RTE News/Ireland: Cork divers discover WWI U-boat
Divers have described their discovery of a WWI German U-boat that historians believe was destroyed in 1919.
All 27 crew on board the UC42 died when the submarine sank at the entrance to Cork Harbour on 10 September 1917.
It had been laying mines when an explosion was heard.
A team of five amateur divers from Cork discovered the submarine in good condition in 27m of water just off Roches Point on 6 November after a 12-month search.
Diver Ian Kelleher said they were very surprised and ecstatic to find it with little obvious explosive damage.
Positive identification was possible when they found its number stamped on a propeller.
Mr Kelleher, a chemistry student, said that two days before Christmas, the dive team laid a plaque of remembrance near the propellers as a memorial to the 27 German submariners who died.
They plan to return to the site over the coming weeks and continue their research into the submarine and its crew, including trying to contact relatives of the crew.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Divers Find Rare Bell off St. Augustine Coast
First Coast News: Divers Find Rare Bell off St. Augustine Coast
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Their excitement rang through every word.
They had found a ship's bell, one of the most rare discoveries off the coast.
Divers from LAMP (Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program) at the St. Augustine Lighthouse were on a routine site check of a shipwreck when Dr. Sam Turner saw what he described as a "horizontal shadow."
"And it was a bell," said Dr. Turner. "There was no mistaking it. I mean, there was stuff encrusted onto it, but it was very clearly a bell."
Employees with LAMP said only two bells have ever been recovered off the First Coast.
"The bell is traditionally known as the diver's holy grail," explained Chuck Meide, Director of LAMP. "That's because a ship's bell is extremely rare and also, a ship's bell is often the best clue to the identity of a shipwreck."
Crews spent time Sunday removing some of the concretion that covered the bronze bell after years of sitting below the surface.
They had hoped to find a date or a maker's mark on the metal that would help them figure out the name of the ship. However, with about 75 percent of the surface cleared, there was no clue to help them determine the ship's identity.
Meide estimated the rest of the restoration work could take a year. During that time, the bell will have to remain wet to keep it from degrading, after an estimated 200 years under water.
Eventually, the bell will be put on display at the lighthouse museum, but in the meantime, the divers are enjoying their discovery
"I've always had that tough question: 'What is the most amazing thing you've ever found underwater?' Now I have no doubts," said Dr. Turner. "Without a doubt, it's this bell. It's an amazing find."
A chip off the old block
ABC: Breaking the Ice, Karen Barlow is aboard the Aurora Australis as it ventures to Antarctica for an up-close inspectoin of an immense glacial ice floe in the Southern Ocean.
A chip off the old block
I've heard the Southern Ocean attracts a hardy individual but a block of wood on an iceberg is ridiculous.
This lonely piece of timber was spotted on the top of a small berg at 66 degrees south, just north of Commonwealth Bay.
Wildlife watchers near Aurora Australis' bridge first thought it was a relaxing seal but it was soon apparent it was rectangular in shape.
How it got to such a prominent position, instead of just floating around, is anyone's guess.
Since it is lifeless and non-magnetic, its baffling position won't be due to the fact that we are very close to the south magnetic pole.
Yes, we are near the wandering point in the earth's surface where the geomagnetic field lines are vertical, rather than lying across the planet from pole to pole.
Normal compasses don't work in this region. The one I have brought on board is now confused by all the iron in the ship.
The south magnetic pole was positioned on the Antarctic continent 100 years ago. It has since wandered out to sea due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Dubai's world has a sinking feeling
THis'd make a great site for a disaster film...in about 10 years ...
Dubai's world has a sinking feeling
THEY were intended as the ultimate luxury possession. But ''The World'', the man-made islands off the coast of Dubai shaped like the countries of the globe, are sinking, a property tribunal has heard.
Developed with hotels and villas, the islands are accessible by boat, but the sands are eroding and navigational channels between them are silting up, the British lawyer for a company bringing a case against state-run developer, Nakheel, told judges. ''The islands are gradually falling back into the sea,'' said Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, for Penguin Marine.
According to Nakheel, 70 per cent of The World's 300 islands have been sold, but most of the development plans have been brought to a crashing halt by the financial crisis. Only one of the islands - Greenland - is inhabited, and that is a showpiece owned by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
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An artist's impression of "The World" issued by developer Nakheel. Photo: AP
The company was part of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that had to be bailed out of debts put at $A25 billion at the end of 2009.
Nakheel is also behind Dubai's palm-shaped offshore developments. Villas in the only one near completion, Palm Jumeirah, were given to or bought by footballers, including former England stars David Beckham and Michael Owen.
Investors who bought islands proved unwilling or unable to finance further work when Dubai's property prices halved.
John O'Dolan, owner of the company that bought Ireland for $A38.5 million, killed himself, while Safi Qurashi, who bought Britain for $A69 million, is in jail in Dubai after being accused of bouncing cheques.
Penguin Marine, which bought the rights to provide boat travel to the islands, is trying to get out of a contract that involves paying an annual fee of about $A1.6 million to Nakheel.
Graham Lovett, for Nakheel, said the project was not dead but admitted it was ''in a coma''.
The tribunal found for Nakheel yesterday, saying it would give full reasoning later.
A Nakheel spokesman insisted the islands were not sinking. ''Our periodical survey over the past three years didn't observe any substantial erosion that required sand nourishment,'' he said
Dubai's world has a sinking feeling
THEY were intended as the ultimate luxury possession. But ''The World'', the man-made islands off the coast of Dubai shaped like the countries of the globe, are sinking, a property tribunal has heard.
Developed with hotels and villas, the islands are accessible by boat, but the sands are eroding and navigational channels between them are silting up, the British lawyer for a company bringing a case against state-run developer, Nakheel, told judges. ''The islands are gradually falling back into the sea,'' said Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, for Penguin Marine.
According to Nakheel, 70 per cent of The World's 300 islands have been sold, but most of the development plans have been brought to a crashing halt by the financial crisis. Only one of the islands - Greenland - is inhabited, and that is a showpiece owned by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
Advertisement: Story continues below
An artist's impression of "The World" issued by developer Nakheel. Photo: AP
The company was part of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that had to be bailed out of debts put at $A25 billion at the end of 2009.
Nakheel is also behind Dubai's palm-shaped offshore developments. Villas in the only one near completion, Palm Jumeirah, were given to or bought by footballers, including former England stars David Beckham and Michael Owen.
Investors who bought islands proved unwilling or unable to finance further work when Dubai's property prices halved.
John O'Dolan, owner of the company that bought Ireland for $A38.5 million, killed himself, while Safi Qurashi, who bought Britain for $A69 million, is in jail in Dubai after being accused of bouncing cheques.
Penguin Marine, which bought the rights to provide boat travel to the islands, is trying to get out of a contract that involves paying an annual fee of about $A1.6 million to Nakheel.
Graham Lovett, for Nakheel, said the project was not dead but admitted it was ''in a coma''.
The tribunal found for Nakheel yesterday, saying it would give full reasoning later.
A Nakheel spokesman insisted the islands were not sinking. ''Our periodical survey over the past three years didn't observe any substantial erosion that required sand nourishment,'' he said
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Edo Castle stones found in Sagami Bay
Dily Yomiuri Online: Edo Castle stones found in Sagami Bay
YOKOHAMA--Four large stones believed to have been quarried on Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture more than 400 years ago for the reconstruction and expansion of Edo Castle have been found in Sagami Bay.
The stones were found during an underwater survey jointly conducted by the Asian Research Institute of Underwater Archaeology and Ishichoba Iseki Kenkyu-kai, a study group comprising local government officials in charge of cultural properties, off Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Dec. 25.
The stones, believed to be among many quarried into usually square shapes, were found at a depth of two to five meters in areas about five to 30 meters off the coast. One of the stones is approximately 90 centimeters by 90 centimeters by 2 meters, about the same size as stones used in the central part of the castle grounds.
The stones are believed to have been quarried in 1606 in a project carried out by feudal lords under the order of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867).
Some of the stones had holes called ya-ana that are thought to have been drilled into them to make them easier to quarry.
According to documents, about 3,000 ships carried stones quarried on Izu Peninsula to Edo for the reconstruction project.
The four recently discovered stones are highly likely to have fallen off a ship on the way to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) or washed out to sea when they were piled up on the coast.
"It [the finding of the stones] is an important initial step to learn how marine transportation--which until now has only been known through documents or drawings--was carried out," said Soichiro Kitagaki, head of Ishikawa Prefectural Research Institute of Kanazawa Castle and an expert on stone walls. "I hope traces of a port will also be discovered."
YOKOHAMA--Four large stones believed to have been quarried on Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture more than 400 years ago for the reconstruction and expansion of Edo Castle have been found in Sagami Bay.
The stones were found during an underwater survey jointly conducted by the Asian Research Institute of Underwater Archaeology and Ishichoba Iseki Kenkyu-kai, a study group comprising local government officials in charge of cultural properties, off Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Dec. 25.
The stones, believed to be among many quarried into usually square shapes, were found at a depth of two to five meters in areas about five to 30 meters off the coast. One of the stones is approximately 90 centimeters by 90 centimeters by 2 meters, about the same size as stones used in the central part of the castle grounds.
The stones are believed to have been quarried in 1606 in a project carried out by feudal lords under the order of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867).
Some of the stones had holes called ya-ana that are thought to have been drilled into them to make them easier to quarry.
According to documents, about 3,000 ships carried stones quarried on Izu Peninsula to Edo for the reconstruction project.
The four recently discovered stones are highly likely to have fallen off a ship on the way to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) or washed out to sea when they were piled up on the coast.
"It [the finding of the stones] is an important initial step to learn how marine transportation--which until now has only been known through documents or drawings--was carried out," said Soichiro Kitagaki, head of Ishikawa Prefectural Research Institute of Kanazawa Castle and an expert on stone walls. "I hope traces of a port will also be discovered."
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Florida couple plan for life under the sea
10 News WTSP: Florida couple plan for life under the sea
Cocoa, Florida (Florida Today) -- Today, the Chamberlands live under the sunny, blue skies of west Cocoa. Soon, they hope to gaze up through aqua-gray tints of Atlantica, the world's first permanent undersea colony.
They're determined to do so by 2015, somewhere off East Central Florida, maybe even Brevard County. They've signed up 13 others to live with them in cylindrical steel modules, 200 feet down and tapping into the Gulf Stream for energy, oxygen and scientific discovery.
The Chamberlands envision quarters safe enough for children. Even their cat, Snickers, will go with them, transported in a submarine-like cylinder with a glass bubble port.
"Now we seem to be focused and preoccupied on space, but the ocean cultures are coming and they're coming fast," said Dennis Chamberland, a contract manager for NASA who's designed prototypes of advanced life support systems for the moon and Mars. "It's inevitable."
The 59-year-old is quick to point out that NASA isn't involved in his project, dubbed the Atlantica Expeditions. But for Chamberland, pioneering the first undersea colony would fulfill a lifelong crusade -- what he describes as the inborn "splinter" in his mind.
"I just never turned loose of it," he said of his childhood dream.
But the notion is far from child's play or fantasy. The Chamberlands say they're less than two years from a record-setting dry run of long-term undersea living.
Along with a fellow aquanaut, and their pet, they hope to submerge for 90 days in an undersea habitat called Leviathan on July 4, 2012. The stay would break the world record of 69 days, set in 1991 in the Jules' Undersea Lodge in Key Largo.
The Chamberlands already hold the record for the most accumulated days working as a married undersea aquanaut team, 31 days combined from eight missions.
While Snickers is a relative newcomer to the underwater world, Dennis and Claudia have been diving partners for two decades. Dennis Chamberland never goes in the water without her.
She is the CEO of their nonprofit, League of the New Worlds, founded 20 years ago to promote colonization of the ocean and space.
Far from water
A main image on "The Atlantic Expeditions" website is of a young boy gazing out over the aqua glow of a futuristic undersea city.
The seeds of Dennis Chamberland's boyhood obsession -- his "splinter" -- germinated about as far as away from the ocean as American child can grow up, on the great plains of Haskell, Okla., a town of 1,800 just south of Tulsa. The local library provided the only outlet for his yearning for ocean adventure.
He'd spend countless hours in his tree house, watching morning rays pierce the leaves, relishing the sanctuary and separation from the ground.
Chamberland said his can-do attitude came from his father, an aerospace engineering technician who built their home and had a sign on his desk that read: "If you can dream it, I can build it."
At age 12, Dennis would rush home to watch his hero, Mike Nelson, played by Lloyd Bridges, on "Sea Hunt." But at 14, he failed a swimming class at the YMCA.
Years later, as a student at Oklahoma State University, he taught himself to swim and eventually became a certified diver.
Early 'Survivor'
Chamberland also kept exploring the idea of undersea living and created the Omega Project while at college, including a weeklong mission in a mock sea lab.
"It was a really early version of 'Survivor,' " said Chamberland, who finished a dual major in physical sciences and psychology, then served as a U.S. Navy officer in the Pacific.
Six years after graduating, he returned to Oklahoma State to earn a master's in bioenvironmental engineering. That led to a job with the Navy as a civilian nuclear engineer and then for NASA in the mid-1980s.
Chamberland became a NASA aquanaut in 1994, directing several missions, including the first planting and harvesting of an agricultural crop on the ocean floor at MarineLab in Key Largo.
He also designed and built NASA's Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station, a 101/2-ton submersible lab in Key Largo named after the astronaut and aquanaut.
Launched in 1997 and 1998, about 20 aquanauts visited the station, including Hollywood director James Cameron, of "Titanic" and "Avatar" fame. Cameron is listed on Chamberland's website among 65 crew members signed up to visit during the so-called Atlantica Expeditions.
Dangers at sea
National Geographic Channel recently featured Chamberland's and other modern efforts to live undersea on its "Naked Science" series. But extended underwater stays date back more than a half century.
Robert Stenuit embarked on the world's first aquanaut mission in 1962 in the French Riviera. He lowered 200 feet in a three-foot-diameter, 11-foot-long aluminum cylinder. The planned two-day dive aborted after the first day because of technical problems.
The Navy's SEALAB project in the 1960s sunk experimental habitats off Bermuda and California, but canceled the program after a fatal accident in 1969.
The dangers and expense foiled other attempts. Jacques Cousteau's experiments in the 1960s with undersea living and research stations led him years later to repudiate ocean colonization as "unrealistic."
But Chamberland says previous efforts were doomed because they tried to adapt humans to living under high pressures, which can cause health problems.
In Chamberland's Atlantica, just like the International Space Station or a submarine, the habitat's atmosphere would be close to the same as on land.
Isolated life
Chris Combs, an adjunct oceanography professor at Florida Tech, lived three days in 1972 on one of the early versions of an undersea habitat, Hydrolab.
"It was one of the most interesting psychological experiments of my life," Combs said. "I wasn't ready to go up."
Built in 1966, the cylindrical Hydrolab could fit four people, for experiments conducted through the mid-1980s in the Bahamas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now it sits in the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.
But Combs' biggest question is one the Chamberlands hear often.
"I can't imagine why anyone would want to be that isolated from the rest of the world," he said "The word 'permanent' is the most challenging word for me in the whole concept."
For Dennis Chamberland, the primary appeal is the scientific discovery.
He and the others want to settle as "intelligent stewards," allowing visiting scientists to study the Gulf Stream and marine life.
Oceans encompass the largest biological realm on Earth, 321 million cubic miles, compared with 59 million square miles of land.
"We know more as a species about what's going on the surface of Mars," Dennis Chamberland said. "We are literally poisoning the lifeblood of our planet, and we have no clue what we're doing out there."
Diving history
But his yearning to live undersea also hearkens back to that boyhood tree house in Oklahoma. In his book, Chamberland describes a similar tranquility of watching daybreak from Carpenter Station. He would peer out through schooling fish and rising bubbles, with the same wonder he once had looking through the leaves.
The Chamberlands plan to keep their vacation home in Tennessee, but eventually sell their house in West Cocoa.
Claudia Chamberland was an avid dive partner of her father, a retired NASA engineer who invented an underwater breathing apparatus in the 1930s. Together, they would explore the Bahamas and caves in springs throughout Florida.
Dennis and Claudia Chamberland met in 1990 and have passed on their passion for ocean adventure to their children, five sons and a daughter.
Their 2012 mission is "substantially funded," Dennis Chamberland said, but the permanent colony poses a greater challenge. It will cost tens of millions to build what they envision -- not just an outpost or lab, they stress, but a community.
Chamberland sees undersea living as a natural evolution.
"Humans just expand, and this is just one of those migrations -- of humans into the sea," he said.
Cocoa, Florida (Florida Today) -- Today, the Chamberlands live under the sunny, blue skies of west Cocoa. Soon, they hope to gaze up through aqua-gray tints of Atlantica, the world's first permanent undersea colony.
They're determined to do so by 2015, somewhere off East Central Florida, maybe even Brevard County. They've signed up 13 others to live with them in cylindrical steel modules, 200 feet down and tapping into the Gulf Stream for energy, oxygen and scientific discovery.
The Chamberlands envision quarters safe enough for children. Even their cat, Snickers, will go with them, transported in a submarine-like cylinder with a glass bubble port.
"Now we seem to be focused and preoccupied on space, but the ocean cultures are coming and they're coming fast," said Dennis Chamberland, a contract manager for NASA who's designed prototypes of advanced life support systems for the moon and Mars. "It's inevitable."
The 59-year-old is quick to point out that NASA isn't involved in his project, dubbed the Atlantica Expeditions. But for Chamberland, pioneering the first undersea colony would fulfill a lifelong crusade -- what he describes as the inborn "splinter" in his mind.
"I just never turned loose of it," he said of his childhood dream.
But the notion is far from child's play or fantasy. The Chamberlands say they're less than two years from a record-setting dry run of long-term undersea living.
Along with a fellow aquanaut, and their pet, they hope to submerge for 90 days in an undersea habitat called Leviathan on July 4, 2012. The stay would break the world record of 69 days, set in 1991 in the Jules' Undersea Lodge in Key Largo.
The Chamberlands already hold the record for the most accumulated days working as a married undersea aquanaut team, 31 days combined from eight missions.
While Snickers is a relative newcomer to the underwater world, Dennis and Claudia have been diving partners for two decades. Dennis Chamberland never goes in the water without her.
She is the CEO of their nonprofit, League of the New Worlds, founded 20 years ago to promote colonization of the ocean and space.
Far from water
A main image on "The Atlantic Expeditions" website is of a young boy gazing out over the aqua glow of a futuristic undersea city.
The seeds of Dennis Chamberland's boyhood obsession -- his "splinter" -- germinated about as far as away from the ocean as American child can grow up, on the great plains of Haskell, Okla., a town of 1,800 just south of Tulsa. The local library provided the only outlet for his yearning for ocean adventure.
He'd spend countless hours in his tree house, watching morning rays pierce the leaves, relishing the sanctuary and separation from the ground.
Chamberland said his can-do attitude came from his father, an aerospace engineering technician who built their home and had a sign on his desk that read: "If you can dream it, I can build it."
At age 12, Dennis would rush home to watch his hero, Mike Nelson, played by Lloyd Bridges, on "Sea Hunt." But at 14, he failed a swimming class at the YMCA.
Years later, as a student at Oklahoma State University, he taught himself to swim and eventually became a certified diver.
Early 'Survivor'
Chamberland also kept exploring the idea of undersea living and created the Omega Project while at college, including a weeklong mission in a mock sea lab.
"It was a really early version of 'Survivor,' " said Chamberland, who finished a dual major in physical sciences and psychology, then served as a U.S. Navy officer in the Pacific.
Six years after graduating, he returned to Oklahoma State to earn a master's in bioenvironmental engineering. That led to a job with the Navy as a civilian nuclear engineer and then for NASA in the mid-1980s.
Chamberland became a NASA aquanaut in 1994, directing several missions, including the first planting and harvesting of an agricultural crop on the ocean floor at MarineLab in Key Largo.
He also designed and built NASA's Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station, a 101/2-ton submersible lab in Key Largo named after the astronaut and aquanaut.
Launched in 1997 and 1998, about 20 aquanauts visited the station, including Hollywood director James Cameron, of "Titanic" and "Avatar" fame. Cameron is listed on Chamberland's website among 65 crew members signed up to visit during the so-called Atlantica Expeditions.
Dangers at sea
National Geographic Channel recently featured Chamberland's and other modern efforts to live undersea on its "Naked Science" series. But extended underwater stays date back more than a half century.
Robert Stenuit embarked on the world's first aquanaut mission in 1962 in the French Riviera. He lowered 200 feet in a three-foot-diameter, 11-foot-long aluminum cylinder. The planned two-day dive aborted after the first day because of technical problems.
The Navy's SEALAB project in the 1960s sunk experimental habitats off Bermuda and California, but canceled the program after a fatal accident in 1969.
The dangers and expense foiled other attempts. Jacques Cousteau's experiments in the 1960s with undersea living and research stations led him years later to repudiate ocean colonization as "unrealistic."
But Chamberland says previous efforts were doomed because they tried to adapt humans to living under high pressures, which can cause health problems.
In Chamberland's Atlantica, just like the International Space Station or a submarine, the habitat's atmosphere would be close to the same as on land.
Isolated life
Chris Combs, an adjunct oceanography professor at Florida Tech, lived three days in 1972 on one of the early versions of an undersea habitat, Hydrolab.
"It was one of the most interesting psychological experiments of my life," Combs said. "I wasn't ready to go up."
Built in 1966, the cylindrical Hydrolab could fit four people, for experiments conducted through the mid-1980s in the Bahamas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now it sits in the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.
But Combs' biggest question is one the Chamberlands hear often.
"I can't imagine why anyone would want to be that isolated from the rest of the world," he said "The word 'permanent' is the most challenging word for me in the whole concept."
For Dennis Chamberland, the primary appeal is the scientific discovery.
He and the others want to settle as "intelligent stewards," allowing visiting scientists to study the Gulf Stream and marine life.
Oceans encompass the largest biological realm on Earth, 321 million cubic miles, compared with 59 million square miles of land.
"We know more as a species about what's going on the surface of Mars," Dennis Chamberland said. "We are literally poisoning the lifeblood of our planet, and we have no clue what we're doing out there."
Diving history
But his yearning to live undersea also hearkens back to that boyhood tree house in Oklahoma. In his book, Chamberland describes a similar tranquility of watching daybreak from Carpenter Station. He would peer out through schooling fish and rising bubbles, with the same wonder he once had looking through the leaves.
The Chamberlands plan to keep their vacation home in Tennessee, but eventually sell their house in West Cocoa.
Claudia Chamberland was an avid dive partner of her father, a retired NASA engineer who invented an underwater breathing apparatus in the 1930s. Together, they would explore the Bahamas and caves in springs throughout Florida.
Dennis and Claudia Chamberland met in 1990 and have passed on their passion for ocean adventure to their children, five sons and a daughter.
Their 2012 mission is "substantially funded," Dennis Chamberland said, but the permanent colony poses a greater challenge. It will cost tens of millions to build what they envision -- not just an outpost or lab, they stress, but a community.
Chamberland sees undersea living as a natural evolution.
"Humans just expand, and this is just one of those migrations -- of humans into the sea," he said.
Monday, January 17, 2011
84-year-old adventurer set to launch Atlantic raft
The TElegraph: 84-year-old adventurer set to launch Atlantic raft
It is a journey that would test the mettle of any seafarer – a 2,800-mile Atlantic crossing powered only by sail.
But when four Englishmen set off on the trip, two things will make their expedition remarkable. Their vessel will be a raft made from plastic gas pipes. And the crew will be led by an octogenarian who relies on a stick to walk.
With a combined age of 259, the sailors on board the "An-tiki" will not be lacking in experience.
Anthony Smith, 84, will be joined by Don Russell, 61, David Hildred, 57, and Andrew Bainbridge, 57, for a ten-week voyage from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas. The raft is expected to begin the epic journey this week.
All the materials have been either donated or purchased by Mr Smith, who is spending compensation he received after he was run over by a van two years ago – an accident that has left the adventurer, writer and grandfather with metal pins in his leg.
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What would normally be regarded as a devastating setback has been turned into a positive. "I had some luck two years ago – I was run over," Mr Smith said. "That's what inspired the whole thing and that's provided the basis for the money.
"The whole point it to prove that elderly people can do something interesting. Well, I am 84 and disabled, so I'm well qualified on that score."
A former science correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, Mr Smith has written over 30 books and worked on several film and documentary projects. He presented Tomorrow's World when the BBC television show, launched in 1965, was in its infancy.
The inspiration for the unusual trip comes from a desire to show that rafts, although a primitive form of transport, are no more dangerous than hollow-hulled vessels.
The crew are also raising money for WaterAid, a charity that provides clean water for the world's poorest people.
"People ask me 'Am I frightened?' But I say I don't know enough to be frightened," Mr Smith explains.
"I don't know how we will get on, as we don't know each other very well. I don't know how tiring it will be, living on something that goes up and down all the time. I don't know what it will be like living on a bunk. Nobody knows what a storm will do to us, or how well we will be able to steer."
But Mr Smith, of west London, insists the adventure is no foolhardy indulgence. Two of the crew – Mr Hildred and Mr Bainbridge – are experienced sailors, and the raft has been kitted out with all the necessary communications in case they get into trouble.
The raft crossing is not the first 'Boy's Own'-style adventure that Mr Smith has embarked on.
In 1962 he led a pioneering expedition, The Sunday Telegraph Balloon Safari, over east Africa. The following year he became the first Briton to go over the Alps by hot air balloon.
But for someone who normally relies on a free bus pass, spending eight to ten weeks on the Atlantic aboard a 36ft x 20ft (11m x 6m) raft will surely surpass his earlier challenges.
Mr Smith has spent the last five years plotting his dream trip. After placing a Telegraph advert appealing for fellow crew, he has spent the past few months gathering materials to assemble the raft.
All the pieces – including gas pipes, electronics, wood, and two telegraph poles that would became the mast – were assembled and shipped in a container from Felixstowe, Suffolk, to La Gomera in the Canary Islands.
The team, joined by wives and girlfriends, swapped the snow and ice of Britain for the hot sunshine of the Canaries as they spent the last two months assembling the raft.
They reached a milestone on Friday when the craft finally was finally placed in the water. Thankfully, it did not sink.
"Everything has gone very well but there is so much more to do than you expect. But then something that is pioneering always throws up unexpected challenges," says Mr Smith, who has attracted a steady stream of curious onlookers from the nearby ferry dock.
The crew will be sheltered by a wooden hut, 20ft by 7ft (6m by 2m), where they will take turns to sleep on two bunk beds. Cooking, from gas stoves, chart-reading and all-important communications will be also be carried out there.
"We've also got a small library so it won't all be hard work," says Mr Smith.
"There is a porthole to look out, though it should be reasonably dry. It shouldn't get colder than 10C (50F) for the most part of the trip. There's a fence around the raft with netting, so none of us should fall over board."
The lights and electronics will be powered by four solar cells on top of the hut, a wind generator – and a pedalling machine.
Meanwhile, the crew will be sustained by 16 boxes of food, containing dry stuffs like cornflakes and perishables such as eggs, oranges and bananas. A small bread maker will add homely comfort to their ordeal.
"We also have a hook and line to catch fish, and a plankton net to eat plankton. Plankton is good enough for the blue whale, the biggest creature on earth, to eat, so it's good enough for us."
Drinking water will be carried in five pipes, each 18ft long. "We'll have so much water I think we will be able to sell it to passing yachts."
Asked what treats he's brought along to keep the crew's spirits up for the long days and nights ahead, Mr Smith's answer is short and simple.
"Alcohol," he says. "Everyone's quite keen on a drink, so it's not so much beer as rum and whisky."
The crew has had to wait for the weather to calm down before launching the raft. A support vessel will tow the raft out to sea for a few miles – "in case anyone forgets their toothbrush".
"We have to wait for the wind. I don't want to be released and then blown back to shore. But the current is there to do the job. It took Columbus across in 1492 so it should take us across too."
The crew's destination is the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Perhaps understandably, Mr Smith's five children at first suggested that it might be better for him to "potter in the greenhouse".
"But when they realised I was serious, they just wished me good luck."
It is a journey that would test the mettle of any seafarer – a 2,800-mile Atlantic crossing powered only by sail.
But when four Englishmen set off on the trip, two things will make their expedition remarkable. Their vessel will be a raft made from plastic gas pipes. And the crew will be led by an octogenarian who relies on a stick to walk.
With a combined age of 259, the sailors on board the "An-tiki" will not be lacking in experience.
Anthony Smith, 84, will be joined by Don Russell, 61, David Hildred, 57, and Andrew Bainbridge, 57, for a ten-week voyage from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas. The raft is expected to begin the epic journey this week.
All the materials have been either donated or purchased by Mr Smith, who is spending compensation he received after he was run over by a van two years ago – an accident that has left the adventurer, writer and grandfather with metal pins in his leg.
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What would normally be regarded as a devastating setback has been turned into a positive. "I had some luck two years ago – I was run over," Mr Smith said. "That's what inspired the whole thing and that's provided the basis for the money.
"The whole point it to prove that elderly people can do something interesting. Well, I am 84 and disabled, so I'm well qualified on that score."
A former science correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, Mr Smith has written over 30 books and worked on several film and documentary projects. He presented Tomorrow's World when the BBC television show, launched in 1965, was in its infancy.
The inspiration for the unusual trip comes from a desire to show that rafts, although a primitive form of transport, are no more dangerous than hollow-hulled vessels.
The crew are also raising money for WaterAid, a charity that provides clean water for the world's poorest people.
"People ask me 'Am I frightened?' But I say I don't know enough to be frightened," Mr Smith explains.
"I don't know how we will get on, as we don't know each other very well. I don't know how tiring it will be, living on something that goes up and down all the time. I don't know what it will be like living on a bunk. Nobody knows what a storm will do to us, or how well we will be able to steer."
But Mr Smith, of west London, insists the adventure is no foolhardy indulgence. Two of the crew – Mr Hildred and Mr Bainbridge – are experienced sailors, and the raft has been kitted out with all the necessary communications in case they get into trouble.
The raft crossing is not the first 'Boy's Own'-style adventure that Mr Smith has embarked on.
In 1962 he led a pioneering expedition, The Sunday Telegraph Balloon Safari, over east Africa. The following year he became the first Briton to go over the Alps by hot air balloon.
But for someone who normally relies on a free bus pass, spending eight to ten weeks on the Atlantic aboard a 36ft x 20ft (11m x 6m) raft will surely surpass his earlier challenges.
Mr Smith has spent the last five years plotting his dream trip. After placing a Telegraph advert appealing for fellow crew, he has spent the past few months gathering materials to assemble the raft.
All the pieces – including gas pipes, electronics, wood, and two telegraph poles that would became the mast – were assembled and shipped in a container from Felixstowe, Suffolk, to La Gomera in the Canary Islands.
The team, joined by wives and girlfriends, swapped the snow and ice of Britain for the hot sunshine of the Canaries as they spent the last two months assembling the raft.
They reached a milestone on Friday when the craft finally was finally placed in the water. Thankfully, it did not sink.
"Everything has gone very well but there is so much more to do than you expect. But then something that is pioneering always throws up unexpected challenges," says Mr Smith, who has attracted a steady stream of curious onlookers from the nearby ferry dock.
The crew will be sheltered by a wooden hut, 20ft by 7ft (6m by 2m), where they will take turns to sleep on two bunk beds. Cooking, from gas stoves, chart-reading and all-important communications will be also be carried out there.
"We've also got a small library so it won't all be hard work," says Mr Smith.
"There is a porthole to look out, though it should be reasonably dry. It shouldn't get colder than 10C (50F) for the most part of the trip. There's a fence around the raft with netting, so none of us should fall over board."
The lights and electronics will be powered by four solar cells on top of the hut, a wind generator – and a pedalling machine.
Meanwhile, the crew will be sustained by 16 boxes of food, containing dry stuffs like cornflakes and perishables such as eggs, oranges and bananas. A small bread maker will add homely comfort to their ordeal.
"We also have a hook and line to catch fish, and a plankton net to eat plankton. Plankton is good enough for the blue whale, the biggest creature on earth, to eat, so it's good enough for us."
Drinking water will be carried in five pipes, each 18ft long. "We'll have so much water I think we will be able to sell it to passing yachts."
Asked what treats he's brought along to keep the crew's spirits up for the long days and nights ahead, Mr Smith's answer is short and simple.
"Alcohol," he says. "Everyone's quite keen on a drink, so it's not so much beer as rum and whisky."
The crew has had to wait for the weather to calm down before launching the raft. A support vessel will tow the raft out to sea for a few miles – "in case anyone forgets their toothbrush".
"We have to wait for the wind. I don't want to be released and then blown back to shore. But the current is there to do the job. It took Columbus across in 1492 so it should take us across too."
The crew's destination is the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Perhaps understandably, Mr Smith's five children at first suggested that it might be better for him to "potter in the greenhouse".
"But when they realised I was serious, they just wished me good luck."
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