Agenda
Latest video
Need to Translate ?
Site Info
© 2010 oceantreasures.org
All Rights Reserved
News Feed
Tag Cloud
Latest Review
WET & HOT NEWS ! > Famous Wrecks
Well known and particularly famous wrecks all over the world.Titanic wreckage to be raised digitally by new 3D map
The 01 Sep. 2010 at 04:09Famous WrecksRepresentatives of Regina-based Droycon Bioconcepts diving to study the Titanic
The 29 Aug. 2010 at 06:58Famous Wrecks
By Doyle Fox - Leader Post
Lori Johnston and Sean Frisky won't be looking for the fictional necklace named "The Heart of the Ocean" when they dive down in a midget submersible vehicle to see the legendary British ocean liner Titanic in September.
No, Johnston and Frisky will be representing Regina-based Droycon Bioconcepts and studying the bacteria and other contributing factors to the degradation of the Titanic.
"Most of the wrecks I've studied, including the Titanic, are designated graveyards," said Johnston, a microbiologist by trade. "We are not there as treasure hunters — everything we do is noninvasive."
Johnston has visited shipwrecks all over the world, including the Titanic's sister ship HMHS Britannic as well as the German battleship Bismarck. However, she first made the four-kilometre dive to see the world famous shipwreck.
"On my first dive, we came in contact with the bow and my first thought was 'this is a massive ship and beautiful'," Johnston said. "It wasn't harsh looking, it had a very soft feel."
Johnston, a University of Regina graduate, has made five dives to study the Titanic with renowned local scientist Roy Cullimore. Together, Johnston and Cullimore studied the bacteria that is eating away the iron on the Titanic.
"The degradation rate is basically the recycling process of nature — you can try to manage it, but it would be very difficult," Johnston said. "It's more interesting to see nature take its course."
In 2002, Johnston placed steel platforms built by IPSCO in the degradation "hot-spots" of the Titanic in hopes of discovering the rate at which the ocean liner is degrading.
Frisky, president of Regina's Ground Effects Environmental Services, said he and Johnston will measure, compare and analyze the "rusticles" left on both the Titanic and on the steel platforms.
"Rusticles are up to six metres long and they look like icicles on the side of the ship," said Frisky, who is readying for his first dive to Titanic.
"If there looks like there is enough (rusticles) to give us significant data, we will bring them up," Johnston said.
Johnston is also excited at the prospect of determining how much electricity can be generated from the rusticles and bacteria on the Titanic. She believes the bacteria can generate over one watt of electricity and can potentially be the key to harnessing a greener source of power.
Aside the from the scientific aspect of the excursion, Johnston still marvels at the human element of the Titanic.Titanic Is Falling Apart
The 20 Aug. 2010 at 05:45Famous Wrecks
By Brian Handwerk - National Geographic News
Slipping beneath the waves on April 15, 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic famously disappeared from view until 1985, when it was rediscovered on the bottom of the North Atlantic.
Now, scientists say, the legendary liner—beset by metal-eating life-forms, powerful currents, and possibly even human negligence—could be vanishing for good.
Titanic is falling apart.
Already explorers have documented caved-in roofs, weakening decks, a stern perhaps on the edge of collapse, and the disappearance of Titanic's crow's nest—from which lookout Frederick Fleet spotted history's most infamous iceberg.
"Everyone has their own opinion" as to how long Titanic will remain more or less intact, said research specialist Bill Lange of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
"Some people think the bow will collapse in a year or two," Lange said. "But others say it's going to be there for hundreds of years."
With Lange as optical-survey leader, a new expedition sets sail Sunday from St. John's, Newfoundland — roughly 350 miles (560 kilometers) from the ship's 2.4-mile-deep (3.8-kilometer-deep) resting place.
The goal: to virtually preserve Titanic in its current state and to finally determine just how far gone the shipwreck is, and how long it might last.
"We're trying to bring the actual hard data to the people who can make those determinations," Lange said.
The 20-day Expedition Titanic will use remotely operated submersibles to complete an unprecedented archaeological analysis of the two- by three-mile (three- by five-kilometer) debris field, including Titanic's two halves. The ship's bow and stern separated before sinking and now lie a third of a mile (half a kilometer) apart.
Thousands of high-resolution photos and video will be combined with acoustic and sonar mapping data to form a 3-D replica of the site, allowing scientists and armchair explorers to probe it in detail. (Explore a 2004 photomosaic of the Titanic wreck.)
Some photos will reveal never before seen parts of Titanic, organizers say. Other images, when compared to evidence from earlier years, will help experts gauge the rate of the wreck's deterioration.
Expedition Titanic will gather hard data too, for example by measuring the thickness of the ship's hull and by hauling up and examining experimental steel platforms placed at the site.
In addition, scientists will take readings of the surrounding water to uncover its ability to support marine life—a prime cause of Titanic's deterioration.
P.H. Nargeolet, co-leader of Expedition Titanic, made more than 30 submersible dives to the Titanic site in the 1980s and '90s—and saw it decline all the while.
Between 1987 and 1993, Nargeolet observed the gymnasium roof corroding and collapsing as well as the upper promenade deck deteriorating. On an early '90s dive he saw that the crow's nest—previously seen still attached to the forward mast—had disappeared altogether, apparently damaged to the point where it snapped off and fell to an as yet unidentified location (interactive Titanic wreck diagram).
"In some places I saw a lot of difference, and in others almost nothing visible has happened," said Nargeolet, director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc., a for-profit corporation that has retrieved Titanic artifacts for traveling exhibitions.
"For example, the stern section was the most destroyed part of the ship when it sank, and now most of the stern section is collapsed," he said. "The bow is pretty narrow and the strongest part of the ship, and it's still in relatively good condition."Titanic expedition maps wreck site
The 19 Aug. 2010 at 04:36Famous Wrecks
By Aaron Gouveia - Cape Cod Times
Imagine swimming through the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, peeking in portholes and seeing artifacts from nearly 100 years ago sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
And you don't even have to get wet.
Creating that scenario is the goal of a group of scientists, including researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who leave today on a 20-day expedition. They will use the latest in sonar technologies, acoustic imaging and high resolution video to create a virtual 3-D map of the Titanic wreck site that will eventually be accessible online.
"It's revolutionary in that we'll be using new technology to create the first archaeological site map of the Titanic," said David Gallo, WHOI's director of special operations.
The project is being led and funded by RMS Titanic Inc., the company with salvage rights to the Titanic and the wreck site.
Scientists at the oceanographic institution originally found the Titanic two miles beneath the ocean's surface in 1985. But 25 years later, the improvement in underwater technology is staggering, Gallo said.
Using a combination of remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles, Gallo said advanced sonar will scan the ocean floor around the crash site while a combination of acoustic imaging and WHOI-made 3-D high definition cameras record the area.
REMUS (Remote Environmental Measuring UnitS), a torpedo-shaped autonomous vehicle that travels in predetermined patterns to collect data, was also developed at WHOI and will be one of the mission's main tools.
The end result, said Gallo, will be merging all the different technologies to form a mosaic virtual map that will provide the clearest, most precise images of Titanic ever recorded.
Titanic, which is split on the ocean floor, has been visited in the past to retrieve artifacts, but Gallo said half of the crash site has never been explored. The best part, he said, is that it is not just scientists who will see it all first-hand.
"Not only will we see a lot of things we've never seen before, but down the road the public will be able to explore for themselves," Gallo said. "No more looking over James Cameron's shoulder."
In addition to creating a boundary map and charting the exact physical position of the ship, researchers will also document artifacts found within the Titanic and, with luck, gain new insights into the details of the sinking after the massive vessel struck an iceberg on April 15, 1912.
Scientists will also examine the structural integrity of the fragile iron ship, which has been eaten away by microbes. The microorganism samples could potentially allow researchers to better understand the process of so-called biodeterioration and give scientists an idea of how long the Titanic will remain intact.
Gallo said there is little doubt the wreck has been beneficial to sea life, but this trip will allow all the animals residing in and around the Titanic to be catalogued.Retracing the Titanic for posterity
The 17 Aug. 2010 at 05:33Famous Wrecks
By Peter Schworm - Boston.com
A team of top scientists, launching what is billed as the most ambitious and advanced survey of the Titanic, sets out next week to map in photographic detail the entire wreck site, and reconstruct in electronic form the ruins scattered on the seabed.
By melding photographs, high-definition video and computer imaging, scientists — including experts at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute — plan to create a three-dimensional computer model that will allow scientists and members of the public to “swim’’ through the wreckage online, as though they were at the site more than 2 miles below the ocean surface.
“We can raise the ship virtually,’’ said James Delgado, the expedition’s principal investigator and president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. “The data you can capture is incredible.’’
Scientific research on this scale, Delgado and others said, has never been attempted at these depths, where the pressure is more than 400 times that on earth’s surface, and the temperature never moves far from 39 degrees. There is no sunlight and little life.
Since the wreckage was discovered in 1985, expeditions have focused on recovering relics from the world-famous shipwreck and capturing footage of its sundered bow and stern.
The upcoming 20-day voyage, scheduled to set forth from Newfoundland Sunday, is far more ambitious, a groundbreaking attempt to probe nearly every aspect of the site, from the giant ship’s iconic bow to the colonies of microbes eating away at its iron hull. The mission will also catalog the countless artifacts strewn across the ocean floor.
Using the latest sonar and computer-imaging technologies, researchers will be able to record the site with new detail, clarity, and accuracy. They hope the pioneering effort will provide a blueprint for future deep-water exploration.
“We’ve never had the ability to map with such precision,’’ said David Gallo, a leader of the expedition from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who estimates that as much as 40 percent of the vast site has never been surveyed. “We’re going to treat it like an archeological dig, and that’s never been done before at these depths.’’Dropping anchor to engineer a Titanic re-creation
The 15 Aug. 2010 at 08:58Famous Wrecks.jpg)
From The Star
It's the world's most famous shipwreck, lying on the sea floor two and a half miles below the surface of the storm-tossed Atlantic Ocean.
But a team of Sheffield engineers have been bringing memories of the Titanic back to life - by creating an exact replica of the mighty ship's anchor.
The project at Sheffield Forgemasters was commissioned by Channel 4 for a new five part series to be shown this autumn, titled We Built Titanic.
Weighing approximately 16 tonnes, the anchor is the result of more than six months of meticulous planning, casting, forging and machining at the company's Brightside Lane base.
Researchers for the series discovered that Forgemasters was the only company in the UK capable of manufacturing the heavy components required for the anchor.
The finished product will be hammer tested - a tradition Edwardian method which uses a 10lb sledge hammer to test its durability - before being transported for display in Netherton, Dudley, where the original anchor was manufactured in the early 20th century.
Roger Richardson, director of the foundry at Forgemasters International Ltd, said: "The anchor has been a very rewarding project to work on.
"The Titanic was the most famous ship in modern history, its story captivates people all over the world and to be involved in recreating part of that story is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
"At Forgemasters we still use some of the traditional techniques and processes that would have been used to make the original anchor, but we combine these with some of the most state-of-the-art technology and equipment in the world."Norfolk judge grants salvage award for Titanic artifacts
The 14 Aug. 2010 at 12:15Famous Wrecks
By Tim McGlone - The Virginian-Pilot
A federal judge has granted a salvage award to the company that maintains thousands of Titanic artifacts, but it remains unclear how the company will collect the estimated $110 million value of the pieces.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith late Thursday issued an opinion granting RMS Titanic Inc. an award equal to 100 percent of the fair market value of the artifacts.
But she said she will take up to another year to decide "the manner in which to pay the award," according to a court filing.
RMS Titanic Inc. and its parent, Premier Exhibitions Inc., has been battling in court for years to get title to about 5,500 Titanic artifacts that were lifted from the North Atlantic during company-run salvage operations over the past 20 years.
The federal court here, in the 1990s, awarded the company salvor-in-possession status, meaning the company had exclusive rights to salvage Titanic artifacts. But the court has maintained a tight control over what the company could do with the objects, including strictly prohibiting selling them.
The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 on its maiden voyage. The company plans an expedition to the wreck site next week. Company-hired scientists will assess the deteriorating condition of the shipwreck.
The fate of the Titanic artifacts has been the subject of a federal court case here for more than 15 years. Smith heard six days of testimony last fall to help her determine the value of the artifacts.
Premier officials expected the ruling to come in two parts. The judge could have made the extreme decision to award the company nothing, or a percentage of what appraisers pegged as the artifacts' value.New Titanic expedition will create 3D map of wreck
The 27 Jul. 2010 at 14:41Famous Wrecks
By Steve Szkotak - Associated Press/Breitbart
A team of scientists will launch an expedition to the Titanic next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck and create a detailed three-dimensional map that will "virtually raise the Titanic" for the public.
The expedition to the site 2 1/2 miles beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.
The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 2-by-3-mile debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.
Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.
"For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind," David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. "One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is."
The Titanic struck ice and sank on its maiden voyage in international waters on April 15, 1912, leaving 1,522 people dead.
Since oceanographer Robert Ballard and an international team discovered the Titanic in 1985, most of the expeditions have either been to photograph the wreck or gather thousands of artifacts, like fine china, shoes and ship fittings. "Titanic" director James Cameron has also led teams to the wreck to record the bow and the stern, which separated during the sinking and now lie one-third of a mile apart.
RMS Titanic made the last expedition to site in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta, conducts traveling displays of the Titanic artifacts, which the company says have been viewed by tens of millions of people worldwide.
"We believe there's still a number of really exciting mysteries to be discovered at the wreck site," said Chris Davino, president of and CEO of Premier Exhibitions and RMS Titanic. "It's our contention that substantial portions of the wreck site have never really been properly studied."
RMS Titanic is bankrolling the expedition. Davino declined to state the cost of the exploration other than to say it will be millions of dollars.
The "dream team" of archaeologists, oceanographers and other scientists want to get the best assessment yet on the two main sections of the ship, which have been subjected to fierce deep-ocean currents, salt water and intense pressure.
Gallo said while the rate of Titanic's deterioration is not known, the expedition approaches the mission with a sense of urgency.
"We see places where it looks like the upper decks are getting thin, the walls are thin, the ceilings may be collapsing a bit," he said. "We hear all these anecdotal things about the ship is rusting away, it's collapsing on itself. No one really knows."
The expedition will use imaging technology and sonar devices that never have been used before on the Titanic wreck and to probe nearly a century of sediment in the debris field to seek a full inventory of the ship's artifacts.Titanic exhibition a rare treasure
The 24 Jul. 2010 at 19:39Famous WrecksBy Karen Rallo - South bend Tribune
Want to get a personal glimpse into one of the most notorious maritime disasters ?
Then take a trip down U.S. 31 to visit “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” Sept. 25 through January at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.
More than 5,400 artifacts have been recovered, following seven expeditions to the site of the Titanic’s final resting place, according to Cheryl Mure, vice president of education for Premier Exhibitions Inc.
RMS Titanic Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc., is the only company permitted to recover objects from the wreckage. The company was granted possession rights to the luxury liner, which is scattered in pieces some 12,000 feet beneath the sea, by a United States federal court in 1994.
The exhibition seeks to transport visitors back to the time of the voyage with room re-creations, says Mure.
“There’s even an iceberg to touch and feel just how cold the water was on that night. Over 240 artifacts really tell the story. They hold hundreds of memories of the passengers, crew and the ship. That’s what makes it so remarkable,” Mure explains.
Mure went on to say that the artifacts are exhibited in the very condition they were found in.
“We don’t restore, we conserve them to prevent any further decay or deterioration,” she explains.
Personal items like a gold wristwatch or a man’s bowler hat give visitors a sense of the various travelers, rich or poor.
“Who did they belong to? What was he like? Where was he going? These are real objects. This ship started out with such hope and expectation, especially for over 700 immigrants,” says Mure.
Upon entering the exhibition, visitors will be given a replica of an actual boarding pass with the real name of a passenger who boarded the Titanic. After completing the tour, visitors will go to the Memorial Gallery to learn if the passengers named on their boarding passes survived or perished when the Titanic sank, according to Mure.Searching for sea treasures
The 21 Jul. 2010 at 17:38Famous Wrecks
By Nathan Bruttell - Today's News-HeraldPitch black, icy water, 230 feet below the surface and inside a 54-year-old collapsing ship.
That combination would scare most people, but for Havasu resident Joel Silverstein, the dive down to the famous Andrea Doria shipwreck is as good as it gets.
“You have to be able to work in the dark, you have to be able to work alone and you need a fair amount of resolve. This is a very dangerous location and fatalities do happen,” said Silverstein, vice president and COO of Havasu’s Tech Diving Limited. “Sometimes it’s flat calm and perfect down there. Other days it’s a washing machine.”
But the famous ocean liner shipwreck that sunk in 1956 after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm in the waters off Nantucket still gives up treasures, Silverstein said. On June 25 aboard Capt. David Sutton’s R/V Explorer on the Silverstein/Sutton 2010 Andrea Doria Expedition, New Jersey divers Ernest Rookey and Carl Bayer located and recovered the “crow’s nest bell” from the Andrea Doria. The bell is considered to be “one of the most significant finds in the history of the wreck,” Silverstein said.
“This is an outstanding and historic find,” said Silverstein, the expedition leader during the find, in June. “In my 18 years of diving the Doria, this is probably the most significant artifact found.”
Andrea Doria historian and author Gary Gentile, who found the wreck’s stern bell in 1985, was also aboard the Silverstein/Sutton expedition.
“There was never any proof that a crow’s nest bell existed until today,” said Gentile in June.
Gentile has been diving the wreck since 1974 and has more documented dives on the Andrea Doria than any other diver, according to a press release. Fewer than 1,000 divers have visited the wreck from all over the world and 13 have lost their lives. Silverstein said the dangers, depth, isolation, freezing temperatures and strong currents have combined to earn the Andrea Doria the nickname as “the Mount Everest of dives.”
“The danger and the intrigue of finding something significant make it one of the most famous dives in the world,” Silverstein said, adding that he’s made 14 dives on the wreck since 1992. Silverstein’s wife and Tech Diving Limited President Kathy Weydig has made several dives as well. “We take a lot of precautions before heading out and safety is our absolute first priority. Finding artifacts is actually easier now than it used to be because it has collapsed and they’re just spilling out. Most divers don’t enter the inside anymore.”
Finding the crow’s nest bell was a combination of “great skill and a little bit of luck,” Silverstein said. The 75-pound bronze bell, which holds the Andrea Doria name, was largely covered in sand and debris on the ocean floor when Bayer and Rookey first saw it.