New Zealand: Funds sought to recover "immense" sunken treasure

From the Otago Daily Times: Funds sought to recover "immense" sunken treasure
Captain N. C. Sorensen, formerly employed as a driver by the Auckland Harbour Board, proposes in conjunction with a partner in Dunedin to fit out an expedition to cost about 10,000 to proceed from Dunedin to the Auckland Island to endeavour to recover the bullion believed to be lost in the General Grant, wrecked in 1866.

Four previous attempts to recover this treasure were unsuccessful, Captain Sorensen believes through attempting to work from the seaward side. His idea is to land an expedition on the leeward side and cut a road across to the wreck and operate by means of derricks erected on the cliff.

A New Zealander who has just returned from an extended holiday in Europe, Africa, and Australia, during the course of a chat with a Western Star representative, gave some particularly interesting information in regard to a powerful American syndicate, which has for its purpose the retrieving from the sea of the treasure of the ill-fated General Grant, which was wrecked at the Auckland Island 45 years ago. The gentleman referred to explained to Mr E. C. May, managing director of the Sorenson Salvage Company, of New York, a company which has been formed with a capital of 30,000 for the purpose of recovering the treasure known to be in the hold of the ship General Grant, which, it will be remembered, was lost on the west coast of the Auckland Islands in 1866 while carrying an immense quantity of gold from the Australian goldfields to London.

She was driven under the overhanging cliffs of those bleak westerly shores, and the bumping of her mast against those impassable walls drove the masts through the hull, which gradually sank. There is known to be at least 100,000 worth of gold on board the vessel, and it is believed, by the syndicate, that those enormous figures are far from representing the total quantity of gold to be obtained therefrom. The manifests of the ship show but two large cases of specie, but there was also an entry of 15 cases of sundries, which they finally believe also contained gold.

Then there were also the private holdings of the miners themselves, and the members of the syndicate do not consider 300,000 to 400,000 wide of the possible mark. This will be the third or fourth attempt made to recover this treasure. All the previous attempts have been made from the sea by means of divers from a boat, a dangerous method in such a stormy locality. The American syndicate will carry out its quest upon up-to-date lines and by methods (which it is keeping confidential) which will ensure operations being carried out in almost any weather.

Hopes of locating Australian sub lost off PNG in 1914

From Radio Australia: Hopes of locating Australian sub lost off PNG in 1914
An Australian organisation hopes the wreck of a World War One era submarine can be located in PNG (Papau New Guinea) waters before the centenary of it's loss.

The Australian submarine AE-1 sank off the coast of Rabaul in September 1914, just at the start of the war, with the loss of all hands.

It's exact location has remained a mystery ever since, but AE-1 Incorporated, a group of interested Australian including retired Navy personnel and descendants of the crew, hopes new technology and money to fund a renewed search will help find the wreck in time for the 100th anniversary of the sinking in 2014.

This is their website:
http://www.ae1.org.au/AE1-Memorials.php

AGREEMENT TO PROTECT UNDERWATER TREASURE

From The Leader Info: AGREEMENT TO PROTECT UNDERWATER TREASURE

The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation have signed an inter-ministerial agreement on collaboration and coordination in the protection of underwater archaeological heritage. This agreement is the culmination of a partnership that has been fostered within the framework of the UNESCO Convention and the National Plan on Underwater Archaeology with highly successful results.

In November 2007, the Council of Ministers approved the National Plan for the Protection of Underwater Archaeological Heritage to establish the basic outline for an effective policy on the comprehensive protection of underwater archaeological heritage from both national and international perspectives. Since then, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation have been working together in a coordinated fashion.

Combating treasure-hunters

The sheer magnitude of Spanish underwater archaeological heritage demands coordination between all the authorities involved in the matter, especially from these two ministries given that the action required must often take place beyond Spanish borders.

Technological advances in underwater exploration in recent years are being used to explore sea-beds but also to remove the historical remains found there. In this regard, the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage prohibits the removal and commercial exploitation of underwater heritage. Spain was one of the first countries to ratify this convention.

The recent ruling from the Appeals Court of Atlanta recognising all of Spain's rights over the shipwreck of the 'Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes' is a clear example of the collaboration between these two ministries. In fact, Spain is the first country to bring legal action against a treasure-hunting company.

Potential Oil Leak Investigation Of World War II Era Tanker

From KVEC News Talk 920: Potential Oil Leak Investigation Of World War II Era Tanker
San Luis Obispo, CA -- On December 23, 1941, about two weeks after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a Japanese submarine lurking off the Central Coast launched a torpedo sinking the S.S. Montebello. Now 70 years later the Montebello is the focus of an investigation. Officials want to know if the World War II era tanker, that was carrying roughly three million gallons of crude oil, is leaking, or could leak it’s cargo in the future.

For the next ten days, dive crews using robotic submersibles, will study the ship’s hull to determine if it poses a threat to the ecosystem off the coast of Cambria. The multi-agency investigation is being funded by the Oil Spill Response Trust Fund. It is a federal fund paid for by oil companies and currently opened up for three to five million dollars for the mission; officials say while it is expensive, it is also necessary.

Silver Treasure, Worth $18 Million, Found in North Atlantic

From the Mew York Times: Silver Treasure, Worth $18 Million, Found in North Atlantic
Sea explorers announced Monday the discovery of a new sunken treasure that they plan to retrieve from the bottom of the North Atlantic.

Off Ireland in 1917, a German torpedo sank the British steamship Mantola, sending the vessel and its cargo of an estimated 20 tons of silver to the seabed more than a mile down. At today’s prices, the metal would be worth about $18 million.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, based in Tampa, Fla., said it had visually confirmed the identity of the Mantola with a tethered robot last month during an expedition and had been contracted by the British Department for Transport (a successor to the Ministry of War Transport) to retrieve the lost riches.

In recent years, strapped governments have started looking to lost cargoes as a way to raise money. They do so because the latest generation of robots, lights, cameras and claws can withstand the deep sea’s crushing pressures and have opened up a new world of shipwreck recovery.

“A lot of new and interesting opportunities are presenting themselves,” said Greg Stemm, the chief executive of Odyssey. The new finding, he added, is the company’s second discovery of a deep-ocean wreck for the British government this year.

In such arrangements, private companies put their own money at risk in costly expeditions and split any profits. In this case, Odyssey is to get 80 percent of the silver’s value and the British government 20 percent. It plans to attempt the recovery in the spring, along with that of its previous find.

Last month, Odyssey announced its discovery of the British steamship Gairsoppa off Ireland and estimated its cargo at up to 240 tons of silver — a trove worth more than $200 million. The Gairsoppa was torpedoed in 1941.

Both ships had been owned by the British Indian Steam Navigation Company, and both were found by Odyssey during expeditions in the past few months. Odyssey said that the Mantola’s sinking in 1917 had prompted the British government to pay out an insurance claim on about 600,000 troy ounces of silver, or more than 20 tons.

Mr. Stemm said the Mantola’s silver should make “a great target for testing some new technology” of deep-sea retrieval.

The Mantola was less than a year old when, on Feb. 4, 1917, she steamed out of London on her last voyage, bound for Calcutta. According to Odyssey, the ship carried 18 passengers, 165 crew members and diverse cargo. The captain was David James Chivas, the great-nephew of the Chivas Brothers, known for their Chivas Regal brand of Scotch whiskey.

Four days out of port, a German submarine fired a torpedo, and the ship sank with minimal loss of life.

In an expedition last month, Odyssey lowered a tethered robot that positively identified the wreck. The evidence included the ship’s dimensions, its layout and a display of painted letters on the stern that fit the words “Mantola” and “Glasgow,” the ship’s home port.

Photographs show the hulk covered in rivulets of rust known as rusticles, which look like brownish icicles. One picture shows a large sea creature poised near the ship’s railing.

On travel til Wednesday

I'm visiting elderly relatives in Box Elder, SD who do not have internet.

Will try to sneak out now and again to an internet cafe to post, but more than likely will not be posting until Wedneday.

Dives on Arctic wreck yield 19th century artifacts

From the Star.com: Dives on Arctic wreck yield 19th century artifacts
OTTAWA—Archeologists diving on a 19th century shipwreck have brought back a small supply of artifacts they hope will tell them more about the lost Franklin expedition.

With youthful enthusiasm, veteran staff from Parks Canada showed off ship’s fittings, copper hull plates, a British marine musket from 1842 and a pair of shoes plucked from the deck of HMS Investigator just eight metres beneath the freezing Arctic waters.

The former merchant ship made two voyages to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin’s storied expedition, but was abandoned in 1853 after becoming stuck in the once-impenetrable Arctic ice. The ship was found last year in Mercy Bay, off Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea.

“I’ve been doing this for over 20 years,” Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of underwater archaeology services, told a news conference Thursday. “This was probably the most phenomenal and exciting project — for all of us.

“To dive on that shipwreck that is literally frozen in time ... and having this phenomenal ship in front us standing proud on the bottom with artifacts on the deck was for us totally unprecedented.

“It was one of the highlights of our careers.”

A team of six divers, including one from the U.S. Parks Service, conducted more than 100 forays, aided by July’s midnight sun, under waters ranging in temperature from -2C to +2C.

What they found astounded even the most experienced among them.

Artifacts — including the shoes and a bent musket, its trigger guard altered to accommodate winter gloves — lay exposed on the ship’s decks and strewn on the sandy bottom.

Divers recovered 16 pieces, primarily to protect them from the ravages of time and ice, and to evaluate their overall condition.

The hull plates — one of which was lined with insulating felt — were particularly valuable archaeologically, said Bernier. They will help identify pieces found elsewhere and perhaps point searchers toward Franklin’s lost ships.

He said much of Investigator’s interior is filled with sediment, likely preserving many more treasures of an age long past.

HMS Investigator was purchased and refitted by the British Admiralty in 1848, the same year the ship accompanied HMS Enterprise on James Clark Ross’s expedition in a futile search for Franklin.

The vessel became trapped in the ice on the second trip and was abandoned three years later, on June 3, 1853. Investigator was inspected by crews of HMS Resolute a year later, still frozen in, and reported in fair condition despite having taken in water during the summer thaw.

While the fate of Franklin’s ships, HMS Erebus and Terror, remain a mystery, Investigator’s captain, Robert McClure, kept a log of his journey. Ship’s surgeon Alexander Armstrong published his own account in 1857.

But the wreck’s exact location was not known for more than 150 years. The area has is among the most inaccessible and inhospitable on Earth.

This year, the ice in Mercy Bay opened up enough to allow divers nine straight days of unimpeded underwater exploration.

The crew was also able to look at a nearby, previously unexplored paleo-Inuit site believed to have been inhabited over the course of about 2,000 years.

Meanwhile, the search for Franklin’s expedition continues.

Explorers are shrinking the search area each year by about 150 square kilometres. They believe the wrecks have probably drifted far from their last known locations.

“These are national historic sites,” Bernier said of the Franklin ships. “They are the only national historic sites for which we don’t know the location.

“So we take this as a responsibility and we are trying to locate, basically, our only unknown historic sites.”

Environment Minister Peter Kent, whose portfolio includes National Parks, considers the search part of Canada’s sovereign Arctic responsibility.

“We reinforced Canada’s presence in the Arctic waters,” he said.

“But perhaps best of all, we uncovered further information that will help strengthen the compelling connection to the Arctic that is the birthright of each and every Canadian.”

Military calls for boost in ocean surveillance

From the Vancouver Sun: Military calls for boost in ocean surveillance
Canada's military wants the Harper government to take part in rebuilding a Cold War ocean surveillance system, arguing that the country's waters, including the approaches to the Arctic, are vulnerable to Chinese and Russian submarines.

The current system, overseen by the U.S., involves specialized vessels and underwater sensors scattered around the globe to detect submarine movements.

But with the end of the Cold War in the 1990s and the collapse of the former Soviet Union, that sensor technology, including systems called arrays, were not modernized. They now need to be upgraded or replaced. In some cases Canada shut down its facilities for monitoring underwater activities.

"The oldest portions of the global infrastructure were terminated without replacement - Argentia, Nfld and Shelburne, N.S. fixed arrays - creating gaps covering the Arctic approaches and major portions of the Eastern Atlantic," reads a briefing note sent by defence chief Gen. Walter Natynczyk to Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

That September 2010 document was obtained under the Access to Information Act.

As proof of the re-emergence of the submarine threat, the military informed MacKay about what it called the dramatic increase in the numbers of submarines around the world; an incident where a Chinese submarine surfaced in the midst of a U.S. naval task force in 2006; the voyage of a Russian submarine into the eastern Atlantic in 2009; and the sinking of a South Korean destroyer in 2010, likely by a North Korean submarine.

The military wants to become more involved in the U.S.-led underwater surveillance system, arguing that it would be too expensive to put its own sensors into the ocean.

The warning about Chinese submarines echoes similar concerns contained in a report issued Wednesday by the Pentagon. It pointed out that China's military capabilities are growing and that could threaten stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

Divers survey Scottish graveyard of first world war submarine disaster

From The Guardian: Divers survey Scottish graveyard of first world war submarine disaster
An underwater war grave containing the victims of one of the worst British naval disasters of the first world war has been surveyed for the first time so it can be preserved in the middle of a windfarm.

The two K Class submarines were destroyed on 31 January 1918 during the so-called battle of the Isle of May, in which 270 lives were lost. The two submarines were sunk and three more damaged along with a surface cruiser.

But no enemy ships were involved in the sinkings, 20 miles off Fife Ness on Scotland's east coast. The deaths were all caused by a series of night-time collisions within the British fleet.

So embarrassing was the incident that even though one officer was court-martialed, the facts were not generally admitted for more than 60 years, until after the death of the last survivor.

Jim Rae, secretary of the Scottish branch of the Submariners Association, said: "It was an absolute bloody disaster from the beginning. The K Class submarines did not have a very impressive record. You can see why those who served in them were known as the suicide club."

The submarines proved far more lethal to their crews than to the enemy, so much so that the K was said to stand for Kalamity. Driven by oil-fired steam turbine engines, they were large and cumbersome, too slow to keep up with surface ships, hard to manoeuvre and stifling for their crews. Of the 18 that were built, none were lost in action but six were sunk in accidental collisions.

In January 1918, as British warships steamed north from Rosyth to join their fleet at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, they were accompanied by two flotillas of the submarines. The first two subs found themselves bearing down on two minesweepers and changed course. The third, K14, veered to starboard to avoid colliding with them but performed a complete circle as its rudder jammed.

That brought it back into line just in time to be rammed by the last submarine in the group, K22. A battlecruiser, HMS Inflexible, then ploughed into K22.

The first ships in the convoy turned back to rescue the submarines and steamed straight into the chaos. A cruiser, HMS Fearless, rammed K17, another of the subs, sinking it within eight minutes. Then two further submarines, K4 and K6, collided. To complete the disaster, a destroyer then carved through the survivors of K17, killing many of those who had been left in the water. The entire 59-man crew of K4 was lost and all but eight of K17's.

The Royal Navy hushed up the catastrophe and it was not until 2002 that a commemorative plaque was erected on a cairn in Anstruther, the nearest village on the coast, though even that does not refer to the cause of the loss of life. The Submariners' Association does, however, now hold an annual commemorative service.

The site of the two sunken submarines, 100 metres apart and about 50 metres down, has long been known, but the wrecks have now been surveyed by divers from the specialist marine consultants EMU. The area is the proposed site for an offshore windfarm, known as the Neart na Gaoithe project, developed by a company called Mainstream Renewable Power.

The project aims to generate 450MW of renewable energy and may eventually provide enough to power 325,000 Scottish homes. The developers claim it will offset more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, and contribute towards the Scottish government's target of generating the equivalent of all the country's energy demands from renewable resources by 2020.

Xiamen's 1st artificial island may pose threat to rare 'fossil' fish

From What's On Xiamen: Xiamen's 1st artificial island may pose threat to rare 'fossil' fish
The proposed first artificial island in Xiamen violates the boundary of a reservation for a rare lancelet species, propelling environmental activists to urge for a detailed assessment, reports China Youth Daily.

The reclaimed island, which is expected to be a high-end conference center, will settle in Tong’an Bay, according to an earlier report.

Xiamen lancelet, a rare fish under second class state protection, is regarded as key to the evolution of vertebrates.

Zhou Yun, a famous reporter with Nanfang Daily, said the artificial island will challenge the city in water, power supply and waste treatment, not to mention it is to be located in the national reservation.

It will be located in the exterior of the reservation, where the current law doesn’t provide an answer to its development, said an unnamed official with the Xiamen Marine and Fishery Bureau.

The project’s influence on Xiamen lancelet and ocean dynamics will be included in an ongoing environment impact assessment, said a researcher, known only as Chen, with the Third Institute of Oceanology.