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Theft in Mariners' museum
The 04 Mar. 2010 at 05:51Museum newsFrom the United States attorney Chuck Rosenberg
Lester F. Weber, age 46, and Lori E. Childs, age 49, both of Newport News, Virginia, were indicted by a federal grand in an indictment returned on February 13, 2008. Weber and Childs face charges of Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, Making and Subscribing False Tax Returns and Theft from an Organization Receiving Federal Funds.
Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia made the announcement today after Weber and Childs made their initial appearance in the United States District Court in Norfolk. Weber and Childs face a maximum penalty of twenty years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
According to the indictment, Lester F. Weber was employed by The Mariners’ Museum as an archivist from December 2000 through September 2006. Weber was promoted to Director of Archives in March of 2006. In such capacity, Weber had archival and custodial duties for various types of historical nautical materials, including brochures, documents and pictures.The indictment alleges that from approximately 2002 through September 2006, Weber and his wife, Lori E. Childs, engaged in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud by fraudulently obtaining items from The Mariners’ Museum and then selling these items over the internet, on the eBay auction website.
The indictment alleges that Weber and Childs sold approximately $162,959.23 in merchandise on the eBay website from January 2002 through September 2006. These sales included maritime related items, as well as other hobby related collector’s items. Specifically, from November 2005 through September 2006, the indictment alleges that Weber and Childs sold approximately 1,400 items of a maritime or nautical nature.
The investigation determined that many of these items were of the type maintained by The Mariners’ Museum.
Diving the deep wrecks - Bayview
The 03 Mar. 2010 at 07:49Wreck Diving
By Michael Timm - Bayview Compass.com
During the winter months, Bay View resident Jitka Hanakova works as a business analyst. But from April to October, she takes scuba divers to some of the deepest, least accessible shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.
Hanakova started diving in 2000 and quickly fell in love with the sport. She found a good, local charter boat operator in Jerry Guyer and started exploring area shipwrecks. In 2004 she got her captain’s license and worked on Guyer’s boat as a captain. In 2008, she bought her own boat and started her own charter business, Shipwreck Explorers, with Chicago partner Lubo Valuch.Shipwreck Explorers specializes in technical diving-going down deeper and staying down longer than recreational diving.
“With time,” Hanakova said, “I realized I’d like to go see some other shipwrecks and I took more advanced courses. I took decompression procedures, advanced nitrox, and trimix. Trimix is when we use helium. So when we go down, let’s say 200 feet, or 300 feet, we don’t get all narced out of our minds.”
Technical diving involves breathing air mixtures different than the atmosphere, depending on how deep a dive is planned. Trimix includes oxygen, nitrogen, and helium. By reducing the proportions of both nitrogen and oxygen, the helium reduces the risk of nitrogen narcosis and oxygen toxicity.
But divers returning from the depths still can’t come up all at once or they risk decompression sickness-the bends. That’s why technical divers return to the surface slowly and in stages.
“That’s the difference between recreational and technical,” she said. “Recreational, if something goes really wrong, theoretically the person could make a controlled assent.”
One of the deep Lake Michigan shipwrecks Hanakova has explored, the Tennie and Laura, lies off Port Washington under 310 feet of water and can only be reached on a technical dive.La factura del «Caso Odyssey» será millonaria
The 03 Mar. 2010 at 06:33Illegal RecoveriesC.D.Carrón / G. Pajares - La Razon.es
La justicia fallará en breve, pero el Gobierno español ya ha presupuestado 1,6 millones de euros desde 2007 para pagar a la asesoría jurídica, encabezada por James Goold, y cuyo coste podría superar los cinco millones
El «Caso Odyssey» parece encaminarse hacia un final, que previsiblemente podrá ser feliz, pero no han faltado los momentos de tensión durante estos años de litigio con la todopoderosa empresa «cazatesoros» que dirige Greg Stemm. El bufete de James Goold ha sabido, una vez más, diseñar la estrategia adecuada y parece ser cuestión de meses que el suntuoso botín, cuyo valor se elevaría por encima de los cuatrocientos millones de euros, vuelva a casa.La factura, como era de esperar, también será cuantiosa. El Gobierno tuvo que buscar una fórmula legal para proceder al pago de la operación y lo hizo a través de la partida 448 de los Presupuestos Generales del Estado correspondiente al Ministerio de Cultura: «A Spain-USA Foundation para defensa de intereses españoles en los buques hundidos en aguas norteamericanas».
Se aprovechó este enunciado, que tenía dotaciones económicas muy inferiores, a pesar de que nada tiene que ver con el caso de esta embarcación, ya que naufragó frente a las costas del Algarve portugués y no en Norteamerica, como sugiere el enunciado presupuestario.
«Anticipos sucesivos»
En 2006 la dotación era apenas de 60.000 euros, lo mismo que en 2007, año en que Odyssey comunicó el hallazgo de la embarcación hundida (fue en el mes de mayo). En 2008, con el litigio en curso, ya se presupuestaron 300.000 euros (cinco veces más que en el ejercicio anterior), 500.000 al año siguiente y 800.000 para el presente ejercicio de 2010. «Los gastos derivados de los bufetes de abogados han sido muy fuertes y muy elevados.Sin embargo, las cantidades a pagar no eran las mismas, como es lógico deducir, al comienzo del proceso, en 2007, que a medida que ha ido avanzando, de ahí que la provisión de fondos en cada partida presupuestaria haya ido aumentado», asegura a este diario una persona que ha participado directamente en las negociaciones del «Caso Odyssey». Según esta fuente, la cuantía se ha dividido en «sucesivos anticipos.
De las fases preliminares se ha pasado, a medida que el pleito se ha ido alargando en el tiempo, al pago por los servicios prestados». Como se recordará, el bufete de James Goold está especializado en este tipo de casos. El letrado ya representó a nuestro país en el litigio que enfrentó a España con una empresa de búsqueda de tesoros por los navíos «Juno» y «La Galga», hundidos frente a las costas de Virginia, cuyo final se resolvió a favor de nuestro país.
La sonada victoria de aquel año fue acompañada, además, por la distinción al abogado de la Orden de Isabel La Católica. Era el año 2000 y el dinero que podría haber recibido el abogado, según ha podido saber este diario, habría sido de más de 1,5 millones de euros.
Ceramics that tell the Malaysian story
The 02 Mar. 2010 at 15:46Museum news
By Yip Yoke Teng - The Star Online
Ceramics, whether prehistoric or modern-day, tell a lot about an ethnic group as the items are widely used in daily life for various purposes.
To highlight the significance of ceramics, the National Museum has grouped the most precious artefacts from its ceramic collection together in the Malaysia Ceramics Exhibition, which runs until March 28.“The 171 artefacts have been hand-picked from our own collection as they best reflect the diversity of our multiracial society. We hope the exhibition can give visitors a better understanding and in-depth knowledge of the subject,” Department of Museums Malaysia director-general Datuk Ibrahim Ismail said told reporters on Saturday.
“It is one of our country’s cultural legacies that we ought to uphold and share information on,” he added.The artefacts are categorised into six groups — Prehistoric Ceramics, Enduring Reminders, Malay Ceramics, Tranquillity of the Soul, Chinese Ceramics, Symbol and Legacy, Indian Ceramics, Devotion and Worship, Sabah and Sarawak Ceramics, Magic and Spirituality, and Shipwreck Ceramics: Treasures from the Seabed.
Titanic artefacts surface in Melbourne exhibition
The 02 Mar. 2010 at 15:35Famous WrecksBy Simon Plant - Herald Sun
Buried treasure recovered from the wreck of the world's most famous ship has surfaced at Melbourne Museum.
But a bronze cherub ripped from the Titanic almost a century ago is just the tip of the iceberg.
Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition, opening soon in the museum's Touring Hall, will present 280 authentic objects - from perfume vials and a pocket watch to chamber pots and coins - and recreate sections of the ship's opulent interior, including the Grand Staircase.
"This is biggest and best exhibition I've ever seen in my life,'' said promoter Michael Gudinski.
"When you see what's been discovered underneath the water so long after the event, its just gripping.''
Gudinski's Frontier Events, a division of Frontier Touring, is presenting Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition with Museum Victoria and the support of Victorian Major Events.
And like last years' A Day in Pompeii, museum chief Dr J Patrick Greene expects the show to give visitors a fascinating, intimate and often poignant glimpse into another era.End of long hunt for Centaur
The 01 Mar. 2010 at 04:52World War WrecksBy Tuck Thompson - CourierMail.com.au
Australia's top political and military officials will lead the public in a national service of remembrance today for the 332 victims and survivors of the sinking of the AHS Centaur.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Premier Anna Bligh, Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Chief of Army Ken Gillespie and Chief of Navy Russell Crane are among those expected to attend the service at St John's Cathedral on Ann St in Brisbane's CBD on Tuesday, March 2, at 11am.
The wreck of the hospital ship, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in May 1943, was found before Christmas about 50km east of Moreton Island.
The discovery and marking of the war grave has brought closure for hundreds of Centaur family members around Australia, many of whom will attend the service. Centaur survivor Martin Pash of Melbourne, 87, will be among the speakers.
Centaur Primary School pupils will read the names of 268 men and women non-combatants lost on the hospital ship.
Following a campaign by The Courier-Mail in August 2008, the Commonwealth and Queensland governments jointly agreed to a $4 million search. Family members had spent more than a decade lobbying for a search without success, as some within government feared a rift with Japan.BBC to make Atlantis movie
The 01 Mar. 2010 at 04:19Miscellaneous
By David Bentley - Coventry Telegraph.com
A new British movie is to tell the story of the ancient cataclysm that's believed to be the basis for the Atlantis legend.
The BBC has announced the TV film, to be called Atlantis and directed by Primeval's Tony Mitchell, will "tell the dramatic story of the greatest natural disaster to shake the ancient world, a disaster that triggered the downfall of a civilisation and spawned a legend."
The film will be made using the same techniques as Zack Snyder's Spartan war epic 300 and will be accompanied by a documentary looking at the historical evidence.
Around 1620 BC a gigantic volcano in the Aegean Sea stirred from its 19,000-year slumber. The eruption tore apart the island of Thera, producing massive tsunamis that flooded the nearby island of Crete, the centre of Europe's first great civilisation - the Minoans.
This apocalyptic event, many experts now believe, provided the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis. Based on the work of leading scientists, archaeologists and historians, this drama immerses viewers in the exotic world of the Minoans.Starring Reece Ritchie (10,000BC, The Lovely Bones, Prince Of Persia) and Stephanie Leonidas (MirrorMask), Atlantis is the first British TV drama to use the 'virtual backlot' technique of the movie 300. It will be filmed in a studio against green-screen backgrounds to which computer-generated scenery is later added.
New sculptures added to Cancun's underwater museum
The 28 Feb. 2010 at 15:29Museum news
From news.com.au
The Cancun and Isla Mujeres Underwater Art Museum is a step closer to becoming the world's largest underwater museum by adding three new sculptures.
The sculptures - Dream Collector, Man on Fire and The Gardener of Hope – were carefully submerged to a variety of different depths throughout the national park.
Created by British/Guyanese artist Jason de Caires Taylor, the sculptures were placed near natural reefs and marine life in order to create an artificial habitat.SS Mendi's stories told almost 100 years after sinking
The 28 Feb. 2010 at 06:57World War Wrecks
From BBC
Many in the UK have never heard of SS Mendi, yet in South Africa's Easten Cape Province she is as famous as RMS Titanic.
In February 1917, she was lost off the south coast of the Isle of Wight with, 600 troops on board. Sinking 9 miles (14.4 km) off St Catherine's point, it is a story that is still virtually unknown in the UK.
Diver Martin Woodward was the first person to find and identify the wreck of SS Mendi in 1974. It was not until later he discovered the tragic story behind the artefacts that he brought to the surface.
Martin, owner of The Shipwreck and Maritime Museum in the Isle of Wight said: "The ship was coming up through the Channel destined for Le Havre."
As part of the British Empire, South Africa was automatically at war with Germany. Thousands of men were recruited as labourers, to dig trenches more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away from their homes.
The 4,000 ton Mendi was hit in fog by The Darro, almost three times the size of the troopship, and sank in 20 minutes. Martin explained: "A lot of people who were in the holds were drowned instantly."Malouines, histoire d'un contentieux multiséculaire
The 27 Feb. 2010 at 05:31General Maritime History
Par Catherine Gouëset - L'Express.fr
Alors que la tension monte entre l'Argentine et la Grande-Bretagne après le lancement, par Londres, d'une campagne d'exploration pétrolière au large des Malouines, retour sur les grandes dates de l'archipel, situé à moins de 500 km de la côte argentine.XVIème siècle : l'archipel des Malouines est signalé sur les cartes des explorateurs européens.
1690 : des marins britanniques accostent et nomment les deux principales îles du nom du trésorier de la marine Britannique, le vicomte Falkland. Le nom sera plus tard étendu à l'ensemble de l'archipel.
1764 : le navigateur français Louis-Antoine de Bougainville nomme l'archipel "Malouines" en référence aux marins de Saint-Malo, premiers colons de ces îles.
1765 : les Britanniques s'installent dans l'île de West Falkland, mais ils en sont délogés en 1770 par les Espagnols qui ont acheté la colonie aux Français en 1767.
1820 : l'Argentine, qui a proclamé son indépendance de l'Espagne quatre ans plus tôt, déclare sa souveraineté sur l'archipel.
1831 : le navire américain "Lexington" fait détruire Puerto Soledad après l'arraisonnement de trois navires américains pour un contentieux sur les zones de pêche. les Américains rejettent le droit de Buenos Aires de règlementer les zones de pêche autour des îles malouines.