Mystery of lost 19th century ghost ships

From CNN News: Mystery of lost 19th century ghost ships
(CNN) -- It's been described as one of the greatest Victorian gothic horror stories of all time. Two ships with 129 men on board and fitted with the latest technology, vanish with barely a trace left behind. One hundred and sixty years of searching -- one attempt as recent as last month -- have failed to find "HMS Erebus" and her sister ship, the somewhat appropriately named "HMS Terror" -- the two vessels lost in the Arctic.

In 1845 British Royal Navy captain Sir John Franklin set out with some of the finest sailors of the time on a mission to map the Northwest Passage. Franklin's expedition wasn't the first to the region, but it is the most infamous.

"Why did this fail when all the others didn't," asks author William Battersby. "There was something jinxed about the expedition." Battersby is one of many to be transfixed by the mystery of Franklin's last voyage. "We love adventure stories, of derring-do, win against all odds, but in this story they don't and we still don't know why."

The environment of the Northwest Passage is unforgiving. The landscape is vast and deserted, comparable only to Jupiter's moons. The winters are unrelenting and bleak. Franklin's men were faced with particularly brutally harsh temperatures and blizzards when they reached the region.

Ryan HarrisDespite the ships being reinforced with steel and holding three years worth or provisions, it appears the environment got the better of the crew. "Man proposes, God disposes," says Bob Headland from the Scott Polar Research Institute, who regularly visits the region. '"And the ice gods are a fickle lot."

The disappearance of the Erebus and the Terror has prompted the longest search mission in history: Although there have been numerous attempts to find the ships, there has been no sign of them.

Ryan Harris from Parks Canada led the most recent mission to try to locate the shipwrecks. Last month, his crews spent hours scouring the ocean floor, searching waters up to 50 meters deep. "It's an incredible story. It's got shipwrecks, the remoteness of the Arctic, putting the might of English industrialism against Mother Nature," says Harris.

Since 1997 Parks Canada has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to locate the "Erebus" and "Terror." The tale of the Franklin expedition has enthralled Canadians -- the wreckage has the dubious honor of being the only national historic site in Canada that hasn't been found yet.

"Once Franklin received his orders that sealed his fate," Harris explains. "In directing them south-west into ultimately the Victoria Strait it took them to the ice choke point. Once they fell into the clutch of that area, their fate was sealed. There's not much wildlife there and it is isolated."

William BattersbyThe last known account of the "Erebus" and "Terror" came in 1848. A rock cairn with a message on it indicated that the harsh conditions had already claimed their first lives, with only 105 men left alive.

Franklin was one of the first casualties of his own expedition. That same year the men abandoned their ships, archaeologists believing they began making their way south in a desperate bid to find food.

However the harsh environment supported little, and with few animals to hunt and over 100 men to feed, the chance of survival was low. It's been suggested that the men may have resorted to cannibalism in their last-ditch efforts to survive. "There were far too many men to live off the environment. What man plans and what nature allows are two different things," says Headland.

Archaeologists have relied heavily upon oral Inuit history to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Based on their accounts it is thought some of the men lived for another three or four years after abandoning ship.

But questions remain over exactly what happened to them. In 160 years only two skeletons and three perfectly preserved bodies have been uncovered. It is likely diseases such as scurvy claimed many lives but Battersby believes it may have been the ships themselves that killed the sailors.

His theory is that the men succumbed to lead poisoning derived from the internal pipe system used to melt ice into drinking water. It's hoped the discovery of the ships will provide answers.

'"There's a charm to the story," acknowledges Harris. "By solving a mystery it takes the allure away." But having said that, Harris is determined the search will go on until the "Erebus" and the "Terror" are found. Parks Canada insists that their searches have not been futile and they'll continue to gather information to help with future efforts. "I hope we're the last," says Harris.

But after 160 years it's possible that this tale may be frozen in time forever. "These are the last of the ghost ships," says Battersby. "It is the world's biggest ghost story."

Roman shipwreck full of wine jars found

BOTTLE FIND: The amphora found by an US-Albanian underwater expedition which believes they have found a 1st century BC Roman shipwreck off the southwestern Albanian coast.

From Stuff.co.nz (New Zealand): Roman shipwreck full of wine jars found

A US-Albanian archaeological mission claims to have found the well-preserved wreck of a Roman cargo ship off Albania's coast, complete with some 300 wine jars — all empty, alas.

The 30-metre long wreck dates to the 1st century BC and its cargo is believed to have been the produce of southern Albanian vineyards en route to western European markets, including France.

A statement from the Key West, Florida-based RPM Nautical Foundation said the find was made 50m deep near the port city of Vlora, 140 kilometres southwest of the capital, Tirana, early this month.

The foundation, in co-operation with Albanian archaeologists, has been surveying a swathe of Albania's previously unexplored coastal waters for the past five years. So far, experts have located 20 shipwrecks — including several relatively modern ones.

"Taking into consideration the date and also the depth — which is well suited for excavation — I would include it among the top 10 most scientifically interesting wrecks found in the Mediterranean," said Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi, who participated in the project.

Officials said most of the jars, known by their Greek name of amphoras and used to transport wine and oil, were unbroken despite the shipwreck. However, the stoppers used to seal them had gone, allowing their contents to leak out into the saltwater.

Mission leader George Robb said the ship could have been part of a flourishing trade in local wine.

"Ancient Illyria, which includes present day Albania, was a major source of supply for the western Mediterranean, including present day France and Spain,' Robb said.

Team members retrieved one amphora for examination, before restoring it to the wreck. The site, whose precise location is being kept secret, will be left unexplored until the Albanian archaeological service is in a position to do so.

The monthlong mission ended last week and will be resumed next year. According to Albanian coordinator Auron Tare, it will eventually cover the whole Albanian coastline.

"These five years have shown how rich the Albanian underwater coastline is, and how interesting it could be for international tourists," he said.

Mt Hypipamee crater measured and explored by divers who bust its myths

From Cairns.com.au: Mt Hypipamee crater measured and explored by divers who bust its myths

DIVERS exploring the Mt Hypipamee crater near Herberton have debunked two "facts" about The Crater - it is not as deep as previously thought and there is no evidence of a tunnel linking it to the nearby Barron River.

Mt Hypipamee was formed when a gas explosion blasted half a million tonnes of basalt into the air leaving a crater 60m wide with sheer walls going down 60m to the water.

A 1959 survey claimed the water was 81m deep.

Signs and a map at the site also show an underwater tunnel heading down and towards the Barron River.

However, a group of nine divers from around Australia and from all walks of life, who spent this week exploring the crater to carry out scientific tests for the Museum of Australia, have proved both those claims to be false.

They included brothers Joel and Samuel Vermey, both electricians from Cairns.

Richard Harris, a 46-year-old anaesthetist and diving medicine specialist from Adelaide, said the maximum depth they had found was 75m.

As for the tunnel, he said visibility was only 2.5m so they could not be 100 per cent sure but: "After a careful search at the bottom we could find no evidence of a tunnel going anywhere."

"Certainly there does not appear to be any major side passageways."

He said the group had thought it would be exciting to explore what might have been Australia’s deepest underwater cave, a title currently held by a cave at Mt Gambier, South Australia.

"It is a bit disappointing that the site has not been as deep or offered the opportunity for further exploration that we had hoped but it is also good to be able to debunk the myth of the size of the crater and correct the information on the … map and signage," Dr Harris said.

In addition to mapping the crater above and below water, the divers did a biodiversity study looking at invertebrate life and a water chemistry analysis looking at temperature, acidity, oxygen levels and salinity.

Samples will be sent to the Museum of Australia for analysis.

PR: Odyssey Discovers Mysterious English Channel Shipwreck

Tampa, FL – September 15, 2011 – What would bring together a cosmopolitan artifact assemblage that includes an unmarked 17th-century tobacco pipe, three glass bottle bases, a wooden folding rule, manilla bracelets and elephant tusks? Although an odd assortment, these unique items were discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration on what is believed to be a late 17th-century shipwreck that the company calls 35F. Close study of the artifacts by Odyssey’s archaeological team has led to the hypothesis that the wreck may represent the westernmost example of a West African trader and the only example of this date known off the UK. If accurate, the evidence suggests site 35F would be the first English Royal Africa Company shipwreck identified worldwide.

Discovered during Odyssey’s “Atlas” search project, 35F lies at a depth of approximately 110m and is located in the Western Approaches to the English Channel. Using advanced robotic technology, Odyssey conducted a pre-disturbance survey, including a photomosaic, and archaeologically recovered sample artifacts from the site. By studying the site’s formation and composition, and the recovered items, Odyssey was able to piece together likely history of this mysterious wreck. Although the team cannot conclusively identify the shipwreck, the work conducted so far certainly indicates that the site is of historical significance.

The discovery of manilla bracelets (a highly valuable form of primitive currency) and elephant tusks undoubtedly links the ship to the triangular trade route between Africa, Europe and the Caribbean/Americas. The wooden folding rule (an early version of the modern calculator and the earliest example to be found on a shipwreck) utilizes the English inch indicating the presence of a British carpenter on the ship. Although the generic tobacco pipe discovered was not adorned with a maker’s mark, its style is consistent with pipes produced in England some time between 1660-1690, allowing the team to establish a date range and national origin of the wreck. Further contributing to the site analysis was the presence of three glass bottle bases which closely resemble globe wine bottles that were manufactured in John Baker’s 17th-century glasshouse at Vauxhall (London).

Odyssey believes the ship represented by site 35F sailed sometime between 1660-1700 and is English. It is highly likely the vessel was part of the English Royal Africa Company. However, until a more diagnostic artifact can be discovered, Odyssey may never know its true identity. Located in one of the highest maritime traffic lanes, Odyssey has monitored and documented severe damage caused by the offshore fishing industry since the site was found in 2005.

All items excavated from the site are retained in Odyssey’s permanent artifact collection. The public is invited to learn more and see the artifacts featured in Odyssey’s Virtual Museum (www.OdysseysVirtualMuseum.com) and through our social media profiles www.facebook.com/odysseymarine and www.twitter.com/odysseymarine. In addition, Odyssey recently published an In Depth feature written by Principal Marine Archaeologist and the paper’s co-author Neil Cunningham Dobson explaining the process of molding the elephant tusk discovered at 35F for future study.

Odyssey also recently published a feature interview with Dobson in its In Depth series which can be viewed here: http://www.shipwreck.net/oid/oid11.php. The folding rule discovered at 35F is on display in Odyssey’s travelling exhibit SHIPWRECK! and was previously on display the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.

To read this and other Odyssey archaeological papers, please visit http://www.shipwreck.net/featuresarchpapers11.php

Michigan shipwrecks lure scuba divers to the 40-degree depths of the Great Lakes

From MLive: Michigan shipwrecks lure scuba divers to the 40-degree depths of the Great Lakes

By Kiley Kievit

Michigan waters have more than 500 shipwrecks officially logged. Local divers are determined to find more.

“The history is certainly a big draw for divers in Michigan, because there’s so much history on the bottom of the lake,” says Chuck Larsen, owner of Ocean Sands Scuba in Holland. “Everything from glacier remains to boulder fields to wrecks. There’s billions of dollars of commerce just littering the bottom of Lake Michigan.”

While Michigan divers are quick to compliment the cold waters they venture into, novices could easily be confused by the desire to plunge into one of the Great Lakes’ 40 degree depths. But this cold water is part of what makes these dives unique.

“Some of these wrecks you see, these ships went down hundreds of years ago,” says Ken Engelsman, co-owner of Michigan Diving Center in Spring Lake. “But in this cool, dark water they look like they just went down a few weeks ago. It’s just amazing how well fresh water preserves everything.”

The preservation, not to mention the abundance of wrecks in Michigan waters, is what lures divers and keeps bringing them in for more.

“I’ve got a thing for shipwrecks, and the Great Lakes have some of the best shipwreck diving in the world,” says Roger Brenner, the other co-owner of Michigan Diving Center. “And I’ve got a thing for the old wrecks, the old woodies is what I call them. And they’re just in great shape .”

These cold water dives require equipment made to withstand the cold and dark, in addition to thicker wetsuits, and the water temperature can be intimidating — 40 degrees once you go down past 100 feet. But for the dedicated, the conditions are perfect.

“Michigan is certainly my favorite dive site,” says Larsen. “Anything you can do above water you can do below water, only it’s more fun.”

Suit accuses treasure hunters of trying to swindle lobsterman

From The Salem News: Suit accuses treasure hunters of trying to swindle lobsterman

SALEM — On a June day in 1975, lobsterman Michael Zdanowicz Sr. was pulling up a trawl line in Salem Harbor when he stumbled across something unexpected.

The artifacts he found that day touched off a 35-year quest for treasure buried centuries ago when a ship called Margaret smashed into a shoal and sank with her cargo of porcelain from China, Spanish silver and Dutch gold.

The Margaret sank in 1797, and since then, treasure hunters have hoped to find her and the riches onboard, likely worth millions.

Along the way, Zdanowicz, of Peabody, and his family found others who shared their dream. Two of them were Joseph Dietlin and Duane Rine.

In 2000, the Zdanowiczes agreed to team up with Dietlin and Rine, who, they say, told them that their business, which they called "North Atlantic Treasure Salvage Company," could help out with their expertise in marine salvage.

Instead, the Zdanowiczes contend, Dietlin, as well as Rine (who died last year in a diving accident), helped themselves, accepting money and equipment from the Zdanowiczes, but then getting a permit to explore the site under their own names.

Yesterday, they filed a lawsuit against Dietlin and the estate of Rine, claiming that the permit from the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources was obtained fraudulently and that Dietlin and Rine acted in bad faith, cutting them out of the loop.

The suit, filed in Salem Superior Court by Braintree attorney Charles Monahan, seeks a court order that bars Dietlin and any of Rine's heirs from taking anything from the site, or from disturbing it in any way.

The suit also asks that Dietlin be required to sign over all rights to explore the site, granted in the state permit, and to return any artifacts or other items recovered from the site or given to them by the Zdanowiczes.

They're also asking for $250,000 to compensate for lost income and interest from the site.

Monahan, who said yesterday that he is also a diver who came out of retirement to take the case for the Zdanowiczes, said the cargo of the Margaret could be worth more than $7 million in today's dollars, and may have included the belongings of Abigail Adams, the former first lady.

Zdanowicz and his sons met Dietlin and Rine in 2000 through a mutual friend. Dietlin and Rine said they had expertise in recovering sunken vessels.

Over the next several years, the Zdanowiczes say, they gave equipment and money to Dietlin and Rine, with the understanding that they'd share in the profits to come.

They had no idea that Dietlin and Rine went to the state board that issues permits for underwater archaeology and obtained one solely under their own names.

In fact, they didn't even realize they should get a permit until last year. That's when they found that their partners had already obtained one for the same location, near Gooseberry Island.

Then they learned that not only had they been cheated out of their rights to the site but that Dietlin and Rine didn't even have the proper equipment for the project — and that there was no such entity as the North Atlantic Treasure Salvage Company.

The Zdanowiczes aren't the only ones seeking fortune in the fathoms. Three years ago, Beverly diver Gary Esper was profiled in a Salem News story about his three-year quest to find the wreck.

Efforts to reach Dietlin yesterday were unsuccessful.

Author and Treasure Hunter: Clive Cussler

From Wikipedia
Clive Eric Cussler (born July 15, 1931 in Aurora, Illinois) is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times. Cussler is the founder and chairman of the real-life National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has discovered more than sixty shipwreck sites and numerous other notable sunken underwater wreckage. He is the sole author or lead author of more than 50 books.

Biography
Clive Cussler was born in Aurora, Illinois, and grew up in Alhambra, California. He was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout when he was 14. He attended Pasadena City College[3] for two years and then enlisted in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. During his service in the Air Force, he was promoted to Sergeant and worked as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer for the Military Air Transport Service (MATS).

Clive Cussler married Barbara Knight in 1955, and they remained married for nearly fifty years until her death in 2003. Together they had three children—Teri, Dirk, and Dayna—who have given him four grandchildren.

After his discharge from the military, Cussler went to work in the advertising industry, first as a copywriter and later as a creative director for two of the nation's most successful advertising agencies. As part of his duties Cussler produced radio and television commercials, many of which won international awards including an award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Following the publication in 1996 of Cussler's first nonfiction work, The Sea Hunters, he was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree in 1997 by the Board of Governors of the State University of New York Maritime College who accepted the work in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis. This was the first time in the college's 123-year history that such a degree had been awarded.

Cussler is a fellow of the Explorers Club of New York, the Royal Geographic Society in London, and the American Society of Oceanographers.

Literary career
Clive Cussler began writing in 1965 when his wife took a job working nights for the local police department where they lived in California. After making dinner for the kids and putting them to bed he had no one to talk to and nothing to do so he decided to start writing. His most famous creation is marine engineer, government agent and adventurer Dirk Pitt. The Dirk Pitt novels frequently take on an alternative history perspective, such as "what if Atlantis was real?", or "what if Abraham Lincoln wasn't assassinated, but was kidnapped?"

The first two Pitt novels, The Mediterranean Caper and Iceberg, were relatively conventional maritime thrillers. The third, Raise the Titanic!, made Cussler's reputation and established the pattern that subsequent Pitt novels would follow: a blend of high adventure and high technology, generally involving megalomaniacal villains, lost ships, beautiful women, and sunken treasure.

Cussler's novels, like those of Michael Crichton, are examples of techno-thrillers that do not use military plots and settings. Where Crichton strove for scrupulous realism, however, Cussler prefers fantastic spectacles and outlandish plot devices. The Pitt novels, in particular, have the anything-goes quality of the James Bond or Indiana Jones movies, while also sometimes borrowing from Alistair MacLean's novels. Pitt himself is a larger-than-life hero reminiscent of Doc Savage and other characters from pulp magazines.

Clive Cussler has had more than seventeen consecutive titles reach The New York Times fiction best-seller list.

Art imitating life
NUMA
As an underwater explorer, Cussler has discovered more than sixty shipwreck sites and has written non-fiction books about his findings. He is also the founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), a non-profit organization with the same name as the fictional government agency that employs Dirk Pitt. Cussler owns a large collection of classic cars, several of which (driven by Pitt) appear in his novels.

Cussler's web site claims that NUMA discovered, among other shipwrecks, the Confederate submarine Hunley. This claim is disputed by underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence who first reported finding it in 1970. The first expedition to dig into the site and bring back videographic evidence was the 1994/1995 SCIAA/NUMA H.L. Hunley expedition, directed by underwater archaeologist Dr. Mark M. Newell. That was largely financed by Cussler, thus his claim to have discovered it. Based on sworn statements by Dr. Newell, that expedition relied, at least to some extent, on Spence's maps of his earlier work. The dive team that took the video was led by diver Ralph Wilbanks who is on NUMA's Board of Directors.

Important finds by Cussler's N.U.M.A. include:
--The Carpathia. The ship famed for being the first to come to the aid of Titanic survivors.
--The Mary Celeste. The famed ghost ship that was found abandoned with cargo intact. (The identification of this wreck as the Mary Celeste has since been disputed.)
--The Manassas. The first ironclad of the civil war, formerly the icebreaker Enoch Train.

A Visual & interactive depiction of Dr. Cussler's NUMA Foundation Expeditions has been made available as an extension of NUMA's original website. web site it is an informative and educational overview from a global perspective of Dr. Cussler's expeditions and discoveries.

Appearances as characters
In what started as a joke in the novel Dragon that Cussler expected his editor to remove, he now often writes himself into his books; at first as simple cameos, but later as something of a deus ex machina, providing the novel's protagonists with an essential bit of assistance or information. Often, the character is given an alias and not revealed as Cussler until his exit with the characters remarking on how odd the name is. The cameos are usually restricted to the Pitt adventures, although the Fargo Files book Lost Empire had Cussler making an appearance.

A regular name in Cussler novels was Leigh Hunt. Seventeen books have had a character named Hunt appear in the opening prologues, usually dying. In the introduction to Arctic Drift, Cussler says there was a real Leigh Hunt who died in 2007 and the novel is dedicated to him.