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From Culture 24

Captain Kidd is variously portrayed as one of the most dastardly pirates of the 17th century and a privateer whose bravery in attacking hostile foreign ships deserved a little more than his gristly fate. His execution in Wapping, pointedly, has its 210th anniversary during the first week of this show.

Just as Kidd remains a folkloric figurehead, informing the depiction of characters such as Blackbeard and Captain Jack Sparrow on stage, screen and page, so his life is a starting point for the exhibition’s theme of corrupt political activities entrenched in piracy during the 17th and 18th centuries.

“It will help people understand the close connection between the pirates of the high seas and the London that funded their activities,” explains Tom Wareham, the Curator of Maritime History at the Museum.

“The skull and crossbones may not have fluttered over ships in the Thames, but many of the pirates themselves were here at one time or another.”

The dubious exploits of MPs and a trail of intrigue leading to mighty traders the East India Company is told through a rip-roaring shipload of objects, taking in Kidd’s last letter – going out in style with the promise of hidden treasure – to pirate flags, cannons, treasure maps, gibbet cages and even a Vivienne Westwood outfit from her idolised Pirates collection of 1981.

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Photo Kurt Reese

By Travis J. Tritten - Stars and Stripes

A plaque looted from a World War II destroyer sunk off Okinawa has been returned, but the mystery surrounding its disappearance remains.

The builder’s plaque on the USS Emmons was pried from inside the shipwreck sometime last year by scuba-diving thieves, triggering a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation in September and an appeal by Okinawa divers that the historic plaque be returned.

The trail went cold for months, and many believed the artifact would never be recovered.

Then on April 7 — one day after the anniversary of the ship’s sinking in 1945 — a package arrived in the mail for Yukio Murata, chairman of the Okinawa Diving Safety Council.

It had been sent from a Naha post office and the only evidence of the sender was the name “Jason” written in Japanese characters, Murata told Stars and Stripes on Friday.

The missing Emmons plaque, a record of the laying of the destroyer’s keel by the Bath Iron Works in 1940 that had rested in the darkness of 135 feet of ocean for over six decades, was inside the package.

Murata, whose efforts were key in recovering the stolen plaque, immediately turned the plaque over to NCIS.

Murata said when he learned of the theft, he offered his help to NCIS, American dive groups and a USS Emmons veteran group in the United States. He also contacted about 300 dive shops on the island to ask that the thief return the artifact.

“I felt there were spirits who are still in that ship and it was important to return the plaque to them,” said Murata, who was presented Friday with a $1,500 reward by the Okinawa Underwater Explorers dive group for his help finding the ship plaque.

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Photo Michelle McSorley

By Eric Dresden - The Saginaw News

Five Arthur Hill High School students are searching for shipwrecks in Lake Huron with the chief scientist who mapped the Titanic.

Thanks to “Project Shiphunt” at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, sophomores Tiesha Anderson, James E. Willett and Yer Vang and juniors Tierrea Billings and Cody Frost are hunting for a shipwreck, investigating the identity of the ship and creating a 3-D documentation of it.

They will be on a ship throughout the next week, using computers to scour the lake’s floor.

“By exposing them to this aspect of science ... (it will) inspire them to take the technology to the next step and next generation,” said James Delgado, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration nautical archaeologist.

Delgado was also chief scientist for the mapping the Titanic shipwreck.

“We are giving them data and having them make decisions,” he said.

The fivesome won the opportunity after they expressed interest in it to a school counselor. They are searching for ships that sank from the 1830s through the 1930s.

The youths were the only students chosen from a statewide field of applicants seeking to embark on the shiphunt, said Safiya Mosley, spokeswoman for the Saginaw School District.

New York City-based Radical Media, a developer, producer and distributor of TV shows, selected the five youths from the Saginaw district, according to Mosley.

“This is going to be an internationally released documentary” played on the Science Channel, Mosley said.

“The equipment they’re using, the 3-D technology, is amazing,” Mosley added. “It’s the experience of a lifetime.”

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Hydro International

Using a five-passenger submarine and a remotely operated vehicle, a team of explorers has discovered a historic Mosquito Fleet Steamer in Elliott Bay near Alki Point, USA, that they believe is the SS Dix, which sank in 1906 and has not been seen since.

After 104 years, the sinking of the Dix is still considered the worst maritime disaster in Puget Sound.

On November 18, 1906, the Dix was underway from Seattle to Port Blakely on Bainbridge Island with 77 passengers and crew when she struck the three-masted schooner Jeanie one mile west of Duwamish Head. The Dix sank within minutes with a loss of thirty-nine lives.

Explorer and underwater videographer Laura James has searched for the location of the Dix for two decades. In early March, 2011, believing she had located the Dix, but lacking the resources to explore those extreme depths, she began collaborating with wreck diving author Scott Boyd, and OceanGate, a local submarine exploration company.

Boyd and James first scanned the wreck using surface sonar from aboard Boyd's boat, Dive Bum, to confirm that it was likely to be a notable shipwreck and not another sunken barge.

OceanGate then provided a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with an experienced crew on Dive Bum and on 19th March, 2011, the first video images of the wreck were recorded along with high-definition sonar.

"The deep wreck is clearly a wood-hulled passenger steamer from the Mosquito Fleet era and is in a location consistent with the last sighting of the Dix," said James. 

 On 14th and 15th April, OceanGate's five-person submarine Antipodes made three dives totaling 11 man-hours on the newly discovered wreck, which sits at a depth of 500 feet, about one mile north of Alki Point. "The photos, video, personal observations and sonar images captured during the hours spent on the wreck are all consistent with the vessel being the Dix," said Boyd.

The pilothouse and much of the upper deck cabin is still in place, as is the propeller. The wreck is laying on its starboard side, pointed towards Port Blakely almost directly below the intersecting plots of the courses of the Jeanie and Dix. 

Additional submarine dives are planned to gather more information and images to document the wreck using the latest 3D sonar technology. "It's a rare privilege to dive in a submarine to a depth where very few people have been," said Joel Perry, OceanGate's VP of Expeditions. "To visit a wreck that might be such an important piece of local history that nobody has seen before is an awesome experience."

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From Hydro International

Oceanic Research and Recovery and Deep Marine Salvage have agreed upon their first intended "cluster" of five commodity-based salvage targets.

These targets have been selected from ORRV's vast portfolio of shipwrecks lost in northern hemisphere waters.

The combined manifested value of these cargos is a minimum of USD2 billion at current commodity prices, and consists of platinum, gold, silver, copper and zinc.

Cluster Targeting, a new approach to salvage planning developed by DMS, leverages the close proximity of valuable shipwrecks to maximising the amount of time the primary salvage ship can remain on site during each recovery cycle, minimising the high cost of vessel mobilisation, location transit and vessel demobilisation and minimising the risk that undersea working conditions on a wreck might make salvage unprofitable thereby forcing a return to port. 

"This cluster has been selected because the wrecks are close to each other and because they lie at shallow depths," said Scott Heimdal, CEO of ORRV. "

On the water time is money, the faster you can put it on the deck the higher your margins," continued Mr. Heimdal.

"Working depth is a big factor in feasibility planning. Selecting this cluster ensures minimal daily operating costs."
 

 
Photo Jeremy Lee

 
By Jeremy Lee - ABC News

Rob Simpson is certain he knows where the fabled Mahogany ship is buried.

The search for the Mahogany ship has been the subject of much discussion over the years with many people putting forward theories about what it might've been and where it might be buried.

The story has intrigued Melbourne based amateur archaeologist Rob Simpson who's spent a lot of time reading the literature relating to the ship and using the various reported sightings to try and pinpoint the exact location.

The co-ordinates noted by 19th century local resident Alexander Rollo have been particularly useful in Rob's research, and after applying Rollo's measurements to a Google Earth image of the area a couple of years ago, Rob was surprised to see the outline of what looked very much like a ship.

As he explains, the idea of aerial archaeology is to identify buried remains through observing how the vegetation and other landmarks appear from the air - the technique has apparently been used to uncover ruins in Rome and elsewhere.

In this case there certainly seems to be a clear correlation between the coordinates and the outline vaguely visible from the Google Earth image.

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By Stephenie Livingston - Suwannee Democrat

For countless years divers have searched the pitch-black waters of the Suwannee River for remnants of the area’s most early inhabitants.

Authorities warn that collecting Native American and prehistoric artifacts is an illegal activity that has the potential to negatively impact local river ecosystems and archaeological research.

And officials are cracking down on offenders. Two arrests were made in December after two people were discovered collecting artifacts at Little River Springs, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesperson Karen Parker said.

Last year, the agency made a total of 14 cases statewide. So far in 2011, the FWC has made five cases on illegal artifacts digging, four in Alachua County and one in Washington County.

“Archaeological sites consist of much more than the artifacts displayed in museums,” Parker said by email Wednesday.

The state’s view is that the artifacts are to be left alone - period.

“Also, the artifacts and sites are owned by the people of Florida, and cannot be studied or appreciated if they are removed,” said Florida Department of State Communications Director Chris Cate, who spoke in support of efforts by state archaeologists.

Those archaeologists, and others, piece together the past. When one piece is disturbed, such as an arrowhead or pottery shard, the entire puzzle can become compromised.

Parker said where the artifacts lay in relation to others in a site provide clues for archaeologists to follow that can help determine how the object was used, made and lost by Florida’s ancestors. Parker added that the fragile surroundings can sometimes provide more information than the artifact itself.

“When artifacts are moved, or the site disrupted, the context is destroyed, and unlike a pot that can be glued back together, when context is destroyed it can never be recreated,” she said.

And, most of the artifacts found by amateurs are lost forever.

“Many of the artifacts removed from Florida rivers are sold on eBay and other internet sites, leaving the state for good,” said Cate.

“Archaeologists and other members of the public have no opportunity to study or learn from these items. Our agency encourages preservation of artifacts and sites in place.”

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Photo Allison Breiner Potter

By Michelle Saxton - Lumina News

A state archaeologist from New Hanover County will help lead a dive this month to recover a large anchor and other artifacts from the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship that wrecked off the coast of North Carolina in 1718.

The remains of Queen Anne’s Revenge, a nearly 100-foot vessel with three masts and 40 cannons, is under about 23 feet of water near Beaufort, Mark Wilde-Ramsing, a deputy state archaeologist in Kure Beach and the project’s director, said Tuesday, May 17.

"Blackbeard was probably the most recognized, most notorious pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy, which was in the early 1700s," Wilde-Ramsing said.

His ship’s 13-foot wrought iron anchor is estimated to weigh about 3,000 pounds.

"It will be a great showpiece and something that should give us good attention now as we attempt to get interest and support to complete the excavations," Wilde-Ramsing said.

Sporting a gray T-shirt with "Save the Queen" on the back, Wilde-Ramsing joined other researchers and representatives from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College for a news conference Wednesday, May 18, at UNCW’s Center for Marine Science about the expedition.

UNCW’s research vessel The Cape Fear was being loaded up in preparation of the dive planned for May 23 to May 27. CFCC’s vessel, The Dan Moore, will help lift the anchor.

Also coming up, more than 350 artifact groups from Queen Anne’s Revenge will be on display in Beaufort starting June 11, North Carolina Maritime Museums Director Joe Schwarzer said.

Some artifacts previously recovered from the ship were on display during the news conference, including a sword quillon block, window glass and brass cufflink set.

"We’ll have enough to give viewers an idea of what life was like onboard QAR and to raise some interesting questions," Schwarzer said Wednesday,
May 18. "Why did Blackbeard scuttle the ship? Why didn’t he salvage it more completely?"

"It’s a very interesting period in colonial history," Schwarzer added. "We don’t have all the answers yet, but this exhibit will start to provide the public with a window on the past."

People are engaged in the subject of pirates, and an archaeological project of this significance can help boost tourism dollars, Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle said Wednesday.

"We want to get people to start up at Hatteras at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and travel down the coast and visit at Beaufort and Wilmington and … down to Southport and being able to get the full story of North Carolina’s very rich, very diverse maritime history," Carlisle said.

Partnerships with universities and state and federal supporters have helped fund the project during the years, and Carlisle said they hope to gain private and community support as well in helping to raise about $100,000 to $200,000 a year, adding that the goal is to finish recovering artifacts by 2013.

As long as those artifacts are still underwater they are at risk of being lost during storms, Carlisle said.

Also, the artifacts could take months or years to be properly cleaned and preserved after being underwater for so long, and officials hope to have the most significant pieces ready for display by 2018 – the 300th anniversary of the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck.

Queen Anne’s Revenge had been the French slave ship La Concorde until pirates led by Blackbeard overtook it in 1717 and turned it into his battleship, Wilde-Ramsing said, adding that Blackbeard and his crew later blockaded Charleston in May 1718, taking about $500,000 worth of loot before heading to Beaufort.

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