HOT NEWS !

By Darrin Lee Unser - Coin News

Legal proceedings continue in the contentious battle over sunken coin treasure as a Court of Appeals has granted a request for oral arguments at the behest of a salvage company.

Odyssey Marine Exploration was recently notified that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit would hear oral arguments on the case that is currently pending before it between Odyssey and the country of Spain. At issue is the ownership of over 500,000 Colonial-period silver coins that were recovered from the bottom of the ocean by Odyssey.

Given a project name of "Black Swan" by Odyssey, the initial recovery took place in 2007 off the coast of Gibraltar and proved to be controversial almost immediately. Within weeks of 17-tons of coin treasure being sent to Florida by Odyssey, Spain seized vessels belonging to the company, forcing them to port in order to conduct searches to protect against a possible "offence against Spanish historic heritage."

Furthering the matter, Spain filed claims in the United States contending that the treasure was from a Spanish ship known as the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes which had sunk in Spanish waters, and therefore the property of Spain. Spain has since conceded that the shipwreck was not in Spanish waters, but still lays claim to its contents.

Odyssey, however, affirms that even if the Black Swan treasure was from the Mercedes, which it says can not be confirmed as there no vessel and the findings were discovered directly on the sea floor, the ship was on a commercial voyage. It states that at the time of the sinking in 1804, the Mercedes was transporting private passengers, mail and other cargo rendering it a private vessel. As such, its commericial purpose legally voids Spain’s claim under settled international law and conventions.

Read more...

Photo Kathleen Galligan

By Eric Lawrence - Detroit Free Press

Great Lakes explorer Frederick Shannon retired from diving about five years ago because of declining health.

The 64-year-old former police officer, who lives near Flint, Mich., is best known for his explorations of the wreckage of the sunken freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald. He spent about $75,000 to lease a two-man submarine to make seven dives into Lake Superior in July 1994.

Many family members of the 29 crewmembers lost when the ship sank on Nov. 10, 1975, were unhappy when he ventured to the wreck site. They were even more upset when he announced that a body could be seen and that he intended to release photos showing the discovery.

Shannon further angered many family members in 1995 when he sued to prevent the removal of the Fitzgerald's bell so it could be placed on display at the shipwreck museum in Whitefish Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He lost the suit. 

As the 35th anniversary of the Fitzgerald's sinking approaches Wednesday, Shannon says he now has a better appreciation for the pain felt by the crew's relatives.

"If removing the bell from the Fitzgerald brought solace to the families, I'm all for it," he says. "I think they needed a physical thing for closure, and what better than the heart of the ship, which was the bell."

The Edmund Fitzgerald's wreckage sits 530 feet below Lake Superior's surface. There are two large, intact sections at either end, but the middle was broken into pieces. The ship sank during a storm about 17 miles from Whitefish Point.

It's one of thousands of shipwrecks that dot the Great Lakes, but it's easily the most famous, thanks in large part to Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 ballad, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

It's not clear why the big ship sank as it traveled from Superior, Wis., on its way to Zug Island near Detroit with a load of taconite pellets, or iron ore.

Theories on the sinking's cause abound. The uncertainty even prompted Lightfoot to alter his lyrics slightly this year after watching a documentary on the accident that suggested a rogue wave was to blame. Lightfoot eliminated a reference to a hatchway failure and the suggestion of human error.

Read more...

Photo by Guy Kitchens

By Adam Wynn -TCPalm

Workers have begun creating the actual-size 1600s Spanish galleon that will be the centerpiece of the Treasure Coast Children’s Museum’s Explorer Wing.

Construction of the 62-foot ship began about two weeks ago and is scheduled to be completed Dec. 5. The ship is being built in the east wing of the museum, at Indian RiverSide Park in Jensen Beach.

Richard Baron, the museum’s president emeritus and current board member, said the ship will continue the museum’s mission of providing a hands-on, fun learning environment.

“What do kids have around here to look forward to (playing on) ?” Baron said. “Crawling around in the tubes at McDonald’s ?”

The ship, named the Marti Frances after donors Marti Huizenga, wife of businessman H. Wayne Huizenga, and the Frances Langford Foundation, created by the late singer/actress, will be open to the public Dec. 17.

Four-year-old Chase Mitchell received a sneak peak — just a glance really — of the galleon.

“Wow, that’s cool,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

The ship will have activity stations on the upper and lower decks to give visitors a feel for the sailor lifestyle. Spyglasses and pneumatic cannons will sit on the top deck, along with stations to teach visitors the fundamentals of sailing and to learn the sights and smells of the sea.

There will also be a diorama of the captain’s quarters, complete with a captain who has yet to be named.

Read more...

From Afloat

Phoenicia, the replica 600BC wooden ship, has arrived triumphantly back in Syria having completed a 20,000 mile circumnavigation of Africa. The journey was intended to recreate the first circumnavigation of Africa, thought to have been achieved by Phoenician mariners around 600BC.

The expedition took over two years to complete, and was approved by the Royal Geographical Society and supported by Raymarine as an equipment sponsor.

Phoenicia was built using traditional Phoenician construction methods and materials, and designed using evidence from shipwrecks and archaeological finds.

Advice from scholars ensured she was completely authentic, but on the inside she was equipped with the latest high tech electronic navigational equipment from Raymarine.

The journey was completed in two stages. The first saw Phoenicia depart from Syria in Summer 2008 and sail East as far as Yemen.

After a short break, she completed her circumnavigation past Oman and Mozambique, around the Cape of Good Hope, out to the Azores, and through the Straits of Gibraltar via Tunisia, Malta and Lebanon to her final port of Arwad, where she arrived to a crowd of over 2,000 well wishers on 23rd October.

The homecoming was celebrated with a gala dinner held at Tartous.

Phoenicia was fitted out with a Raymarine C80 multifunction display, GPS antenna, Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver,, ST60+ tridata, wind system and repeater, DSM300 fish finder and Raymarine LifeTag wireless man overboard system.

The systems worked flawlessly, despite facing severe conditions during the expedition including seven-metre waves and gale force winds. Having accurate navigational data also ensured Phoenicia could make the necessary detours to avoid dangerous areas prone to pirate attacks.

The Phoenicia expedition was conceived by Philip Beale, a former British Royal Naval Officer and entrepreneur.

It is being featured in a national television documentary 'Ancient Worlds' to be shown on BBC2 in the autumn.
 

By Jon Gast - Green Bay Press Gazette

"Anyone living in the Great Lakes Region for an extended period of time can become all too familiar with the incredible storms ... that can settle over the Great Lakes Region in the fall. November, being the prime month for such monsters to start materializing, has had more than its share of super storms."

So wrote weather historian William Deedler in his essay, "Hell Hath No Fury Like a Great Lakes Fall Storm."

For those of us living in a maritime community, it's easy for our thoughts to gravitate toward Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes when we have a windstorm like the one we experienced last week.

I almost immediately conjured up visions of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 — "Freshwater Fury," as it was nicknamed and called in the Door County Maritime Museum exhibit that closed earlier this year.

Part of that exhibit was a modern-day weather report compiled by WLUK-TV Channel 11 meteorologists explaining what took place 97 years ago this week.

I have to tell you, last week's storm had a very similar look to it. It was reported that winds topped 90 mph and waves reached 35 feet in that 1913 storm. Last week, wave sensors in Lake Michigan, normally a bit calmer than Lake Superior, nearly reached 25 feet and winds on the open lake had to be higher than the 75 mph registered at some ports.

There was a major difference — loss of life and damage to ships was considerably different. While the 1913 storm claimed over 200 lives and millions of dollars in vessel loss, such devastation was practically nonexistent last week, as better forecasting and communication provided ships with adequate warning.

Certainly, life on the lake still involves a dose of risk. It was just 35 years ago next Wednesday that the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in a November gale on Lake Superior. Maybe it's that seeming disappearance of modern-day shipwrecks that make the Fitzgerald and the shear multitude of wrecks a century or more ago so captivating.

By Rob Rondeau - The Chronicle Herald

In July, Nova Scotia announced it would do away with its Treasure Trove Act; yesterday, legislation was introduced to make this happen. The act allowed treasure hunters to actively look for treasure on land and underwater.

Most important, it allowed them to keep 90 per cent of what they found (the rest was supposed to be turned over to the province).

Doing away with the archaic act is long overdue! As Darryl Kelman, president of the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society (NSAS), said: "The proposed changes to the law bring the province in line with the rest of the country and the Western world."

Government opted for the changes after reviewing the lengthy Blackstone Report, which was started in 2005 by a Toronto consulting firm, the Blackstone Corporation, which specializes in resource management and tourism consulting.

It recommended three options for Nova Scotia to consider when dealing with treasure hunting.

Of course, doing away with the act completely, which the province chose to do, was one option.

While many consider the government’s decision to repeal the act a "slam dunk" for conserving the province’s underwater cultural heritage, we can learn a lot from the research done by the Blackstone consultants.

They focused on several key areas, including possible legal ramifications, the potential need for institutional change, and how to improve protecting underwater cultural heritage. The three "scenarios" were weighed out against these criteria.

Hundreds of individuals were consulted for the report. Many are world experts in the field of marine archeology. How the science is done in other countries was also described in detail.

The report’s writers concluded that Nova Scotia needs to make managing its underwater cultural heritage more of a priority. Doing away with the act, Scenario C, was said to "reflect an approach much more consistent with UNESCO (and) … presents little risk of interference with the sovereign immunity claims of other countries."

The report also concluded that the province can learn from other jurisdictions — giving greater weight to protecting underwater cultural heritage through policy and legislation.

One concept that almost all stakeholders agreed to was the need for a full-time provincial marine archeologist. At present, only archeologists who have experience working on land are employed by the province.

By Christina Low - The Star Online

Not many of us get excited about unearthed treasures from sunken shipwrecks, but for some it is a passion that promises a lifelong of fun and mystery.

For Zalifah Azman it is akin to unlocking the secrets to an unknown era and time.

At an exhibition at the Oriental Arts gallery in Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur showcasing interesting artifacts found in a sunken shipwreck from the Ming Dynasty, Zalifah has interesting stories to share.

She took us for a short tour of the ceramic artifacts and shipwreck exhibition from the Lena Cargo collection.

“It is not easy to excavate these ceramic ware, it takes time to get down to the seabed and unearth them,” said Zalifah, who had done plenty of research on such artifacts and feels it is like owning a piece of history.

“Back then, some even died trying to take these treasures back to land,” said Zalifah, who was put in charge to educate and assist those visiting the exhibition.

Ceramics from the Lena cargo junk was brought back to shore in 1997 near the Lena Shoal reef in Palawan, Philippines.

Although it was not certain where Lena was heading exactly, the experts said the Chinese junk sailed from the port of Guangzhou, China and was possibly headed to Anam and Siam.

She was most likely sailing north towards the Philippines before it sank around the 1490s during the Ming Dynasty era under Emperor Hong Zi.

Read more...

Photo: Institute of Nautical Archaeology

By Josh Dean - Wired

In 1901, the stern-wheeler A. J. Goddard was caught in a storm on Lake Laberge in Canada’s Yukon Territory and sank. It lay lost in those frigid depths until underwater archaeologists located it in 2008.

The Goddard was a significant find—the cold, oxygen-starved environment meant textiles and even paper might be intact, a valuable record of the Klondike Gold Rush. Standard procedure for mapping such a wreck used to involve fiberglass tape and sketches on Mylar, a tedious process fraught with error—highly accurate surveys could take years.

This past June, however, experts mapped the Goddard in hours. They did it with the BlueView BV5000, a football-sized sonar scanner designed for underwater military operations and petroleum exploration. Its rotating head captures images as millions of dots in a “point cloud” that can be assembled into a precise 3-D model.

For the Goddard survey, researchers with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology moved the scanner around the hull and then lowered it through a hatch to map the interior.

In an afternoon, the team created a hi-res digital Goddard, “right down to the mud on the sides,” INA president Jim Delgado says. For underwater archaeologists, he adds, “it’s an exponential leap—from the Wright brothers to the SST.