Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom

November 30, 2007


The creator of Texas A&M's Ship Reconstruction Laboratory, J. Richard Steffy, died of complications from a chronic lung disease early Thursday morning.

Steffy started the lab in 1976 and is considered by many to be a pioneer in the field of naval archeology. His book, Shipbuilding and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks, is required reading in every nautical archeology program in the world, many of his colleagues said.

"He quite literally wrote the books that have turned out to be the mainstay of the discipline," said C. Wayne Smith, an associate professor of anthropology at A&M.

"His book is still the Bible. We call it the 'Good Book,'?" said Filipe Vieira de Castro, an assistant professor of nautical archeology. "Everywhere in the world, from Australia to England, everyone learns the ropes from his book."

Smith said he came to A&M as a student, but that Steffy treated him with the the same respect he would give to a distinguished colleague.

"He was the most gentle, engaging person I think I've ever known," Smith said. "He took the time to listen to students, and he was exacting enough in his science that he took the time to make sure they had it right."

Those who worked with Steffy said that nautical archeology and ship reconstruction were his passions throughout his life.

"He continued to be active in the field right up until the day he died. He had people coming from around the world to work and talk with him. Right up until the very end he has continued to be active in all areas of maritime archeology," Smith said.

Vieira de Castro, who was working on projects with Steffy up until two weeks ago, said he will miss Steffy dearly.

"He was always, from the beginning, a lot of fun to be around. He was always witty, always gentle, and always modest and generous, especially considering he was one of the leaders in his field," Vieira de Castro said.

A memorial service in honor of Steffy is set for 10 a.m. Dec. 8, at the Callaway-Jones Funeral Home in Bryan.


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Turkish Daily News
November 30, 2007

A survey and inventory was undertaken for the first time in the area where the frigate sank and a detailed map was prepared as the first phase of the project. In the second stage, the frigate will be completely lifted to the surface

The Culture and Tourism Ministry will support a project aimed at bringing the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul, which sank off the coast of Japan in 1890 in a severe typhoon, to the surface.

The voyage of the Ertuğrul was planned as a goodwill trip to Japan in response to a Japanese delegation visit in 1887. However, the Ertuğrul sank on Sept. 15, 1890 on its way back from Japan on the rocks of Kashinozaki, off the coast of Ooshima Island. A total of 533 sailors died in the accident and the Japanese rescued 69.

A survey and inventory was undertaken for the first time in the area where the warship sank and a detailed map was prepared as the first phase of the project. In the second stage, the ship will be completely brought to the surface and exhibited in the museum next to the “Ertuğrul Monument” built on the coast.

A team of well-known nautical archaeologists from Turkey, Spain, Japan, and the United States will carry out the underwater excavation as part of the second phase of the project.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay will join a Japanese princess in a trip to the area where the ship sank and where divers will be operating. The dives will kick off in January and will last around a month-and-a-half.

The project is being carried out with contributions from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Bodrum (INA), the Yapı Kredi Retirement Partnership, the Turkish Foundation of Nautical Archaeology and Turkish Airlines (THY).


A meeting with history:
Artifacts unearthed during the underwater surveys were taken to a conservation area and further underwater excavations will be held from Jan. 9 to Feb. 18, said project coordinator, Tufan Turanlı. Huge rocks that now cover the frigate because of earthquakes and tides will be removed, he said.

“We plan to reach the ammunition store section and administrative rooms of the ship,” Turanlı said.

“We could come across some unexpected artifacts with the archaeological excavations, which will be conducted for first the time. Some of the findings and personal belongings of the frigate's commanders and crew will be displayed in a museum in Japan, while some will be brought to Bodrum for conservation works and display,” he said.

New documents and photographs of the historical event were also collected from relatives of the shipwreck's crew.

Project leaders invited Günay and State Minister Kürşat Tüzmen to Japan to join the dives and the invitation was accepted.

“They will dive to the shipwreck with a Japanese princess. Günay said the ministry will provide all its support to the project,” Turanlı said.

The project will shed light on Turkish history and revive the memories of 530 sailors who lost their lives in the tragic accident, said Giray Velioğlu of the Yapı Kredi Retirement Partnership. A documentary film in three languages (Turkish, English and Japanese) will also be shot as part of the project.

About the Ertuğrul Frigate accident:
The frigate Ertuğrul was sent by Sultan Abdülhamit II to the emperor of Japan on a goodwill visit. The frigate set sail on July 14, 1889 and, after sailing for more than a year, arrived in Japan in June 1890. On the return voyage, the Ottoman frigate sank on the 16th day on the rocks of Kashinozaki off the coast of Ooshima Island because of a severe typhoon. The tragedy resulted in the loss of 533 sailors, of whom 50 were officers. Only six officers and 63 sailors survived.

There now stands in Ooshima, Wakayama Prefecture, near a lighthouse, the Ertuğrul Monument, built in memory of those pioneers of Turkish-Japanese friendship. The compassion demonstrated by the Japanese people in saving and returning the survivors of the crew of the Ertuğrul to Istanbul has left a lasting memory of gratitude in the minds of the Turkish people. Thus, this tragic accident became a solemn symbol of friendship between the two nations.


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El ministro de Cultura incandescente por el caso Odyssey propuso ayer al resto de sus colegas comunitarios la elaboración de una lista roja que impida el comercio de tesoros saqueados del patrimonio cultural subacuático. César Antonio Molina les presentó su idea, entre otras, como una medida para responder con urgencia "a una industria" que si no se hace "nada lo va a saquear todo". Fuera de la sala, el ministro también anunció que España rechaza de plano la indemnización de cinco millones de euros que reclama Odyssey por los daños y perjuicios que le causó la orden de busca y captura contra sus buques dictada por un tribunal español.

"Nos duele el tema Odyssey", declaró el ministro en conferencia de prensa posterior a la cita con sus homólogos de la Unión, a quienes alertó de que "esto es el inicio de una industria" de rapiña que pone en peligro el patrimonio cultural europeo. "Hay que desacreditar a esas empresas que se dedican a violar el patrimonio histórico y artístico de la UE", insistió. "Atajarlo de manera inmediata y común".

El concepto de inmediatez es extraño a la maquinaria comunitaria, por lo que el proceso que quiere poner en marcha España no tiene fecha previsible de conclusión, por más que la idea de proteger ese valioso patrimonio vaya a incluirse en la futura Política Marítima de la UE. España reclama que se colme cuanto antes el actual vacío jurídico sobre el asunto y que los países y la Comisión Europea "inicien una reflexión en profundidad" sobre ello lo más rápidamente posible. En esa ansia de actuación se inscribe la propuesta de Molina de tratar con el Consejo Internacional de Museos la elaboración de "una lista roja que dificulte el comercio ilícito de bienes del patrimonio subacuático".

La idea española recibió "el entusiástico (sic) apoyo", según el ministro, de buen número de países costeros de la Unión (citó a Portugal, Rumania, Grecia, Italia, Polonia, Malta y Francia) y "el más tibio del Reino Unido".


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BBC
November 15, 2007

A near-intact shipwreck apparently dating from the 17th century has been found in the Baltic Sea, Swedish television has said.

The discovery was made during filming for an under-water documentary series.

Public service SVT television said the wreck could be from the same era as the famous Vasa warship, which sank on its maiden voyage in August 1628.

The broadcaster said the Baltic's low oxygen content and low temperature had helped preserve the wreck.

SVT said the origins of the ship were unclear but its features resembled the work of Dutch ship-builders from the period.

"Experts who have studied video of the ship conclude that it is probably the best-preserved ship ever seen from this period," the station said.

A press release provided by SVT quoted marine archaeologist MR Manders as saying he was "overwhelmed" by the condition of the wreck.

"You can hardly call this a shipwreck," he is quoted as saying.

Mr Manders said the boat was likely to have been a trading vessel, 20-25m long, with two or perhaps three masts.

Excellent visibility
The location of the wreck, between the Swedish mainland and Latvia, had been pinpointed in 2003.

But it was only in May this year, during filming for The Wreck Divers documentary series, that full exploration and filming with a remotely-operated submarine took place.

The programme's executive producer, Malcolm Dixelius, told the BBC the ship was found at a depth of 125m - offering "excellent" visibility.

The relative lack of oxygen in the water and its low temperature meant the ship had been amazingly well-preserved, he said.

SVT says the vessel probably dates from the same period as the Vasa warship, which was discovered in 1956 and brought to the surface.

The museum where it is kept is now one of the main tourist attractions in Stockholm.

SVT's The Wreck Divers programme is aired on Thursday.


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UNESCO
November 14, 2007

© UNESCO/E. Trainito

Six years after its adoption by UNESCO in November 2001, the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage will be the theme of an information meeting on 23 November at Organization Headquarters. The event will bring together site managers and experts in underwater archaeology from all over the world to review current issues in this emerging discipline.

What are the latest discoveries in underwater heritage? What is happening with plans for underwater museums? What are the most recent developments in underwater archaeology? To answer these questions, 12 internationally renowned archaeologists are invited to the meeting, among them Ao Jie (China) who participated in the exploration of the Nanhai-1 shipwreck in Guangdong province, on the southern coast of China.

The ship, which went down during the Song dynasty (960-1279) in the Pearl River, at the departure point of the marine “Silk Road”, was excavated recently and will be exhibited in an aquarium museum scheduled for completion before December 2007. Ao Jie also helped investigate the Bailehang site, today at the bottom of the artificial lake of the Three Gorges Reservoir. The oldest known hydrological inscriptions are found there, recording 1200 years of water level variations. An underwater museum will soon open to allow access to this now-submerged site.

Another guest is Dr Alok Tripoathi (India), head archeologist of the Underwater Archaeology Wing of the Archaeological Survey of India. He participated notably in the explorations of Lakshadsweep, a peninsula on India’s southwestern coast, where ruins of the sunken city of Dwarka and the legendary Mahabalipuram temples were recently discovered.

Aiming to preserve submerged cultural property in situ and prevent looting by treasure hunters, the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage also promotes public access to this cultural heritage and encourages archaeological research. It does not arbitrate ownership issues nor call into question the sovereign rights of states. The Convention will enter into force three months after being ratified by 20 countries; it already has 16 States Parties.

A Press Conference will be held the day before the meeting, on 22 November at 11 a.m., with the archaeologists and Françoise Rivière, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture. (UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, 75015 Paris, Room XIV, level -2). Simultaneous interpretation in English and French will be provided.


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The Guardian
By Steven Morris and Nick Constable
November 06, 2007


For a decade the curious case of the Rapparee Cove bones has caused diplomatic tension and fierce academic argument.

Found during an archaeological dig on the rocky coast of north Devon, the discovery of the remains seemed to confirm that a boatload of slaves was shipwrecked off the British coast and the survivors possibly sold on.

Ten years on, a row over the bones has reignited with one historian criticising a former colleague for not publishing the results of tests on the remains and a notable black campaigner claiming that the dearth of information on the bones showed a lack of respect for the black people who died on board the ship.

The people of St Lucia, from where the ship came, are also still keen to find out if those who died at Rapparee were from their Caribbean island, and believe they should be returned if they were.
In 1997 the archaeologist Mark Horton, now well known as a presenter of the BBC series Coast, and historian Pat Barrow organised a dig at Rapparee Cove in Ilfracombe.

The bones were believed to be from a ship called the London that was bound for Bristol and was loaded with prisoners captured during fighting between Britain and France in the then French colony of St Lucia.

In October 1796 the London was wrecked in a storm at Rapparee Cove. Chained in the hold are believed to have been French troops and black prisoners - effectively slaves who bravely fought for their freedom alongside the soldiers against the British forces.

As many as 100 bodies are believed by some to have been buried beneath the cliffs at Rapparee.

Mr Barrow, for one, believes that some of the survivors may have been shipped up to Bristol and sold on at a time when slavery was frowned upon but not illegal in Britain.

The discovery of the Rapparee bones made headlines around the world. There were calls in St Lucia for the remains of the men, seen there as freedom fighters, to be returned. African groups demanded that they be sent back to Africa.

The MP and activist Bernie Grant was among those who made the trek to Devon to pay their respects. For now the bones remain locked in a safe in the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon.

Dr Horton set about trying to find out if the bones were from a person of Caribbean or African origin - and then it all went very quiet.

Speaking at a black history event in London, Mr Barrow criticised Dr Horton, claiming he had "fobbed off" requests for information about his findings.

He said: "I believe some academics and politicians simply do not want to recognise that Rapparee Cove is a historical landmark to our country's role in slavery.

"This is the only place in Britain where black slaves are known to have drowned aboard a British vessel. They are regarded as heroes in St Lucia and they died in dreadful circumstances far from home.

"The least we can do as a country is to show respect and tell their story through proper research."

Linda Bellos, who worked with the late Mr Grant in the Africa Reparations Movement, which campaigns on slavery issues, said there was an "absence of respect" over the Rapparee Cove remains. "There needs to be more research," she added.

Dr Horton, a reader in archaeology at Bristol University, told the Guardian that he now believed the bones were not from black slaves. Examination of the bones suggested to him they might have come from a French soldier, or even be the bones of a local Devon person. He said: "The human remains that were found and analysed cannot be shown to be part of that incident."

Dr Horton said that new DNA techniques might now be used to find out more about the bones. He accepted that he had not formally published the findings, but he had told people in St Lucia that he could not prove they came from the Caribbean.

However, Dr Horton may find himself under fire again next year when a BBC drama series called Bone Kickers is screened. It follows the adventures of a team of archaeologists with one of the plotlines the discovery of murdered 18th century slaves on a beach.

Dr Horton is the academic adviser to the series - although he insists he had nothing to do with this story.

The people of St Lucia still want answers. Margot Thomas, the national archivist on St Lucia, said she still believed the bones were from slaves. She said: "There should be more tests, and if they are proved to be slaves from St Lucia the bones should be returned."


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Dallas News

By William Kates
November 04, 2007


OSWEGO, N.Y. – A half-mile offshore, 25 feet below the surface of Lake Ontario, the hull of the David B. Mills lies wrecked in three large sections, broken apart by a violent October storm 88 years ago after running aground on Ford Shoals.

Strewn about the flat, rocky bottom are the 202-foot-long barge's propeller, anchors, winch, engine, boiler, rudder and various pieces of machinery. Around the debris, perch, whitefish, bass, pike, drum and alewives – joined by a few curious scuba divers – dart through the lucent water.

Typically regarded as a paradise for hikers, climbers and campers, upstate New York also offers some of the finest freshwater scuba diving in the nation – a cloistered natural attribute state officials and scuba enthusiasts are trying to promote through the creation of two diving trails.

The Mills wreck is part of the Dive the Seaway Trail, which will offer exploration of five diving sites along the 454-mile Seaway Trail Scenic Byway, which runs along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie, waterways filled with shipwrecks, rock formations and aquatic life.

The other trail is the Underwater Blueway Trail, a project in its pilot year in six communities. It is designed to provide diving access to shipwrecks and supply maritime heritage information to divers and nondivers.

While a handful of states have created underwater parks for diving, they are on ocean water, said Doug McNeese, president of Scuba Schools International, one of the country's leading diving certification organizations. New York is the first state to link a series of freshwater sites into a trail, and could become a model for other states, Mr. McNeese said.

"The Empire State is a maritime state," said Joe Zarzynski, an underwater archaeologist and a member of the New York State Divers Association who helped open the state's first underwater preserve in Lake George in 1993. "New York's inland and coastal waters carried the development of our state. ... Little is done to inform the public about that fact."

One of the defining battles of the American Revolution was fought near Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, where a fledgling Colonial navy was born and turned back the British to help secure the young nation's survival, he said. In the 19th century, the Erie Canal was built across upstate New York, transforming the state's economy and opening the door to the nation's westward expansion.

The Seaway dive trail was initiated in 2003, two years after the Mills was designated a state Submerged Cultural Preserve and Dive Site. The Mills, a dive for any beginning open-water diver, is one of 1,500 shipwrecks in Lake Ontario, hundreds of them diveable. There are thousands more throughout the Great Lakes, whose cold, fresh waters preserve the centuries-old ships and artifacts.

Other sites on the Dive the Seaway Trail include Eagle Wings, an ancient volcanic rock formation in the St. Lawrence River near Clayton; the Islander, a shore-access shipwreck in Alexandria Bay; and the St. Peter, a 135-foot, three-masted schooner that sank in 117 feet of water in Lake Ontario east of Rochester in 1898 and is said to be haunted.

A fifth site, which will be an intermediate dive, has yet to be chosen, but probably will be in Lake Erie, said David White, a recreation specialist with New York Sea Grant and the coordinator for the Dive the Seaway Trail project.

Buoy markers show where each site is located. Shore-based interpretative panels are at the primary access point for each site.

Mr. White said it became clear that there were unrealized economic development opportunities after a 1999 study showed divers put more than $108million into New York's Great Lakes region each year, even without a concentrated marketing campaign.

The Underwater Blueway Trail, an idea nearly 40 years in the making, involves Lake George, Freeport (downstate, on Long Island in Atlantic Ocean coastal waters), Plattsburgh (Lake Champlain); Dunkirk (Lake Erie), Oswego (Lake Ontario) and Geneva (Seneca Lake).

"It's a concept divers began talking about in the late 1970s, but the early attempts never seemed to go anywhere. It was strictly a matter of money," said Steve Resler, the assistant chief in the state Division of Coastal Resources' Resources Management Bureau and one of the project's chief advocates.

But the six municipalities found $220,000 in matching-grant money through the state Environmental Protection Fund, and coaxed another $100,000 from the state's Parks and Historic Preservation to develop the trail. The municipalities are working on site recommendations.

Mr. Resler would like to see the Underwater Blueway Trail expand and eventually serve as an umbrella for regional dive trails around the state, such as the Seaway dive trail. The dive trails are being developed to complement above-water state and national scenic, recreation and heritage corridors.


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Independente.ie

By Ed Power

November 03, 2007


Technological advances have led to a surge in salvage teams diving the world's seas for buried treasure.

The race is on to recover the lost fortunes that languish at the bottom of the world's oceans. From the former pirate hunting grounds of the Caribbean to the windswept Irish coastline, recent advances in diving technology mean that sunken treasures once thought lost forever are now within reach of get-rich-quick salvage teams. Strike it lucky and these ocean-going adventurers stand to reap millions.

By any standards, the fortunes to be made are vast. In May, the Odyssey Explorer, a state-of -the- art salvage vessel owned by a Nasdaq-listed corporation, discovered a shipwreck off the Portuguese coast: on board were 500,000 silver coins worth an estimated e400m.

Yet while the salvage industry is elated at the prospect of hitting pay-dirt in the inky depths of the sea, national governments and archaeologists are aghast. To historians, sunken gallons are not repositories of loot but national heirlooms. You wouldn't allow someone to pocket a priceless Celtic chalice they uncovered in their garden, runs the argument. Why should a salvage team, trawling the murky depths, be treated differently?

In Ireland the face-off between treasure hunters and heritage campaigners came to a head in a long-running court battle over the fate of the Lusitania, the luxury liner torpedoed by a U-boats off the Old Head of Kinsale in May 1915 with the loss of 1,198 lives (the attack is credited as one of the reasons the US entered the First World War).

Twelve years ago, the government declared the wreck a heritage site under the National Monuments Act, which would safeguard it from interference by private divers for 100 years (one of the reasons offered for the move is the belief that, contained onboard, are arts treasures belonging to Hugh Lane).

However, the claim was contested by New Mexico diver F Gregg Bemis Jr, who said he had bought the Lusitania in 1968 from business partners who, in turn, had acquired it for £1000 from a UK insurance association.

Following a long legal dispute, the High Court found in favour of Bemis (the Supreme Court upheld the decision on appeal). Bemis is now free to explore the wreck, though, under the Supreme Court ruling, any fine art recovered (it's thought a lost Rubens masterpiece is on board) will be the property of the Irish state.

Spanish authorities deal more robustly with profit-hungry privateers. Upon reaching shore in Algericas, the master of the Odyssey was temporarily thrown in jail, accused of tampered with a Spanish national treasure.

While Odyssey's owner says they cannot definitively identify the recently uncovered wreckage, Spain believes it to be the remains of the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish warship sunk by the British off Portugal. With the recovered loot having been shipped to Florida, the question of its ownership is currently being fought in court over there.

The hard-line Spanish response contrasts with that of the British government, which has struck a deal with Odyssey that will see the two parties split the proceeds if the company recovers another sunken ship, the HMS Sussex, which vanished off Gibraltar in 1693, with an estimated e350m fortune (in today's money) on board. In Britain, conservationists are horrified over their government's action.

"For generations these hugely important sites were safe because they were too far down to be safely reached. But improvements in technology mean they are now quite easily accessible," says Dr David Gaimster, general secretary of the Society of Antiquaries in the UK.

"These irreplaceable cultural resources are now being stripped. They are not being archaeologically recorded but looted for profit with the bullion and other precious metals being melted down or sold to collectors, with the result that they are lost for ever."

In this regard, one difference between Spain and Ireland is that the former has ratified the 2001 Unesco Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which forbids the private exploration of wrecks.

The two biggest opponents to the convention are the US and Britain, whose governments say it makes little sense to give blanket protection to the world's estimated three million sunken ships when only the best preserved should be safeguarded. Their continued refusal to sign is seen as giving carte blanche to profit -hungry divers.

The trouble with the US approach, says the heritage lobby, is that it is almost impossible to strip a ship of its gold without inflicting major damage on the wreck. That's assuming the salvagers have any interest in saving the wreck in the first place.

"It is very difficult to recover seven tons of coin without destroying the organic material, such as the surgeon's chest or the musical instruments," says Robert Yorke, chairman of London's Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee.

"That sort of archaeology is incompatible with a ship that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a day to run and when you are working with shareholders on the Nasdaq."


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WASHINGTON - DNA scraped from inside clay vessels show that a ship that sank off the coast of Greece 2,400 years ago was carrying a cargo of olive oil, oregano, and probably wine, researchers reported on Friday.

The new research may offer a way to analyze the long-gone contents of hundreds of containers, said Brendan Foley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Writing in the Journal of Archeological Science, Foley and colleagues at Lund University in Sweden said they were able to get DNA sequences from the insides of two amphoras recovered in 230 feet of water in 2005.

The clay containers appeared empty, but the researchers decided to try testing for DNA anyhow. To their surprise, they got some -- and not the DNA they were expecting.

The island of Chios where the shipwreck was found was well-known in the ancient world as a major exporter of highly prized wines. But the two amphora in fact carried DNA from olives and oregano.

They also found evidence of wine and perhaps pistachios, they said.

Foley hopes to use the technique to find out more details about the ancient shipping trade.

"Imagine if you were asked to analyze the American economy just by looking at the empty shells of 40-foot (12-metre) shipping containers," he said in a statement.

"You could say something, but not much."


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The Economic Times

November 02, 2007

BEIJING: An ancient ship in China, lying on the sea bed for more than 800 years, is just weeks away to be lifted out of the water after months of salvage operation that took three years for planning.

Sunken cargo vessel the Nanhai No.1 with an estimated 80,000 cultural relics, including porcelain, gold artifacts, copper coins, jewelry and copper mirrors from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 to 1279 AD), is under the sea, 30 nautical miles west of Hailing island near Yangjiang city.

Already, 6,000 items have been salvaged, the official media reported.

"Salvage work is nearing end and the relics we are recovering are more varied and exciting than we expected," Jing Lihu, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Culture Department was quoted as saying in a radio programme by 'China Daily'.

Typhoons delayed the salvage work which began in May after three years of planning.

The 30-m-long ship, found in 1987 by the Guanzhou salvage bureau and a British underwater company, is the first ancient vessel to have been discovered on the "Marine Silk Road" in the South China Sea and will be taken out of the water by the year end.

It was also the largest Song Dynasty cargo ship ever discovered in China, the newspaper said.
Yangjiang is building a museum to house its treasure trove.


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