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From Mark Price - Island Packet

Divers recovering artifacts off the steamship Pulaski have made an eerie find that gives credence to eyewitness accounts of the night the ship sank in 1838, taking some of the nation’s richest people to the bottom of the Atlantic.

A mysterious “grapefruit-sized” encrustation found at the site off North Carolina’s coast turned out to be a heavily decorated solid gold pocket watch attached to a gold chain.

However, what has historians buzzing is the fact that the watch’s hands are frozen at 11:05. That’s 5 minutes after the time witnesses say the ship’s boilers exploded on the night of June 14, 1838. The dramatic sinking, often referred to as “the Titanic of its time,” occurred 180 years ago this month.

“We were shocked,” said Max Spiegel of Certified Collectables Group, which is handling preservation of Pulaski artifacts.

“It’s very unusual to see an artifact with that sort of impression of a historic moment, when a ship sank. Think about how fragile the watch’s hands are, yet they survived in that exact position. It’s one of the most exciting finds we’ve handled, and we’ve done a half dozen shipwrecks.”

The sinking of the Pulaski continues to intrigue historians for countless reasons, including the fact that its ill-fated passengers were then among the wealthiest people in the Eastern United States.

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From BBC News

New details have emerged about the San Jose, a Spanish galleon sunk by British ships 300 years ago.

The vessel was said to be transporting gold, silver and precious gems collected in the South American colonies to be shipped to Spain's King Philip V to help finance the war of Spanish succession. Colombia said it first discovered the wreck, located somewhere off the coast of Cartagena, in 2015.

Last year, the president Juan Manuel Santos said the salvage operation "begins a new chapter in the cultural and scientific history, not only of Colombia but of the entire world".

Meanwhile, a team of marine archaeologists, with the help of an underwater robot, started an investigation and have published new information about what has been uncovered so far. Some people have already speculated it could be the most valuable shipwreck of all time and worth billions.

The San Jose is one of thousands of shipwrecks around the world and excavating historic cargo is an enticing prospect for archaeologists and treasure hunters.

So, who has the rights to a shipwreck ?

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By Bridie Pearson-Jones - Daily Mail

Divers have unearthed the 330-year-old remains of Britain's richest shipwreck that was laden with a cargo of precious diamond and pearls from India when it sank in 1684.

Recent storms have shifted sands to reveal the 17th century cannons and anchors off the coast of Cornwall. The crew of the merchant ship President survived a miraculous battle with pirates and near starvation - but all-but-two died in a storm within sight of land at notorious Loe Bar, near Porthleven, Cornwall.

Fragments of the ship were first reported by divers 20 years ago, but now underwater explorers from Historic England found never-before-seen cannons and an anchor.

It is believed recent storms has shifted sands, revealing the loot to Cornwall Maritime Archaeology divers David Gibbins and Mark Milburn. Mr Gibbins said: 'The site was first reported by divers twenty years ago and was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

'Mark and I are licensed by Historic England to monitor the wreck, but for many years it has been covered by sand. 'Loe Bar is usually a dangerous place to dive - the entry and exit are treacherous even with the smallest of waves. 'The recent period of calm weather has allowed us to get in for the first time in months.

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From Sources.net

Two men took items worth thousands of pounds from a wrecked Royal Navy warship in the English Channel, a court has heard. John Blight, 58, and Nigel Ingram, 57, are accused of failing to declare artefacts taken from the First World War wreck HMS Hermes.

They are both on trial at Canterbury Crown Court charged with dishonestly failing to disclose items of a wreck to the Receiver of Wreck with intent to make a gain. Prosecutor Ian Hope told the jury on Monday that both defendants were involved in "commercial exploitation of shipwrecks" by selling historical artefacts, often as scrap.

The pair hauled "huge" pieces of wrecks from the seabed using winching equipment on Blight's boat, he added. They "deliberately and dishonestly" failed to declare them to the authorities, as they were legally obligated to do, Mr Hope said.

About 100 artefacts were seized by authorities from Ingram's home, including ships' bells, a torpedo hatch, launch panel, metal ingots and chinaware.

They were allegedly worth a total of about £80,000 and had not been reported to the authorities. Some £16,000 cash was found in a safe at Ingram's home, the court was told. Similar wreck items were also found at Blight's house, Mr Hope said.

A French scuba diver allegedly saw a piece of machinery which "had signs of being dismantled" on the HMS Hermes in September 2014. When he dived the wreck the following day the item was gone, the court was told.

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By Tom Hale - Iflscience

The seafloor of the Caribbean Sea looks like a pirate's idea of heaven.

Just off the coast of Colombia lies a shipwreck loaded with one of the most valuable hauls of treasure ever lost at sea, estimated to be worth up to $17 billion in today’s money. The wreck of the San José, often called the “holy grail of shipwrecks”, was first discovered off the coast of Colombia three years ago.

However, many details of this intriguing find have only just been released by the authorities. The Spanish galleon was sunk by a British squadron during the War of the Spanish Succession on June 8, 1708. Loaded with 62 guns and up to 600 crew, this colossal ship sank along with its vast treasure trove of gold, silver, and emeralds.

The ship was transporting the riches as part of the Spanish king's mission to loot the South American colonies to fund the costly 13-year-long war.

By no surprise, this booty meant that governments, treasure hunters, and researchers had been searching for the wreck for decades, until it was eventually discovered 600 meters (1,968 feet) beneath the waves by the Colombian Navy near Cartagena in 2015.

Over the past few years, the wreckage has since been explored by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) using sonar imaging and an autonomous underwater vehicle called REMUS 6000, which has captured numerous new photographs of the site. REMUS was also used to map and photograph the Titanic wreck site during a 2010 expedition and played a key role in the discovery of the wreck of the Air France 447 passenger plane in 2011.

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By Jon Coates - Express

Artefacts from the original HMS Victory could finally be salvaged from the bottom of the English Channel a decade after the wreck was found. A multi-million pound plan to excavate 50 bronze cannons, as well as the rudder, rigging and wine bottles has been presented to the Government.

The Maritime Heritage Foundation is hoping Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will give his consent to push ahead with the salvage before the wreck – which lies 50 miles south of Plymouth – is further damaged by tides, deep-sea trawlers and looters.

The first-rate warship Victory was launched in 1737 with 100 bronze cannons on its three wooden decks. It was the predecessor to Lord Nelson’s Victory.

More than 1,000 sailors died when the top-heavy flagship, the size of a village, sank in a storm in 1744. It was seen as a national disaster with Britain at war with France.

The wreck was found in 2008 by Odyssey Marine Exploration, a US deep-sea salvage company, which will tomorrow symbolically sign over the £100 reward for finding it to the foundation.

The Admiralty offered this sum back in 1745, which would have been paid in 95 gold guineas.

These coins would now be worth £342,000 but the foundation, which was gifted ownership of the wreck by the Ministry of Defence in 2012, will accept £100 in modern-day currency in the hope it will be allowed to start its excavation work.

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By Lisa Niziolek - Express.co.uk

An 800-year-old ’Made in China' label has revealed the lost history of a shipwreck and its cargo. The ship sank in the Java Sea, off the coast of Indonesia, hundreds of years ago, and the wooden hull disintegrated over time, leaving only a treasure trove of cargo.

The mystery ship had been carrying thousands of ceramics and luxury goods for trade, and they remained on the ocean floor until the 1980s when the wreck was discovered by fishermen.

Since then, archaeologists have been studying artefacts retrieved from the shipwreck to piece together where the ship was from and when it departed.

And findings published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, reveal how the equivalent of a 'Made in China' label on a piece of pottery helped researchers reevaluate when the ship went down and how it fits in with China's history.

Study lead author Doctor Lisa Niziolek, an archaeologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, said: "Initial investigations in the 1990s dated the shipwreck to the mid- to late 13th Century, but we've found evidence that it's probably a century older than that.

"Eight hundred years ago, someone put a label on these ceramics that essentially says 'Made in China' - because of the particular place mentioned, we're able to date this shipwreck better."

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From Fox News

Florida prosecutors have obtained a guilty plea in the theft of a $600,000 gold bar that had been recovered from the 1622 shipwreck of a Spanish galleon off Key West.

As part of the plea deal ex-con Richard Johnson, 41, of Rio Landa, Calif., agreed to testify against another man prosecutors say acted as his lookout when the nearly five-pound artifact was swiped from the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum in Key West in 2010, the Florida Keys News reported Monday.

There appeared little hope of recovering the stolen gold bar. Prosecutors have said in court that it was “likely lost to history.” The gold bar had been locked in a see-through case that allowed visitors to touch and lift it, but not remove it.

Prosecutors said security footage shows Johnson damaging the case, allowing him to steal it.

The gold bar was recovered from the Santa Margarita shipwreck in 1980 by the late Key West shipwreck salvager Mel Fisher and his crew, while searching for the Santa Margarita and Nuestra Senora de Atocha galleons.

The Spanish ships – loaded with gold, silver and jewelry – were two of eight to sink during a 1622 hurricane. According to the museum’s website, a fleet of 28 ships had left Havana bound for Spain, all packed with treasure.

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