HOT NEWS !

By Matt Cunningham


WWII memorabilia believed to have been taken from a protected Darwin shipwreck is being offered for sale on the Internet. 

A Melbourne vendor is asking more than $200 for the World War II ship compass, which he believes came from either the USS Peary or the USAT Meigs.

But his bid for quick cash has hit a snag, with the NT Government asking Internet auction site eBay to remove the item until it authenticity can be verified.

The vendor claims he bought the compass from an antique dealer in Darwin eight years ago.

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By Francis Pope


The dark waters of the Thames estuary are the last resting place of a secret sunken navy - from 17th-century galleons to Second World War victims of the Luftwaffe.

Now the London Port Authority is deepening shipping channels to allow some of the world's biggest boats to approach the capital. As a result of the dredging, historic shipwrecks are again seeing the light of day.

The HMS London should have been an auspicious ship; she was one of the first vessels of Charles II's reformed Royal Navy, having been part of the fleet that brought him back from exile in the Netherlands in 1660 to end the anarchy that had reigned since Cromwell's death two years previously. Yet she was anything but lucky. 

When she was lost in 1665 all was peaceful: we were between squabbles with the Dutch. The London was sailing up the river with 300 men and noblemen on board - and 14 tons of gunpowder.

Either traders had sold the ship cheap, unstable powder, or a flame - from a candle carried by a crew member - blew up the warship.

From This Is London


The largest-ever post-war salvage operation on the Thames has discovered seven shipwrecks up to 350 years old. 

They include a warship that was blown up in 1665, a yacht converted to a Second World War gunboat, and a mystery wreck in which divers found a personalised gin bottle.

The vessels, in the Thames Estuary, are just some of about 1,100 ships which went down in the whole of the river.

The salvage by Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority, which regulates the river, was both historical and practical.

Jagged metal from the wrecks which stick out of the mud, silt, and gravel act as a 'can-opener' that can split apart vessels, especially large container ships which can skim within half a metre of the riverbed.

The operation was filmed for the BBC and took four months, using a dozen divers who used 3D survey equipment to locate the wrecks in near-zero visibility.


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By Bruce Smith


An underwater archaeologist who claims he found the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley said Monday he will keep fighting for official credit for the discovery, despite a lawsuit over the matter being dismissed.

Lee Spence claimed he found the Hunley in 1970 when a fishing net snagged on the submarine's wreckage and says he has the documents to prove it.

But the state gave shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler credit, saying he located the sub off Sullivans Island near Charleston in 1995.

Cussler's National Underwater and Marine Agency sued Spence, arguing that his claim of finding the submarine damaged the agency's reputation. Cussler's agency still believes its allegations are correct but "does not desire to pursue litigation against a defendant who, in turn, has professed such litigation has caused him mental trauma resulting in institutionalization and in assorted physical aliments," according to court documents filed Friday.

By Dorie Turner


The brightly lit room looks like any nondescript warehouse packed with boxes and dusty shelves, but inside this plain brick building is nearly $200 million worth of treasures from the world’s most famous shipwreck.

The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912.

When the fine china, brine-soaked shoes and water-stained sheet music aren’t on tour around the world, they have a permanent home in Atlanta, the headquarters of Premier Exhibitions, which has guardianship over the artifacts.

By James P. Delgado


Can modern science find an explorer and his two ships 160 years since they went missing in the Canadian Arctic ?

Many Canadians are asking that question since last week's announcement that Parks Canada, working in tandem with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canada Hydrographic Service, was launching a new, and hopefully final, search for Captain Sir John Franklin's ships Erebus and Terror.

In 1848, the British Admiralty launched the first of 32 separate expeditions to search for Franklin. Those searches spanned the vastness of the Canadian Arctic archipelago and more than a decade.

What they found were traces of the two ships -- personal belongings, scattered equipment, a trail of skeletons, one face-down on the tundra with the scraps of his notebook in a frozen pocket revealing his last plaintive entry, "Oh death, where is thy sting?"

However, no ships. Encounters with the Inuit revealed heartbreaking stories of abandoned ships, of men struggling to head south, of starvation, madness, and cannibalism.

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By Schuyler Kropf


Clive Cussler says he doesn't need another court victory to prove he found the Hunley submarine, so on Friday he dropped his seven-year legal battle with a South Carolina man over the claim. 

Lawyers for the author and shipwreck hunter filed a motion to dismiss Cussler's lawsuit against rival Edward Lee Spence, a man who claims he found the Confederate submarine several years earlier. 

Cussler filed the suit in 2001 to stop Spence from telling people the adventure writer had jumped his claim. Spence filed a countersuit, which was thrown out of court last year.

From The Whig


What a glorious discovery has been made of the remains of HMS Montreal ("New shipwreck discoveries hearken back to War of 1812," Aug. 19).

This 22-gun sloop was launched from the Kingston naval dockyard (now home to Royal Military College) in April 1813.

Initially named after the captain general and governor-in-chief of British North America, Sir George Prevost, it was quickly renamed HMS Wolfe and became post ship for the newly arrived commander of the Lake Ontario naval squadron, Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo. It was crewed by some 130 ratings. 

The Wolfe played a key role on Lake Ontario throughout 1813. It was Yeo's flagship during the raid on Sacket's Harbor in May 1813 and fought in the four actions between the British and American squadrons during August and September 1814. 

Perhaps the most famous of these encounters was the "Burlington Races" of Sept. 28, 1813, in which the Wolfe lost its mizen topmast to American fire and was only saved from destruction through a bold move by Commander William Mulcaster on the Royal George, who placed his ship between the Wolfe and the American flagship, allowing Yeo to race away from the danger.

For the next three hours, the American squadron chased the British, who found refuge in Burlington Bay. Within a day, the Wolfe was restored to fighting trim and Yeo was back on the lake. 

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