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By Philippe Bohstrom - Haaretz

A unique bronze helmet discovered in the deep by marine archaeologists off the Sicilian coast, which they have dated to a sea battle of 241 B.C.E. may have been a precursor of the lion-themed helmets used by Rome's Praetorian Guards, the personal bodyguards of the Roman emperors.

The corps of the Praetorian Guards were established more than two centuries after that battle, by Emperor Augustus. Praetorian helmets also sported a lion-shaped relief, and were sometimes adorned with real lion skin.

The helmet's dating is based, among other things, on pottery jars and other debris discovered on the sea floor at the site. Recovered from the site of the Battle of the Egadi Islands (Aegadian islands), northwest of Sicily, the helmet is a Montefortino, a Celtic style-helmet that had been worn across Europe, also popularly known as a "Roman helmet".

These are easily identified: they look like half a watermelon with a knob on top and cheek flaps down the sides that tie at the chin. But this one had a difference: the lion decoration.

"Montefortinos spread from central Europe, down through Italy then across into Western Europe. Variations were worn by the Roman and mercenaries on both sides of the conflict,” explains Dr. Jeffrey Royal. And indeed, say the archaeologists, all the helmets discovered thus far on the Egadi seabed were of Montefortino type. 

However, the newly discovered helmet has a unique feature: what appears to be a relief of a lion's skin embracing the central cone adorning its peak. Only one Montefortino helmet is known to have a relief on top, that appears to show a stylized bird.

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By Conrad Landin - iNews

The discovery of a Second World War submarine found at the bottom of the North Sea could mean that 58 mariners are finally buried.

Polish explorers believe they have discovered the wreck of HMS Narwhal. It is thought the mine-laying sub was sunk by the Luftwaffe in 1940.

The explorers said 3D radar scans show a vessel matching Narwhal’s profile 140 miles east of the Scottish coast. She appears intact below 308 feet of water.

Diver Thomas Stachura, a member of the Santi Diving group which found the sub, said: “We are very interested in any contact with HMS Narwhal staff relatives as it would be good to hear their stories.” The Poland-based band of deep-sea divers was searching for another sub, the ORP Orzel – meaning Eagle.

This was a Polish navy vessel which joined the British fleet after a legendary escape from Tallinn. She had been held there by the Estonian military at the instruction of the Nazis. But she was lost after a number of successful re-deployments in the North Sea.

The Poles have sought to recover her wreck for the past decade.

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By Natali Pearson - ABC.net

This figure is an astonishing escalation from the handful of wrecks already known to have been damaged or destroyed.

Japan has lost the most wrecks. Other nations affected include Australia, America, the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and Sweden. However, sources close to the issue suggest that the figure may be much higher still, with one Chinese company claiming to have salvaged over 1,000 wrecks in the South China Sea.

It is now a race against time to protect these wrecks and preserve the histories they embody. Museums can play a key role.

For instance, exhibitions such as the Australian National Maritime Museum's current Guardians of Sunda Strait testify to the continuing resonance of these ships' stories even as the sites themselves are destroyed.

This exhibition, which looks at the WWII loss of HMAS Perth and USS Houston, is made more poignant by the fact that HMAS Perth, in particular, has been heavily salvaged in recent years.

The emotional echo of the stories of courage and sacrifice told here — such as that of HMAS Perth veteran Arthur Bancroft, who was shipwrecked not once but twice, and USS Houston's Chaplain Rentz, who insisted a young signalman take his lifejacket after the ship sank — is amplified, not diminished, by the accompanying contemporary tragedy.

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From BBC

The San Francisco was travelling from the Philippines to Mexico when it sank.

The galleon was believed to be carrying valuable trade goods which could be worth millions today, researchers say.

Its location has been a mystery - but the suspected cannonball, thought to be the first artefact ever found from the ship, offers clues about where it sank. Dr Jun Kimura from Tokai University has been leading a team of maritime archaeologists, who have been searching for the San Francisco in waters off Iwawada in Chiba prefecture.

The cannonball was discovered by Ian McCann, an Australian researcher at the University of New England, during a deep dive nearly 40m (131 ft) below the surface.

"We were in dark, murky waters," Dr Kimura told the BBC. "Ian just saw an unusual shape on the sandy bed - he recovered it but then we had to go back to the surface as our air had nearly run out."

He said the team, and archaeological experts they had consulted, were "almost certain" it was a cannonball from the San Francisco, as it was similar to cannonballs found in other Spanish trading ships in the Philippines.

However, they will be carrying out a chemical analysis to confirm this.

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De Francois Savatier - Pour La Science

Un blast pulmonaire, c’est-à-dire la destruction des poumons par une onde de choc, a-t-il tué les huit premiers sous-mariniers de l’histoire ?

C’est en tout cas ce que suggère l’essai qu’a mené l’équipe d’ingénieurs de Rachel Lance, du Centre pour la recherche militaire navale de Panama City, en Floride.

Bien qu'Horace Lawson Hunley (1823-1863), son inventeur, soit mort noyé au cours d’essais de routine, le sous-marin confédéré CSS HL. Hunley, un bâtiment d’une douzaine de mètres de long pour 1,2 mètre de large, fut remis à flot et remis en service.

Construit à partir de la chaudière d’un navire à vapeur, le petit sous-matin était dirigé depuis une tourelle de commande par un membre de l’équipage, pendant que sept autres le propulsaient en actionnant à la main un vilebrequin faisant tourner l’hélice.

Des lests de quille pouvaient être libérés manuellement tandis que, comme dans les sous-marins modernes, des ballasts se remplissaient d’eau afin d'avancer à demi immergé vers la cible.

Le haut de l’étrave était prolongé par un système de poutres de sept mètres de long au bout duquel était suspendu un baril de poudre à canon.

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From steve Ducharme - Nunatsiaq Online

New details about Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition continue to be discovered as archeologists examine two sunken wrecks in Nunavut’s waters.

Following the announcement that the United Kingdom would transfer the shipwrecks to the country that offered them a final Arctic resting place, Parks Canada has released a new trove of underwater images of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus taken this past summer.

New images confirm that the Terror’s anchor remains on board, disproving earlier speculation from 2016 that the ship was “at anchor” when it sank—another important detail as researchers determine the timeline of events in this historic tragedy.

As well, Parks Canada says it has catalogued 64 artifacts from the Erebus, but added that no artifacts were removed from either the Erebus or Terror during the 2017 expedition.

“Through dives, Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology team was able to locate previously unseen artifacts, including wine bottles, on the wreck [of the Erebus],” said Parks Canada communications officer Meaghan Bradley.

The British government’s proposed transfer of the wrecks to Canada would be in exchange for “a small sample of artifacts,” the United Kingdom said in a statement.

What will be contained in that sample of artifacts has yet to be specified but Parks Canada said it “looks forward to working with the United Kingdom in the very near future to finalize the details of the artifact transfer.”

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From Malena Carollo - Tampa Bay Times
 

Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.’s revenue shrunk to nearly nothing in the year’s third quarter.

The deep-sea exploration company reported just $11,854 in revenue, down from $2.9 million the same quarter last year. The company’s previous multi-million-dollar revenue came from a contract with Magellan Offshore Services, for which Odyssey conducted shipwreck expedition services.

The company recorded a net loss of $2.3 million for the third quarter, amounting to 27 cents per share. In the same quarter last year, the company reported a loss of $2.1 million, or 28 cents per share.

Just last quarter, Odyssey brought in $587,000 in revenue from marine surveys and recovery services for Magellan.

The services stem from a 2015 agreement Odyssey entered with Magellan when it sold $21 million in assets from its shipwreck business. That sale was used to wipe out Odyssey’s $11.7 million in debt.

"I’ve stated for the past nine months that although we intended to focus corporate capital on the mineral exploration side of the business, we do not intend to abandon our shipwreck roots," Odyssey CEO Mark Gordon said in a release at the time.

Per the deal, Magellan owns Odyssey’s proprietary shipwreck database and rights to shipwreck projects. Odyssey was the sole provider of shipwreck search and recovery expeditions for Magellan. It also gets just over 21 percent of proceeds from any shipwreck projects.

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By Steve Dent - Engadget

A little over 76 years ago, the British merchant steam ship SS Thistlegorm was sunk by a WW II German bomber off the coast of Egypt, taking nine souls down with it.

It has only been seen in detail by divers, but a new website from the University of Nottingham and Egypt's Alexandria Universities lets you experience the shipwreck via immersive 3D models and 360-degree VR videos.

The underwater photogrammetry study is one of the first to use 360-degree, 3D video. Divers carried 360-degree Kolor GoPro Abyss rigs, each with six individual cameras shooting 4K Ultra HD footage.

To create a 360-degree virtual "guided tour" of the ship (below), the team mounted the Abyss system on the front of an underwater scooter. Each dive captured 50GB of data, for a total of 1.5TB of footage.

"For me, 360 video is a big step forward as it recreates the diving experience," said University of Nottingham project director Dr. Jon Henderson.

"You can get the impression of swimming over it and through the internal parts of the wreck."

To build the 3D model shown at top, the team took over 15,668 images to capture the external model of the ship and seabed, along with 11,164 interior images for the deck, holds, captain's cabin and other areas.

It took 65 days of continuous computer processing to build the five survey models.

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