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From BBC News

A huge granite block thought to have once formed part of a temple pillar in a sunken palace of Cleopatra has been raised from the sea at Alexandria.

The nine-tonne stone, said to be from a temple to the goddess Isis, was lifted by crane out of the waters which have covered the palace for centuries.

It was cut from a slab of red granite quarried in Aswan, some 1,100km (700 miles) to the south, officials say. There are plans to exhibit it in a new museum devoted to the sunken city. Earthquakes are thought to have toppled the city in the 4th Century. 

"This is one of the most important archaeological finds in Alexandria, among the 400 items recovered by the Greek archaeological team that has been engaged in underwater research since 1998," Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosni said at the scene.

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From The Economist

A shipwreck is a catastrophe for those involved, but for historians and archaeologists of future generations it is an opportunity.

Wrecks offer glimpses not only of the nautical technology of the past but also of its economy, trade, culture and, sometimes, its warfare.

Until recently, though, most of the 3m ships estimated to be lying on the seabed have been out of reach. Underwater archaeology has mainly been the preserve of scuba divers.

That has limited the endeavor to waters less than 50 meters deep, excluding 98% of the sea floor from inspection.

Even allowing for the tendency of trading vessels to be coasters rather than ocean-going ships, that limits the number of wrecks available for discovery and examination.

Moreover, shallow-water shipwrecks are often damaged. Storms reach down to affect them. Seaweeds and corals, which need light to grow, colonize them.

Freelance divers, seeking salvage rather than knowledge, despoil them. Archaeologists do sometimes team up with people who have access to miniature submarines (some manned, some unmanned) to explore deeper waters.

But such expeditions are expensive—a million dollars a pop is not untypical—and archaeology is not a well-resourced profession. Often, these expeditions are privately financed, speculative ventures which amount to little more than treasure-hunting.

Modern robotics, however, is changing this. A new generation of cheap, free-swimming, automatic underwater vehicles (AUVs) is being developed. Past minisubs have needed a lot of backup and, if unmanned, have had to be guided by signals passing down tethers.

Their mother-ships have thus had to be fitted out specially, which is one reason for the expense. An AUV, by contrast, can be dropped into the ocean and left to fend for itself. A wider range of vessels can thus support it.


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By Derek Baldwin - Xpress

Deep-sea mission off Fujairah shores reveals stunning new details behind mystery sinking of World War II nazi submarine.

The Gulf of Oman's pithy-black deeps have finally surrendered secrets of the mystery sinking of Nazi submarine U-533 during the Second World War.

Several years after the discovery of the U-boat on the seabed 108 meters below by Dubai shipwreck hunter and diver William Leeman, a new deep-sea mission in October to the U-boat's final resting place has confirmed a fatal blast hole was ripped into her rear port side, dooming the twin-screwed 76.8-meter-long vessel and 52 crew members to a watery grave.

Capitalizing on clear waters and armed with electric underwater scooters and high-powered spotlights, Leeman and his team of recreational divers discovered the two-meter gash near her propellers, confirming reports by RAF (Royal Air Force) Squadron 244 that a British light bomber aircraft had scored a direct strike on the submarine on October 16, 1943.

"This is where she was hit by a depth charge by a British Blenheim that struck from the air," said Leeman, 52, an electrical engineer.

"During our last dive, we could see the jagged edges of the hole where she was blown up. That was the moment of truth - the ship then sank to the bottom in a forward motion marking the epic death of 52 German mariners."

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By Virginia Kropf - The Daily News

Rochester shipwreck explorers Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville have announced the discovery of yet another sunken ship in southern Lake Ontario, off of Oak Orchard Harbor.

A 19th century schooner sunk in 1862, the C. Reeve, was discovered by the men in late summer after a search effort which took them more than five years.

Finding the ship was a lucky discovery, the men said Tuesday. The initial discovery was not made by the conventional search methods used by the team to discover many of Lake Ontario's shipwrecks, they said.

The Reeve is a two-masted gaff rigged schooner built in 1853 in Buffalo by the firm of J.B. and N. Jones.

In July of 1858, the schooner made a trans-Atlantic crossing, sailing from Detroit to Liverpool, England, with a cargo of black walnut lumber. In October, she returned with a full load of crockery.

The Reeve is the 14th discovery for Kennard and Scoville between Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes. Kennard said they have already discovered a few more shipwrecks in Lake Ontario, which they have not yet announced.

In an e-mail Monday afternoon, Kennard said as they were eating, a light wind was pushing the boat along when Scoville looked at the depth recorder and could see they were going over something that was several feet off the bottom.

Since one of the masts of the Reeve is still standing, the recorder jumped up, momentarily showing something 75 feet off the bottom.

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By Tuck Thompson - Courier Mail

Shipwreck hunters have found a "promising" image about the size of the sunken Australian hospital ship Centaur just two day into their deep-water search.

But they have admitted the seabed east of Moreton Island is so rough they may never find the ship, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1943.

Expedition leader David L Mearns said sonar being towed by the Seahorse Spirit needed to be reexamined.

"The target was very close to directly beneath the sonar towfish where it doesn't perform as well," he said. "Nevertheless the target was about the right shape and size of the Centaur so we definitely have something to look forward."

But searchers also expressed frustration that much of the search area is severe, impenetrable terrain.

"This section of Australia's continental margin is geologically very dynamic with steep canyons carved into the continental slope," Mr Mearns said.

"We have found our search box to be dissected by three large submarine canyons whose walls rise 600 metres or more to exposed rocky cliff tops. The impact of all this geology is that it makes our job of picking out a relatively small shipwreck like the Centaur amongst all the rocks extremely difficult."

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By Manuel Mitternacht - Smh

The legendary wreck of a British cargo ship that sank while sailing in convoy with Matthew Flinders 200 years ago has been discovered off the Australian coast.

Maritime archaeologists have made the claim after last week discovering a ship's cannon embedded in a reef in the Coral Sea off North Queensland.

It is thought to belong to the Cato, which sank in the area after running aground in 1803 en route to India.

Expedition leader Kieran Hosty, of the National Maritime Museum, said it was significant to Australia's maritime history.

''Very few colonial trading vessels have been found in Australian waters; this is just one of a handful,'' he said.

Five expeditions had visited the coral outcrop, known as Wreck Reef, in the past 45 years but failed to find where the Cato went down.

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From Texas A&M University - Institute of Nautical Archaeology

A long-sunken 11-foot-long cannon weighing almost 10,000 pounds made its public debut Thursday at the Texas A&M University Conservation Research Lab, part of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.

The cannon was raised at sundown Nov. 22 from the USS Westfield, which was lifted from its watery resting place in the Texas City Channel, where it had been submerged for 146 years.

The recovery is part of a $71 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to deepen the Texas City Channel along the Texas coast to keep waterways open for navigation.

The Civil War Union gunboat ship USS Westfield, originally built as a Staten Island ferry, was intentionally destroyed by Union forces to prevent capture after it grounded in the channel during the 1863 Battle of Galveston.

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By Sophie Tedmanson - Times Online

A UK-based shipwreck hunter is set to embark on a search for the wreckage of one of Australia’s biggest maritime disasters off the coast of Queensland this weekend.

The Australian hospital ship the Centaur was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland on May 14, 1943. Of the 332 non-combatants on board, only 64 survived the attack, and were forced to spend another 35 hours clinging to life rafts in the water while being circled by sharks until they were found by rescuers.

David Mearns, the director of the Blue Water Recoveries in West Sussex, will lead the search on board The Seahorse Spirit, a 72-metre multi-purpose vessel which has been fitted with 65 tonnes of specialised sonar equipment.

Mr Mearns said the crew of scientists and experts hope to head out to sea by Sunday on the $AU4 million (£2.2 million) mission, which is being jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments.

The wreck of the Centaur, which was built in Scotland by the British Blue Funnel Line shipping company, has never been found. A ship thought to be the Centaur was discovered in the same area in 1995, however the wreck was later deemed to be too small to be the hospital ship.

Mr Mearns said the crew will cover a search area of 4,000 sq miles in the Pacific Ocean off Cape Moreton by initially using a deep tow sonar which will scan the sea sideways.

He said the budget will only finance the operation for approximately 35 days at sea and the search could be hampered by the underwater terrain, but the team was confident of finding the 3,200-tonne, steel shipwreck.

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