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From Soo Evening News

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, in preparing for another busy season at Whitefish Point this coming summer, has named Terry Begnoche as Site Manager for its campus at Whitefish Point.

Begnoche will begin in April, preparing for the summer celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Whitefish Point Light, the oldest on Lake Superior. As Site Manager, Begnoche will oversee the Shipwreck Society museum buildings, grounds, store and educational programming.

Begnoche has a long and deep history with the Shipwreck Society. He was involved with all three of the earlier Shipwreck Society expeditions to the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, in 1989, 1994 and 1995. He is a certified technical diver and still underwater photographer.

He assisted the Shipwreck Society in the underwater lighting for the productions “Graveyard of the Great Lakes,” “The Osborn Incident” and programs relating to the Edmund Fitzgerald.

In addition to being a volunteer with the Shipwreck Society for more than 20 years, Begnoche has served as President of its Board of Directors for nine years and was a leading figure in its successful effort to collaborate with other stakeholders at Whitefish Point. The effort resulted in a land use Plan, signed in 2002.

Begnoche holds a Bachelor of Science Environmental degree from the University of Michigan, Dearborn, a Masters in Business Administration in Quality and Operations Management and has spent most of his career enhancing the environment and developing management systems to safeguard or improve the environment.

He currently teaches at Oakland University on Environmental topics. His career evolved from responding to environmental emergencies to managing liabilities through controlled compliance and on to proactive prevention and creative re-design.

By Melanie Wong - Vail Daily

Barry Clifford has been searching the high seas from Africa to Cape Cod, and he's hit real treasure.

The Massachusetts-based historian and underwater explorer discovered the wreckage of the Whydah, a pirate ship that sunk off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717, making him the discoverer of the only confirmed pirate treasure in existence. He'll be in Vail tonight talking about his pirate adventures as part of the Vail Symposium's Unlimited Adventure Series, a speaker series now in its eighth year.

The Whydah discovery not only gave historians a never-before-seen view inside the age of 17th century pirates, but yielded real treasure — plunder from almost 50 other ships that included West African art, treasure chests of gold and silver and weapons from the time.

The discovery will be featured in an exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science that opens March 4 called Real Pirates.

Treasure in Madagascar .

Clifford will also give the audience a preview of his latest discovery, seven pirate ships sunk off the coast of Madagascar.

The discovery will be the subject of a National Geographic documentary, and Clifford plans to return to the site in May to continue excavating the sites.

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By Peter Collins - The Standard

When Peter Ronald first started diving down to wrecks off the rugged south-west coast he used oxygen cylinders from World War II aircraft connected with stainless-steel pipes and held together with ex-army webbing.

One of the diving regulators was made of silver solder brass.

It's primitive compared with the hi-tech gear on today's market, but it did the trick for the former Terang teenager and his mates Andrew and Tim Goodall and Gary Hayden as they dabbled in archaeology in the early 1970s.

They dived over the Falls of Halladale, Newfield and Schomberg and later the Loch Ard, all famous disasters along the Shipwreck Coast, and helped recover cargo and anchors from the wrecks.

Today the diving gear is part of the local history collection at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, where Mr Ronald once worked and was director.

He donated the equipment along with other maritime memorabilia last month.

"I was pleased Flagstaff Hill accepted it," he said.

"As teens we were very keen on spear fishing and snorkelling and our parents would drive us down to the Peterborough coast over the Falls of Halladale area.

"As soon as we could afford it we got some scuba gear and dived down to her. We were at the cutting edge of amateur archaeology. 

"The Loch Ard was 23 metres down. Most of the others were about 10 metres.

"We got interested in heavy haulage and used disposable fuel tanks from aircraft which we would sink, then refloat by filling them with air.

"The anchor on top of Flagstaff Hill weighs over two tonnes and was salvaged with Stan McPhee and John Laidlaw using 20 44-gallon drums.

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Photo SPRI

By Ralph Gifford - Culture 24

With bitterly cold winters becoming increasingly common, the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth is opening a new polar exhibition celebrating Polar adventurers.

Aptly named On Thin Ice: Pioneers of Polar Exploration, the exhibition has been developed with the help of the Polar Museum in Cambridge and will open on April 8.

The exhibition focuses on the historic and modern-day achievements of polar pioneers by using photography, artefacts, equipment and personal ephemera highlighting group achievements and individual feats of endurance.

Ben Lumby, Exhibitions Manager at National Maritime Museum Cornwall, says that the UK has played a major role in the exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic.

“We are working with the Scott Polar Research Institute, the British Antarctic Survey and a number of famed polar explorers to deliver an exhibition that brings home these remarkable achievements,” says Ben.

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From the Daily Mail

An intrepid British photographer has travelled the world snapping pictures of the bizarre things lying on the sea bed.

Diving enthusiast Alex Mustard, 36, has made many strange discoveries while exploring beneath the water's surface.

His pictures, taken while investigating the insides of eerie shipwrecks, include barnacle-covered motorbikes once meant for British troops in World War Two.

Rusty British trucks also lie forgotten in their watery graves along with rifles that have never been used, and one extraordinary photo even shows the shell of the iconic VW Beetle car.

Alex, from Southampton, Hampshire, said: 'Wrecks attract divers because of the incongruity of seeing something from above the waves beneath them.

'The VW Beetle was purposely sunk for divers and it's particularly bizarre - it's the last thing you would expect to sea underwater.

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From The Dominion Post

All along Wellington's stormy South Coast lie the victims of howling gales and bad decisions. Swamped by monstrous waves or steered blindly on to rocks, shipwrecks dot the bays and inlets, sheltering slices of history and plenty of crayfish.

Owhiro Bay, a treasure trove of four easily accessible wrecks, is a popular spot for novice divers.

Dave Drane, who owns Splash Gordon dive centre in Island Bay and has been diving in Wellington waters for more than 20 years, says the Yung Pen is a good wreck for beginner divers to test the waters.

"It's a nice easy shore dive: you just walk off the beach about seven metres, so it's a good one for new divers."

The Yung Pen is one of Wellington's youngest wrecks, a squid boat that sank in 1982. Owhiro Bay is also home to the Cyrus and the Wellington, which went down on the same day, and the Progress, which took four of its crew down with it when it sank in 1931.

The four wrecks in Owhiro Bay can be covered in a couple of diving trips, Mr Drane says, and provide a variety of wreck-diving experiences.

"They're all in different states. There are wrecks everywhere in Wellington. We do wreck trails, taking people from one to the other."

Some wrecks, especially those that sank many years ago, are little more than nuts and bolts now pieces of metal and wood that only the trained eye would recognise as once being part of a ship.

But there are several nearly intact hulls down there too, that divers can venture inside if they know what they're doing.

"The Wellington F69 frigate broke up into three pieces, which was a shame, but you can still go into parts of it," Mr Drane says. "The Yung Pen is still intact, and the South Sea you can peek in but the sea is so unforgiving."

By Harvey Rice - Houson Chronicle

Hurricane Ike did to the USS Cavalla what Japanese destroyers tried and failed to do. The storm punched a gaping hole in the bow of the World War II submarine that survived depth charge attacks during the battle of the Philippine Sea.

Ike floated the Cavalla, although its hull had been buried 15 feet in the ground when it was placed in Seawolf Park on Pelican Island in 1971. The storm surge washed earth beneath the floating sub and left it 5 feet higher when it subsided, said John McMichael, Seawolf Park manager.

The storm also floated the destroyer escort USS Stewart, another park attraction that sits next to the Cavalla, and deposited a boat underneath it that had to be removed.

More than two years after the storm, volunteers such as former submariner Bob Gawe, 66, and his wife Sharon, 58, from Bridgeport, Conn., and hired hands are at work repairing a 30-foot hole in the Cavalla's bow where rusted steel plates gave way under Ike's blows.

McMichael, who served on 11 submarines over his 32 years in the silent service, had to raise $86,000 before repairs could begin. He now needs to raise $520,000 for restraining systems that will keep the Cavalla and the Stewart stable if another Ike-size storm strikes.

The engineering plan calls for driving 3-foot diameter pipes 90 feet in the ground on each side of the Cavalla and welding inch-thick steel straps to them that would stretch across the sub under its wooden decking, McMichael said.

The Stewart would have a metal brace attached to its hull that would slide up and down a 12-foot high steel retainer with a base buried 90-feet deep.

The quest for funding is never-ending for a boat that has earned its place in history yet has never gained the attention McMichael thinks it deserves. He often encounters Galveston residents who have never heard of the storied submarine.

Full story...

Photo Santa Cruz Natural History Museum 

From The Sant Cruz Sentinel

On the night of Oct. 1, 1924, the combination of high seas and a course too close to the shoreline put the La Feliz on the rocks directly in front of where Long Marine Laboratory exists today.

The 100-ton vessel was carrying canned sardines from Monterey to San Francisco when she wrecked. Local residents drove out to the top of the 30-foot bluff and used their headlights to illuminate the ship and help rescue the crew of 13.

The mast was removed, leaned against the cliff and used with a block and tackle to recover the cargo of sardines as well as equipment from the ship.

Somewhat surprisingly, comparing photographs of the shipwreck with the site today, neither the rocky shelf where the ship was grounded nor the cliff has changed much in the subsequent 86 years.

Standing today on the deck of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at Long Marine Laboratory, you can see what looks like a tilted telephone pole, rising from the shoreline and extending up above the cliff top.

Amazingly, this is the mast of the La Feliz, still standing proudly, 86 years later.

While 2,000 feet away at Natural Bridges, two of the three arches have collapsed over the years; the cliff in front of the Marine Discovery Center remains intact.

One important reason for this difference is the presence of a very hard rock platform in the Santa Cruz mudstone at the base of the cliff.

The very resistant rock that impaled the La Feliz has protected its mast and also buffered the adjacent cliffs from direct wave attack. On low tides you can also see the remains of the ship's drive shaft on the beach just east of the mast.

The La Feliz wasn't the only local shipwreck. Forty-eight years earlier in October 1876, the Active, a 92-foot schooner, went aground on Its Beach just below the old lighthouse.

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