It's been a while since I've published the manifesto for this blog here, so thought I'd do it now.
Posts here will focus on treasure hunters - people who seek (and have sought) not only for sunken gold and jewels, but the treasure that is historic shipwrecks around the world.
In addition, I share news which I think might be of interest to the "armchair Clive Cussler" - authors who are looking for interesting or off-beat facts with which to expand their novel or short story, add a bit of verisimiltude, or just provide the launching ground for a new plot. (And if you're not an author, the idea is to tweak your interest and have you say, "If I were a writer, this'd make a great plot for a book."
Volcano Seven has several other blogs as well, by the way:
Seaborn (oceanography)
Star Trek Report (space exploration)
Recreational Nuclear Physics
Recreational Volcanology
Computers Without Tears
Word Game Workbook
(Just nip over to Amazon, go to the Kindle section of the search list, and input those titles).
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Shipwreck Hunter On Prowl
University of South Florida News: Shipwreck Hunter On Prowl
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Nov. 12, 2010) – David Mearns did not set out to be one of the world’s great shipwreck hunters, but when his first expedition to find a vessel that sunk under suspicious circumstances ended is a high-profile murder trial and life sentences for the saboteurs, the rest became maritime history.
Mearns turned his 1986 degree from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in physical oceanography into a high profile career of finding lost ships – from a 16th Century caravel that was part of Vasco de Gama’s fleet to some of the great maritime tragedies of World War II.
His finds have brought closure to war widows who never stopped grieving, sent guilty men to prison for life and helped the British government set new standards for ship construction, saving thousands of lives in the future.
With a career now as storied as some of the shipwrecks he seeks, Mearns returned to the College of Marine Science recently for a visit with faculty and students and lecture for the public at the Mahaffey Theater. He brought with him spellbinding tales of search across the world for lost ships and souls, and the astounding “Eureka!” moments when they become found.
“There are these terrific moments when you are successful,” said Mearns, president of Bluewater Recoveries, Ltd., “You spend years working on something and it often comes down to your judgment; whether you are looking in the right place.”
Mearns has found more than 20 shipwrecks and most recently led the expedition that found the wreckage of the AHS Centaur, an Australian hospital ship which was sunk by a Japanese submarine in May 1943 off the coast of Queensland. Of the 332 doctors, nurses and wounded soldiers and sailors aboard, 268 perished. The 2009 discovery ended a 66-year quest by families of those who were lost and Australian government officials.
Earlier this year, more than 300 people attended an at-sea memorial service at the site of the shipwreck to honor the doctors, nurses and service personnel killed in the attack. The group, which included one of just two remaining survivors of the attack, dropped floral wreaths and messages into the ocean waves, the closest they had been to their lost loved ones since the sinking.
The Centaur, though, is just the latest find to bring Mearns worldwide acclaim.
In 2001, Mearns lead teams to discover the wreckage of the HMS Hood, the British warship lost in the epic battle with the Nazi ship Bismarck . Mearns and his team – using extensive research, documents, eyewitness accounts and the most advanced technology available to pinpoint the ships’ locations - overcame the challenges of locating the shipwreck in 3,000 feet of water in the Denmark Strait. His efforts to locate the ship is the basis for the PBS documentary “Hunt for the Hood” and the subject of the 2002 book, “Hood and Bismarck.”
Yet Mearns considers the 2008 discovery of the HMAS Sydney II shipwreck his greatest discovery. It took six years and an international effort to locate the warship, which had been the pride of Australia when it sank in 1941 after an encounter with a German vessel disguised as a merchant ship. The attack left a stunned nation grieving the 654 men lost and with unanswered questions which persisted for decades.
Mearns’ documented the expedition in his second book, The Search for the Sydney, which immediately became a top seller in Australia.
His other finds include the Lucona, a cargo ship at the centre of a sensational European murder trial; the Derbyshire, which was lost with all hands and led to new rules covering survivability and structural requirements for bulk carriers; and the Esmeralda, a Portuguese Nau in the fleet of Vasco da Gama that is the oldest colonial wreck ever found.
Mearns said there was no direct pathway from the College of Marine Science to shipwreck hunting, but rather a happy accident of fate when he sought out what to do with his new master’s degree in geological oceanography.
“I didn’t want to work in oil and gas, and I didn’t have what it takes to be an academic,” Mearns explained. “So I did what a lot of geological oceanographers do, I went to work in the offshore industry.”
Mearns started with a company in Maryland that had contracts with the U.S. government to do search and recovery missions for lost U.S. Navy property in the deep seas – lost aircraft, vessels and cruise missiles were among the items they recovered. The company was hired by the Austrian government investigating the suspicious sinking of a ship, the Lucona.
Mearns had at his disposal advanced sensors and imaging systems, and a penchant for meticulously studying every document collected in wrecks to search for clues in accounts of debris fields, records of where survivors and bodies were found and any small notation that might provide a hint of a ship’s location that would augment his knowledge of the ocean floor.
“You have to be able to tell the difference between what is man-made and what is natural,” he said. “To be a geologist is to know what the sea bed is supposed to look like, it helps to interpret the images of these features.”
The Lucona had gone down in the Pacific Ocean in 1977, supposedly while carrying expensive uranium mining equipment. Authorities suspected fraud, but until Mearns found the wreck in 1991 they had no proof. It turned out the ship’s owner, a wealthy businessman, and his partner had loaded the ship with scrap metal and a time bomb as part of his scheme. Six crew members perished in the sabotage; the evidence Mearns helped gathered sent the men to prison for life.
He followed that success with the hunt for the Derbyshire, a bulk oil carrier that disappeared during a typhoon south of Japan in 1980, and shocked the British public because the large vessel left no trace in its sinking. Mears said in his investigation, he came to learn that carriers like it sailing under the flags of developing nations had also sunk – costing thousands of lives – without much public outcry.
After the Derbyshire was found, images and information Mearns collected along with work done by other scientists led to the British government rewriting regulations on the design and building of bulk carriers.
“There’s no question it has saved lives,” Mearns said. “That has to be one of my most satisfying ones.”
His attention soon turned to vessels lost in World War II, and he returned to Great Britain where he could be closer to maritime records in the British Archives. After his successful hunt for the Hood and an accompanying documentary, he was contracted by the Australian government to bring closure to its wartime tragedies.
“We had virtually all of Australia watching every move when we searched for Centaur and Sydney,” he said.
Mearns still has one quest at the top of his list: to find legendary Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton’s lost ship, the Endurance.
The vessel sank in 1915 after it became trapped in ice. Mearns said he has worked for years researching the expedition, applying his knowledge of currents and ocean features and getting permission from Shackelton’s family to explore the iconic wreck. Now it has come down to securing financing for the venture; shipwreck hunts can easily cost in the millions of dollars and this venture will be even more challenging given the formidable nature of the Antarctic, he said.
“To me, it’s the challenge of doing it, but the history is fantastic,” he said. “Shackelton is one of the top figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. People find his example in leadership enduring.”
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Nov. 12, 2010) – David Mearns did not set out to be one of the world’s great shipwreck hunters, but when his first expedition to find a vessel that sunk under suspicious circumstances ended is a high-profile murder trial and life sentences for the saboteurs, the rest became maritime history.
Mearns turned his 1986 degree from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in physical oceanography into a high profile career of finding lost ships – from a 16th Century caravel that was part of Vasco de Gama’s fleet to some of the great maritime tragedies of World War II.
His finds have brought closure to war widows who never stopped grieving, sent guilty men to prison for life and helped the British government set new standards for ship construction, saving thousands of lives in the future.
With a career now as storied as some of the shipwrecks he seeks, Mearns returned to the College of Marine Science recently for a visit with faculty and students and lecture for the public at the Mahaffey Theater. He brought with him spellbinding tales of search across the world for lost ships and souls, and the astounding “Eureka!” moments when they become found.
“There are these terrific moments when you are successful,” said Mearns, president of Bluewater Recoveries, Ltd., “You spend years working on something and it often comes down to your judgment; whether you are looking in the right place.”
Mearns has found more than 20 shipwrecks and most recently led the expedition that found the wreckage of the AHS Centaur, an Australian hospital ship which was sunk by a Japanese submarine in May 1943 off the coast of Queensland. Of the 332 doctors, nurses and wounded soldiers and sailors aboard, 268 perished. The 2009 discovery ended a 66-year quest by families of those who were lost and Australian government officials.
Earlier this year, more than 300 people attended an at-sea memorial service at the site of the shipwreck to honor the doctors, nurses and service personnel killed in the attack. The group, which included one of just two remaining survivors of the attack, dropped floral wreaths and messages into the ocean waves, the closest they had been to their lost loved ones since the sinking.
The Centaur, though, is just the latest find to bring Mearns worldwide acclaim.
In 2001, Mearns lead teams to discover the wreckage of the HMS Hood, the British warship lost in the epic battle with the Nazi ship Bismarck . Mearns and his team – using extensive research, documents, eyewitness accounts and the most advanced technology available to pinpoint the ships’ locations - overcame the challenges of locating the shipwreck in 3,000 feet of water in the Denmark Strait. His efforts to locate the ship is the basis for the PBS documentary “Hunt for the Hood” and the subject of the 2002 book, “Hood and Bismarck.”
Yet Mearns considers the 2008 discovery of the HMAS Sydney II shipwreck his greatest discovery. It took six years and an international effort to locate the warship, which had been the pride of Australia when it sank in 1941 after an encounter with a German vessel disguised as a merchant ship. The attack left a stunned nation grieving the 654 men lost and with unanswered questions which persisted for decades.
Mearns’ documented the expedition in his second book, The Search for the Sydney, which immediately became a top seller in Australia.
His other finds include the Lucona, a cargo ship at the centre of a sensational European murder trial; the Derbyshire, which was lost with all hands and led to new rules covering survivability and structural requirements for bulk carriers; and the Esmeralda, a Portuguese Nau in the fleet of Vasco da Gama that is the oldest colonial wreck ever found.
Mearns said there was no direct pathway from the College of Marine Science to shipwreck hunting, but rather a happy accident of fate when he sought out what to do with his new master’s degree in geological oceanography.
“I didn’t want to work in oil and gas, and I didn’t have what it takes to be an academic,” Mearns explained. “So I did what a lot of geological oceanographers do, I went to work in the offshore industry.”
Mearns started with a company in Maryland that had contracts with the U.S. government to do search and recovery missions for lost U.S. Navy property in the deep seas – lost aircraft, vessels and cruise missiles were among the items they recovered. The company was hired by the Austrian government investigating the suspicious sinking of a ship, the Lucona.
Mearns had at his disposal advanced sensors and imaging systems, and a penchant for meticulously studying every document collected in wrecks to search for clues in accounts of debris fields, records of where survivors and bodies were found and any small notation that might provide a hint of a ship’s location that would augment his knowledge of the ocean floor.
“You have to be able to tell the difference between what is man-made and what is natural,” he said. “To be a geologist is to know what the sea bed is supposed to look like, it helps to interpret the images of these features.”
The Lucona had gone down in the Pacific Ocean in 1977, supposedly while carrying expensive uranium mining equipment. Authorities suspected fraud, but until Mearns found the wreck in 1991 they had no proof. It turned out the ship’s owner, a wealthy businessman, and his partner had loaded the ship with scrap metal and a time bomb as part of his scheme. Six crew members perished in the sabotage; the evidence Mearns helped gathered sent the men to prison for life.
He followed that success with the hunt for the Derbyshire, a bulk oil carrier that disappeared during a typhoon south of Japan in 1980, and shocked the British public because the large vessel left no trace in its sinking. Mears said in his investigation, he came to learn that carriers like it sailing under the flags of developing nations had also sunk – costing thousands of lives – without much public outcry.
After the Derbyshire was found, images and information Mearns collected along with work done by other scientists led to the British government rewriting regulations on the design and building of bulk carriers.
“There’s no question it has saved lives,” Mearns said. “That has to be one of my most satisfying ones.”
His attention soon turned to vessels lost in World War II, and he returned to Great Britain where he could be closer to maritime records in the British Archives. After his successful hunt for the Hood and an accompanying documentary, he was contracted by the Australian government to bring closure to its wartime tragedies.
“We had virtually all of Australia watching every move when we searched for Centaur and Sydney,” he said.
Mearns still has one quest at the top of his list: to find legendary Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton’s lost ship, the Endurance.
The vessel sank in 1915 after it became trapped in ice. Mearns said he has worked for years researching the expedition, applying his knowledge of currents and ocean features and getting permission from Shackelton’s family to explore the iconic wreck. Now it has come down to securing financing for the venture; shipwreck hunts can easily cost in the millions of dollars and this venture will be even more challenging given the formidable nature of the Antarctic, he said.
“To me, it’s the challenge of doing it, but the history is fantastic,” he said. “Shackelton is one of the top figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. People find his example in leadership enduring.”
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Six skippers plead guilty to involvement in £37m 'black fish'
Six skippers plead guilty to involvement in £37m 'black fish'
By JOHN ROBERTSON
The value of undeclared landings in the biggest scam in the history of Scotland's fishing industry was revealed yesterday to have been at least £37 million.
The figure was disclosed as six skippers pleaded guilty to being involved in the "black fish" scandal.
They had lied about their catches on all but one of 236 landings between 2002 and 2005 at the country's largest processing company on Shetland.ADVERTISEMENTThe herring and mackerel which remained under the radar was worth £15m.
Previously, eight other masters appeared in court in relation to £22m of fish.
One of those in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Laurence Irvine, 64, admitted the largest single amount of undeclared fish, which was worth £5.6m.
The charge admitted by the 14 men does not carry a prison sentence, but exposes each of them to an unlimited fine.
However, the authorities will attempt to strip the men of any illegal profits before they are sentenced.
The six skippers are: Irvine, (master of the fishing vessel Antares), Gary Williamson, 51, (the Research W), William Williamson, 63, (the Research W), and Colin Leask, 37, (the Antarctic ll), all of Symbister, Whalsay, Shetland, George Henry, 59, (the Adenia), of Clousta, Bixter, Shetland, and John Stewart, 55, (the Antarctic), of, Lerwick, Shetland.
By JOHN ROBERTSON
The value of undeclared landings in the biggest scam in the history of Scotland's fishing industry was revealed yesterday to have been at least £37 million.
The figure was disclosed as six skippers pleaded guilty to being involved in the "black fish" scandal.
They had lied about their catches on all but one of 236 landings between 2002 and 2005 at the country's largest processing company on Shetland.ADVERTISEMENTThe herring and mackerel which remained under the radar was worth £15m.
Previously, eight other masters appeared in court in relation to £22m of fish.
One of those in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Laurence Irvine, 64, admitted the largest single amount of undeclared fish, which was worth £5.6m.
The charge admitted by the 14 men does not carry a prison sentence, but exposes each of them to an unlimited fine.
However, the authorities will attempt to strip the men of any illegal profits before they are sentenced.
The six skippers are: Irvine, (master of the fishing vessel Antares), Gary Williamson, 51, (the Research W), William Williamson, 63, (the Research W), and Colin Leask, 37, (the Antarctic ll), all of Symbister, Whalsay, Shetland, George Henry, 59, (the Adenia), of Clousta, Bixter, Shetland, and John Stewart, 55, (the Antarctic), of, Lerwick, Shetland.
China to beef up protection of underwater cultural heritage
China to beef up protection of underwater cultural heritage
BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The two Chinese central government agencies chiefly responsible for safeguarding underwater cultural heritage on Monday signed an agreement pledging closer cooperation.
Under their agreement, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) will work more closely together in various fields including underwater archaeology and management of underwater relics.
The two agencies will also strengthen cooperation in regular surveys of underwater relics and in preventing damage to the relics, according to the agreement.
SACH director Shan Jixiang said at the signing ceremony that the agreement was a state-level move to ensure the safety of China's underwater cultural heritage amid a worldwide boom in ocean development in recent years.
Sun Zhihui, director of the SOA, said the SOA would actively provide support and assistance in the protection of underwater relics by enhancing cooperation with the SACH in fields such as enforcement of maritime laws and marine disaster forecasting.
The two agencies will also seek to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism by conducting pilot cooperation programs.
BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The two Chinese central government agencies chiefly responsible for safeguarding underwater cultural heritage on Monday signed an agreement pledging closer cooperation.
Under their agreement, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) will work more closely together in various fields including underwater archaeology and management of underwater relics.
The two agencies will also strengthen cooperation in regular surveys of underwater relics and in preventing damage to the relics, according to the agreement.
SACH director Shan Jixiang said at the signing ceremony that the agreement was a state-level move to ensure the safety of China's underwater cultural heritage amid a worldwide boom in ocean development in recent years.
Sun Zhihui, director of the SOA, said the SOA would actively provide support and assistance in the protection of underwater relics by enhancing cooperation with the SACH in fields such as enforcement of maritime laws and marine disaster forecasting.
The two agencies will also seek to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism by conducting pilot cooperation programs.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Goldfish join security team for G20 summit as water testers
Metro.co.uk: Goldfish join security team for G20 summit as water testers
Managers at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Seoul, South Korea, have enlisted the help of the aquatic security guards to check the water purity in the venue's bathrooms, and hope they will be able to alert staff to any fishy goings on.
Something fishy is going on at the G20 venue in Seoul, South Korea
Oh Su-Young, PR manager at the centre, told AFP that the goldfish are simply being used as part of the inspection process ahead of the impending arrival of the G20 leaders, adding: 'The fish also symbolise an eco-friendly water policy, which recycles used water for the restrooms.'
British prime minister David Cameron will be among those benefitting from the unique safety measures when the summit takes place on November 11th and 12th.
But this isn't the first time this year that organisers of a major event have enlisted members of the animal kingdom to boost security.
During the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, police drafted in trained monkeys to patrol the athletes' village and major venues where events were held.
The slender long-tailed Langurs were intended to protect both athletes and spectators from the Common Indian Bonnet monkey, which is known to attack humans.
What will they think of next?
Managers at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Seoul, South Korea, have enlisted the help of the aquatic security guards to check the water purity in the venue's bathrooms, and hope they will be able to alert staff to any fishy goings on.
Something fishy is going on at the G20 venue in Seoul, South Korea
Oh Su-Young, PR manager at the centre, told AFP that the goldfish are simply being used as part of the inspection process ahead of the impending arrival of the G20 leaders, adding: 'The fish also symbolise an eco-friendly water policy, which recycles used water for the restrooms.'
British prime minister David Cameron will be among those benefitting from the unique safety measures when the summit takes place on November 11th and 12th.
But this isn't the first time this year that organisers of a major event have enlisted members of the animal kingdom to boost security.
During the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, police drafted in trained monkeys to patrol the athletes' village and major venues where events were held.
The slender long-tailed Langurs were intended to protect both athletes and spectators from the Common Indian Bonnet monkey, which is known to attack humans.
What will they think of next?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Replica 600 BC Ship Returns Triumphant After 20,000 Mile Circumnavigation of Africa
Afloat (Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine): Replica 600 BC Ship Returns Triumphant After 20,000 Mile Circumnavigation of Africa
Phoenicia, the replica 600BC wooden ship, has arrived triumphantly back in Syria having completed a 20,000 mile circumnavigation of Africa. The journey was intended to recreate the first circumnavigation of Africa, thought to have been achieved by Phoenician mariners around 600BC. The expedition took over two years to complete, and was approved by the Royal Geographical Society and supported by Raymarine as an equipment sponsor.
Phoenicia was built using traditional Phoenician construction methods and materials, and designed using evidence from shipwrecks and archaeological finds. Advice from scholars ensured she was completely authentic, but on the inside she was equipped with the latest high tech electronic navigational equipment from Raymarine.
The journey was completed in two stages. The first saw Phoenicia depart from Syria in Summer 2008 and sail East as far as Yemen. After a short break, she completed her circumnavigation past Oman and Mozambique, around the Cape of Good Hope, out to the Azores, and through the Straits of Gibraltar via Tunisia, Malta and Lebanon to her final port of Arwad, where she arrived to a crowd of over 2,000 well wishers on 23rd October. The homecoming was celebrated with a gala dinner held at Tartous.
Phoenicia was fitted out with a Raymarine C80 multifunction display, GPS antenna, Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver,, ST60+ tridata, wind system and repeater, DSM300 fish finder and Raymarine LifeTag wireless man overboard system. The systems worked flawlessly, despite facing severe conditions during the expedition including seven-metre waves and gale force winds. Having accurate navigational data also ensured Phoenicia could make the necessary detours to avoid dangerous areas prone to pirate attacks.
The Phoenicia expedition (www.phoenicia.org.uk) was conceived by Philip Beale, a former British Royal Naval Officer and entrepreneur. It is being featured in a national television documentary 'Ancient Worlds' to be shown on BBC2 in the autumn.
Phoenicia, the replica 600BC wooden ship, has arrived triumphantly back in Syria having completed a 20,000 mile circumnavigation of Africa. The journey was intended to recreate the first circumnavigation of Africa, thought to have been achieved by Phoenician mariners around 600BC. The expedition took over two years to complete, and was approved by the Royal Geographical Society and supported by Raymarine as an equipment sponsor.
Phoenicia was built using traditional Phoenician construction methods and materials, and designed using evidence from shipwrecks and archaeological finds. Advice from scholars ensured she was completely authentic, but on the inside she was equipped with the latest high tech electronic navigational equipment from Raymarine.
The journey was completed in two stages. The first saw Phoenicia depart from Syria in Summer 2008 and sail East as far as Yemen. After a short break, she completed her circumnavigation past Oman and Mozambique, around the Cape of Good Hope, out to the Azores, and through the Straits of Gibraltar via Tunisia, Malta and Lebanon to her final port of Arwad, where she arrived to a crowd of over 2,000 well wishers on 23rd October. The homecoming was celebrated with a gala dinner held at Tartous.
Phoenicia was fitted out with a Raymarine C80 multifunction display, GPS antenna, Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver,, ST60+ tridata, wind system and repeater, DSM300 fish finder and Raymarine LifeTag wireless man overboard system. The systems worked flawlessly, despite facing severe conditions during the expedition including seven-metre waves and gale force winds. Having accurate navigational data also ensured Phoenicia could make the necessary detours to avoid dangerous areas prone to pirate attacks.
The Phoenicia expedition (www.phoenicia.org.uk) was conceived by Philip Beale, a former British Royal Naval Officer and entrepreneur. It is being featured in a national television documentary 'Ancient Worlds' to be shown on BBC2 in the autumn.
'Drowned voice' of pristine phonograph found at Yukon site of sunken ship
The Province: 'Drowned voice' of pristine phonograph found at Yukon site of sunken ship
Divers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of ground-breaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was discovered in 2008 by a team of Canadian archeologists.Photograph by: Handout, HandoutDivers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of groundbreaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was only discovered two years ago by a team of Canadian archeologists.
The imaging system, similar to one used recently to document the wreck of the Titanic off Newfoundland's east coast, was employed during an expedition this summer to the sunken-but-perfectly-preserved Goddard — a dive that also produced a stunning new artifact: the vintage phonograph used to entertain fortune-seekers on their long, northward steamboat voyage to the Klondike gold fields.
"They're not only stunning and amazing images, they're also an accurate measuring tool," Canadian marine archeologist James Delgado, one of the experts involved in the Goddard project, told Postmedia News.
The precise 3-D model of the wreck was generated with scanning equipment supplied by the U.S. firms Oceangate and BlueView Technologies.
While documenting the boat's pristine condition, the researchers also spotted and collected several relics that were missed during earlier dives to the Goddard, which was declared an official historic site by the Yukon government earlier this year.
Corked bottles with their liquids still intact, leather footwear and other items were added to previous discoveries of tools and clothing.
"There was a bottle with vanilla extract still in it," said Delgado, former head of the Vancouver Maritime Museum and now director of marine archeology with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Talk about the proverbial miner's cabin that you stumble across," he said. "Here's one under water — the Goddard really does represent a time capsule."
But the most remarkable find was the music player and three vinyl discs — one in almost perfect condition.
Experts from the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa are now studying the phonograph and the discs to determine what music was played on the Goddard before it went down in a storm on Yukon's fabled Lake Laberge in October 1901.
Delgado says the phonograph had previously been hidden by a "light dusting of silt." But he says if conservation experts are able to restore the phonograph or its discs, "a drowned voice from 1901 may sing again."
In November 2009, Delgado, John Pollack from the Texas-based Institute of Nautical Archaeology and Yukon museum curator Doug Davidge announced they'd located the "perfectly preserved" Goddard in Lake Laberge, a widening of the Yukon River that served as a key transportation route for gold-seekers in the 1890s.
"The A.J. Goddard is not only a testament to the ingenuity, sense of adventure and determination of those men and women who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush, but also to the key role that the river and sternwheelers played in the economic development of Yukon,'' Elaine Taylor, the territory's tourism and culture minister, said in June in announcing the wreck's historical designation.
The sternwheeler is known to have gone down with three men in the 1901 storm that swept across the lake, a setting made famous by the Robert Service poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. The boat was named for an intrepid U.S. shipping merchant who pioneered Yukon River transport during the wild race for Canadian gold in the 1890s.
In Service's ghoulish 1907 rhyme, a Tennessee gold miner's frozen corpse finds blissful relief from the fatal Yukon cold in the fiery boiler of a sternwheeler stranded in ice on Lake Laberge.
Most of the Klondike miners trudged from Skagway, Alaska — which could be reached by Pacific steamers — across dangerous mountain passes to the Yukon River headwaters in northern British Columbia, where they hitched rides north on sternwheelers and other boats bound for the goldfields.
Goddard took the same arduous route with the materials he used to build his sternwheeler, assembled on the shores of British Columbia's Lake Bennett.
In June 1898, it became the first steamboat to reach Dawson, which at the time was only a tent city filled with fortune hunters.
Goddard's historic arrival at Dawson in his self-named boat — to the thunderous cheers of miners — has become part of Klondike lore, recounted by author Pierre Berton and other Gold Rush chroniclers.
The archeologists had led several searches for Klondike-era wrecks before discovering the Goddard site in 2008 and positively identifying the 15-metre vessel last year.
Divers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of ground-breaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was discovered in 2008 by a team of Canadian archeologists.Photograph by: Handout, HandoutDivers equipped with digital scanners have created a set of groundbreaking, 3-D images of the legendary Klondike-era sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which sank in a Yukon lake in 1901 and was only discovered two years ago by a team of Canadian archeologists.
The imaging system, similar to one used recently to document the wreck of the Titanic off Newfoundland's east coast, was employed during an expedition this summer to the sunken-but-perfectly-preserved Goddard — a dive that also produced a stunning new artifact: the vintage phonograph used to entertain fortune-seekers on their long, northward steamboat voyage to the Klondike gold fields.
"They're not only stunning and amazing images, they're also an accurate measuring tool," Canadian marine archeologist James Delgado, one of the experts involved in the Goddard project, told Postmedia News.
The precise 3-D model of the wreck was generated with scanning equipment supplied by the U.S. firms Oceangate and BlueView Technologies.
While documenting the boat's pristine condition, the researchers also spotted and collected several relics that were missed during earlier dives to the Goddard, which was declared an official historic site by the Yukon government earlier this year.
Corked bottles with their liquids still intact, leather footwear and other items were added to previous discoveries of tools and clothing.
"There was a bottle with vanilla extract still in it," said Delgado, former head of the Vancouver Maritime Museum and now director of marine archeology with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Talk about the proverbial miner's cabin that you stumble across," he said. "Here's one under water — the Goddard really does represent a time capsule."
But the most remarkable find was the music player and three vinyl discs — one in almost perfect condition.
Experts from the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa are now studying the phonograph and the discs to determine what music was played on the Goddard before it went down in a storm on Yukon's fabled Lake Laberge in October 1901.
Delgado says the phonograph had previously been hidden by a "light dusting of silt." But he says if conservation experts are able to restore the phonograph or its discs, "a drowned voice from 1901 may sing again."
In November 2009, Delgado, John Pollack from the Texas-based Institute of Nautical Archaeology and Yukon museum curator Doug Davidge announced they'd located the "perfectly preserved" Goddard in Lake Laberge, a widening of the Yukon River that served as a key transportation route for gold-seekers in the 1890s.
"The A.J. Goddard is not only a testament to the ingenuity, sense of adventure and determination of those men and women who took part in the Klondike Gold Rush, but also to the key role that the river and sternwheelers played in the economic development of Yukon,'' Elaine Taylor, the territory's tourism and culture minister, said in June in announcing the wreck's historical designation.
The sternwheeler is known to have gone down with three men in the 1901 storm that swept across the lake, a setting made famous by the Robert Service poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. The boat was named for an intrepid U.S. shipping merchant who pioneered Yukon River transport during the wild race for Canadian gold in the 1890s.
In Service's ghoulish 1907 rhyme, a Tennessee gold miner's frozen corpse finds blissful relief from the fatal Yukon cold in the fiery boiler of a sternwheeler stranded in ice on Lake Laberge.
Most of the Klondike miners trudged from Skagway, Alaska — which could be reached by Pacific steamers — across dangerous mountain passes to the Yukon River headwaters in northern British Columbia, where they hitched rides north on sternwheelers and other boats bound for the goldfields.
Goddard took the same arduous route with the materials he used to build his sternwheeler, assembled on the shores of British Columbia's Lake Bennett.
In June 1898, it became the first steamboat to reach Dawson, which at the time was only a tent city filled with fortune hunters.
Goddard's historic arrival at Dawson in his self-named boat — to the thunderous cheers of miners — has become part of Klondike lore, recounted by author Pierre Berton and other Gold Rush chroniclers.
The archeologists had led several searches for Klondike-era wrecks before discovering the Goddard site in 2008 and positively identifying the 15-metre vessel last year.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Noted photographer's death will remain a mystery, medical examiner says
Palm Beach Post News: Noted photographer's death will remain a mystery, medical examiner says
According to this story, Skiles left his companions to surface alone. Had he been accompanied by a buddy, he may still have died, but at least they'd know what happened. Heart attack, perhaps?
Authorities will not be able to determine how world-renowned nature photographer Wes Skiles died this summer off the Boynton Inlet.
After weeks of investigation and toxicology tests, "there was nothing to indicate natural causes or outside forces," Harold Ruslander, chief investigator for the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner said this morning. "All we're going to be able to say is that it was an accidental drowning."
The 53-year-old North Florida-based freelance photographer, a regular and award-winning contributor to National Geographic magazine, was shooting video of researchers working around a reef about 3 miles east of the Boynton Inlet when he signaled to his colleagues that he was going to head to the surface to get more supplies, sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said at the time.
Skiles surfaced alone, and a short time later, the other divers found him unconscious on the ocean floor.
They pulled him onto their boat and tried to revive him, but he died later at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Skiles is survived by his wife, Terri, and children Nathan and Tessa.
A spokeswoman for National Geographic declined to comment.
Calls to Skiles' production company, based in High Springs, near Gainesville, were not immediately returned.
Skiles, a Florida native, was known for his work photographing and videotaping in caves and the deep ocean.
A spokeswoman for National Geographic magazine, whose August issue featured a cover photo by Skiles of Bahamas caves, said at the time that the local assignment he'd been shooting before his death focused on the behavior of high-speed fish off Florida's coast.
Skiles had come originally to shoot the researchers for a "National Geographic Television" documentary, but stayed on his own to continue shooting and observing.
According to this story, Skiles left his companions to surface alone. Had he been accompanied by a buddy, he may still have died, but at least they'd know what happened. Heart attack, perhaps?
Monday, November 1, 2010
Mom-daughter dive team find golden bird worth $885,000
WOAI.com: Mom-daughter dive team find golden bird worth $885,000
FT. PIERCE, Florida (NBC News Channel) -- Bonnie Schubert and her 87-year old mother have hunted treasure along Florida's coast for decades.
Most days they wind up digging dozens of holes, diving in the murky water, and coming up with a fishing lure or a beer can.
"I spent a whole season and only came up with a musket ball," says Bonnie.
But one day this August, the Schuberts were diving near Frederick Douglass Beach when they made the find of their lives.
"The first thing that came into focus was the head of the bird and the wing...and it was something I never imagined...just didn't expect at all.." recalls Bonnie.
They discovered a 22-carat solid gold bird, a relic which they believe dates back to the lost Spanish Fleet of 1715. The fleet of Spanish galleons wrecked near Ft. Pierce, littering the ocean floor with what divers believe to be millions of dollars in gold and jewels.
"It's truly been amazing. It's not something we could have ever predicted," said Brent Brisbane, a principal with 1715 Fleet-Queen's Jewels, LLC, the corporation that holds the rights to treasure hunting in the region.
Brisbane asked a local historian to study the relic and learned it is a "Pelican in her Piety," a symbol of Christ.
"It's a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ that the mother pelican would beat her breast and draw blood when times are bad," said Bonnie Schubert.
The golden bird is missing a wing and no one knows what it once held in its center, which is now a small square opening. Brisbane had the item appraised by Dubose and Sons Jewelers in Vero Beach.
"They came back with an appraisal of $885,000," said Brisbane.
Brisbane's teams have had a bountiful summer, uncovering dozens of gold and silver coins and a bronze canon from the wreck sites, but he says Bonnie and Jo's golden bird is clearly the biggest prize of all.
"Bonnie and Jo are amazing. This is a male-dominated industry and to have these two ladies come up with what is truly one of the top 5 artifacts ever found from the 1715 fleet is just incredible," he said.
Dividing the spoils could be the tricky part. As contractors, Bonnie and Jo typically get half of what they find. Brisbane, who holds the rights to treasure hunting in region, gives 20% to the state of Florida.
If the state decides it wants the golden bird, then Brisbane says there may be some "treasure trading" to make it all come out right.
FT. PIERCE, Florida (NBC News Channel) -- Bonnie Schubert and her 87-year old mother have hunted treasure along Florida's coast for decades.
Most days they wind up digging dozens of holes, diving in the murky water, and coming up with a fishing lure or a beer can.
"I spent a whole season and only came up with a musket ball," says Bonnie.
But one day this August, the Schuberts were diving near Frederick Douglass Beach when they made the find of their lives.
"The first thing that came into focus was the head of the bird and the wing...and it was something I never imagined...just didn't expect at all.." recalls Bonnie.
They discovered a 22-carat solid gold bird, a relic which they believe dates back to the lost Spanish Fleet of 1715. The fleet of Spanish galleons wrecked near Ft. Pierce, littering the ocean floor with what divers believe to be millions of dollars in gold and jewels.
"It's truly been amazing. It's not something we could have ever predicted," said Brent Brisbane, a principal with 1715 Fleet-Queen's Jewels, LLC, the corporation that holds the rights to treasure hunting in the region.
Brisbane asked a local historian to study the relic and learned it is a "Pelican in her Piety," a symbol of Christ.
"It's a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ that the mother pelican would beat her breast and draw blood when times are bad," said Bonnie Schubert.
The golden bird is missing a wing and no one knows what it once held in its center, which is now a small square opening. Brisbane had the item appraised by Dubose and Sons Jewelers in Vero Beach.
"They came back with an appraisal of $885,000," said Brisbane.
Brisbane's teams have had a bountiful summer, uncovering dozens of gold and silver coins and a bronze canon from the wreck sites, but he says Bonnie and Jo's golden bird is clearly the biggest prize of all.
"Bonnie and Jo are amazing. This is a male-dominated industry and to have these two ladies come up with what is truly one of the top 5 artifacts ever found from the 1715 fleet is just incredible," he said.
Dividing the spoils could be the tricky part. As contractors, Bonnie and Jo typically get half of what they find. Brisbane, who holds the rights to treasure hunting in region, gives 20% to the state of Florida.
If the state decides it wants the golden bird, then Brisbane says there may be some "treasure trading" to make it all come out right.
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