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From WA Today - Ray Sparvell

Two wrecks discovered over six months during the search for Malaysia flight MH370 are ghostly reminders of the shipping dangers posed by the Indian Ocean.

While those long-fogotten vessels were found quite some way from land, some estimates suggest as many as 1600 vessels – large and small - may have found their final, watery resting places along the WA coast.

Up to 1300 of these, laden with treasure of both the literal and historical variety, lie undiscovered on the ocean floor, in a similar vein to those found in the MH370 search.

Maritime archaeologist Ross Anderson of the WA Museum said the key reasons why it has been such a notorious graveyard for ships was primarily storms, cyclones and shallow reefs along the coast.

"Some vessels were also purposely sunk or abandoned after they had passed their 'use by' date and were no longer seaworthy," he said.

Another key contributor to that extensive catalogue of wrecks was that navigational longitude couldn't be accurately measured until the mid-18th century. Many ships simply failed to turn north for the Dutch East Indies at the right time.

As a result they were wrecked on the WA coast. Mr Anderson said coastal trade vessels carrying passengers, cargo and mail had been important in linking WA settlements before road transport.

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By Joseph Neighbor

Recent advances in deep-water technology have opened vast swaths of the ocean previously unavailable to humans.

Up until the mid-20th century, underwater exploration was limited to a depth of about 200 feet, representing about 5% of the ocean. We now routinely go 20,000 feet and beyond. We’ve even visited the deepest point—the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, some 36,000 feet below the surface—multiple times now.

For the first time, we have access to ocean in its entirety.

And in these abysmal depths lay untold billions in sunken gold, silver, and emeralds, not to mention priceless caches of cultural history thought to be lost forever. How much is all this hidden treasure worth ?

UNESCO estimates there are three million shipwrecks underwater right now. No one has any idea exactly what each was carrying, so any guess as to value is speculation. And a gold coin fetched from a shipwreck and brought to market without context is worth the value of gold—no more, no less.

But a gold coin retrieved and documented with archeological diligence and sold as a historical artifact is worth much, much more.

Our new technological capabilities stem not from revolution—sonar has been around for over a hundred years; submersible vessels since the mid-18th century—but of refining, allowing for deeper dives on sounder information.

Take, for instance, the El Faro, a US cargo ship sank by a hurricane off the Florida Keys last October, taking all 33 sailors aboard with it. After weeks of intense search and rescue, the vessel was located at some 15,000 feet, or about three miles, below the surface—a depth utterly impossible to reach or explore a few decades ago.

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By Kate Hill - ABC News

Diving down into the murky blue waters off Cape Douglas in South Australia's south east one morning last year, Carl von Stanke came across a ghost. 

Last seen in 1855, the Iron Age was a steel-hulled barque on its maiden voyage from England when the crew ran into trouble in heavy seas near the south-east coastline. The ship's crew managed to get to safety, but the brand new vessel sank below the surface.

After 160 years at the bottom of the ocean, all that is left is the rough outline of the ship's wooden hull, buried in the silt and the odd brick left over from its ballast. For the 18-year-old shipwreck hunter, witnessing it for the first time was a moment of delight and reward. With a knack for research and with nearly 10 years of diving experience under his belt, it is not the first wreck the Mount Gambier teenager has discovered — nor will it be his last.

During the last few years, Mr von Stanke has been working with the State Heritage Unit and Adelaide university researchers to rediscover and document the wreck of the Hawthorn, which sank in Bucks Bay in 1949.

He also believes he has found the 1892 wreck of the Lotus, lying near the coast of Port Macdonnell.

"That was accidental," he said, with a grin. According to Mr von Stanke, it is not only time and extensive research, but a combination of good weather and simple luck required to stumble across a ship's remains.

Rattling off names including the Adelaide, Witness, Galatea and the Prince of Wales, Mr von Stanke has a long list of the region's undiscovered shipwrecks firmly imprinted in his mind.

He smiles when asked if he would like to find those ships, many lost at sea in the 19th century. "I wouldn't mind it," he said. "I just enjoy finding things."
 

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By Russ Bynum - Online Athens

Leather boots, the hilts of swords — even a stray earring — were among the nearly 30,000 artifacts recovered this fall from the wreckage of the sunken ironclad Confederate gunship CSS Georgia.

More than half of the haul retrieved during the $14 million government project, however, was of a much more mundane nature: nuts, bolts, washers, bent iron rails and other material that did not shed any new light on the lives of sailors serving aboard the vessel.

Altogether, 16,697 artifacts weighing a total of 135 tons were returned to a watery grave at the bottom of the Savannah River, said Jim Jobling, project manager for the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University, which is tasked with cataloging, cleaning and preserving artifacts from the Civil War shipwreck.

“Anything I considered to be unique, I would say, ‘I want this, I want this,’” Jobling said. “I picked through everything. No unique stuff went back in the river.”

The CSS Georgia was scuttled by its own crew to prevent Gen. William T. Sherman from capturing the massive gunship when his Union troops took Savannah in December 1864. Remains from the Confederate ironclad were salvaged during the summer and fall as part of a $703 million deepening of the Savannah harbor for cargo ships.

Based on sonar images of the murky riverbed, researchers knew they would fine big chunks of the ship’s armor, several cannons and large pieces of its engine.

What they hadn’t expected were the loads of small artifacts their cranes scooped up: Small buttons, hilts of knives and swords, an intact glass bottle, leather boots and an earring among them.

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From The Local

The sunken ship, made almost entirely of wood and measuring 18 metres by 4.5 metres, has lain for years untouched near the coastline of Salento, in the southern tip of the Puglia region, La Stampa reported.

The wreck was found in the Porto Cesareo Marine Protected Area, where human activity is restricted in order to conserve the area's natural resources.

Pasquale De Braco, a fisherman and adviser to the protected area, notified local authorities of its presence, and divers were sent to investigate.

Because of the boat’s proximity to the medieval fishing village of Porto Cesareo, it could “explain significant aspects of the coastline in medieval times and contribute to the historical reconstruction of the area,” said Cristiano Alfonso, an underwater archaeologist from Salento University’s Department of Cultural Heritage, who carried out the initial assessment.

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By Annette Chrysostomou - Cyprus Mail

Authorities will decide what to do with the artefacts confiscated from a cargo ship on December 23 once experts from Lebanon have examined them, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Monday.

The 57 crates with the finds were seized by police after they were tipped off about illegal treasure hunting by the offshore supply ship Odyssey Explorer. It is believed that the ship recovered them from a shipwreck in waters east of the island.

According to Alecos Michaelides, the transport ministry’s permanent secretary, the artefacts found on board the ship date to the 18th century.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting at the presidential residence in Troodos, Kasoulides explained that temporarily confiscating the boat was the correct procedure regardless of whether the artefacts were found in Cyprus’ or Lebanon’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a fact that is still not clear.

He said Cyprus had the obligation to investigate a ship with such a cargo, before granting it permission to depart.

“Whether in one EEZ or the other, the process of the temporary seizure of the ship and its contents will be the same. The Lebanese will come to air their views, we will hear from foreign experts as to where such cargo comes from and what its destination was,” he said.

Asked whether the ship may be handed over to the Lebanese authorities, Kasoulides replied “these are issues that we will have to see because they are preceded by a series of other tests. Depending on the findings, we will act according to the recommendation of the attorney-general.”

Antiquities department director Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou supplied more details on the objects from the shipwreck.

“The artefacts have been recorded. Specifically 588 antiquities have been recorded that were found in 57 plastic crates while some objects were in a small fridge,” she told state radio on Monday.

“We are talking about a large number of historic artefacts. They are not specific to Cyprus. There are porcelain items, wooden items, some organic items, some spores and metal spoons,” she said.

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By Jim Wyss - News Observer

When Colombia announced early this month that it had discovered the wreckage of the San José galleon, brimming with colonial-era bullion and studded with bronze cannons, President Juan Manuel Santos hailed it as an “enormous” find for “all of humanity.”

The 300-year-old shipwreck had been identified, he said, thanks to the work of world-class scientists, Colombia’s navy, and a mysterious, bearded researcher who Santos said “looks like Hemingway” and who gave him a previously unknown map.

But a U.S.-based salvage outfit, called Sea Search Armada, has a more prosaic explanation for the discovery: It claims it found the San José more than 30 years ago and provided the coordinates to the government in 1982.

In 2007, after a lengthy legal battle, Colombia’s Supreme Court reaffirmed the rights of SSA, based in Bellevue, Wash., to half of the riches on the ship not considered national patrimony.

The government insists it found the San José independently and at a previously uncharted site. But as far as SSA is concerned, the “rediscovery” is a backdoor attempt to deny them their share.

Danilo Devis Pereira, the company’s longtime lawyer in Colombia, said the administration’s Dec. 5 announcement defies logic. “Either there are two San José galleons or they found the same one a second time,” he said from his office in the coastal city of Barranquilla.

“If it’s true that they found the shipwreck in another area then I’ll rip my arm off.”

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From The Pipeline

“Odyssey Marine Exploration has been conducting a deep -ocean archaeological project in the Eastern Mediterranean under contract. The project has been conducted legally and Odyssey has not conducted any operations in Cypriot waters.

Any statements to the contrary are false. The shipwreck on which the company has been conducting an archaeological operation appears to be a cargo vessel dating to the early to mid-17th century (1600-1650) with a primary cargo of agricultural goods, porcelain, glazed pottery and other trade cargo.

The site is not identifiable by name nor country of origin. The project design anticipates full publication of the results of the operation and exhibit of the recovered artifacts.

We understand the actions taken by the local authorities were based on a false report. Odyssey is fully cooperating and the company is confident the authorities will quickly confirm that Odyssey was neither working in Cypriot waters nor recovering ancient artefacts.

On this project, Odyssey is subject to a non-disclosure agreement under the contract and cannot provide further details.”

Cypriot Police spokesperson Andreas Angelides tell the Cyprus Mail ancient artefacts seized from the Odyssey Marine Exploration vessel Odyssey Explorer are not unique to Cyprus. However Mr Angelides confirmed the origin of the objects was still under investigation as was whether they were on board Odyssey Explorer legally.

“We continue investigations. If the artefacts are not Cypriot and if it is proven they were not found within Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the Republic is obliged to protect antiquities under a number of treaties, and procedures will be followed depending on the findings,”

Mr Angelides added “The items have been transferred to a storage facility at the customs office where they will be guarded until investigations are completed.”

Confirming that lawyers for parties with an interest in the case were monitoring the investigation Mr Angelides concluded.

“What we need to stress is that the matter is being carefully handled.” Mr Angelides comments suggest that the material seized does not include the distinctive Cypriot ceramics of the kind that could have been aboard the bark Napreid when she sank in 1872.
 

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