HOT NEWS !

By Rhys Blakely - The Australian

A planned auction of Titanic treasures could finally settle the matter of who owns the fortune yielded by history's most beguiling wreck.

More than 5500 items would be offered in one single lot, according to plans submitted to US stock market regulators. The items on sale would range from jewels and fine china to a 15-tonne portion of hull.

In 2007 the collection was valued at $US189 million and some have claimed that artefacts worth billions remain on the seabed. For years, however, the treasures have been at the centre of a legal storm and the fate of the latest planned sale now rests in the hands of a US judge.

The auction would coincide with the centenary on April 12 of the sinking of the "unsinkable" Belfast-built steamship, an event that has cast a morbid spell on generations. The anniversary will be marked by the screening of a 3D version of James Cameron's Oscar-winning film and a big-budget ITV drama by Julian Fellowes, the writer of Downton Abbey. There will be festivals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Investors in RMS Titanic, the company that acquired the salvage rights in 1994, have squabbled over how to maximise returns from the public's fascination with a wreck that has spawned at least 17 movies, 18 documentaries and 130 books.

In 2002, the salvagers had wanted to sell more than 1000 small items, such as recovered toiletries, to help recoup expenses running into tens of millions of dollars. Instead, after a US court stymied the scheme, they were reduced to flogging recovered lumps of coal, which are not considered artefacts under law, for $US25 each.

A fresh set of court judgments means that new auction plans stand a chance. If the sale goes ahead, buyers will be offered a trove amassed during seven trips to a site about 4km under the North Atlantic.

The recovered treasures have formed an exhibition that has been viewed by more than 20 million people worldwide. The show is currently at the giant Luxor casino in Las Vegas, where visitors pay $US28 each to view items ranging from soap dishes and spittoons to passenger papers and decorative sections from Titanic's famous Grand Staircase. The crown jewel of the collection is regarded to be the so-called "Big Piece" - a section of hull that weighs 15 tonnes and is more than 9m long.

Full story...

By Nicola Smith - BBC News Wales

Next year marks the 10th anniversary of a remarkable discovery on the banks of the River Usk in Newport.

In the summer of 2002, thousands flocked to the banks of the River Usk in Newport, to see a piece of history. In the middle of a building site, the mud had been cleared to reveal the 500-year-old remains of a trading ship.

Built in 1447, it is the world's best preserved example of a 15th Century vessel. Nearly ten years after it was uncovered, archaeologists are still making new discoveries about life on board.

They hope that in the next decade the ship will be rebuilt and put on display in its own museum.

Charles Ferris, from the Friends of the Newport Ship group, remembers the excitement as news of the discovery spread.

"It was amazing, it was absolutely palpable. I often think the Newport ship floats on a sea of goodwill," he said.

"The Newport public did us proud and came out to support her in their thousands. People used to queue for two to three hours just to see her."

The timbers were uncovered during work to build the Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre.

After a campaign to ensure it was preserved, the ship was moved timber by timber to an industrial unit nearby. After a campaign to ensure it was preserved, the ship was moved timber by timber to an industrial unit nearby. Around 2,000 oak timbers have been preserved in chemically-treated water tanks.

Full story...

From This Is Somerset

Almost 100 years on, the Titanic disaster still tugs at the heartstrings.

The events of that dramatic night in April 1912 are well known but constant retelling of the tale only seems to add more lustre to the legend.

The hosting of 100th anniversary events in 2012 will introduce a new generation to the Titanic story in a similar way that interest was renewed by James Cameron's Oscar-winning film in 1997.

Cameron was on to a good thing, as the Titanic story had everything – heroism and human failings, courage and cowardice, horror and hubris. Over the years, the story has refused to go away. Could better design have saved the ship, could more lives have been saved if the vessel Californian had assisted, why were some of the lifeboats pulling away only half-full?

What is certain is that around 1,500 people were to lose their lives when the 46,000-tonne Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden passenger voyage and sank in the Atlantic.

What made the news so shocking was that the vessel was considered unsinkable. Built in Belfast by the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff, Titanic was carrying the great and the good as well as many less well-off travellers in steerage who were seeking a new life in America.

With Captain Edward Smith in charge, the vessel carried more than 2,200 people, including more than 300 in first-class. The "nobs" included White Star Line managing director Joseph Bruce Ismay and Molly Brown, a Colorado woman whose survival was to provide her with the fame she craved.

Among the children on board was two-month-old Millvina Dean from Southampton, who was to live until 2009 to become the last survivor of the sinking.

Over-confidence had led to the Titanic carrying only around 20 lifeboats, enough for about 1,170 people.

Having set sail on April 10, 1912, the Titanic had received the first of many ice reports on April 12 and by the night of the sinking these had become numerous.

Full story...

By Dan Benson - Sheboygan Press

A ship lying on the Lake Michigan floor seven miles northeast of Sheboygan — and considered one of the best preserved of any Great Lakes shipwreck – has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The canaller Walter B. Allen, which sank in a storm in April 1880, lies upright and intact in about 170 feet of water and is remarkably well preserved, experts say.

"This ship is remarkably intact. It's one of the best preserved in Lake Michigan," said Jim Draeger, deputy state historic preservation officer at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.

Putting the ship on the National Register of Historic Places "will help the public understand that ships like this exist in Great Lakes waters and educates them about the importance of Great Lakes shipping to the history of Wisconsin," Draeger said. "It also provides some protections to the property under state law."

According to the society's Maritime Underwater Archaeology web site, The Walter B. Allen was called a canaller because it was built to fit through the Welland Canal locks that connect Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, bypassing Niagara Falls.

It was built in Ogdensburg, N.Y., in 1866 and was the largest of the canaller class of schooners built on the Great Lakes. It typically shipped grain from Chicago to Buffalo or Oswego, N.Y., and then returned with coal.

Full story...

From News Service of Florida

The wreck of the Civil War-era steam tugboat USS Narcissus should be the state's newest underwater archaeological preserve, Secretary of State Kurt Browning proposed Wednesday. 

The site, in just 15 feet of water near Egmont Key in the mouth of Tampa Bay, would be the 12th such preserve in Florida waters if given final approval by the Department of State after getting public input. 

The state Bureau of Archaeological Research has determined that USS Narcissus meets necessary criteria to be made a preserve, and if so designated the site would be made more accessible and better interpreted for divers, with brochures, posters, underwater maps and a website.

The site is near one of the busiest shipping lanes in the nation, heading into Tampa Bay. 

The tugboat was lost in a storm Jan. 3, 1866, but before that was an interesting historical footnote. The vessel, which belonged to the US Navy, was present at the Battle of Mobile Bay – the battle during which Admiral David Farragut said "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." She sank while on her way to New York to be decomissioned, when her boiler exploded killing all hands.

"The USS Narcissus provides not only a fascinating underwater preserve to explore, it also offers a unique and adventurous look into our nation’s naval history," said Secretary Browning. "The site would be an exciting addition to Florida’s underwater archeological preserves."

By Liz Bernier - If Press

Finding missing submarines or battleships is all in a day's work for Dr. Susan Langley.

An underwater archaeologist, Langley has devoted her life to the study and conservation of underwater artifacts, which she usually finds in shipwrecks.

The former Sarnian has helped excavate historic wrecks all over the world, working with UNESCO, Parks Canada, private companies, and — currently — the United States Navy.

She's also the State Underwater Archaeologist for Maryland and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and St. Mary's College of Maryland, teaching courses like "the history of piracy."

Much of her time is spent teaching, writing, surveying and searching for wrecks.

"We spend a lot less time diving then you would think," she said. "When you watch Discovery Channel, you may see 10 years of work squished into that one hour."

But for Langley, hard work has never been a problem. She's contributed to exhibits at the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, holds a PhD in the subject, and is currently co-authoring a book about legal issues surrounding heritage resources.

Langley said her parents first got her interested in archaeology.

"My family was always interested in history and we would go to historic sites," she said.

But it was a diver's photo on a National Geographic cover that made her consider taking her science underwater.

"That just mesmerized me that you could find these things and bring them up," she said.

There's strategy in selecting sites to survey.

"We have a huge responsibility to the taxpayer," she said. "We want them to be able to come and watch while we do it, we want to do it during part of the academic year so students can come."

Audiences aside, Langley said preserving a site is most important.

"Archaeology is a destructive science," she said. "Once you dig a site, nobody can ever come back and re-dig it. You have to do it right the first time."
It can be frustrating when looters or treasure hunters get their hands on a site, she said.

Full story...

Yahoo News

Five shipwrecks dating from the 1500s to the 1700s have been found during renovation work on a quay in central Stockholm, the Swedish Maritime Museum said on Monday.

"Five shipwrecks ... from the 1500s to 1700s have been found in connection with the renovation of Stroemkajen," the museum said.

The location is right outside the fashionable Grand Hotel, a popular destination for tourists visiting the Swedish capital.

"The discoveries shed light on the naval shipyard where among others the royal warship Vasa was built and on various periods of the city's history," the museum said.

The ships are in good condition, with several of them measuring 20 meters (66 feet) in length.

Archeologists were also delighted with other discoveries made near the ships.

"The findings, which include tools and household items, reveal how people lived in Stockholm in the 1500s and early 1600s," Andreas Olsson, in charge of archeology at the museum, told Swedish news agency TT.

It is not known why the ships sank.

Earlier this year, Sweden celebrated the 50th anniversary of the raising of the Vasa, a 17th century royal warship that was the jewel of the Swedish navy when it sank in a Stockholm harbour just minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628.

It is now housed in a Stockholm museum built especially for it, and is the biggest tourist attraction in Sweden.

From CBS Detroit 

Tests performed at the bottom of northern Lake Michigan have provided enough evidence for researchers to recommend an excavation of the site of a shipwreck to determine if it’s the Griffin, a French vessel that was loaded with furs when it sank in 1679, the project’s lead investigator said Monday.

Sonar scans of the lake bottom and profiling below it showed a mass consistent with other images of a buried ship hull, said Ken Vrana, director of the Laingsburg-based Center for Maritime and Underwater Resource Management.

“The consensus among the professionals … who have reviewed the data so far is that this site does warrant a test excavation,” said Vrana, whose private, nonprofit started as a research and outreach unit of Michigan State University.

“We’re very optimistic that we have located an old vessel – an old, sunken vessel. But the real clincher – is this the Griffin? – we don’t know yet,” he said. The Griffin was built and commanded by the explorer Rene-Robert Sieur de La Salle on behalf of King Louis XIV.

The next step would be to seek a state permit for the excavation.

While the maritime center recommends going forward, the ultimate decision rests with the three parties involved: Michigan, France, and the Great Lakes Exploration Group, whose founder, Steve Libert, discovered the site in 2001.

The shipwreck site hasn’t been publicly disclosed but is believed to be between Escanaba and the St. Martin Islands, near Wisconsin.

Michigan had been skeptical and sought to have any wreckage declared state property during years of litigation with Libert’s group. But that position changed after France entered the case and claimed ownership in 2009. Michigan has said it won’t stand in the way of France taking ownership if it is the Griffin (also known by the French equivalent Griffon).

Full story...