake Superior wouldn't tell: the deep, dark place where it had entombed the 239-foot Great Lakes freighter Benjamin Noble and its crew of 20 men.

The Noble sank during the predawn darkness of April 28, 1914, during a vicious storm. The most anyone could surmise was that it went down somewhere between Two Harbors and Duluth, off the North Shore.

Duluth maritime publisher James Marshall was so intrigued by the mystery that in 1987 he offered a $1,000 reward for the discovery of the wreck.

And he smiled broadly Tuesday as he paid the reward to a team of amateur but experienced wreck hunters who stumbled upon the Noble last fall.

"I've been waiting a lot of years to give this check out," Marshall, chairman of Lake Superior Magazine, said during the ceremony in Duluth's Canal Park, with the world's biggest lake for a backdrop.

The water was a gentle blue, appearing hardly the killer it was on the day it swallowed the Noble and its entire crew.

Lights disappeared
The Noble, a steamer built in 1909, had left Conneaut, Ohio, on Lake Erie with 2,900 tons of steel rails bound for the Great Northern Railway's Superior, Wis., terminal.

Its captain, 31-year-old John Eisenhardt of Milwaukee, worried in a letter to his sister that the vessel was overloaded, making it unstable, according to "Lake Superior Shipwrecks" by Julius F. Wolff. The trip was Eisenhardt's first as captain. It became his last.

As the vessel crossed Lake Superior, one of the worst spring storms ever to strike the big lake was gathering -- with winds of at least 64 miles per hour. From a distance, the captain of another vessel saw a smaller ship's lights disappear at about 3 a.m. By that afternoon, hatch covers, oars and other flotsam from the Noble were washing up on Minnesota Point in Duluth.

But the location of the Noble and its crew became "western Lake Superior's best-held secret," Wolff wrote.

Lake finally tells
Last Halloween, wreck hunters Jerry Eliason and Randy Beebe of Duluth, Ken Merryman of Fridley and Kraig Smith of Rice Lake, Wis., were scanning the bottom about 10 miles off the shore near Two Harbors.

They were looking for the Robert Wallace, a wooden steamer that went down in 1902. They thought the structure their side-scan sonar detected half-buried in the muddy bottom more than 300 feet down was the Wallace.

But when they lowered an underwater camera, they discovered a hull made of steel, not wood. Then they caught glimpses of the cargo: steel rails.

In western Lake Superior, only one missing steel vessel was loaded with rails when it went down: the Benjamin Noble. Eliason considered the Noble the Holy Grail or Loch Ness monster of wrecks, half history, half legend, a hidden crypt for 20 men.

Of the 350 vessels known to have sunk in Lake Superior, fewer than 50 remained unaccounted for, and because the Noble had no survivors, its fate was considered one of the most mysterious.
The data on how and where it went down were so vague, so conflicting that no wreck hunter had ever known just where to start. Now, huddled around a video screen in a lonely boat, the four hunters suddenly knew they were staring at something akin to a ghost.

"Holy goodness!" Eliason remembers saying, or perhaps something slightly less printable. After almost a century, the Noble was found.

Eliason said it sits in a deep furrow plowed by its own hull, evidence that it dove to the bottom rather than breaking up on the surface.

He said he thinks killer waves may have broadsided the vessel and driven it under when the captain was trying to turn around, to avoid a following sea. The witness who saw lights disappear said the vessel appeared to turn first, Eliason said.

Preservation sought
On Tuesday, Marshall said he couldn't be more thrilled, both to see the mystery of the Noble's location solved in his lifetime and by the wreck hunters' announcement that they would put the money toward an application to have the wreck declared a historic site, off-limits to private relic scavengers.

Until then, they said, the wreck's exact location and depth won't be widely disclosed. If any relics are taken off the wreck, they will be only for public display in the Canal Park Marine Museum, the discoverers said. They added that dives -- the first of which may occur this summer -- should be limited because the site is the grave of the Noble's crew.

A grave that can now finally be marked.

After witnessing Tuesday's presentation, Frederick Stonehouse, a prolific Great Lakes shipwreck author, said: "They've solved one of the great mysteries of the Great Lakes."


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Duluth News Tribune
July 19, 2005

TOULON, France - Dr. Alain Bombard, who crossed the Atlantic in a dinghy to prove that shipwrecked sailors could survive off the sea's bounty, died Tuesday in southern France, hospital officials said. He was 80.

The cause of death for Bombard, who was admitted to a military hospital in Toulon nearly a month ago, was not immediately known.

A biologist and medical doctor, Bombard specialized in the study of survival at sea. In 1952, he completed a 65-day solo voyage across the Atlantic on a single-sail inflatable raft, which he named The Heretic, to prove that it was possible to live off fresh-caught, uncooked fish.

He also demonstrated it was possible to drink seawater when limited to occasional sips.

Born Oct. 27, 1924, Bombard attended medical school in Paris and began researching the subject of survival at sea early in his career.

He published several books about his experiences at sea.

In his 50s, he entered politics, beginning with regional positions. He briefly held the No. 2 post at the Environment Ministry in 1981 and served as a European parliamentarian from 1981 to 1994, according to Who's Who in France.

Bombard's citations included France's prestigious Legion of Honor.


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One year! More than 23.000 visits and 869 posts.

Thank you all for reading this blog. Please keep sending news and informations.

Cheers!

Pedro Caleja

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The Hindu
By A. Harikumar
July 19, 2005

ALAPPUZHA: The ancient boat excavated jointly by the State Archaeological Department and the State Institute of Archaeology at Kadakkarappally, near Thykkal, in Cherthala taluk is likely to be preserved at the site itself, modelled after a similar project in Denmark. The ship is at present lying at the excavated site itself.

Official sources said the experts, after a detailed study of the vessel, have recommended that the only practical means to protect the ship was to preserve the ship in a tank built around it at the site.

The experts have found that the wood of the vessel disintegrated quickly when it came into contact with dry air.

Hence, it was difficult to take it out of the site and to transport it to another place and any such effort would incur a huge expense for the State Government.

Earlier, the State Government had considered relocating the ship to another site to preserve it.

But the move resulted in widespread protest, as the local people wanted the ship to be preserved at the excavated site itself.

The sources said that the ship was at present located on a private property the land needed to be acquired. As a preliminary step, the Alappuzha District Collector has sent the land survey details of the property to the Archaeological Department.

Protected monument
Now, the State Government has to issue a notification declaring the ship as a protected monument and take steps to acquire the land.

The ship was excavated in 2002. A trench, 30-metre long, 12-metre wide and and 5-metre deep, was dug around the vessel. Archaeologists had recovered several artefacts and animal remains from the ship.

The artefacts and the wood used to make the ship were subjected to dating tests, including C-14 dating tests, to calculate the age of the ship.

The artefacts were shifted to various museums across the State.

After initial experiments, it was deduced that the wood used to make the ship was around 1,000 years old.

Latest inferences, state that the vessel was a sailboat used to carry goods over short distances and its age might be around 500 years, sources added.


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Kathimerini
By Iota Sykka
July 18, 2005


An aerial view of the tiny cape of Xiropotamou,
which was the harbor of ancient Aighila, the
fortified city of Antikythera.

Imagine an archaeological park for alternative tourism where visitors can participate in the research. That is what archaeologist Aris Tsaravopoulos has in mind for Antikythera. His excavations in the area keep turning up new finds to confirm that ancient Aighila, the fortified town of Antikythera, was a pirates' stronghold.

His latest dig revealed a large number of weapons: more than 20 arrowheads and sword tips, 50 different kinds of catapults and catapult projectiles.

«In some places the walls show signs of damage from human activity and rough reconstruction with pebbles,» Tsaravopoulos said. «During a break in the siege, the inhabitants may have tried to rebuild the part that had been damaged. That shows they were beaten; otherwise they would have rebuilt the wall with greater care and attention.»

These are not the only finds.

«There are two Rhodian inscriptions which refer to a campaign against the thieves of Aighila,» Tsaravopoulos said.
In 1888, on the shores of the tiny cape of Xiropotamou, site of the ancient port, a statue of Apollo was found with an inscription that testified to the existence of a temple to the deity.

Aighila was a pirates' town which disappeared in 67 BC, but there are traces of settlement in other parts of the island from the fourth century BC and from the Bronze Age, from which a few ceramic items have survived.

Two digs are currently under way on Antikythera. The Canadian School is conducting a dig with the KST Ephorate of Antiquities (which has found prehistoric sites) and the one Tsaravopoulos is involved in.

Tsaravopoulos wants to the site to become an archaeological park where volunteers work free of charge for the experience. «We already use [volunteers], as well as students,» he said. «Among them is a Swiss technician, a professor from the University of Paris, a librarian from Dionysos, and a clerk from the Defense Ministry. We don't pay anything for labor, but they are all happy, and so are we. If this happened on an organized basis, the area would get revenue and the archaeological park would be a big investment for the island.»


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Oeste Bravio
By Luis Filipe Castro
July 14, 2005

Crónica de um arqueólogo subaquático português que é professor na mais prestigiada instituição que lecciona Arq. Sub, a Universidade Texas A&M, e em que relata as suas "aventuras" para proteger o património cultural subaquático do Panamá. Vale a pena ler.

Caçadores de tesouros: porquê eu?
"Voltei do Panamá com as mãos vazias. Apesar dos esforços do governo o país não se consegue ver livre da escumalha que se habituou a roubar os navios afundados, e os funcionários públicos não vêem porque razão se hão-de arriscar a ser processados – as ameaças chovem – e escorraçar os caçadores de tesouros para me darem uma licença a mim, outro “gringo” dos EUA, como me chamaram os caçadores de tesouros locais.

Eu continuo à espera, calmamente, solidário com as pessoas maravilhosas que conheci em Panamá (city), em Cólon, Belén, Portobelo e Nombre de Dios. E uma luta que vamos ganhar, mas ainda não sabemos quando.A arqueologia pode ser assim, cheia de conflitos, e a nossa vida não é tão excitante como a do Indiana Jones. Umas vezes por razões prosaicas: há arqueólogos inseguros, invejosos ou controleiros (ou corruptos!) em posições de poder que nos dão dores de cabeça porque odeiam o mundo e porque podem. Outras vezes – sobretudo quando se estuda o período dos descobrimentos e da expansão europeia – são os caçadores de tesouros.

Não me estou a queixar. Tenho uma vida óptima, colegas de trabalho maravilhosos em todos os continentes, viajo, mergulho e divirto-me imenso.

Mas há milhares de arqueólogos no mundo, com interesses diversos e condições de trabalho variadas, e a mim calhou-me estudar um tipo de navios que é cobiçado por caçadores de tesouros, antiquários e leiloeiras internacionais. ..."

sigam o link e espreitem o resto, vale a pena.


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FMI News
July 19, 2005

The name of the ship is the "Notre Dame de Deliverance." It was lost during a Hurricane in 1755. It carried billions of dollars worth of gold, silver and jewels.

Greg Brooks and his team at Sub Sea Research discovered an intact shipwreck about 40 miles from Key West, Florida.

They'd like to salvage the entire ship, build a museum in Maine and bring it here.

They would finance the museum by selling some of the treasure from the ship.


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24 Hour Museum
By Helen Barrett
July 17, 2005


The Nautical Archaeology Society's Royal Adelaide
anchor survey. © NAS Training

The Nautical Archaeology Society is calling on every diver in the UK to help locate and record Britain’s shipwrecks for its WreckMap Britain 2005 project, which will run until August 31 2005.

The project, launched on Saturday July 16 2005 as part of National Archaeology Week, asks divers to record data, photograph, video and even sketch shipwrecks as part of their normal dive. The NAS will collate the findings, plot shipwreck locations onto a map to be available online, and share valuable information with the national archive services – English Heritage, Historic Scotland and CADW in Wales.

“Nobody really knows how many wrecks are around our coasts,” said NAS project officer Mark Beattie-Edwards. “We think the records we have are just scratching the surface.”

The Nautical Archaeology Society is calling on the UK's 100,000 divers to help map shipwrecks.

The NAS has records of 40,000 historic ship losses around the coast, but estimates that at least 100,000 shipwrecks exist around the UK. Of those, it has co-ordinates of just 6000. It hopes the project will both uncover previously unknown shipwrecks, and add to the quality of existing information about documented sites.

“The estimated figure of 100,000 wrecks corresponds roughly to the number of active divers in the UK, so we are asking every diver to dedicate at least one dive to the project this summer,” said Beattie-Edwards.

Recording forms will be available from the NAS website, as well as information and advice on what to record, including a shipwreck’s features, dimensions and visible artefacts.

“Most divers will record and photograph a wreck’s structure, like rudders and cables,” said Beattie-Edwards. “But in the past, divers have seen anything from Victorian toilets, bottles, pocket watches – all personal items belonging to a ship’s crew. Some wrecks have cannons visible, or perhaps small items like shot.”

To launch WreckMap Britain, the NAS are to host a fact-finding dive at Selsey beach, Hayling Island, Hampshire on July 18. Divers will have the opportunity to explore and document the wreck of a late 18th century barge, which once carried Portland stone, with its hull, winch and cargo still visible.

“We hope to demonstrate what a small group of divers can achieve, the amount of valuable information that can be collected, and just how easy it can be,” said Beattie-Edwards.

Further information and recording forms are available from the Nautical Archaeology Society – 023 9281 8419 or online at www.nasportsmouth.org.uk.


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The Virginian-Pilot
By Jeffrey S. Hampton
July 17, 2005

Legends of a Revolutionary War blockade runner and a heroic slave who stood 7 feet tall lured state divers to search the murky waters around Knotts Island last week in search of a shipwreck.

Local lore and wooden remains spotted by watermen led state archaeologists to search for the Polly east of Knotts Island and near the Virginia line in a small body of water known as Bullet’s Hole.

But the wreckage couldn’t be found, said Richard Lawrence, director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

“We can’t say whether it’s there or not,” Lawrence said Friday morning.

The team found wooden remains but no evidence of a shipwreck. The plan is to return later with a magnetometer, a device that can penetrate dark waters to detect ship remains sitting on the bottom.

Evidence is strong that the Polly is nearby, he said.

The Polly was built by Caleb White, the great-great-great-grandfather of local waterman Fred Waterfield. Stories passed down from the family say the ship was moored near family property.

As inlets to the ocean closed, the ship became useless, Waterfield said. A hurricane tore the ship from its moorings and capsized it in Bullet’s Hole, he said.

“My daddy could take you right to it,” he said Friday morning.

On Thursday, Waterfield searched farther south and found larger pieces of wood that could be where the wreck is, he said. But by then the team had moved on to search for another wreck also thought to be near Knotts Island, Lawrence said. The team found no remains of the second wreck either and left Currituck on Friday morning.

An article by Thomas Parramore published in American History Illustrated and a story by Charles Harry Whedbee in “Outer Banks Mysteries and Seaside Stories” tell the story of the most noted voyage of the Polly.

In February 1780, White, his brother-in-law Samuel Jasper, and a 7-foot-tall, 300-pound slave named Currituck Jack sailed from the Currituck Sound into the Atlantic Ocean with cargo for Europe.

The ship was captured by a British ship named the Fame. A part of the Fame’s crew planned to sail the Polly to New York to turn her over to British authorities.

White, Jasper and Jack were placed in irons aboard the Polly. During the voyage, Jack convinced the British he would help them for his freedom. Once unshackled, he eventually got the opportunity to free White and Jasper, and the three of them overcame the British crew of five.

The British prisoners were turned over to the American Congress, which lauded Jack for his actions and recommended his owner free him. Jack’s owner, Henry White, a cousin of Caleb White, did not free Jack. But later, Caleb White arranged to buy Jack and pledged Jack’s freedom in his will. Jack finally was freed in 1792, but only after Caleb White had died and Jack had raised $100 to pay the estate.

Jack was remembered in Currituck as a good sailor. He owned his own vessel and bought the freedom of a slave girl who would become his wife. Records show that Jack owned land in the village of Currituck that he left to his wife and two children when he died in 1803, according to Parramore.

Many ships, some 70 to 80 feet long, sailed the inland waterways on the North Carolina coast when inlets were deep enough to allow passage to the ocean, Lawrence said.

So far, shipwreck searches have found only one blockade runner from the Revolutionary War, he said. The remains of the Sacre Coeur de Jesus are on the bottom of the Edenton Bay, he said. It is likely the ship that brought the cannons to the Edenton waterfront, he said.


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Rocky Mount Telegram
By Tom Murphy
July 17, 2005

In March 1997, archaeologists in Raleigh made an exciting announcement: Divers had discovered a wreck the previous year off Beaufort Inlet they believed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the famous pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

The Queen Anne's Revenge sank in approximately that location in June 1718, Dr. Sim Wilde, program administrator for exploration of the ship, told Rocky Mount Kiwanis Club members Thursday at Benvenue Country Club. A diving expedition in October 1997 provided additional evidence strongly suggesting that the wreck is, indeed, the Queen Anne's Revenge, he said.

"Blackbeard the pirate ran the Queen Anne's Revenge aground at Beaufort," Wilde said. "In October 1996, after 10 years of surveys, we found the wreck of what is believed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge."

Mike Wilde-Ramsing, project director of divers searching the remains of Blackbeard's pirate ship, said the ship wreck was found by a team of private divers who turned their findings over to North Carolina officials.

"In 1997, an underwater archaeology group began assessing the site," Wilde-Ramsing said.

Wilde-Ramsing said that since the summer of 1998, some of the more durable artifacts from the ship have been touring Eastern North Carolina in a traveling exhibit assembled by the N.C. Division of Archives and History.

However, many interesting artifacts haven't been seen yet, because they are still being processed to eliminate salt water and stabilize them for study, Wilde-Ramsing said.

In September 1998, divers resumed their work at the wreck site, he said. Since that time, several cannons have been raised from the wreck, he said.

"Divers have found a small amount of gold — a few small flecks, tiny pieces of Blackbeard's treasure that would be worth about $50," he said.

Wilde-Ramsing said there are many lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that the wreck is the Queen Anne's Revenge, but these three convince most scientists:

-In the very first dives to the wreck, divers returned a ship's bell dated 1709. This proves the wreck can't be any older than that date.

-The artifacts recovered so far are all consistent with the wreck date 1718: Everything looks like it's from the early 1700s, and nothing has been found that could not have been made before 1718.

-The ship is now known to have carried at least 12 cannons. That's a lot: Merchant vessels would not have carried so many guns, if they had any at all. Warships weren't exactly common at Beaufort in the early 1700s so this is almost certainly a private vessel; in other words, a pirate vessel. Aside from the Queen Anne's Revenge, no other pirate ship known to have visited Beaufort is this large.

Wilde-Ramsing said the care and preservation of artifacts is important and difficult, even for ordinary archaeology on land; but it's much harder for underwater archaeologists.

The items archaeologists remove from a site are irreplaceable, so preserving them is the most important aspect of archaeology, he said.

Everything on the Queen Anne's Revenge is saturated with salt, Wilde-Ramsing said. Nothing can keep salt out for 280 years, he said — even heavy cannonballs are permeated with it.

"We've only excavated about 2 percent of the wreck, which is about 150 feet long and 60 feet wide. It's in 23 feet of water about a mile off shore looking straight south from Fort Macon, and visibility at times for divers is good," he said. "We've found two large anchors and 24 cannons. We haven't found any swords, pistols or coins."

Ramsing said raising the wreck would be an expensive proposition.

"It would take three or four years to get it up, and another 10 to 12 years to go through more than a million artifacts," he said. "It's no ship. It's just a wreck, so raising it hasn't been strongly considered."


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CDNN
By Brian Handwerk
July 15, 2005

NORTH CAROLINA -- The pirate Blackbeard's flagship may finally be yielding its identity after nearly 300 years on the ocean floor. Though researchers have yet to find definitive proof, evidence continues to surface off the coast of North Carolina that wreckage there was once the vessel known as Queen Anne's Revenge.

The wreck has generated attention ever since its 1996 discovery in Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina.

The wreckage includes a dozen cannon and large anchors rated for a 350-ton (355-metric-ton) ship, found amid a mound of debris where records indicate Blackbeard's flagship ran aground in 1718.

"We have extensive historical records, and there is no evidence of any [other] vessel of this kind of armament sinking anywhere during the 18th century on this coast," said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project, a consortium of researchers investigating the wreck.

Shipwreck records in the region are surprisingly complete. They include accounts of ships lost decades before the QAR and in more remote areas.

"There were people living in the area, and a [different] wreck of this size should not have gone unrecorded," Wilde-Ramsing said. "Beaufort was a little fishing village, and really less than a handful of ships that size were ever reported in the area."

Blackbeard captured a French slaver known as La Concorde in 1717 and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge. He captained the ship until it ran aground, perhaps intentionally, at Beaufort Inlet in June 1718. (For more on Blackbeard, see sidebar.)

Some accounts at the time suggested that Blackbeard wanted to break up his crew of some 300 to 400 men—and keep the choicest booty for himself.

The ship is still officially classified as "believed to be" the QAR. But mounting evidence suggests to many that the wreck is that of Blackbeard's ship.

"It's not like CSI," said Cheryl Ward, a Florida State University maritime archaeologist not involved in the project. "In the real world nobody solves anything in a 24-hour period. We may never get a definitive answer, but I think that they've got a very good case for this being the Queen Anne's Revenge. I certainly know of nothing they've found to suggest that it can't be."

Evidence Rises From the Deep
Assorted cannonballs and ammunition found at the wreck suggest that the ship had been significantly armed. To date the site has yielded 24 cannon.

Researchers have recovered a bell engraved with the date 1705 and a blunderbuss musket barrel dating from the same period. The average date of the 25 datable artifacts found so far is 1706.

Radiocarbon dating of hull timbers, performed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, suggests that the ship was built between 1690 and 1710. Unfortunately, no known records indicate where and when La Concorde was constructed.

Among the more intriguing finds is a wineglass stem dated to 1714-15—during the reign of Britain's King George I, who succeeded Queen Anne.

The glassware commemorated George's coronation, but to pirates it may have had a very different symbolism.
"You think of these pirates who had been fighting for Queen Anne as privateers, and when she died this German became King," Wilde-Ramsing said. "They used that as an excuse to begin attacking anyone—even their own [British] ships. Your mind kind of goes back to some interesting toasts they might have made to King George with this glass."
Yet nothing has definitively identified the ship. It may be that nothing ever will.

"My opinion is that it's likely the Queen Anne's Revenge," said Florida state archaeologist Roger Smith, who is not a member of the project. "As to proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt, I don't know whether that's possible. It's a pirate ship as opposed to a merchant ship, so you're not going to find a nameplate or something like that."

Some researchers harbor doubts that the wreck is that of the QAR. Most of their reservations center on a cannon that bears the number 1730 scratched into its surface.

"If this is a date, it definitely eliminates the identification of the site as Blackbeard's 1718 shipwreck," states a paper co-written by former QAR project conservator Wayne Lusardi and East Carolina University archaeologists Bradley Rodgers and Nathan Richards. They expressed their doubts in The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology this spring.

Still, several researchers dispute that the number is a date, suggesting that it refers instead to the weapon's price or its weight.

Shipwreck "One of the Best"
All agree that the site is special.

"I've seen a lot of colonial shipwrecks, but this is one of the best," said Smith, the Florida state archaeologist. "It has a bit of everything—lower hull, cargo, personal possessions, arms and ammo, anchors. It's kind of like a site that's been lost in time."

The unique wreck and the name recognition of the QAR have attracted experts from diverse archaeological fields to work side by side, Smith added.

"The days of John Wayne archaeology are finally over," he said. "Today we do it with a lot of different heads put together—experts in ceramics, wood, fabric, geology, ship construction, and more."

The romance of pirate lore has also generated public interest in maritime archaeology, history, and the colonial era.
"Some people are never going to believe it's the Queen Anne's Revenge, and I think that's part of the mystery and the excitement," Wilde-Ramsing said.

"I'd be very, very surprised if it's anything else—but we've excavated less than 5 percent of the site, so there's a lot of interesting stuff still out there."


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Daily Advance
By Jeff Holland
July 15, 2005


Divers came up empty-handed this week during their search for evidence that two ships lie at the bottom of the Currituck Sound, a state archeologist said.

A team from the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Division of Archives and History had hoped to confirm the location of a Revolutionary War-era ship known as the "Polly," a ship that locals say lies sunken in the northern part of the sound near the North Carolina-Virginia line.

But as of Wednesday, the dive team – comprised of two archaeologists and a summer intern – had been unable to locate remains of the ship, Richard Lawrence, director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch based at Fort Fisher.
"We don't have historical records that say that the Polly sank in the Currituck Sound, but we do have oral tradition that says so," Lawrence said.

The dive team searched a third location on Thursday for remains of a shipwreck off Swan Island, a small island off Knotts Island, according to Fred Waterfield, a Knotts Island resident. That ship had belonged to the original owners of the Swan Island Hunting Club, Waterfield said.

The dive team was scheduled to leave Currituck today.

At least one family on Knotts Island has helped keep alive the story of the Polly's final resting place. Waterfield said his cousin, Jimmy Waterfield, was told by his grandfather that the ship lies at the bottom of the sound. Fred Waterfield says he, too, learned about the location of several shipwrecks through his own father.

"My father knew where these wrecks were," Fred Waterfield said. "My people did commercial fishing and hunting for years. My people knew where all these ships were."

Fred Waterfield said he spotted boards in the sound a few years ago when the tide caused the water to be lower than usual.

Waterfield said he made the discovery while he and other Knotts Islanders were driving their lawnmowers out on the sound floor. Waterfield and the others were using the lawnmowers to pull trailers they had filled with ship ballast stones they found on the sound bottom. Knotts Islanders used the stones to landscape their flower beds.

Local historians and residents often talk about the Polly, a ship that likely sank after the Revolutionary War.

According to local historian Barbara Snowden, the Polly is of historical importance because of an incident aboard ship during the Revolutionary War that involved a slave, known locally as "Currituck Jack."

While Jack was aboard the Polly, the ship was captured by the British, Snowden said. After he was promised freedom, Jack began cooperating with the ship's British captors. However, Jack's cooperation was apparently only a ruse, Snowden said. He later freed his masters, who were then able to recapture the ship.

Jack, who later was given his freedom, was cited for his action by the Continental Congress and his exploits have been the subject of historical articles, including one in American Heritage, Snowden said.

Ships entered Currituck Sound when the old Currituck Inlet and the new Currituck Inlet permitted them passage and when the depth of the sound permitted larger vessels, Lawrence said. The new Currituck Inlet closed in the 1820s, he said.
Waterfield says he shared his knowledge about the shipwrecks in the sound with Snowden and her husband, Wilson, a few years ago. So, when Lawrence and a dive team were in the vicinity two years ago, the Snowdens passed along that information to Lawrence, who made a note to return and search the sound for the ships.

Though Lawrence's searches proved fruitless this week, the archeologist said his team plans to return to the sound with a magnetometer – a remote-sensing device – that can be used to detect the presence of iron or steel underwater. Wooden boards on ships were often secured with iron fasteners, Lawrence said.

If divers had found the remains of a ship, the team would have completed a field report and marked the exact location of the ships using a global positioning system. Beyond that, the state likely wouldn't have approved further work on the shipwrecks, because it has scarce resources for such projects, Lawrence said.

Usually, Lawrence's dive team turns its findings over to archaeology students at East Carolina University and other colleges, who then conduct further research on the discoveries.

The presence of ballast stones sometimes indicates the presence of shipwrecks, Lawrence said. Cargo ships carried ballast stones, but crew members would also get rid of the stones near a port as the ship prepared to take on cargo.
The team did spot boards during its dive Tuesday at what's believed to be the site of the second shipwreck. The site is 150 yards southeast of a wharf located at the end of Caison Point Road on Knotts Island.

During the team's return to the site on Thursday, divers used handheld dredgers to clear mud and debris from the wood. However, the wood is believed to have been part of a fish pen instead of a shipwreck, Waterfield said.
Storms passing through the area prevented a dive on Wednesday.


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