Caesar rises: several millennia's artefacts from the bed of the Rhone

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 21:57:00 GMT

  By Eloi Rouyer - AFP In a dark space in a new exhibition at Arles museum in southern France, underwater sounds play over looped video footage of scientists on underwater digs along the Rhone riverbed.An intrepid team of archaeologists have been diving for 20 years, struggling with poor visibility, strong currents and flipper-nibbling bullhead catfish to bring up the 500 or so objects now being displayed.In 2007, just when these Indiana Joneses of the water were ready to hang up their...

UK vessel found six decades later

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 09:22:00 GMT

From AFP Search teams said on Monday that they had found the wreck of the British destroyer HMS Volage, whose sinking in 1946 off Albania prompted a diplomatic row and is seen as an early episode of the Cold War.The wreckage of the vessel was found in the Ionian Sea by a team from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the Albanian Archaeology Institute and Albanian defense ministry, project spokesperson Auron Tare said.The Volage sank on October 22, 1946, when it hit a mine near the Albanian port...

Blue and the underwater treasures hunt

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:02:00 GMT

  By Enkayaar - Bollywood Trade News Network Though it has been a subject that keeps on being visited on a regular basis by Hollywood, i.e. going for a treasure hunt inside the water, now for the first time (in Bollywood) a treasure hunt film BLUE with the under waters as the background is going to hit the silver screen in a short time from now. The name in itself is an enigma as Blue is one of the colors whose interpretations keep on getting manifested over the years. May be, the treasure...

Bones of English sailor from disastrous expedition returned to U.K.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:58:00 GMT

  By Randy Boswell - Canwest News Service More than 160 years after his death in the Canadian Arctic during the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, the bones of an English sailor — among the only human remains ever repatriated from the disastrous 19th-century search for the Northwest Passage — have been laid to rest once more during a solemn rededication ceremony in London attended by Canada's High Commissioner, James Wright.The service, also attended by Parks Canada's top marine...

Divers Probe Mayan Ruins Submerged in Guatemala Lake

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:49:00 GMT

By Mica Rosenberg and Jackie Frank - ABC News Scuba divers are exploring the depths of a volcanic lake in Guatemala to find clues about an ancient sacred island where Mayan pilgrims flocked to worship before it was submerged by rising waters.Samabaj, the first underwater archaeological ruins excavated in Guatemala, were discovered accidentally 12 years ago by a diver exploring picturesque Lake Atitlan, ringed by Mayan villages and popular with foreign tourists."No one believed me, even when I told...

Toxic shipwreck turns out to be red herring

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:45:00 GMT

By Guy Dinmore and Eleonora de Sabata - Financial Times Italian prosecutors searching for the wreck of a ship allegedly scuttled by the mafia with toxic waste on board in 1992 say the vessel they surveyed this week in deep waters off the coast of Calabria turned out instead to be a passenger steamship sunk by a German submarine in 1917.Fears of coastal pollution had led to protests by local fishermen, residents and mayors who accused the central government of not doing enough to resolve the issue. Prosecutors...

Copper clue may solve mystery of doomed Victorian Arctic expedition

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:45:00 GMT

  By Maev Kennedy - Guardian.co.uk Find could help reveal fate of Sir John Franklin's ships that disappeared in hunt for North-West Passage. A few snippets of copper may be a vital clue towards solving one of Arctic exploration's most haunting mysteries: what happened to Sir John Franklin's two superbly equipped ships when he and all 150 members of his expedition died in the search for the North-West Passage more than 160 years ago?The fate of the 1845 expedition haunted Victorian imagination,...

Odyssey Marine Exploration Signs Letter of Intent with Robert Fraser & Partners LLP

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:51:00 GMT

From Reuters Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM:OMEX), pioneers in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, has entered into a letter of intent with Robert Fraser & Partners LLP. Under the terms of the proposed arrangement, Odyssey will provide services related to the exploration and recovery of shipwrecks and other deep-ocean resources to syndicates formed by Robert Fraser & Partners to engage in deep-ocean exploration. Under the proposed structure, Odyssey will be compensated...

Officials from Titanic Historical Society in Springfield shocked

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT

  By Ray Kelly - Massachusetts Live.com Leaders of the Indian Orchard-based Titanic Historical Society reacted with shock on Monday to news that another salvage mission to the world’s most famous shipwreck is under consideration. “Oh, God,” said Edward S. Kamuda, president of the 4,000-member international society. “I was under the impression that they were going to lay off of this.” The first expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site since 2004 was revealed...

Titanic expedition possible in 2010

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:24:00 GMT

By Steve Szkotak - Associated Press The company that has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic is planning a possible expedition to the world's most famous shipwreck in 2010. The first expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site since 2004 is revealed in a filing by RMS Titanic Inc. in U.S. District Court, where four days of hearings are scheduled to begin Monday on the company's claim for a salvage award.Lawyers for RMS Titanic Inc. confirmed the expedition plans but declined to discuss them...

How I dived for Nazi treasure made by Hitler's captive counterfeiters

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:49:00 GMT

    By Petronella Wyatt - Mail Online Take a stroll along the secluded banks of Lake Toplitz in Austria, near what was once Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels' sumptuous summer villa, and you will sometimes see men diving into the cold, inky water or prodding around near to the shore, with long sticks and metal detectors. It is a dangerous business - 25 divers have lost their lives in the lake's 426 feet depths. Occasionally over the past 50 years, someone has struck lucky and...

SCUBA treasure hunters recover valuable gold amethyst ring on wreck of the Atocha in the Caribbean

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:53:00 GMT

    By Scott Jones - Scuba Diving Examiner A very rare, delicate, gold amethyst ring was recovered on the famed shipwreck site of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha by scuba divers in the Caribbean it was announced yesterday.In the year 1622, 35 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida the Spanish Galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha sank in a violent hurricane en route from Havana, Cuba back to Spain. Famed underwater treasure hunter Mel Fisher first began searching for this wreck years ago....

Durham Cathedral divers discover gold and silver treasure trove in riverbed

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:43:00 GMT

  By Maev Kennedy - Guardian.co.uk After almost 30 years, the riverbed below Durham Cathedral has given up a bewildering secret: a hoard of ecclesiastical gold and silver, including medals, goblets, and crucifixes once owned by the Queen, the pope and other state and church leaders.A total of 32 objects given as gifts to the late Michael Ramsey – a former archbishop of Canterbury who was bishop of Durham for four years in the 1950s and spent some of his retirement in the city –...

Rare piece of history displayed

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:39:00 GMT

         By Josh Humphries - The Daily Reflector An anchor believed to be from Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was taken from the water by researchers with the QAR Project, a state-funded research expedition that will eventually bring up 700,000 individual artifacts. The anchor was displayed at the QAR Conservation Lab on the East Carolina University West Research Campus on Thursday afternoon. Historians say that the infamous pirate and his ship ran aground...

Underwater archaeology exhibition opens at Shihsanhang museum

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:56:00 GMT

From Taiwan News An exhibition that promises to offer a fascinating insight into the world of underwater archaeology and the history of ancient maritime links between Taiwan and China is being held at the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology in Bali, Taipei County until Dec. 13.Under the theme Diving into History, the exhibition is composed of six divisions that feature a wide range of biological fossils from the Taiwan Strait that date back 40,000 years, an array of underwater cultural and historic...

A sense of injustice lasting 130 years

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:03:00 GMT

By Les Leyne - Times Colonist George Abbott made his legislature debut as minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation this week, and one of the first orders of business is a request for an apology.There's lots to be sorry about in his new job, given how the last two centuries of history have left the original inhabitants of B.C.And there's one specific incident that has slowly become an issue. Some native people on the west coast of Vancouver Island want the present-day government to atone...

Expert to unfurl the majestic tale of the Titanic

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:45:00 GMT

By Helen Jardine - BDA Sun More than two decades ago he was collecting jewellery from the deck of the RMS Titanic, two and a half miles beneath the ocean's surface.Last week he was discussing climate change and space travel with Buzz Aldrin - the second man ever to walk on the moon.This week ocean explorer, doctor and author Joe MacInnis is in Bermuda to give a talk on the exploration and salvage of one of the world's most famous shipwrecks."Titanic is one of those wonderful, extraordinary, majestic...

Mary Celeste discovery hints to a shady past

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:36:00 GMT

  By James Whittaker - BDA Sun A bottle of wine, discovered by scuba divers in the wake of Hurricane Bill, could help piece together an untold subplot of one of Bermuda's most storied shipwrecks.The corked bottle, dated 1853, was found amid the wreckage of the Mary Celeste - a steam-powered blockade runner used to transport guns to British forces during the American Civil War. And experts believe it could hint at the ship's role in a trans-Atlantic black market wine trade. The ship...

In-depth exploration of Titanic at next historical society talk

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:17:00 GMT

By Jackie Hanusey - Shore News Today Tom Maddox of Estell Manor, the owner of East Coast Diving in Northfield, will share his experience of being one of the last divers to see the Titanic during a Greate Egg Harbour Historical Society presentation 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22 at the Egg Harbor Township Community Center.In was in 2005 that Maddox went with a crew filming the special “Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces” for The History Channel. The opportunity of a lifetime to see...

The mystery of Durban harbour

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:42:00 GMT

By Barbara Cole - IOL Shipwreck sleuth Vanessa Maitland likes nothing better than a mystery, and getting to the bottom of something for her means real deep research.Maitland is a maritime archaeologist and when the ocean finally looks like giving up some of its secrets, she is called in to don her diving suit and investigate.The Agatha Christie of the deep might not have uncovered the stuff of boys' adventure novels like pirated gold coins, but what she finds is much more important, she said."The...

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