HOT NEWS !

By Kevin Rothbauer - The Citizen

There aren't many unexplored places in the world, but for those willing and able to take the right steps, there is still plenty of adventure out there.

Maple Bay's Guy Shockey is one of those modern-day adventurers, and he continued his longstanding love of seeing and experiencing things few people ever have -- or will -- on the weekend of March 13 when he became one of the first people to set foot on the wreckage of the SS Famous, more than 75 years after it was sunk to the murky depths.

The Famous, launched in 1890 as the SS Amur, was scuttled in Bedwell Bay, part of Indian Arm off Burrard Inlet, in 1932. Since 2007, the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia has had an interest in a wreck in the same area, and wanted to confirm whether or not it was in fact the Famous.

They formed a partnership with Shockey's team of Global Underwater Explorers-trained divers, who descended to the ship -- 230 feet below the surface -- on March 13 and 14.

The UASBC had sent a remotely operated underwater vehicle to the hulk in September 2007, but the data it gathered wasn't enough to confirm for certain that the wreck was the Famous.

"We had to actually go and put eyeballs on the thing," said Shockey. "We knew how big the actual Famous was, but we had to confirm this was it."

The dive team consisted of five divers who would descend to the wreck, two surface support divers and a surface manager.

Diving to such a depth is like an "underwater ballet," said Shockey of the process for descending and safely returning to the surface, which involves extensive decompression. Divers with the appropriate skill set are not easy to find.

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By Geoff Strong - The Age

World War I might have been finished nearly a century but in regards to an Australian vessel sunk by a German mine off New Zealand the hostilities are just hotting up.

The row is over claims made in the New Zealand media this week that a search by a team using underwater imaging technology found the wreck of the Melbourne-owned SS Wimmera that went to the bottom in 1918, costing the lives of 26 of the 151 on board.

The find was claimed to have been made on Friday after a four-day search off New Zealand's extreme northern tip by Auckland electronics developer Mike Hodson, whose company funded the two-vessel expedition.

It was claimed to have been made possible by his company's main product, a multibeam underwater sonar system called 'WASSP', which it developed and market worldwide.

But Auckland amateur historian Mike Fraser, who spent years researching the ship's sinking, including getting German naval records about where their ship laid the mines, was angered by the claim.

Mr Fraser, who was on one of the vessels in the expedition, said all that was found was a blip on the sonar which could have been an underwater reef and that the truth of the claim could only be verified by a diver.

"Hodson's got no idea about finding shipwrecks, he has just come in and taken over this search as a means of promoting his sonar system. He would not let anyone use other technology, he was rude to everyone on the trip. I was so angry I could have hit him."

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By Carl Phillips - Island Breeze

In 1554 a fleet of Spanish ships loaded with gold and other treasure encountered a Gulf of Mexico hurricane and shipwrecked just off the sandy shores of South Padre Island.

What happened to the crew and passengers on those ships makes a fascinating story all by itself, but their trek down the Island searching for what passed as civilization in those days is just one portion of the complete historical record.

On Thursday at 6 p.m., the Museums of Port Isabel, which displays many of the artifacts from those unfortunate ships, will present Steve Hathcock telling the story in its entirety.

Hathcock is the author of three books about the history of the area: "Real History," published in 1995; "Looking Back," 1999; and "Behind the Third Dune," 2001. He is working on his fourth book, "Old Indo, Last of the Karawankas, and Other Tales," which he hopes to complete this year.

A student of the history of the area for more than 30 years, he is chairman of the South Padre Island Historical Preservation Committee, a founding member of the South Padre Island Historical Foundation and a board member of the Cameron County Historical Commission.

Over the years he has gathered information, photos and artifacts in the area. His Preservation Committee has also compiled a catalog of old buildings on the Island.

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By Cammy Clark - Miami Herald

Argh ! Key West will lose its pirate museum in August when Pat Croce takes his original Jolly Roger flag, Captain Kidd journal and other historic booty and heads for St. Augustine.

Five years ago eclectic entrepreneur Pat Croce dressed as a swashbuckler and wielded a sword to slash the ribbon for the opening of his $10 million museum, Pirate Soul.

He thought Key West, with its long-standing affection for rogues of the sea, would be the perfect home for his original Jolly Roger flag, Thomas Tew treasure chest and 500 other pirate artifacts collected over more than two decades.

But while most of Croce's other ventures have turned to gold -- a sports medicine empire, presidency of the NBA's 76ers, motivational speaker -- the museum hasn't captured the wallets of large numbers of tourists. So in July, he's packing up Blackbeard's severed head and the rest of his blackguard booty and heading north to another city with a pirate past: St. Augustine.

"Pirates sacked St. Augustine, and burned it to the ground," said Croce, who has pirate-themed tattoos all over his body."The museum should have more relevance there."

In January, Croce bought a building across the street from a 17th century Spanish fort in St. Augustine and began demolition. The nation's oldest city has been attacked twice by pirates: in 1586, by Sir Francis Drake, and in 1668, by privateer Robert Searles, according to archeologist Dana Ste. Claire, department director of the city's heritage tours and historic preservation.

From Helsingin Sanomat

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a claim made by a group of divers against the Finnish state concerning a ship that sank in Finnish waters in the 18th century.

The court ruled against the divers who found the wreck of the Dutch ship, the Vrow Maria, off the southwest tip of Finland.

According to the ruling, Finland did not violate the divers’ rights by forbidding them from raising the sunken ship wreck, or from taking objects found in it.

The divers felt that as sea rescuers, they would have the right to monetary compensation for finding the Vrow Maria. They felt that Finland had treated them unfairly, and had favoured the Maritime Museum of Finland.

The Vrow Maria went down in the waters of Nauvo while en route to St. Petersburg.

The discovery of the wreck in 1999 led to a dispute between the finders and the National Board of Antiquities.

The lengthy legal battle that followed was a test of how legislation on ancient artefacts should apply to objects found under water.

The sunken vessel was found by the Pro Vrow Maria association, under the direction of professional diver Rauno Koivusaari.

The finders stipulated that they were engaging in maritime rescue, as defined under maritime legislation, when they brought up three clay pipes, one ceramic bottle, a seal, and a zinc ingot from the vessel in 1999.

They also felt that in accordance with maritime legislation, they were entitled to rescue compensation, and that as the first on the site, they were entitled to the salvage of the entire cargo.

The claim was rejected by Turku District Court in 2004. In the following year, the Turku Court of Appeals agreed that the wreck and its cargo are property of the state, in accordance with the law on antiquities.

The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on the matter in November 2005, after which the plaintiffs appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.


 

By Steve Macnaull - The Canadian Press

At Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas it is completely natural to feel scared, excited, fascinated, confused and awed - all at the same time. You see - true to its name - it's a magnificent dark blue circle of water that plunges more than 200 meters into an abyss.

Usually blue holes, also known as sinkholes, simply look like ponds, but Dean's is special.

Connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a light blue inlet, it is framed by scooped-out cliffs on one side and perfect arches of white sand beaches on the other. As the deepest blue hole in the world it attracts sightseers, curious beachgoers, amateur snorkellers, brave scuba divers and free divers.

Our affable tour guide, Sanfred Rolle, certainly knows how to build blue-hole drama.

"I explain it to everyone on the drive here. But you never believe it until you see it. It becomes the highlight of everyone's trip."

First we hike to the clifftop to marvel at the perfect dark circle of water that marks the hole. Then it's time to get in the water.

From the beach in snorkel gear the initial swimming is through shallow water filled with darting fish.

The shallows, white sand bottom and fish abruptly disappear as the hole immediately plunges to 202 meters and the water takes on an eerie but calming, presence.

By Rich Pietras - Bucks County Courier Times

Aqua welders can earn upwards of $100,000 a year, said the course instructor. Ashley Bechtold has always loved the water. She also likes to cook. Combine the two, and the 17-year-old student could have pursued a career as a chef on a ship. 

But that idea really never took hold for the Hatboro-Horsham High School junior. Instead of heating up meals, she's intrigued by the idea of heating up metals ... with a torch ... underwater. 

So she entered the welding program at the Eastern Center for Arts and Technology in Willow Grove in September.

"The idea of playing with fire underwater amused me," Bechtold said from her classroom/workshop. "After I learned how much money you could make doing it, I thought it would be a good choice."

Her decision to enter the male-dominated field of welding came almost as a fluke after visiting the tech school as part of Keith Valley Middle School's Move-Up Day in eighth grade.

"I thought about the culinary program, but I remember this one girl talking to us about welding," recalls Bechtold. "She said she really loved it and was making good money ... I knew nothing about it but, now, I couldn't be happier with my choice."

Upon entering the two-year, 900-hour basic welding course, Bechtold said she discovered two things right away.

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By Gina Macris - Projo

A team of archaeologists led by Thomas F. Strasser, an associate professor of art history at Providence College, has made discoveries in Crete that suggest man’s predecessors had the ability to navigate the seas much earlier than the first known voyage 60,000 years ago.

Strasser’s team, working under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, found Stone Age tools at least 130,000 years old on the southern coast of Crete two summers ago — discoveries that were made public only last month.

The presence of the tools on Crete — an island for 5 million years — implies that the predecessors of Homo sapiens had the ability to navigate the seas.

“This was a life-changing experience,” he said of the expedition to Plakias, a tourist spot on the southwest coast of Crete.

One day, at Preveli Gorge just outside the town, team member Curtis Runnels, a professor of archaeology at Boston University, was talking to a few PC students in the group about the materials and methods of Stone Age toolmaking.

Runnels’ wife picked up a piece of quartz and put it in her husband’s pocket so he would have raw material for a later tool-making demonstration he had planned.

Back at their lodgings, the rock lay on a balcony table as a paperweight for a day or so.

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