Gardaí investigate looting of U-boat site

IrishTimes: Gardaí investigate looting of U-boat site

GARDAÍ IN Cork have begun an investigation into the illegal removal of artefacts, including sailors’ attire, from a first World War submarine and war grave recently discovered by divers in 27 metres of water off Roches Point.

The 49-metre, 400-ton German vessel UC-42, which sank in 1917 during a mine-laying operation, also appears to have been damaged by salvagers attempting to remove one of its propellers.

The Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s antiquities unit was alerted by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht’s underwater archaeology unit. Also involved are the Customs maritime unit, the National Museum of Ireland and, now, locally-based gardaí.

Connie Kelleher, of the underwater archaeology unit, said she had received several reports from divers about the desecration of the site through removal of crew members’ effects.

“Included in these reports to us, from concerned divers who do not agree with the pillaging of the site, are details of human remains being evident on the wreck site,” she said.

“To date, we have received reports of the structure being recently damaged by divers attempting to remove parts of it; of items that belonged to the crew being taken off the site; and that one of the propellers was being made ready to be recovered, as evidenced by recent work to it.”

She added that she and other divers with her unit intended to dive on the site to assess it as soon as weather permitted.

She has alerted the Irish Underwater Council (IUC), the main representative body of diving clubs in Ireland, seeking its assistance in raising awareness of the problem and said she had also contacted the Naval Service.

Martin Kiely, the IUC’s national diving officer, said the council’s code of conduct forbade members from interfering with wrecks or sea life and required them to respect all dive sites. “We would take a very dim view of people taking stuff from wrecks,” he said.

Ms Kelleher said the German embassy had indicated its “legitimate interest” in the wreck’s protection and preservation.

“The site has a particular sensitivity due to it being a relatively recent German naval loss with crew who are known by name, many of whom are likely to have close living relatives,” she said.

She added the removal of material from UC-42, if not reported to the Receiver of Wreck in Cork, was an offence under the Merchant Shipping (Salvage and Wreck) Act 1993 and that as well as protection under merchant shipping legislation, any artefacts fall within the definition of archaeological objects in the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2004.

Ms Kelleher added that UC-42 was of particular significance as part of both Ireland and Germany’s maritime history and that a ministerial underwater heritage order may be placed on it, as with the RMS Lusitania , to restrict access and give it the protection of the National Monuments Acts.

“We will probably have to go that route to protect it,” she said. The site was “first and foremost” a war grave, where as many as 27 sailors drowned when it sank in September 1917.

It was one of 64 vessels built in its class, regarded as the first mass-produced German U-boats, which carried as many as 18 mines.

The Anchor of the Queen Anne's Revenge

YahooNews: Blackbeard's anchor recovered off NC coast

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – An anchor from what's believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship has been raised from the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast.

Archaeologists believe the anchor recovered Friday is from the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sank in 1718. That was five months before Blackbeard was killed in a battle.

The artifact is the third-largest item at the shipwreck, outsized only by two other anchors.

Researchers retrieved the anchor from the shipwreck about 20 feet under water and were bringing it to shore. The work to retrieve it began last week. The anchor is about 11 feet long.

The recovery coincides with the release this month of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." The movie features both Blackbeard and the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Relics recovered from ancient galleon

XinjuanNews: Relics recovered from ancient galleon
BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhuanet) --More than 2-thousand cultural relics have been recovered from the Nan'ao One, an ancient Chinese merchant ship that sunk off Guangdong Province more than 400 years ago. Paul Crowe takes a closer look at the salvage operation which resumed last month.

The shipwreck lay at the bottom of the South China Sea for more than 400 years before it was discovered by chance. A group of fishermen found it four years ago off Nan'ao island, a cluster of small islands off Guangdong Province.

The ship is 35 meters long and 8 meters wide, and is the first late Ming dynasty ship ever discovered.

Initial excavation work began in 2009, but suffered setbacks due to poor weather and sea conditions.

This year marks the fourth round of salvage operations.

Cui Yong, Team Leader of Nan'ao One Underwater Archeology Team said "The underwater relics are well preserved. We've found the cords we left last year are still intact, so we'll continue the work suspended last year."

About 2000 relics have been recovered since April 26th, when the operation began. Most of them are dishware such as plates, tins and bowls with exquisite graphics and paintings.

Out of nearly 3 million sunken ships in oceans around the world, the South China Sea has the most. It's estimated it has more than 2000 ancient ships.

The Underwater Archeology Center of China was set up in 1986, when the country felt the urgency of exploring the undersea world. After 20 years' development, archeologists from the agency have taken part in many underwater treasure explorations.

Cui Yong said "We're on a fast growing track, our workload may be the largest over past 20 years, we've been working in many coastal provinces and abroad. We're moving neck and neck with other countries technically. The integral salvage of Nan'ao No.1 is unprecedented, I think our country is taking the lead in this regard. "

This salvage of Nan'ao No.1, the best preserved sunken ship from the Ming dynasty, is expected to last until July. The relics from the vessel are valuable for the study of ancient porcelain production technologies and the country's ancient "Marine Silk Road", a passageway for ancient China to the outside world.

Pirate Pictures: Captain Morgan's Cannons Found?

National Geographic Daily News: Pirate Pictures: Captain Morgan's Cannons Found?
[GO to the link above to see the pictures at the NAT GEO site.}
In 1671 Captain Morgan's current flagship, Satisfaction, hit a rocky reef and sank as he sailed out of the mouth of the Chagres River en route to sacking the Panama Viejo, now called Panama City.

Three more of Captain Morgan's ships either slammed into the same reef or collided with each other and also went down. But the determined Welsh privateer reassembled what remained of his fleet and continued on to plunder the city. Privateers were private sailors under contract to states—in Captain Morgan's case, Britain.

In 2008 an international team of archaeologists found the ships—and their cannons—that sank on that disastrous day. In 2010 the scientists began bringing cannons and other artifacts to the surface, where they'll be treated to remove organic buildup and then displayed in Panama.

The project was a collaborative effort that included the government of Panama, the Waitt Institute for Discovery, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Texas State University, and the National Geographic Society. (The Waitt Institute sponsors the Waitt Grants Program for the Society, which also owns National Geographic News.)

From seeds to anchors: Divers hope to recover largest, smallest from Blackbeard shipwreck

The Republic: From seeds to anchors: Divers hope to recover largest, smallest from Blackbeard shipwreck
RALEIGH, N.C. — The work to retrieve an anchor from the wreck of what is believed to be the pirate Blackbeard's flagship will begin Thursday off the North Carolina coast, but what's underneath that artifact is just as interesting to researchers.

The anchor is the second-largest item on the site of what's believed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge, outsized only by another anchor, project director Mark Wilde-Ramsing said Wednesday. It's about 13 feet long with arms that are 8 feet across. The other anchor is about 7 inches longer.

"It's a big, cumbersome, flat piece that's going to require some good logistics and some good weather," he said in a telephone interview after a news conference at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

The recovery effort will begin in the Atlantic waters near Beaufort, where the shipwreck is about 20 feet underwater. The actual dive will begin Monday and continue through June 3, with only two days off.

The anchor is located in the central part of the shipwreck, and it's on top of other items that the team hopes to recover. At the bottom of the pile is the wooden hull structure, the ribs and the plank — the only parts of the ship that survived the test of time, saltwater, currents and tides, Wilde-Ramsing said. Those parts of the ship survived because ballast was stored there to keep the ship upright and other items, including six cannons and four anchors are also in the pile.

But Wilde-Ramsing and his team hope other, smaller items are trapped inside, things that will tell the tale of how the men lived on the Queens Anne's Revenge and the waters it traversed.

"We hope little things got stuck in there, which would tell us what the pirates were eating ... micro botanical stuff so we'll be able to tell where the ship traveled," he said. "Most of the little things are gone, except for this one place, where hopefully they've been entombed. "

The shipwreck was located in 1996, and Wilde-Ramsing says the team hopes to recover all the artifacts by the end of 2013.

The largest exhibit of the shipwreck's artifacts will be shown starting June 11 at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

In 1717, Blackbeard captured a French slave ship and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge. Blackbeard, whose real name was widely believed to be Edward Teach or Thatch, settled in Bath and received a governor's pardon. Some experts believe he grew bored with land life and returned to piracy.

He was killed by volunteers from the Royal Navy in November 1718 — five months after the ship thought to be Queen Anne's Revenge sank.

The Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites, has already yielded more than 250,000 artifacts.

Floods Threaten Historic Sites, Not Tourist Favorites

NPR: News: Floods Threaten Historic Sites, Not Tourist Favorites
There has been good news over the past 24 hours for Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Diversion of rising Mississippi River waters though the Morganza Spillway northwest of the cities and into the Atchafalaya River basin appears to have helped lower the chances that the urban areas will be swamped.

Major tourist attractions and historic sites seem likely to be spared, including a necklace of antebellum-era plantations along the Great River Road. A few, including the white-pillared Nottoway Plantation, posted assurances of their dryness online, along with photos of nearby levees keeping water contained.

But what's good for Plantation Country and the Big Easy has required sacrifice in the rural, swampy area west of the Mississippi. And the toll includes not just homes, displaced residents and the swamping of vast acres of cropland.

It also includes historic and archaeological sites that are likely to be underwater for weeks to come. And state officials are bracing for damage that the diverted water could wreak on those sites.

Indian Village And War Sites
"The primary concern for damage is relatively close to the spillway and near the channels, where silt could harm sites," says Chip McGimzie, Louisiana's state archaeologist.

Louisiana's Historic Preservation office has also been compiling a list of which of the state's more than 1,200 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places — ranging from buildings to designated districts and landscapes — may be affected.

State officials, however, have noted that the area affected by floodwaters released through the spillway is sparsely populated and, while important, is not chockablock with properties on the National Register. The Morganza release is the first in 38 years.

The vast majority of the area has not been surveyed, McGimzie says, and there's little development in the basin because, bottom line, it's a swamp.

He estimates that there are about 530 known archaeological sites, ranging from a quarter-acre to up to about 10 acres, in the area where floodwaters will be diverted.

Sites affected include remnants of a Civil War fort in Butte La Rose, as well as scores of Native American burial mounds and campsites and early Acadian campsites. Many of the Indian campsites, he says, are represented by what are known as shell middens, archaeological sites that contain discarded shells and other detritus of domestic life.

There are likely thousands more such sites in the areas not surveyed.

The Civil War fort, where earthen embankments are still visible on the ground, will certainly be inundated, officials say.

Fort Burton, which once stood at the site, was captured by the Union Army in 1863. It was described by one Union soldier as a "grand rendezvous of mosquitoes, fleas, wood-ticks, lice, lizards, frogs, snakes, alligators, fever bacteria, dysentery microbes, and every conceivable type of malarial poison."

But the area being intentionally flooded is no stranger to floods.

"The Atchafalaya River used to flood annually — that's what rivers do," McGimzie said.

And the drowning of archaeological sites, he says, doesn't necessarily hurt them; it often protects them by burying them in silt.

Officials say they simply don't know what they'll find when the floodwaters recede. The interesting part, they say, is going to come afterward, when they start assessing the effect.

On The Register
State historians have identified two sites on the National Register that will — or could — be affected by the spillway release: a lighthouse and a Civil War battlefield.

"Fortunately, we don't have too many properties that could be impacted," says Jacques Berry, spokesman for Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne. "It's not an area that has a lot of anything other than wildlife and flora."

The historic Southwest Reef lighthouse on the banks of the Atchafalaya River in Berwick is likely to be affected by the diversion of floodwaters. The circa-1856 structure, which once stood in Atchafalaya Bay, was moved upriver in 1987.

There are more historic structures in next-door Terrebonne Parish, where backwater flooding is a concern, Berry says, but most are surrounded by levees.

Rising water is also a concern at the Port Hudson battlefield, Berry says, the National Historic site of an 1863 Civil War battle, part of the key struggle for control of the Mississippi River.

Located upriver from Baton Rouge, the site now includes the battlefield and cemetery, as well as hiking. Those trails, in the lower part of the site, have already been closed.

Though nothing is certain, Berry says that officials don't expect the battlefield, now the site of Civil War re-enactments, to go underwater — "especially with the river cresting earlier than expected."

Tourist Apprehension
Early reports that historic floodwaters carried the potential to inundate tourist attractions and cities spooked visitors.

And that has alarmed those in the state's tourism industry.

"A lot of people have heard that Cajun country is underwater, and that's not the case," says Lauren Bodin of the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association, a member organization.

"The Morganza Spillway hasn't been opened since 1973, so it's hard to predict what will happen — but we're doing business here as usual," she said.

A conference call the association held with many members the day before the Army Corps of Engineers began opening spillway doors revealed anger at the media, and a handful of reports of expectations of some backwater flooding.

Some companies providing swamp tours have had to adjust because high waters prevented them from getting into tributaries, Bodin says, and there have been scattered reports of hotels closing.

"But not many had to take precautionary measures," she says.

Federal Oversight
The federal government doesn't typically take lightly actions or activities that have the potential to affect historic sites.

Typically, an action such as the spillway release would, under federal law, have required a review of the action's effect on historic and cultural sites — and that can take up to 30 days, says Caroline Hall at the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

In emergencies, however, the review process can be bypassed if there's a demonstrated threat to human health, life and safety.

"We obviously care about the protection of historic properties," Hall says. "But the importance of health and safely far outweighs other considerations.

"It's a reality that these types of laws are very important under normal circumstances," she says. "These are not normal circumstances."

Federal officials will get involved again after the water recedes and once local officials determine what needs to be done to stabilize historic properties, or to demolish them, if damage dictates.

The good news is that floodwaters released through the spillway are moving south much more slowly than expected, according to Berry of the lieutenant governor's office.

The Army Corps has also said it would very likely open no more than 25 percent of the 125 gates at the Morganza Spillway, Berry says, meaning volume and velocity of water will probably be far less than once anticipated.

The area is technically in a drought, so the land is absorbing more water. And, Berry says, the proliferation of crawfish farms and vegetation is also slowing the flow.

"The water will get there, but it's not moving as quickly as expected," he said — a better-case scenario than most anyone was envisioning just a handful of days ago.

China to build underwater cultural heritage protection bases in Xiamen

WhatsonXiamen: China to build underwater cultural heritage protection bases in Xiamen

Archaeologists discover treasure horde of cultural relics beneath the waves, reports Zhang Zixuan in Guangdong.

At a depth of 27 meters, archaeological diver Ruan Youhao found the baseline he laid along a shipwreck last July. He took a tool from his diving partner to mark several cabins in the beam of an underwater flashlight.

A few minutes later, Ruan looked at his submersion watch and gave a "go up" sign to his partner. The two divers had hit their limit for non-decompression diving. The divers finished their 25-minute dive at 9:35 am on April 27.

It was the first day of the fourth excavation of Nan'ao No 1, a sunken merchant vessel of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that was found in 2007 in the South China Sea near Nan'ao Island, Guangdong province, after local fisherman netted porcelain ware.

By the time the project ends, probably in mid-July, the underwater archaeology team and the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau are expected to confirm the size of the shipwreck and the salvage of its cultural relics.

"The shipwreck looks exactly the same as last year, with no trace of illegal salvage," Ruan said, taking off his mask and wiping away the sweat that had formed quickly under his 5-millimeter-thick diving suit and from the weight of two 40-kg oxygen tanks on his back.

With China's 3 million square kilometers of territorial seas, 18,000 km of coastline and countless lakes and rivers, its richest cultural heritage may lie in the deep, like exhibits in a giant underwater museum.

A rude awakening
"Although facing many difficulties, China's underwater archaeology and cultural heritage protection has made significant progress throughout the last two decades," said Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

In May 1984, British marine explorer Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the Dutch ship Geldermalsen, which sank in the South China Sea in 1751, and removed 150,000 Chinese porcelain artifacts. Those relics were sold for $20 million at a Christie's auction in Amsterdam in 1986.

The sale forcibly wakened China's protection of underwater cultural heritage. The country's first underwater archaeology organization, the Underwater Archaeology Research Center, was founded at the end of 1987 in the National Museum of Chinese History, now the National Museum of China.

Since 1989 the center has trained more than 90 underwater archaeology divers in five groups. About half are still active underwater, gathering to dive on special projects when needed and working as archaeologists the rest of their time, mostly for museums and cultural relics bureaus of coastal provinces. Quite a few of the other half are in managerial positions related to underwater cultural heritage protection.

Ruan, for example, was in the third batch of archaeology divers, trained in 2004. He is 37, has 10 types of diving certificates and has participated in all underwater archaeology projects off southeastern China. He also is director of the Zhangzhou Administration Office of Cultural Relics.

Visitors can watch
On Dec 22, 2007, what is thought to be the oldest and largest shipwreck ever found in China was hauled - with its surrounding silt and water - from the South China Sea bed where it had rested for more than 800 years. The 5,000-ton Nanhai No 1, dating to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), had been found in 1987 and was loaded with 60,000 to 80,000 relics.

Six days after it was lifted from the sea, it was moved to the specially built Crystal Palace at Guangdong Marine Silk Road Museum in Yangjiang, Guangdong province. Now the ship lies in a glass pool with temperature and pressure controls to replicate its sea environment. Visitors can watch the excavation, which is expected to last about 10 years.

"The integral salvage, relocation, preservation and on-site excavation display of Nanhai No 1 is an original and unique creation," said Shan, the cultural heritage administrator. All of this will provide precious experience for future underwater archaeologists, he said.

Cultural heritage protection on land gets more attention, which does not sit well with Liu Shuguang, dean of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage and director of the National Conservation Center for Underwater Cultural Heritage.

"Two scoops will be sufficient for land archaeology sometimes," Liu said, "but underwater archaeology requires huge amounts of money and the most advanced technology."

An underwater archaeology project can cost up to tens of millions, he said. Just renting the workboat for the excavation of Nan'ao No 1 costs 80,000 yuan ($12,310) every day. "Underwater excavation is significantly affected by water temperature and visibility, and it's very dangerous," Liu said.

He also said the law on underwater cultural heritage protection is less comprehensive than that for land. For example, many large-scale underwater construction projects are launched without prior review for archaeology concerns.

The third national cultural heritage census, in 2009, determined about 70 ancient shipwrecks lie in China's ocean territory, but the National Conservation Center for Underwater Cultural Heritage estimates there are 2,000 or more in just the South China Sea.

In water vs out of it
The 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage considers in-situ preservation - in the water where it was found - to be "the first and preferred option before allowing or engaging in any activities directed at this heritage".

"Under normal circumstances, heritage is well preserved underwater owing to the low deterioration rate and lack of oxygen, and it is therefore not per se in danger," according to the convention.

"Once out of the water, the heritage will significantly lose its cultural and historical context and value," Liu said.

Damage can occur as well.

Porcelain items predominate among the artifacts found underwater and hundreds of years' immersion in seawater has made salt seep into the porcelain structure, said Zhang Huanxin, director of Fujian Museum's preservation department. Once it is exposed to air, the salt will dry and crystallize within the porcelain. The volume of the salt increases, cracking the porcelain into pieces.

"All the excavated underwater porcelain wares must be immersed again to desalt them as soon as they are taken out of the sea. But the complicated procedure may last for years," Zhang said.

China does have successful examples of in-situ preservation. In 2009, China constructed its first underwater museum, the Baiheliang Underwater Museum. However, there was no choice for underwater cultural heritage sites such as Nanhai No 1 and Nan'ao No 1. They had to be rescue-excavated to keep them from being destroyed by relic thieves.

Keeping watch
Yang Yangmei, 39, a fisherman from Qisha village, Zhangzhou, Fujian province, has been fishing for more than 25 years and he "caught" three blue-and-white porcelain bowls and a jar in his nets in September 2010. He occasionally sees illegal salvage ships now, but said that about four years ago the sightings were frequent. "Diving thieves always act at night, even in winter."

Since 2005 the public security departments of Fujian province have cracked 46 cases of illegal salvage and sale of underwater relics involving 50 criminal ships, 516 suspects and 7,372 porcelain wares.

"There were hundreds of people fishing for relics in the worst case," said Zhong Zhenyi, deputy commander of the Border Control Department of Fujian Public Security.

To better protect underwater cultural heritage sites, public security departments of coastal areas used radar, video monitors and other high-tech equipment. They also spot-check the ships that apply to enter or leave ports.

Thieves are improving their technology, too. They have created a 70-horsepower motorboat that is resistant to bullets and difficult to catch. They are also armed with GPS devices. When the police come close, they drop relics they have taken back into the sea, and use GPS to retrieve them later.

"We really feel helpless sometimes when the thieves escape right in front of us, whistling," Zhong said.

In 2007 the Yun'ao Border Control Police Station of Guangdong province volunteered to monitor Nan'ao No 1 from the day the shipwreck was found. For more than 1,400 days, 16 police officers have taken turns watching the sea surface above it from an abandoned building onshore about 3.7 km away.

"Only we know the fear at night and the loneliness when the festivals come," said Zhu Zhixiong, commander of the police station.

"No one laid a finger on the shipwreck after the last excavation, which is oddly remarkable among China's underwater shipwrecks," said Cui Yong, leader of the Nan'ao No 1 underwater archaeology team.

Expertise, cooperation
China has underwater cultural heritage protection bases in Ningbo, Qingdao and Wuhan and plans for new bases in Shanghai and Xiamen. A 580-ton professional underwater archaeology ship, the first in China, is being designed, and is estimated to go into service in 2015.

In June, the National Conservation Center for Underwater Cultural Heritage will supersede the Underwater Archaeology Research Center in hosting a sixth session of diver training. About 30 archaeology workers selected from throughout the country will train for three months at Ningbo, Xiamen and Guangzhou. The budget entry for their tailor-made diving suits is 760,000 yuan.

For the first time, the curriculum will include "law and the sense of protection to make the session more full-scale," said Liu, the center's director.

Jin Tao, 28, who works at the Ningbo Conservation Center for Underwater Cultural Heritage, Zhejiang province, trained in 2009 with the fifth batch of divers. He participated in the excavation of Nan'ao No 1 in 2010 and spent more than 100 days on the workboat.

"Most trainees now hold a master's degree or above, and they have a higher level of theoretical knowledge than those in the first few batches," Jin said. He holds a master's in archaeology from Peking University.

In November 2010 the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the State Oceanic Administration agreed to strategic cooperation in underwater cultural heritage protection, integrating resources in underwater archaeology, underwater cultural heritage management and six other areas. Cooperation with the Public Security, Foreign Affairs and Finance ministries, the China Meteorological Administration and the navy is also under way.

"China's underwater archaeology has shifted to comprehensive underwater cultural heritage protection, and it has been expanded from coastal areas to farther reaches of the seas and inland waters," said Shan, the director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

"As the travel industry and economic construction disturb the still water more often, underwater cultural heritage protection is no longer a matter of a single department, but a public obligation of everybody."

Researchers Searching For War Of 1812 Shipwrecks In Lake Ontario

Underwater Times: Researchers Searching For War Of 1812 Shipwrecks In Lake Ontario
INDIANA, Pennsylvania -- The Titanic may be disintegrating, but if two Indiana University of Pennsylvania professors have their way, shipwrecks from the War of 1812 won't face the same fate.

Dr. Katie Farnsworth, IUP Geoscience Department, and Dr. Ben Ford, Anthropology Department, are preparing for a June survey of the Black River Bay, in the northeast corner of Lake Ontario, to find and identify two shipwrecks. They received $14,888 from the National Geographic Society in support of their research project.

Farnsworth and Ford will search for a frigate called the Mohawk, a product of the naval arms race between the Americans and the British, and an unnamed gunboat designed for amphibious attacks and harassing British shipping. They chose these vessels, Ford said, because he has data suggesting the gunboat's location and reason to believe the Mohawk is within a few miles of it.

From the survey, they hope to gain insight into the modernization of U.S. Navy ship construction, but also into the history of sedimentation in the bay.

The Great Lakes were a crucial battle zone for the United States and Great Britain during the War of 1812, with each side racing to build a superior fleet of military vessels. Nearly 200 years later, shipwrecks from the war remain in the bed of the Great Lakes.

The shipwrecks will be buried, at least in part, by sediment that entered the lake from the surrounding watershed, Farnsworth said. Sediment flux into the bay would have been substantial in the early 1800s because of agricultural growth and deforestation in upstate New York, and Farnsworth and Ford hope to quantify the sedimentation pattern.

Field tools and techniques they will use include side-scanning sonar, sub-bottom chirp profiling, magnetometry, archaeological diver inspections, and sediment coring.

Undergraduate and graduate students from both the Geoscience and Anthropology departments will be involved in all aspects of the project—from the field surveys to data analysis and synthesis.

During their fieldwork in the summer, Farnsworth and Ford plan to provide public talks near the survey site. If they are able to find and identify the ships, Ford hopes to return the following year to excavate portions of the wrecks. Any artifacts raised would be conserved and included in a museum exhibit in the Great Lakes region.

About Katie Farnsworth Farnsworth is a geologist with a particular interest in the connection between land and ocean. Coastal sedimentary processes, the flux and fate of fluvial sediment in the shallow ocean, and global flux of sediments are among her main research interests.

Classes Farnsworth teaches at IUP include Oceans and Atmospheres, Surficial Processes, Sedimentary Petrology, and Research Methods in the Geosciences.

She received both her Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees in marine geology from Virginia Institute of Marine Science/College of William and Mary. Farnsworth received a B.S. in geography and computer science from DePauw University.

About Ben Ford Ford is a historic and underwater archaeologist who has done extensive research on Lake Ontario. North American historical archaeology, nautical archaeology, geographic information systems, and remote sensing applications in archaeology are among his research interests. Ford also has extensive experience in applied archaeology, having worked in both the public and private sectors.

He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Texas A&M University through the Nautical Archaeology Program. His dissertation, "The Lake Ontario Maritime Cultural Landscape," integrated marine and terrestrial archaeological survey techniques to analyze human interaction with the shore environment between 5000 B.P. and AD 1900.

Ford holds an M.A. from the College of William and Mary, where "Shipbuilding in Maryland, 1631–1850" was the focus of his master's thesis.

6 Uncharted Shipwrecks Discovered in Caribbean

Our Amazing Planet: 6 Uncharted Shipwrecks Discovered in Caribbean By

OurAmazingPlanet Staff

A mission to the Caribbean to map the seafloor uncovered more than just rare corals — a crew of robots and researchers also discovered six shipwrecks.

Little is known about the shipwrecks' history, and experts are currently reviewing their underwater footage to learn more.

The three-week mission deployed robotic subs and seafloor imagers to examine coral reefs and explore areas where fish spawn so that scientists can create detailed maps of the bottom of the sea and learn more about the ecosystem and how to protect it. Themission ended last month and the collected data have revealed plenty of interesting seafloor habitats and fish, but it is the collection of shipwrecks that has everyone buzzing.

"What we saw was truly exciting. Finding one shipwreck would have been great, but locating six was a total surprise," said study team leader Tim Battista, an oceanographer with the Center for Coastal Monitoring. "The wrecks seemed to serve as a refuge for fish and other marine life. In several instances we saw schools of fish, sharks and turtles."

Scientists logged nearly 400 hours at sea, mapping over 56 square miles (145 square kilometers) of seafloor off the southern coasts of the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. John and St. Thomas and off eastern Puerto Rico.

The mission found derelict fishing traps and spotted more than 30 invasive lionfish. Increasingly rare colonies of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) were also observed. Staghorn coral once were one of the most abundant coral species in the Caribbean but are now listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The researchers plan to continue analyzing the data in the coming months and create seamless images of the seafloor.

Amphibious 1000: A Design for Qatar’s First Luxury Semi-Submerged Floating Hotel

Inhabitat: Amphibious 1000: A Design for Qatar’s First Luxury Semi-Submerged Floating Hotel

The design is called Amphibious 1000. Quatar's first semisubmerged hotel (if it ever gets off the drawing board) looks like a "big aquatic animal stretching out from the land to the sea."

It is designed by the Giancarlo Zema Design Group, and is composed oa a land section and a sea section, wtih all the structures placed in a semi-circle around a tower containing a restaurant with panoramic views. Guests will be able to stay in the 80 floating suites (called jelly fish) whch will have underwater views within an artifical reef.

60's TV Show 'Seahunt' Leads to Lacey Resident's Lifelong Interest in Shipwrecks

LAceyPatch: 60's TV Show 'Seahunt' Leads to Lacey Resident's Lifelong Interest in Shipwrecks
A chance encounter with a scuba diver in a Florida hotel when he was a child changed Michael Egolf’s life forever and led to a lifelong fascination with shipwrecks.

Egolf, a 40-year resident of the Lanoka Harbor section of Lacey Township, was a young teen when his parents took him to Florida on vacation and met a man in their hotel who agreed to take the family scuba diving.

“When I was 13, I was a big fan of Lloyd Bridges’ Sea Hunt,” said Egolf. “I thought this really looks cool, I want to try this. It looked fascinating.”

That very first dive off of Florida’s west coast town of Crystal River was 90 feet. After listening carefully and doing everything he was told to do, the guy said Egolf was a natural.

At the end of 1966, Egolf enrolled in a YMCA diving course and became YMCA-certified. Then, he passed the National Association of Underwater Instructors course.

In 1967, he had his very first open water dive exploring two shipwrecks off the coast of Spring Lake -- the Dutch barge, Adonis, sunk in 1859, and the steamer Rusland, which was forced onshore in 1877 and ran over the Adonis.

From then on, Egolf was hooked and dived every weekend with friends who had taken a 28-foot lobster boat and converted it for diving.

“A lot of people dive off the coast of New Jersey,” said Egolf. “It depends on how the seas are running, some days the water can be crystal clear, others you can hit the bottom before you see it.”

Another chance meeting, this time at a wedding in Maryland, he met Gretchen Coyle, who was involved with the Museum of New Jersey Maritime History in Beach Haven. They got to chatting and Coyle told him he had to come work at the museum, where he now serves as a docent.

“At the museum, we have the listing of 3,000 sunken ships off the coast of New Jersey,” said Egolf. “During both World Wars, German U-boats were very active off of our coast. During World War I, U-151 sank six U.S. ships off New Jersey’s coast on June 2, 1918, known as Black Sunday.”

Egolf said he’s never been diving to those wrecks since they are in rather deep water, but he has dived to 100 other sunken ships in water anywhere between 30 and 130 feet deep.

“I have a porthole from the general merchandise cargo ship Western World, which ran aground off of Spring Lake in 1853, and I have a couple brass suspender holders and pennies I found while exploring the Delaware, which had burned to the water line and sank off of Barnegat in 1898,” he said.

The most exotic place Egolf ever went diving was to a wreck in Nassau, Bahamas. He said the ship sank during the rebel takeover of Cuba when a cannon it was carrying shifted and went through the hull. Egolf also has been diving in the Great Lakes.

He had yet another life-changing experience in 1996, when his father-in-law invited him to go on the Titanic Expedition. Egolf, was one of 1,600 passengers on the two ships in the expedition, which recorded and documented the wreck in detail and raised a portion of the hull.

During the trip, Egolf got to meet Michel Navratil and Edith Haisman, survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage en route to New York City from England on April 15, 1912.

Since then, Egolf has collected Titanic artifacts and conducted at least 50 lectures on Titanic throughout Ocean County. Yesterday was the final day of a display of his Titanic collection at the Lacey Library but he said he plans a larger display at the main branch of the Ocean County Library in Toms River next year, commemorating 100 years since the disaster.

Egolf is now retired. He spent most of his professional life in the retail industry, but also worked in an Atlantic City casino and as a photographer.

Egolf has not been diving since the 1970s but he highly recommends it to those who love history and adventure.

“Take a course, learn and try to go with experienced divers who will show you the ropes,” he said. “And, always dive with a buddy.”

The Museum of New Jersey Maritime History is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the end of May and opens daily in June. For more information, visit www.museumofnjmh.org.

Blind man is fire department’s ‘eyes’ for underwater operations

The Times of India: Blind man is fire department’s ‘eyes’ for underwater operations
CHENNAI: A 10-year-old boy has slipped and fallen into a tank near Medavakkam. Neighbours call the fire and rescue department. But the fire-fighters of the Tambaram fire station immediately make a call to Sundrarajan of Jalladampettai, near Pallikaranai.

The 38-year-old visually impaired Sundrarajan is their underwater operations expert. He rushes across with the team and dives into the tank. Within minutes, he has found the boy. Sundrarajan, who has been blind from birth, uses his sense of touch to feel his way around underwater and locate people, bodies and other objects.

"He uses his feet to 'see'," says a fire department officer. "He can dive into wells and tanks that are 60m deep and retrieve bodies. His sense of touch is so well-developed that he can even find chains or small coins on the bed of a water body," he adds.

It usually takes him ten minutes to retrieve a body. "I can hold my breath underwater for more than one minute," says Sundrarajan, who has retrieved 140 bodies and saved two lives since 1992. "But it is not an easy job as many of the tanks and wells in and around this area are quite dirty and polluted."

Sundrarajan works part-time at a ration shop near his house in Jalladampettai, shifting and lifting bags of rice and wheat. Born as seventh child in a family of eight children, Sundrarajan hails from a lower income group family. "But I have always been independent and worked hard despite my disability. I have never lost hope," he says. His neighbours say that Sundrarajan identifies them by their voices.

"Most people are afraid of diving into dirty water or are afraid of touching a dead body. I'm not afraid of water. I have no fear of diving in and searching for a body," Sundrarajan said.

Explorers Find Historic SS Dix Shipwreck In Seattle's Elliott Bay

Underwater Times: Explorers Find Historic SS Dix Shipwreck In Seattle's Elliott Bay
SEATTLE, Washington -- Using a five passenger submarine and a remotely operated vehicle, a team of local explorers has discovered a historic Mosquito Fleet Steamer in Elliott Bay near Alki Point. The team believes the shipwreck may be the final resting place of the SS Dix, which sank in 1906 and has not been seen since. After 104 years, the sinking of the Dix is still considered the worst maritime disaster in Puget Sound.

On November 18, 1906, the Dix was underway from Seattle to Port Blakely on Bainbridge Island with 77 passengers and crew when she struck the three-masted schooner Jeanie one mile west of Duwamish Head. The Dix sank within minutes with a loss of thirty-nine lives.

At the time of the collision, the Captain of the Dix was below decks, collecting fares and First Officer Charles Dennison was at the helm. Dennison failed to see the SS Jeanie, which had slowed to almost a full stop to allow the Dix to pass. Seconds before impact, Captain Philip Mason, aboard the Jeanie, blew his steam whistle and reversed his engines to prevent a collision. For unknown reasons, Dennison suddenly turned toward the Jeanie, and struck just below the bow of the much larger schooner.

The bowsprit of the Jeanie caught on the superstructure of the Dix and momentum heeled the small steamship over allowing water to pour into the hull. This flooding, in conjunction with the added thirty tons of ballast proved to be a deadly combination and the Dix sank quickly. The passengers on the upper decks were able to escape, but the thirty-nine passengers that were below decks went down with the ship and are possibly still entombed within the wreck.

Explorer Laura James has searched for the location of the Dix for two decades. In early March, 2011, believing she had located the Dix, but lacking the resources to explore those extreme depths, she began collaborating with wreck diving author Scott Boyd, and OceanGate, a local marine exploration company. Boyd and James first scanned the wreck using surface sonar from aboard Scott's boat, Dive Bum, to confirm that it was likely to be a notable shipwreck and not another sunken barge.

OceanGate then provided a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with an experienced crew on Dive Bum and on March 19, 2010, the first video images of the wreck were recorded along with high-definition sonar. "The deep wreck is clearly a wood-hulled passenger steamer from the Mosquito Fleet era and is in a location consistent with the last sighting of the Dix," said James.

On April 14 and 15, OceanGate's five person submarine Antipodes made three dives totaling 11 man-hours on the newly discovered wreck, which sits at a depth of 500 feet, about one mile north of Alki Point. "The photos, video, personal observations and sonar images captured during the hours spent on the wreck are all consistent with the vessel being the Dix," said Boyd. The pilothouse and much of the upper deck cabin is still in place, as is the propeller. The wreck is laying on its starboard side, pointed towards Port Blakely almost directly below the intersecting plots of the courses of the Jeanie and Dix.

Additional submarine dives are planned to gather more information and images to document the wreck using the latest 3D sonar technology. "It's a rare privilege to dive in a submarine to a depth where very few people have been," said Joel Perry, OceanGate's VP of Expeditions. "To visit a wreck that might be such an important piece of local history that nobody has seen before is an awesome experience."

The steamship Dix was built in 1904 by Crawford and Reid in Tacoma; displacing 130 tons and 102.5 feet long. She was mistakenly built too narrow, only 20.5 feet wide, which made her very unstable and caused her to roll uncomfortably. During initial vessel testing, she was discovered to also be top heavy and thirty tons of ballast were added to help keep her upright. The Seattle and Alki Transportation Company then put the Dix to work shuttling up to 150 passengers between downtown Seattle and Alki.

About OceanGate
OceanGate is an Everett based marine exploration company that owns and operates manned and unmanned submersibles. OceanGate's mission is to open the oceans to those inspired by deep-sea discovery and help advance humanity's understanding of the marine environment. OceanGate expeditions support the work of marine researchers, filmmakers, historians, and other organizations devoted to exploring and protecting the world's marine habitat and artifacts.

About Scott Boyd
Underwater explorer Scott Boyd has been finding, diving and documenting hundreds of wrecks throughout the Pacific Northwest. Better known locally for his stunning underwater photography, the hunt for local wrecks proved so successful that Scott co-authored and published a book outlining the history and dive information for more than one hundred local wreck sites (Northwest Wreck Dives). When not out diving our local wrecks he can often be found exploring and photographing the spectacular underwater cave systems of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

About Laura James
Underwater explorer and videographer Laura James made her first "wreck dive" on a snowy Sunday morning in December, 1990, and has been discovering and exploring shipwrecks ever since. In addition to producing commercial videography and consulting for diving industry clients, James donates her time and effort to groups such as People for Puget Sound, Voices of the Straits and the Pacific Marine Research's Marine Science Afloat program, where she teaches school children about Puget Sound marine ecology.

Photos of the wreck can be found at: http://www.boydski.com/diving/photos/wrecks/dix/

No, you are not losing your mind

If there were posts here yesterday that you read, which are not here today, it's because...they're not here.

Blogger.com, the platform that hosts this blog, was down for much of yesterday afternoon and all night...just coming up now (11 am mountain time.) And all posts made yesterday have disappeared.

Supposedly, those posts will be restored. I'll give them a day to do so, and if not, will re-post them tomorrow.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

An ancient 'lost civilization' in Cuba?

Archaeo News: An ancient 'lost civilization' in Cuba?

During the 1950s Cuban divers and underwater archaeologists found extensive artifact evidence of a Native American civilization on the western end of Cuba that was different and more advanced that the Taino-Arawak peoples, who migrated to the island beginning around 900 CE. Their theories are based on the likelihood that Cuba probably functioned as a gateway of ideas, crops and peoples for all of the Americas. Cuba is only 90 miles (144km) from the Florida Keys and 96 miles (154km) from the Yucatan Peninsula.

In late 1990s Russian-Canadian oceanographic engineer, Paulina Zelitsky, used underwater cameras to film structures at 2,200 feet (667m) under water which seem to be pyramids, plazas, mounds, and terraces. The November 2002 issue of National Geographic contained an article on the discovery and speculated that the ruins were 6,000 years old. There was no scientific proof of the assigned date. The article inferred that only people from the Old World could have built such structures, and failed to mention the large structures being built in North America 6,000 years ago. None of the materials in the apparent structures have been brought to the surface for scientific dating. Little has been done since then to confirm the exact nature of the underwater structures.

During the past decade, anthropological research has tended to support the theory by Cuban archaeologists that their island was an ancient crossroads of advanced indigenous cultures. In 2005 the University of Alabama carried out joint studies with Cuban archaeologists on several sites. It was determined that prior to being exterminated by Spanish invaders, the native peoples of Cuba were skilled farmers and built some stone architecture, but tended to live in small villages so that the residents could maintain a sustainable relationship with the environment.

Until comprehensive archaeological studies are carried out along the western coast of Cuba, the possibility of a lost civilization being there must remain in the realm of speculation. Cuba's economy is transforming, but still can not afford the expenditure of such a massive undertaking. The most likely model for a large scale archeological study to take place would be similar to the University of Alabama's joint project with Cuban archaeologists. Perhaps several universities from several nations could be involved.

Shipwreck divers symposium set for [last] Saturday

Apologies for being a week late with this. Nevertheless I think it's interesting to see of what the symposium consisted:

Shipwreck divers symposium set for Saturday
WALL — Shipwrecks, shark attacks and underwater art projects will be on the agenda when the New Jersey Historical Divers Association holds its ninth annual shipwreck symposium Saturday at the InfoAge Science/History Learning Center.

For more information visit the association website at www.njhda.org

The 2 to 6 p.m. event at 2201 Marconi Road brings in divers and researchers to talk about their latest discoveries. Presenters this Saturday include:

Diver, engineer and nautical archaeologist Joyce Steinmetz will talk about her identification of the Civil War paddle steamer Admiral DuPont, one of two sidewheelers long visited by divers offshore but never positively identified.

Marine artist and Bay Head native Chris Wojcik will discuss his latest project, which involves seafloor sculpture, in the presentation "Shipwreck -- From Scratch."

Great white sharks off New Jersey will be the subject tackled by Dean W. Fessler Jr., educational director and researcher at the Shark Research Institute in Princeton.

Association president Dan Lieb will tell the story of the schooner John K. Shaw, wrecked with the loss of its entire crew of Manasquan men in February 1884, in what Lieb suggests may have been a “disastrous case of a hit-and-run at sea.”

Divers Charles Buffum and Craig Harger, co-discovers of U.S. Navy hero Adm. Oliver Hazard Perry’s lost vessel Revenge, will talk about their discovery of the 1811 wreck off Rhode Island.

Admission to the symposium is $20 per person with proceeds to benefit continued operation of the nonprofit museum.

Reservations are required by calling 732-776-6261. Admission includes access to museum exhibits, and refreshments served during an intermission. A fund-raising party will follow the symposium that evening from 7 to 10 p.m. with separate admission of $40 per person.

For more information visit the association website at www.njhda.org and click on the events tab.

How the most important shipwreck since the Mary Rose could disappear within five years

Daily Mail Online: Race Against the Tide: How the most important shipwreck since the Mary Rose could disappear within five years
It has been under seven metres of water off the Dorset coast for the last 400 years.
But now conservationists worry that one of the most important ships since the Mary Rose might disappear within five years.

The unidentified ship, known only as the Swash Channel Wreck, was found at the entrance to Poole harbour and it lies on a flat sand and shingle seabed where it sank some time between 1600 and 1620.

Its ornate timbers - the earliest known still to exist - have been preserved by sand. That is until the changing currents and tides have moved much of the sand, leaving it exposed to bacteria and aquatic ship worms.

The ship is believed to have been of a relatively high status for the period and one of the timbers was dated as being felled some time soon after 1585.
Among its features is a 8.4 metre long rudder that has the carving of a man's head on its upper portion.

In 2004 it was designated as a Historic Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and so now there is pressure to preserve it before it disappears.

'The damage there has increased dramatically since we first started studying it,' David Payton, senior lecturer in marine archaeology at Bournemouth University told the Independent on Sunday. 'It's a race - you've only got a certain amount of time before it's too late and there's no point.

'It's been buried until now, but in the last four or five years it's become exposed.
'The longer the wreck is exposed, the more damaged it will be. If nothing were done within the next five years there'd be nothing left.'

Despite scouring hundreds of records, nothing has been found to identify the ship but it is believed it came from the German-Dutch border.

The easiest way to preserve the ship would be to rebury it, but that would create a mound in one of the busiest shipping channels so historians hope to lift and preserve some sections at Poole Museum.

The ship is to feature in Britain's Secret Seas, a BBC series that starts tonight and will uncover some of the country's underwater treasures.

Captain Kidd shipwreck becomes a Museum of the Sea

Past Horizons: Captain Kidd shipwreck becomes a Museum of the Sea

Nearly three years after the discovery of the shipwrecked Quedagh Merchant, abandoned by the notorious Captain William Kidd, the underwater site will be dedicated as a “Living Museum of the Sea” by Indiana University archaeologist Charles Beeker, and the government of the Dominican Republic.

The dedication as an official underwater museum will take place off the shore of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic on May 23, the 310th anniversary of Kidd’s execution in London for his alleged ‘crimes of piracy.’

Living museum of the sea
Underwater plaques will help guide divers around the shipwreck site as well as relics and rare corals at two other shipwreck sites.

The US Agency for International Development awarded Indiana University $200,000 to turn the Captain Kidd shipwreck site and two nearby existing underwater preserves into no-take, no-anchor Living Museums of the Sea. The ultimate aim is to protect history, protect corals, and preserve biodiversity in the surrounding reef systems.

The underwater science team led by Beeker, has been working to preserve, analyse and document the Kidd shipwreck since its discovery in 2007. This unique museum, resting in less than 10 feet of water and a mere 70 feet from shore, will give divers the opportunity to see the 17th century ship remains, including several anchors, along with dozens of cannons, which now rest on the ocean’s floor and serve as home to coral and sea creatures. Above water, terrestrial museums will benefit from artefacts that are on loan to Indiana University by the Dominican Republic government for the purpose of study and research.

“As this ongoing multidisciplinary research continues,” Beeker said, “interest in the project has grown and new partnerships are developing, including the Peace Corps assigning their volunteers to the project, and the Consorcio Dominicano de Competitividad Turistica promoting the project as a sustainable tourism destination.”

As the interest in eco-tourism and unique vacation destinations continues to grow, this Living Museum of the Sea is predicted to be a sought-after destination for those seeking underwater adventures combined with significant 17th century maritime history representative of the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean.

Pirate or privateer
There is still of course a debate on the status of Captain Kidd himself. In the 16th and 17th centuries, privateers enjoyed a successful trade around the world on warships that were privately owned, but had government approval and backing to attack enemy ships. The privateer would then share any booty with the government.

William Kidd was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1654, the son of John Kidd a seaman, and his wife Bessie Butchart.

During the war between England and France in the 1690′s, Kidd became a successful privateer in charge of the vessel Blessed William, defending trade routes with the West Indies. He was then commissioned by the English government to take charge of an expedition against pirates in the Indian Ocean. Kidd’s public mission was to clear the sea there of pirates, but it was probably understood by his backers that he would also take every opportunity to capture any enemy ships that had valuable cargo.

In February 1698, almost a year after he had been expected to return from his mission, Kidd finally struck lucky in heavy seas off the Indian coast, north of Cochin, with the Quedagh Merchant, a 500 ton Armenian merchant ship laden with gold, jewels, silver, silks, sugar and guns. Kidd considered this prize, together with previous smaller prizes, as ample compensation for his late return, and reward enough for his backers. The prize though was a legal nightmare. Owned by Indians, carrying a Persian cargo, crewed by Moors, and with an English Captain named Wright they all sailed together, allegedly under a French pass. Kidd decided that this was a legitimate target and took her.

However, by this time, tales of his supposed piratical exploits were causing serious embarrassment back in London, and he was arrested soon after returning to New York, after leaving the Quedagh Merchant at Catalina Island.

Despite his defence of being a privateer, Kidd was tried in London and hung in 1701

Despite his defence of being a privateer, Kidd was tried in London and hung in 1701. The papers that might have proved his innocence disappeared and his logbook was burned. His corpse was displayed in an iron cage on the dock at the Thames Estuary for several years as a warning to other would-be pirates.

A remarkable discovery
Diver at one of the shipwreck cannons. Courtesy of Indiana University.
Beeker said it was remarkable that the wreck had remained undiscovered all these years given its location, just 70 feet off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic.

Anthropologist Geoffrey Conrad, director of IU Bloomington’s Mathers Museum of World Cultures, said the men Kidd entrusted with his ship reportedly looted it, and then set it ablaze and adrift down the Rio Dulce. Conrad said the location of the wreckage and the formation and size of the canons, which had been used as ballast, are consistent with historical records of the ship. They also found pieces of several anchors under the cannons.

“All the evidence that we find underwater is consistent with what we know from historical documentation, which is extensive,” Conrad said. “Through rigorous archaeological investigations, we have conclusively proven that this is the Captain Kidd shipwreck.”

Beeker, who has been conducting research in the Dominican Republic for nearly 20 years, was asked to examine the shipwreck in 2007 while on another research mission involving the search for the lost ships of Christopher Columbus.

Diver searching near Malta for St. Paul's shipwreck

WWW.Chron.com. Houston Belief: Diver searching near Malta for St. Paul's shipwreck

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -Even long before the times of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, Malta was the rocky knob at the western edge of the Roman Empire, the place where the leftovers of the Mediterranean Sea washed up and dug in.

And Malta is the site of what Huntsville software salesman John Harkins thinks will be the last and best quest of his life.

Harkins, a mild-mannered, Bible-reading, Church of Christ deacon and marine biologist, is determined to be the first person since the biblical Luke to see evidence of the ship that carried Paul nearly to Rome.

"I'm quite in the minority in thinking there might be some remnant," Harkins said, unrolling charts of the island on his desk at work. "But I know we're going to find something, though it may not be from Paul's wreck."

According to Acts 27, a chapter in Luke's history of the nascent Christian movement, a huge ship loaded with grain, sailors, soldiers, prisoners and passengers crashed into the coast at the end of a 14-day storm.

The ship broke in half, spilling everyone into the sea. Miraculously, the entire crew was able to struggle to shore, where they were met by the inhabitants of the 200-mile-long island, who built them a fire.

"The natives showed us unusual kindness," Luke writes.

Harkins said Malta's government places a high value on caring for and understanding relics washed on its shores. Museums catalog ancient weapons, structures, tools and, of course, fragments of the shipping trade that made Malta a crucial outpost of vessels attempting to round the Italian boot to get to Rome.

"God put that ship there, and I figure he put it where he wants it," Harkins said. "He gave it to the Maltese people, and frankly, he couldn't have given it to people who do more to preserve their heritage — and it's their heritage, along with the rest of us."

Harkins can't remember a time when the story of Paul's shipwreck didn't fascinate him. It was one of the stories that leapt out of the dim and musty antiquity of ancient stories to snap into Technicolor.

When Harkins and his partners return to Malta in May for what will be his third visit to the island, he hopes to map the sub-bottom profile of areas he's decided are likely shipwreck locations given prevailing winds and the land forms.

Among the experts he has consulted are second-century essayist Lucian and a 19th-century book by the preacher son of an East India Company merchant. His bookshelves also bulge with various doctoral dissertations on relics found under water and other books on archaeology, sailing and diving.

Gordon Franz, an archaeologist at the Akron, Pa.-based Associates for Biblical Research, remembers responding cautiously to Harkins' first letters some years ago.

"We get all kinds of crackpots who contact our office about their crazy ideas or discoveries," Franz said. "After a few exchanges, I realized this fellow knows what he is talking about, so I called him. We talked for about an hour, and he shared some nautical insights into Acts 27 which I had never considered before."

Older shipwrecks than the one Harkins seeks have been found, Franz said. But if Harkins can find the remains of an Alexandrian grain ship, like the one that carried Paul, it would be a first.

And if Harkins finds nothing at all, despite self-funding his search and taking time away from family and work?

"I believe we all have to search for something," Harkins said. "And one of the reasons I'm doing this is because, who else would do it? It's not important to other people who would rather search for sunken treasure."

First paying customers to dive on HMAS Adelaide wreck

Express Advocate: First paying customers to dive on HMAS Adelaide wreck
The first paying customers are expected to get up close and personal with the wreck of former HMAS Adelaide at Avoca Beach this weekend.

Tickets go on sale at 10am this morning for the chance to dive the controversial wreck, with divers to pay a minimum of $78.

Depending on the weather the first group is expected to check out the wreck on Saturday.

PHOTOS: See what the ex-HMAS Adelaide looks like under water

Divers with their own boat and gear will reportedly pay $18 per head and a $60 mooring fee, while it’s believed commercial operators will charge $80 for divers with gear or $140 for those requiring
equipment.

Central Coast Artificial Reef Project members are expected to be on hand for the first public dive on the wreck.

Snorkellers also need to purchase a permit.

To book go to www.hmasadelaide.com.

A special surveying group of divers checked the wreck immediately after sinking to determine that it had settled as predicted.

Capt. Kidd Shipwreck Site To Be Dedicated 'Living Museum Of The Sea'

Underwater Times: Capt. Kidd Shipwreck Site To Be Dedicated 'Living Museum Of The Sea' by Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana -- Nearly three years after the discovery of the shipwreck Quedagh Merchant, abandoned by the scandalous 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd, the underwater site will be dedicated as a "Living Museum of the Sea" by Indiana University, IU researcher and archeologist Charles Beeker, and the government of the Dominican Republic.

The dedication as an official underwater museum will take place off the shore of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic on May 23, the 310th anniversary of Kidd's hanging in London for his 'crimes of piracy.'

The dedication will note both underwater and above-ground interpretive plaques. The underwater plaques will help guide divers around the Kidd site as well as relics and rare corals at two other shipwreck sites.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded IU $200,000 to turn the Captain Kidd shipwreck site and two nearby existing underwater preserves into no-take, no-anchor "Living Museums of the Sea," where cultural discoveries will protect precious corals and other threatened biodiversity in the surrounding reef systems, under the supervision and support of the Dominican Republic's Oficina Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural Subacuático (ONPCS). USAID has since extended its support by a year, increasing the funding award to $300,000.

The Underwater Science team from the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER), led by Beeker, has been working to preserve, analyze and document the Kidd shipwreck since its surprising discovery, which made headlines around the world. This unique museum, resting in less than 10 feet of water just 70 feet from shore, will give divers the opportunity to see the 17th century ship remains, including several anchors, along with dozens of cannons, which rest on the ocean's floor and serve as home to coral and sea creatures. Above water, several more traditional museums will benefit from artifacts that are on loan to IU by the Dominican Republic government for the purpose of study and research.

"As this ongoing multidisciplinary research continues," Beeker said, "interest in the project has grown and new partnerships are developing, including the Peace Corps assigning their volunteers to the project, and the Consorcio Dominicano de Competitividad Turistica promoting the project as a sustainable tourism destination."

As the interest in eco-tourism and unique vacation destinations continues to grow, this Living Museum of the Sea is predicted to be a sought-after destination for those seeking underwater adventures combined with significant 17th century maritime history representative of the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean.

Beeker said it was remarkable that the wreck had remained undiscovered all these years given its location, just 70 feet off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic, and because it has been actively sought by treasure hunters.

"Since the site's discovery, we have worked with government officials, Indiana University partners and museums to preserve this site, the artifacts contained there and to use it all for research and scientific study," said Beeker, a pioneer in underwater museums and preserves. "We have diligently protected this site, and now we are able to share the importance of the Armenian-owned 1699 Quedagh Merchant (which was captured by Kidd off the west coast of India) with students at Indiana University as well as with the public at exhibits at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis and the British Museum of Docklands London."

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis helped bring one of the most fascinating underwater mysteries in years to visitors in its new permanent exhibit, National Geographic Treasures of the Earth. Charles Beeker was authorized by Dominican Republic authorities to bring the only cannon recovered from the shipwreck to The Children's Museum for five years of study and conservation. The Children's Museum and Beeker received a $1 million grant from Eli Lilly & Company Foundation to support this project and to search for and recover artifacts from other historically significant ships that are believed to be in the Caribbean, with this including the ongoing search for the Lost Fleet of Christopher Columbus.

Jeffrey H. Patchen, president and CEO of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, said the popular museum and IU have similar interests, to bring fascinating discoveries to the public.

"Our intent was to develop the most authentic experience possible -- to bring real archaeological sites, real science, real artifacts and real experts to our visitors. These extraordinary experiences truly have the power to inspire and transform the lives of children through family learning," he said. "We're eager to explore future opportunities with IU's team of experts in the search for other historically significant ships in the Caribbean."

Other significant artifacts to be displayed at The Children's Museum include Ming dynasty plates and statues, diamond and gold jewelry, gold & silver coins, cannonballs and other antiquities, which have been preserved for centuries in the Caribbean waters.

The British Museum of Docklands London has an exhibit featuring the story of Captain Kidd, and a live show depicting Kidd and his travels as one of history's most notorious pirates. The museum will have a special event in coordination with the underwater museum dedication, honoring the 310th anniversary of Kidd's execution.

Historians differ on whether Kidd was actually a pirate or a privateer -- someone who captured pirates. After his conviction of piracy and murder charges in a sensational London trial, he was left to hang over the River Thames for two years as a warning to other pirates. Museo Vivo del Mar

Historians write that Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant, loaded with valuable satins and silks, gold, silver and other East Indian merchandise, but left the ship in the Caribbean as he sailed to New York on a less conspicuous sloop to clear his name of the criminal charges.

Anthropologist Geoffrey Conrad, director of IU Bloomington's Mathers Museum of World Cultures, said the men Kidd entrusted with his ship reportedly looted it, and then set it ablaze and adrift down the Rio Dulce. Conrad said the location of the wreckage and the formation and size of the canons, which had been used as ballast, are consistent with historical records of the ship. They also found pieces of several anchors under the cannons.

"All the evidence that we find underwater is consistent with what we know from historical documentation, which is extensive," Conrad said. "Through rigorous archeological investigations, we have conclusively proven that this is the Captain Kidd shipwreck."

The IU research in the Dominican Republic typically involves professors and graduate students from various IU Bloomington schools and departments, including the School of HPER, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the departments of anthropology, biology, geological sciences and mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"The archeological work being done by IU in the Dominican Republic affords us tremendous entrée for wider areas of collaboration," said School of HPER Interim Dean Mo R. Torabi.

Since the discovery, Beeker has met with and given presentations to research experts in London, Armenia and Washington, D.C., and the interest continues to spread because of the complex trading and exploration channels that existed in the 17th century.

For more than 20 years, Beeker and his students have conducted underwater research projects on submerged ships, cargo and other cultural and biological resources throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Many of his research projects have resulted in the establishment of state or federal underwater parks and preserves, and have led to a number of site nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.

Beeker, who has been conducting research in the Dominican Republic for nearly 20 years, was asked to examine the shipwreck in 2007 while on another research mission involving the search for Christopher Columbus' lost ships. Beeker and Conrad have been exploring the era when the New and Old Worlds first met, focusing on the area of La Isabela Bay, the site of the first permanent Spanish settlement established by Columbus in 1494.

Beeker recently served four years on the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To learn more about the Underwater Science program visit http://www.indiana.edu/~scuba.

Centuries-Old Gold And Emerald Ring Discovered By Divers Off Florida Coast

Underwater Times: Centuries-Old Gold And Emerald Ring Discovered By Divers Off Florida Coast; 'When You See It, You Just Know It'
For more information on Blue Water Ventures of Key West and the search for the Santa Margarita, visit www.bwvkw.com.

KEY WEST, Florida Keys -- Only a few days into launching their 2011 search and recovery season, divers for Keith Webb's Blue Water Ventures of Key West have discovered an elegant gold and emerald ring, along with a gold "flake," a piece of ornate silver, a silver "piece of eight" treasure coin, and numerous pieces of scattered shipwreck material in an area of the Florida Straits where the treasure galleon Santa Margarita was destroyed in 1622.

Joint-venture partners of Mel Fishers Treasures – the company who first discovered a rich 23 foot long section of the ships lower hull in 1980 -- the Blue Water team has been exploring a series of widely dispersed artifact trails that resulted from the destruction of the ship. Contemporaneous eyewitness reports from survivors of the disaster described the vessel as having been swept on the crest of a wave over a barrier reef and driven forcefully into a sandbar, where hurricane force wind and waves beat the vessel to pieces.

Describing the moment that crew-diver Sean Hogan emerged from the sea with the centuries old emerald ring, Blue Water Rose Captain Dan Porter said, "I knew by the smile on his face the color the object in his tightly closed fist would be. When Sean opened his hand not only did I see the gold I was expecting, but also a magnificent square cut emerald -- very dark and very clear -- probably about 1.5 to 2 ct. and absolutely beautiful. Sean has been with us about six months and is one of the strongest divers I have ever worked with."

Hogan, who discovered the ring while diving with his leg in a cast, moved to Key West from the Chicago area in 2009 to attend the dive training program at Florida Keys Community College. "When I first spotted the gold I thought it was the link of a chain," he said. Then I pulled it out and saw the dark, dark emerald. It was my first time seeing gold underwater, and when you see it, you just know it."

Archaeologist James Sinclair described the ring as a "wonderful example of the baroque style popular during this period," adding, "while relatively simple and unadorned in design, the use of gold and emerald speaks volumes as to the culture from which the owner and the object originated. Gold, then as now, was a symbol of status, so the owner of this antiquity was a high ranking and wealthy individual."

Discoveries by Webb's team on the Santa Margarita site since 2006 are valued at more than 16 million and include gold artifacts, chains and jewelry, gold bars, rare silver coins, weaponry, pre-Columbian treasures, and a lead box containing 16,184 extremely rare natural pearls.

Research by renowned historian Dr. Eugene Lyon indicates that over 800 ounces of registered gold, 145 silver bars, more than 80,000 silver coins, and potentially multi-millions in contraband and personal jewelry and wealth from the Santa Margarita still remain to be found.

For more information on Blue Water Ventures of Key West and the search for the Santa Margarita, visit www.bwvkw.com.

Company Launches Sleek High Tech Underwater Scooter

Company Launches Sleek High Tech Underwater Scooter
More information can be found online at www.aquastarscooters.com

PLANTATION, Florida -- Building upon the success of the single seat AS1 model, Aqua Star envisioned a two person scooter, the AS2. After intense design and engineering, it is now a reality. Now couples can share the underwater experience together. The second person at the controls eliminates any fear for the timid. The AS2 is perfectly suited for couples to explore underwater wonders in a very safe environment. Both riders are free to dismount, swim around and climb back aboard.

The diving helmet is nicely integrated into the scooters body; the rider's head goes inside an air chamber within the helmet which is constantly supplied with air from scuba tanks lasting seventy minutes attached to the front body of the scooter. The helmet features a flat fog resistant glass, 99% distortion free giving a clear underwater experience, thus reducing the noxious feeling commonly associated with the bubble top models of the past.

The new Aqua Star scooters are sleeker, faster, and are much lighter (AS1 80 lbs and AS2 160 lbs.) than older models currently in operation. Aqua Star incorporated the latest in technology, design and quality using only the best very substrates available today.

Each scooter is powered by two electric motors one for forward movement and another for vertical movement, providing precise control, maneuverability and safety. Both the controls operate like your typical motorbike, just turn the handlebars for direction and push the batons for speed and depth. Pressure and depth gauges are provided on the control bar.

With speed up to 3.1 mph and operating depth of up to 12 meters, riders have access to shallow reefs and caves. The motors run by a rechargeable battery lasting up to 2.5 hours, which means it is very environment friendly and in no way damages the fabulous underwater ecosystem.

Novices can master the controls in the training course which can be completed in just a few minutes Those who are not strong swimmers or who have minor disabilities can still ride the bike and you can wear your glasses or contact lenses without difficulty. No diving certification is needed, no experience is required. Safety divers control ascent and descent into the water, then you have control of direction. A line attached to a buoy keeps the scooter safely tethered to the world above.

"This unique underwater experience is very safe and definitely something you should do at least once in your lifetime", said Gary Gordon, president of Aqua Star USA. "It's an incredible experience that will open your eyes to an amazing new world. The scenery is unbelievable with countless species of fish and an array of bright and varied colors in an underwater tropical paradise. And if you bring along your waterproof camera your experience will surely last a life time".

More information can be found online at www.aquastarscooters.com

Couple Find 19th Century Shipwreck

Jakarta Globe: Couple Find 19th Century Shipwreck
Singapore. A ship that sank more than 150 years ago in Borneo waters after visiting Singapore has been found by two Australians.

Part-time marine archaeologists Hans and Roz Berekoven - who are married to each other - said their find was unlikely to yield any treasures as the ship had been a British cargo vessel, but it could add to knowledge of trade then.

'No gold,' Mr Berekoven, 64, said in an interview in Singapore. 'Just cutlery and a few bottles of really well-aged wine.'

In 1842, the Viscount Melbourne sailed from India en route to China and docked in Singapore to pick up supplies and passengers. It left with more than 70 people on board.

Three days after it left Singapore, the vessel was hit by a squall. It was left stranded on a coral reef.

The ship had to be abandoned as the cotton bales it carried would expand when wet.

One survivor wrote in his diary that the bales would 'swell and inevitably blow up the ship'.

The crew and passengers, evacuated in boats, spent weeks at sea before reaching nearby Borneo. Their journey was fraught with dangers such as bad weather and encounters with pirates.

Britain even sent a second ship, the Royalist, to look for the survivors. The Viscount Melbourne was left on the reef since it carried nothing of value. It eventually sank.

Newspapers in the region reported on its loss at the time but interest faded and the wreck was abandoned to its fate.

Then in 1950, The Straits Times published a series of articles on the survivors' struggle to reach Borneo. The series, titled 'A perilous sea voyage', gave the Berekovens the key to finding the wreck.

The couple had seen vague references to the wreck and its survivors while researching another project (see sidebar).

An Internet search led to excerpts of The Straits Times articles, which in turn led them to the National Library in Singapore, where the full articles were kept.

'We spent five days in the archives working out the route the survivors took,' Mr Berekoven said. 'The diarist kept an incredibly detailed log.'

Tracing the route backwards, they were able to find the wreck within 25 minutes of dropping anchor. 'There was no cotton left of course,' Mrs Berekoven, 53, said. 'When we saw that the hull had burst outwards, we knew what had happened.'

That was in April last year. Since then, the Berekovens have revisited the wreck several more times, each time bringing up small artifacts such as spoons and bottles of preserved fruit.

The bad weather that had befallen the ship remains to this day, preventing more frequent visits, the couple said.

The depth of the wreck at 40m underwater and the limitations of their equipment mean they can spend only nine minutes at a time on the ship before they have to resurface.

'We're saving up for better equipment like scuba gear,' Mr Berekoven said.

Their salvage project is partially funded by Chinese Malaysian businessman Troy Yaw, whose father Yaw Teck Seng is one of Malaysia's 40 richest people.

The Berekovens said artifacts from the ship will go to a maritime museum about the region that the younger Mr Yaw intends to set up.

The couple's own goal is to make a documentary about the survivors.

Mrs Berekoven said: 'It'll make a great story. The ship was named after the Prime Minister of England then. It had a woman on board with a baby and a two-year-old boy, and what they went through in the open waters already reads like a movie script.'

The boy, George Mildmay Dare, also returned to Singapore and became a local celebrity in his time, Mr Berekoven added. Mr Dare was the first person to be buried in the old Bidadari cemetery.

The archaeologist said: 'The ship came here, it disappeared, and it was eventually 'found' again in the National Library here. Its story is part of local history.'

Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II, by Carl Hoffman

Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II, by Carl Hoffman
Ballantine Books, 2001
241 pages. No index. 16 pages of b&w photos.
Library: 623.746 HOF

Description
"Winged treasure" they call them-the lost remains of the great American fighter planes and bombers that won World War II. Hellcats and Supperfortresses, Corsairs and Dauntlesses. Produced by the thousands at the height of the war, and then cast off as scrap in the decades that followed, these warbirds are now worth literally anything-fortunes,families, even lives-to the peoplewho search for them. Like many men, writer Carl Hoffman was bitten by the warbird bug as a child. But he never imagined that he would one day witness and participate in a heroic adventure himself-the most audacious warbird rescue attempt of all time.

The crash of the Kee Bird B-29 Superfortress made banner headlines in 1947 when a team of Air Force pilots pulled off the near-miraculous feat of locating the wreck in Greenland and snatching its stranded crew from the teeth of the arctic winter.

For nearly half a century, the almost perfectly intact warbird lay abandoned on a lake of ice-but not forgotten. Fifty years later, with collectors paying upward of a million dollars for salvageable WWII planes, two intense fanatics, legendary test pilot Darryl Greenamyer and starry-eyed salvage wizard Gary Larkins, hatched the insane idea of launching an expedition to Greenland to find the Kee Bird, bring it back to life, and fly it out.

In this riveting adventure of man, machine and history, the quest for winged treasure ultimately extends far beyond the search for the Kee Bird. Hoffman literally crisscrosses the country to track down the key players in the high-stakes warbird game.

He meets a retired Midwestern carpenter who crammed every inch of his yard with now-precious warbirds during the lean years when they were considered junk; attends an air show where crowds go wild at the sight of four of the fourteen airworthy B-17s flying in formation, speaks to pilots and mechanics, millionaire businessmen and penniless kids-all of them ready to drop everything in pursuit of these fabled planes.

"These planes are a sickness, that's all there is to it," one warbird fan tells Hoffma as he lovingly polishes his vintage B-17. In this superbly crafted narrative, Hoffman turns the warbird craze into the stuff of high drama and awesome adventure. Hunting Warbirds takes us to the heart of one of the most fascinating obsessions of our time.