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By Rossella Lorenzi - Discovery News

A small cosmetic jar offers more circumstantial evidence that the legendary aviator, Amelia Earhart, died on an uninhabited island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati.

Found broken in five pieces, the ointment pot was collected on Nikumaroro Island by researchers of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which has long been investigating the last, fateful flight taken by Earhart 75 years ago.

When reassembled,‭ the glass fragments ‬make up a nearly complete jar identical in shape to the ones used by Dr.‭ ‬C.‭ ‬H Berry's Freckle Ointment. The ointment was marketed in the early‭ ‬20th century as a concoction guaranteed to make freckles fade.

"It's well documented Amelia had freckles and disliked having them," Joe Cerniglia, the TIGHAR researcher who spotted the freckle ointment as a possible match, told Discovery News.

The jar fragments were found together with other artifacts during TIGHAR's nine archaeological expeditions to the tiny coral atoll believed to be Earhart's final resting place.

Analysis of the recovered artifacts will be presented at a three-day conference in Arlington, Va. A new study of post loss radio signals and the latest forensic analysis of a photograph believed to show the landing gear of Earhart's aircraft on Nikumaroro reef three months after her disappearance, will be also discussed.

Beginning on June 1st, the symposium will highlight TIGHAR's high-tech search next July to find pieces of Earhart's Lockheed Electra aircraft.

The pilot mysteriously vanished while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 during a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator.

The general consensus has been that Earhart's twin-engined plane ran out of fuel and crashed in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere near Howland Island.

 
Photo Neilson Barnard

From AFP

Eleven bottles of 200-year-old champagne salvaged from a Baltic Sea shipwreck will be auctioned off this week in Finland, as officials said Monday they hoped for a new record for the price of a bottle.

Expectations were running high in Finland's autonomous province of Aaland, where the bottles were found in 2010, after a bottle of Veuve Clicquot from the same shipwreck was auctioned last year for a record-setting 30,000 euros ($37,400).

That "encouraged us to organise a new auction," Rainer Juslin, an Aaland provincial government official, said in a statement.

The bottles are part of the booty from a shipwreck dating from between 1825 and 1830, and discovered in July 2010 on the sea floor near Finland's autonomous Aaland archipelago.

A total of 145 bottles from the distinguished champagne houses of Veuve Clicquot, Heidsieck & Co and the now-defunct house of Juglar were rescued from the wreck, according to the Aaland Islands provincial government.

Six bottles of Juglar, four bottles of Veuve Clicquot and one bottle of Heidsieck & Co will be auctioned off on Friday.

Champagne expert Richard Juhlin, who tasted and helped to identify the salvaged bottles, has attested to the high quality of the champagne, which has preserved its taste thanks to ideal conditions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

The Aaland government designated one of France's leading auction houses, Artcurial, to organise the auction, which will take place at the Congress and Cultural Centre in Mariehamn on Friday at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT).

The profits generated by the auction will go to a variety of charitable causes.
 

 
Photo Brian Lam

By Brian Lam - The New York Times Bits
 

This month, NASA engineer Eric Stackpole hiked to a spot in Trinity County, east of California’s rough Bigfoot country.

Nestled at the base of a hill of loose rock, peppered by red and purple wildflowers, is Hall City Cave.

For part of the winter the cave is infested with large spiders, but is mostly flooded year-round. Locals whisper the cave’s deep pools hold a cache of stolen gold, but Mr. Stackpole isn’t here to look for treasure.

He had, under his arm, what might appear to be a clunky toy blue submarine about the size of a lunchbox.

The machine is the latest prototype of the OpenROV–an open-source, remotely operated vehicle that could map the cave in 3D using software from Autodesk and collect water in places too tight for a diver to go.

It could change the future of ocean exploration. For now, it is exploring caves because it can only go down 100 meters.

But it holds promise because it is cheap, links to a laptop, and is available to a large number of researchers for experimentation.

Indeed, the OpenROV team hopes to start taking orders for OpenROV kits on the crowd sourced project site, Kickstarter.

Going for $750, the kits include laser cut plastic parts and all the electronics necessary to build an OpenROV.

(Users will have to bring their own laptops to view the onboard video feed and control the machine. They’ll also have to supply their own C-cell batteries which power the sub.)

The subs are expected to be available by the end of summer. OpenROV is nothing like James Cameron’s submarine that took him to the bottom of the ocean in March. Mr. Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger was fitted with 3-D cameras that could withstand 16,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, and was shaped like a bomb so it could swiftly plunge into the depths.

Nor is OpenROV like the famous submarine, Alvin, that explored the Titanic in 1986, with its titanium cockpit and its operating cost of around $55,000 a day. Mr. Stackpole can’t afford exotic alloys or custom technology for his little sub.

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BBC News

Mystery surrounds the history of a Flintshire-made brick discovered in a shipwreck off the Sri Lankan coast.

Diver Ravana Wijeyeratne, who found the Buckley brick, believes the wreck could be a naval ship accompanying HMS Hermes, which the Japanese sunk in 1942.

But historian David Sallery believes it could be from an older vessel.

Mr Wijeyeratne said he left more bricks in the wreck so other divers "have something to see".

He contacted the Buckley Society to try and find out more about the brick's origin.

He wrote: "We got it from the ship's boiler.

"There is a lot more, but we just took one as we want other divers to have something to see."

He speculated that it was possibly a "navy ship as these all went down with the Hermes".

"This was one of the many ships the British evacuated from Trincomalee harbour on news of Japanese air attack," he added.

"Unfortunately, they also knew of this retreat and followed the vessels to bomb them - south of Trincomalee near Baticaloa."

However, Prestatyn-based David Sallery, who runs historical website Penmorfa, said: "As the bricks found were firebricks this would imply that the ship would have been coal-fired.

"All navy ships had, by World War II, been oil-fired for many years and the only coal-fired ships would have been cargo ships, and pretty old ones at that.

Full story...

From This Is Cornwall

It is a swashbuckling tale of a time when no ship travelling the high seas was safe from the Pirate King of Scilly. In the mid-1600s, Captain John Mucknell's name was a byword for looting and kidnap which the King of England himself had been urged to stamp out.

Now the Western Morning News can reveal that a Scillonian shipwreck hunter's claim to have found the remains of the pirate's flagship, the John, has prompted a major investigation.

Maritime archeologists will later this month dive to the remains of the ship to start an analysis which could result in a rare protection order being issued. Todd Stevens, who located the wreck, said the story of the John and its colourful captain read like the script of a Hollywood blockbuster.

"It's like a movie," he said. "John Mucknell wasn't even 50 when he died, but he lived an amazing life, any part of which would make a great film, but looked at together is almost unreal."

Mr Stevens unravelled the fantastic story almost by accident when diving off the coast of St Mary's, the main inhabited island in the archipelago. He was aware there was a wreck in the shallow waters, but knew it hadn't really been explored because of strong rip currents.

However, when he decided to have a closer look, he was astonished to find the remains of a large wooden ship measuring about 80 feet long.

"I followed the lines in the sand and found there was more and more.

"I was fighting the tide, but I could dig in with my hands to hold on.

"I could tell it was a very big vessel, had been armed and from the construction technique that it was pre-1750.

Full story...

From Marine Link

Historical records indicate the Gairsoppa was carrying up to seven million ounces of silver and the Mantola was carrying approximately 600,000 ounces of silver when each sank.

Odyssey discovered both shipwrecks in Q3 2011 and conducted a series of reconnaissance dives to both sites in March and April 2012.

Both the Gairsoppa and Mantola projects are being conducted under contract with the UK Department for Transport.

Under these contracts, which follow standard commercial practices, Odyssey will retain 80% of the net salved value of the cargoes after recovery of expenses.

Both merchant ships were torpedoed by German submarines, the Gairsoppa during WWII and theMantola during WWI. At that time, the UK government insured privately owned cargo under their War Risk Insurance program.

Odyssey has chartered Swire Seabed's 291-foot Seabed Worker for this recovery operation. The Seabed Worker is equipped with advanced deep-ocean capabilities, including the specialized tools necessary to salvage modern steel wrecks, such as redundant deep ROV systems and a 100-ton active heave compensated crane.

Odyssey has also acquired advanced specialty tooling for the project that will provide exceptional flexibility in accessing the bullion.

"Modern steel wrecks such as Gairsoppa and Mantola require an advanced set of tools capable of surgically cutting through steel decks and removing bullion.

After stringent review of available capabilities, we believe Seabed Worker is perfect for these projects. The ship has the ability to carry up to 300 tons of cargo below her decks.

With the potential of over 240 tons of silver that may be brought up from both sites, we're confident that we've brought together the right team, the tools and transport features necessary to make this a secure and successful operation," said Mark Gordon, Odyssey COO & President. 

By Nicole Hasham - SMH

With a couple of tinnies and a second-hand fish finder, they solved a mystery that had confounded maritime experts for more than 64 years.

And for the knockabout group of weekend divers from the northern beaches who stumbled across a midget Japanese submarine six years ago, the accolades keep coming.

First came the lucrative TV deal brokered by celebrity agent Max Markson, which they divvied up to help pay mortgages and travel overseas.

It was followed by a string of prestigious awards, and a newfound respect from the Sydney diving community.

And yesterday, the group was among those honoured at a ceremony at Mona Vale to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World War II Japanese submarine attack on Sydney Harbour which left the city gripped by fear.

Not bad for a bus driver, an electrician, a plumber, a builder, a mortgage broker and two retirees who still meet every Saturday morning for a dive and a beer.

"One of our guys [once said] we might have solved a bit of history, but we made a bit of history as well," said Alan Simon from Mona Vale, a member of the group known as No Frills Divers.

"And although we've always been a close group of friends, we're closer than we've ever been."

The Heritage Minister, Robyn Parker, unveiled a plaque yesterday at a headland overlooking the resting place of the M24 mini-submarine, which lies on the ocean floor five kilometres out and 55 metres down off Bungan Head, near Newport.

Full story...

From This Is Cornwall

Wine jugs thought to have been on their way to a priory of monks on the Isles of Scilly have been discovered on the seabed, marking the site of what could be the oldest wreck in the islands.

An island maritime historian and diver has identified a number of broken pottery shards, which have been linked to a 700-year-old unidentified wreck.

The wreck, which occurred in 1305, is recorded in the Calendar of State Papers dated to the 14th century reign of King Edward I.

Maritime expert Richard Larn, a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, said: "To find an unknown shipwreck site today to add to Scilly's list is a rare event and to find one that is nearly 707 years old is remarkable."

Mr Larn's stepson, dive boat skipper David McBride, of St Mary's, found the first large pottery shard five years ago at the north end of Tresco Channel close to Cromwell's castle.

Working with Mr Larn, who accurately dated that first find, Mr McBride had been quietly searching for proof that it was a possible medieval wreck and not just a typical anchorage scatter of broken pottery.

"Underwater archaeologists surveyed the site last year supported by Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeological Society (CISMAS) under Kevin Camidge and ProMare, a US charity that backs scientific and archaeological projects," said Mr Larn.

"After plotting surface recoveries of an additional 180 shards they concluded there was a single core location area which has yielded almost 300 shards to date, including wine jar fragments with handles up to nine inches long."

The majority has been identified as green glaze Saintonge ware, from a small region on France's Atlantic coast within Poitou-Charentes.

Additional shards can be linked to Normandy, Southampton and Cornwall, but the majority are broken French wine jugs, presumably brought in for the monks of St Nicholas Priory on Tresco.

Full story...