HOT NEWS !

By Joel Scanlon - Azo Mining

A team of bold technical divers with the help of rebreathers carried out 16 amazing trimix dives to a depth of 300 ft during May first week, 2012.

These dives were performed on an area of the WWII shipwreck, which is considered to be the Kuda Maru off the Cebu coast in Philippines.

AP Diving manufactured rebreathers were used by the team. Life support systems were manufactured by AP Diving for the dive vessel of James Cameron. This vessel was recently used to dive into the ocean’s deepest area.

The Kuda Maru is believed to have contained stolen gold which is now guarded by the Japanese sailors’ ghosts who perished during WWII. The aim of the journey was to discover the shipwreck positively as the Kuda Maru.

According to Theuns van Niekerk, spokesperson of the expedition, they were unable to spend over 45 min at the bottom part, because it was really deep and there was a need for long decompression times.

It was difficult to find the name on the shipwreck’s hull, as the ship was present at a considerable depth and was corroded for 70 years.

Wide HD video of the shipwreck was taken. For further identifications, a comparison will be made between the drawings and pictures of Kuda Maru and the wreck’s specific features, Theuns stated.

Scotty's Action Sports Network in Philippines sponsored this expedition. Damjan Perenic, Lou Holder, Patrice Laborda, Scott Livingston, and Theuns van Niekerk were the expedition divers.

From The Press Association

Divers will be able to explore the remains of an original Elizabethan shipwreck which is set to be lowered into a lake.

The remains of the 16th century "Gresham Ship" are to be moved to the Stoney Cove National Diving Centre in Leicestershire more than 400 years after it sank in the River Thames.

The move will be co-ordinated by the Nautical Archaeological Society, which will use the ship as an "underwater classroom" to train the next generation of nautical archaeologists.

The wreck, which dates from 1574, was recovered from the River Thames in 2003 by a team of archealogists after it was discovered by the Port of London Authority.

Five sections of the hull and an anchor were raised from the river and moved to a diving centre at Horsea Island Lake near Portsmouth.

Iron bars, pieces of pottery, a silver spoon, as well as leather shoes and part of a sailor's boot were also recovered, along with some pewter and copper vessels. A cannon, bearing the initials of Sir Thomas Gresham, a famous Elizabethan financier and founder of the Royal Exchange, was also found.

But since the centre closed down, a new home has been sought for the wreck.

Now the ship is set to be raised and carefully transported the 160 miles to Stoney Cove on June 1.

Mark Beattie-Edwards, from the Nautical Archaeological Society, said: "The largest section is over eight metres in length and weighs some eight tonnes, so it's not going to be easy. Once we get the hull sections into the water at Stoney Cove, we'll be using lifting airbags to help float them across the lake to get them into their new positions.

I've hand-picked a team of eight divers to work on this difficult task: they are all very experienced, so I'm sure that we can sink the pieces in the right place at the right time".

Martin Woodward, of the Stoney Cove National Diving Centre, said: "Although we already have a remarkable range of underwater features for divers to explore here at Stoney Cove, including boats and planes, the very welcome addition of the Gresham Ship is a most spectacular bonus: it takes our displays to a whole new level - or should that be to new depths ?"
 

From Isle of Wight County Press
 

A mysterious shipwreck that lay in the Solent for 160 years has finally been identified by archaeologists, and its fascinating history revealed for the first time.

The wreck, which lies on the Horse Tail Sands three miles east of Bembridge, was first discovered by fishermen in 2003, but it was another eight years before archaeologists from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology were able to put a name to the vessel.

Its identity has been revealed to conincide with the release of a new book about the history of the wreck. The trust said the wreck was that of the Flower of Ugie, a 19th century wooden sailing barque that sank in the Solent on December 27, 1852 following a great storm in the English Channel.

The vessel was a three-masted sailing barque built in Sunderland in 1838. During its career it made regular voyages around Africa and onto India and the Far East. Later it was employed in the Mediterranean, the Baltic and across the Atlantic, carrying cargo to and from America and Canada.

On the night of December 26, 1852, while carrying coal from Sunderland to Cartagena, Spain, the Flower of Ugie ran into a storm off Portland.

The ferocious weather that battered the whole of the south coast that night nearly capsized the ship, and the crew were forced to cut down two masts to right it.

Full story...

By Suzannah Hills - The Daily Mail

Families of 60 men killed when the world's first underwater aircraft carrier sank in 1932 are to sail out to the wreck for the first time to mark the 80th anniversary of the tragedy.

HMS M2, the first submarine to carry a two-seater biplane in a watertight hangar on its deck, is believed to have sank when the hangar door opened while the vessel was still submerged three miles off Lyme Bay in Dorset.

All the crew were killed in the accident, including two airmen, and only two bodies were ever recovered from the wreck.

The families of the men who died will sail to the site of the tragedy on May 26 to pay tribute to their loved ones.

The memorial has been organised by members of the British Sub-Aqua Club in Portsmouth who have dived on the wreck.

Ex-sailor Sydney Estcourt, who was only six when his 30-year-old father George died aboard the sub, will be among those paying their respects.

Mr Estcourt, 86, said: 'Dad was on watch-keeping duty in Portsmouth, but he was asked to go on the M2 because the petty officer went off sick.

Full story...

From My Sunshine Coast

Queenslanders are encouraged to get involved in National Archaeological Week (20 - 26 May) by providing any information they have about ship wreck sites along the state’s east coast to the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Andrew Powell said the department was looking for any information relating to ship wreck sites, including known dive sites, unusual fishing spots or net ‘hook ups’, photographs, drawings or family records of shipwrecks, to help it piece together a part of Queensland’s history.

The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) is leading a five-year Queensland Historic Shipwreck Survey which involves carrying out dive inspections on identified wrecks and coordinating remote sensing surveys of targeted areas within Moreton Bay and along Queensland’s east coast,” Mr Powell said.

Estimates by marine archaeologists indicate that, since the 18th century, more than 1400 ships have been wrecked or abandoned along the Queensland coastline, on fringing reefs or inland waters.

While we know the locations of ships that were deliberately scuttled on beaches and foreshores or abandoned up rivers and creeks, others were lost at sea and never seen again and we are keen to find exactly where those wrecks are.

Mr Powell said detailed information collated through this historic survey would be used to update the Australian National Shipwreck Database (ANSD).

Members of the public have a rare opportunity to critique information, conduct research and visit these unique heritage sites,” Mr Powell said.

While ships need to be wrecked for 75 years or more to automatically be declared historic, more recent shipwrecks can be declared historic if, for example, they are associated with important people or events.

Full story...

By Matt Deans - News Mail

It stands encrusted in marine life, as a stark reminder of the lives lost at sea in one of Australia's greatest maritime disaster.

For 126-years the telegraph of The Keilawarra, the 61-metre iron steam ship that sank near North Solitary Island has risen from the ocean floor suspended in the full astern position.

For photographer Mark Spencer, who revisited the 19th century shipwreck again at the weekend, the telegraph along with the ship's stern offers a haunting insight into the ill-fated voyage.

"The propeller shots I took also show the stern has dropped down over the propeller, such that the prop is now inside the stern," Mark said.

"This is an emotive area of the wreck because it was the area where people clung when the ship was sinking Titanic-like with the stern out of the water."

Full story...

 
Photo Cathina Ingleman Sunberg

By Angela Pownall - The West Australian

Shipwreck hunters will make a new expedition to the Abrolhos Islands in a bid to solve the 300-year-old mystery of the lost Dutch ship the Aagtekerke, which is thought to have gone down along the WA coast.

Hugh Edwards and his team believe the Aagtekerke struck Half Moon Reef in the archipelago off Geraldton when it disappeared en route to Indonesia in 1726.

Next month they hope to find some of the three tonnes of silver coins the ship was carrying between the Cape of Good Hope and Jakarta that could prove the wreck is in the Abrolhos Islands.

In light of the growing evidence gathered by Mr Edwards and his team, WA Museum maritime archaeologists are now also planning to survey the archipelago.

In 1968, Mr Edwards was among the finders of the Zeewijk, which sank on Half Moon Reef in 1727.

But the discovery of elephant tusks, which were not listed on the Zeewijk's inventory but were part of the Aagterkerke's cargo, has led experts to believe the reef could be home to both wrecks.

"We have looked all over the archipelago for the other ship but have never been able to find it," Mr Edwards said.

"So we have come to the conclusion there are two wrecks at that site."

Mr Edwards said they also found 44 guns at the Zeewijk wreck site, more than the usual number of 36 on such a ship. Nine anchors were also found when the Zeewijk would not usually have had more than six.

"The Aagtekerke loaded 214 elephant tusks as part of the cargo at the Cape of Good Hope," Mr Edwards said.

"The Zeewijk did not have elephant tusks. But among the difficulties is that both ships were built in the same shipyard by the same shipwrights.

Full story...

From The Patriot Ledger

While gathering granite for the construction of streets, sidewalks and buildings, the captain and mate of Lamartine, a 19th century ship, went overboard during a storm off Cape Ann on May 17, 1893.

They were rescued by a fishing schooner, but a crew member drowned, and the ship sank.

The wreck of Lamartine, which lies within the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.

The listing protects the shipwreck from being moved or removed and prohibits anyone from removing artifacts.

The 79-foot, two-mastered cargo schooner was built in Camden, Maine, and launched in 1848. It is considered by historians as a representative vessel of New England’s granite trade of that time.

“Lamartine’s cargo of cut granite reveals fascinating details about how granite quarried in New England met the demands of a nation growing increasingly urban,” superintendent of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Craig MacDonald said in a written statement.

Full story...