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From RIA - Novosti


As Russian scientists descend in mini-submarines to previously un-explored parts of Baikal, the world's deepest lake, national media have pointed to possible treasure finds including Imperial Russian gold and silver.

The expedition in the vast Siberian lake, which started on Tuesday and will run for two years, is focused on studies of the lake's unique ecosystem, but researchers have also said they will be looking for 'archeological artifacts'. 

Among the many 'artifacts' rumored to have disappeared into Baikal's depths are several sacks of gold, taken from the Imperial Russian reserves and carried across the ice by Admiral Alexander Kolchak's White forces fleeing the Bolsheviks in the winter of 1919-1920.

Some of the officers reportedly froze on the ice in 60 degrees of frost, and the treasure sunk when the thaws came. 

Although the Kolchak story is unproven, several other cases of lost treasure have been documented.
 

From the Times Online


Researchers believe the vessel's fate was sealed when its mainly Spanish crew could not understand the orders of their officers.

For generations, the reason why the Mary Rose sank during a battle with a French invasion force has divided historians.

Now a new theory can be added to the list of suggestions about why the pride of Henry VIII's navy was lost: two thirds of its crew were foreigners who failed to understand orders.

Forensic science examinations of the 16th-century crew's skulls have revealed that the majority were not British but southern European, most probably Spanish.

Researchers believe that the vessel's fate was sealed because of their inability to understand their officers' orders when it began taking on water in the Solent, off Portsmouth, in 1545.

By Paul Wallis


A device for computing the calendar called the Antikythera Mechanism was found on an ancient shipwreck over 100 years ago.

Reexamined using modern technology, an advanced mechanism has been deciphered and its functions reconstructed. One look at this mechanism is impressive.

It becomes more so, as you discover it uses gears and dials, a whole new class of technology, and complexity, in the world of 100 B.C.

Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse and died in 212 B.C., invented a planetarium calculating motions of the Moon and the known planets and wrote a lost manuscript on astronomical mechanisms.

Some evidence had previously linked the complex device of gears and dials to the island of Rhodes and the astronomer Hipparchos, who had made a study of irregularities in the Moon’s orbital course.


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By Colin Barras


An estimated 1 million ancient shipwrecks litter the seafloor around the globe, proving a tempting target for looters and a nightmare for archaeologists and governments to protect.

But that could be set to change with the advent of a submarine alarm that can identify the telltale sounds of approaching treasure hunters in the hubbub of the oceans.

Recent technological advances have been a boon for underwater research – improvements in GPS navigation, sonar and diving gear mean ancient shipwrecks are more accessible than ever.

But archaeologists worry that the same advances will also benefit looters seeking to make a quick profit.

Tuncay Akal of the TÜBİTAK - Marmara Research Center in Kocaeli, Turkey, is a member of an international research team designing an early warning system that can identify plunderers by their acoustic signature and alert officials of their presence.


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From The Herald


Divers are to launch a mission to find two ships which have lain undisturbed at the bottom of Plymouth Sound for centuries.

University of Plymouth staff and students are to hunt for the remains of the Paulsgrove, which sank in 1637, and the Dutton, which was lost in 1796.

The Dutton's sinking became part of maritime folklore when a passer-by helped save nearly 500 people on board in a dramatic rescue which became the subject of a couple of celebrated paintings.

The English East Indiamen Paulsgrove sunk with its cargo of spices and silks from Indonesia.

The team of seven students and four staff will spend a week from Monday exploring an area off Plymouth Hoe and to the east of Drake's Island in an attempt to locate the remains of two wrecks.

Project leader Martin Read, who lectures in the university's School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences, said: “Previous work by students from the university using acoustic survey equipment has located several potential targets which might be parts of shipwrecks.

The Dutton was carrying troops to the West Indies and was seeking shelter from a storm in the Cattewater when she hit Mount Batten reef and crashed into Plymouth Hoe.


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From The Press and Journal

A hi-tech underwater camera designed by an Aberdeenshire firm is being used to examine an ancient Roman shipwreck off Sicily.

Scientists from the marine research group RPM Nautical Foundation have had a major breakthrough thanks to the specialist equipment from Tritech International, based at Westhill, near Aberdeen.

The company, formed nearly 20 years ago, specialises in acoustic sensors and other underwater equipment.

Experts believe the Roman vessel was headed for Italy from north Africa in the 3rd century AD when she foundered in the Egadi Islands off the north-west coast of Sicily.

The wreck is thought to have been a merchant ship carrying foods such as olive oil and grain, with building materials.

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From Ansa

An ancient Greek trading ship that had lain on the seabed off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily for 2,500 years was brought to the surface for the first time.

The ancient Greek vessel is 21 metres long and 6.5 metres wide, making it by far the biggest of its kind ever discovered.

Four Greek vessels found off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and France are at most 15 metres long.

The one in Gela is also of particular value for scholars who will be able to delve into Greek naval construction techniques thanks to the amazing find of still-intact hemp ropes used to 'sew' together the pine planks in its hull - a technique described in Homer's Iliad.

''Gela's ancient ship is the patrimony not only of Sicily but of all humanity,'' said Sicily's regional councillor for culture Antonello Antinoro, who watched Monday's operation.

The campaign to bring the vessel to the surface began shortly after two scuba divers located it by chance in 1988.

From Sail-World


The Sea Stallion Project comprises a unique reproduction of a actual Viking Ship - a long boat - combined with a reproduction of the actual voyages of the original Viking Ship called the Sea Stallion.

She is manned by some 120 volunteers together with staff of the owning museum, the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. She left Dublin on 29th June, and is expected to arrive Roskilde on the 9th August 

Here Lars Normann speaks to two young hands who are currently sailing on the Sea Stallion as she makes her historic way from Dublin to Roskilde, and find that they agree at least about one thing: that spending six weeks on board the Sea Stallion is meaningful: 

Their backgrounds for sailing with the Sea Stallion are very different. Sidsel Romme Nygaard is 21 years old and starts studying political science after the voyage.

She has sailed in Viking ships all her life because her parents have been involved in the guild for one of the Viking Ship Museum's reconstructions, Roar Ege.

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