Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom

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Smithsonianmag.com
May 31, 2007

New technologies are aiding the search for one Civil War submarine, and the conservation of another

One was the Civil War's first submarine, the other was the first sub to take down an enemy ship. One sank en route to attack Charleston, South Carolina, the other sank after defending that same Confederate harbor. One rests somewhere along the shifting ocean floor, the other rests in a well-monitored laboratory tank.

One was the USS Alligator, which sank in April of 1863. The other was the H.L. Hunley, which plunged some ten months later. For all their differences, both Civil War submarines have a rapidly improving science of shipwrecks working in their favor. Advances in that field have helped researchers narrow the search for the missing Alligator and preserve the remains of the recently recovered Hunley.

"It's a good time to be a marine archaeologist," says Michael Overfield of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Since 2004, Overfield has been searching for the Alligator near Cape Hatteras, an area off the coast of North Carolina known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" for the abundance of ships it has consumed. Records indicate that's where the Alligator ended its promising but abortive existence.

Engineered by a French immigrant, the Alligator featured several innovative mechanisms, including a system for removing carbon dioxide from the vessel's interior and a chamber through which a diver could leave, plant a mine and return. The Union Navy considered the Alligator for several missions—most notably, a plan to destroy an important railroad bridge over the Appomattox River—but withdrew the submarine from each of them.

In late March of 1863, shortly after its capabilities had been demonstrated for President Abraham Lincoln, the Alligator headed toward a Confederate harbor in Charleston, towed by the USS Sumpter. On April 2, the tandem sailed full speed into a furious storm. "The Alligator was steering wildly and threatening to snap," the Sumpter's captain later wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles. At around 6 p.m., the commanders agreed to cut the line, and the angry waves swept the submarine's signature green hull out of view.

Using letters and other primary sources, Overfield and his colleagues at the National Marine Sanctuary Program refined the search area to some 625 square nautical miles. From there, the crew had several new and improved tools to aid their mission. "It's almost like the computer industry," says Overfield. "Think about where we were ten years ago. Did we think we'd be where we are today?"

One of Overfield's options was a magnetometer, which surveys the floor for any magnetic signal—particularly useful when searching for an iron ship such as the Alligator. He also used side-scan sonar, which throws down an acoustic signal to create a picture of everything beneath the boat.

Though these tools have been around for decades, they are now much easier to control, he says. Others, however, have really emerged within the past five years.

Overfield has used what's known as an ROV—a remotely operated vehicle—to further investigate a large object picked up by a magnetometer. The device scours the ocean floor and videotapes the desired area, sparing the cost and danger of sending out a diver. When he wished to cover several targets of interest at once, Overfield employed an autonomous underwater vehicle. These archaeological stunt doubles can be programmed to search a particular area and are equipped with their own magnetometers and sonar.

Though Overfield's search for the Alligator continues, these tools have enabled him to dismiss certain areas where he once believed the ship to be. "That's not always a bad thing, to say 'she is not there,'" he says. "It increases the likelihood of finding her on the next mission, and that's what keeps me going."

Not far from where Overfield conducts his searchers, marine researchers at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston work to preserve the Hunley. In February of 1864, the Hunley became the first submarine to torpedo an enemy—bringing down the USS Housatonic, the largest Union ship among those blockading the Confederate harbor. At that time, such an attack required ramming a torpedo into an opposing ship's hull and backing away to trigger an explosion. The Hunley sank on its return voyage, however, and in the end lost more men (nine) than did the Housatonic (five).

More than a century later, a search team led by novelist Clive Cussler located the lost ship. With that obstacle out of the way, the problem became dislodging the vessel safely from beneath the ocean floor. "When you find something, it doesn't always mean you'll recover it," says Robert Neyland, who is head of underwater archaeology at the Naval Historical Center and directed the Hunley's recovery.

In August of 2000, Neyland and his colleagues successfully removed the submarine with the help of a unique system that cradled the Hunley with hard-setting foam, locking the ship in place. Once the sub broke the surface, saltwater sprinklers showered the vessel to protect it from damage caused by oxygen as it made its way to the conservation facility.


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Local6.com
May 31, 2007

MADRID, Spain -- The Spanish government said it has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against a Florida firm over a shipwreck the company has found laden with a colonial-era treasure.

If the vessel was Spanish or was removed from Spanish waters, any treasure would belong to Spain, Spain says.

"Odyssey Marine Exploration has been requested in a letter to provide information concerning the identity of the ship and the material recovered, and has not responded with the details we were asking for," said Susana Tello, Culture Ministry spokeswoman.

"Spain has decided to go to (the) courts to claim its right in case the discovery is Spanish," she added. The lawsuit was filed in Tampa, Fla. on Tuesday, Tello said.

Odyssey announced two weeks ago it had discovered a shipwreck it has code-named "Black Swan" and 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

It only described the ship as a 17th-century merchant vessel that sank about 40 miles off the southwestern tip of England. But the Florida-based company would not say exactly where the ship was or name it, citing security concerns, and said the site was outside any country's territorial waters.

Odyssey has said that the ship was not in Spanish territorial waters and was not HMS Sussex, a shipwreck that Odyssey recently got permission from the Spanish government to search for in the Strait of Gibraltar.

But Spain has called the new discovery suspicious and said the booty may have come from a wrecked Spanish galleon.

Tello said the Kingdom of Spain is represented by the U.S. law firm Covington & Burling, which has represented Spain over shipwreck cases before, including the recovery of material from two ships, Juno and La Galga, in a 2000 court case. The Spanish government won the case at that time.

Messages left early today at the law firm's office in Washington, D.C., were not immediately returned, nor was an e-mail sent to the firm's spokesman. A message and e-mail for an Odyssey spokeswoman were also not immediately returned.


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Miami Herald
By Kelly Wolfe

May 31, 2007

The lake kept its secret as long as the rain fell.

The remains rested in the soft, black muck for hundreds of years -- buried beneath the water of Lake Okeechobee.

But the drought tore open the ancient grave, and a local man happened upon it. The bodies have been discovered.

But the mystery is just beginning.

''It's a mixed blessing,'' State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler said. ``The lower lake levels give us a chance to learn . . . but the site was probably better-protected under water.''

Little is known about this uncovered archaeological site of boats and bodies.

Wheeler said he has issued Palm Beach County a research permit to begin a county study. The artifacts at the site will be exposed only as long as the water levels are low, Wheeler said.

In the meantime, he has contacted Indian tribes, hoping to locate descendants.

Wheeler guessed the remains could date to the early 16th century. Wheeler is mum on the site's exact location, fearing vandals. Someone and some storms have already caused damage.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is patrolling the area, he said.

The site was discovered about two months ago by a Belle Glade man named Boots Boyer.

Boyer, 36, said he's been fishing on Lake Okeechobee for more than three decades.

He said he discovered the site while exploring a clump of trees where the land normally is under water. Boyer said he's run across Indian artifacts from time to time.

''But never this quantity,'' he said.

He made a series of phone calls, he said to report the human remains and hand-carved fishing boats.

Since then, Boyer said he's conducting his own patrols. ``The site really means a lot to me. I'm a watchdog.''

Christian Davenport, an archaeologist in Palm Beach County's planning division, visited the site last week, having marched through waist-high muck.

Davenport said the materials found predate the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes' arrival in Florida.


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May 30, 2007


The Australian navy's hopes of finding a World War One submarine has suffered a setback.

A remote camera has shown that an underwater object found in waters near Rabaul, on the Papua New Guinea Island of New Britain in February is a large submarine-shaped rock.

Sailors thought they had found the AE1, Australia's first submarine, which disappeared in September 1914, with 35 crew aboard.

But the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, Bruce Billson says a further investigation, using underwater cameras, divers and a remotely operated vehicle has proven the object discovered in February was not the long lost submarine.

The disappearance of the AE1 has been one of Australia's enduring mysteries and was the nation's first major loss of life in World War One.


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A british maritime researcher claims to have solved one of Australia's greatest wartime mysteries by locating the wreck of HMAS Sydney.

Timothy Akers also says he has discovered the whereabouts of the German raider Kormoran that sank the Sydney off the coast of Western Australia in November 1941, killing all 645 men on board.

And the wrecks of a number of Japanese warships and submarines, also believed to have been involved in the battle, are lying on the ocean floor nearby, Mr Akers claims.

However, Mr Akers' claims have been rejected by his former employer – now competitor – and prompted a plea from the Australian Government to reveal the whereabouts of the wrecks.

The Bulletin magazine reported that Mr Akers previously worked for the renowned shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who sacked him in 1998.

In 2005, the Australian Government offered a $1.3 million grant to the Perth-based company HMAS Sydney Search, which contracted Mr Mearns' services, to locate the wreck.

But the conditional grant fell short of the $4 million HMAS Sydney Search said the project required.

Several British experts have supported Mr Akers' findings, but Australian officials want proof.

Mr Akers has refused to divulge all of the details of the technique he used to locate the sunken vessels, which incorporate satellite images and radiation readings to detect images underwater.

He claims to have located the vessels in the Indian Ocean off Shark Bay and Carnarvon – an area also favoured by Mr Mearns.

However, Mr Mearns has rejected Mr Akers' claimed discovery as "total bullsh*t", The Bulletin reported.

Mr Mearns said the designated search area takes in 1600 square nautical miles of depths between 2300m and 4300m.

Mr Akers has offered to tell the Federal Government the location of the wreck if a formal request is made and providing "this wreck is not robbed".

"I have also found a number of Japanese vessels – two submarines and possibly a Japanese aircraft carrier in the general vicinity of HMAS Sydney," Mr Akers said.

"The Kormoran and another Japanese submarine is further north."

Mr Mearns said the idea of a submarine being involved "is nonsense".

Although all died on board the Sydney, 317 of the 397 men from the Kormoran survived.

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IHT.com
May 27, 2007


ROSKILDE, Denmark: On the skipper's command, deckhands hauled in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splashed into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pulled with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord.

A thousand years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn.

This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder.

The Sea Stallion of Glendalough is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction, modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years. Now it is preparing for a journey across the legendary Viking waters of the North Sea — leaving Roskilde in eastern Denmark on July 1 and sailing 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) to Dublin, which was founded by Vikings in the 9th century.

"It's like a banana boat. It moves like a snake," said crew member Preben Rather Soerensen, 42, after a recent test sail in the Roskilde fjord.

The crew will explore the challenges of spending seven weeks in an open vessel with no shelter from crashing waves, whipping wind and rain. Working in four-hour shifts, the history buffs and sailing enthusiasts will have to steer the 30-meter-long (100-foot-long) ship through treacherous waters with a minimum of sleep, comfort and privacy — just like the Vikings did.

"They must have been incredibly tough to do what they did," said 24-year-old crew member Triona Nicholl, an archaeologist from Dublin. "We all have waterproof gear. We have radios and life jackets and all the stuff. They must have been hardier people."

The Vikings turned to the stars and their ancient Norse gods for help as they navigated across the open sea, reaching as far as Iceland and North America. Many perished in the hostile waters of the North Atlantic.

This crew is putting their faith into modern technology: a GPS satellite navigation system and radar. They wear baseball caps and windbreaker jackets rather than chain mail shirts and helmets. Mobile phones are allowed, but no battle axes.

Nevertheless, the crew is likely to feel that they have been transported a millennium back in time when the voyage begins.

The ship — which will be accompanied by a modern support vessel with medical and rescue experts — has the curved hull and single square sail that typified the Norse longships, which were designed to sail on both open seas and shallow rivers.

Using replicas of Viking era tools — chisels, knives, spoon bits and axes — craftsmen built the 7.5-ton (8.25-short ton) Sea Stallion using 150 cubic meters (5,250 cubic feet) of oak and 7,000 hand-forged iron rivets.

"Within a certain framework, we knew how they built the ship and how the missing parts should be," said Erik Andersen, 68, who designed the replica. "The only guesswork was the color of the ship and the sail."

The builders settled for a brown-colored hull and a red-and-yellow sail, drawing inspiration from the famed Bayeux tapestry in France, which depicts the 11th century Norman conquest of England. The Normans were descendants of Viking settlers in northwestern France.

The ship proved remarkably stable during trials off Roskilde on May 5. Powered by up to 30 pairs of oars, the Sea Stallion, or Havhingsten in Danish, sliced through the waves without wobbling. Out in the fjord, the 120-square-meter (144-square-yard) sail was pulled down like a curtain, catching the salty breeze with a loud thump.

Captain Poul Nygaard, a Dane, dispatched instructions, relayed to the crew by the shouts of a midshipman.

It will be no pleasure cruise.

"They will suffer from blisters on their hands and sore bums," Nygaard said.

The voyage across the North Sea, north of Scotland and down the famously ill-tempered Irish Sea, will test both the crew and their ship.

The goal is to sail nonstop to Dublin, but the plan could change depending on the weather.

The Sea Stallion will set sail around the northern tip of Jutland and across the North Sea to the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland. From there, it is to veer south at Cape Wrath on Scotland's northern tip and down the Irish Sea to Dublin.

The crew — mostly volunteers from Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland the United States and Canada — will eat, sleep and work in extremely close quarters. When nature calls, the solution is a portable toilet near the mast or over the side of the ship.

"Privacy is a very big problem. We're 65 people living very close for a long time," said Erik Nielsen, a 64-year-old volunteer from Toronto. "You deal with it. It is manageable."

The 78 men and 22 women will take turns sailing the ship on the seven-week voyage. Many will remain onboard from start to finish, said Rather Soerensen, the project manager.

"They have to know something about square sails. And they have to be very socially competent," he said.

The Vikings entered history in the late eighth century, when Christian monks chronicled the first Norse raids on the coasts of northern Europe. While feared for their battle prowess, the Vikings were also skilled craftsmen and traders, establishing commercial networks as far away as Constantinople — today's Istanbul.

In Britain and Ireland, the raids gradually grew into full-fledged invasions led by Danish and Norwegian kings. The first Viking settlements in Ireland have been dated back to 840. Many historians believe Icelandic Viking Leif Erikson reached North America 500 years before Columbus.

The longship on which the Sea Stallion was modeled is believed to have been built in 1042 in Glendalough, south of the Irish capital. It was considered one of the most advanced vessels of its time.

Some historians believe it crossed the North Sea to carry the two adult sons of English King Harold Godwinson to Roskilde, where they sought to form an alliance with the Danish king against William the Conqueror.

The ship eventually was among five sunk in the Roskilde fjord around 1060, probably to block access to the port.

The five vessels were excavated and are now on display at the Roskilde Viking ship museum.

Christened by Denmark's Queen Margrethe in 2004, the Sea Stallion is expected to reach Dublin on Aug. 14, where it will be exhibited before returning to Denmark in August 2008.

Terje Boe, of Norway's Lofotr Viking Museum, who is not involved in the project, said the expedition could shed light on the maneuverability of large Viking vessels.

"It is so special because of the length of the ship. How will they do in high seas, how big waves can it take?" he said.

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On the Net:

http://www.havhingsten.dk


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Belfast Telegraph

By John McGurk
May 27, 2007


The hidden world of the Titanic's tragic sister ship Britannic is set to be uncovered.

A joint team of UK and Greek divers will explore the wreck of the historic Belfast-built ship in the Aegean Sea later this year.

And that expedition will open the floodgates to a super-ambitious plan designed to make the Harland & Wolff liner the central focus of a multi-million pound tourist attraction.

A key part of the Britannic Foundation charity project is to make the ship - submerged 400ft beneath the waves - available to select teams of divers.

Plans are in hand to develop a diving school alongside a Britannic museum and hotel 40 miles outside Greek capital Athens.

Britannic was the third largest Olympic-class liner of the legendary White Star line and sister ship of the Titanic and Olympic.

At more than 882ft, the Britannic - by then a wartime hospital ship - sank after hitting a German mine in November 1916 with the loss of 30 lives.

It lay on the Aegean Sea bed, until legendary French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau discovered its resting place in 1975.

It was relocated in 1996 and then bought by maritime historian and author Simon Mills.

He said: "Britannic may be out of sight, but she's not out of mind.

"Everyone is fascinated by the Titanic and that explains some of the interest in Britannic.

"However, she has her own story to tell. While the Titanic is known for its glamour, Britannic was a serving hospital ship.

"When we go down there we are going to find hospital beds as well as personal artefacts."

Just days ago, the Britannic Foundation revealed details of its first dive, due to start on September 10 which will last three days.


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CantonRep.com

By Ed Balint

May 26, 2007



Stationed above the main deck of an American merchant ship, Jack Hannan recalls the day in June 1942 when another shipmate asked him to trade spots on the vessel as each man kept watch.

The shipmate was facing the early morning sun. Hannan did not want to swap spots on the freighter. "Oh, he begged and begged me," Hannan recalled. "I finally traded sides with him."

Hannan, who had enlisted in the Navy during World War II, says the decision saved his life. Moments after switching, a torpedo struck the ship, right beneath where Hannan had been standing.

"If I hadn't traded sides with him, I'd be gone," said Hannan, 85, who lives at the Inn at Belden Village in Plain Township and has family in Stark County.

A German U-boat, U-505, among the most famous in World War II, attacked Hannan's ship, the Thomas McKean.

Hannan, however, was not unscathed; shrapnel ripped open his right hand. Abandoning ship, he and the others climbed into lifeboats. Hannan and 13 men squeezed into one of the four boats.

With the help of another shipmate, Hannan aided a merchant marine, who had been napping on a cot on the main deck when one of the two torpedoes struck. "He just got a lot of injuries and so forth," Hannan said. "He was hardly able to walk."

Hannan would receive a commendation for helping the wounded seaman, who later died in a lifeboat. Hannan also received a Purple Heart for his hand injury.

Before leaving the Liberty ship, Hannan scurried to grab his diary, fearing it could wind up in enemy hands. After the men boarded the lifeboats, the U-boat shelled and sunk the Thomas McKean.

The submarine surfaced and the German captain offered assistance. "He said, 'I'm sorry, this is war,' and went away on the surface," Hannan said.

LIFEBOATS

Drifting in the lifeboats, and surviving on food rations, Hannan, unlike other men aboard, was fortunate to be underneath a canopy, where he rested and was shielded from the sun. An American plane dropped canned food to the men by parachute.

The lifeboats bobbed in the water, at times battling stormy waters and waves 10 to 12 feet high, Hannan said.

Another time, "three sharks came up right around the lifeboat, and one of the sharks was bigger than the lifeboat, and if one of the those sharks rammed the lifeboat, they'd have had a real good meal," he said.

After more than a week at sea, Hannan's lifeboat reached land in the Dominican Republic, the last of the four to make landfall. "Oh, boy," Hannan recalled, "you talk about a relief."

"It was beautiful," said Hannan, a Mansfield native who later became a chief petty officer and did not serve on a ship again in World War II, instead rallying public support for the war effort on a speaking tour to sell war bonds.

Hannan said the first place he went to at the Dominican Republic was a church: "We thanked the Lord for saving our lives."


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By Kitty Martin

May 24, 2007

Most people give Christopher Columbus credit for discovering the New World, but one archaeologist is out to prove that people not only crossed the North Atlantic from Europe to North America, but also sailed back to Europe as early as 6000 B.C.

As part of his thesis project to get his doctorate from the University of Bonn, Dominique Görlitz will set sail in July from New Jersey on the reed boat, Abora III, and he hopes to make landfall first in Spain and then in North Africa. He estimates that the trip will take about two months.

Though based on ancient drawings, Abora III will be equipped with modern navigation equipment. "We're not crazy enough to sail across the open ocean without any navigational equipment," Görlitz said. The boat will have a galley, which is situated in the middle of the ship, and two "basket cabins" will provide sleeping accommodations for his crew of nine. There are no heads on board, but Görlitz seems unconcerned about that minor inconvenience. "We have the biggest bathroom in the world right off the side of the boat," he said.

Görlitz gathered his diverse crew from magazine and television ads and on the Internet. He describes them as ordinary people from five different nations. There's a doctor, a teacher, a student, and a 69-year-old man along for the ride. Görlitz was much more concerned with the potential crew's personality than with their sailing experience. "They must have humor," he said.

Görlitz and his crew are in New Jersey busily rigging Abora III for her journey across the sea. Prior to launching, there will be test-sails on the Hudson River. The sight of this 40-foot vessel, built out of 12 tons of bundled reeds, might even make jaded New Yorkers do a double take. A sister ship, Abora II, is currently on display in New York City at the Circle Lines Terminal at 42nd Street and 12th Avenue. It arrived May 18, on a container ship from Germany.

Görlitz is out to disprove the theory that it would have been impossible in prehistoric times to sail across the North Atlantic and back due to heavy seas, sudden wind changes, and strong storms. Experts say that prehistoric boats would have been unable to sail against the predominant winds, a necessary component in successfully sailing the North Atlantic from west to east.

Görlitz has collected evidence that native plants—some used to make early medicine—and food was traded between North America and northwest Spain, which in turn, was imported into Africa. The plants and food had to get transported to each continent somehow, and Görlitz is convinced this occurred by boat.

He used stone drawings—estimated to date from 6000 to 4000 B.C.—that were found in upper Egypt to determine lines and have the reed boats constructed in Bolivia. In the depictions, the boats are drawn with conspicuous lines on the bow and stern that Görlitz surmised were keelboards. The keelboards are aligned along the centerline, and on the bow, they're far enough in front of the mast to allow the boat to sail into the wind. Görlitz says that Abora III can sail 70 degrees off the wind.

If the Abora III mission succeeds, Görlitz will be instrumental in rewriting history, which will be a sweet payoff for a project that's been 16 years in the making. Or as Görlitz puts it, "I've been working on this for half my life."

To download of brochure about the project, click here.

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The Daily Star

By Ahmed Maged

May 24, 2007

ALEXANDRIA: It was dangerously stormy weather and high waves lashed down on the small Pharos Island where the Qaitby Citadel is located. Despite the unfavorable weather conditions, some underwater archaeologists had to brave it to try out some equipment the antiquities department is due to purchase.

One of them had just adjusted his heavy diving belt and was preparing to put on the rest of his diving gear when he was suddenly hit by a fierce wave, which in less than a minute caused him to drift out to the middle of the sea.

“I really thought this was the end,” recalled Alaa Mahrus, a senior underwater archaeologist and currently head of the Underwater Antiquities Department, Alexandria.

Mahrus continued: “It was virtually impossible to swim to shore and all indications showed that I was going to drown. I would have had it not been for the initiative of my colleagues.

“I immediately took off the heavy belt that was pulling me down. The other parts of my diving equipment had been scattered around me. The other divers jumped into the water, got hold of my oxygen tank and flippers and pushed them in the direction of the spot where I was struggling with the waves. This was how by the grace of God I was rescued.”

But this was only a small part of the many risks these adventurers are taking daily to uncover the secrets of scores and scores of antiquities that remain buried under the sea bed.

According to Mahrus, neither winter nor summer is the ideal time for underwater excavations. Exceptionally, some have to dive during these seasons for different purposes like testing new equipment or getting a view of a potential target.

The senior archaeologist explained: “Currently the sinking antiquities teams are working at various sites of our coast. May and June, then September, October and November are the golden times for people working in this field. The climatic conditions, that are the biggest obstacles for archaeologists, are mostly propitious.”

But Mahrus and his coworkers were speaking from an experienced discoverer’s perspective, beacuse, apart from climatic changes, working underwater is never risk-free and every time an underwater archaeologist should be ready to come face-to-face with death. He could lose his way within a wreck, be stuck in a heavy object or develop a fault with his diving set.

However, archaeologists’ fears are always overshadowed by their keenness to unravel one aspect of Egypt’s history that has become the focus and talk of the entire world after more than a decade of underwater excavations.

The Egyptian artifacts recovered from Alexandria are currently exhibited in Bonne after they toured Paris then Berlin. People have been left with the impression that the Egyptian coasts are as replete with history as Egypt’s deserts. But this can’t be dismissed without a number of inquiries about the driving force behind these perilous ventures that result in all these breath-taking discoveries.

Some might be familiar with what is happening in the desert. But they might not have figured how such excavations take place a few miles under the surface of the sea.

Ventures that led to all these findings were carried out in different parts of Alexandria including Abu Qir, the Pharos Island, the Poseidon Peninsula, the Eastern Port and the North Coast. They have placed Alexandria and other coastal cities on Egypt’s archaeological map.

Mahrus said: “Each of us should couple his knowledge of archaeology with diving skills. If you can’t pass the diving test, you aren’t eligible for this type of excavation.”

Mahrus added: “But basically our work follows along the same lines as desert archaeology. A team of archaeologists begin searching a certain area after they find tell-tale evidence. Scanning is done but practically our work is different.”

He detailed: “First we never work individually, as this is the law of diving. Second, contrary to the common belief that we find statues and other artifacts standing in the sea bed, most of these are buried under the sand.

“Of course, we work with electronic search equipment like hydro-lifts and scanners. But sometimes the rocks are mistaken for artifacts; before we start digging we examine the object to make sure it isn’t a rock. But rocks could prove deceptive, for after we begin to clear the sands thinking we’ve stumbled upon a big discovery, we end up realizing what we have been clearing is just a big rock.”

But it could be the other way round, what the searchers dismiss as an insignificant rock could turn out to be an important discovery. Mahrus said: “That happened one time when we dived in Abu Qir. In Abu Qir we came across a rectangular flat rock that had settled on its front. The back [of it] appeared to be no different from other rocks. However, we continued to have our own doubts, because that rock was part of the sinking ancient city of Heraklion’s ruins.

“Making an effort to turn the rock, the surprise awaiting us was a black granite mural depicting a decree by King Nectabo, founder of the 30th dynasty. Obviously it was in very good condition because it remained reversed all these years. The decree stipulated that one tenth of the taxes levied on Greek trade would be allocated for the treasury and god Nebt. The decree is currently one of the highlights of the underwater exhibition.”

But for Mahrus the Alexandria sites, unlike others, are located at very low depths and offer a lot in terms of discoveries as historically they are recognized to be the seat of the Greek Ptolomies of Egypt.

For Mahrus, the Red Sea was another experience. There is a high level of visibility but the discoverer can never make sound predictions about his findings. “In the Red Sea you’re fascinated by marine life, but the high depths are another concern. On the way to the target we have to make several stops to divert our mechanisms of the poisonous nitrogen, let alone the worry of being attacked by the fierce sharks specific to the Red Sea. The targets are mostly shipwrecks like one we went to explore near the island of Sadana, south of Hurghada.”

But Alexandria and the Red Sea are not the end for Mahrus and other underwater archaeologists. Plans are underway to approach the deep parts of the Nile in Upper Egypt. “These were the sites of many quarries that the ancient Egyptians used. There could be sinking ships and quays. Who knows?” There is too much and all searchers keep wondering if they will outlive the excavations or if there lifetimes will simply be one of the many phases that will unfold! No one knows.


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Nhan Dan
May 23, 2007

Five ancient cannons, and some cannon balls have just been found in Thuan An port, Thua Thien Hue province.

According to the Thua Thien-Hue Revolutionary History Museum, these five cannons and cannon balls were discovered by fishermen in Tan An village, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue province.

Nguyen Huu Hoang, a member of the Vietnamese UNESCO Antique Research and Collection Club, on May 22 bought the four brass copper cannons from fishermen.

The cannons weigh 250kg each. Each cannon has designs around the top, the middle of the body and the end. The near-end part has Latin letters. Two cannons are 175cm long. The other two are 162cm in length.

According to researcher Ho Tan Phan, these cannons date back to the Nguyen Dynasty (1648 – 1687). Deputy director of the Thua Thien-Hue Revolutionary History Museum theorised that these cannons could have been on ships of French or Spanish origin which were wrecked when attacking Hue imperial city in 1883.


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Bloomberg
By Ed Johnson
May 23, 2006


Australian navy divers surveying the sunken wreck of a Japanese midget submarine that attacked Sydney Harbor during World War II will present sand collected from the site to relatives of the two dead crewmen, the government said.

The M24 vessel was one of three Japanese submarines that raided the harbor in 1942 and fired torpedoes at U.S. and Australian ships.

Two of the submarines were destroyed and found within days of the attack. The fate of the third remained a mystery until it was discovered by amateur divers at Bungan Head, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the harbor, in November.

``The submarine is of international historical significance and is presumed to still contain the remains of its commander and navigator, Sub-Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban and Petty Officer Mamoru Ashibe,'' said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a statement yesterday. The sand collected from the seabed will be presented to their relatives later this year, he added.

The Japanese raid on May 31, 1942, killed 19 Australian and two British sailors when torpedoes hit the HMAS Kuttabul. The U.S. battle cruiser, USS Chicago, was unscathed.

One of the submarines became entangled in a defense net strung across the harbor and its crewmen blew themselves up along with the craft. The other was sunk by a depth-charge before it could fire its torpedoes.

The discovery of the wreck at Bungan Head has raised further questions about what happened in the hours after the attack, as the M24 was supposed to return to a mother-submarine waiting south of the harbor at Port Hacking.

Ocean Floor

The submarine is lying upright on the ocean floor and is mostly intact, although its shell has been damaged by commercial fishing trawling over the past 65 years, the Australian government said.

Navy divers mapped and surveyed the wreck two days ago and assessed possible battle damage and the status of undetonated scuttling charges, Turnbull said.

The government has declared the wreck site a protected zone to ensure the submarine and any human remains are not disturbed.

``We are committed to ensuring this internationally significant wreck is protected and treated with honor and respect,'' said Turnbull.


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May 22, 2007

COLLEGE STATION – A team of Texas A&M University researchers will soon be recovering artifacts from a 200-year-old shipwreck that lies more than 4,000 feet beneath the Gulf of Mexico, making it the deepest such recovery effort ever attempted in the gulf.

The $4.8 million project, funded by the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company, will begin today (May 22) says William Bryant, professor of oceanography, and Donny Hamilton, professor of anthropology at Texas A&M. Peter Hitchcock, a doctoral student and team leader of the project, says the vessel could be one of the most historically significant shipwrecks found in the gulf.

The recovery effort is named the "Mardi Gras Shipwreck Project" after a gas pipeline in the area. While the work has been an ongoing effort for the researchers over the past two years, the fieldwork phase of the project is just beginning as the team prepares to work southwest of the Louisiana coast where the Mississippi River flows into the gulf.

Ten researchers from Texas A&M and its Department of Oceanography and Center for Maritime Archaeology will participate in the effort, as well as members of the Minerals Management Service, a division of the Department of the Interior. The group anticipates the fieldwork to be completed in about a month and an announcement of their findings could come in late June.

"This will be the first academic excavation of a deepwater shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico," Bryant explains. "The waters are much too deep for human diving, so we use remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to retrieve objects we find. We want to stress that at this time we are focusing our efforts on retrieving items and artifacts visible on the surface, and do not plan to excavate the entire hull."

The vessel's identity and origin remain a mystery, Hitchcock adds.

Based on analysis of video documentation from previous visits to the site, the artifacts scattered on the seafloor suggest it was likely from the late 1700s or early 1800s, he notes.

"We can see a cannon, a box of weapons, navigational instruments, plates and bottles, but there really is no way to tell what else is down there," he adds.

Ultimately, the team hopes the fieldwork and conservation that follows will answer the questions surrounding the ship and provide a better understanding of its historical context.

The project will be extensively recorded and a documentary film about it is planned, the organizers say.

The team has contracted with a private firm to use the recovery ship Toisa Vigilant leased by Veolia Environmental Services. Once the artifacts are recovered and conserved at the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M, they will be delivered to the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. Eventually, many of the objects will be displayed by the Louisiana State Museum.

"This is an exciting time for us, but also very challenging," adds Bryant, who has conducted such underwater efforts for more than 40 years.

"At this depth, the pressure is about 1,700 pounds per cubic inch. The next few weeks are going to be interesting, to say the least."


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A website hosted by the Florida Public Archaeology Network will provide regular updates on the expedition. It can be viewed at http://www.flpublicarchaeology.org/mardigras/.

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Times Online
By David Cracknell and Isabel Oakeshott

May 20, 2007

Her holds were crammed with weapons to fight the Spaniards, but in the end they did little but drag the ship to the bottom of the sea.

Archeologists have unveiled findings from the most complete wreck of a Tudor warship to be excavated since the Mary Rose was raised to the surface 25 years ago.

The ship sank, probably in 1592, in reef-strewn waters off the Channel Island of Alderney. It was carrying an arms shipment to English soldiers in France, the remains of which are now giving archeologists an unparalleled insight into England’s military power just four years after it defeated the Spanish armada.

Artefacts so far recovered include six cannons, armour, muskets, swords and even ceramic hand grenades designed to spray victims with flaming tar. But they represent only a fraction of the thousands of items still on the seabed.

The organisers of the excavation will next month launch an appeal to raise £150,000 for the next phase of the excavation and to explore whether the ship can be raised intact.

They say much of the wreck lies under deep layers of sand, which are preserving it. They have found the oak rudder largely intact, and say this raises the possibility that much of the buried ship remains.

“This is one of the grandest and most exciting periods of our naval history but until now we have not had an example in English waters that has been properly looked at by professional archeologists,” said Mensun Bound, a marine archeologist and fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford, who is directing the excavation of the Alderney wreck.

“We have raised the rudder from the ship, which is made of oak and we hope, like the Mary Rose, that some of the structure of the ship may remain under the sand and that we can excavate and eventually raise it.”

Although the wreck was first located in 1977 by crab fishermen, archeologists have said little since then about the extent of the excavations, mainly because of concerns that unscrupulous divers would loot it.

Sir Norman Browse, president of Alderney, whose government owns the wreck, said: “Until this summer we have deliberately kept our discoveries quiet, but now we require major funding for equipment and conservation and so have been forced to go public.”

The disclosure coincides with the announcement on Friday by American deep-sea explorers that they have recovered a 17-ton hoard of gold and silver coins, potentially worth £250m, from a 17th-century shipwreck off Cornwall. It is thought the salvage company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, has found the Merchant Royal, a ship returning to Dartmouth from Mexico laden with treasure when it sank near the Isles of Scilly.

The name of the Alderney ship is not known, but is only the second substantial Tudor wreck to have been discovered near Britain. The other is the Mary Rose, now on display in Portsmouth, which foundered in 1545 as Henry VIII watched it leading his fleet out of Portsmouth to attack French ships in the Channel.

The ship found off Alderney was built some 40 years later and the discoveries show it was far ahead in terms of military technology. The archeologists believe the ship weighed up to 300 tons, less than half the weight of the 700-ton Mary Rose.

Its date has been pinpointed by a combination of studying timber and items on board together with a key document from the era, which has survived by chance. Growth rings on wood from the hull show it was cut from oak trees growing in southern England until about the 1580s. Two lead weights with the monogram of Elizabeth I, recovered from the wreck, date from no earlier than 1588.

A letter found in the National Archives in Kew, southwest London, and dated November 29, 1592, suggest the ship may have been a vessel sent by Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I’s chief minister, on a secret mission to forces in France. Soldiers were stationed in Brittany to forestall any attempt by Spain to seize a deepwater port in France as a base for invading England and avenging the armada’s defeat.

The letter was sent to Burghley by Sir John Norreys, commander of the Brittany expedition. It reads: “I have yet heard nothing but that the two packets sent from your lordship are lost in a ship that was cast away about Alderney.”

David Loades, honorary research professor at Sheffield University and author of several Tudor naval histories, said: “The chances are it was a privately owned warship taken up by the government. If it was in fighting trim there would have been over 100 men on board.”

The ship is now resting in a sandbank half a mile off the northern coast of Alderney, 100ft below sea level. It may have been sunk by a combination of winter storms, strong currents and reefs.

So far more than 1,500 artefacts have been discovered but Bound estimates this is only 5% of the total. A more thorough search may, in addition to the hull, uncover the bones of sailors trapped in the wreck.

The strong currents sweeping over the sandbank, however, make work difficult for anyone diving down to the wreck. Parts of the ship that are exposed one day can be buried under 15ft of sand the next.

Divers, who can only work for up to 30 minutes at a time over six-week periods in the summer, use vacuum cleaners to suck up sand and expose artefacts. The archeologists hope the extra funds will provide more divers and boats to search the site. Bound will also use a dinner hosted by the Duke of York, who has been made patron of the wreck, to encourage donations.

Many finds give an insight into how the Elizabethans lived at sea. They include a comb made of bone and a pewter bowl scratched with a name. In addition to the grenades found on board other innovative weapons include “expanding shot”, linked metal bars that would be fired from a cannon.

Loades said: “The Alderney wreck is unique for this period. I do not know of any other English ship for which there are any remains from this period at all.”

More on the excavation, www.alderneywreck.com

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thisisthewestcountry.co.uk

By Stephen Ivall
May 19, 2007

Back by popular demand, and as part of the Fal River Festival, celebrated boat builder Ralph Bird will be giving a talk on the colourful history of the pilot gig.

On Wednesday May 30 at 6.30 pm, renowned pilot gig builder and boat restorer Ralph Bird will be delving into the life of the pilot gig, from 1790 to the present day, during an illustrated evening talk at the Maritime Museum.

As his last talk sold out, he is back as part of the Fal River Festival which is running from 26 May until 10 June. He will explore how gigs were used in rescuing survivors from shipwrecks, carrying flowers and goods, and even for weddings and funerals. Ralph will also be charting the rise of gig racing.

An immensely popular sport today, it is often a great surprise that gig racing actually peaked during the 1830's and 40's when extremely high prize money was up for grabs in many ports. Considering this popularity, another great surprise was the demise of the pilot gig at the end of the 19th century, which left but three surviving gigs at Newquay in 1920.

During his talk, Ralph will be discussing the turnaround of the gig's popularity and the role that Newquay Rowing Club played in its survival.


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Turkish Daily News
By Vercìhan Ziflioglu

May 19, 2007


Turkey's archeological riches are not limited to those under the earth. Surrounded by seas on three sides, Turkey attracts the curiosity of many local and foreign researchers with its underwater archeology.
In addition to many remains from antiquity, there are battleships and submarines from the World Wars I and II in the dark waters of Turkish seas. Underwater archeology researcher Selçuk Kolay complains about the lack of interest in our sunken treasures under the sea.

Kolay stated that the price of scrap iron rose with industrialization activities between the years 1960 and 1975. As a result of illegal diving to underwater historical remains, sunken ships were stripped and the pieces of iron were melted and resold. Saying that it is easy to dive to the sunken material that is up to forty meters underwater, Kolay commented, “Many important sunken objects were stripped in the vicinity of Istanbul. If some of these were opened to diving tourism, it would make a contribution to the country's economy greater than that of industry.” Kolay emphasized that some of this stripping was illegal and some of it was done as a result of bidding allowed by the government.

An engineer at the same time, Selçuk Kolay is interested in ships from the Steam Age. Diving in Turkey and many other countries in the world, Kolay located the Midilli Kurvazörü, which came from Germany and entered World War I under the Turkish flag and six German submarines used in World War II. After that he found the German submarine UB46 in the Black Sea and the Australian submarine AE2, which sank during World War I in the Karaburun waters of the Marmara Sea. Contributing to the locating and inventory of many sunken objects, Kolay found the remains of the Turkish submarine Atılay and the Russian ship Yvestafy in 1994 in the Aegean Sea. Indicating that the Atılay ran into a mine left over from World War I while diving near Morto Bay in 1942, Kolay went to Japan as an expert on steamships to participate in investigation of the Ertuğrul frigate. Selçuk Kolay is a member of the Turkish Institute of Nautical Archeology (TINA) Board of Directors and a member of the Institute of Nautical Archeology (INA).

The sunken remains Kolay located possess great historical importance. The most important of these are the Australian Submarine AE2 and the six German submarines that targeted Russian ships and ports during World War II. The AE2 was the first enemy ship to enter the Marmara Sea from Dardanelle. Kolay says that with a forty-man team that will come from Australia in September, they will carry out an investigation and gather data on the final condition of the AE2 and then bring the submarine to the surface using a special method. An offer was made to sell the German submarines to Turkey during İsmet İnönü's time, but it was rejected. In view of this development, the Germans removed the crew and, to prevent the submarines from being used by the Turks, they sank three of them at the mouth of the Sakarya River and three of them near Ağva. Kolay mentioned that the commander of the German sub-marines, Rodolf Arendt, is still alive and that he talks with him.


The Marmara Sea is quite rich from an archeological perspective

Beginning to become interested in technical antiques when he was at the Berlin Technical University, Kolay said, “Approximately 200 years have passed since the age of steam and underwater steamship archeology has developed.” Indicating that the definition of underwater archeology is not very different from that of land archeology, Kolay stated that the only difference is ships belonging to ancient times and investigations of settlements that have remained underwater.

Mentioning the importance of being able to make mathematical calculations and analysis on technical subjects while diving, Kolay emphasized that his engineering training was also advantageous in underwater archeological investigations regarding the Steam Age. “In the end, the steam age is a technical age. It is very appropriate in regard to training and mind-set for an engineer to investigate a topic related to technique and mechanics.” Kolay pointed out that there are many remains in the Marmara Sea, in particular, from ancient times and World War I.


The Black Sea provides insulation with its formation

Saying, “Things are found on a desk, not where they sank,” Kolay said that before the investigation begins, he first narrows down the area on the map and then concentrates on the target region. Because things do not move far from where they sank, it is possible for him to make correct location approximations. Kolay talked about the underwater conditions that protect sunken objects: “Salinity, oxygen and light are factors that affect sheet-iron in particular. On the other hand, sandy areas protect the area the sunken objects sit on and provide insulation from external influences. The best-protected remains are those in muddy and clay bottoms like in the Black Sea.

Pointing out that Turkish deep waters are becoming more and more polluted, Kolay says that the layer of mud increasing day by day is eliminating the sandy area. Investigating with special permission from the Ministry of Culture and the General Headquarters of the Monuments Museum, Selçuk Kolay indicated that there are many untouched sunken objects in places far from settlements in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas and near the central and eastern part of the Black Sea. He concluded that the treasure believed to be at the bottom of the Golden Horn is just a legend.


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Gainesville.com

May 18, 2007


MIAMI — Explorers for a shipwreck exploration company based in Tampa said Friday that they had located a treasure estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in what may be the richest undersea treasure recovery to date.

Deep-ocean explorers for the company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, located more than 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, along with hundreds of gold coins and other artifacts, in a Colonial-era shipwreck in an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean, the company said in a statement.

The retail value of the silver coins ranges from a few hundred dollars to $4,000 each, with the gold coins having a higher value, the company said.

“All recovered items have been legally imported into the United States and placed in a secure, undisclosed location where they are undergoing conservation and documentation,” according to the statement.

Citing security and legal concerns, Odyssey has not disclosed details about the discovery, including the origin of the coins and the identity or location of the site, dubbed Black Swan, but has said it is “beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country.” Phone calls seeking comment were not returned on Friday.

The 6,000 silver coins that have so far been conserved are in “remarkable condition,” Greg Stemm, the company’s co-founder, said in the statement.
“We are excited by the wide range of dates, origins and varieties of the coins,” Mr. Stemm said, “and we believe that the collecting community will be thrilled when they see the quality and diversity of the collection.”

The bountiful find is sure to reignite the long-running debate between undersea explorers and archaeologists, who view such treasure hunting as modern-day piracy.
Kevin Crisman, an associate professor in the nautical archaeology program at Texas A&M University, said salvage work on shipwrecks constituted “theft of public history and world history.”

He said the allure of treasure hidden under the sea seemed to blind the public to the ethical implications. “If these guys went and planted a bunch of dynamite around the Sphinx, or tore up the floor of the Acropolis, they’d be in jail in a minute,” Mr. Crisman said.

Anticipating such comments, John Morris, the chief executive of Odyssey, said in a statement: “We have treated this site with kid gloves, and the archaeological work done by our team out there is unsurpassed. We are thoroughly documenting and recording the site, which we believe will have immense historical significance.”

Robert W. Hoge, a curator at the American Numismatic Society in New York, questioned the secrecy surrounding the discovery and said that while it might be perfectly legitimate, the findings would have been better preserved in the hands of archaeologists.

“Whenever these finds are made by treasure hunters, their first thought is to sell instead of preserving,” Mr. Hoge said. “They need to make money because they’re a corporation with enormous expenses. They’re not there to preserve history.”

The find, which was announced on the same day that the publicly traded Odyssey held its annual stockholder meeting, came four years after the company found thousands of coins worth $75 million after excavating the Republic, a steamship lost in 1865 off Savannah, Ga. The company, which had reported losses for 2005 and 2006, saw its stock rise almost 81 percent to $8.32 by the time the market closed on Friday.

This year, Odyssey received permission from the Spanish government to resume a search that had been suspended on the wreck of the Sussex, a British warship that sank in the Mediterranean in 1694 with a cargo of coins that may be worth billions of dollars.

The company has not disclosed the methods or equipment it used in the Black Swan find.

The largest documented previous find occurred in 1985, when the treasure hunter Mel Fisher found the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon that sank off the Florida Keys in 1622. The treasure included thousands of silver coins worth more than $400 million.


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Underwater Times

May 18, 2007


Tampa, Florida - Odyssey Marine Exploration (AMEX:OMR), the world’s leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration announced today that it has completed the pre-disturbance archaeological survey and preliminary excavation of a Colonial period shipwreck site code-named “Black Swan” in an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean.

The artifacts recovered from the site include over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts. All recovered items have been legally imported into the Unites States and placed in a secure, undisclosed location where they are undergoing conservation and documentation.

It is believed that this recovery constitutes the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a historical shipwreck site. They were recovered in conformity with Salvage Law and the Law of the Sea Convention, beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country. The Company does not believe that the recovery is subject to sovereign immunity by any nation pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention.

The work accomplished to date on this site has diligently followed archaeological protocols using advanced robotic technology, and the artifacts are now undergoing a meticulous conservation process by some of the world’s most experienced coin conservators.

The Company is not prepared to disclose the possible identity of the shipwreck at this time, and may only do so after thoroughly examining the artifacts, analyzing the research and proving the identity, if possible, of the shipwreck.

“Our research suggests that there were a number of Colonial period shipwrecks that were lost in the area where this site is located, so we are being very cautious about speculating as to the possible identity of the shipwreck,” said John Morris, Odyssey Co-founder and CEO. “Nevertheless, we have treated this site with kid gloves and the archaeological work done by our team out there is unsurpassed. We are thoroughly documenting and recording the site, which we believe will have immense historical significance.”

“The remarkable condition of most of the first 6,000 silver coins conserved has been a pleasant surprise, and the gold coins are almost all dazzling mint state specimens,” said Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s Co-founder. “We are excited by the wide range of dates, origins and varieties of the coins, and we believe that the collecting community will be thrilled when they see the quality and diversity of the collection.”

The excavation of this site follows Odyssey’s successful excavation of the SS Republic®, a shipwreck lost in 1865 off the US coast. The deep ocean robotic archaeological excavation of that site produced approximately 65,000 artifacts, including over 50,000 coins with a retail value of over $75 million.

The company is continuing operations on several other projects with its ships and ROV systems, and is currently awaiting the appointment of Spanish archaeologists following an arrangement with the Spanish Government and the Junta of Andalucía prior to resuming operations on the Sussex project pursuant to an agreement with the UK Government.

For security reasons, as with the “Black Swan” project, the company may only announce the results of the other current projects after completion of the excavations or delivery of the artifacts to a safe location.


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Weathered timbers have been rising gradually from a San Francisco beach in recent days, promising a rare glimpse of a 150-year-old Maine shipbuilding tradition well-preserved by its sandy burial.

The King Philip, a prestigious medium clipper launched in 1856 in Alna, ran aground in this West Coast harbor 22 years later, a tired, outmoded vessel that had endured two mutinies, been set on fire and been relegated to hauling bird manure and lumber.

"She could have sunk deep or she could have been burned, but because she sank where she did and buried herself, we have an exciting and tangible reminder of ships long past and the days of wooden sail," said maritime archaeologist James Delgado, executive director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.

"We also have a well-preserved example of naval architecture at a time when Maine led the nation in shipbuilding and ships like this waved the American flag all over the seven seas."

Delgado did the initial mapping of the wreck when it first emerged from the sand in the 1980s, documenting the ship and getting it placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

His research took him to Alna, where the homestead of the shipbuilder, Dennett Wemouth, still stands, and where he was able to find the ship's sail plan in the attic.

The structures emerging from the sand right now are the bow and stern, which rise three feet higher than the rest of the ship, he said.

"The entire bottom of the ship is there beneath the sand," he said. "Everything from just below 'tween' deck to the keel has survived."

Had the ship's end been more spectacular, such as being dashed onto the rocks, it would not have been as intact, he said.

"This is about the best-preserved prototypical downeaster that we know of," he said. "Maine built the bulk of America's wooden ships after the Civil War. The majority of those were either downeasters or the large schooners. King Philip is at the beginning of that tradition."

The King Philip is a medium clipper. It was not technically a clipper ship, being built bigger to haul more cargo, but was still built for some speed, he said. It was 182 feet long, 36 feet wide and 24 feet deep, weighing 1,189 tons, according to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.

The King Philip was launched from Alna for its Boston-based owners and traveled all over the world, including Australia and the South Pacific.

There was a mutiny in Honolulu, Hawaii, and another off Annapolis, Md., where the crew set fire to the ship.

The mutinies were a sign of the economic decline of that class of wooden sailing ships, as companies sought to remain competitive with other boats, including steamships.

Owners sought to save money by cutting back on maintenance and on the size of the crew, which was responsible for sailing the vessel and handling its cargo, Delgado said.

By 1878, the ship was hauling lumber from Puget Sound to San Francisco, "a workaday trade where she had been built for loftier dreams, of hauling riches from the South Pacific," Delgado said.

When the King Philip pulled its anchor and ran aground on the western shore of San Francisco, the hull was sold for $1,000 to a local storeowner, who recovered what items he could and then used dynamite on the upper decks so he could more easily salvage the copper and bronze used in its construction.

Like the feet of a beachcomber standing in the surf, the hull gradually sank into the sand and disappeared for more than 100 years.

A confluence of currents exposed it in the 1980s, when Delgado surveyed it, but sand from road construction buried it again. Now it is back and is causing a flurry of excitement among tourists, locals and historians.

"People love it," said Stephen Haller, historian for the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Artea. "It's been a magnet for locals and out-of-town visitors alike that really reminds them of the romance of the sea or the mystery of shipwrecks, that sort of thing."

The world's oldest wooden anchor was discovered during excavations in the Turkish port city of Urla, the ancient site of Liman Tepe / the Greek 1st Millennium BCE colony of Klazomenai, by researchers from the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa. The anchor, from the end of the 7th century BC, was found near a submerged construction, imbedded approximately.1.5 meters underground.

The cooperative project between the University of Haifa and Ankara University sparked local interest, not only in marine archaeology, but also in the team of Israeli archaeologists. Israeli-Turkish relations have had their ups and downs over the past few years, but the cooperation between the Institute for Marine Studies at the University of Haifa and Ankara University has continually strengthened. In 2000, Prof. Hayat Erkanal of Ankara University invited Prof. Michal Artzy and scholars from the University of Haifa to join them in archaeological excavations in the port of Urla, a port city located near Izmir, with more than 5,000 years of maritime history. Remnants of an ancient port were uncovered during the excavations.

The finds revealed that the port, which served the ancient Greek settlement of Klazomenai, sunk following a natural disaster, probably an earthquake, in the 6th century BC. As there is no record of any such event occurring during this period, the actual cause of port's destruction remains a mystery.

During the recent excavation season, it became clear that a wooden log that was found wedged into the ground at the bottom of the ancient harbor in 2003 is actually a wooden anchor with a metal-covered crown. The anchor was found wedged into the ground one and a half meters below the surface and was dated from the end of the 7th century BC, which makes it the oldest wooden anchor found to date.

"In addition to the damage it caused to the port, the natural disaster that hit the area also destroyed the area of the city that was built along the coast. As soon as we finish uncovering the finds of the harbor we will know more about this period and perhaps we will know what actually caused the disaster," said Prof. Michal Artzy, who leads the University of Haifa team of researchers.

The excavations not only revealed interesting archaeological finds. For six years, while excavating the site, the researchers from the University of Haifa trained teams of divers and marine archaeologists from Ankara University, which is now opening a new institute for marine studies. During the years of excavations, the local community welcomed the Israelis with warm hospitality. Fascinated with their guests, the community began to research its own Jewish roots, and two forgotten Jewish cemeteries were recently discovered in the city.

The team from Haifa will return for a seventh season of cooperative excavations this summer. The "Haifa House", which was built to house the Israeli staff, with the help of the City of Urla and the Turkish Minister of Culture, is awaiting their arrival.

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Arab News

By Mohammed Ashraf

May 12, 2007


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — The Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) has begun surveys to trace the Malabar coast’s maritime history. The council will be assisted by the Indian Navy in the waters of the Kodungallur region since excavations there have produced evidence of Roman and West Asian maritime contacts.

Historians believe Muziris, the lost port city of south India, which was a major center of trade with the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, existed in the town of Pattanam.

The navy undertook sea bottom profiling and the KCHR hopes to identify submerged archaeological remains such as shipwrecks, ancient structures in the waters of the area, said KCHR director Dr. P.J. Cherian. According to him, some positive indications have been obtained but closer examination, including underwater diving and photography, are necessary to confirm the initial assumptions.

Proof of the area’s rich maritime heritage, including a wharf with dugout canoes, Roman pottery, West Asian ceramics, beads of semi-precious stones and brick structures, was found by the KCHR’s initial excavations at Pattanam.

There were indications that the site was first occupied by megalithic peoples followed by Roman contact in the early historic phase; the area was continuously inhabited from the first century BC to the 10th century AD.

Evidence of megalithic peoples is being reported for the first time in Kerala, although there are innumerable megalithic burial sites in the state. Early inhabitants appear to have been native iron-using megalithic people who led simple lives, the director said.

The evidence indicates that the mythical Muziris seaport, a bustling Indo-Roman trading center, could have been located at Pattanam, 260 kilometers north of the state capital. In the past its residents regularly found broken pottery shards and ancient fired bricks while tilling the soil. Fragments of imported Roman amphorae, mainly used for transporting wine and olive oil, Yemeni and West Asian pottery, in addition to Indian roulette ware common on the East Coast of India and also found in Berenike in Egypt, have been discovered.

Researchers say the site seems to have remained unoccupied or deserted between the 10th and 18th centuries and if the theories are confirmed, it may provide a greater insight into the geological and regional history of the area. They say, based on remote sensing data, a river close to Pattanam changed its course and the ancient port may have been buried due to earthquakes or floods. Muziris was a port city mentioned in several ancient documents and scholarly texts as a major center of trade between India and Rome, especially in pepper and other spices as late as the sixth century AD.

Historians believe that Christianity may have been introduced to the subcontinent through Muziris though it mysteriously dropped off the map.


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Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

May 11, 2007


The Greece Public Library will host "Discovery of an Early 19th Century Schooner in Lake Ontario," presented by Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville, at 7 p.m. Monday.

The speakers will discuss the background of the shipbuilder of the Milan, the salt commodity it transported, its origins, the technology of exploration equipment and the discovery of the shipwrecked schooner, including underwater video.

Kennard is a certified scuba diver and has found more than 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and inland waterways over the past 30 years. Scoville is an experienced cave and technical diver.

Registration is required for the presentation for ages 14 and older.

For more information, call the Greece Public Library at (585) 225-8951.


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TCPalm.com
By Will Greenlee
May 11, 2007


HUTCHINSON ISLAND — A hunk of wood that washed up on Sailfish Point on Thursday could be the remnants of a historical boat. Photos of the wood have been sent to state experts to determine whether it could be historically significant, said Robin Hicks-Connors, president and CEO of the Historical Society of Martin County.

Hicks-Connors said the wood is about 20 feet long and has large, square-headed nails and about a half-dozen holes in it with pegs poking through.

"It looks hand-hewn," Hicks-Connors said. "It looks like it could be the center section of a ship."

Linda Geary, keeper at the House of Refuge Museum at Gilbert's Bar, snapped pictures Thursday. They were then e-mailed to the Florida Department of State, Office of Cultural and Historical Programs Bureau of Archaeological Research for analysis.

"Some of the construction might even be indicative of where it was built," Hicks-Connors said.

She said a much larger timber, or chunk of wood, washed up in St. Lucie County just north of the Martin County line after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Historical society officials got calls from people who'd seen it — including ship builders — and suspected it could have been from a historic shipwreck.

But when photos were sent to the state, the wood was determined likely to be a piece of a pier constructed in the 20th century.

"Our primary concern would be to preserve and conserve whatever it is," Hicks-Connors said. "Potentially it could be historic."


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Volunteers have returned to what has become an annual archeological dig on the beach in Southampton.

The first dig began when ribs of a vessel began protruding through the sand. Ken Cassavoy, a marine archeologist who has worked on shipwrecks around the world and who now lives in Southampton, was quickly acknowledged as the man to head up what would become a major archeological dig.

Although the name of the ship was not known that first summer, last year's work proved that it was a U.S. ship, the Hunter.

Artifacts such as military buttons and a restored cannon that is now housed at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre, along with archival records uncovered by historian Patrick Folkes, confirmed the ship's identity.
The ship, which had been involved in the war of 1812, was to be an unprecedented find on the Great Lakes.

"What we are attempting to do right now is uncover a barge that was also found nestled up against the Hunter," Cassavoy said. "Although we've seen pictures of this type of barge, we have never seen an actual one from that period in history. It will be useful to get a better knowledge of its simple detail because it really was the 'workhorse' of the time. Our primary goal now is to uncover it and then protect it by reburying it in the same environment but further from the lake. This will then open up the side of the Hunter that we were unable to excavate at the earlier digs."

The barge project is being completed by local volunteers and must be completed within the next two and a half weeks. A giant crane will come in on May 26 to carefully lift the barge out.

"We don't expect to find any artifacts of importance, but if we do, they go to Ottawa for examination and confirmation," Cassavoy said. The General Hunter was built in Amherstburg, south of Windsor, and launched in 1806. It saw action in the War of 1812 as a Royal Navy warship before being lost to the Americans in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. It was a U.S. ship when it was wrecked off the shore of Southampton.

"We are looking at the possibility of this becoming an International effort," said Cassavoy. "We would like to recover the Hunter, but that takes a huge amount of money, far more than a municipality could possibly afford and the Canadian government does little in the way of providing funding for this type of thing. So, perhaps, it could become a joint effort between two countries. Who knows what will happen?"


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AHN
By Shaveta Bansal
May 09, 2007


Haikou, China - Archaeologists in China on Tuesday finished the excavation of a sunken 13th-century ship and recovered over 10,000 pieces of antique Chinese pottery and porcelain. The 55-day salvage plan started this year, more than a decade after a group of Chinese fishermen stumbled upon the shipwreck 10 feet below the surface of the water near Huaguang Reef.

"What we found from the shipwreck on Huaguang Reef No.1 are pearls of the ancient Silk Road on the sea," Zhang Wei, the lead archaeologist in the excavation mission, told the Xinhua new agency.

"It is first time we have found such precious antiques in the high seas," he said.

Experts believe the wooden merchant vessel belonged to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) in the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, and the discovery provides important evidence that there was an established trade route between China and the rest of the world even at that time.

"The fragments serve as a testimony that Chinese people lived and traded around the Xisha Islands during the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) Dynasties," Zhang said.

According to Zhang, the ship had been subjected to damage by looters but its lower part is in good shape.

Scientists believe the ship might have set sail from present-day Fujian province along China's southeastern coast, but the destination of the ill-fated vessel remains unclear.


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Ktva.com
May 09, 2007

State and federal officials are working to document a wrecked ship, but not one that went down recently. They plan to study the submerged remains of the Gold Rush era steamship Clara Nevada. The vessel was destroyed in an explosion 20 miles south of Haines in 1898.

Before being purchased by speculators and renamed, the steamer had spent more than 20 years charting southeast coastal waters as the U.S. Coast Survey vessel Hassler. The cause of the explosion that sank the vessel is a mystery. The Office of History and Archaeology in the Alaska Department of Natural Resources is working on the project with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Plans call for conducting an underwater investigation of the site in Lynn Canal this week. They hope to use the information gathered from that investigation to nominate the wreck to the National Register of Historic Places.

Alaska State Archaeologist Dave McMahan says the shipwreck is closely related to the Eldred Rock Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built after the wreck partly because of the incident. The lighthouse itself is already on the national register. The state is responsible for protecting historic properties, including shipwrecks, on state submerged lands.


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ABC

May o7, 2007


Archaeologists have won a Federal Government grant to excavate the camp used by the survivors of Tasmania's first shipwreck.

The crew of the Sydney Cove beached their ship on Preservation Island in 1797, because it was taking on water.

In the past 20 years the ship itself and parts of the survivors' camp have been dug up and studied, and the wreck project will now share in $400,000 worth of federal funding.

A conservator at Launceston's Queen Victoria Museum, Linda Clark, says the Sydney Cove's cargo has helped historians bring to life the earliest years of Australian settlement.

"It was only eight or nine years after the colony was established and although there were about five merchant ships that came from India to Australia, this is the earliest wreck," Ms Clark said.

"So it really gives us a fantastic insight into what goods were available to people living in the colony."


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People's Daily Online

May 07, 2007

The salvage of a 800-year-old wooden ship off south China coast may help ravel three prominent puzzles surrounding the sunken boat of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), Chinese experts say.

The three puzzles include whether the submerging of the Southern Song Dynasty ship was caused by overloading, where the ill-fated ship departed from, and what was inside the subsistence cabin.

The salvage operation, scheduled to start on Tuesday, is claimed to be first of its kind in the world. The sunken ship will be hoisted out of the seawater in July, according to Wu Jiancheng, who is in charge of the salvage operation.

Early on Sunday, a tug boat set sail from a dock in Guangzhou, a city on the Pearl River, for South China Sea waters 30 nautical miles off Hailing Isle near Yangjiang, south China's Guangdong Province, shipping a huge, double-box steel structure specially made for the salvage operation.

The tug boat will reach the destination on Tuesday. Finding of Nanhai No.1 wooden ship

The sunken ship was found accidentally in 1987 by Guangzhou Salvage Bureau and an underwater salvage company of Britain. It was the first ancient vessel discovered on the "Marine Silk Road" in the South China Sea and was named "Nanhai No.1", meaning South China Sea No.1.

The ship is located some 30 nautical miles west of Hailing Island of Yangjiang City in south China's Guangdong Province, and more than 20 meters deep in the sea. With a length of more than 25 meters, the ship is the largest cargo ship from the Song Dynasty so far discovered. Reasons for the salvage of the sunken ship

Though the reports about the real reasons behind the salvage have remained few apart from tourism development purpose, it is believed that a successful salvage of the sunken ship will offer important material evidence for restoring the "Silk road on the Sea", studying China's history in sea-faring, ship-building and ceramics making.

Altogether eight rounds of exploration have been made since the sunken ship was discovered in 1987.

According to Wu Jiancheng, workers have cleared away 25 tons of silt around the sunken ship and have brought out of the seawater 390 items of cultural relics. They include green glazed porcelain plates, tin pots, shadowy blue porcelains.

Archaeologists estimate that there are probably 50,000 to 70,000 relics on the sunken ship.

How to salvage the sunken ship

Experts spent three years making a plan for the salvage, considered to be the first for underwater archaeology both at home and abroad. In accordance with the plan, a huge, double-box steel structure has been envisioned in order to salvage the ship together with its silt.

Traditionally archaeologists would excavate the relics on the sunken boat first and then salvage the boat.

Zhang Bai, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said: "in order to better protect the precious relics on Nanhai No.1, and gain essential information, we plan to salvage the ship together with the silt that covers it and move it into a specially built facility to carry out the excavation as carefully as possible."

With a weight of 530 tons, the steel structure is rectangle, featuring 35.7 meters in length, 14.4 meters in width and 12 meters in height. It took engineers from Guangzhou Salvage Bureau more than one month's time in making.

The engineers have filled the interlayers between the two boxes of the steel structure with sand, a move designed to increase the weight of the steel structure and meet the demand of gravity under static pressure.

According to the salvage plan, the upper part of the steel structure will be brought out of the seawater together with the sunken ship, while the lower part will be left to stay at the seabed forever, said Wu Jiancheng. Where to keep the sunken ship upon completion of salvage

The salvage operation will be undertaken by Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Culture, Underwater Archaeological Team of the National Museum and Guangzhou Salvage Bureau affiliated with the Ministry of Communications.

Two meters of silt have helped protect the treasures and the ship for 800 years, but are also creating excavation difficulties for archaeologists.

"We could see nothing in the water, and could only work by touch in the silt," Zhang Wanxing, a member of China's underwater archaeological team of the National museum, was quoted as saying.

Guangdong Province has lavished 150 million yuan for building a "Marine Silk Road Museum", to preserve the salvaged ancient ship on land.

To ensure that environmental and pressure changes do not damage the relics, the ancient ship, wrapped in silt, will be put in a huge glass pool, where water temperature, pressure and other environmental conditions will be kept the same as on the sea bed where the ship has slept for centuries.

At present, the underground infrastructure for the glass vat has been finished, but the structure above the ground is required to be completed before the sunken ship is brought out of seawater in July.

Archaeologists will conduct thorough excavations of the ship in the pool.

"We also intend to turn the glass pool into a tourist attraction which will be opened to the public later in the year," said Wu Jiancheng, "Looking through the glass wall of the pool, visitors will be able to observe the archaeologists at work." Conclusion

It is learned that the Chinese Ministry of Finance has decided to shed 90 million yuan for the salvage operation. (One US dollar equals to 7.73 yuan)


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