MLive.com: Michigan students help discover pair of wrecks during shiphunt in Lake Huron
ALPENA -- A small, clearly defined image flickered on the screen as the research crew of Project Shiphunt combed the chilly waters of northern Lake Huron this spring.
The double-masted schooner had an obvious hole near the bow along its starboard side, evidence of a collision that sent the 19th-century cargo ship and its crew of five to the lake floor almost exactly 122 years before.
It was literally history come alive.
Within a week, the crew of Project Shiphunt — which included five high school students from Saginaw — had identified two previously undiscovered wrecks in more than 300 feet of water just outside of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
"That was just powerful, to be the first human eyes to look at these since they went to the bottom," said James Delgado, director of Maritime Heritage at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and expedition leader for Project Shiphunt. "We were looking for a ship that was sunk in a collision, and we ended up finding two other ships that were sunk in a collision."
The project was a joint venture sponsored by Sony and Intel corporations that incorporated technology, oceanography, archeology and history into a hands-on curriculum that brought history to life for the Saginaw students during six days in May. The students directed the mission, charted the map in search of the steamer Choctaw, and manned the massive research vessels as they painted the floor of Lake Huron with triple-beam and side-scan sonars.
That was just powerful, to be the first human eyes to look at these since they went to the bottom," said James Delgado, director of Maritime Heritage at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and expedition leader for Project Shiphunt. "We were looking for a ship that was sunk in a collision, and we ended up finding two other ships that were sunk in a collision."
The project was a joint venture sponsored by Sony and Intel corporations that incorporated technology, oceanography, archeology and history into a hands-on curriculum that brought history to life for the Saginaw students during six days in May. The students directed the mission, charted the map in search of the steamer Choctaw, and manned the massive research vessels as they painted the floor of Lake Huron with triple-beam and side-scan sonars.
Shiphunt team member James Willett operate the underwater ROV via a Sony VA10 laptop and joystick.
"We expected them to do everything, other than the diving," Delgado said.
The crew didn’t locate the Choctaw, but instead found the 138-foot schooner M.F. Merrick and the steel freighter Etruria. The students used historical records and diving experts to identify the ships, and helped to document the vessels in 3-D for the newest exhibit at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center.
The mission was filmed for a documentary airing on the Current cable channel at 10 p.m. Aug. 30.
Students explored the ships with remote-operated underwater vehicles and directed divers who collected samples of the century-old cargo. Once the identity of the ships was confirmed, students learned that five crew members -- five men and a female cook -- lost their lives on the Merrick in 1889, when the wooden ship collided with a steamer in dense fog off the coast of Alpena.
The Etruria met the same fate in 1905, and the frigid temperatures in the depths of Lake Huron have preserved both vessels relatively undisturbed for more than a century.
Both ships represent what once was the lifeblood of the American economy, transferring cargo along the Great Lakes shorelines. Their discovery reveals a peek into history often eroded on land by weather or human influence, said Jeff Gray, superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
"Each (shipwreck) really tells a new story and a new chapter in history," Gray said. "It really shows how they fueled the industrial revolution. The men and women who worked these vessels really made that happen.
"It tells the bigger picture story of the economic history of our country, but also the individual stories of the men and women who worked on these ships."
Friday, July 29, 2011
Diving into the abyss aboard Britain's world-leading submarine rescue system
From Mail Online: Diving into the abyss aboard Britain's world-leading submarine rescue system
Eleven years after 118 submariners met a grisly death at the bottom of the ocean in the Kursk, a British team has developed the most advanced underwater rescue system in the world. Andrew Preston watches them go into action
The British co-pilot of the rescue vehicle speaks slowly and deliberately into his microphone: ‘Lima, Lima, Lima.’
The signal is broadcast directly into the Mediterranean Sea via ‘underwater telephone’ using low frequency sound waves. The message is picked up in the control room of the Alrosa, a Russian submarine from the Black Sea fleet. The code words mean that the Nato rescue vehicle, known as Nemo, has successfully ‘mated’, or docked, with the Russian sub.
At the same time a diver clambers through a hatch in the floor of Nemo with a spanner. He follows up the message with two loud taps on the hatch of the submarine casing beneath him, then after a short pause taps a third time. This is the signal that it is now safe for the Russian crew to open the outer hatch. The two vessels have established a hydrostatic water-tight seal, and suction is now the only thing holding them together 300ft underwater.
All this is happening on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Cartagena in south-east Spain. Shortly afterwards the submarine hatch of the diesel submarine opens and a smiling Russian face appears. History has been made.
When it was built during the Cold War, the Kilo-class Alrosa was designed for anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare. Its mission was to snoop, avoid detection, and try to track and, if required, attack Nato forces. Now, for the first time, a Russian submarine is actually taking part in a Nato exercise.
Inside the rescue vehicle it is cramped and humid. In the forward compartment, with its bulbous clear acrylic nose on the front, the pilot and co-pilot sit surrounded by joysticks and a myriad of dials and switches. Behind them, a Navy diver acts as the operator for the rescue chamber, which in an emergency can deliver up to 15 people at a time to the surface, or two injured submariners on stretchers.
But today special guests are moving the other way. Squashed together in the back of Nemo, their heads bent forwards and knees touching from benches on either side, are military VIPs from Russia, the U.S. and other Nato nations, who cross from the module into the submarine, led by General Nikolai Makarov, Chief of Defence Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
This exercise comes 11 years after the Kursk disaster, when 118 Russian submariners were left to die 350ft down in the Barents Sea. Back then the Russian government refused to ask for assistance after an explosion onboard sank the submarine.
It is still unclear how many died in the initial explosion and how long the other survivors stayed alive, although grim tales have since come out of tapping being heard from inside the hull. What remains a possibility is that some of those men might have been saved.
‘The Russians learned many lessons after that,’ says Captain David Dittmer of the U.S. Navy.
‘But when a Russian auxiliary sub with seven men on board became entangled in lines and stuck on the Pacific Ocean floor in 2005 they did ask for help, and a British remote vehicle was sent to cut them free. They were just one hour short of their oxygen running out.
‘Now the Russians have changed further and are very enthusiastic to participate. They publicly want to be portrayed as leaders in this field. Submariners are a family too; we all understand that we have an enemy in common: the sea.’
Nato’s submarine rescue system is the most advanced in the world and is based in Faslane just north of the Firth of Clyde.
Nemo was built in North Yorkshire and Britain is a world leader in this technology. The system is jointly owned by Britain, France and Norway, and is now managed by Rolls-Royce. The £75 million cost for development, construction and the first ten years of its life is shared three ways.
Nemo can operate in heavy seas, in waves up to 16ft high, and can rescue from depths of 2,000ft beneath the surface. Beyond that, submariners recognise that there is no hope – their boat will simply implode and be blasted into pieces.
This latest ‘free-swimming’ vehicle replaced an earlier LR5 rescue vehicle, the idea for which came to former Royal Navy submariner Roger Chapman after he almost died when he was trapped 1,575ft down in a civilian mini-submarine in 1973. He and a colleague had been laying a telephone cable in a two-man sub on the bed of the Atlantic, 150 miles off the cost of south-west Ireland. After three and a half days they were found and pulled to safety.
The LR5 has since been leased to Australia, while the British have also sold systems to Singapore, South Korea and the LR7 rescue vehicle to China. At a recent submarine rescue conference a Chinese admiral made it clear to members of the British contingent, through an interpreter, that China would have bought more had our defence export rules not forbidden it.
For the ‘Bold Monarch’ exercise in the Mediterranean, diesel submarines from Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Russia were ‘bottomed’, with rescue vehicles from Italy, the U.S., Russia and Sweden as well as Nemo, along with specialist divers and hyperbaric medical teams working to help rescue them.
The 2,000 participants in the exercise included representatives from more than 20 nations; so as well as a historic meeting for Russian submariners with Nato, it also gave a Greek officer the chance to go onboard a Turkish submarine.
‘By their very nature submarine missions are secretive, except in the conduct of search and rescue, which brings nations together,’ says Rear Admiral Ian Corder, commander for allied submarine operations in the north Atlantic region.
He is based in the Nato building at the high-security military headquarters in Northwood, just outside London. Down a spiral staircase from his office and below ground is the Maritime Operations Centre, with one side wall covered in giant screens.
At the moment counterpiracy is a major focus here, but if a sub were to get into trouble in the north Atlantic region, for which he is responsible (from the North Pole as far south as Gibraltar), then this is where the rescue operation would be co-ordinated.
If a submarine is in danger it will release UHF/VHF indicator buoys, which broadcast using reserved maritime frequencies. They can also release buoys linked to satellites which send signals with an ID for the submarine which can only be recognised by its own country’s authorities.
Rescuers can then log on to a password-protected website, which holds details of all the potential rescue systems around the world, and their availability, and they can plan via instant messaging and in secure chat rooms.
But it’s once they are alerted that the problems begin: how deep is the stricken submarine, how bad is the damage, what is the state of the sea, how is the submarine positioned, is there debris around it, and how many injuries are there?
Submariners can evacuate via escape locks if it is not too deep, but nowadays they are encouraged to wait – they can survive for up to seven days on a bottomed boat, unless something catastrophic has happened. Nemo is designed to make its first rescue within 72 hours.
First, a ‘vessel of opportunity’ has to be chartered. This must have at least 4,400sq ft of deck space, and will deliver Nemo to the location of a stricken submarine. A total of 1,007 such vessels are being tracked at the moment, most of them working in the offshore oil industry. They cost between £17,000 to £40,000 per day to charter. Today’s ‘mother ship’ is Norwegian, the second biggest tug in the world, which is so new it still smells of paint.
But Nemo is just one part of an entire rescue system. First an ROV (Remotely Operated Vessel) is sent to check the state of the sub, look for debris and, if required, deliver a pod containing equipment for oxygen generation and carbon dioxide extraction, as well as water and food
If a submarine is damaged then those on board will more than likely be experiencing high levels of pressure deep under the sea – so the other vital part of the Nato set-up is the TUP (transfer under pressure) system, which is designed to prevent rescued men suffering decompression sickness, or the bends. If Nemo acts like an ambulance then this is the hospital.
When it returns to the surface and is raised into its cradle it docks with two decompression chambers, which can house 72 crew members. A special medical chamber holds up to six. If required there are also two pods, which look like Apollo capsules, which can be used to air-transport under pressure anyone seriously injured to a hospital.
A control room above the chambers is manned by British and French divers who together monitor those inside using CCTV cameras, and watch gauges that measure the oxygen, carbon dioxide and pressure levels. It takes 28 lorries and seven giant transport planes (four C-17s and three Antonov AN124s) to carry the entire system.
The Affray was the last British submarine to be lost with all hands, off the coast of Alderney in 1951, but there have been many accidents since.
Most of these have been in relatively shallow water,’ says Commander Charlie Neve, the UK authority on submarine escape and rescue.
‘Accidents are most likely to happen in busy shipping lanes when a submarine is on the surface and also at night when the black submarine is difficult to see.
‘There have been plenty of potential disasters. In 2002 Trafalgar hit the seabed off the Isle of Skye, in 2008 Superb struck an underwater pinnacle in the Red Sea, and then last year the new Astute ran aground. There’s also the memory of the Thetis in Liverpool Bay in 1939, which stunned people at the time. The water was not that deep, only about 150ft, and her bow became wedged on the bottom while her stern was sticking up in the air. People couldn’t believe that we couldn’t get the men out – it just seemed unbelievable – but we lost 99 men there.’
Once the Alrosa has surfaced again, some of the submariners come out into the light to gather on the upper deck of the Spanish ship Galicia, to mingle with other nationalities and shake hands in the early evening sun. One Royal Navy medic, who is back from a trip to see how Russian sailors live and work aboard one of their ships, says they were ‘surprisingly welcoming. It was just like one of ours really, with family pictures everywhere and lots of dead pot plants.’
The next time they will all gather will be in three years’ time in the seas around Poland.
‘We all hope never to have to use these skills but it does give confidence that it won’t matter who or where you are, help will be there,’ says Captain Damiar Shaykhutdinov of the Russian navy.
‘Maybe one day Russia can host a similar exercise in our waters.’
Then, for his submarine crew, it’s back down below to return to Sevastopol or wherever the Alrosa is ordered to go, once more unseen and unheard.
Eleven years after 118 submariners met a grisly death at the bottom of the ocean in the Kursk, a British team has developed the most advanced underwater rescue system in the world. Andrew Preston watches them go into action
The British co-pilot of the rescue vehicle speaks slowly and deliberately into his microphone: ‘Lima, Lima, Lima.’
The signal is broadcast directly into the Mediterranean Sea via ‘underwater telephone’ using low frequency sound waves. The message is picked up in the control room of the Alrosa, a Russian submarine from the Black Sea fleet. The code words mean that the Nato rescue vehicle, known as Nemo, has successfully ‘mated’, or docked, with the Russian sub.
At the same time a diver clambers through a hatch in the floor of Nemo with a spanner. He follows up the message with two loud taps on the hatch of the submarine casing beneath him, then after a short pause taps a third time. This is the signal that it is now safe for the Russian crew to open the outer hatch. The two vessels have established a hydrostatic water-tight seal, and suction is now the only thing holding them together 300ft underwater.
All this is happening on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Cartagena in south-east Spain. Shortly afterwards the submarine hatch of the diesel submarine opens and a smiling Russian face appears. History has been made.
When it was built during the Cold War, the Kilo-class Alrosa was designed for anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare. Its mission was to snoop, avoid detection, and try to track and, if required, attack Nato forces. Now, for the first time, a Russian submarine is actually taking part in a Nato exercise.
Inside the rescue vehicle it is cramped and humid. In the forward compartment, with its bulbous clear acrylic nose on the front, the pilot and co-pilot sit surrounded by joysticks and a myriad of dials and switches. Behind them, a Navy diver acts as the operator for the rescue chamber, which in an emergency can deliver up to 15 people at a time to the surface, or two injured submariners on stretchers.
But today special guests are moving the other way. Squashed together in the back of Nemo, their heads bent forwards and knees touching from benches on either side, are military VIPs from Russia, the U.S. and other Nato nations, who cross from the module into the submarine, led by General Nikolai Makarov, Chief of Defence Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
This exercise comes 11 years after the Kursk disaster, when 118 Russian submariners were left to die 350ft down in the Barents Sea. Back then the Russian government refused to ask for assistance after an explosion onboard sank the submarine.
It is still unclear how many died in the initial explosion and how long the other survivors stayed alive, although grim tales have since come out of tapping being heard from inside the hull. What remains a possibility is that some of those men might have been saved.
‘The Russians learned many lessons after that,’ says Captain David Dittmer of the U.S. Navy.
‘But when a Russian auxiliary sub with seven men on board became entangled in lines and stuck on the Pacific Ocean floor in 2005 they did ask for help, and a British remote vehicle was sent to cut them free. They were just one hour short of their oxygen running out.
‘Now the Russians have changed further and are very enthusiastic to participate. They publicly want to be portrayed as leaders in this field. Submariners are a family too; we all understand that we have an enemy in common: the sea.’
Nato’s submarine rescue system is the most advanced in the world and is based in Faslane just north of the Firth of Clyde.
Nemo was built in North Yorkshire and Britain is a world leader in this technology. The system is jointly owned by Britain, France and Norway, and is now managed by Rolls-Royce. The £75 million cost for development, construction and the first ten years of its life is shared three ways.
Nemo can operate in heavy seas, in waves up to 16ft high, and can rescue from depths of 2,000ft beneath the surface. Beyond that, submariners recognise that there is no hope – their boat will simply implode and be blasted into pieces.
This latest ‘free-swimming’ vehicle replaced an earlier LR5 rescue vehicle, the idea for which came to former Royal Navy submariner Roger Chapman after he almost died when he was trapped 1,575ft down in a civilian mini-submarine in 1973. He and a colleague had been laying a telephone cable in a two-man sub on the bed of the Atlantic, 150 miles off the cost of south-west Ireland. After three and a half days they were found and pulled to safety.
The LR5 has since been leased to Australia, while the British have also sold systems to Singapore, South Korea and the LR7 rescue vehicle to China. At a recent submarine rescue conference a Chinese admiral made it clear to members of the British contingent, through an interpreter, that China would have bought more had our defence export rules not forbidden it.
For the ‘Bold Monarch’ exercise in the Mediterranean, diesel submarines from Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Russia were ‘bottomed’, with rescue vehicles from Italy, the U.S., Russia and Sweden as well as Nemo, along with specialist divers and hyperbaric medical teams working to help rescue them.
The 2,000 participants in the exercise included representatives from more than 20 nations; so as well as a historic meeting for Russian submariners with Nato, it also gave a Greek officer the chance to go onboard a Turkish submarine.
‘By their very nature submarine missions are secretive, except in the conduct of search and rescue, which brings nations together,’ says Rear Admiral Ian Corder, commander for allied submarine operations in the north Atlantic region.
He is based in the Nato building at the high-security military headquarters in Northwood, just outside London. Down a spiral staircase from his office and below ground is the Maritime Operations Centre, with one side wall covered in giant screens.
At the moment counterpiracy is a major focus here, but if a sub were to get into trouble in the north Atlantic region, for which he is responsible (from the North Pole as far south as Gibraltar), then this is where the rescue operation would be co-ordinated.
If a submarine is in danger it will release UHF/VHF indicator buoys, which broadcast using reserved maritime frequencies. They can also release buoys linked to satellites which send signals with an ID for the submarine which can only be recognised by its own country’s authorities.
Rescuers can then log on to a password-protected website, which holds details of all the potential rescue systems around the world, and their availability, and they can plan via instant messaging and in secure chat rooms.
But it’s once they are alerted that the problems begin: how deep is the stricken submarine, how bad is the damage, what is the state of the sea, how is the submarine positioned, is there debris around it, and how many injuries are there?
Submariners can evacuate via escape locks if it is not too deep, but nowadays they are encouraged to wait – they can survive for up to seven days on a bottomed boat, unless something catastrophic has happened. Nemo is designed to make its first rescue within 72 hours.
First, a ‘vessel of opportunity’ has to be chartered. This must have at least 4,400sq ft of deck space, and will deliver Nemo to the location of a stricken submarine. A total of 1,007 such vessels are being tracked at the moment, most of them working in the offshore oil industry. They cost between £17,000 to £40,000 per day to charter. Today’s ‘mother ship’ is Norwegian, the second biggest tug in the world, which is so new it still smells of paint.
But Nemo is just one part of an entire rescue system. First an ROV (Remotely Operated Vessel) is sent to check the state of the sub, look for debris and, if required, deliver a pod containing equipment for oxygen generation and carbon dioxide extraction, as well as water and food
If a submarine is damaged then those on board will more than likely be experiencing high levels of pressure deep under the sea – so the other vital part of the Nato set-up is the TUP (transfer under pressure) system, which is designed to prevent rescued men suffering decompression sickness, or the bends. If Nemo acts like an ambulance then this is the hospital.
When it returns to the surface and is raised into its cradle it docks with two decompression chambers, which can house 72 crew members. A special medical chamber holds up to six. If required there are also two pods, which look like Apollo capsules, which can be used to air-transport under pressure anyone seriously injured to a hospital.
A control room above the chambers is manned by British and French divers who together monitor those inside using CCTV cameras, and watch gauges that measure the oxygen, carbon dioxide and pressure levels. It takes 28 lorries and seven giant transport planes (four C-17s and three Antonov AN124s) to carry the entire system.
The Affray was the last British submarine to be lost with all hands, off the coast of Alderney in 1951, but there have been many accidents since.
Most of these have been in relatively shallow water,’ says Commander Charlie Neve, the UK authority on submarine escape and rescue.
‘Accidents are most likely to happen in busy shipping lanes when a submarine is on the surface and also at night when the black submarine is difficult to see.
‘There have been plenty of potential disasters. In 2002 Trafalgar hit the seabed off the Isle of Skye, in 2008 Superb struck an underwater pinnacle in the Red Sea, and then last year the new Astute ran aground. There’s also the memory of the Thetis in Liverpool Bay in 1939, which stunned people at the time. The water was not that deep, only about 150ft, and her bow became wedged on the bottom while her stern was sticking up in the air. People couldn’t believe that we couldn’t get the men out – it just seemed unbelievable – but we lost 99 men there.’
Once the Alrosa has surfaced again, some of the submariners come out into the light to gather on the upper deck of the Spanish ship Galicia, to mingle with other nationalities and shake hands in the early evening sun. One Royal Navy medic, who is back from a trip to see how Russian sailors live and work aboard one of their ships, says they were ‘surprisingly welcoming. It was just like one of ours really, with family pictures everywhere and lots of dead pot plants.’
The next time they will all gather will be in three years’ time in the seas around Poland.
‘We all hope never to have to use these skills but it does give confidence that it won’t matter who or where you are, help will be there,’ says Captain Damiar Shaykhutdinov of the Russian navy.
‘Maybe one day Russia can host a similar exercise in our waters.’
Then, for his submarine crew, it’s back down below to return to Sevastopol or wherever the Alrosa is ordered to go, once more unseen and unheard.
Monday, July 25, 2011
What happened to the Amber Room?
I would say that, since the amber blocks were too fragile to move, obviously when the Red Army tried to do so, they destroyed the room. Rather than admit this, they just buried the shattered remains somewhere.
From Wikipedia
The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World".
Before it was lost, the original Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701 to 1709 in Prussia. The room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram and remained at Charlottenburg Palace until 1716 when it was given by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to his then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire. In Russia it was expanded and after several renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tons of amber. The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Nazi Germany and brought to Königsberg. Knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the war.
In 1979 efforts began to rebuild the Amber room at Tsarskoye Selo. In 2003, after decades of work by Russian craftsmen, the reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated in the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
History
Creation
The Amber Room was made from 1701 onwards in order to be installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first king of Prussia, at the urging of his second wife, Sophie Charlotte. The concept of the room and its design was by Andreas Schlüter. It was crafted by Gottfried Wolfram, master craftsman to the Danish court of King Frederick IV of Denmark, with help from the amber masters Ernst Schacht and Gottfried Turau from Danzig (now Gdańsk).
It did not, however, remain at Charlottenburg for long. Peter the Great admired it on a visit and in 1716, Friedrich Wilhelm I, the first king's son, presented it to him, and with that act cemented a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.
In 1755 Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia had it transferred and installed, first in the Winter Palace, and then in the Catherine Palace. From Berlin, Frederick II the Great sent her more Baltic amber, in order to fill out the originals in the new design by the tsarina's Italian court architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. After several other 18th-century renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tonnes of amber. It took over ten years to construct.
World War II evacuation
Shortly after the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II (Operation Barbarossa), the curators responsible for removing the art treasures in Leningrad tried to disassemble and remove the Amber Room. Over the years the amber had dried out and become brittle, so that when they tried to remove it, the fragile amber started to crumble. The Amber Room was therefore hidden behind mundane wallpaper, in an attempt to keep Nazi forces from seizing it. However, the attempt to hide such a well-known piece of art failed.
German soldiers disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts. On 14 October 1941, Rittmeister Graf Solms-Laubach commanded the evacuation of 27 crates to Königsberg in East Prussia, for storage and display in the town's castle. On 13 November 1941, the newspaper Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung reported on an exhibition of part of the Bernsteinzimmer in Königsberg Castle.
Last days in Königsberg
Orders by Hitler given on 21 January 1945 and 24 January 1945 allowed the movement of possessions. From that day onwards, Albert Speer's administration could move culture goods of priority "I (o)". Erich Koch was in charge in Königsberg. Eyewitnesses claimed that crates had been sighted at the railway station. They might have been put aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff which left Gotenhafen (Gdynia) on 30 January 1945, and was sunk by a Soviet submarine.
Later in the war, Königsberg was heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force. It suffered further extensive damage at the hands of the advancing Soviets before and after its fall on 9 April 1945. It remained thereafter under Soviet control, eventually renamed Kaliningrad. The remains of the castle were destroyed by the Red Army during the 1960s.
Disappearance and mystery
The Amber Room was never seen again, though reports have occasionally surfaced stating that components of the Amber Room survived the war. Indeed, two elements of the room's decoration (but not the amber panels themselves) were eventually rediscovered (see below).
There have been numerous conflicting reports and theories, among them that the Amber Room was destroyed by bombing, hidden in a now-lost subterranean bunker in Königsberg, buried in mines in the Ore Mountains, or taken onto a ship or submarine which was sunk by Soviet forces in the Baltic Sea.
Many different individuals and groups, including a number of different entities from the government of the Soviet Union, have mounted extensive searches for it at various times since the war, without any success. At one point in 1998, two separate teams (one in Germany, the other in Lithuania) announced that they had located the Amber Room, the first in a silver mine, the second buried in a lagoon; neither produced the Amber Room.
However, in 1997 one Italian stone mosaic that was part of a set of four which had decorated the Amber Room did turn up in western Germany, in the possession of the family of a soldier who had helped pack up the Amber Room.
The latest discovery, as reported in February 2008, is of a 20-metre pit in Deutschneudorf, a small town near the German-Czech border. The site reportedly matches intelligence from survivors who helped loot the fabled room, and initial probe reports are said to indicate the presence of a large quantity of gold or silver. Hans-Peter Haustein, mayor of the town, said "We're confident it's part of the Amber Room".
On 20 February 2008, German treasure hunters claimed to have found the Amber room. The discovery of an estimated two tons of gold or silver was made at the weekend when electromagnetic pulse measurements located the man-made cavern 20 meters underground near the village of Deutschneudorf on Germany's border with the Czech Republic.
Opening the cavern to get into the chamber cannot be completed until approximately mid-April because it may contain booby traps and has to be secured by explosives experts and engineers.
According to a recent article in Der Spiegel, Heinz-Peter Haustein - who has been leading the most recent searches into the Erzgebirge/Ore Mountains region of Germany - believes that he has found the Amber Room. Digging resumed 26 February 2008 at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are close to two tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room.[6] Treasure hunter Christian Hanisch said on 28 February 2008 that the hunt for Nazi Gold and possibly the legendary Amber Room will end 29 February 2008 after the two men leading the expedition disagreed.
Another recent discovery was made by the Amber Room Organization in the mountains about 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of Weimar. Henry Hatt, the German spokesman told the media that he knows where the Amber Room is hidden. According to him, it was brought to Weimar together with a treasure of the Hohenzollern and Prussian Crown Insignia. From Weimar, it was transported to the county of Saalfeld and hidden in an old underground mining chamber. Currently, the group is searching for a production company to make a movie about the discovery. The ARO claims to have solved the "biggest mystery of WWII".
As of July 2010, none of these discoveries have proven true, and with no new verifiable leads surfacing, new claims are met with a great deal of skepticism.
Destruction theory
Recently, British investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, conducted lengthy research on the fate of the Amber Room, including extensive archival research in Russia. In 2004 their book, The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure, concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was burned down, shortly after Königsberg surrendered to occupying Soviet forces.
Documents from the archives showed that that was also the conclusion of the report of Alexander Brusov, chief of the first formal mission sent by the Soviet government to find the Amber Room, who wrote in June, 1945: "Summarizing all the facts, we can say that the Amber Room was destroyed between 9 and 11 April 1945". Some years later, Brusov gave a contrary opinion; the book authors insinuate that this change of opinion was likely due to pressure from other Soviet officials, who did not want to be seen as responsible for the loss of the Amber Room.
Among other information from the archives was the revelation that the remains of the rest of the set of Italian stone mosaics were found in the burned debris of the castle.
The authors' reasoning as to why the Soviets conducted extensive searches for the Amber Room in the years after WWII, even though their own experts had concluded that it was destroyed, is that it served the differing motives of several elements in the Soviet government: some wished to obscure (even from other branches of the Soviet government) the fact that Soviet soldiers may have been responsible for its destruction; others found the theft of the Amber Room a useful Cold War propaganda tool, and did not want to let go of a grievance that could be aired advantageously; still others did not want to share the blame for its destruction (through their failure to evacuate the Amber Room to safety at the start of the war).
Russian officials have denied the book's conclusions - angrily, in some cases. According to Adelaida Yolkina, senior researcher at the Pavlovsk Museum Estate: "It is impossible to see the Red Army being so careless that they let the Amber Room be destroyed." Other Russian experts were less sceptical, and had a different emphasis in their responses. Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum, was very cautious in his comments, and said: "Most importantly, the destruction of the Amber Room during the Second World War is fault of the people who started the war". In reply, Catherine Scott-Clark, one of the authors, indicated that they only came to their conclusions with reluctance: "when we started working on this issue we were hoping to be able to find the Amber Room."
Since the book came out, a Russian veteran has given an interview in which he confirmed their basic conclusion as to the fate of the Amber Room, although he denies that the fires were deliberate. "I probably was one of the last people who saw the Amber Room", said Leonid Arinshtein, a literature expert with the nongovernmental Russian Culture Foundation, who was a Red Army lieutenant in charge of a rifle platoon in Königsberg in 1945. "The Red Army didn't burn anything", he said.
A variation of this theory is common currency amongst present-day residents of Kaliningrad. This is that part at least of the room was found in the cellars after WWII by the Red Army, in relatively good condition. This was not admitted at the time in order that blame should continue to rest upon the Germans. To preserve this story access to the ruins of the castle, which were substantial after WWII, was restricted, even to historical/archaeological surveys. During the 1960s, access to the site was suddenly withheld and the ruins were blown up by the Army, sealing any access to the underground area. The Dom Sovetov was built over the central area. The remains of the room may still be sited underground; however, as mentioned above, amber which is not cared for will crumble into dust. It is presumed that this is what has happened and that the Russian authorities, even after the fall of Communism, have been unwilling to admit this.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Gold rush shipwreck offers up treasures off Welsh coast after 150 years
From The Telegraph: Gold rush shipwreck offers up treasures off Welsh coast after 150 years
For more than 150 years it has lain tantalisingly close to the shore. Now the ship that sank in a storm in 1859, claiming 450 lives, is giving up its most precious secret: gold.
But this treasure trove is not in a distant tropical lagoon – it is near the Welsh ferry port of Holyhead, in the remains of an ironclad steam clipper called the Royal Charter.
A team of explorers diving to the ship, which sank off Anglesey while returning laden with riches from the Australian gold rush of the 1850s, has brought gold coins and nuggets to the surface and expects to retrieve more.
The ship foundered on rocks just yards from the shore after a hurricane hit on the final leg of its journey from Melbourne to Liverpool, on Oct 26, 1859. On board were gold prospectors returning with their fortunes.
By daybreak the ship had sunk and about 450 passengers and crew, along with the gold, had been lost.
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[what's this]
Vincent Thurkettle, a full-time gold planner who is
leading the expedition, said: "We have got some gold dust, nuggets and coins, as well as about 200 artefacts. And there is more gold down there."
The finds have all been reported to the Receiver of Wreck, who administers all shipwrecks. People connected to the passengers can claim ownership – although claims are thought to be unlikely. The gold will then be returned to the team or sold to a museum, with a fee passed to the explorers.
The treasure has yet to be valued and the team have declined to say how big their haul is. However, the value, particularly of the coins, will be inflated because of where they were found.
Mr Thurkettle said: "To have a coin from the Royal Charter will probably be worth double or treble what it would otherwise be worth."
His team of about 12 divers and gold planners have been visiting the wreck for the past seven summers, but only now have they agreed to reveal details. They estimate there's another two years' worth of exploring left.
The wreck lies just off the village of Moelfre, on
Anglesey's east coast, in clay beneath about 15ft of water, and sand. To search for gold, the team blow away the top sand. They then use a machine to suck up sand and clay to be sifted for gold fragments. Mr Thurkettle has been to
Melbourne to find out how much gold was on board. He said: "But you find yourself getting absorbed in the story. These people were coming home having struck gold and were only two to three hours away from Liverpool.
"And yet they go from such hope to such disaster, yards from safety."
The tale of the ship's loss gripped Victorian Britain. Her captain had tried to anchor in Moelfre Bay to escape the storm but the vessel's chain broke and her engine was not strong enough to keep her off the rocks, where she was battered by 60ft waves and 100mph winds. The ship snapped in two while less than 50 yards from the coast.
A Maltese seaman made it to shore with a lifeline, allowing a few survivors to reach land. But only 39 of the estimated 490 on board were saved. Many of the dead were killed by being dashed on to the rocks. Others drowned, weighed down by the gold in their money belts.
The storm was one of the worst of the 19th century and became known as the "Royal Charter gale" with about 200 vessels lost around the British coast. Charles Dickens, at the height of his fame, went to north Wales to report on the aftermath.
At least 79,000 ounces of gold were on the boat – worth £77.6 million today. Soldiers and coastguards salvaged some before many of the bodies had been recovered. The press upset villagers by accusing them of stealing the gold.
About 80 per cent of the haul was recovered, leaving the tantalising prospect that, even after the latest find,
millions of pounds' worth of gold remain on the sea bed.
For more than 150 years it has lain tantalisingly close to the shore. Now the ship that sank in a storm in 1859, claiming 450 lives, is giving up its most precious secret: gold.
But this treasure trove is not in a distant tropical lagoon – it is near the Welsh ferry port of Holyhead, in the remains of an ironclad steam clipper called the Royal Charter.
A team of explorers diving to the ship, which sank off Anglesey while returning laden with riches from the Australian gold rush of the 1850s, has brought gold coins and nuggets to the surface and expects to retrieve more.
The ship foundered on rocks just yards from the shore after a hurricane hit on the final leg of its journey from Melbourne to Liverpool, on Oct 26, 1859. On board were gold prospectors returning with their fortunes.
By daybreak the ship had sunk and about 450 passengers and crew, along with the gold, had been lost.
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[what's this]
Vincent Thurkettle, a full-time gold planner who is
leading the expedition, said: "We have got some gold dust, nuggets and coins, as well as about 200 artefacts. And there is more gold down there."
The finds have all been reported to the Receiver of Wreck, who administers all shipwrecks. People connected to the passengers can claim ownership – although claims are thought to be unlikely. The gold will then be returned to the team or sold to a museum, with a fee passed to the explorers.
The treasure has yet to be valued and the team have declined to say how big their haul is. However, the value, particularly of the coins, will be inflated because of where they were found.
Mr Thurkettle said: "To have a coin from the Royal Charter will probably be worth double or treble what it would otherwise be worth."
His team of about 12 divers and gold planners have been visiting the wreck for the past seven summers, but only now have they agreed to reveal details. They estimate there's another two years' worth of exploring left.
The wreck lies just off the village of Moelfre, on
Anglesey's east coast, in clay beneath about 15ft of water, and sand. To search for gold, the team blow away the top sand. They then use a machine to suck up sand and clay to be sifted for gold fragments. Mr Thurkettle has been to
Melbourne to find out how much gold was on board. He said: "But you find yourself getting absorbed in the story. These people were coming home having struck gold and were only two to three hours away from Liverpool.
"And yet they go from such hope to such disaster, yards from safety."
The tale of the ship's loss gripped Victorian Britain. Her captain had tried to anchor in Moelfre Bay to escape the storm but the vessel's chain broke and her engine was not strong enough to keep her off the rocks, where she was battered by 60ft waves and 100mph winds. The ship snapped in two while less than 50 yards from the coast.
A Maltese seaman made it to shore with a lifeline, allowing a few survivors to reach land. But only 39 of the estimated 490 on board were saved. Many of the dead were killed by being dashed on to the rocks. Others drowned, weighed down by the gold in their money belts.
The storm was one of the worst of the 19th century and became known as the "Royal Charter gale" with about 200 vessels lost around the British coast. Charles Dickens, at the height of his fame, went to north Wales to report on the aftermath.
At least 79,000 ounces of gold were on the boat – worth £77.6 million today. Soldiers and coastguards salvaged some before many of the bodies had been recovered. The press upset villagers by accusing them of stealing the gold.
About 80 per cent of the haul was recovered, leaving the tantalising prospect that, even after the latest find,
millions of pounds' worth of gold remain on the sea bed.
Weather hits bid to detonate mine
From Suffolk Free Press (from 17 July): Weather hits bid to detonate mine
Attempts to detonate a live 2,000lb Second World War mine picked up by a dredger off the Essex coast have been hampered by the weather.
The device was found eight nautical miles off the coast of Clacton on Friday morning and experts had planned to discharge it on Saturday.
But conditions have stopped Royal Navy divers from making contact with the mine - which they moved from the dredger onto the sea bed - in order to carry out a controlled explosion.
A Royal Navy spokesman said high winds and poor sea conditions meant it was not possible to dive on Saturday morning.
"It is looking unlikely they can dive safely today because of the weather," he said.
Stewart Oxley, spokesman for RNLI Walton and Frinton, said the mine was believed to be "in very good condition" and "was still a viable destructive force".
The Royal Navy has denied reports that it had lost the mine.
"They know where it is. When it's safe to do so they will get down to it and dive on it. They put it on the sea bed safely," a spokesman said.
A one-mile exclusion zone remains in place around the area.
Attempts to detonate a live 2,000lb Second World War mine picked up by a dredger off the Essex coast have been hampered by the weather.
The device was found eight nautical miles off the coast of Clacton on Friday morning and experts had planned to discharge it on Saturday.
But conditions have stopped Royal Navy divers from making contact with the mine - which they moved from the dredger onto the sea bed - in order to carry out a controlled explosion.
A Royal Navy spokesman said high winds and poor sea conditions meant it was not possible to dive on Saturday morning.
"It is looking unlikely they can dive safely today because of the weather," he said.
Stewart Oxley, spokesman for RNLI Walton and Frinton, said the mine was believed to be "in very good condition" and "was still a viable destructive force".
The Royal Navy has denied reports that it had lost the mine.
"They know where it is. When it's safe to do so they will get down to it and dive on it. They put it on the sea bed safely," a spokesman said.
A one-mile exclusion zone remains in place around the area.
Museum rediscovers its antique instruments
Musical instruments might not seem like a subject for Volcano Seven, but its the circumstances in which they were found that I find intriguing. How can a collection of anything be forgotten in a museum?
Well, that's the thing with museums. They display 10% of their collection, the rest of it is stored underground or wherever their storage facilities are, and never see the light of day. And if their administrative folks aren't competent, who knows where items will end up.
From The Columbus Dispatch: Museum rediscovers its antique instruments
CINCINNATI — The recent rediscovery of a collection of more than 800 antique musical
instruments, stored beneath the Cincinnati Art Museum and largely forgotten for decades, has caught the attention of curators in some of the nation’s top museums.
The items span four centuries and represent more than 20 countries, making the collection important in the eyes of museum officials and instrument specialists, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported yesterday.
The instruments include African drums, a Burmese crocodile zither, a Chinese version of a hammered dulcimer and a native American ceremonial rattle.
“You don’t find these things in many places,” said J. Kenneth Moore, curator in charge of the musical-instruments department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “You just find them in a handful of places.”
Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati museum, said the instruments, like other collections, had not been given due attention because there wasn’t enough room for them at the museum, which put off a planned expansion and has laid off workers.
Conservators plan to clean dozens of the instruments to use in an exhibition to go along with the 2012 World Choir Games next summer in Cincinnati. Some of the pieces might then be integrated into the museum’s collection but likely won’t be displayed in a dedicated gallery.
“This is really about instruments from around the world,” Betsky said. “And it was collected for the visual intensity of the pieces, not necessarily for their functionality.”
Many of the pieces came from wealthy Cincinnati industrialist William Howard Doane, who collected instruments as he traveled around the world. He started lending them to the Cincinnati museum in 1887, a couple of years before the Metropolitan Museum of Art began its instrument collection, and he ended up donating about 650, the newspaper reported.
Well, that's the thing with museums. They display 10% of their collection, the rest of it is stored underground or wherever their storage facilities are, and never see the light of day. And if their administrative folks aren't competent, who knows where items will end up.
From The Columbus Dispatch: Museum rediscovers its antique instruments
CINCINNATI — The recent rediscovery of a collection of more than 800 antique musical
instruments, stored beneath the Cincinnati Art Museum and largely forgotten for decades, has caught the attention of curators in some of the nation’s top museums.
The items span four centuries and represent more than 20 countries, making the collection important in the eyes of museum officials and instrument specialists, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported yesterday.
The instruments include African drums, a Burmese crocodile zither, a Chinese version of a hammered dulcimer and a native American ceremonial rattle.
“You don’t find these things in many places,” said J. Kenneth Moore, curator in charge of the musical-instruments department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “You just find them in a handful of places.”
Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati museum, said the instruments, like other collections, had not been given due attention because there wasn’t enough room for them at the museum, which put off a planned expansion and has laid off workers.
Conservators plan to clean dozens of the instruments to use in an exhibition to go along with the 2012 World Choir Games next summer in Cincinnati. Some of the pieces might then be integrated into the museum’s collection but likely won’t be displayed in a dedicated gallery.
“This is really about instruments from around the world,” Betsky said. “And it was collected for the visual intensity of the pieces, not necessarily for their functionality.”
Many of the pieces came from wealthy Cincinnati industrialist William Howard Doane, who collected instruments as he traveled around the world. He started lending them to the Cincinnati museum in 1887, a couple of years before the Metropolitan Museum of Art began its instrument collection, and he ended up donating about 650, the newspaper reported.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
A Lost World? Atlantis-Like Landscape Discovered
From Live Science: A Lost World? Atlantis-Like Landscape Discovered
Buried deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean lies an ancient, lost landscape with furrows cut by rivers and peaks that once belonged to mountains. Geologists recently discovered this roughly 56-million-year-old landscape using data gathered for oil companies.
"It looks for all the world like a map of a bit of a country onshore," said Nicky White, the senior researcher. "It is like an ancient fossil landscape preserved 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) beneath the seabed."
So far, the data have revealed a landscape about 3,861 square miles (10,000 square km) west of the Orkney-Shetland Islands that stretched above sea level by almost as much as 0.6 miles (1 km). White and colleagues suspect it is part of a larger region that merged with what is now Scotland and may have extended toward Norway in a hot, prehuman world.
History beneath the seafloor
The discovery emerged from data collected by a seismic contracting company using an advanced echo-sounding technique. High pressured air is released from metal cylinders, producing sound waves that travel to the ocean floor and beneath it, through layers of sediment. Every time these sound waves encounter a change in the material through which they are traveling, say, from mudstone to sandstone, an echo bounces back. Microphones trailing behind the ship on cables record these echoes, and the information they contain can be used to construct three-dimensional images of the sedimentary rock below, explained White, a geologist at the University of Cambridge in Britain.
The team, led by Ross Hartley, a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, found a wrinkly layer 1.2 miles (2 km) beneath the seafloor — evidence of the buried landscape, reminiscent of the mythical lost Atlantis.
The researchers traced eight major rivers, and core samples, taken from the rock beneath the ocean floor, revealed pollen and coal, evidence of land-dwelling life. But above and below these deposits, they found evidence of a marine environment, including tiny fossils, indicating the land rose above the sea and then subsided — "like a terrestrial sandwich with marine bread," White said.
The burning scientific question, according to White, is what made this landscape rise up, then subside within 2.5 million years? "From a geological perspective, that is a very short period of time," he said.
The giant hot ripple
He and colleagues have a theory pointing to an upwelling of material through the Earth's mantle beneath the North Atlantic Ocean called the Icelandic Plume. (The plume is centered under Iceland.)
The plume works like a pipe carrying hot magma from deep within the Earth to right below the surface, where it spreads out like a giant mushroom, according to White. Sometimes the material is unusually hot, and it spreads out in a giant hot ripple.
The researchers believe that such a giant hot ripple pushed the lost landscape above the North Atlantic, then as the ripple passed, the land fell back beneath the ocean.
This theory is supported by other new research showing that the chemical composition of rocks in the V-shaped ridges on the ocean floor around Iceland contains a record of hot magma surges like this one. Although this study, led by Heather Poore, also one of White's students, looked back only about 30 million years, White said he is hopeful ongoing research will pinpoint an older ridge that recorded this particular hot ripple.
Because similar processes have occurred elsewhere on the planet, there are likely many other lost landscapes like this one. Since this study was completed, the researchers have found two more recent, but less spectacular, submerged landscapes above the first one, White said.
Both studies appeared on July 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Buried deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean lies an ancient, lost landscape with furrows cut by rivers and peaks that once belonged to mountains. Geologists recently discovered this roughly 56-million-year-old landscape using data gathered for oil companies.
"It looks for all the world like a map of a bit of a country onshore," said Nicky White, the senior researcher. "It is like an ancient fossil landscape preserved 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) beneath the seabed."
So far, the data have revealed a landscape about 3,861 square miles (10,000 square km) west of the Orkney-Shetland Islands that stretched above sea level by almost as much as 0.6 miles (1 km). White and colleagues suspect it is part of a larger region that merged with what is now Scotland and may have extended toward Norway in a hot, prehuman world.
History beneath the seafloor
The discovery emerged from data collected by a seismic contracting company using an advanced echo-sounding technique. High pressured air is released from metal cylinders, producing sound waves that travel to the ocean floor and beneath it, through layers of sediment. Every time these sound waves encounter a change in the material through which they are traveling, say, from mudstone to sandstone, an echo bounces back. Microphones trailing behind the ship on cables record these echoes, and the information they contain can be used to construct three-dimensional images of the sedimentary rock below, explained White, a geologist at the University of Cambridge in Britain.
The team, led by Ross Hartley, a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, found a wrinkly layer 1.2 miles (2 km) beneath the seafloor — evidence of the buried landscape, reminiscent of the mythical lost Atlantis.
The researchers traced eight major rivers, and core samples, taken from the rock beneath the ocean floor, revealed pollen and coal, evidence of land-dwelling life. But above and below these deposits, they found evidence of a marine environment, including tiny fossils, indicating the land rose above the sea and then subsided — "like a terrestrial sandwich with marine bread," White said.
The burning scientific question, according to White, is what made this landscape rise up, then subside within 2.5 million years? "From a geological perspective, that is a very short period of time," he said.
The giant hot ripple
He and colleagues have a theory pointing to an upwelling of material through the Earth's mantle beneath the North Atlantic Ocean called the Icelandic Plume. (The plume is centered under Iceland.)
The plume works like a pipe carrying hot magma from deep within the Earth to right below the surface, where it spreads out like a giant mushroom, according to White. Sometimes the material is unusually hot, and it spreads out in a giant hot ripple.
The researchers believe that such a giant hot ripple pushed the lost landscape above the North Atlantic, then as the ripple passed, the land fell back beneath the ocean.
This theory is supported by other new research showing that the chemical composition of rocks in the V-shaped ridges on the ocean floor around Iceland contains a record of hot magma surges like this one. Although this study, led by Heather Poore, also one of White's students, looked back only about 30 million years, White said he is hopeful ongoing research will pinpoint an older ridge that recorded this particular hot ripple.
Because similar processes have occurred elsewhere on the planet, there are likely many other lost landscapes like this one. Since this study was completed, the researchers have found two more recent, but less spectacular, submerged landscapes above the first one, White said.
Both studies appeared on July 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Monday, July 18, 2011
H.L. Hunley is rotated upright; 'stealth-like' craft now visible
From The Washington Times: H.L. Hunley is rotated upright; 'stealth-like' craft now visible
VIENNA, Va, June 28, 2011 — Word has been received that at long last, the H.L. Hunley has been rotated and put into her original upright position in the climate controlled tank at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, SC.
The Confederate submersible/submarine was resting on her starboard side at an approximate 45-degree angle when finally raised from the ocean floor in August 2009. Due to the sediment inside which had not been disturbed in over 100 years, and the presence of the remains of the eight men who had sailed her, it was felt that a full examination of the contents should be made before any attempt was made to right the seven and one-half ton ship, which was 39’ long.
It took two days to accomplish the shift in position of the craft, which had been held in place by large slings. Moving in micro steps of two millimeters a day, the repositioning was finally accomplished, providing the scientists and conservators with the first glimpse of that side of the Hunley’s hull. Apparently no specific damage was evident on the long-hidden side, which means that the scientists will still continue their hunt to ascertain what caused the ship to sink.
Talking with Kellen Correia, Executive Director of the Friends of the Hunley organization today, she said that “seeing the Hunley right side up has given us a whole new view of it – it looks stealth-like now.”
They will soon remove the keel block supports, she said, as well as the slings. “It’s hard to realize that over a half million people have come to see the Hunley in the last ten years,” she related, “and we hope that the new positioning will bring even more to our facility.”
Ms. Correia continued that “within the next two to four weeks, the trusses will be completely removed” from the little craft, although what the ultimate preservation process will be is not known at this time.
History records the fatal steps that led up to the ultimate Hunley’s launching, which made her the first of her kind to sink an enemy ship during warfare. On February 17, 1864, sliding out of Charleston Harbor late at night, she quietly approached the U.S.S. Housatonic, a Union blockade ship preventing ships from entering the Harbor, and fired a 135 lb. torpedo attached to a 150` detonation rope into the Housatonic’s side.
The Union ship sank in less than five minutes. After coming to the surface to flash a signal to the crew waiting on shore, the Hunley sank beneath the waves, where she remained for over a century.
Before that final fatal voyage, two previous attempts had been made to pilot the Hunley — on August 29, 1863 and on October 15 of the same year. While three men survived the first effort, all eight were killed in the second, including Horace L. Hunley who had first envisioned the concept of the submersible.
Despite the loss of so many men in the efforts, it was easy to again enlist a crew for the final run, with Lt. George E. Dixon in the lead.
We visited the Hunley several years ago in North Charleston, and it was the highlight of our trips that year. To actually stand on the catwalks surrounding the tank in which the craft hung in a specially prepared water bath, and see the Hunley herself, frankly was a thrill that was absolutely fantastic. It was difficult to envision how eight men of normal height and weight could have stayed inside her, manning the crank that ran down the center of the interior, was impressive.
The H.L. Hunley
Outside the museum was a full size replica of the ‘little fish boat’ as it was termed, and visitors were allowed to go inside to get the feel of what it must have been like on that dark, cold night in 1864. Now I’m a little less than five feet in height, and trying to sit at the seats inside and operate a hand-crank was a close fit even for me, giving a greater appreciation of what those men of normal height had to contend with.
Entry into the Hunley was through two “man holes” with openings roughly 14” x 15,” no easy feat.
Forensic examination of Lt. Dixon’s remains indicated that he was 5’9” tall, and had sandy brown hair. If I recall correctly, wear on the inside of his lower teeth revealed that he had been a pipe smoker. He obviously came from a well-off family, as he had a fine gold watch, a diamond ring and a diamond pin in his pockets, no doubt presents for the lovely Queenie upon his return. He had lived in Mobile, Alabama early in the War years, active in the community and had joined the local Masonic Lodge.
It was at the Conservation Center that we saw the famous $20 gold piece carried by Lt. Dixon, the story that resonated with so many people who heard it.
His fiancée, Queenie Bennett, had given him a gold coin engraved with the words “My life Preserver – G.E. D.” before the Battle of Shiloh, and when he was struck by Union fire, the shot literally left the gold coin bent, the way it was found deep in the Hunley, near his remains. Examination of his remains confirmed that he had previously sustained a gunshot injury shot his upper left thigh, with small lead fragments embedded in the bone!
Ever since the Hunley sank, and Clive Cussler with his National Underwater and Marine Agency, a private group funded by the adventure writer and marine archaeologist, stated that he had found where she lay, various efforts began to raise her to the surface and to find out what happened to the crew.
There are several theories as to what happened; one which occurred to me after reading the books on the Hunley, that the actual attack on the Housatonic and resulting concussive shock felt through the water, rendered the Hunley crew unconscious, where they remained as the oxygen was dissipated within the craft by their breathing and the lit candle.
Others think that it could have been damaged by fire from the Housatonic, though no fire damage apparently has been noted, or that another Union vessel coming to aid the Housatonic may have damaged it. Further examination may tell the final story, though examination of the crew’s remains apparently gave no indication.
When entry was made into the boat upon it’s raising in 2009, the remains of the eight men were found intact, each at his station, in a seated position, with no indication that they had fought to get out or near the opening, etc. Thus death must have come easily and quietly to those brave early sailors, whose job was to turn the heavy iron cranks which propelled the Hunley through the water.
The little submarine may never sail the ocean waters again, but the contribution of her and her intrepid crews will provide scientists and historians with ample food for thought for many years to come.
The Warren Lasch Conservation Center is located at 1250 Supply Street, (old Charleston Navy Base), North Charleston, SC; its number s (843) 743-4865.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Lure of Charles Island Difficult To Resist
From CTPost: Lure of Charles Island Difficult To Resist
MILFORD -- Standing on the shore of Silver Sands State Park, it's difficult to resist the tantalizing pull of Charles Island, the half-mile distant wildlife sanctuary connected by a sandbar that's visible at low tide.
One of those who attempted to walk to the island on Independence Day was Rocco Daddio Jr., 34, of Hamden. Authorities said he was walking with a 9-year-old boy about 3:30 p.m. when they were swept off the sandbar by the incoming tide.
The boy was rescued by a jet-skier, but Daddio drowned. His body was recovered by rescue workers more than two hours later.
"He was one-of-a-kind, and a jokester," said his boss at Lee Partyka Chevrolet-Mazda in Hamden, sales manager Andrew Quintyne.
"An incredible human being, always with a smile on his face. He was a vital part of the dealership and our sales team, and no one will be able to replace him."
Most of those on the beach Tuesday morning said they treat the sandbar with a good deal of respect, particularly after the July 4 tragedy.
"As far as going out there to the island, never," said Sladjana Pokrajac, 21, who was in charge of several children attending a private day camp Tuesday morning.
She said she was at the beach with her brother as the emergency unfolded. "As soon as I heard what was happening, I stayed out of the water." She said she soon left with her brother. "I didn't want him to see what was going on."
Like many who spent their summers on the beaches of Milford in their formative years, she said she did walk on the sandbar on occasion.
"But I was always too chicken to go all the way," she said.
"The rocks are very slippery," said Carl Lucas, of Southbury, who was walking on the sandbar with his wife Monday morning. "We have walked out to the island, but when you do, you don't have much time to get back to the beach again."
"He must have been caught by the current," said Mike Cumpelik, who now lives in Florida but grew up in Milford. "You have to use common sense if you can't swim. It seems like such a fun idea to do -- to try to walk out there."
A father, walking with his 6-year-old son, said they wouldn't venture out very far.
"My son wanted to go out all the way, but that's too dangerous," said Andrew Bordley of Wallingford.
Officially, the island is closed to the public between May 24 and Sept. 9 because it is a nesting site for herons and egrets, and a warning sign to this effect is posted on the beach. But on a typical sunny weekend in July and August, dozens of beach-goers attempt the walk to the island.
On June 8, responders from the Milford Fire Department and pleasure boaters rescued three teen-agers who, like Daddio, were swept into deeper water while walking on the sandbar. A week before that incident, three other children were pulled out of the water by a pleasure boater near the same spot.
The 3,000-foot sandbar is almost completely submerged at high tide. At low tide, the first 1,500 feet or so seems wide, dry and secure, but the sandbar narrows the closer one gets to the island. About 1,000 feet from the island, it becomes little more than a narrow row of slippery rocks, so not much of a current is needed to knock unsuspecting walkers off of their feet and into the water.
There are three signs posted by the state warning of the danger. Two are on the beach -- one facing east, the other west -- and a third is on the sandbar itself. They read: "DANGER! Sandbar floods twice daily with strong currents and undertow."
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has no plans to change the wording of the signs, or to add more signs.
"We do believe that the wording on the signage that we have right now is fairly strong, and it should be enough to deter people from going out there," said Dwayne Gardner, a spokesman for the DEEP. "The island is also off-limits this time of year because of nesting shorebirds."
The 12-acre island was owned by United Illuminating between 1949 and 1981, when it was purchased by the state, along with 59 acres of beach property for $522,950. In the late 1940s, UI had considered placing a power plant on the island, cooling it with water from the Sound.
In the late 1980s, as plans for development of the state park were taking shape, a proposal was floated to build a boardwalk connecting Charles Island with the Silver Sands beach, but this plan never materialized.
It was thought at the time such a boardwalk would limit beach erosion at Silver Sands, in addition to making the walk out there a good deal safer. But the city and the state squabbled over details; Milford wanted a jetty with a walkway on top, but the state DEEP wanted a raised boardwalk structure that would allow a natural flow of water to take place.
In the 1960s, the state had considered turning Silver Sands into a rival of Hammonasset State Park in Madison. To this end, more than 220,000 cubic yards of sand was dumped there, but it all washed away within eight years.
The island was known in earlier days as "Hard Luck Island," owing to the people who tried and failed to start businesses there, including a farmer who wanted to set up a tobacco plantation. There used to be a monastery there, too, but that washed away in a storm.
In 1982, state crews succeeded in placing a concrete cap on a 20-foot-deep well on the island that was viewed as a safety hazard.
In 1984, the Milford Harbor Commission wanted to establish an pleasure boat anchorage between Charles Island and the mainland, in part to keep speeding boats away from swimmers. That idea was soon scrapped.
In 1992, treasure hunter "West Coast" Don Johnson, president of Sunken Treasure Inc. of Fort Myers, Fla., was slapped with a cease-and-desist order for selling stock in a Charles Island treasure-hunting scheme. Johnson said he would search for Captain William Kidd's rumored treasure on the island. But the DEP never granted him a permit to dig for the pirate's supposed riches.
MILFORD -- Standing on the shore of Silver Sands State Park, it's difficult to resist the tantalizing pull of Charles Island, the half-mile distant wildlife sanctuary connected by a sandbar that's visible at low tide.
One of those who attempted to walk to the island on Independence Day was Rocco Daddio Jr., 34, of Hamden. Authorities said he was walking with a 9-year-old boy about 3:30 p.m. when they were swept off the sandbar by the incoming tide.
The boy was rescued by a jet-skier, but Daddio drowned. His body was recovered by rescue workers more than two hours later.
"He was one-of-a-kind, and a jokester," said his boss at Lee Partyka Chevrolet-Mazda in Hamden, sales manager Andrew Quintyne.
"An incredible human being, always with a smile on his face. He was a vital part of the dealership and our sales team, and no one will be able to replace him."
Most of those on the beach Tuesday morning said they treat the sandbar with a good deal of respect, particularly after the July 4 tragedy.
"As far as going out there to the island, never," said Sladjana Pokrajac, 21, who was in charge of several children attending a private day camp Tuesday morning.
She said she was at the beach with her brother as the emergency unfolded. "As soon as I heard what was happening, I stayed out of the water." She said she soon left with her brother. "I didn't want him to see what was going on."
Like many who spent their summers on the beaches of Milford in their formative years, she said she did walk on the sandbar on occasion.
"But I was always too chicken to go all the way," she said.
"The rocks are very slippery," said Carl Lucas, of Southbury, who was walking on the sandbar with his wife Monday morning. "We have walked out to the island, but when you do, you don't have much time to get back to the beach again."
"He must have been caught by the current," said Mike Cumpelik, who now lives in Florida but grew up in Milford. "You have to use common sense if you can't swim. It seems like such a fun idea to do -- to try to walk out there."
A father, walking with his 6-year-old son, said they wouldn't venture out very far.
"My son wanted to go out all the way, but that's too dangerous," said Andrew Bordley of Wallingford.
Officially, the island is closed to the public between May 24 and Sept. 9 because it is a nesting site for herons and egrets, and a warning sign to this effect is posted on the beach. But on a typical sunny weekend in July and August, dozens of beach-goers attempt the walk to the island.
On June 8, responders from the Milford Fire Department and pleasure boaters rescued three teen-agers who, like Daddio, were swept into deeper water while walking on the sandbar. A week before that incident, three other children were pulled out of the water by a pleasure boater near the same spot.
The 3,000-foot sandbar is almost completely submerged at high tide. At low tide, the first 1,500 feet or so seems wide, dry and secure, but the sandbar narrows the closer one gets to the island. About 1,000 feet from the island, it becomes little more than a narrow row of slippery rocks, so not much of a current is needed to knock unsuspecting walkers off of their feet and into the water.
There are three signs posted by the state warning of the danger. Two are on the beach -- one facing east, the other west -- and a third is on the sandbar itself. They read: "DANGER! Sandbar floods twice daily with strong currents and undertow."
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has no plans to change the wording of the signs, or to add more signs.
"We do believe that the wording on the signage that we have right now is fairly strong, and it should be enough to deter people from going out there," said Dwayne Gardner, a spokesman for the DEEP. "The island is also off-limits this time of year because of nesting shorebirds."
The 12-acre island was owned by United Illuminating between 1949 and 1981, when it was purchased by the state, along with 59 acres of beach property for $522,950. In the late 1940s, UI had considered placing a power plant on the island, cooling it with water from the Sound.
In the late 1980s, as plans for development of the state park were taking shape, a proposal was floated to build a boardwalk connecting Charles Island with the Silver Sands beach, but this plan never materialized.
It was thought at the time such a boardwalk would limit beach erosion at Silver Sands, in addition to making the walk out there a good deal safer. But the city and the state squabbled over details; Milford wanted a jetty with a walkway on top, but the state DEEP wanted a raised boardwalk structure that would allow a natural flow of water to take place.
In the 1960s, the state had considered turning Silver Sands into a rival of Hammonasset State Park in Madison. To this end, more than 220,000 cubic yards of sand was dumped there, but it all washed away within eight years.
The island was known in earlier days as "Hard Luck Island," owing to the people who tried and failed to start businesses there, including a farmer who wanted to set up a tobacco plantation. There used to be a monastery there, too, but that washed away in a storm.
In 1982, state crews succeeded in placing a concrete cap on a 20-foot-deep well on the island that was viewed as a safety hazard.
In 1984, the Milford Harbor Commission wanted to establish an pleasure boat anchorage between Charles Island and the mainland, in part to keep speeding boats away from swimmers. That idea was soon scrapped.
In 1992, treasure hunter "West Coast" Don Johnson, president of Sunken Treasure Inc. of Fort Myers, Fla., was slapped with a cease-and-desist order for selling stock in a Charles Island treasure-hunting scheme. Johnson said he would search for Captain William Kidd's rumored treasure on the island. But the DEP never granted him a permit to dig for the pirate's supposed riches.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Bronze sculpture from 16th century found in Mexico
FoxNews: Bronze sculpture from 16th century found in Mexico
Mexico City – A bronze sculpture more than 430 years old was found on the Pacific coast in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.
The discovery was made by INAH members and researchers from the United States two weeks ago and is a unique piece within the collection of goods recovered over a 12-year period by the Manila Galleon Project in Baja California.
The sculpture, 12 centimeters (4 3/4 inches) tall and of an equal width, represents a Chinese "Dog of Fo," and the first analyses have determined that it is either the lid of a censer or a candlestick.
The find comes from one of the first galleons of the 16th century to set sail from Manila in the Philippines en route to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, INAH marine archaeology unit member Roberto Junco said.
The route "was the longest on the high seas...in this case the ship could have been carried off by the various currents along the coast of the Californias, with no survivors to continue the crossing," Junco said.
The remains of the goods found probably belonged to the San Felipe galleon, which sailed carrying a large cargo of Chinese porcelain from the Ming Dynasty and which disappeared without a trace in 1576, maritime historian Edward Von der Porten said.
The Asian sculpture, located underwater by means of signals from a metal detector, coincides with descriptions noted in the 18th century by Jesuit missionaries such as Fr. Fernando Consag at an earlier moment and later by Fr. Miguel del Barco, Junco said.
"The goods we are studying coincide with the notes of Fr. Miguel del Barco, who in his chronicles says that some Indians brought to one of the missions a bronze candlestick in the shape of a dog," the archaeologist said.
"The object we found is probably similar to the one described by the priest, or it could be the lid of a censer," Junco said.
The so-called "Dogs of Fo" - the Chinese word for Buddha is Fo - actually represent lions and were considered protectors of sacred sanctuaries, usually Buddhist temples.
The Manila Galleon Project is led by U.S. researchers Jack Hunter and Edward Von der Porten with archaeologists from the INAH's marine archaeology unit.
The project is also receiving support from other institutions.
The team carries out archaeological prospecting in an area stretching approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles) along the coast where the greatest variety of cargo has been found.
Mexico City – A bronze sculpture more than 430 years old was found on the Pacific coast in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.
The discovery was made by INAH members and researchers from the United States two weeks ago and is a unique piece within the collection of goods recovered over a 12-year period by the Manila Galleon Project in Baja California.
The sculpture, 12 centimeters (4 3/4 inches) tall and of an equal width, represents a Chinese "Dog of Fo," and the first analyses have determined that it is either the lid of a censer or a candlestick.
The find comes from one of the first galleons of the 16th century to set sail from Manila in the Philippines en route to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, INAH marine archaeology unit member Roberto Junco said.
The route "was the longest on the high seas...in this case the ship could have been carried off by the various currents along the coast of the Californias, with no survivors to continue the crossing," Junco said.
The remains of the goods found probably belonged to the San Felipe galleon, which sailed carrying a large cargo of Chinese porcelain from the Ming Dynasty and which disappeared without a trace in 1576, maritime historian Edward Von der Porten said.
The Asian sculpture, located underwater by means of signals from a metal detector, coincides with descriptions noted in the 18th century by Jesuit missionaries such as Fr. Fernando Consag at an earlier moment and later by Fr. Miguel del Barco, Junco said.
"The goods we are studying coincide with the notes of Fr. Miguel del Barco, who in his chronicles says that some Indians brought to one of the missions a bronze candlestick in the shape of a dog," the archaeologist said.
"The object we found is probably similar to the one described by the priest, or it could be the lid of a censer," Junco said.
The so-called "Dogs of Fo" - the Chinese word for Buddha is Fo - actually represent lions and were considered protectors of sacred sanctuaries, usually Buddhist temples.
The Manila Galleon Project is led by U.S. researchers Jack Hunter and Edward Von der Porten with archaeologists from the INAH's marine archaeology unit.
The project is also receiving support from other institutions.
The team carries out archaeological prospecting in an area stretching approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles) along the coast where the greatest variety of cargo has been found.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Hindu temple yields billions in long-lost treasure
Montreal Gazette: Hindu temple yields billions in long-lost treasure
Armed commandos cordoned off a medieval Hindu temple in south India on Monday after gold coins and precious stones worth billions of dollars were found in its vaults.
The chief minister of southern Kerala state, Oommen Chandy, said local authorities needed to take precautions and had set up a three-tier security ring involving 100 armed police.
Surveillance will be in place around the clock, and security forces are setting up a special control centre and looking at bringing in cameras.
"The treasure will be kept in the temple itself and Kerala police are taking over its security from temple staff," said Chandy, who valued the discovery at 500 billion rupees ($11.2 billion U.S.) on Saturday.
Five vaults of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the Keralan capital Thiruvananthapuram were opened last week, yielding enormous quantities of gold and silver jewelry, coins and precious stones.
A sixth was set to be explored on Monday.
Retired Kerala High Court judge C.S. Rajan, who is part of a seven-member team named by India's Supreme Court to monitor the treasure hunt, estimated Sunday that the valuables could be worth up to a trillion rupees ($22 billion U.S.).
"Its antique and archeological value has not yet been taken into account," he stressed.
A seventh vault reinforced with iron walls would be opened only after fresh instructions from India's top court, he said.
K.N. Panikkar, an eminent India historian, said the treasure was most likely a combination of gifts donated by devotees to the shrine and the wealth of the erstwhile Hindu royal family from the local kingdom of Travancore.
"The king ruled in the name of the temple and so one can say it is the accumulated wealth of the temple and the maharajah's own collection," Panikker told AFP in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Times of India said one tonne of gold coins - some dating back to the era of French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte - as well as sacks full of diamonds and golden statues were among the artifacts discovered in the temple.
The national conservation agency, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), said it was stunned by the findings.
"Right now we are working in absolute darkness and we only know that fabulous treasure is pouring out," ASI Director-General Gautam Sengupta told AFP.
"No archaeologist has ever experienced vault after vault being opened and treasures being discovered like this," Sengupta said in New Delhi, adding that many of the Hindu shrines across India were "very rich."
The discoveries have catapulted the Hindu shrine, renowned for its intricate sculptures, into the league of India's richest temples.
It was built hundreds of years ago by the king of Travancore and donations by devotees have been kept in the temple's seven vaults.
Since India achieved independence from Britain in 1947, a trust managed by descendants of the Travancore royal family has controlled the temple.
Shashi Bhushan, a Keralabased historian, told the Mint business newspaper that the treasure was likely to be "the proceeds of trade" from the state in southern India, which was a centre for spice trading.
The Supreme Court recently ordered that the temple be managed by the state of Kerala to ensure the security of its valuables.
Until now, the Thirupathy temple in southern Andhra Pradesh state was believed to be India's richest temple, with offerings from devotees worth 320 billion rupees (about $7.18 billion U.S.).
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Blackbeard artifacts meet sounds of the N.C. Symphony
The Apex Herald: Blackbeard artifacts meet sounds of the N.C. Symphony
RALEIGH -- In honor of the “Pirate’s!” musical program planned by the North Carolina Symphony at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary on Saturday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m., the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources will have artifacts on display from Blackbeard’s shipwreck, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary of Cultural Resources, along with State Archaeologist Steve Claggett, and Maritime Heritage officer – and experienced diver – Lauren Hermley will be on hand to talk about the artifacts and conservation process starting after 5:30 p.m. The small case will include cast iron cannon balls or shot, glass from bottles that might have held Blackbeard’s libations, and pewter utensils he could have used, along with gun flints and other items.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck lies offshore in the Atlantic waters near Beaufort. Recovery in May of a nearly-3,000-pound anchor caused an international sensation, and a QAR exhibit at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort has seen more than 30,000 visitors since it opened on June 11. Blackbeard fans from Britain , Canada , the Netherlands and 26 states in the U.S. have swept through the Museum’s doors to experience the “Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge 1718.″
In June 1718, Blackbeard ran the vessel aground after a successful blockade of the harbor at Charleston , S.C. The shipwreck was located in 1996 by Intersal, Inc. of Florida by Operations Director Mike Daniel through research provided by Intersal President Phil Masters.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Project, the Underwater Archaeology Branch and the N.C. Symphony are all part of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities, and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina ’s social, cultural and economic future. Information on Cultural Resources is available 24/7 at www.ncculture.com.
RALEIGH -- In honor of the “Pirate’s!” musical program planned by the North Carolina Symphony at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary on Saturday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m., the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources will have artifacts on display from Blackbeard’s shipwreck, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary of Cultural Resources, along with State Archaeologist Steve Claggett, and Maritime Heritage officer – and experienced diver – Lauren Hermley will be on hand to talk about the artifacts and conservation process starting after 5:30 p.m. The small case will include cast iron cannon balls or shot, glass from bottles that might have held Blackbeard’s libations, and pewter utensils he could have used, along with gun flints and other items.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck lies offshore in the Atlantic waters near Beaufort. Recovery in May of a nearly-3,000-pound anchor caused an international sensation, and a QAR exhibit at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort has seen more than 30,000 visitors since it opened on June 11. Blackbeard fans from Britain , Canada , the Netherlands and 26 states in the U.S. have swept through the Museum’s doors to experience the “Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge 1718.″
In June 1718, Blackbeard ran the vessel aground after a successful blockade of the harbor at Charleston , S.C. The shipwreck was located in 1996 by Intersal, Inc. of Florida by Operations Director Mike Daniel through research provided by Intersal President Phil Masters.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Project, the Underwater Archaeology Branch and the N.C. Symphony are all part of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities, and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina ’s social, cultural and economic future. Information on Cultural Resources is available 24/7 at www.ncculture.com.
Magnetometer is a Hit with Archaeologists and Divers
The Maritime Executive: Magnetometer is a Hit with Archaeologists and Divers
diverse group of people from marine archaeologists to commercial divers are using a new compact, hand-held magnetometer designed to locate iron and steel objects underwater. One company having great success with this instrument is Cosmos Agencia Maritima based in Peru. They provide a broad range of services to their clients including ship husbandry, cargo transportation and storage, machinery and equipment rental, supply of fuel and parts, and diving services. A common request they receive is for underwater inspections of hulls, propellers, and bow thrusters. While performing repair work, a diver may drop a part or tool, which quickly disappears into the silty bottom. When this happens, an underwater metal locator is required to find the missing item.
Cosmos recently procured a JW Fishers PT-1 pipe tracking magnetometer for their search and recovery projects. Francisco Paolillo Tapia, manager of special operations, reports the PT-1 is excellent for finding anchors, chains and other objects buried in the seabed. “This instrument helps us find the missing part quickly. Our divers used to spend a lot of time probing the muddy bottom searching for a lost tool or anchor. Now they find it fast using the mag, which saves us time and money.”
North Carolina’s Department of Cultural Resources (NCDCR) was established in the early 1970s with a varied mission that includes preserving the state’s historical and cultural resources. A high profile project being undertaken by NCDCR’s Underwater Archaeology Branch is the recovery of artifacts from the wreck site of Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. One of the instruments the team is employing is the PT-1. A key advantage of this magnetometer is its ability to pinpoint artifacts in areas that may be strewn with many iron and steel targets. Other mags can have trouble differentiating between the multiple pieces of ferrous metal on a wreck, making it nearly impossible to pinpoint individual targets. This hand-held magnetometer is the ideal tool to locate all of the ferrous objects at the site including anchors and chains, cannons, cannon balls, ship’s stoves, and the iron hardware used in construction of the vessel. The first anchor from the Queen Anne’s Revenge was recently raised from the muddy bottom where it had by lying for the last 300 years.
Based in The Netherlands, DUC Diving has more than 25 years experience in commercial diving operations and an established reputation for successful and timely completion of projects. The company offers a range of services in underwater work including technical support, engineering, and inspections. Last year DUC added a Fisher side scan sonar to their extensive line of equipment in order to perform a survey operation. “We were very pleased with the sonar’s performance and the support of Fishers team”, says DUC Diving’s owner Henk Kapitein. “When another job came up that required a magnetometer, we chose the PT-1 knowing it would be rugged and reliable.” Using the hand-held mag DUC’s team of underwater specialists was able to locate and mark the position of a pipeline running under the seafloor to prevent it from being damaged during a dredging operation. Divers not only tracked the route of the pipe, but also found and removed a number of junk objects from the ocean bottom that could have damaged the dredge.
For more information on the PT-1 or any of Fishers underwater search systems go to www.jwfishers.com. For more information on Cosmos Agencia Maritima go to www.cosmos.com.pe. For more information on NCDCR go to www.ncdcr.gov. For more information on Duc Diving go to www.ducdiving.com.
diverse group of people from marine archaeologists to commercial divers are using a new compact, hand-held magnetometer designed to locate iron and steel objects underwater. One company having great success with this instrument is Cosmos Agencia Maritima based in Peru. They provide a broad range of services to their clients including ship husbandry, cargo transportation and storage, machinery and equipment rental, supply of fuel and parts, and diving services. A common request they receive is for underwater inspections of hulls, propellers, and bow thrusters. While performing repair work, a diver may drop a part or tool, which quickly disappears into the silty bottom. When this happens, an underwater metal locator is required to find the missing item.
Cosmos recently procured a JW Fishers PT-1 pipe tracking magnetometer for their search and recovery projects. Francisco Paolillo Tapia, manager of special operations, reports the PT-1 is excellent for finding anchors, chains and other objects buried in the seabed. “This instrument helps us find the missing part quickly. Our divers used to spend a lot of time probing the muddy bottom searching for a lost tool or anchor. Now they find it fast using the mag, which saves us time and money.”
North Carolina’s Department of Cultural Resources (NCDCR) was established in the early 1970s with a varied mission that includes preserving the state’s historical and cultural resources. A high profile project being undertaken by NCDCR’s Underwater Archaeology Branch is the recovery of artifacts from the wreck site of Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. One of the instruments the team is employing is the PT-1. A key advantage of this magnetometer is its ability to pinpoint artifacts in areas that may be strewn with many iron and steel targets. Other mags can have trouble differentiating between the multiple pieces of ferrous metal on a wreck, making it nearly impossible to pinpoint individual targets. This hand-held magnetometer is the ideal tool to locate all of the ferrous objects at the site including anchors and chains, cannons, cannon balls, ship’s stoves, and the iron hardware used in construction of the vessel. The first anchor from the Queen Anne’s Revenge was recently raised from the muddy bottom where it had by lying for the last 300 years.
Based in The Netherlands, DUC Diving has more than 25 years experience in commercial diving operations and an established reputation for successful and timely completion of projects. The company offers a range of services in underwater work including technical support, engineering, and inspections. Last year DUC added a Fisher side scan sonar to their extensive line of equipment in order to perform a survey operation. “We were very pleased with the sonar’s performance and the support of Fishers team”, says DUC Diving’s owner Henk Kapitein. “When another job came up that required a magnetometer, we chose the PT-1 knowing it would be rugged and reliable.” Using the hand-held mag DUC’s team of underwater specialists was able to locate and mark the position of a pipeline running under the seafloor to prevent it from being damaged during a dredging operation. Divers not only tracked the route of the pipe, but also found and removed a number of junk objects from the ocean bottom that could have damaged the dredge.
For more information on the PT-1 or any of Fishers underwater search systems go to www.jwfishers.com. For more information on Cosmos Agencia Maritima go to www.cosmos.com.pe. For more information on NCDCR go to www.ncdcr.gov. For more information on Duc Diving go to www.ducdiving.com.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Civil War and World War II shipwrecks are being analysed with sonar technology to provide never-before-seen detailed images
Daily Mail Online: Civil War and World War II shipwrecks are being analysed with sonar technology to provide never-before-seen detailed images
Historic shipwrecks are being analysed with incredible sonar technology to create images described as almost photographic.
The shipwrecks will appear vivid and three-dimensional, showing even more detail than diving at some of the sites off North Carolina and Virginia, could provide.
Federal researchers are using sonars to gather data that will result in images - and one day video - of the shipwrecks. These will likely end up on-line and in museums.
Not everybody dives, and so that's why we embrace technologies like this that are cutting edge, cost effective and give you a three-dimensional sense of that ship on the bottom,’ said James Delgado of the government's Maritime Heritage Program.
‘The kinds of imagery — it's almost photographic.’
The sites are World War II shipwrecks off North Carolina and Civil War shipwrecks in Virginia.
Some of the major shipwrecks:
Battle of Hampton Roads - March 8, 1862: The USS Cumberland (part of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron) was sunk after being rammed by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) killing 120 men.
CSS Florida - November 19, 1864: a Confederate commerce raider, the ship sunk after it collided with a U.S. Navy troop ferry
The Battle of Atlantic - July 14 1942: a merchant convoy of 19 ships and five military escorts left the Hampton Roads area of Virginia en route to Key West, Florida., to deliver cargo to aid the war effort. A German U-boat submarine attacked the convoy the next day off Cape Hatteras. The German boat was then sunk, along with an American merchant boat and a Panamanian tanker depth charges dropped by U.S. Navy aircraft. The ships are situated in North Carolina's Outer Banks.
- This was a decisive battle turning the tides for the Allied Forces on the American coastline.
These are sites that are miles out into the sea and so unless you're a diver you're likely not to going to be aware of them even,' said Alexis Catsambis, an underwater archaeologist for the U.S. Navy.
'Many people may not know that there were (German) U-boats off the coast of North Carolina during World War II that created a number of casualties,’ she added.
On Tuesday, researchers headed to North Carolina's Outer Banks to begin creating images of ships sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic.
They have identified potential shipwrecks from the battle and the 3-D mapping will help them determine exactly what they're looking at.
One of the escorts for the World War II KS-520 convoy was the Coast Guard cutter, Triton (pictured)
‘There's 400 years of ships sunken off the coast here, so it could be anything. You never know what you're going to get,’ said Joseph Hoyt, maritime archaeologist for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
Eventually, researchers hope to develop 3-D video of individual Battle of the Atlantic shipwrecks.
The researchers used the sonar to map Civil War shipwrecks in the murky waters of the James River near Newport News, Virginia on Monday.
The research will hopefully find new ways to protect the wrecks, of growing interest as the nation prepares to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War
‘In terms of the guys who died in the Cumberland that day, not only are they heroes, but they're sons and fathers and grandsons and nephews and they left families who are still with us today and their stories resonate,’ Delgado said.
The ships are protected by federal law, but resources are limited.
Researchers hope that by being able to better tell the ships' stories with new visualizations that they won't be looted or damaged by divers or unknowing fishermen.
If people don't have a personal connection to it, they don't care about it,’ said David Alberg of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
‘By doing these types of projects, getting that information out there, that's helping to educate the public, which is ultimately the most important tool to protecting the site.’
Often popular as dive sites, the new images will mean less damage to the wrecks and will aid scientists to preserve them better.
The technology also allows the public to view shipwrecks in waters that aren't very clear.
Historic shipwrecks are being analysed with incredible sonar technology to create images described as almost photographic.
The shipwrecks will appear vivid and three-dimensional, showing even more detail than diving at some of the sites off North Carolina and Virginia, could provide.
Federal researchers are using sonars to gather data that will result in images - and one day video - of the shipwrecks. These will likely end up on-line and in museums.
Not everybody dives, and so that's why we embrace technologies like this that are cutting edge, cost effective and give you a three-dimensional sense of that ship on the bottom,’ said James Delgado of the government's Maritime Heritage Program.
‘The kinds of imagery — it's almost photographic.’
The sites are World War II shipwrecks off North Carolina and Civil War shipwrecks in Virginia.
Some of the major shipwrecks:
Battle of Hampton Roads - March 8, 1862: The USS Cumberland (part of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron) was sunk after being rammed by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) killing 120 men.
CSS Florida - November 19, 1864: a Confederate commerce raider, the ship sunk after it collided with a U.S. Navy troop ferry
The Battle of Atlantic - July 14 1942: a merchant convoy of 19 ships and five military escorts left the Hampton Roads area of Virginia en route to Key West, Florida., to deliver cargo to aid the war effort. A German U-boat submarine attacked the convoy the next day off Cape Hatteras. The German boat was then sunk, along with an American merchant boat and a Panamanian tanker depth charges dropped by U.S. Navy aircraft. The ships are situated in North Carolina's Outer Banks.
- This was a decisive battle turning the tides for the Allied Forces on the American coastline.
These are sites that are miles out into the sea and so unless you're a diver you're likely not to going to be aware of them even,' said Alexis Catsambis, an underwater archaeologist for the U.S. Navy.
'Many people may not know that there were (German) U-boats off the coast of North Carolina during World War II that created a number of casualties,’ she added.
On Tuesday, researchers headed to North Carolina's Outer Banks to begin creating images of ships sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic.
They have identified potential shipwrecks from the battle and the 3-D mapping will help them determine exactly what they're looking at.
One of the escorts for the World War II KS-520 convoy was the Coast Guard cutter, Triton (pictured)
‘There's 400 years of ships sunken off the coast here, so it could be anything. You never know what you're going to get,’ said Joseph Hoyt, maritime archaeologist for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
Eventually, researchers hope to develop 3-D video of individual Battle of the Atlantic shipwrecks.
The researchers used the sonar to map Civil War shipwrecks in the murky waters of the James River near Newport News, Virginia on Monday.
The research will hopefully find new ways to protect the wrecks, of growing interest as the nation prepares to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War
‘In terms of the guys who died in the Cumberland that day, not only are they heroes, but they're sons and fathers and grandsons and nephews and they left families who are still with us today and their stories resonate,’ Delgado said.
The ships are protected by federal law, but resources are limited.
Researchers hope that by being able to better tell the ships' stories with new visualizations that they won't be looted or damaged by divers or unknowing fishermen.
If people don't have a personal connection to it, they don't care about it,’ said David Alberg of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
‘By doing these types of projects, getting that information out there, that's helping to educate the public, which is ultimately the most important tool to protecting the site.’
Often popular as dive sites, the new images will mean less damage to the wrecks and will aid scientists to preserve them better.
The technology also allows the public to view shipwrecks in waters that aren't very clear.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Cannon Pulled From Mystery Shipwreck
(this story is from June 28, 2011)
News 4 Jax: Cannon Pulled From Mystery Shipwreck
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Artifacts from a mystery shipwreck about 200 years old pulled from underwater off the coast of St. Augustine are revealing details about the nation's past.
Archaeologists reeling in the artifacts said they possibly date back to the American Revolution. Now, they're working to solve the puzzle.
"It's just an exciting shipwreck. I mean, this is an exciting day," said Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program.
For Meide, a cannon raised from the second-oldest shipwreck was quite the catch. The artifact came from the vessel buried about 30 feet below the surface.
"It's a totally different world when you go from that silent dark world underwater, and you're just vaguely seeing these ghost-like outlines of these features, then all of a sudden we see it really clearly for the very first time," Meide said.
To lift the cannon, which weighs nearly 2,000 pounds, off the seafloor and out of the ocean, the team utilized a 36-foot former shrimp boat to pull the weight.
"It's very different than treasure hunting," said Kathy Fleming, executive director of the First Light Maritime Society. "We're after information, and it's also fun to look at cannons and to imagine life."
Fleming believes the story behind the ship the group found in 2009 can help guide historians and entertain tourists traveling to the nation's oldest port region.
"You really get a chance to look at how people lived, and I think people enjoy that," Fleming said.
While it's believed the ship may be British, American or Spanish, the true origin of objects found on board, including a second cannon, pewter spoons and copper cookware, remain a mystery, making it anyone's guess.
"I have a feeling that maybe this is a British loyalist vessel, so kind of a refugee vessel that was taking British loyalists during the American Revolution from other colonies down here to Florida, which was still a loyal British colony," Meide said.
Archaeologists hope the cannon with distinguishing markings will be the key to the secrets of the ship.
Although two of the cannons are back on land, there are still four more underwater, which means the discovery process is not over yet.
News 4 Jax: Cannon Pulled From Mystery Shipwreck
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Artifacts from a mystery shipwreck about 200 years old pulled from underwater off the coast of St. Augustine are revealing details about the nation's past.
Archaeologists reeling in the artifacts said they possibly date back to the American Revolution. Now, they're working to solve the puzzle.
"It's just an exciting shipwreck. I mean, this is an exciting day," said Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program.
For Meide, a cannon raised from the second-oldest shipwreck was quite the catch. The artifact came from the vessel buried about 30 feet below the surface.
"It's a totally different world when you go from that silent dark world underwater, and you're just vaguely seeing these ghost-like outlines of these features, then all of a sudden we see it really clearly for the very first time," Meide said.
To lift the cannon, which weighs nearly 2,000 pounds, off the seafloor and out of the ocean, the team utilized a 36-foot former shrimp boat to pull the weight.
"It's very different than treasure hunting," said Kathy Fleming, executive director of the First Light Maritime Society. "We're after information, and it's also fun to look at cannons and to imagine life."
Fleming believes the story behind the ship the group found in 2009 can help guide historians and entertain tourists traveling to the nation's oldest port region.
"You really get a chance to look at how people lived, and I think people enjoy that," Fleming said.
While it's believed the ship may be British, American or Spanish, the true origin of objects found on board, including a second cannon, pewter spoons and copper cookware, remain a mystery, making it anyone's guess.
"I have a feeling that maybe this is a British loyalist vessel, so kind of a refugee vessel that was taking British loyalists during the American Revolution from other colonies down here to Florida, which was still a loyal British colony," Meide said.
Archaeologists hope the cannon with distinguishing markings will be the key to the secrets of the ship.
Although two of the cannons are back on land, there are still four more underwater, which means the discovery process is not over yet.
Friday, July 1, 2011
170-Yr-Old Shipwrecked Beer Reveals No Live Yeast Cells, Seawater Contamination
Underwater Times: 170-Yr-Old Shipwrecked Beer Reveals No Live Yeast Cells, Seawater Contamination
OTANIEMI, Finland -- The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has examined one of five bottles of beer salvaged last summer by divers from the wreck of a ship that sank an estimated 170 years ago in the Åland Islands. The examination yielded a wealth of detail about the beer, even indications of how it was brewed. The research will continue by examining another bottle.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland was commissioned by the Government of Åland to study the composition of the shipwreck beer and identify the type of yeast used to brew it. The aim of this project was to study what early 19th-century beer was like and whether its production process could be reverse-engineered and the beer replicated.
The study involved an analysis of the physico-chemical properties of the beer and microbiological and DNA analyses of the beer, bottle and cork. In particular, the aim was to isolate any living microbes found.
The bottle contained a liquid that was a beautiful pale golden colour, identified as beer because of the presence of malt sugars, aromatic compounds and hops typical of the beverage.
The beer in the bottle examined has not stood the test of time well, and it was contaminated by salt from sea water.
Dead yeast cells were discovered in the beer, indicating fermentation that took place long ago. Live lactic acid bacteria were found in the beer. Especially in earlier times, lactic acid bacteria were often present in beer fermentation alongside brewing yeast.
It would appear that the contents of the bottle examined by VTT were in a worse condition than those of the bottle that broke during the course of the dive.
The examination will continue with the opening of a second bottle retrieved from the wreck. This may yield new findings. The goal remains the discovery of living yeast cells.
OTANIEMI, Finland -- The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has examined one of five bottles of beer salvaged last summer by divers from the wreck of a ship that sank an estimated 170 years ago in the Åland Islands. The examination yielded a wealth of detail about the beer, even indications of how it was brewed. The research will continue by examining another bottle.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland was commissioned by the Government of Åland to study the composition of the shipwreck beer and identify the type of yeast used to brew it. The aim of this project was to study what early 19th-century beer was like and whether its production process could be reverse-engineered and the beer replicated.
The study involved an analysis of the physico-chemical properties of the beer and microbiological and DNA analyses of the beer, bottle and cork. In particular, the aim was to isolate any living microbes found.
The bottle contained a liquid that was a beautiful pale golden colour, identified as beer because of the presence of malt sugars, aromatic compounds and hops typical of the beverage.
The beer in the bottle examined has not stood the test of time well, and it was contaminated by salt from sea water.
Dead yeast cells were discovered in the beer, indicating fermentation that took place long ago. Live lactic acid bacteria were found in the beer. Especially in earlier times, lactic acid bacteria were often present in beer fermentation alongside brewing yeast.
It would appear that the contents of the bottle examined by VTT were in a worse condition than those of the bottle that broke during the course of the dive.
The examination will continue with the opening of a second bottle retrieved from the wreck. This may yield new findings. The goal remains the discovery of living yeast cells.
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