HOT NEWS !

By Natalie Orenstein - San Francisco Chronicle

An anchor snared in a commercial fishing net in Monterey Bay last month was determined by archaeologists to be more than 100 years old.

But the 12-foot, 3,000- to 4,000-pound iron anchor isn't going to a museum.

Instead, protected under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the historical resource was hoisted back into the water Thursday to help preserve it.

"The iron undergoes metallurgical changes, and starts to break down really fast as soon as it's in air," said Scott Kathey, a spokesman for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The admiralty anchor, a model that was used regularly until the turn of the century, was caught in a net designed to catch schooling fish, such as sardines and anchovies.

Though there are hundreds of shipwrecks and loose artifacts in Monterey Bay, it is unusual for fishing nets to pick up unwanted items, Kathey said.

By Bernd - Global Adventures

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined a team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA) to search the Graveyard of the Atlantic for the remains of German U-boats and the ships they did send to the seafloor.

The waters off the coast of North Carolina were the site of a devastating period for the United States during World War II. Dozens of ships, mostly merchant vessels, were sunk during this time period by German submarines.

Today, the remains of those ships, along with several U-boats, rest at the bottom of the Atlantic. NOAA estimates that more than 50 vessels were lost to U-Boat assaults from January to August 1942 alone.

“They sank ships at will,” says Evan Kovacs, director of 3D photography for WHOI’s Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab (AIVL), which is embarking on a 10-day mission to provide NOAA with the first 3-D optical survey of the undersea wrecks off the Carolina coast.

“We hope to get a full 3-D picture of several sites so that NOAA can go back and assess the wrecks’ condition and the impact of the ships on the marine environment. We’re breaking new ground.”

The mission, currently in progress aboard the NOAA vessel SRVx, employs a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) outfitted with several underwater 3-D and high-definition camera systems developed by Lange and Kovacs. Over the course of the survey, the ROV pilot will work closely with technical dive teams in surveying the wrecks previously identified by the side scan sonar survey.

The NOAA, National Park Service (NPS) and WHOI teams expect to conduct these optical surveys and close up inspection task on targets as deep as 500-600 feet.

The dive teams will utilize AIVL’s smaller diver-operated underwater 3D and 2D imaging systems in order to acquire imagery that would be difficult for the ROV to accomplish.

“This is our first large-scale marine archeology program with NOAA,” said AIVL Director Bill Lange. “We hope it will be the first of many such cooperative programs.”

Lange and his team have been conducting similar marine archeology programs with the National Park Service and State agencies over the last 5-6 years.

The WHOI survey and mapping effort is the most detailed phase of the project, which is coordinated by NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Previous stages utilized a sonar system to provide a wide-area remote-sensing survey to give researchers a 'big picture' or birds-eye-view of the battlefield area. NOAA then employed a multi-beam sonar system to “zoom in” on some of the wrecks for a closer look.

By Sharon Kiley Mack - Bangor Daily News

A team of five researchers from the Submerged Resources Center of the National Park Service, located in Denver, has been exploring the intertidal waters around Saint Croix Island and Red Beach.

The historic site, long known to locals as Dochet Island, is a small, 6½-acre uninhabited island near the mouth of the St. Croix River that forms part of theinternational boundary between Maine and New Brunswick.

The island has special significance to both Canada and the U.S. as the first French settlement in the area, dating back to 1604, according to Park Ranger Meg Scheid. During the first winter, more than half the settlers perished due to a what is believed to be scurvy. Those who survived went on to settle in what in now Quebec.

Archaeologist Bert Ho of the National Park Service said Thursday that the team has not found anything of significance during their first week of exploration. “We have found a lot of historic debris,” he said, which is a polite way of saying they found a lot of trash.

The team is using metal detectors, side-scan sonar and personal viewing by underwater diving to map and assess the area. Although the historic island has been the site of many important archaeological digs in the past, Ho said this is the first time the intertidal waters have been researched.

“We are looking for patterns, for example a scattering of metal,” he said. He said the diving will concentrate on the Canadian side of the island in a small cove. “We’re trying not to have it in our mind that we’re going to find a French cannon or something similar. We have no expectations.”

He said the search of the area is being conducted in a very systematic and detailed way and that precise maps will be created of the area. “It’s a bit different working here than in other National Park tidal zones because there is such a large tidal range here,” he said.

Ho said the research team will also be creating a baseline study of the east side of the island.

“We are very concerned because there is a lot of erosion on that side of the island,” Ho said. “This is significant because there is an ancient burial ground on that side of the island.”

Ho said the erosion is getting uncomfortably close to the burial ground.

St. Croix Island was known as Bone Island in the 18th century after many of the graves were exposed by erosion, according to a history of the park. Twenty-three sets of remains were removed in 1969 and subsequently reburied in 2003.

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By Eric Sharp - Freep

Fourteen years isn't a long life for a ship, yet that's how long the schooner Portland lasted from her birth in a shipyard in upstate New York in 1863 until she went aground on the shores of Lake Huron in 1877 and was pounded to pieces by an October gale.

Portland's short career was marked by numerous close calls that included a collision with another ship. An early demise wasn't unusual in a day when 2,000 cargo schooners hauled everything, including lumber and coal, on the lakes without the assistance of satellite navigation systems, radios or even accurate charts.

Stephanie Gandulla, a marine archaeologist at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, glided over Portland's hull about 8 feet below the surface of Lake Huron, examining the way the builders had fastened together the massive timbers of the keelson, which helped hold Portland's bottom together.

She surfaced, blew a miniature whale-spout from her snorkel, and said, "A lot of the spikes have been bent over by ice, but you can see how they fastened the planking, and you can see the mast step and the centerboard pivot."

Portland is one of a dozen shipwrecks that are in less than 20 feet of water in the sanctuary and easily accessible to snorkelers, and another three dozen wrecks as deep as 240 feet draw scuba divers from around the world. The wrecks range from a schooner sunk in 1843 to the freighter Nordmeer that went down in 1966.

Gandulla said the deep Thunder Bay wrecks are gaining a reputation as a mecca for technical divers who breathe exotic gas mixtures that allow them to make deeper dives for long periods.

Superb underwater visibility has made the area a popular site for both shallow and deep diving. Thanks to billions of zebra and quagga mussels filtering the water, diving Thunder Bay is often like diving in the tropics, with 60-foot visibility commonplace.

Even snorkeling over Portland's timbers, lying in 6-10 feet of water where the waves could stir the bottom, we could easily see 40 feet along the huge beams and planks that once were the ship's bottom and starboard side of the hull.

Like most ships wrecked by grounding, Portland was smashed apart by decades of Great Lakes storms. But her structure is still in big pieces, and the wrecks that lie in deeper water are often perfectly intact.

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By Erin James - Hampton Roads

To divers, it looks like a gigantic knife embedded in sand on the ocean floor, dulled and corroded by decades gone by.

The submarine's aptitude for intimidation, including the machine gun still perched on its bow, remains intact nearly 70 years after it sank 10 miles from the Outer Banks coastline.

The bodies of seven men are believed to be inside.

In 1942, U-701 was a German killing machine that entered American waters to wreak havoc on merchant and Navy ships. Before meeting its own demise on July 7, 1942, U-701 attacked and sank at least four Allied vessels.

"It's a sight that would strike fear into any merchant marine's heart," said Evan Kovacs, a scuba diver who photographed the submarine days ago. "It's definitely one of those sights that gets your blood going."

In recent weeks, researchers have gotten a new look at U-701 and other World War II vessels sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Now in its fourth year, an expedition led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is trying to document and photograph the dozens of warships that disappeared below the surface.

Researchers are not planning to raise any of the vessels, largely because many of the underwater sites are military graves.

This summer, researchers are using advanced technology - including a submersible video camera worthy of a Hollywood movie - to find lost ships.

They've narrowed their focus to a 130-square-mile area of the ocean off the southern end of Hatteras Island, believed to be the site of a critical battle between a German submarine and an Allied convoy en route to Florida.

Since the team got started in July, an underwater robot aided by sonar technology has identified 47 sites of interest, at least some of which are likely World War II shipwrecks.

They could also be wrecks of another era, debris, or just big rocks on the ocean floor.

By Lorraine Payette - Emcst Lawrence

On Aug. 4, after weeks of careful preparation and packing, the St. Lawrence Islands National Park in Mallorytown Landing bid a fond farewell to the gunboat which had been housed at the facility for more than 40 years.

In 1967, the remains of an 1812 British gunboat were raised by the Parks Canada Underwater Archaeology team. With extreme care and respect, the boat was placed in a cool, dark boathouse at the St. Lawrence Islands National Park, Mallorytown Landing, Ontario, where it has remained to be observed and admired by those who come to visit the Park throughout its season.

But time takes its toll. The old boathouse was suffering, the piers below it rotting away and endangering the overall structure.

Parks Canada took a long hard look, and decided that instead of trying to do a patchwork repair to the old building, it would be better to create a new exhibit and facility for the gunboat at Fort Wellington in Prescott.

"Fort Wellington National Historic Site, located in the historic town of Prescott, is a British fort built during the War of 1812 to protect the St. Lawrence River, the main shipping and communication line between Montreal and Upper Canada during the 19th century," said Bruce MacMillan, Partnering Engagement and Communications Officer for the Eastern Ontario Field Unit of Parks Canada. "In addition to being home to Fort

Wellington, Prescott Ontario was an important British gunboat station during the conflict. It was also the home port for three British gunboats used on the river to aid in battle, as well as to protect and escort convoys of bateaux loaded with valuable military equipment and supplies.

A new visitor centre at Fort Wellington is being constructed to accommodate this significant artifact, increase exhibit space and better orient visitors to foster greater public understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the fort and its history.

"The gunboat was raised from the river in 1967, during the centennial for Canada. It only seems appropriate that we would conduct this project now, during the 100th anniversary of parks Canada, and that the unveiling ceremonies are to take place in May, 2012, in time for the bicentennial of the War of 1812."

Full story...

By  Bryan Copland - East Lothian Courier

Of the nine million people killed in the First World War, few could have died in more unusual or tragic circumstances than those lost in the Battle of May Island. 

Two hundred and seventy lives were claimed as two submarines sank and three other vessels were damaged on the night of January 31-February 1, 1918.

But despite its 'battle' title, no enemy forces were involved in the disaster which happened 10 miles off the East Lothian coast. 

This was the result of a series of accidents which led to 100 Royal Navy men being killed at the time and a further 170 losing their lives later.

Having lain largely undisturbed for nearly 100 years, the exact locations of those two submarines has been revealed for the first time.

Sonar images have been produced by from a survey of the Forth estuary by marine archaeologists EMU Ltd, as part of the groundwork into the proposed Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm. But thanks to legal protection, the wrecks will not be affected by the project.

John Gribble, a marine archaeologist, explained the significance of what has been discovered.

"The location of the two K-class subs has been known for a long time, but what's happened with this survey is that for the first time we've been able to identify which was which and we have a far better handle of the position," he said.

On the night of January 18, 1918, units of the British Grand Fleet set off from Rosyth, heading for a rendezvous in the North Sea. The formation included 19 major warships and their destroyer escorts.

Full story...

By Naomi Bernstein - ACK

Renowned maritime archaeologist Kelly Gleason will take a trip back in time Tuesday and Wednesday at the Nantucket Whaling Museum as she shares her experience with the discovery of the shipwrecked Nantucket whaler Two Brothers at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.

Gleason works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Marine Sanctuaries in Hawaii. She discovers, explores, documents, and protects shipwrecks in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a large conservation area in the Pacific Ocean.

She has been working to explore sites of shipwrecks for about eight years, and in the past four years, the story of the Two Brothers has become a specific project of hers.

The history of the Two Brothers actually begins with a different ship, the Essex. George Pollard Jr., a Nantucket seaman, was captain of the ship when it was struck by a sperm whale and sunk, the inspiration for Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick.”

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