BerNews (Bermuda): 150 Yr Old Wine Found in Shipwreck
The storm-tossed remains of an American Civil War blockade runner have yielded long-buried secrets to an international team of archaeologists working with Bermuda’s Department of Conservation Services.
A secret stash of wine, lodged inside the bow of the wreck of the Mary Celestia, which lies immediately offshore from the Fairmont Southampton Princess, has emerged from the sand and silt which had shrouded it since the ship struck the reef and sank on September 6, 1864. Five bottles of wine, still packed inside a wooden crate, remained corked with their liquid contents intact after 147 years underwater.
The top of the crate emerged from the sand inside the bow after a series of winter storms swept over the site in January 2011.
Dr. Philippe Rouja, Bermuda’s Custodian of Historic Wrecks, secured the bow of the wreck after recovering a loose bottle of wine, also still corked, and immediately reached out to colleagues at NOAA and the Waitt Foundation in order to create an expert team with experience in marine heritage management and the excavation of shipwrecks of this period to explore and potentially rescue this unique find.
The Bermuda Government has been working with these eminent institutions since 2009 in the formation of the Sargasso Sea Alliance – an Alliance dedicated to enhancing protection of the Sargasso Sea in which the islands of Bermuda lie.
The Waitt Foundation has underwritten the displacement costs of the initiative for all foreign partners as well as sending Dr. Dominique Rissolo, an archaeologist and executive director of the Waitt Institute, along with Joe Lepore, the Waitt Institute’s chief diver and head of ship operations, to aid in the exploration and recovery of the contents of Mary Celestia’s bow.
Photo below: Archaeologist James Delgado takes notes inside the bow of the Mary Celestia while excavating a sunken cargo of wine lost when the ship sank after hitting the reef.
Archaeologist Dr. James Delgado, the director of the Maritime Heritage Program in the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries of the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, joined by two NOAA team members, Tane Casserley and Wayne Lusardi, joined the rest of the team this past week to co-direct the project with Drs. Rouja and Rissolo.
Carefully removing all of the sand and silt from inside the broken but still intact bow of the wrecked blockade runner, the team exposed the wooden crate, intact wooden paneling and shelves, and a corroded metal wash basin rusted fast to the inside of the hull. As Dr. Delgado gently removed the silt from the crate with Dr. Rouja, the tops of the bottles inside slowly emerged with their corks still in place.
“The promise of the one bottle found this past January was realized in that moment,” said Dr. Rouja. “To reveal even more of this lost cargo standing lined up in their wooden crate as if they were waiting for their owner to return is a great reminder of how archaeology adds excitement and value to our shared historical narratives.
Mary Celestia is a wreck with historical significance to the United Kingdom, where she was built, Bermuda, where she operated out of and where she wrecked, and the United States, where she ran to as a blockade runner during the U.S. Civil War.
For the NOAA team, Mary Celestia had special importance. The joint heritage represented by this wreck is a direct link to NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in North Carolina and NOAA’s work to document and better understand and share the stories of the shipwrecks near the wreck of Monitor that speak to the Civil War, World War II, and the shipping that for centuries has been linked to this section of coast, an area known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
The ocean is a vast repository of human history, some of it encompassed in marine protected areas and sanctuaries. Our team was pleased to join this project to help protect and interpret our joint heritage that links this protected shipwreck sites in Bermuda to Wilmington, North Carolina and our nearby sanctuary.” said Dr. Delgado.
“After undergoing laboratory analysis and preservation treatment, the wine and our other finds will tell their story to Bermudians and the rest of the world thanks to modern science.”
The excavation also yielded the remains of leather shoes, rope, a hairbrush and the wooden form for a shoe. After clearing the bow and documenting the fragile wooden structure inside this area of the ship, the team replaced the sand to preserve the wood inside the now empty compartment.
The artifacts are in the conservation laboratory at the National Museum of Bermuda where the effort will shift to further study and preservation treatment.
Derrick Burgess, Minister of Public Works said: “This project is very exciting from so many perspectives – from an archeological point of view, for our local marine heritage and for the compelling story of days long past that will no doubt be of interest to our residents and visitors alike. And for this project to take place during the anniversary of the American Civil War is gives the discovery all the more resonance.”
This discovery in the bow of the Mary Celestia has yielded a long-lost secret in a box of wine stashed away from the ship’s cargo– a cargo at the time said to be nothing more than tinned meats. It compels researchers and scientists to take another look at the historical narrative surrounding one of Bermuda’s most iconic dive sites.
Mary Celestia is a compelling reminder of how the shattered iron bones of a wreck ravaged by time and elements can still connect us to the people of events of long ago.
I wonder who left that crate in the bow,” commented Dr. Rissolo, “and why. “ That question may forever remain unanswered. But what is clear is that while Mary Celestia may have yielded one of her secrets, she retains others in the form of questions about what type of wine is inside the bottles and where it came from. Scientists will now seek to answer those questions.
This project is being filmed by LookBermuda/LookFilms as part of their upcoming film about the Mary-Celestia and Blockade Running. As well as being broadcast in Bermuda and the US the film will be made available to the island schools via the LookBermuda Educational Media Foundation
Jean-Pierre Rouja from LookBermuda says: “This is by far our largest project to date for which we assembled a team from Bermuda, the US and the UK and captured incredible underwater footage which will really showcase this wreck and diving in Bermuda.”
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Old cannons in Polish underwater find
UPI.com: Old cannons in Polish underwater find
GDANSK, Poland, June 22 (UPI) -- Polish archaeologists say they've discovered more than 40 18th-century cast-iron naval guns on the floor of the Baltic Sea off the Polish port of Ustka.
Researchers have recovered 12 of the cannon so far, with four of them undergoing conservation treatment, Poland.pl reported Wednesday.
"So far we had no such object in our collection," Iwona Pomian, head of the Undersea Research Division of the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk, said.
"Discovered guns were manufactured in Sweden in 1772 and served as ballast of a ship," Pomian said.
A ship belonging to the Maritime Institute in Gdansk discovered the guns at a depth of 135 feet during seafloor scanning in connection with the planned building of an offshore wind farm.
The recovered guns have been sent to the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk.
GDANSK, Poland, June 22 (UPI) -- Polish archaeologists say they've discovered more than 40 18th-century cast-iron naval guns on the floor of the Baltic Sea off the Polish port of Ustka.
Researchers have recovered 12 of the cannon so far, with four of them undergoing conservation treatment, Poland.pl reported Wednesday.
"So far we had no such object in our collection," Iwona Pomian, head of the Undersea Research Division of the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk, said.
"Discovered guns were manufactured in Sweden in 1772 and served as ballast of a ship," Pomian said.
A ship belonging to the Maritime Institute in Gdansk discovered the guns at a depth of 135 feet during seafloor scanning in connection with the planned building of an offshore wind farm.
The recovered guns have been sent to the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk.
Documenting local ‘Shipwrecks’
PostStar.com: Documenting local ‘Shipwrecks’
Queensbury resident Bob Benway likes the thrill of the hunt.
He may not stalk big game animals in Africa, but he has pursued the hulking frames of vessels that lurk below the surface of Lake George.
The underwater photographer and videographer, along with Saratoga Springs underwater archeologist
Joseph Zarzynski, discuss their most captivating findings in "Lake George Shipwrecks and Sunken History," published by The History Press.
"Below the surface of picturesque Lake George are cultural resources that help tell the full history of the colonial soldiers, boaters, visitors and others that have lived here. Journals, diaries and primary literature can only tell part of the story," Zarzynski said.
"When you combine the results of underwater archaeological investigation with the known archival record, you get a much better understanding of the lake's bountiful chronicles ... and I think this enriches us as a people today."
Within the book's 160 pages, readers can glean
information on some of
the discoveries made by Bateaux Below, a non-profit organization which has been preserving shipwreck sites
in the lake for over 23 years.
The compilation of articles appeared in the Lake George Mirror from 2004 through last December.
Benway and Zarzynski first began investigating shipwrecks in Lake George after taking a three-day workshop on underwater archaeology in 1987.
A group of six from the class, including the two
authors, was interested in finding out more about the underwater history of the lake and formed Bateaux Below.
They eventually uncovered the 260 year-old Land Tortoise radeau shipwreck, a 52 foot-long British vessel outfitted with seven cannons, a discovery which Benway said was "extremely significant."
"It was the only vessel of her kind ever found. She's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also a National Historic Landmark, which is only one of six shipwrecks ever listed on that rating," he said.
Benway recalled being at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake in 1988 with Zarzynski while researching old newspaper clippings on bateaux, British transport vessels.
They found an article from July 1960 in which a couple of men, one of whom was a Pan Am pilot, launched a submarine in Lake George to go down and take photos of the then newly-discovered shipwrecks.
Benway said a picture showed the 14 foot-long, 3,700-pound submarine being lowered into the lake and towed to a dock on the east side.
The next day the men discovered that the submarine disappeared and that the tow lines had been cut.
Plane flyovers for weeks after yielded nothing.
"You just don't disappear with a 14-foot-long submarine that's painted bright
yellow. There's no way someone could have removed that sub without being seen," he said.
During a reconnaissance dive in 1995, the authors
uncovered the submarine, and though they record and document all of their finds, Benway declines to give information about their locations.
"We're protective of these wrecks. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the divers will not damage it, but there's that one-tenth of a percent that will," he said.
Benway said through "Lake George Shipwrecks" he wants readers to know about the lake's maritime history, lest it be lost forever.
"They're all great stories, and if no one knows they're out there, what good are the stories?" he said.
Queensbury resident Bob Benway likes the thrill of the hunt.
He may not stalk big game animals in Africa, but he has pursued the hulking frames of vessels that lurk below the surface of Lake George.
The underwater photographer and videographer, along with Saratoga Springs underwater archeologist
Joseph Zarzynski, discuss their most captivating findings in "Lake George Shipwrecks and Sunken History," published by The History Press.
"Below the surface of picturesque Lake George are cultural resources that help tell the full history of the colonial soldiers, boaters, visitors and others that have lived here. Journals, diaries and primary literature can only tell part of the story," Zarzynski said.
"When you combine the results of underwater archaeological investigation with the known archival record, you get a much better understanding of the lake's bountiful chronicles ... and I think this enriches us as a people today."
Within the book's 160 pages, readers can glean
information on some of
the discoveries made by Bateaux Below, a non-profit organization which has been preserving shipwreck sites
in the lake for over 23 years.
The compilation of articles appeared in the Lake George Mirror from 2004 through last December.
Benway and Zarzynski first began investigating shipwrecks in Lake George after taking a three-day workshop on underwater archaeology in 1987.
A group of six from the class, including the two
authors, was interested in finding out more about the underwater history of the lake and formed Bateaux Below.
They eventually uncovered the 260 year-old Land Tortoise radeau shipwreck, a 52 foot-long British vessel outfitted with seven cannons, a discovery which Benway said was "extremely significant."
"It was the only vessel of her kind ever found. She's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also a National Historic Landmark, which is only one of six shipwrecks ever listed on that rating," he said.
Benway recalled being at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake in 1988 with Zarzynski while researching old newspaper clippings on bateaux, British transport vessels.
They found an article from July 1960 in which a couple of men, one of whom was a Pan Am pilot, launched a submarine in Lake George to go down and take photos of the then newly-discovered shipwrecks.
Benway said a picture showed the 14 foot-long, 3,700-pound submarine being lowered into the lake and towed to a dock on the east side.
The next day the men discovered that the submarine disappeared and that the tow lines had been cut.
Plane flyovers for weeks after yielded nothing.
"You just don't disappear with a 14-foot-long submarine that's painted bright
yellow. There's no way someone could have removed that sub without being seen," he said.
During a reconnaissance dive in 1995, the authors
uncovered the submarine, and though they record and document all of their finds, Benway declines to give information about their locations.
"We're protective of these wrecks. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the divers will not damage it, but there's that one-tenth of a percent that will," he said.
Benway said through "Lake George Shipwrecks" he wants readers to know about the lake's maritime history, lest it be lost forever.
"They're all great stories, and if no one knows they're out there, what good are the stories?" he said.
With some virtual help, Key West diver finds valuable coin in ship wreckage
News-Press.com: With some virtual help, Key West diver finds valuable coin in ship wreckage
Soon after the 523-foot warship Hoyt S. Vandenberg was sunk as an artificial reef off Key West, documentary filmmaker Pat Clyne hid a $2,400 silver coin from the 17th-century aboard the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha.
Anyone finding the coin could keep it, and on Saturday, almost two years later, Key West diver Randy Pekarik found it in a corridor beneath the ship’s bridge at a depth of 97 feet.
To aid in the search, Clyne posted a series of clues on his YouTube site.
“I started following the clues, but it’s a huge ship,” said Pekarik, who made more than 30 dives looking for the coin. “Even though the first clues eliminated three-quarters of the ship, that’s still a humongous amount of ship. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Soon after the 523-foot warship Hoyt S. Vandenberg was sunk as an artificial reef off Key West, documentary filmmaker Pat Clyne hid a $2,400 silver coin from the 17th-century aboard the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha.
Anyone finding the coin could keep it, and on Saturday, almost two years later, Key West diver Randy Pekarik found it in a corridor beneath the ship’s bridge at a depth of 97 feet.
To aid in the search, Clyne posted a series of clues on his YouTube site.
“I started following the clues, but it’s a huge ship,” said Pekarik, who made more than 30 dives looking for the coin. “Even though the first clues eliminated three-quarters of the ship, that’s still a humongous amount of ship. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Monday, June 27, 2011
POW/MIA team finds potential underwater crash sites off Vietnam's coast
StarsandStripes: POW/MIA team finds potential underwater crash sites off Vietnam's coast
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A U.S. team charged with bringing home the remains of fallen servicemembers found several likely underwater crash sites off the coast of Vietnam in recent weeks, thanks in part to advances in sonar technology.
On Monday, a three-man team from the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, wrapped up a 27-day mission to find Vietnam War casualties in Vietnam’s territorial waters, team leader Ron Ward told Stars and Stripes via telephone from Hanoi on Tuesday.
The team found the potential sites with help from the U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office and the USNS Bowditch, a survey vessel from the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. The Bowditch is equipped with a multi-beam, wide-angle sonar system, which uses sound pulses to map the ocean floor at higher resolution and accuracy than past systems.
The military believes there are about 600 crash sites off the Vietnamese coast stemming from the war, Ward said.
The team, which also worked with the Vietnam's Office for Seeking Missing Persons, found potential crash sites in waters within 12 nautical miles of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam and Da Nang.
“It was a successful mission in terms of detecting anomalies on the seabed that we think might be associated with [servicemember] losses,” Ward said.
The preliminary data must now be analyzed by a JPAC forensic anthropologist. At promising sites, JPAC teams can use remote exploration vehicles or send divers to see what the sonar array detected.
The Navy first studied the prospect of recovering remains from underwater sites during the war, but ultimately decided against it, Ward said.
Advertisement“At the time, they concluded they didn’t have the technology,” he said.
The potential crash sites were generally no deeper than about 150 feet, Ward added.
The Bowditch underwater search is only the second of its kind. In 2009, the USNS Bruce C. Heezen conducted a similar operation, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.
The U.S. and Vietnam have cooperated on 103 searches for prisoners-of-war and missing-in-action servicemembers since the 1980s, according to the embassy statement.
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A U.S. team charged with bringing home the remains of fallen servicemembers found several likely underwater crash sites off the coast of Vietnam in recent weeks, thanks in part to advances in sonar technology.
On Monday, a three-man team from the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, wrapped up a 27-day mission to find Vietnam War casualties in Vietnam’s territorial waters, team leader Ron Ward told Stars and Stripes via telephone from Hanoi on Tuesday.
The team found the potential sites with help from the U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office and the USNS Bowditch, a survey vessel from the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. The Bowditch is equipped with a multi-beam, wide-angle sonar system, which uses sound pulses to map the ocean floor at higher resolution and accuracy than past systems.
The military believes there are about 600 crash sites off the Vietnamese coast stemming from the war, Ward said.
The team, which also worked with the Vietnam's Office for Seeking Missing Persons, found potential crash sites in waters within 12 nautical miles of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam and Da Nang.
“It was a successful mission in terms of detecting anomalies on the seabed that we think might be associated with [servicemember] losses,” Ward said.
The preliminary data must now be analyzed by a JPAC forensic anthropologist. At promising sites, JPAC teams can use remote exploration vehicles or send divers to see what the sonar array detected.
The Navy first studied the prospect of recovering remains from underwater sites during the war, but ultimately decided against it, Ward said.
Advertisement“At the time, they concluded they didn’t have the technology,” he said.
The potential crash sites were generally no deeper than about 150 feet, Ward added.
The Bowditch underwater search is only the second of its kind. In 2009, the USNS Bruce C. Heezen conducted a similar operation, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.
The U.S. and Vietnam have cooperated on 103 searches for prisoners-of-war and missing-in-action servicemembers since the 1980s, according to the embassy statement.
‘Ships from the Depths’ presents a unique view (Book Review)
GalvestonCOuntyDaily News: ‘Ships’ presents a unique view
Ships From The Depths: Deepwater Archaeology,” by Fredrik Søreide, Texas A&M University Press, 2010, 182 pages, $45.
+++
While Texas is associated with oil and cattle more than with ships and seafaring, Texas is home to one of the world’s leading centers for maritime archaeology — The Institute for Nautical Archeology at Texas A&M University.
This is not the only research center that focuses on underwater archaeology. During the last 50 years researchers worldwide have plumbed the oceans’ depths exploring the shipwrecks and other man-made artifacts on the ocean bottom.
The result has been a treasure trove of information that reveals shipbuilding throughout history and how people lived in earlier times.
What process was used to this information? “Ships From The Depths: Deepwater Archaeology,” by Fredrik Søreide, examines underwater archaeology, especially deepwater archaeology.
The book opens by spending a few pages defining the different types of maritime archaeology and differentiating between treasure hunting and research.
It follows this by describing the different tools used in deepwater archaeology.
A long chapter describes the history of deepwater archaeology. It covers a relatively short period — the first attempts started in the 1950s, and most of the work has been done during the last 30 years.
Yet “Ships From The Depths” reveals a large number of investigations have occurred over that brief time, at sites as diverse as Lake Ontario, the Mediterranean Sea, and in all of the major oceans.
Ironically, today’s litter becomes tomorrow’s window into the past. “Ships From The Depths” shows the amount of knowledge that can be extracted from humble pottery finds.
The final section presents the methods and procedures used in conducting a deepwater survey of an underwater find.
It outlines the process used to conduct an investigation. You are told how to survey an area to locate a shipwreck site, how to document the site before excavation and the proper steps to excavate a site.
This section seems intended as a textbook for an introductory course on marine archaeology. It also allows interested lay readers to vicariously participate in a deepwater dig.
This aspect is fostered by the book’s lavish illustrations. The numerous color and black-and-while photographs that highlight the text are informative and attractive. They take the reader inside the process.
The book is written in a dry, academic style some might find difficult. Yet it presents a unique view into an intriguing field of research.
“Ships From The Depths” will fascinate those with an interest in the sea and the history of the sea.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian and model-maker, lives in League City.
Copyright 2011 The Galveston County Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ships From The Depths: Deepwater Archaeology,” by Fredrik Søreide, Texas A&M University Press, 2010, 182 pages, $45.
+++
While Texas is associated with oil and cattle more than with ships and seafaring, Texas is home to one of the world’s leading centers for maritime archaeology — The Institute for Nautical Archeology at Texas A&M University.
This is not the only research center that focuses on underwater archaeology. During the last 50 years researchers worldwide have plumbed the oceans’ depths exploring the shipwrecks and other man-made artifacts on the ocean bottom.
The result has been a treasure trove of information that reveals shipbuilding throughout history and how people lived in earlier times.
What process was used to this information? “Ships From The Depths: Deepwater Archaeology,” by Fredrik Søreide, examines underwater archaeology, especially deepwater archaeology.
The book opens by spending a few pages defining the different types of maritime archaeology and differentiating between treasure hunting and research.
It follows this by describing the different tools used in deepwater archaeology.
A long chapter describes the history of deepwater archaeology. It covers a relatively short period — the first attempts started in the 1950s, and most of the work has been done during the last 30 years.
Yet “Ships From The Depths” reveals a large number of investigations have occurred over that brief time, at sites as diverse as Lake Ontario, the Mediterranean Sea, and in all of the major oceans.
Ironically, today’s litter becomes tomorrow’s window into the past. “Ships From The Depths” shows the amount of knowledge that can be extracted from humble pottery finds.
The final section presents the methods and procedures used in conducting a deepwater survey of an underwater find.
It outlines the process used to conduct an investigation. You are told how to survey an area to locate a shipwreck site, how to document the site before excavation and the proper steps to excavate a site.
This section seems intended as a textbook for an introductory course on marine archaeology. It also allows interested lay readers to vicariously participate in a deepwater dig.
This aspect is fostered by the book’s lavish illustrations. The numerous color and black-and-while photographs that highlight the text are informative and attractive. They take the reader inside the process.
The book is written in a dry, academic style some might find difficult. Yet it presents a unique view into an intriguing field of research.
“Ships From The Depths” will fascinate those with an interest in the sea and the history of the sea.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian and model-maker, lives in League City.
Copyright 2011 The Galveston County Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Team of archaeologists scour Escatawpa River floor for Moss Point's town cannon
The Republic (Columbus, IN): Team of archaeologists scour Escatawpa River floor for Moss Point's town cannon
MOSS POINT, Miss. — An expert in the field of underwater archaeology brought his state-of-the-art technology to the Escatawpa River recently to look for a "small" piece of artillery thought to be a mid-19th century cannon.
A grant from the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area and private donations made possible an extensive magnetometer survey directed by Michael K. Faught, a senior maritime archaeologist with Panamerican Consultants Inc. of Memphis, Tenn.
Newspaper accounts and oral history indicate Moss Point's town cannon was dumped in the river near and slightly north of the present-day downtown river walk and piers.
Dr. Chris Wiggins of Pascagoula is leading an effort to locate, raise and restore the cannon. A Jackson County orthopedic surgeon, he is president-elect of the Jackson County Historical and Genealogical Society.
"Tradition held that the cannon had been left over from the Civil War," Wiggins said. "Through the later part of the 19th century, it was fired at special town celebrations. However, after a premature detonation injured two teenagers in April 1864 [doubtless the article author means 1964] , it was thrown into the Escatawpa River where it has remained, all but forgotten."
Although the collected magnetic data has to be further processed and analyzed, initial findings did not disappoint.
"We obtained some very interesting hits with our equipment," Faught said. "Your waterway has been a busy little place over the years. But we definitely found one shipwreck, possibly a 19th century schooner, maybe another shipwreck, and one object that is most intriguing. We will have to process the data before we can come to any firm conclusions."
Using side scan sonar, Faught and his associate, underwater archaeologist James Duff, completed the Escatawpa River project in 3 hours. A 20-foot boat pulled the sonar equipment up and down the river while local society member Buck Redmond and a few other spectators watched.
"The magnetometer is towed back and forth over the designated area and measures magnetic fields, detects metal, not only underwater, but also under the silt bottom," Wiggins said. "It is towed well behind the boat because the boat itself has magnetic properties. We are hoping final results will show a metal signature that would be the cannon."
Data collected by computer equipment and software aboard the boat will be processed and prepared for the local Cannon Recovery Committee. The report will include the team's findings and provide exact Global Positioning System coordinates for all notable objects.
"Our goal is to locate and raise the cannon, then restore it and place it on display, probably right here on the riverbank," Wiggins said, "Not only is it a piece of long lost local history, but it will be an inspiration to others to pursue historical research."
MOSS POINT, Miss. — An expert in the field of underwater archaeology brought his state-of-the-art technology to the Escatawpa River recently to look for a "small" piece of artillery thought to be a mid-19th century cannon.
A grant from the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area and private donations made possible an extensive magnetometer survey directed by Michael K. Faught, a senior maritime archaeologist with Panamerican Consultants Inc. of Memphis, Tenn.
Newspaper accounts and oral history indicate Moss Point's town cannon was dumped in the river near and slightly north of the present-day downtown river walk and piers.
Dr. Chris Wiggins of Pascagoula is leading an effort to locate, raise and restore the cannon. A Jackson County orthopedic surgeon, he is president-elect of the Jackson County Historical and Genealogical Society.
"Tradition held that the cannon had been left over from the Civil War," Wiggins said. "Through the later part of the 19th century, it was fired at special town celebrations. However, after a premature detonation injured two teenagers in April 1864 [doubtless the article author means 1964] , it was thrown into the Escatawpa River where it has remained, all but forgotten."
Although the collected magnetic data has to be further processed and analyzed, initial findings did not disappoint.
"We obtained some very interesting hits with our equipment," Faught said. "Your waterway has been a busy little place over the years. But we definitely found one shipwreck, possibly a 19th century schooner, maybe another shipwreck, and one object that is most intriguing. We will have to process the data before we can come to any firm conclusions."
Using side scan sonar, Faught and his associate, underwater archaeologist James Duff, completed the Escatawpa River project in 3 hours. A 20-foot boat pulled the sonar equipment up and down the river while local society member Buck Redmond and a few other spectators watched.
"The magnetometer is towed back and forth over the designated area and measures magnetic fields, detects metal, not only underwater, but also under the silt bottom," Wiggins said. "It is towed well behind the boat because the boat itself has magnetic properties. We are hoping final results will show a metal signature that would be the cannon."
Data collected by computer equipment and software aboard the boat will be processed and prepared for the local Cannon Recovery Committee. The report will include the team's findings and provide exact Global Positioning System coordinates for all notable objects.
"Our goal is to locate and raise the cannon, then restore it and place it on display, probably right here on the riverbank," Wiggins said, "Not only is it a piece of long lost local history, but it will be an inspiration to others to pursue historical research."
Bulgarian Archaeologist: Biblical Deluge Might Boost Black Sea Tourism
File photo of an ancient town in the Greek Aegean Sea.
Novinite.com: Bulgarian Archaeologist: Biblical Deluge Might Boost Black Sea Tourism
The Black Sea could turn in a worldwide attraction for underwater tourism if countries cash on the story that the Biblical Deluge happened in the area, according to Bulgarian archaeologist Petko Dimitrov.
According to Prof. Dimitrov, who is the director of the Underwater Archaeology unit of the Oceanology Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, there are enough findings in the Black Sea's aquatorium to make it an attractive destination for that kind of tourism.
"If the hypothesis that the Biblical Deluge occurred at the Black Sea is popularized, Bulgaria can draw many more tourists," said Dimitrov.
He added that a number of underwater museums with special diving access can be created along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
According to him this idea nevertheless has this far not met any support from relevant institutions.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Canada: Newport diver helps end maritime mystery
Hobsons Bay Leader: Newport diver helps end maritime mystery
A NEWPORT diver has helped solve one of Victoria’s most puzzling maritime mysteries by locating a long-lost shipwreck nearly 80 years after it sank.
Peter Taylor, who first started searching for the TSS Coramba almost 30 years ago, said the May 29 discovery was years ahead of schedule.
“It was a big surprise (and) I wasn’t expecting to find it for a few more years yet,” Mr Taylor said. “We were over the moon to ... find it ahead of schedule.”
The cargo vessel, found by Mr Taylor and a team from not-for-profit group Southern Ocean Exploration, sank en route to Williamstown on November 30, 1934, when it encountered wild weather in Bass Strait.
Seventeen crew members, including captain John Dowling, from The Strand, Williamstown, and two local men, perished in the disaster.
The Coramba was long thought to be resting off Seal Rocks near Phillip Island. Mr Taylor and his crew discovered the stricken vessel about nine nautical miles away, 60m under water. Mr Taylor said the ship was “reasonably intact” and divers would return to the wreck to survey its contents.
“There’s every possibility there’s still skeletal remains there,” he said. “It went down very quickly and only four (of the 17) crew were found.”
Maritime historian Des Williams, who wrote a book on the Coramba - titled The Ship that the Sea Swallowed - informed the crew’s families of the discovery.
“That’s the biggest (positive),” Mr Taylor said. “The families being able to know where they lost their relatives. Now they have a gravesite.”
Mr Taylor’s passion for shipwrecks was ignited when, as a 12-year-old, he discovered a wreck off Port Arlington while on a family camping trip.
“From then on, I was just hooked,” he said.
A stonemasonry teacher, Mr Taylor said his “day job” helped fund his nautical pursuits. “We’re just a bunch of keen wreck divers ... solving the mystery.”
According to Heritage Victoria, the Coramba left Warrnambool on November 29 with a cargo of wool and condensed milk.
The ship, due to arrive in Williamstown about 7am the following morning, never reached Melbourne, and in early December, parts of the ship’s deckhouse, including the vessel’s bell, washed ashore on Phillip Island’s southern coast, along with several bodies.
A NEWPORT diver has helped solve one of Victoria’s most puzzling maritime mysteries by locating a long-lost shipwreck nearly 80 years after it sank.
Peter Taylor, who first started searching for the TSS Coramba almost 30 years ago, said the May 29 discovery was years ahead of schedule.
“It was a big surprise (and) I wasn’t expecting to find it for a few more years yet,” Mr Taylor said. “We were over the moon to ... find it ahead of schedule.”
The cargo vessel, found by Mr Taylor and a team from not-for-profit group Southern Ocean Exploration, sank en route to Williamstown on November 30, 1934, when it encountered wild weather in Bass Strait.
Seventeen crew members, including captain John Dowling, from The Strand, Williamstown, and two local men, perished in the disaster.
The Coramba was long thought to be resting off Seal Rocks near Phillip Island. Mr Taylor and his crew discovered the stricken vessel about nine nautical miles away, 60m under water. Mr Taylor said the ship was “reasonably intact” and divers would return to the wreck to survey its contents.
“There’s every possibility there’s still skeletal remains there,” he said. “It went down very quickly and only four (of the 17) crew were found.”
Maritime historian Des Williams, who wrote a book on the Coramba - titled The Ship that the Sea Swallowed - informed the crew’s families of the discovery.
“That’s the biggest (positive),” Mr Taylor said. “The families being able to know where they lost their relatives. Now they have a gravesite.”
Mr Taylor’s passion for shipwrecks was ignited when, as a 12-year-old, he discovered a wreck off Port Arlington while on a family camping trip.
“From then on, I was just hooked,” he said.
A stonemasonry teacher, Mr Taylor said his “day job” helped fund his nautical pursuits. “We’re just a bunch of keen wreck divers ... solving the mystery.”
According to Heritage Victoria, the Coramba left Warrnambool on November 29 with a cargo of wool and condensed milk.
The ship, due to arrive in Williamstown about 7am the following morning, never reached Melbourne, and in early December, parts of the ship’s deckhouse, including the vessel’s bell, washed ashore on Phillip Island’s southern coast, along with several bodies.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Shipwreck Salvage Company Confirms Ming Dynasty Porcelain Find Off Indonesia Coast Worth Millions
Underwater Times: Shipwreck Salvage Company Confirms Ming Dynasty Porcelain Find Off Indonesia Coast Worth Millions
MADEIRA, Portugal -- Arqueonautas Worldwide, in direct cooperation with RM Discovery Inc. (RMD), confirms after successful completion of a marine archaeological reconnaissance operation, the recovery of the biggest ever found shipwreck cargo of Ming porcelain. The Chinese merchant ship from the time of the Wanli Emperor sank around 1580 in over 50 meters depth approximately 150 km off the Indonesian coast.
'Based on conservative estimates a cargo of roughly 700,000 pieces of porcelain is expected. According to experts the value of the cargo could therefore be around US$ 70 Mio.', says Arqueonautas Worldwide CEO Nikolaus Count Sandizell out of Jakarta. 'The intrinsic value of the 'Wanli' shipwreck confirmed by the Arqueonautas team will allow us to interest potential investors so that by late summer the extensive salvage operations can begin. For us it is crucial to carry out this operation in a scientifically sound manner whilst being economically viable, which is guaranteed by AWW's expertise.', states Oliver Herrmann, director of RM Discovery Inc.
The protection of World Maritime Heritage is a focus of AWW's activities. 'This unusually large ship for the late 16th century makes this project a unique challenge for our team from a cultural, historical and commercial point of view.', informs Count Sandizell.
Latest information concerning the 'Wanli Cargo' is available at www.wanlicargo.com.
MADEIRA, Portugal -- Arqueonautas Worldwide, in direct cooperation with RM Discovery Inc. (RMD), confirms after successful completion of a marine archaeological reconnaissance operation, the recovery of the biggest ever found shipwreck cargo of Ming porcelain. The Chinese merchant ship from the time of the Wanli Emperor sank around 1580 in over 50 meters depth approximately 150 km off the Indonesian coast.
'Based on conservative estimates a cargo of roughly 700,000 pieces of porcelain is expected. According to experts the value of the cargo could therefore be around US$ 70 Mio.', says Arqueonautas Worldwide CEO Nikolaus Count Sandizell out of Jakarta. 'The intrinsic value of the 'Wanli' shipwreck confirmed by the Arqueonautas team will allow us to interest potential investors so that by late summer the extensive salvage operations can begin. For us it is crucial to carry out this operation in a scientifically sound manner whilst being economically viable, which is guaranteed by AWW's expertise.', states Oliver Herrmann, director of RM Discovery Inc.
The protection of World Maritime Heritage is a focus of AWW's activities. 'This unusually large ship for the late 16th century makes this project a unique challenge for our team from a cultural, historical and commercial point of view.', informs Count Sandizell.
Latest information concerning the 'Wanli Cargo' is available at www.wanlicargo.com.
Kon-Tiki explorer was partly right – Polynesians had South American roots
The Telegraph (UK): Kon-Tiki explorer was partly right – Polynesians had South American roots
Thor Heyerdahl clung to Kon-Tiki, his balsa wood raft, for 4,300 miles to show that Polynesia could have been colonised from South America rather than Asia as commonly thought.
But despite achieving his goal – sustaining his 101 day voyage with sharks caught with his bare hands – the Norwegian failed to sway the scientific community.
Now – 64 years later- new research has finally proved the adventurer was at least partly right after all.
A team of scientists have tested the genetic make up of descendants of the original islanders and found it includes DNA that could have only come from native Americans.
That means that some time before the remote islands – including Easter Island – were colonised by Europeans the locals had interbred with people from South America.
The Polynesian islands are some of the most remote in the world – lying thousands of miles west of South America and thousands of miles east of Asia.
The established theory has always been that Polynesia was colonised via Asia around 5,500 years ago.
This has been backed up by archaeology, linguistics and some genetic studies.
But in 1947, Heyerdahl controversially claimed that Easter Island's famous statues were similar to those at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, and sailed a raft from Peru to French Polynesia to prove it could have been colonised from America.
Now Professor Erik Thorsby of the University of Oslo in Norway has found clear evidence to support elements of Heyerdahl's hypothesis.
In 1971 and 2008 he collected blood samples from Easter Islanders whose ancestors had not interbred with Europeans and other visitors to the island.
Prof Thorsby looked at the genes, which vary greatly from person to person.
Most of the islanders' genes were Polynesian, but a few of them also carried genes only previously found in indigenous American populations.
Prof Thorsby found that in some cases the Polynesian and American genes were shuffled together, the result of a process known "recombination".
This means the American genes would need to be around for a certain amount of time for it to happen.
Prof Thorsby can't put a precise date on it, but says it is likely that Americans reached Easter Island before it was "discovered" by Europeans in 1722.
Prof Thorsby believes there may have been a Kon-Tiki-style voyage from South America to Polynesia.
Alternatively, Polynesians may have travelled east to South America, and then returned.
However, Prof Thorsby said that his new evidence does not confirm Heyerdahl's theory that the islanders were originally all from South America.
The first settlers to Polynesia came from Asia, and they made the biggest contribution to the population, he said.
"Heyerdahl was wrong but not completely," he said.
The work was presented at a Royal Society talk in London and reported in the New Scientist.
Thor Heyerdahl clung to Kon-Tiki, his balsa wood raft, for 4,300 miles to show that Polynesia could have been colonised from South America rather than Asia as commonly thought.
But despite achieving his goal – sustaining his 101 day voyage with sharks caught with his bare hands – the Norwegian failed to sway the scientific community.
Now – 64 years later- new research has finally proved the adventurer was at least partly right after all.
A team of scientists have tested the genetic make up of descendants of the original islanders and found it includes DNA that could have only come from native Americans.
That means that some time before the remote islands – including Easter Island – were colonised by Europeans the locals had interbred with people from South America.
The Polynesian islands are some of the most remote in the world – lying thousands of miles west of South America and thousands of miles east of Asia.
The established theory has always been that Polynesia was colonised via Asia around 5,500 years ago.
This has been backed up by archaeology, linguistics and some genetic studies.
But in 1947, Heyerdahl controversially claimed that Easter Island's famous statues were similar to those at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, and sailed a raft from Peru to French Polynesia to prove it could have been colonised from America.
Now Professor Erik Thorsby of the University of Oslo in Norway has found clear evidence to support elements of Heyerdahl's hypothesis.
In 1971 and 2008 he collected blood samples from Easter Islanders whose ancestors had not interbred with Europeans and other visitors to the island.
Prof Thorsby looked at the genes, which vary greatly from person to person.
Most of the islanders' genes were Polynesian, but a few of them also carried genes only previously found in indigenous American populations.
Prof Thorsby found that in some cases the Polynesian and American genes were shuffled together, the result of a process known "recombination".
This means the American genes would need to be around for a certain amount of time for it to happen.
Prof Thorsby can't put a precise date on it, but says it is likely that Americans reached Easter Island before it was "discovered" by Europeans in 1722.
Prof Thorsby believes there may have been a Kon-Tiki-style voyage from South America to Polynesia.
Alternatively, Polynesians may have travelled east to South America, and then returned.
However, Prof Thorsby said that his new evidence does not confirm Heyerdahl's theory that the islanders were originally all from South America.
The first settlers to Polynesia came from Asia, and they made the biggest contribution to the population, he said.
"Heyerdahl was wrong but not completely," he said.
The work was presented at a Royal Society talk in London and reported in the New Scientist.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Australia: Buried treasure in Albany may be lost forever
ABC News (Australia): Buried treasure in Albany may be lost forever
When a 19 year-old construction worker plucked the first golden coin from the rubble at an Albany construction site, he could not have predicted the excitement it would cause.
But as workers dug coin after coin from the ground, finally counting more than 300, they probably realised they were onto something big.
The coins, found just inches under slabs of tarmac at the site of the old Freemasons Hotel, were solid gold sovereigns, dated between 1817 and 1900 and were later valued at over $130,000.
Andrew Eyden from the Albany Historical Society says his team is tremendously excited by the find.
"We are working feverishly trying to figure out how they got there," he said.
'We are trawling through old newspapers, records of meetings and the like for clues.'
Mr Eyden says the historical society has come up with one theory which could explain why a large amount of coins were buried at the site.
"There was a time in the 1880's when the townspeople were scared by the very real threat of an attack by the Russians on Australian Ports," he said.
"The British were very close to declaring war on Russia and Russian ships had been sent on a reconnaissance mission to take depth soundings and photographs of Albany's port.
"The banks in Albany were so concerned about the threat, they packed up 3,000 of the town's sovereigns and sent them to Perth for safekeeping."
Mr Eyden thinks it is completely plausible that some of the money was lost along the way.
"It's entirely possible because the banks involved were located very close to that site."
Theories abound
Other people have their theories too.
One researcher believes the coins might have been the ones stolen from notorious South Coast whaler and sealer John Williams in 1842.
John Robertson, who has studied the history of sealing and whaling on the South Coast for the past 12 years, says two men were sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing 250 gold sovereigns and a large amount of silver from Williams.
"But the money was never recovered, so there's every chance the money found in the car park belonged to Williams," he said.
"The two thieves were sent to Tasmania and we don't know what became of them after that.
"They could have buried their money and never come back for it."
Access denied
Mr Eyden says the Historical Society would love to inspect the coins and the site where they were found.
But that may never be possible.
Despite pleas from the society and archaeologists keen to study the coins, the owner of the site where the sovereigns were found, local businessman Paul Lionetti, won't show the gold to anyone.
Mr Lionetti has also made it clear he does not want people on his land.
When news of the discovery reached national audiences, Mr Lionetti employed a security company to patrol fences erected around the site.
Professor John Tarrant from the University of Western Australia's law school says he doesn't believe Mr Lionetti is breaking any laws by holding on to the find.
"As I understand the facts, he is the owner of the land," he said.
"And, as I also understand, the gold coins were discovered in the land, buried in the soil.
"That is significant because the case law indicates that in such a circumstance, the owner of the land - when something like this is found - is the owner of the discovery."
Professor Tarrant adds that he does not know of any law that governs historical finds on private property.
"I'm not aware of any law that would require the owner of the land to hand these coins over to the state or any agency of the state," he said.
"It would be a matter of looking through any of the heritage laws to see if there was anything in those types of laws that would override common law property principals.
'Of course, if there was someone that came forward and claimed that they were the true owner of the coins, then we would have a different contest."
Public interest
Marine Archaeologist Adam Wolfe disagrees that Mr Lionetti should be able to block public access to his find.
He says Western Australia is being denied its heritage.
"It's a great tragedy. Albany is the first site of European settlement and the principal port of the colony of western australia until 1900," he said.
"The things that are on that site, the information that's contained there is of great significance to Albany and the history of Western Australia and belongs to all.
"It belongs to the community and it's quite likely that it demonstrates an awful lot of information."
Mr Wolfe says archaeological sites are better protected in other parts of Australia.
"If we were in Sydney the problem wouldn't have arisen," he said.
"Part of the planning regulation would require the developer to conduct a cultural heritage and archaeological survey of the site to ensure that when works did commence, there's some understanding of what might be discovered.
"More importantly, you would have to conduct an archaeological watching brief."
He says Western Australia needs to follow Sydney's lead.
"There needs to be planning and regulations here to ensure that discoveries like this are managed properly," he said.
"Buried treasure has been found in Albany and now it is going to be lost."
"It is also a great tourism opportunity thrown in the bin."
When a 19 year-old construction worker plucked the first golden coin from the rubble at an Albany construction site, he could not have predicted the excitement it would cause.
But as workers dug coin after coin from the ground, finally counting more than 300, they probably realised they were onto something big.
The coins, found just inches under slabs of tarmac at the site of the old Freemasons Hotel, were solid gold sovereigns, dated between 1817 and 1900 and were later valued at over $130,000.
Andrew Eyden from the Albany Historical Society says his team is tremendously excited by the find.
"We are working feverishly trying to figure out how they got there," he said.
'We are trawling through old newspapers, records of meetings and the like for clues.'
Mr Eyden says the historical society has come up with one theory which could explain why a large amount of coins were buried at the site.
"There was a time in the 1880's when the townspeople were scared by the very real threat of an attack by the Russians on Australian Ports," he said.
"The British were very close to declaring war on Russia and Russian ships had been sent on a reconnaissance mission to take depth soundings and photographs of Albany's port.
"The banks in Albany were so concerned about the threat, they packed up 3,000 of the town's sovereigns and sent them to Perth for safekeeping."
Mr Eyden thinks it is completely plausible that some of the money was lost along the way.
"It's entirely possible because the banks involved were located very close to that site."
Theories abound
Other people have their theories too.
One researcher believes the coins might have been the ones stolen from notorious South Coast whaler and sealer John Williams in 1842.
John Robertson, who has studied the history of sealing and whaling on the South Coast for the past 12 years, says two men were sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing 250 gold sovereigns and a large amount of silver from Williams.
"But the money was never recovered, so there's every chance the money found in the car park belonged to Williams," he said.
"The two thieves were sent to Tasmania and we don't know what became of them after that.
"They could have buried their money and never come back for it."
Access denied
Mr Eyden says the Historical Society would love to inspect the coins and the site where they were found.
But that may never be possible.
Despite pleas from the society and archaeologists keen to study the coins, the owner of the site where the sovereigns were found, local businessman Paul Lionetti, won't show the gold to anyone.
Mr Lionetti has also made it clear he does not want people on his land.
When news of the discovery reached national audiences, Mr Lionetti employed a security company to patrol fences erected around the site.
Professor John Tarrant from the University of Western Australia's law school says he doesn't believe Mr Lionetti is breaking any laws by holding on to the find.
"As I understand the facts, he is the owner of the land," he said.
"And, as I also understand, the gold coins were discovered in the land, buried in the soil.
"That is significant because the case law indicates that in such a circumstance, the owner of the land - when something like this is found - is the owner of the discovery."
Professor Tarrant adds that he does not know of any law that governs historical finds on private property.
"I'm not aware of any law that would require the owner of the land to hand these coins over to the state or any agency of the state," he said.
"It would be a matter of looking through any of the heritage laws to see if there was anything in those types of laws that would override common law property principals.
'Of course, if there was someone that came forward and claimed that they were the true owner of the coins, then we would have a different contest."
Public interest
Marine Archaeologist Adam Wolfe disagrees that Mr Lionetti should be able to block public access to his find.
He says Western Australia is being denied its heritage.
"It's a great tragedy. Albany is the first site of European settlement and the principal port of the colony of western australia until 1900," he said.
"The things that are on that site, the information that's contained there is of great significance to Albany and the history of Western Australia and belongs to all.
"It belongs to the community and it's quite likely that it demonstrates an awful lot of information."
Mr Wolfe says archaeological sites are better protected in other parts of Australia.
"If we were in Sydney the problem wouldn't have arisen," he said.
"Part of the planning regulation would require the developer to conduct a cultural heritage and archaeological survey of the site to ensure that when works did commence, there's some understanding of what might be discovered.
"More importantly, you would have to conduct an archaeological watching brief."
He says Western Australia needs to follow Sydney's lead.
"There needs to be planning and regulations here to ensure that discoveries like this are managed properly," he said.
"Buried treasure has been found in Albany and now it is going to be lost."
"It is also a great tourism opportunity thrown in the bin."
New York man makes $500-a-week from jewels found on city's pavements
Jeez - talk about imperiling your livlihood. Now everyone is going to do this - there will be armies of diamond hunters crawling the streets now! (Except it is reported in a British paper rather than a New York one...so perhaps his secret is yet safe.)
Metro.co.uk: New York man makes $500-a-week from jewels found on city's pavements
Armed with a pair of tweezers and a butter knife, Raffi Stepanian goes hunting for dropped and lost treasure in the dirt on the pavements of New York’s Diamond District.
The 43-year-old says some of the items – diamond and ruby chips, gold earring backs, loops from broken chains, watches, brooches and necklaces – have been there for 60 years.
Mr Stepanian, a freelance diamond setter, can make $500 (£310) a week and said: ‘The stones are already cut and manufactured – it’s a step above a mine. I’m finding them already cut and polished.
‘You just have to get down on your knees and get it. Material falls off clothes, it drops off jewellery, and it falls in the dirt and sticks to the gum on the street. It’s the same principle as collecting cans on the street and redeeming them for nickels. It’s redemption of reusable gold.’
A gems dealer named Frank chuckled as he dug in the dirty pavement outside his shop.
‘Half of it’s probably mine,’ he said.
Metro.co.uk: New York man makes $500-a-week from jewels found on city's pavements
Armed with a pair of tweezers and a butter knife, Raffi Stepanian goes hunting for dropped and lost treasure in the dirt on the pavements of New York’s Diamond District.
The 43-year-old says some of the items – diamond and ruby chips, gold earring backs, loops from broken chains, watches, brooches and necklaces – have been there for 60 years.
Mr Stepanian, a freelance diamond setter, can make $500 (£310) a week and said: ‘The stones are already cut and manufactured – it’s a step above a mine. I’m finding them already cut and polished.
‘You just have to get down on your knees and get it. Material falls off clothes, it drops off jewellery, and it falls in the dirt and sticks to the gum on the street. It’s the same principle as collecting cans on the street and redeeming them for nickels. It’s redemption of reusable gold.’
A gems dealer named Frank chuckled as he dug in the dirty pavement outside his shop.
‘Half of it’s probably mine,’ he said.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Effort to tie North Carolina shipwreck to pirate Blackbeard advances
Los Angeles Times: Effort to tie North Carolina shipwreck to pirate Blackbeard advances
After examining thousands of artifacts and digging through historical data, maritime archaeologists have a verdict: A ship off North Carolina is all but certainly the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Reporting from Beaufort, N.C.— In the fall of 1996, a private treasure-hunting company discovered a shipwreck in shallow waters a mile off the coast of this colonial fishing harbor.
Divers found a bronze bell dated 1705, an English musketoon gun barrel, and 18th century cannons and cannon balls.
North Carolina's top marine archaeologists were pretty sure the wreck was the Queen Anne's Revenge, the cannon-heavy flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard that ran aground here in 1718. But being scientists, they used buzzkill qualifiers such as "believed to be" and "consistent with" to describe the wreck.
Now, after examining thousands of artifacts and digging through historical records, those same archaeologists have finally delivered a verdict:
The ship is very likely, just about dead sure, all but certain, no doubt the Queen Anne's Revenge. Pretty much.
"It's in the right place, from the right time, with a preponderance of circumstantial evidence that has become overwhelming," said David Moore, a sturdy, bearded nautical archaeologist who has spent 15 years diving the wreck.
No one has found "the smoking blunderbuss," said Jeffrey Crow, a historian with North Carolina's Office of Archives and History. But archaeological detective work has proved that every significant artifact — from swords to gold pieces to silver boot buckles to a diamond-encrusted wine glass — is dated before the 1718 wreck. That and other compelling evidence confirm that the ship can be none other than the Queen Anne's Revenge.
The two marine archaeologists who wrote the scholarly paper that has prompted the state to seal the deal on Blackbeard's 90-foot ship said, "It was the right-sized vessel, in the right place, at the right time, and with artifacts of the right period."
Perfect! But then they had to add this downer: "And often, with archaeology, that's as good as it gets."
Mark Wilde-Ramsing, deputy state archaeologist and head of the Queen Anne's Revenge project, wrote the paper with Charles Ewen of the anthropology faculty at East Carolina University. Although he has long believed the shipwreck is Blackbeard's, Wilde-Ramsing urged caution for years as the wreck was studied.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," he said.
The shipwreck paper, to be published next spring in the scholarly journal Historical Archaeology, now provides that level of proof, he said.
The Queen Anne's Revenge was originally a French slave ship named La Concorde. Blackbeard captured the vessel in the Caribbean in 1717, renamed it and armed it with fearsome cannons and swivel guns.
Blackbeard, variously known as Edouard or Edward Teach (or Tiche or Thatch), didn't leave many clues. After his flagship ran aground on a sandbar in the spring of 1718 at what is now called Beaufort Inlet, he and his pirate crew took their sweet time unloading the ship, leaving behind virtually nothing personal or proprietary — no diary, no letter, no engraved ring.
(Blackbeard's remains are certainly not available. In November 1718, his corpse was dumped at sea and his severed head mounted on a bowsprit after sailors dispatched by Virginia's governor killed him in a showdown near Ocracoke).
As the paper's authors note: "Short of a bell with La Concorde scratched out and Queen Anne's Revenge crudely chiseled over it, what would constitute proof positive?"
How about these artifacts:
• A brass coin weight bearing the bust of Queen Anne of England, cast during her reign (1702-1714).
• A wine glass decorated with diamonds and tiny embossed crowns, made to commemorate the 1714 coronation of Queen Anne's successor, King George I.
• A French hunting sword fragment featuring a bust that closely resembles King Louis XV, who claimed the French throne in 1715.
• A French-made urethral syringe for treating venereal diseases. A control mark showed that it was made in Paris between 1707 and 1715.
These and other discoveries helped rebut a 2005 International Journal of Nautical Archaeology article that accused the state of prematurely certifying the shipwreck as Blackbeard's. The article suggested "a strong tendency towards Ruling Theory, whereby researchers seem to shape evidence to fit a preconceived identification."
That unpleasantness is long forgotten as overflow crowds have jammed the Queen Anne's Revenge exhibit that opened June 11 at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, and as media coverage has fanned public fascination with all things pirate. It didn't hurt that Hollywood's latest installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean," featuring the Queen Anne's Revenge, is a summer blockbuster.
Only half the site has been excavated, Moore said. Just last month, a 3,000-pound anchor was brought to the surface.
It'll be a long while before all the wreck's estimated 750,000 artifacts — and perhaps the absolute, definitive, clinching proof of Blackbeard's flagship — are hauled up and carefully examined, Moore said.
How long?
Moore shrugged. "I'd say another 15 years."
After examining thousands of artifacts and digging through historical data, maritime archaeologists have a verdict: A ship off North Carolina is all but certainly the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Reporting from Beaufort, N.C.— In the fall of 1996, a private treasure-hunting company discovered a shipwreck in shallow waters a mile off the coast of this colonial fishing harbor.
Divers found a bronze bell dated 1705, an English musketoon gun barrel, and 18th century cannons and cannon balls.
North Carolina's top marine archaeologists were pretty sure the wreck was the Queen Anne's Revenge, the cannon-heavy flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard that ran aground here in 1718. But being scientists, they used buzzkill qualifiers such as "believed to be" and "consistent with" to describe the wreck.
Now, after examining thousands of artifacts and digging through historical records, those same archaeologists have finally delivered a verdict:
The ship is very likely, just about dead sure, all but certain, no doubt the Queen Anne's Revenge. Pretty much.
"It's in the right place, from the right time, with a preponderance of circumstantial evidence that has become overwhelming," said David Moore, a sturdy, bearded nautical archaeologist who has spent 15 years diving the wreck.
No one has found "the smoking blunderbuss," said Jeffrey Crow, a historian with North Carolina's Office of Archives and History. But archaeological detective work has proved that every significant artifact — from swords to gold pieces to silver boot buckles to a diamond-encrusted wine glass — is dated before the 1718 wreck. That and other compelling evidence confirm that the ship can be none other than the Queen Anne's Revenge.
The two marine archaeologists who wrote the scholarly paper that has prompted the state to seal the deal on Blackbeard's 90-foot ship said, "It was the right-sized vessel, in the right place, at the right time, and with artifacts of the right period."
Perfect! But then they had to add this downer: "And often, with archaeology, that's as good as it gets."
Mark Wilde-Ramsing, deputy state archaeologist and head of the Queen Anne's Revenge project, wrote the paper with Charles Ewen of the anthropology faculty at East Carolina University. Although he has long believed the shipwreck is Blackbeard's, Wilde-Ramsing urged caution for years as the wreck was studied.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," he said.
The shipwreck paper, to be published next spring in the scholarly journal Historical Archaeology, now provides that level of proof, he said.
The Queen Anne's Revenge was originally a French slave ship named La Concorde. Blackbeard captured the vessel in the Caribbean in 1717, renamed it and armed it with fearsome cannons and swivel guns.
Blackbeard, variously known as Edouard or Edward Teach (or Tiche or Thatch), didn't leave many clues. After his flagship ran aground on a sandbar in the spring of 1718 at what is now called Beaufort Inlet, he and his pirate crew took their sweet time unloading the ship, leaving behind virtually nothing personal or proprietary — no diary, no letter, no engraved ring.
(Blackbeard's remains are certainly not available. In November 1718, his corpse was dumped at sea and his severed head mounted on a bowsprit after sailors dispatched by Virginia's governor killed him in a showdown near Ocracoke).
As the paper's authors note: "Short of a bell with La Concorde scratched out and Queen Anne's Revenge crudely chiseled over it, what would constitute proof positive?"
How about these artifacts:
• A brass coin weight bearing the bust of Queen Anne of England, cast during her reign (1702-1714).
• A wine glass decorated with diamonds and tiny embossed crowns, made to commemorate the 1714 coronation of Queen Anne's successor, King George I.
• A French hunting sword fragment featuring a bust that closely resembles King Louis XV, who claimed the French throne in 1715.
• A French-made urethral syringe for treating venereal diseases. A control mark showed that it was made in Paris between 1707 and 1715.
These and other discoveries helped rebut a 2005 International Journal of Nautical Archaeology article that accused the state of prematurely certifying the shipwreck as Blackbeard's. The article suggested "a strong tendency towards Ruling Theory, whereby researchers seem to shape evidence to fit a preconceived identification."
That unpleasantness is long forgotten as overflow crowds have jammed the Queen Anne's Revenge exhibit that opened June 11 at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, and as media coverage has fanned public fascination with all things pirate. It didn't hurt that Hollywood's latest installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean," featuring the Queen Anne's Revenge, is a summer blockbuster.
Only half the site has been excavated, Moore said. Just last month, a 3,000-pound anchor was brought to the surface.
It'll be a long while before all the wreck's estimated 750,000 artifacts — and perhaps the absolute, definitive, clinching proof of Blackbeard's flagship — are hauled up and carefully examined, Moore said.
How long?
Moore shrugged. "I'd say another 15 years."
Model plane pilots worry over looming regulation
WSLS10: Model plane pilots worry over looming regulation
Pilot Matthew Shimchock loves being behind the controls of his warbird. "You can have the same effect of having several of these warbirds up in the air at the same time, flying in formation, chasing each other around," he said.
It's a hobby he and the one hundred members of the Roanoke Valley Radio Control Club take seriously. "As little as a few hundred dollars or you can spend several thousand dollars
and several hundred hours of your free time putting together models."
And more people across the country are doing it. So much so, the Federal Aviation Administration is getting involved and looking into regulating unmanned aircraft systems and possibly setting strict limits on the model planes."How high we go, how fast we can go, how far we can go," Shimchock explained.
The FAA says its concern is safety, the safety of more than 100,000 aviation operations a day, including commercial air traffic and cargo operations. Radio control pilots argue their pastime is safe. "They fly from one point and return to the same point and usually flying around in a very fixed, controlled area," Shimchock said.
The FAA expects to rule by the end of the year, leaving Shimchock to appeal to his congressman and hoping the federal agency won't come down too hard on remote pilots.
Pilot Matthew Shimchock loves being behind the controls of his warbird. "You can have the same effect of having several of these warbirds up in the air at the same time, flying in formation, chasing each other around," he said.
It's a hobby he and the one hundred members of the Roanoke Valley Radio Control Club take seriously. "As little as a few hundred dollars or you can spend several thousand dollars
and several hundred hours of your free time putting together models."
And more people across the country are doing it. So much so, the Federal Aviation Administration is getting involved and looking into regulating unmanned aircraft systems and possibly setting strict limits on the model planes."How high we go, how fast we can go, how far we can go," Shimchock explained.
The FAA says its concern is safety, the safety of more than 100,000 aviation operations a day, including commercial air traffic and cargo operations. Radio control pilots argue their pastime is safe. "They fly from one point and return to the same point and usually flying around in a very fixed, controlled area," Shimchock said.
The FAA expects to rule by the end of the year, leaving Shimchock to appeal to his congressman and hoping the federal agency won't come down too hard on remote pilots.
Friday, June 17, 2011
War of 1812 shipwrecks: Lake Ontario hunt is on
MSNBC: War of 1812 shipwrecks: Lake Ontario hunt is on
By Katharine Gammon
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 6/17/2011
Two centuries after a naval arms race introduced more and more warships to the Great Lakes, the search is on for the sunken remains of two of the ships that fought in the War of 1812.
Researchers are digging the depths of Lake Ontario for the remains of a frigate called the Mohawk and an unnamed U.S. gunboat designed for amphibious attacks and harassing British shipping.
"Quite a few ships have been excavated around the Great Lakes in the U.S. and Canada from the War of 1812, but there are many that haven't been found," underwater archaeologist Ben Ford said.
There is good reason to believe these ships lie in sediment near each other, making them excellent targets for a summer excavation, Ford told OurAmazingPlanet.
Ben Ford, Anthropology Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
This is a scan of a shipwreck that researcher Ben Ford found in Lake Ontario during previous work. It is not one of the vessels he and his colleague will be searching for this summer. Left to rot
Ford and his colleague Katie Farnsworth, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, are surveying Black River Bay, in the northeast corner of Lake Ontario, to find the two shipwrecks.
"Basically the geography worked out and made sense to look at both of them at the same time," Ford said. Another ship, the Jefferson, was found and studied in 1984.
If the team is now able to find the Mohawk and the gunboat, between them and the Jefferson "we could have a decent spectrum of the American ships on Lake Ontario."
Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesWhen the conflict with the British ended in 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, many ships that had cruised and fought on the Great Lakes were abandoned.
As Ford describes it, the war had been an arms race for both sides without a lot of major battles.
"Leaders on both sides wanted to have a clear advantage; (they) couldn't afford to lose, so they kept sending ships out," he said. When the war ended, those ships were too big to be useful for moving cargo or people, so they just sat around — ready to be trotted out again in case of a conflict.
"So they began to rot. A number of them sank to the bottom, and others were stashed in Sackets Harbor," a lakeside harbor in New York state that hosted a Navy shipyard, Ford said. Eventually, the remaining ships were moved, burned or intentionally sunk.
Courtesy of Indiana University of Pennsylvania
A map of Lake Ontario circa 1790. Shipwreck sonar search
The current work, which is supported by the National Geographic Society, involves both surveying and excavating in 50 feet of water.
The floor of the harbor is sand and silt, bordered by rock ledges, making an interesting time of digging.
Ford says the teams are using remote sensing with sonar to create an acoustic picture of the bottom of the lake, as well as a magnetometer to measure minute changes in the magnetic field, which could reflect the presence of a ship.
If they find the two wrecks, the researchers plan to return next summer with more equipment to build a better picture of the past.
California Fun: The search is on for Bones' Booty
Santa Rosa's Press Gazette: The search is on for Bones' Booty
Blackwater Bones is lurking in Milton and trying to hide his booty once again.
The scourge of the Blackwater River is preparing for Milton’s annual treasure hunt, which will kickoff officially Friday in Historic Downtown Milton.
The first clue will be given out those who want to get an early start at 6 p.m. Friday at the Blackwater Bistro.
Bones and his crew will read the first clue and will have a treasure chest of pirate goodies.
Starting Saturday everyone else will get to see the clues online each day at 4:30 p.m. through various media outlets including the Santa Rosa Press Gazette.
Clues will also be posted at the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce Office on Stewart Street.
An added twist this year will be daily Treasure Booty prize.
The first person to call the Blackwater Bones Treasure Hunt Hotline with the correct Pirate Key will win a prize.
According to Donna Tucker, Executive Director of the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce, the first booty prize will be a certified authentic pendant made from a silver bar of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a 1600’s shipwreck found by renowned treasure hunter Mel Fisher. Other daily prizes will include various items such as gift certificates, pyrate attire, and accessories.
Treasure Hunters will use eight Pirate Keys to decipher the Pirate Code, a sentence or phrase that reveals the mystery treasure object’s identity and secret location.
The lucky treasure hunter who finds Bones’ treasure will receive the grand prize, which includes three commemorative Blackwater Pyrate solid silver coins.
This year there will also be a drawing for those who complete all eight pirate keys correctly on the treasure map.
Treasure maps will be available at the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce Office or online at www.srchamber.com.
“You’re going to have to do some research to solve the clues, because they are challenging,” said Wes Meiss, President of the Santa Rosa Historical Society. “It’s a great way for families to learn about Milton’s history, and a chance to win some great prizes too.”
Bones has been seen recently reading the book, Images of America: Santa Rosa County by Laurie Green, which could be of help to the treasure seekers.
The book is available at the chamber office if you would like to purchase a copy.
“One goal of our Treasure Hunt Committee is to build and improve on the hunt each year,” Tucker said. “This year we decided to offer more chances to win. The daily prizes reward those who are quick to solve the clues.”
Besides the Santa Rosa Press Gazette website other sources to keep up with the clues will be the new Blackwater Bones Lost Treasure Hunt website, www.blackwaterbonestreasurehunt.com or the Blackwater Pyrates Facebook page.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Sea hunt for ancient Chinese ship off African coast
GlobalPost: Sea hunt for ancient Chinese ship off African coast
LAMU, Kenya — Did the Chinese come to East Africa before the Europeans?
China says yes, as do a growing number of Western historians. To prove the theory, Chinese and Kenyan archeologists are now searching the African coast for the fabled wreck of a Ming dynasty junk — an ancient Chinese sailing vessel — from the fleet of legendary 15th-century explorer Zheng He.
A new report, obtained by GlobalPost, reveals that the researchers have identified several shipwrecks of interest off the Kenyan coast near the World Heritage site of Lamu.
Despite years of excitable hype by China’s state media, the underwater archaeologists involved in the search are warning that the newly discovered wrecks could be from any era or country — and even if a sunken Chinese ship is found, it may no longer be intact or even identifiable.
Some reports in the Chinese and Kenyan media have implied that the wreck of a ship from Zheng He’s fleet has already been found — and by extension, irrefutable historical proof that Chinese explorers visited Kenya before the Europeans. Evidence that China had friendly trading relations with Africa before the colonialists arrived would add luster to the Asian giant’s rapidly expanding presence on the continent.
According to this historical perspective, 600 years ago, Chinese sailors swam ashore after their vessel was shipwrecked off the coast of Pate Island, near Lamu. The Chinese sailors married the local people, and their descendants can still be identified by their almond-shaped eyes and light skin.
But the problem is that so far, there is no concrete proof that this tale is true. While archeologists have found Chinese coins and ceramics in Kenya, these could be explained by ancient trade routes that took Chinese goods through the Malacca Strait, and into India and the Arab world.
China state media claims that DNA tests have proven Chinese ancestry for some of the residents of Pate Island, but results have not been released. The light skin of these residents could just as well be explained by longstanding trade between the area and India, and migration from the Arab peninsula to the Swahili coast.
The first phase of a $3 million, three-year project to try to find conclusive evidence of Zheng He's journey occurred between late December and January.
A draft of the archaeology team’s first progress report, obtained by GlobalPost, lowers expectations that this missing ship will be found, warning that “we are not searching for the Zheng He or the Chinese shipwrecks alone,” but rather looking for “underwater archaeological heritage” from any era.
The report does tout the success of researchers in locating several potential shipwreck sites, found through interviews with local fishermen, seabed imaging, literature reviews and probe diving.
In the Lamu archipelago, three underwater sites were identified to have features likely to be shipwrecks: the area just off Mwamba Hassan — a large rock off Pate Island that the Chinese ship is said to have hit — as well as areas off Manda Toto island and Shela village on the island of Lamu. Five other shipwrecks were discovered, one believed to be from the 14th century, near the coastal city of Malindi.
“The discovery of these sites in Lamu, where Zheng He’s ship is believed to have sunk, was a major success and step towards discovery of this shipwreck,” says the report.
The second phase of the project, scheduled to begin in November, will further study the shipwreck sites by using diver surveys and analysis of artifacts.
“Since we know how Chinese junks were built and their likely cargo of that time, they are easy to identify,” the report says. “However this depends on whether the ship is well preserved under the sea."
When GlobalPost visited one of the project’s research sites in January, a team of Kenyan and Chinese scientists were working together just a hundred yards off Shela beach, a posh holiday area on Lamu Island frequented by Hollywood celebrities and European royals.
“Zheng He visited Malindi two or three times. During one of his visits, one of the boats in his fleet capsized, but we do not have physical evidence,” said Philip Wanyama, a Mombasa-based assistant site scientist for coastal archaeological research, and one of the divers searching off Lamu Island.
“What we are seeking is material clues to confirm that written information,” he said.
But as in the report, the team of Kenyan and Chinese archaeologists in Lamu also tried to play down the focus on finding Zheng He’s storied lost ship.
“We are not looking for the ship alone, but doing a comprehensive survey,” Wanyama said.
“Because this is the first time that we have come to Kenya, there are bumps to work out," said Li Jianan, team leader in Lamu and director of the archeology institute at the provincial museum in Fujian, China
The progress report notes that the Kenyan coast has been visited by waves of foreigners for centuries, including Arabs, the Portuguese and the British.
“There is therefore likely to be more underwater cultural heritage in our waters than we can imagine,” it said. “For this reason we are looking for all shipwrecks, no matter their nationality.”
If a ship is found intact, it can be identified by the researchers, and in that case “we will with certainty say, 'yes, this is a Chinese junk,'” the report said. “But if it has succumbed to the elements of nature including bacteria, it is only the available artifacts such as the cargo and any wood remains which will give us clues about this Zheng He shipwreck.”
LAMU, Kenya — Did the Chinese come to East Africa before the Europeans?
China says yes, as do a growing number of Western historians. To prove the theory, Chinese and Kenyan archeologists are now searching the African coast for the fabled wreck of a Ming dynasty junk — an ancient Chinese sailing vessel — from the fleet of legendary 15th-century explorer Zheng He.
A new report, obtained by GlobalPost, reveals that the researchers have identified several shipwrecks of interest off the Kenyan coast near the World Heritage site of Lamu.
Despite years of excitable hype by China’s state media, the underwater archaeologists involved in the search are warning that the newly discovered wrecks could be from any era or country — and even if a sunken Chinese ship is found, it may no longer be intact or even identifiable.
Some reports in the Chinese and Kenyan media have implied that the wreck of a ship from Zheng He’s fleet has already been found — and by extension, irrefutable historical proof that Chinese explorers visited Kenya before the Europeans. Evidence that China had friendly trading relations with Africa before the colonialists arrived would add luster to the Asian giant’s rapidly expanding presence on the continent.
According to this historical perspective, 600 years ago, Chinese sailors swam ashore after their vessel was shipwrecked off the coast of Pate Island, near Lamu. The Chinese sailors married the local people, and their descendants can still be identified by their almond-shaped eyes and light skin.
But the problem is that so far, there is no concrete proof that this tale is true. While archeologists have found Chinese coins and ceramics in Kenya, these could be explained by ancient trade routes that took Chinese goods through the Malacca Strait, and into India and the Arab world.
China state media claims that DNA tests have proven Chinese ancestry for some of the residents of Pate Island, but results have not been released. The light skin of these residents could just as well be explained by longstanding trade between the area and India, and migration from the Arab peninsula to the Swahili coast.
The first phase of a $3 million, three-year project to try to find conclusive evidence of Zheng He's journey occurred between late December and January.
A draft of the archaeology team’s first progress report, obtained by GlobalPost, lowers expectations that this missing ship will be found, warning that “we are not searching for the Zheng He or the Chinese shipwrecks alone,” but rather looking for “underwater archaeological heritage” from any era.
The report does tout the success of researchers in locating several potential shipwreck sites, found through interviews with local fishermen, seabed imaging, literature reviews and probe diving.
In the Lamu archipelago, three underwater sites were identified to have features likely to be shipwrecks: the area just off Mwamba Hassan — a large rock off Pate Island that the Chinese ship is said to have hit — as well as areas off Manda Toto island and Shela village on the island of Lamu. Five other shipwrecks were discovered, one believed to be from the 14th century, near the coastal city of Malindi.
“The discovery of these sites in Lamu, where Zheng He’s ship is believed to have sunk, was a major success and step towards discovery of this shipwreck,” says the report.
The second phase of the project, scheduled to begin in November, will further study the shipwreck sites by using diver surveys and analysis of artifacts.
“Since we know how Chinese junks were built and their likely cargo of that time, they are easy to identify,” the report says. “However this depends on whether the ship is well preserved under the sea."
When GlobalPost visited one of the project’s research sites in January, a team of Kenyan and Chinese scientists were working together just a hundred yards off Shela beach, a posh holiday area on Lamu Island frequented by Hollywood celebrities and European royals.
“Zheng He visited Malindi two or three times. During one of his visits, one of the boats in his fleet capsized, but we do not have physical evidence,” said Philip Wanyama, a Mombasa-based assistant site scientist for coastal archaeological research, and one of the divers searching off Lamu Island.
“What we are seeking is material clues to confirm that written information,” he said.
But as in the report, the team of Kenyan and Chinese archaeologists in Lamu also tried to play down the focus on finding Zheng He’s storied lost ship.
“We are not looking for the ship alone, but doing a comprehensive survey,” Wanyama said.
“Because this is the first time that we have come to Kenya, there are bumps to work out," said Li Jianan, team leader in Lamu and director of the archeology institute at the provincial museum in Fujian, China
The progress report notes that the Kenyan coast has been visited by waves of foreigners for centuries, including Arabs, the Portuguese and the British.
“There is therefore likely to be more underwater cultural heritage in our waters than we can imagine,” it said. “For this reason we are looking for all shipwrecks, no matter their nationality.”
If a ship is found intact, it can be identified by the researchers, and in that case “we will with certainty say, 'yes, this is a Chinese junk,'” the report said. “But if it has succumbed to the elements of nature including bacteria, it is only the available artifacts such as the cargo and any wood remains which will give us clues about this Zheng He shipwreck.”
Learning from underwater shipwrecks
HistoricCityNews: Learning from underwater shipwrecks
Sarah Miller and Amber Grafft-Weiss keep Historic City News readers up-to-date on what’s happening with the Florida Public Archaeology Network Northeast Region; located in St. Augustine and hosted by Flagler College.
In their latest adventure, Sarah and Amber suited up for submerged resources training as part of a Heritage Awareness Diving Seminar aimed at providing dive instructors with all the information, tools, and resources needed to teach heritage awareness as a specialty course.
Accompanying the students was Chuck Meide, a local underwater and maritime archaeologist who currently serves as director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program; the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum.
The Public Archaeology Network is dedicated to the protection of cultural resources, both on land and underwater, and to involving the public in the study of their past. Our local center, located on Markland Place, serve as a clearinghouse for information, institutions for learning and training, and as headquarters for public participation in archaeology.
Miller reported that their class time focused on sea faring culture and explained how underwater shipwrecks observed by archaeologists translate into how people lived and met their basic needs in the past.
Participants were taught an appreciation for wrecks as non-renewable cultural resources by dive captains whose policy is “Don’t take anything from the wreck, or don’t get back on my boat.”
The course continued along currents of preservation law, conservation, and heritage tourism themes. The day ended with a briefing of the practicum component of the course — diving on shipwrecks.
The next day the 23 class participants visited two submerged archaeological sites; the nineteenth-century Brick Wreck and seventeenth-century Mystery Wreck located within NOAA’s Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
The Brick Wreck is disappearing as parts of the site have been removed either by people or natural causes. Miller said that the night before their dive, they dined at a restaurant with a wall made out of brick from the site. What salvagers might not have known is that the ballast and brick coverage actually protected the site timbers. Without the cover, the timbers are rapidly disappearing — and soon there will be nothing left of the site. “We observed only one intact brick on the wreck, there used to be thousands,” Miller said.
The Mystery Wreck looks completely different. Treasure salvagers cut into the side of the wreck, rather than cutting down from top to bottom; leaving channels of exposed frames and sea floor underneath heaps of ballast, according to Miller.
Looking back, Miller said, “I’m embarrassed I hadn’t done it sooner. So many questions over the last few years I could have answered better.”
The next Heritage Awareness Diving Seminar is being offered in St. Petersburg September 15th and 16th. For more information, contact Miller or Grafft-Weiss by calling (904) 819-6476.
Sarah Miller and Amber Grafft-Weiss keep Historic City News readers up-to-date on what’s happening with the Florida Public Archaeology Network Northeast Region; located in St. Augustine and hosted by Flagler College.
In their latest adventure, Sarah and Amber suited up for submerged resources training as part of a Heritage Awareness Diving Seminar aimed at providing dive instructors with all the information, tools, and resources needed to teach heritage awareness as a specialty course.
Accompanying the students was Chuck Meide, a local underwater and maritime archaeologist who currently serves as director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program; the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum.
The Public Archaeology Network is dedicated to the protection of cultural resources, both on land and underwater, and to involving the public in the study of their past. Our local center, located on Markland Place, serve as a clearinghouse for information, institutions for learning and training, and as headquarters for public participation in archaeology.
Miller reported that their class time focused on sea faring culture and explained how underwater shipwrecks observed by archaeologists translate into how people lived and met their basic needs in the past.
Participants were taught an appreciation for wrecks as non-renewable cultural resources by dive captains whose policy is “Don’t take anything from the wreck, or don’t get back on my boat.”
The course continued along currents of preservation law, conservation, and heritage tourism themes. The day ended with a briefing of the practicum component of the course — diving on shipwrecks.
The next day the 23 class participants visited two submerged archaeological sites; the nineteenth-century Brick Wreck and seventeenth-century Mystery Wreck located within NOAA’s Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
The Brick Wreck is disappearing as parts of the site have been removed either by people or natural causes. Miller said that the night before their dive, they dined at a restaurant with a wall made out of brick from the site. What salvagers might not have known is that the ballast and brick coverage actually protected the site timbers. Without the cover, the timbers are rapidly disappearing — and soon there will be nothing left of the site. “We observed only one intact brick on the wreck, there used to be thousands,” Miller said.
The Mystery Wreck looks completely different. Treasure salvagers cut into the side of the wreck, rather than cutting down from top to bottom; leaving channels of exposed frames and sea floor underneath heaps of ballast, according to Miller.
Looking back, Miller said, “I’m embarrassed I hadn’t done it sooner. So many questions over the last few years I could have answered better.”
The next Heritage Awareness Diving Seminar is being offered in St. Petersburg September 15th and 16th. For more information, contact Miller or Grafft-Weiss by calling (904) 819-6476.
Under the sea off Maui ... WWII reminders lie
TheMauiNews: Under the sea off Maui ... WWII reminders lie
WAILUKU - Maui's sunken history, including the wrecks of World War II-era planes and landing craft, will be explored in a presentation Thursday.
University of Hawaii students learning underwater archaeology have spent the past two weeks diving, surveying and drawing the sites off South Maui, several of which have not been closely studied before. Their work could be used to monitor the condition of the sites, and to help local divers learn more about the wrecks and understand why they need to be preserved, said Hans VanTilburg, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maritime archaeologist who has been leading the project.
"These are great sites, and I'm glad Maui has these kinds of historical resources," he said. "You guys are lucky."
VanTilburg will give a lecture on "History Below the Waves" at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, located at 726 S. Kihei Road. He will present the results of the students' work as well as photos of the project and sites.
Through the project, NOAA and UH staff, along with six students from the UH Marine Option Program, have dived to wrecks off South Maui that date to the 1940s. While all of the wrecks are previously known sites, "they haven't really been drawn in detail before," VanTilburg said.
The drawings and surveys of the sites will be used to establish a "baseline," documenting how the sites' condition changes over time, and how they deteriorate either due to natural causes or human looting.
"The maps they're doing are a record of the site, a snapshot," he said.
The students, including two from University of Hawaii Maui College, one from the Big Island and three from Oahu, are studying maritime archaeology field techniques. Before getting to work on the historic sites, they went to a sunken sailboat off Maalaea to practice their underwater drawing skills, VanTilburg said.
"The rest of the sites are all World War II era," he said.
They include two sunken aircraft, a Hellcat and a Helldiver, and two amphibious landing craft.
Because of Hawaii's role as a training site for the U.S. military during World War II, the islands' have a wealth of sunken ships, landing craft and planes, many of which have still not been discovered, VanTilburg said.
"There were a lot of planes lost in Hawaiian waters, and only a handful are known so far," he said.
The landing craft, which had tracks like tanks, could transport troops from ships onto land, and then drive up onto the beach and farther inland. A number of the landing craft now rest off South Maui, where they sank during training exercises more than 70 years ago, he said.
"This was a combat landing area, and they would invade the beaches over and over again," he said.
The wreck sites have historical significance, not just because of the way the war and military presence shaped Hawaii's history, but because the techniques soldiers practiced here, including amphibious landing and naval aviation, were critical to the outcome of the war and forever changed how the modern military would operate.
"Both of those were really practiced here in Hawaii, and that's why there's so many of these resources around," he said.
The surveys by students off Maui are part of a larger inventory of maritime heritage resources being done by NOAA, he noted. Here, the research could be used by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary to determine how the protection of historical underwater sites should be incorporated into the sanctuary's management plan, he said.
But while the sites may already be known to local divers, VanTilburg said his group would not be distributing information about their exact locations.
"There's always a question of how accessible these sites should be," he said.
WAILUKU - Maui's sunken history, including the wrecks of World War II-era planes and landing craft, will be explored in a presentation Thursday.
University of Hawaii students learning underwater archaeology have spent the past two weeks diving, surveying and drawing the sites off South Maui, several of which have not been closely studied before. Their work could be used to monitor the condition of the sites, and to help local divers learn more about the wrecks and understand why they need to be preserved, said Hans VanTilburg, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maritime archaeologist who has been leading the project.
"These are great sites, and I'm glad Maui has these kinds of historical resources," he said. "You guys are lucky."
VanTilburg will give a lecture on "History Below the Waves" at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, located at 726 S. Kihei Road. He will present the results of the students' work as well as photos of the project and sites.
Through the project, NOAA and UH staff, along with six students from the UH Marine Option Program, have dived to wrecks off South Maui that date to the 1940s. While all of the wrecks are previously known sites, "they haven't really been drawn in detail before," VanTilburg said.
The drawings and surveys of the sites will be used to establish a "baseline," documenting how the sites' condition changes over time, and how they deteriorate either due to natural causes or human looting.
"The maps they're doing are a record of the site, a snapshot," he said.
The students, including two from University of Hawaii Maui College, one from the Big Island and three from Oahu, are studying maritime archaeology field techniques. Before getting to work on the historic sites, they went to a sunken sailboat off Maalaea to practice their underwater drawing skills, VanTilburg said.
"The rest of the sites are all World War II era," he said.
They include two sunken aircraft, a Hellcat and a Helldiver, and two amphibious landing craft.
Because of Hawaii's role as a training site for the U.S. military during World War II, the islands' have a wealth of sunken ships, landing craft and planes, many of which have still not been discovered, VanTilburg said.
"There were a lot of planes lost in Hawaiian waters, and only a handful are known so far," he said.
The landing craft, which had tracks like tanks, could transport troops from ships onto land, and then drive up onto the beach and farther inland. A number of the landing craft now rest off South Maui, where they sank during training exercises more than 70 years ago, he said.
"This was a combat landing area, and they would invade the beaches over and over again," he said.
The wreck sites have historical significance, not just because of the way the war and military presence shaped Hawaii's history, but because the techniques soldiers practiced here, including amphibious landing and naval aviation, were critical to the outcome of the war and forever changed how the modern military would operate.
"Both of those were really practiced here in Hawaii, and that's why there's so many of these resources around," he said.
The surveys by students off Maui are part of a larger inventory of maritime heritage resources being done by NOAA, he noted. Here, the research could be used by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary to determine how the protection of historical underwater sites should be incorporated into the sanctuary's management plan, he said.
But while the sites may already be known to local divers, VanTilburg said his group would not be distributing information about their exact locations.
"There's always a question of how accessible these sites should be," he said.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
[UK] Army called in to dispose of shell found by treasure diver
ThisIsStaffordshire: Army called in to dispose of shell found by treasure diver
BOMB disposal experts were called yesterday after a treasure diver unearthed what was believed to be a live Second World War shell.
Rob Johnstone found the device in the Thames estuary, near Southend on Sunday evening.
The 36-year-old, from Stoke, below, often enjoys weekends on his friend's boat diving for treasure, but says this is his most exciting find yet.
Rob, a hairdresser, said: "We were fishing and the boat got snagged and because me and my friend are both divers we went down to investigate.
"There was a lot of metal around and then we noticed this large object that could easily have been a rock.
"We took it up to the boat and brought it back. It was encrusted in marine life and I spent the morning cleaning it up at home and I discovered a symbol suggesting it was a warhead."
Rob, who owns The Men's Room, in High Street, Wolstanton, called in police yesterday who then contacted bomb disposal experts.
Several neighbouring shops were evacuated and the road was closed for two hours in the afternoon.
Army explosive experts took the shell away at around 4.30pm to detonate safely.
Rob added: "My main concern was that the public was safe. The police said it might have been dangerous."
Rob was with friend Rob Leybourne four miles off the coast at 9.15pm when he made the discovery.
He added: "There's £500 billion worth of treasure in the sea that we know about and there's probably more than double that we don't know about so you never know, you could find treasure. We've done shipwrecks in Wales and the south coast, we just go anywhere there might be something interesting."
Rob Leybourne, from Weston Coyney, has been diving for treasure for about seven years.
The 48-year-old said: "When the boat stopped it could have been anything, it could have been snagging on a reef.
"Sometimes when you bring things to the surface they start fizzing and you know it's time to throw them back into the water to dampen the fuse but this one didn't fizz."
Sergeant Calum Forsyth said it was possible the bomb had been fired round from a ship's gun.
He said: "On appearance we would guess it's from the Second World War, because it's so badly encrusted.
"It's a fired round rather than a mortar, but it has not exploded even if it has been shot. You could argue it is live, but it's unlikely it would go off and we had to put safety first."
A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "As a precaution, officers cordoned off the shop and evacuated nearby properties, pending the arrival of Army explosives experts who proceeded to remove it to a safe location."
BOMB disposal experts were called yesterday after a treasure diver unearthed what was believed to be a live Second World War shell.
Rob Johnstone found the device in the Thames estuary, near Southend on Sunday evening.
The 36-year-old, from Stoke, below, often enjoys weekends on his friend's boat diving for treasure, but says this is his most exciting find yet.
Rob, a hairdresser, said: "We were fishing and the boat got snagged and because me and my friend are both divers we went down to investigate.
"There was a lot of metal around and then we noticed this large object that could easily have been a rock.
"We took it up to the boat and brought it back. It was encrusted in marine life and I spent the morning cleaning it up at home and I discovered a symbol suggesting it was a warhead."
Rob, who owns The Men's Room, in High Street, Wolstanton, called in police yesterday who then contacted bomb disposal experts.
Several neighbouring shops were evacuated and the road was closed for two hours in the afternoon.
Army explosive experts took the shell away at around 4.30pm to detonate safely.
Rob added: "My main concern was that the public was safe. The police said it might have been dangerous."
Rob was with friend Rob Leybourne four miles off the coast at 9.15pm when he made the discovery.
He added: "There's £500 billion worth of treasure in the sea that we know about and there's probably more than double that we don't know about so you never know, you could find treasure. We've done shipwrecks in Wales and the south coast, we just go anywhere there might be something interesting."
Rob Leybourne, from Weston Coyney, has been diving for treasure for about seven years.
The 48-year-old said: "When the boat stopped it could have been anything, it could have been snagging on a reef.
"Sometimes when you bring things to the surface they start fizzing and you know it's time to throw them back into the water to dampen the fuse but this one didn't fizz."
Sergeant Calum Forsyth said it was possible the bomb had been fired round from a ship's gun.
He said: "On appearance we would guess it's from the Second World War, because it's so badly encrusted.
"It's a fired round rather than a mortar, but it has not exploded even if it has been shot. You could argue it is live, but it's unlikely it would go off and we had to put safety first."
A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "As a precaution, officers cordoned off the shop and evacuated nearby properties, pending the arrival of Army explosives experts who proceeded to remove it to a safe location."
DiveCaching: The New Underwater Treasure Hunt Game
This article is from May 19, 2011
Technorati: DiveCaching: The New Underwater Treasure Hunt Game
This is a great industry.
We do a piece on Geocaching, the fun, GPS-driven hunt for hidden treasure (“the cache”).
Then the Diving Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA) launches a real-life, eco-friendly, in-water game called DiveCaching, the underwater version of Geocaching.
They have a video on the sport, but it’s pretty basic:
• Divers hide a treasure or “cache” underwater and post the GPS coordinates and compass directions on geocaching.com
• Other divers get the coordinates from the site and dive to locate the cache
• When they find it, they can photograph it, add their own treasure to the container. Or just note the discovery
The finders log their visit and discovery on geocaching.com, and share the experience with divers around the world.
As Tom Ingram, Executive Director of DEMA sees it, the sport is a perfect family outing, especially when combined with land-based geocaching and social activities for non-divers.
He says that DiveCaching can be done anywhere, regardless of visibility or dive conditions, and is a great way to explore new destinations.
Of course you have to be a certified diver to participate.
Some divers won’t want to hide a cache in aquatic areas, or will not be permitted to.
Why litter the ocean?
In this case divers take a GPS reading of the dive entry point, boat mooring point or at the surface directly over the structure, then record compass directions and distances from the GPS coordinates to the structure or point of interest, a process called Waymarking.
They then log the structure as on Waymarking.com
There are about 5 million geocachers worldwide, and DEMA, a non-profit organization, hopes that many of those will become divecachers, adding to DEMA’s 1,400 members.
If you ever needed motivation to become a diver, the new sport could be it.
BeADiver.com gives helpful information about becoming a diver and getting involved in the sport.
Those looking for real treasure will be disappointed.
The actual cache is typically a log book and something to write with, and maybe a pin or a few coins, key chains, beads- SWAG, or Stuff We All Get.
Each cache is as unique as the diver that put it there, and while there won’t be any Spanish gold doubloons, fun is priceless anyway.
Technorati: DiveCaching: The New Underwater Treasure Hunt Game
This is a great industry.
We do a piece on Geocaching, the fun, GPS-driven hunt for hidden treasure (“the cache”).
Then the Diving Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA) launches a real-life, eco-friendly, in-water game called DiveCaching, the underwater version of Geocaching.
They have a video on the sport, but it’s pretty basic:
• Divers hide a treasure or “cache” underwater and post the GPS coordinates and compass directions on geocaching.com
• Other divers get the coordinates from the site and dive to locate the cache
• When they find it, they can photograph it, add their own treasure to the container. Or just note the discovery
The finders log their visit and discovery on geocaching.com, and share the experience with divers around the world.
As Tom Ingram, Executive Director of DEMA sees it, the sport is a perfect family outing, especially when combined with land-based geocaching and social activities for non-divers.
He says that DiveCaching can be done anywhere, regardless of visibility or dive conditions, and is a great way to explore new destinations.
Of course you have to be a certified diver to participate.
Some divers won’t want to hide a cache in aquatic areas, or will not be permitted to.
Why litter the ocean?
In this case divers take a GPS reading of the dive entry point, boat mooring point or at the surface directly over the structure, then record compass directions and distances from the GPS coordinates to the structure or point of interest, a process called Waymarking.
They then log the structure as on Waymarking.com
There are about 5 million geocachers worldwide, and DEMA, a non-profit organization, hopes that many of those will become divecachers, adding to DEMA’s 1,400 members.
If you ever needed motivation to become a diver, the new sport could be it.
BeADiver.com gives helpful information about becoming a diver and getting involved in the sport.
Those looking for real treasure will be disappointed.
The actual cache is typically a log book and something to write with, and maybe a pin or a few coins, key chains, beads- SWAG, or Stuff We All Get.
Each cache is as unique as the diver that put it there, and while there won’t be any Spanish gold doubloons, fun is priceless anyway.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Yamashita treasure found?
www.allvoices.com: Yamashita treasure found?
An underwater excavation company recovered 3,300 kilograms (3.3 tons) of foreign coins from a Japanese vessel that was shelled by US Air Force during World War II. The ship was found in the Yellow Sea close to Gunsan, South Korea.
Daecheon-based Sea Love Co. Ltd. is still searching in the waters of Seonyu Island in the western part of South Korea, where the ship was found, hoping to find the gold bars that was believed to be part of the famed Yamashita treasure, Korea Joongang Daily said.
Pyun Do-young, the owner of the company, said, "When our divers discovered the deck of the sunken ship, we found the old coins piled in rotting wooden boxes on the deck.
"Most of the sunken ship was submerged in mud and some of the coins were stuck in the mud."
The ship is believed to be the Nishima Maru No. 10 that was described in "The History of Ships during War," a Japanese chronicle published in 1991.
Pyun said, "Before the end of World War II, some high-ranking Japanese government officials who predicted Japan’s loss in the war began to steal gold, cultural assets, jewelry and minerals from China and Southeast Asian countries and secretly shipped them in their private vessels, like the Nishima Maru.
"But on their way to Japan, some Japanese ships that supposedly were carrying treasure sank after being shelled by U.S. forces flying along the west coast of Korea near Gunsan."
The one million Chinese coins made from nickel were minted between 1920 and 1930. They are temporarily stored in state-owned Gunsan Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Office while waiting for the original owners.
A Yonsei University professor said, "If the coins are genuine, they will be worth as much as silver the time, because currencies were very unique in the early 1920s in China."
Another official of the excavation company said the coins have not been appraised yet, "But we expect they would be about 5 billion won ($4.6 million), based on the current online Chinese currency markets."
The ultimate goal of the company is to unearth the bullions hidden in the ship if this were, indeed, the Yamashita's gold.
An underwater excavation company recovered 3,300 kilograms (3.3 tons) of foreign coins from a Japanese vessel that was shelled by US Air Force during World War II. The ship was found in the Yellow Sea close to Gunsan, South Korea.
Daecheon-based Sea Love Co. Ltd. is still searching in the waters of Seonyu Island in the western part of South Korea, where the ship was found, hoping to find the gold bars that was believed to be part of the famed Yamashita treasure, Korea Joongang Daily said.
Pyun Do-young, the owner of the company, said, "When our divers discovered the deck of the sunken ship, we found the old coins piled in rotting wooden boxes on the deck.
"Most of the sunken ship was submerged in mud and some of the coins were stuck in the mud."
The ship is believed to be the Nishima Maru No. 10 that was described in "The History of Ships during War," a Japanese chronicle published in 1991.
Pyun said, "Before the end of World War II, some high-ranking Japanese government officials who predicted Japan’s loss in the war began to steal gold, cultural assets, jewelry and minerals from China and Southeast Asian countries and secretly shipped them in their private vessels, like the Nishima Maru.
"But on their way to Japan, some Japanese ships that supposedly were carrying treasure sank after being shelled by U.S. forces flying along the west coast of Korea near Gunsan."
The one million Chinese coins made from nickel were minted between 1920 and 1930. They are temporarily stored in state-owned Gunsan Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Office while waiting for the original owners.
A Yonsei University professor said, "If the coins are genuine, they will be worth as much as silver the time, because currencies were very unique in the early 1920s in China."
Another official of the excavation company said the coins have not been appraised yet, "But we expect they would be about 5 billion won ($4.6 million), based on the current online Chinese currency markets."
The ultimate goal of the company is to unearth the bullions hidden in the ship if this were, indeed, the Yamashita's gold.
Insurance Battle Sparkles With Emeralds From A Sunken Spanish Vessel
Blogs.courant.com: Insurance Battle Sparkles With Emeralds From A Sunken Spanish Vessel
'Faye Keith Jolly of Deerfield Beach, Fla., applied for a $10 million life insurance policy with a division of The Phoenix Cos. Inc. in the winter of 2007.
He was 73 at the time, though Jolly claimed to be of healthy, athletic stock. He wrote a letter to the Hartford insurer saying his father had been a Chicago White Sox catcher and his mother an Olympic swimmer.
But by far the most impressive detail of his application was his purported net worth, $1.2 billion -- and the nature of his assets.
Jolly claimed he had 10,920 pounds of uncut emeralds that he recovered 15 years earlier from a sunken Spanish vessel in the Gulf of Mexico -- worth a cool $800 million. The other $400 million was in a trust, he explained in his application to PHL Variable Insurance Co.
Phoenix approved Jolly's policy in March 2007 after the company received reassurance from an independent agent and from the trustee of his trust that Jolly's claims were legitimate.
Then, just as time was running out for the insurer to contest Jolly's application, Phoenix sued Jolly in October 2008 in an Atlanta federal court. In the same action, Phoenix also sued the trust that would have received the money when Jolly died, and the trustee.
Phoenix alleged negligent misrepresentation, fraud and conspiracy. The company asked for payment for damages as well as attorneys' fees. In the end, the insurer did not have to pay out the $10 million Jolly's policy was worth when Jolly died on Feb. 6 of this year.
But the fight continues over premium money Jolly paid, as well as damages and other costs. And the far-fetched story of Jolly's emeralds is bringing a colorful sparkle to an otherwise drab corner of law and insurance.
The court battle involves allegedly forged appraisals, a history of plundered mines in Colombia's Andes Mountains that dates to the 16th century, underwater Spanish galleons chock full of riches, a trail of claims by Jolly that quickly grow cold, a mystery about where premium payments were coming from and an Atlanta attorney who said he once saw Jolly show off buckets of green stones.
No one involved is talking publicly. But at the heart of the story, as pieced together through court records, is the question of how Phoenix could have approved the policy in the first place. Jolly's application contained wild discrepancies and claims, many easily debunked.
Jolly first sought Phoenix life insurance in 2006, court records show, but the company didn't act on it. Martin R. Wetzler, an independent insurance agent in Boca Raton, Fla., filed a new application for Jolly in February 2007, trumpeting the emeralds found in a sunken Spanish galleon.
Jolly and attorneys acting on his behalf assured Phoenix by including appraisals of the jewels. The application also included paperwork detailing how the emeralds were shipped through a duty-free zone and were held in bonded warehouses in Southampton, England, then later transferred to another facility in Felixstowe, England.
"Mr. Jolly is one of the top 5 Treasure Hunters in the World, having discovered a treasure of emeralds with an estimated value of $700mm+," Wetzler wrote in an e-mail to two Phoenix employees.
Phoenix apparently asked Wetzler for Jolly's tax returns and for additional medical records. Wetzler replied via e-mail to say there were no additional medical records.
"Regarding Mr. Jolly's financial situation, and your request for tax returns, because of the complex, sophisticated and confidential nature of his assets, their taxation and his estate plan, there will be no tax returns forthcoming," Wetzler wrote to Phoenix.
Wetzler told Phoenix that Jolly discovered his emeralds while working with famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher before Fisher died in 1998. Fisher was well known for his discoveries off the Florida Keys, including some of the ships in a Spanish fleet that were battered and scattered during a hurricane in September 1622.
After agreeing to sell the policy to Jolly, Phoenix paid Wetzler a fee of $412,116, court records show.
Three years later, in 2010, a federal judge in Atlanta ordered the policy rescinded, agreeing with Phoenix -- although he rebuked Phoenix for missing "red flags."
Phoenix "never attempted" to use "'traditional tools of income and net worth verification" by obtaining information about Jolly's bank account and primary residence or by contacting his accountant to learn his net worth and income, U.S. District Judge G. Ernest Tidwell said in his order.
The remaining lawsuit will determine who gets to keep the $484,843 that Jolly's trust paid as its first and only premium back in April 2007. The court ordered the cash returned to the trust as part of the policy rescission, and the money is now in the court's possession.
Phoenix is also seeking damages, because the company has incurred more than $400,000 in attorney's fees in this case, not to mention the $412,116 it paid Wetzler.
Despite Wetzler's claims, if Jolly ever worked with Mel Fisher, the record is bereft of any evidence.
"I've never even heard of the guy," said Sean Fisher, Mel Fisher's grandson, who is vice president of Mel Fisher's Treasures, which carries on his grandfather's quests. He said his father, Kim Fisher, the company president and CEO, also hadn't heard of Jolly.
Phoenix would not say why the company accepted Jolly's application despite such glaring discrepancies, and comments by its chief underwriter in court filings shed little light on the company's reasoning.
"The important fact is that this policy was rescinded based on misrepresentation," said Phoenix spokeswoman Alice S. Ericson, in an e-mail. Phoenix otherwise declined to comment on the case.
Muzo To Margaritaville
Jolly was 77 when he died on Feb. 6.
He was not one of the top treasure hunters in the world.
Medical records that were part of his application to Phoenix showed that Jolly was employed by a cemetery and worked "in a telephone capacity" for a friend's import-export business. Bank documents show that his trust had less than $300 -- not $400 million, as claimed in the application -- at all times except for a short period before the trust paid Phoenix a premium.
If Jolly was indeed a well-known treasure hunter, the federal government would have logged where he looked for ships and what he found, Sean Fisher said.
"There would be a public record," he said. "The guy would have had to file for admiralty. That means that the federal courts give him the right to work that wreck. Once you have an admiralty claim on a shipwreck, you can salvage it, but you still don't even own the artifacts until it goes through what's called adjudication."
Mel Fisher and his team discovered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold, silver and gems from the remains of the Spanish galleons Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Santa Margarita. Fisher's largest find in 1985 -- of lesser total value than Jolly claimed his emeralds were worth -- attracted worldwide interest, drawing journalists and even "Margaritaville" songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who sat on a pile of silver bars and played for Fisher's crew.
The proportions of Jolly's story are askew, Sean Fisher said. A mere 80 pounds of emeralds from a Spanish galleon would be worth $1 billion, he said.
At Fisher's per-pound estimate, Jolly's 51/2 tons of emeralds would be worth $136 billion.
Even the amount of the emeralds is inconsistent in Jolly's application. In one document, Jolly has 3,600 pounds of emeralds worth $200 million. In another, he has $619 million. Still other references put the value of Jolly's gems at $800 million, or $900 million to $1 billion.
Phoenix never attempted to contact the appraiser or the British storage company, Judge Tidwell said in his April 2011 ruling.
The finest emeralds in the world are worth more than diamonds, and many of the best come from the Colombian Andes, where the Muzo tribe was mining for centuries before the Spanish began pillaging those gems in the mid-16th century. Spanish galleons took emeralds from Colombia to Spain via Cuba, but many ships were destroyed by hurricanes, and their wreckage slumbers in the turquoise waters to this day.
Every significant discovery since the late 20th century has been a major news story. And yet Jolly's supposed find turns up no reports in LexisNexis, a research archive of millions of court cases and news articles.
'A Little Plastic Bag'
Jolly's insurance agent, Wetzler, said he and Jolly concluded that a $10 million policy would suit Jolly's desires, future tax obligations and other needs.
In order to get such a big policy, Jolly would have to prove that he had a high net worth. That's why the question of the emeralds mattered, even if Phoenix received its premiums.
Providing policies and other financial products for people of significant wealth was Phoenix's niche before the company lost most of its distribution network and suffered ratings downgrades in late 2008 and early 2009.
Life insurance is not meant as a way to get rich, but rather to provide cash at a time of need, or to indemnify for a loss, said Marv Feldman, president of LIFE Foundation, a nonprofit that helps consumers understand life insurance products.
"You have an issue of unjust enrichment if you have somebody with high insurance values without the financial justification or need for owning such a policy," Feldman said. "It's really not designed to create a $10 million stake for somebody if there's no financial justification for doing that."
The original intent of the policy was to have Phoenix pay the benefit to the Faye Keith Jolly Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust in Atlanta when Jolly died. The trustee of that trust is Atlanta attorney Kenneth E. Shapiro.
That trust would pay another one -- the Jolly Family Trust. A different Atlanta attorney, A.J. Block Jr., is the trustee of that trust.
Block had helped Jolly set up the company that supposedly had title to his emeralds. The company is Troy International Inc.
Jolly told Phoenix he would finance the premiums through loans from a bank. He later told attorneys in a court deposition that he didn't know who was paying premiums on the Phoenix policy, but it wasn't him. That raised questions that are still unanswered about who initiated the policy in the first place.
In recent years, the life insurance industry has been roiled by the practice of well-heeled investors giving elderly people cash to apply for coverage, maintaining premium payments and, ultimately, collecting benefits when the policyholder dies. It's called stranger-originated life insurance, and has led to stiff regulations in many states and a number of lawsuits filed by insurers.
Jolly said in his deposition that he did not receive cash for this or other life insurance policies he was involved in. But he declined to answer many of the attorneys' questions, taking the advice of a criminal defense attorney to invoke the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate himself.
Shapiro, the trustee of the first named trust, claimed to know very little about the application, Jolly's net worth or his finances. Shapiro said in his deposition that Peachtree Financing, a lender that provides financing for life-insurance premiums, contacted him about being a trustee for Jolly's trust. Shapiro said he had very little interaction with Jolly.
Attorneys for Shapiro declined to comment. Block did not return phone calls. A phone number registered to Jolly's widow, Janice, was answered by a woman who said there was no Janice there.
Phone calls to the insurance agent also were unsuccessful -- Wetzler's office number no longer works and he did not answer several calls placed to a home number listed in his name.
Through it all, some people involved in the case did attest to seeing glimmering green stones.
A Georgia gemologist, Dean L. Honeycutt, said in an affidavit that he appraised 3,600 pounds of uncut emeralds for Jolly in 1995 and deemed them to be worth more than $200 million. That value, however, was a replacement value for insurance purposes, "multitudes higher than the actual cash value or the collateral value of the uncut emeralds."
Honeycutt also could not be reached. In his affidavit, he said other appraisals with his name were apparent forgeries in 2004 and in 2007.
Block, the Atlanta attorney who is trustee for the trust that eventually would have received Jolly's benefit payout, told attorneys for Phoenix that he couldn't be sure the stones he saw were real emeralds.
"Well, at one time, he brought a little plastic bag in with emeralds in it," Block said in a court deposition. "And on one occasion, there were two or three buckets, as I recall, as he refers to them; they look like buckets, filled with what was purported to be emeralds."
Attorneys for Phoenix asked Block if Jolly told him where he acquired the emeralds.
"I could be making this up in my mind, so pardon me," Block said. "I have heard a lot of stories, but my recollection is he dove on a ship, and this was the ballast on the ship or something. I think there were emeralds on one side and rubies on the other or something. It's rather an interesting story, but that's my best recollection
'Faye Keith Jolly of Deerfield Beach, Fla., applied for a $10 million life insurance policy with a division of The Phoenix Cos. Inc. in the winter of 2007.
He was 73 at the time, though Jolly claimed to be of healthy, athletic stock. He wrote a letter to the Hartford insurer saying his father had been a Chicago White Sox catcher and his mother an Olympic swimmer.
But by far the most impressive detail of his application was his purported net worth, $1.2 billion -- and the nature of his assets.
Jolly claimed he had 10,920 pounds of uncut emeralds that he recovered 15 years earlier from a sunken Spanish vessel in the Gulf of Mexico -- worth a cool $800 million. The other $400 million was in a trust, he explained in his application to PHL Variable Insurance Co.
Phoenix approved Jolly's policy in March 2007 after the company received reassurance from an independent agent and from the trustee of his trust that Jolly's claims were legitimate.
Then, just as time was running out for the insurer to contest Jolly's application, Phoenix sued Jolly in October 2008 in an Atlanta federal court. In the same action, Phoenix also sued the trust that would have received the money when Jolly died, and the trustee.
Phoenix alleged negligent misrepresentation, fraud and conspiracy. The company asked for payment for damages as well as attorneys' fees. In the end, the insurer did not have to pay out the $10 million Jolly's policy was worth when Jolly died on Feb. 6 of this year.
But the fight continues over premium money Jolly paid, as well as damages and other costs. And the far-fetched story of Jolly's emeralds is bringing a colorful sparkle to an otherwise drab corner of law and insurance.
The court battle involves allegedly forged appraisals, a history of plundered mines in Colombia's Andes Mountains that dates to the 16th century, underwater Spanish galleons chock full of riches, a trail of claims by Jolly that quickly grow cold, a mystery about where premium payments were coming from and an Atlanta attorney who said he once saw Jolly show off buckets of green stones.
No one involved is talking publicly. But at the heart of the story, as pieced together through court records, is the question of how Phoenix could have approved the policy in the first place. Jolly's application contained wild discrepancies and claims, many easily debunked.
Jolly first sought Phoenix life insurance in 2006, court records show, but the company didn't act on it. Martin R. Wetzler, an independent insurance agent in Boca Raton, Fla., filed a new application for Jolly in February 2007, trumpeting the emeralds found in a sunken Spanish galleon.
Jolly and attorneys acting on his behalf assured Phoenix by including appraisals of the jewels. The application also included paperwork detailing how the emeralds were shipped through a duty-free zone and were held in bonded warehouses in Southampton, England, then later transferred to another facility in Felixstowe, England.
"Mr. Jolly is one of the top 5 Treasure Hunters in the World, having discovered a treasure of emeralds with an estimated value of $700mm+," Wetzler wrote in an e-mail to two Phoenix employees.
Phoenix apparently asked Wetzler for Jolly's tax returns and for additional medical records. Wetzler replied via e-mail to say there were no additional medical records.
"Regarding Mr. Jolly's financial situation, and your request for tax returns, because of the complex, sophisticated and confidential nature of his assets, their taxation and his estate plan, there will be no tax returns forthcoming," Wetzler wrote to Phoenix.
Wetzler told Phoenix that Jolly discovered his emeralds while working with famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher before Fisher died in 1998. Fisher was well known for his discoveries off the Florida Keys, including some of the ships in a Spanish fleet that were battered and scattered during a hurricane in September 1622.
After agreeing to sell the policy to Jolly, Phoenix paid Wetzler a fee of $412,116, court records show.
Three years later, in 2010, a federal judge in Atlanta ordered the policy rescinded, agreeing with Phoenix -- although he rebuked Phoenix for missing "red flags."
Phoenix "never attempted" to use "'traditional tools of income and net worth verification" by obtaining information about Jolly's bank account and primary residence or by contacting his accountant to learn his net worth and income, U.S. District Judge G. Ernest Tidwell said in his order.
The remaining lawsuit will determine who gets to keep the $484,843 that Jolly's trust paid as its first and only premium back in April 2007. The court ordered the cash returned to the trust as part of the policy rescission, and the money is now in the court's possession.
Phoenix is also seeking damages, because the company has incurred more than $400,000 in attorney's fees in this case, not to mention the $412,116 it paid Wetzler.
Despite Wetzler's claims, if Jolly ever worked with Mel Fisher, the record is bereft of any evidence.
"I've never even heard of the guy," said Sean Fisher, Mel Fisher's grandson, who is vice president of Mel Fisher's Treasures, which carries on his grandfather's quests. He said his father, Kim Fisher, the company president and CEO, also hadn't heard of Jolly.
Phoenix would not say why the company accepted Jolly's application despite such glaring discrepancies, and comments by its chief underwriter in court filings shed little light on the company's reasoning.
"The important fact is that this policy was rescinded based on misrepresentation," said Phoenix spokeswoman Alice S. Ericson, in an e-mail. Phoenix otherwise declined to comment on the case.
Muzo To Margaritaville
Jolly was 77 when he died on Feb. 6.
He was not one of the top treasure hunters in the world.
Medical records that were part of his application to Phoenix showed that Jolly was employed by a cemetery and worked "in a telephone capacity" for a friend's import-export business. Bank documents show that his trust had less than $300 -- not $400 million, as claimed in the application -- at all times except for a short period before the trust paid Phoenix a premium.
If Jolly was indeed a well-known treasure hunter, the federal government would have logged where he looked for ships and what he found, Sean Fisher said.
"There would be a public record," he said. "The guy would have had to file for admiralty. That means that the federal courts give him the right to work that wreck. Once you have an admiralty claim on a shipwreck, you can salvage it, but you still don't even own the artifacts until it goes through what's called adjudication."
Mel Fisher and his team discovered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold, silver and gems from the remains of the Spanish galleons Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Santa Margarita. Fisher's largest find in 1985 -- of lesser total value than Jolly claimed his emeralds were worth -- attracted worldwide interest, drawing journalists and even "Margaritaville" songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who sat on a pile of silver bars and played for Fisher's crew.
The proportions of Jolly's story are askew, Sean Fisher said. A mere 80 pounds of emeralds from a Spanish galleon would be worth $1 billion, he said.
At Fisher's per-pound estimate, Jolly's 51/2 tons of emeralds would be worth $136 billion.
Even the amount of the emeralds is inconsistent in Jolly's application. In one document, Jolly has 3,600 pounds of emeralds worth $200 million. In another, he has $619 million. Still other references put the value of Jolly's gems at $800 million, or $900 million to $1 billion.
Phoenix never attempted to contact the appraiser or the British storage company, Judge Tidwell said in his April 2011 ruling.
The finest emeralds in the world are worth more than diamonds, and many of the best come from the Colombian Andes, where the Muzo tribe was mining for centuries before the Spanish began pillaging those gems in the mid-16th century. Spanish galleons took emeralds from Colombia to Spain via Cuba, but many ships were destroyed by hurricanes, and their wreckage slumbers in the turquoise waters to this day.
Every significant discovery since the late 20th century has been a major news story. And yet Jolly's supposed find turns up no reports in LexisNexis, a research archive of millions of court cases and news articles.
'A Little Plastic Bag'
Jolly's insurance agent, Wetzler, said he and Jolly concluded that a $10 million policy would suit Jolly's desires, future tax obligations and other needs.
In order to get such a big policy, Jolly would have to prove that he had a high net worth. That's why the question of the emeralds mattered, even if Phoenix received its premiums.
Providing policies and other financial products for people of significant wealth was Phoenix's niche before the company lost most of its distribution network and suffered ratings downgrades in late 2008 and early 2009.
Life insurance is not meant as a way to get rich, but rather to provide cash at a time of need, or to indemnify for a loss, said Marv Feldman, president of LIFE Foundation, a nonprofit that helps consumers understand life insurance products.
"You have an issue of unjust enrichment if you have somebody with high insurance values without the financial justification or need for owning such a policy," Feldman said. "It's really not designed to create a $10 million stake for somebody if there's no financial justification for doing that."
The original intent of the policy was to have Phoenix pay the benefit to the Faye Keith Jolly Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust in Atlanta when Jolly died. The trustee of that trust is Atlanta attorney Kenneth E. Shapiro.
That trust would pay another one -- the Jolly Family Trust. A different Atlanta attorney, A.J. Block Jr., is the trustee of that trust.
Block had helped Jolly set up the company that supposedly had title to his emeralds. The company is Troy International Inc.
Jolly told Phoenix he would finance the premiums through loans from a bank. He later told attorneys in a court deposition that he didn't know who was paying premiums on the Phoenix policy, but it wasn't him. That raised questions that are still unanswered about who initiated the policy in the first place.
In recent years, the life insurance industry has been roiled by the practice of well-heeled investors giving elderly people cash to apply for coverage, maintaining premium payments and, ultimately, collecting benefits when the policyholder dies. It's called stranger-originated life insurance, and has led to stiff regulations in many states and a number of lawsuits filed by insurers.
Jolly said in his deposition that he did not receive cash for this or other life insurance policies he was involved in. But he declined to answer many of the attorneys' questions, taking the advice of a criminal defense attorney to invoke the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate himself.
Shapiro, the trustee of the first named trust, claimed to know very little about the application, Jolly's net worth or his finances. Shapiro said in his deposition that Peachtree Financing, a lender that provides financing for life-insurance premiums, contacted him about being a trustee for Jolly's trust. Shapiro said he had very little interaction with Jolly.
Attorneys for Shapiro declined to comment. Block did not return phone calls. A phone number registered to Jolly's widow, Janice, was answered by a woman who said there was no Janice there.
Phone calls to the insurance agent also were unsuccessful -- Wetzler's office number no longer works and he did not answer several calls placed to a home number listed in his name.
Through it all, some people involved in the case did attest to seeing glimmering green stones.
A Georgia gemologist, Dean L. Honeycutt, said in an affidavit that he appraised 3,600 pounds of uncut emeralds for Jolly in 1995 and deemed them to be worth more than $200 million. That value, however, was a replacement value for insurance purposes, "multitudes higher than the actual cash value or the collateral value of the uncut emeralds."
Honeycutt also could not be reached. In his affidavit, he said other appraisals with his name were apparent forgeries in 2004 and in 2007.
Block, the Atlanta attorney who is trustee for the trust that eventually would have received Jolly's benefit payout, told attorneys for Phoenix that he couldn't be sure the stones he saw were real emeralds.
"Well, at one time, he brought a little plastic bag in with emeralds in it," Block said in a court deposition. "And on one occasion, there were two or three buckets, as I recall, as he refers to them; they look like buckets, filled with what was purported to be emeralds."
Attorneys for Phoenix asked Block if Jolly told him where he acquired the emeralds.
"I could be making this up in my mind, so pardon me," Block said. "I have heard a lot of stories, but my recollection is he dove on a ship, and this was the ballast on the ship or something. I think there were emeralds on one side and rubies on the other or something. It's rather an interesting story, but that's my best recollection
Sunday, June 12, 2011
UNDERWATER TREASURE HUNTER TO SEARCH FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN
You just knew someone was going to do this:
AGINews.com: UNDERWATER TREASURE HUNTER TO SEARCH FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN
(AGI) London - Underwater treasure hunter Bill Warren has announced that he wants to find Osama Bin Laden's body.
According to the British newspaper, the 'Mail on Sunday', Warren, who comes from California, said he wanted to try a retrieve Bin Laden because he felt President Obama did not give sufficient proof of the death of al Qaeda's leader. Bin Laden was buried at sea the north Arabian Sea from the U.S.S. Carl Vinson aircraft carrier after he was killed in a raid by Navy SEALs on May 2. . .
AGINews.com: UNDERWATER TREASURE HUNTER TO SEARCH FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN
(AGI) London - Underwater treasure hunter Bill Warren has announced that he wants to find Osama Bin Laden's body.
According to the British newspaper, the 'Mail on Sunday', Warren, who comes from California, said he wanted to try a retrieve Bin Laden because he felt President Obama did not give sufficient proof of the death of al Qaeda's leader. Bin Laden was buried at sea the north Arabian Sea from the U.S.S. Carl Vinson aircraft carrier after he was killed in a raid by Navy SEALs on May 2. . .
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Future for Warbirds Over Wanaka: ‘Warbirds and Wheels’
Voxy.co.nz: The Future for Warbirds Over Wanaka: ‘Warbirds and Wheels’
Building work on a new world-class visitor attraction to be called Warbirds and Wheels is progressing well at Wanaka Airport’s largest hangar and is on track for the unique facility to be opened later this year.
The attraction, being developed by the Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust would give the organisation an ongoing presence at Wanaka Airport to showcase its internationally-renowned airshow and the show’s history, all year round. Trust chairman Murray Cleverley said “Joining Wanaka’s fine collection of Warbird aircraft will be rare classic cars and distinctive visual artworks.”
Telling the story of the Trust’s Patron and airshow founder, Sir Tim Wallis and his pioneering deer recovery days, Warbirds and Wheels would also incorporate memorabilia, weapons and aircraft honouring both World Wars, Mr Cleverley said. Many artefacts would be sourced from the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum which closed earlier this year. The Airforce Museum of New Zealand at Wigram had been working with the collection to ensure it was retained in the public domain and would continue to be properly displayed for future generations. Displays would include interactive exhibits and would be regularly refreshed so Wanaka residents and others visiting the attraction would have plenty to view.
A café and retail shop would complete the Warbirds and Wheels offering with much to tempt families, as well as aviation and car enthusiasts.
While it is owned by the Community Trust, a management contract for operating the facility has been let to allow the Trust to continue to concentrate on producing its world-class international airshow. Located at the entrance to Wanaka Airport, the hangar refit was being undertaken by Wanaka builders, Deane Fluitt and a selection of local tradesmen and subcontractors.
“Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust has a mandate to ensure that the International Airshow maintains its place as an iconic event and continues to deliver significant benefits to our region from a tourism and economic development perspective. Warbirds and Wheels, as an extension of the airshow, will give the Trust an ongoing presence while making the Trust more sustainable. The Trust is delighted to have this opportunity which has only been made possible with the support and collaboration of all the parties involved including the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum, Classic Consortium, and the Airforce Museum of New Zealand” Mr Cleverley said. The Trust hoped to set an opening date once the bulk of the development work was completed
Building work on a new world-class visitor attraction to be called Warbirds and Wheels is progressing well at Wanaka Airport’s largest hangar and is on track for the unique facility to be opened later this year.
The attraction, being developed by the Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust would give the organisation an ongoing presence at Wanaka Airport to showcase its internationally-renowned airshow and the show’s history, all year round. Trust chairman Murray Cleverley said “Joining Wanaka’s fine collection of Warbird aircraft will be rare classic cars and distinctive visual artworks.”
Telling the story of the Trust’s Patron and airshow founder, Sir Tim Wallis and his pioneering deer recovery days, Warbirds and Wheels would also incorporate memorabilia, weapons and aircraft honouring both World Wars, Mr Cleverley said. Many artefacts would be sourced from the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum which closed earlier this year. The Airforce Museum of New Zealand at Wigram had been working with the collection to ensure it was retained in the public domain and would continue to be properly displayed for future generations. Displays would include interactive exhibits and would be regularly refreshed so Wanaka residents and others visiting the attraction would have plenty to view.
A café and retail shop would complete the Warbirds and Wheels offering with much to tempt families, as well as aviation and car enthusiasts.
While it is owned by the Community Trust, a management contract for operating the facility has been let to allow the Trust to continue to concentrate on producing its world-class international airshow. Located at the entrance to Wanaka Airport, the hangar refit was being undertaken by Wanaka builders, Deane Fluitt and a selection of local tradesmen and subcontractors.
“Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust has a mandate to ensure that the International Airshow maintains its place as an iconic event and continues to deliver significant benefits to our region from a tourism and economic development perspective. Warbirds and Wheels, as an extension of the airshow, will give the Trust an ongoing presence while making the Trust more sustainable. The Trust is delighted to have this opportunity which has only been made possible with the support and collaboration of all the parties involved including the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum, Classic Consortium, and the Airforce Museum of New Zealand” Mr Cleverley said. The Trust hoped to set an opening date once the bulk of the development work was completed
Life under the sea
China Daily: Life under the sea
SHANTOU, Guangdong - When bubbles float up to the surface of the sea, divers on the workboat know that their colleague Liu Zhiyuan is ready to get out of the water.
Following a guide rope, Liu finds the ladder and takes off his fins while a colleague helps to lift the two 50-kg oxygen tanks off his back.
Liu, an underwater archaeologist, is excavating the sunken ship Nan'ao No 1, which experts believe went down during the reign of Emperor Wanli (1563-1620) of Ming Dynasty.
It was found in 2007 in the South China Sea near the appropriately named Nan'ao Island in Guangdong province.
If everything goes well, Liu and his colleagues will be able to salvage all the cultural relics on it by mid-July.
So far they have recovered mostly porcelains, as well as copper coins and an iron cannon, which may have been for protection against pirates.
China started its underwater archaeology in the 1980s after 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.
International law on underwater salvaging can be vague and inconsistent between countries, so when the Chinese government found no way to sue the explorer it decided to build its own underwater archaeology team.
Since 1989 the center has trained more than 90 underwater archaeology divers.
Liu, 34, who is also deputy director of the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Guangdong Archeology Research Institute, holds certificates for 10 different diving categories, such as nighttime diving and underwater photography.
Like many other archaeologists, Liu took to his profession because "you never know what you'll find" in each excavation - or in Liu's case, each dive.
Since 2005 Liu has participated in 90 percent of all underwater archaeology projects in China, mostly in the southeast coastal areas.
However, as underwater excavation is extremely subjective to wind, water temperature and visibility, each year Liu and his colleagues have only two to three months to work on the sunken ship, usually from late April to mid-July, when it is warm enough and the monsoon season has not arrived.
"Every second that you spend underwater is highly risky," Liu said.
Attacks by jellyfish, for example, happen often, and even the lightest sting will take half a month to recover.
The fear of darkness and losing a sense of direction are also common.
Meanwhile, coping with the repetitive life on the boat is challenging, too.
Each diver can only make a 25-minute dive once a day, as they require at least 24 hours for their bodies to remove the nitrogen and bubbles that get into their blood when underwater.
So besides caring for equipment and the salvaged relics, Liu sometimes passes the time fighting with his colleagues in the online game Age of Empires.
"Liu used to beat seven enemies at the same time," said Jin Tao, who spent more than 100 days with Liu on the workboat last year. "But since we're all improving quickly, he can only beat three now."
Liu is also preparing for the upcoming poker and Chinese chess matches to be held between his underwater archaeologist fellows and work partners from the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau. The matches are played every day after 8 am until the end of June.
"My seasickness still makes me dizzy, but I'm ready to be the winner," Liu said with confidence.
He admits that underwater archaeology can earn a little more than field archaeology, but what really supports him is his strong love of the work.
"It's where my greatest passion lies," Liu said.
SHANTOU, Guangdong - When bubbles float up to the surface of the sea, divers on the workboat know that their colleague Liu Zhiyuan is ready to get out of the water.
Following a guide rope, Liu finds the ladder and takes off his fins while a colleague helps to lift the two 50-kg oxygen tanks off his back.
Liu, an underwater archaeologist, is excavating the sunken ship Nan'ao No 1, which experts believe went down during the reign of Emperor Wanli (1563-1620) of Ming Dynasty.
It was found in 2007 in the South China Sea near the appropriately named Nan'ao Island in Guangdong province.
If everything goes well, Liu and his colleagues will be able to salvage all the cultural relics on it by mid-July.
So far they have recovered mostly porcelains, as well as copper coins and an iron cannon, which may have been for protection against pirates.
China started its underwater archaeology in the 1980s after 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.
International law on underwater salvaging can be vague and inconsistent between countries, so when the Chinese government found no way to sue the explorer it decided to build its own underwater archaeology team.
Since 1989 the center has trained more than 90 underwater archaeology divers.
Liu, 34, who is also deputy director of the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Guangdong Archeology Research Institute, holds certificates for 10 different diving categories, such as nighttime diving and underwater photography.
Like many other archaeologists, Liu took to his profession because "you never know what you'll find" in each excavation - or in Liu's case, each dive.
Since 2005 Liu has participated in 90 percent of all underwater archaeology projects in China, mostly in the southeast coastal areas.
However, as underwater excavation is extremely subjective to wind, water temperature and visibility, each year Liu and his colleagues have only two to three months to work on the sunken ship, usually from late April to mid-July, when it is warm enough and the monsoon season has not arrived.
"Every second that you spend underwater is highly risky," Liu said.
Attacks by jellyfish, for example, happen often, and even the lightest sting will take half a month to recover.
The fear of darkness and losing a sense of direction are also common.
Meanwhile, coping with the repetitive life on the boat is challenging, too.
Each diver can only make a 25-minute dive once a day, as they require at least 24 hours for their bodies to remove the nitrogen and bubbles that get into their blood when underwater.
So besides caring for equipment and the salvaged relics, Liu sometimes passes the time fighting with his colleagues in the online game Age of Empires.
"Liu used to beat seven enemies at the same time," said Jin Tao, who spent more than 100 days with Liu on the workboat last year. "But since we're all improving quickly, he can only beat three now."
Liu is also preparing for the upcoming poker and Chinese chess matches to be held between his underwater archaeologist fellows and work partners from the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau. The matches are played every day after 8 am until the end of June.
"My seasickness still makes me dizzy, but I'm ready to be the winner," Liu said with confidence.
He admits that underwater archaeology can earn a little more than field archaeology, but what really supports him is his strong love of the work.
"It's where my greatest passion lies," Liu said.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Odyssey To Commence Gairsoppa Silver Project
UnderwaterTimes.com: Odyssey To Commence Gairsoppa Silver Project
TAMPA, Florida -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. has executed a charter agreement to utilize the Russian Research Vessel Yuzhmorgeologiya to conduct search operations for the SS Gairsoppa. The Gairsoppa was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in February 1941 while enlisted in the service of the United Kingdom Ministry of War Transport. Contemporary research and official documents indicate that the ship was carrying as much as 7,000,000 ounces of silver. In 2010, the United Kingdom (UK) Government Department for Transport awarded Odyssey, through a competitive bid, the exclusive salvage contract for the cargo of the SS Gairsoppa. Under the salvage contract, Odyssey will retain 80% of the bullion value of the cargo after expenses.
Odyssey expects to commence operations on the SS Gairsoppa project in July 2011 using the Yuzhmorgeologiya, a vessel owned by the Russian government and managed by CGGE International. The timing of the recovery operation will depend on the physical disposition of the shipwreck and weather. The UK Dept for Transport has extended Odyssey's salvage agreement for an additional year to take into account a salvage operation that is expected to extend into 2012.
"We look forward to beginning work with the R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya, an impressive ship that can withstand the extreme weather conditions in the search area," said Greg Stemm, CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. "With work on advanced-stage projects keeping the Odyssey Explorer busy for the foreseeable future, it made sense to charter an additional vessel for the prime weather window for Gairsoppa operations. We're confident in our team, the technology and research that we have lined up for the project and we're looking forward to locating and recovering the cargo of the Gairsoppa. The search area for this ship is clearly delineated based on specific locational reports from the U-Boat captain that sank the ship, as well as the navigational data from the other ships that had been in the same fleet in the Atlantic and the account of the ship's second officer who survived the shipwreck."
About the R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya
The R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya is a 104 meter-long ice-class ship capable of stable operations in extreme conditions. A total of 17 laboratories (both wet and dry), equipment rooms and special research work areas are contained on the ship including computer centers, underwater navigation, acoustic/seismic, and scientific facilities.
For Odyssey's SS Gairsoppa search expedition, the Yuzhmorgeologiya will be equipped with world-class deep-ocean search and inspection technology including the MAK-1M (deep-tow low frequency sonar system), and NEPTUNE (deep-sea remote operated video system), capable of reaching up to 6,000 meters in depth. This is the same Russian system used previously by Odyssey's Project Manager to locate and identify the Japanese I-52 submarine at a depth of over 5,000 meters.
Owned by the Russian government, the ship is managed by CGGE International, a company that provides ships and technical personnel for offshore survey and technical operations, their clients have included NOAA, UNESCO, the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute, National Institute of Oceanography (India), Marine Geology Institute (Italy), and the Russian Ministry of National Resources among other government and private companies.
TAMPA, Florida -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. has executed a charter agreement to utilize the Russian Research Vessel Yuzhmorgeologiya to conduct search operations for the SS Gairsoppa. The Gairsoppa was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in February 1941 while enlisted in the service of the United Kingdom Ministry of War Transport. Contemporary research and official documents indicate that the ship was carrying as much as 7,000,000 ounces of silver. In 2010, the United Kingdom (UK) Government Department for Transport awarded Odyssey, through a competitive bid, the exclusive salvage contract for the cargo of the SS Gairsoppa. Under the salvage contract, Odyssey will retain 80% of the bullion value of the cargo after expenses.
Odyssey expects to commence operations on the SS Gairsoppa project in July 2011 using the Yuzhmorgeologiya, a vessel owned by the Russian government and managed by CGGE International. The timing of the recovery operation will depend on the physical disposition of the shipwreck and weather. The UK Dept for Transport has extended Odyssey's salvage agreement for an additional year to take into account a salvage operation that is expected to extend into 2012.
"We look forward to beginning work with the R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya, an impressive ship that can withstand the extreme weather conditions in the search area," said Greg Stemm, CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. "With work on advanced-stage projects keeping the Odyssey Explorer busy for the foreseeable future, it made sense to charter an additional vessel for the prime weather window for Gairsoppa operations. We're confident in our team, the technology and research that we have lined up for the project and we're looking forward to locating and recovering the cargo of the Gairsoppa. The search area for this ship is clearly delineated based on specific locational reports from the U-Boat captain that sank the ship, as well as the navigational data from the other ships that had been in the same fleet in the Atlantic and the account of the ship's second officer who survived the shipwreck."
About the R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya
The R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya is a 104 meter-long ice-class ship capable of stable operations in extreme conditions. A total of 17 laboratories (both wet and dry), equipment rooms and special research work areas are contained on the ship including computer centers, underwater navigation, acoustic/seismic, and scientific facilities.
For Odyssey's SS Gairsoppa search expedition, the Yuzhmorgeologiya will be equipped with world-class deep-ocean search and inspection technology including the MAK-1M (deep-tow low frequency sonar system), and NEPTUNE (deep-sea remote operated video system), capable of reaching up to 6,000 meters in depth. This is the same Russian system used previously by Odyssey's Project Manager to locate and identify the Japanese I-52 submarine at a depth of over 5,000 meters.
Owned by the Russian government, the ship is managed by CGGE International, a company that provides ships and technical personnel for offshore survey and technical operations, their clients have included NOAA, UNESCO, the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute, National Institute of Oceanography (India), Marine Geology Institute (Italy), and the Russian Ministry of National Resources among other government and private companies.
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