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From AFP

 

Emerging from the crystal-clear turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea, Hans-Juergen Fercher has just returned from his fourth dive to where mounds of 2,500-year-old wine jars mark the site of an ancient shipwreck – and Greece’s first underwater museum.

“This is a combination of diving and archaeological diving. It’s diving into history,” says the 48-year-old psychiatrist after pulling himself onto the deck of the Triton dive boat. “It makes it special and unique.”

The museum beneath the waves at Peristera, a rocky outcrop off the island of Alonissos, opened in 2020, though the site has been largely mothballed until now due to Covid-19 restrictions. As Greece opens up its vital tourism industry, the site offers an example of a new and more sustainable source of revenue.

Divers like Fercher and Danish wine-cellar maker Lisette Fredelund are willing to pay €95 (US$110) a dive – about 50 per cent more than the cost of a regular recreational scuba outing – for a guided tour of a site once the preserve of professional archaeologists.

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By Ben Finley - The Columbian
 

The Titanic is disappearing. The iconic ocean liner that was sunk by an iceberg is now slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria: holes pervade the wreckage, the crow’s nest is already gone and the railing of the ship’s iconic bow could collapse at any time.

Racing against the inevitable, an undersea exploration company’s expedition to the site of the wreckage could start this week, beginning what’s expected to be an annual chronicling of the ship’s deterioration. With the help of wealthy tourists, experts hope to learn more about the vessel as well as the underwater ecosystem that shipwrecks spawn.

“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, said Friday from a ship headed to the North Atlantic wreck site.

The 109-year-old ocean liner is being battered by deep-sea currents and bacteria that consumes hundreds of pounds of iron a day. Some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate.

Since the ship’s 1985 discovery, the 100-foot forward mast has collapsed. The crow’s nest from which a lookout shouted, “Iceberg, right ahead!” disappeared. And the poop deck, where passengers crowded as the ship sank, folded under itself.

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By Craig Williams - Glasgow Live

A shipwrecked vessel that left Glasgow and has lain at the bottom of the sea for over 100 years seems an unlikely place for people to visit in search for a beer.

But that has proved to be the case with the wreckage of The Wallachia, which lies over 30 metres below the sea in the Firth of Clyde off the coast of Wemyss Bay. Website Scottish Shipwrecks notes that the cargo steamer, built in Southampton and launched in 1883, sank after colliding with another vessel in heavy fog in September of 1895, having left Queen’s Dock in Glasgow bound for Trinidad and Demerara.

Filled with a cargo that included glassware, footwear and earthenware, the William Burrell & Son-owned steamer was also transporting a large amount of gin and whisky, as well as thousands of bottles of beer made by McEwans of Glasgow.

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From Reuters

Divers have discovered rare remains of a military vessel in the ancient sunken city of Thônis-Heracleion - once Egypt's largest port on the Mediterranean - and a funerary complex illustrating the presence of Greek merchants, the country said on Monday.

The city, which controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of a western branch of the Nile, dominated the area for centuries before the foundation of Alexandria nearby by Alexander the Great in 331 BC.

Destroyed and sunk along with a wide area of the Nile delta by several earthquakes and tidal waves, Thônis-Heracleion was rediscovered in 2001 in Abu Qir bay near Alexandria, now Egypt's second largest city.

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From John Konrad - GCaptain

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators have found the Boeing 737-200 cargo plane that made an emergency water landing in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii early this month.

Sea Engineering provided ROV and Side Scan Sonar support for the survey of the debris of flight 810 approximately 2 miles offshore from the island of Oahu.

Sea Engineering used the 43-ft Workboat, ‘Huki Pono’ for Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) operations in combination with a Chinook ROV, outfitted with GoPros, a high-definition video recording system, ultra-short-base wavelength transponder, and Hypack Navigation and DGPS to monitor and record the ROV position on the seafloor.

Transair Flight 810 was found about 2 miles South Southeast of Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. The aft fuselage including both wings and tail along with both engines, and forward fuselage — were located at depths between 360 and 420 feet, the NTSB said in a statement.

The plane components were initially located with a Side Scan Sonar and then the ROV was deployed. The NTSB said the wreckage is too deep to deploy divers for recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. On Monday the investigative team is developing plans to recover the aircraft.

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By Callum Hoare - Express.co.uk

A Titanic breakthrough was made after a "monumental" piece of the vessel was saved, in what was described as a "miracle" for preserving history.

The British passenger liner famously sunk after hitting an iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912, in a devastating event that saw more than 1,500 people lose their lives. Its wreck was discovered in 1985 by a Franco-American expedition sponsored by the US Navy. 

The ship was split in two, and is still gradually disintegrating at the bottom of the North Atlantic, sparking concerns from experts who wanted to save it before it was lost forever.

And Channel 4's "Titanic: Into the Heart of the Wreck" detailed how, in 1994, diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet made a huge contribution in its survival bid. The narrator said: "He discovers an enormous piece of Titanic's hull lying on the ocean floor, measuring eight by seven metres and weighing 18 tonnes.

"Nicknamed the 'Big Piece', its recovery is a huge challenge, costing millions of dollars. "Nothing like this has ever been achieved by any archaeologist before.

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From mail Online

Two centuries-old shipwrecks packed with ceramics and other artefacts have been found off Singapore in a rare discovery that will shed light on the city-state's maritime heritage, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The prosperous island nation has long been a key trading hub on global shipping routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

The wrecks were found off Pedra Branca, a rocky outcrop east of Singapore, according to the National Heritage Board and think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which worked together on the project.

The first wreck, discovered after divers accidentally came across ceramic plates in 2015, was carrying Chinese ceramics that possibly date back to the 14th century, when Singapore was known as Temasek.

From mail Online

Two centuries-old shipwrecks packed with ceramics and other artefacts have been found off Singapore in a rare discovery that will shed light on the city-state's maritime heritage, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The prosperous island nation has long been a key trading hub on global shipping routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

The wrecks were found off Pedra Branca, a rocky outcrop east of Singapore, according to the National Heritage Board and think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which worked together on the project.

The first wreck, discovered after divers accidentally came across ceramic plates in 2015, was carrying Chinese ceramics that possibly date back to the 14th century, when Singapore was known as Temasek.