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From Blueflipper


With the opening of dive sites of once forbidden areas to divers, Greece is becoming a haven for looters.

When it was first proposed, it seemed like a good idea: open up the Greek seas to divers and create a paradise for tourists underwater.

Those who backed the law never thought of it as a windfall for looters, nor did it occur to them that it might put the acquisition policies of museums under further scrutiny.

But the Greek parliament's unprecedented step last month to allow divers access to the once forbidden coastline has raised fears that archaeological riches preserved in an untouched world will be taken by ruthless thieves.

"There are treasures in our seas," says Dimitris Athanasoulis, president of the Archaeologists' Association. "This will open the floodgates to smugglers.

It'll serve to encourage them at a time when evidence shows the trafficking of antiquities is on the rise."

By Ali Nassor


Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a Russian battleship designed by Peter the Great in Amsterdam and which played a key role in a 1719 victory over Sweden in a war on the Baltic Sea.

A team including professional archeologists, divers, a film-producer and a cameraman located the 54-gun “Portsmouth” battleship at a 12-meter depth in the waters off Kotlin Island near Kronshtadt last week during final stages of a three-month mission as part of the “Secrets of the Sunken Ships” project.

The team was back on dry land on Tuesday.

We are currently lobbying for an immediate raising of the wrecks to serve both as a museum and as objects for research,” said Andrei Lukoshkov, head of the research team, adding that the discovery is unique because the ship, which was designed by Peter the Great, disappeared with another ship, the “London,” on the way back to the port of Kronshtadt.


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By Matt Jackson 

The wreck of the first British-made submarine is in Dire straits at the bottom of the Solent, according to a new report.

English Heritage says the A1, built in 1903 and sunk twice with the loss of 11 submariners by 1911, is in 'significant decline'.

Divers have been blamed for speeding up the natural decay of the historic vessel by visiting the site and taking items away with them.

The English Heritage 'At Risk Register' also lists Gosport Railway Station and nine other sites in the area as badly needing help to prevent them falling into disrepair.

The Vickers-built A1 lies two miles south of Chichester harbour and is in such a poor condition naval experts fear for her future.

George Malcolmson, archivist at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, said: 'It stands to reason that if the wreck is lying under the sea it will rust, but there have been other problems with her.

By All Hungary News

Archaeologists searching the Danube for important shipwrecks have found what they believe may be the vessel which carried Queen Mary of Hungary (Mary of Habsburg) to Vienna after the disastrous Battle of Mohács against the Ottoman Turks in 1526.

According to stop.hu, the 15-meter-long wreck, which is buried in gravel and mud in the Danube "bend" north of Budapest, may contain gold and jewelry, and the team which located it is currently looking for sponsors to excavate the site.

Attila J. Tóth, associate of the National Office of Cultural Heritage, said that a team of 30 divers started scouring the Danube Bend for historical relics buried under the mud a few months ago.

Initial funding of $10,000 (€6,600) was provided by the American Hungaria Nostra Foundation, which allowed for the purchase of boats and a sonar device.

To excavate the wreck, the team estimates it needs a further Ft 5 million (€21,000).

While sponsors could benefit from an association with the enterprise, they should not expect any treasure, as any relics found would belong to the Hungarian state.

By Tim Chitwood


Columbus' National Civil War Naval Museum slowly is recapturing the USS Water Witch, the Union warship Confederate commandos seized on June 3, 1864, in Georgia's Ossabow Sound.

The museum is building a replica from the waterline up. And when the ship's up and running in place, paddlewheels will spin, smoke will drift from its stack and sails will blow in the wind.

Built in 1851, the Water Witch had both sails and steam -- masts about 90 feet tall, a 5-foot-wide smokestack rising 40 feet from a deck that at its widest spanned 24 feet between twin paddlewheels.

Each side paddlewheel was 6 feet wide and in a wheelbox 25 feet tall. The ship was 160 feet long.

It's now taking shape again outside the 1002 Victory Drive museum. The masts and smokestack are up; the hull is framed out and filling in; the paddlewheels await installation.

By Kay Dibben


Two men who convinced Australians to invest $600,000 in an unregistered scheme to recover sunken treasure are now behind bars.

One, Christopher Paul Woolgrove, had been convicted over another fundraising venture to locate a Spanish galleon years earlier.

He was permanently banned in 1995 from acting as an investment adviser.

Investors in the latest scheme, Hatcher Unit Trust, were promised returns of 1365 per cent if treasures from three shipwrecked vessels in Asian waters were salvaged.

Brisbane District Court last month heard 130 Australians invested a total of $US590,490 ($614,140) in Hatcher Unit Trust, and none of the money had been recovered.

"Many investors were easily lured by the prospect of substantial returns," Judge Tony Rafter said, when he jailed Woolgrove and Lawrence James Phillips.

Potential investors were told "15 per cent of all gold found by man over the past 6000 years is lying at the bottom of the ocean".

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By Graham Tibbetts

Marine archaeologists who explored the 600-ton vessel off Dorset believe it may have been as luxurious in its day as the Titanic.

Among the treasures they have retrieved is a statue of a merman whose eye sockets would have held precious stones.

The 4.5ft wooden figure was one of a number of statues that would have adorned the stern of the vessel.

At 130ft long, the oak-timbered ship would have been one of the largest of its kind on the seas when it sank in around 1620.

Its identity is not known but it is likely to be British or Dutch.

The wreck was found half a mile from the Sandbanks peninsula during recent dredging work of Poole harbour.

Marine archaeologists have carried out a series of dives on the vessel, which lies in 23ft of water.

By Richard Giedroyc


The Solomon Islands aren't the only place making numismatic news recently regarding odd and primitive money.

A yet to be identified 15th or 16th century shipwreck encountered off the coast of Namibia in Africa was apparently carrying both coins and odd and curious items meant for barter with the local inhabitants.

Archaeologist Dieter Noli is associated with the excavation being undertaken by Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint venture of the government of Namibia and the De Beers diamond mining company from South Africa that discovered the wreck by accident.

Noli was quoted in a May 1 Associated Press article as saying, "Sending a ship toward Africa in that period [14th to 15th centuries], that was venture capital in the extreme."

Namdeb Diamond Corporation had been clearing and draining an area of seabed in search of diamonds when they unexpectedly uncovered what was left of the unidentified ship.

At first the team found some partial sphere-shaped ingots that they were unable to identify. This was followed by finding cannons, which were much more easily recognized.

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