Agenda
Latest video
Need to Translate ?
Site Info
© 2010 oceantreasures.org
All Rights Reserved
News Feed
Tag Cloud
Latest Review
WET & HOT NEWS ! > Carolina
Confederate sub has clues to last mission
The 08 Aug. 2010 at 07:44Museum news
From the Augusta Chronicle
A decade after the raising of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley off the South Carolina coast, the cause of the sinking of the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship remains a mystery. But scientists are edging closer.
On Friday, scientists announced one of the final steps that should help explain what happened after the hand-cranked sub and its eight-man crew rammed a spar with a powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston in February 1864.
Early next year the 23-ton sub will be delicately rotated to an upright position, exposing sections of hull not examined in almost 150 years.
When the Hunley sank, it was buried in sand listing 45 degrees to starboard. It was kept that way as slings were put beneath it and it was raised and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston a decade ago.
Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the raising of the Hunley, discovered five years earlier by shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler.
As thousands watched from boats and the shoreline, the Hunley was brought from the depths and back to the lab by barge. Thousands turned out again in April 2004 when the crew was buried in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.Blackbeard's secrets travel to Onslow libraries
The 17 Jul. 2010 at 06:33Famous WrecksBy Jannette Pippin - EncToday
Whether it’s a little bit of gold dust or a massive 8-foot cannon, recovering artifacts from the shipwreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge and conserving each piece in the lab is only part of the excitement for conservator Wendy Welsh.
Welsh loves sharing the story of each piece of history linked to the shipwreck presumed to be the flagship of pirate Blackbeard and explaining how the QAR team has worked to recover and preserve artifacts that have been resting nearly 300 years on the sea floor.
“I love talking to folks, and I like to get people as excited about (the project) as I am,” she said. “It’s such a North Carolina treasure.”
And for Welsh, who grew up in Onslow County and graduated from Swansboro High School, there’s extra excitement in being able to share her stories with a home crowd.
Welsh will be visiting each of the four libraries in Onslow County as part of the “Make Waves at the Library” Summer Reading Program, coordinated by the State Library of North Carolina, according a N.C. Department of Cultural Resources news release. She will speak at the main library in Jacksonville Saturday at 2 p.m.; Sneads Ferry on Wednesday at 10 a.m.; Swansboro branch on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.; and Richlands branch on Thursday at 1 p.m.
Welsh said the talks will be age-appropriate for youth audiences but also interesting to adults. She’ll give a little history about Blackbeard and background on underwater archaeology and the recovery of artifacts from the shipwreck site. She’ll also talk about the conservation process.
“A lot of people are surprised by what we have to do and how long it takes,” said Welsh of the conservation process that can take years to complete.Shipwreck: Outdoor Laboratory for Learning
The 29 Jun. 2010 at 15:17Underwater Archeology
By Bob Janiskee - National Park Traveler
The remains of the shipwrecked schooner Laura Barnes will eventually end up in the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. Meanwhile, the excavation and preservation processes provide important learning opportunities for a group of budding archaeologists.
North Carolina's Outer Banks region has been dubbed "the Graveyard of the Atlantic" because thousands of ships have wrecked there, falling victim to the treacherous shoals, tricky currents, and powerful storms that make this one of the most dangerous coasts in the world. Not surprisingly, shipwrecks are among the visitor attractions at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
To see some of these wrecks, you don't have to don scuba gear or even get in a boat. In the surf off Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, for example, you can see the exposed boiler and smokestack of the steamship Oriental, a Federal transport that ran aground in 1862.
On the north side of Oregon Inlet, low tide exposes the remains of the Lois Joyce, a 100-foot trawler that foundered during a December 1981 storm. On the beach 14 miles south of the Oregon Inlet Campground and about 25 miles north of Buxton is a keel-up wooden shipwreck, all that remains of the Margaret A. Spencer (wreck date unknown). There are plenty of other wrecks along the beach and in the surf, some of them exposed only briefly during unusually low tides or after storms have heavily eroded the beaches.
One of the best known of the Cape Hatteras shipwrecks is the Laura A. Barnes, a four-masted schooner that foundered when it came ashore on Bodie Island during a heavy fog on the night of June 1, 1921. After being pushed around by wind and waves, the wreck settled into the sand of Coquina Beach (about a mile south of its original location) during the 1970s.N.C. shipwreck deemed older than originally estimated
The 03 Jun. 2010 at 19:01Parks & Protected SitesBy Jeff Hampton - The Virginian-Pilot
A shipwreck exposed in December by winter storms could date back to shipping between England and Jamestown in the early 1600s.
Possibly the oldest known wreck on the North Carolina coast, the timbers and construction of the ship are very similar to the Sea Venture, the 1609 flagship of a set of vessels carrying people and supplies to Jamestown, said Bradley A. Rodgers, a professor of archaeology and conservation in the maritime studies program at East Carolina University.
Remains of the Sea Venture rest off the Bermuda coast.
North Carolina underwater archaeologists and maritime history experts and students from ECU have documented, sampled and measured the 12-ton remains since they were towed from the surf to rest on a lot near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.
Plans are to transport them 90 miles down N.C. 12 to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras for long term display.Students dive into mystery of Civil War submarine Hunley
The 11 May. 2010 at 04:56Famous WrecksBy Betty Klinck - USA Today
Part of the story is solid. Part of it remains a mystery.
What is certain is that on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina to become the first submarine to sink a ship during combat.
Then the Hunley itself literally sank into oblivion when it went down with its crew of eight. The resting place of the Civil War submarine, which had remained a mystery for more than century, finally was discovered in 1995 off Sullivan's Island.
But before the submarine sank, the story goes, it flashed a blue light to Confederate soldiers on the shore to signal success.
But as this part of the story comes from second- and third-hand accounts, it "gets a little fuzzy," says archaeologist Mike Scafuri of the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, where the recovered Hunley is on display.
Nobody knows whether the signal was supposed to be made directly after the attack or as the Hunley approached shore, Scafuri says. And another question remains: Could a lantern have produced a strong enough light for the soldiers to see?
To try to answer the question of the mysterious blue signal, 12 students at Hamburg (Pa.) Area High School are building three replicas of the submarine's lantern in the school's metal shop.
Retired history teacher Ned Eisenhuth and retired shop teacher Fred Lutkis began the project after expressing interest last summer in the history of the Hunley to the Lasch Conservation Center. Before they retired, Eisenhuth and Lutkis had worked with students at Minersville (Pa.) Area High School to create replicas of a Viking burial sled and a medieval cart.
These will be the only true replicas of the Hunley's lantern, Eisenhuth says. Next month, the school plans to donate the best replica of the lantern to the conservation center, which has been studying the submarine since it was excavated in 2000 with help from the Friends of the Hunley Organization.Old Corolla shipwreck to go to Hatteras museum
The 30 Apr. 2010 at 07:30Museum news
By Jeff Hampton - The Virginian-Pilot
Remains of a ship nearly 400 years old salvaged from the surf early this month will be moved from Corolla, N.C., to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras.
The wreck now sits exposed to the elements under an oak tree near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. State and local officials agreed it would be better off out of the weather. Typically, sand and salt water protect old wrecks but once up on land and dried, they tend to deteriorate.
Plans are to move the wreck about 90 miles south the museum within the next few weeks, said Joe Newberry, spokesman for the North Carolina Maritime Museums.
Held together with wooden pegs, the skeleton of large timbers, 17 feet wide and 37 feet long and weighing 12 tons, could be the oldest ship wreck ever discovered on the North Carolina coast.
State underwater archaeologists plan to study the wreck further to document its construction and try to identify the ship. When the remains appeared years ago deep in the sand near the Currituck lighthouse, local beachcombers found coins and other artifacts around them.
Severe winter storms late last year fully exposed the timbers and grabbed the attention of state scientists. In the last few months, surf and tide moved the wreck two miles south and washed away some of its pieces.Ghost ship may be older than originally thought
The 28 Apr. 2010 at 18:54Parks & Protected Sites
By Sandy Semans - Sentinel
While State archaeologists try to determine the logistics needed to move the remains of a shipwreck from Corolla to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, the identity of the colonial-period vessel seems more uncertain.
Initially, it was thought that the pegged hull could be what is left of the HMS Swift, which went aground off of Virginia in 1698 and later ended up coming ashore in Currituck, where it was scavenged by locals. If that was found to be the case, it would make it the oldest shipwreck ever recovered in North Carolina.
But, according to Richard Lawrence, deputy State archaeologist in the Underwater Archaeology Branch, that's beginning to seem an unlikely possibility. The ship actually may be older the the Swift.
"After the first trip when we looked at it, we thought the Swift was a possible candidate but the more we have learned about the Swift, the less likely that seems," said Lawrence. "This seems to be larger, and the artifacts seem to pre-date the Swift. We are not seeing any artifact from 1690s, but, instead, more like the 1640s.
"We might be able to look at the construction techniques and come up with a time frame, but there are no physical tests we can do such as carbon dating."
Lawrence said that they will continue to look for candidates but they have searched the North Carolina database and none match. They might look at ships reported as sinking off Virginia to find a better match.Shipwreck may be oldest off North Carolina coast
The 25 Mar. 2010 at 07:56Underwater ArcheologyFrom Reflector.com
Small waves lapped over Nathan Henry's rubber boots as the underwater archaeologist stood among the stubby hull timbers of what could be the oldest shipwreck on the North Carolina coast.
It was low tide and the surf was receding in Corolla. A cold north wind penetrated even a hoodie pulled over a knit cap. Henry, a curator with the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch, had come here Tuesday with Richard Lawrence, the agency director, to further document the 400-year-old wreck before it disappears.
"It wants to go south," Henry said.
Since storms struck the Outer Banks in November and December, the shipwreck has drifted more than two miles, from the beach across from the Corolla lighthouse to the surf due east of Sailfish Street in the Whalehead Beach neighborhood.
During its rough journey, floor boards and the keel have come off and disappeared. The wreck could fall apart and wash out to sea or settle completely under the sand.
Since the wreck was fully exposed in December, Henry and Lawrence have photographed, measured and studied the timbers and tracked its movements. This wreck is probably older than the famous remains of Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, that sank in 1718 near Beaufort, Lawrence said.
Wooden pegs rather than iron spikes held this ship together, like other English ships at the time, Henry said. The wood appears to be live oak, an indicator it could have come from an early Virginia colony, he said. About 60 or 70 feet long, the ship could have been a military or merchant vessel with a sailing crew of about 10, Henry said. Both types carried guns.
Dare County residents and avid beachcombers Ray Midgett and Roger Harris, also at the site Tuesday, found the wreck years ago nearly buried on the beach across from the Corolla lighthouse.N.C. shipwreck may be oldest found
The 18 Mar. 2010 at 05:30Underwater ArcheologyFrom UPI.com
Winter storms on the Outer Banks have uncovered the remains of what may be the oldest shipwreck on the North Carolina coast, experts say.
Investigators from the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch came to Corolla, N.C., to document the estimated 400-year-old wreck before it disappears, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday. The wreck has already drifted two miles since storms uncovered it in December.
"It wants to go south," Branch curator Nathan Henry said.
During its movement floorboards and the keel of the 70-foot ship have come loose and disappeared, and the wreck is in danger of completely falling apart, the Virginian-Pilot said. Some local residents, including the avid beachcomber who first discovered the wreck, want it raised from the sands and preserved.
"It's going to go to pieces," Ray Midgett said. "I would love to see them save it."
Experts estimate the wreck is even older than the famous remains of Blackbeard's ship the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sank in 1718 near Beaufort, S.C.Faculty Senate awards Harrison research grants
The 27 Feb. 2010 at 05:12MiscellaneousFrom David Replogle - Cavalier Daily
The University awarded Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards to 35 students this year, studying topics as diverse as investigating shipwrecks off the Carolina coast to researching edible rain gardens.
The awards provide grants to support independent study projects during the coming summer. Students receive up to $3,000 to fund their projects, with their faculty mentors awarded a separate $1,000 reward.
This year’s group of scholars first submitted detailed plans to the Faculty Senate for approval. From there, the Senate cut nearly half of the number of hopefuls, awarding 35 grants from 62 applicants. Additionally, two students were given grants underwritten by donors outside of the University.
Students were chosen based on a variety of variety of factors, said Lucy Russell, director of the Center for Undergraduate Excellence. These factors included how well the applicant defined their research questions, the proposed methodologies and whether the student appropriately prepared to conduct the research effectively, she said.
She added that the Senate receives a variety of proposals each year, which is what allows for such a wide spectrum of final projects.
“We do a great deal of advertising to different students, ensuring variety in the proposals,” said Pamela Norris, chair of the Faculty Senate’s Research and Scholarship Committee. “Applicants are funded from nearly every major and every year.”
Third-year College student Michelle Rehme, an environmental thought and practice major, is using the grant to explore agricultural economics through the lens of Charlottesville’s own Morven Farm.
“My project is studying what makes an American medium-sized farm economically viable in today’s world, looking specifically at our region in Virginia,” Rehme said.
In 1796, Thomas Jefferson bought the acreage now encompassing Morven Farm, and Rehme is answering many of the same questions that the founder of the University once did.