HOT NEWS !

From Paul Fraser Collectibles

A unique sextant owned by the captain of the first ship to respond to the Titanic's distress signals is to be sold at auction on November 24.

Estimated to achieve £70,000 ($111,368), the historically significant object was previously owned by Sir Arthur Rostron - captain of the Carpathia at the time of the Titanic's infamously ill-fated maiden voyage - and is thought to have been used by him as a navigational aid on the night the Titanic sank.

The auction house believes Rostron acquired the sextant in 1883. Having remained in the Rostron family subsequent to his death, according to his great-granddaughter Janet Rostron, "it would certainly have been the instrument he used to navigate through the icy floes."

2012 marks the centenary of the Titanic tragedy; a tragedy somewhat alleviated by Rostron's navigational expertise, whose efforts helped to recover 705 people.

Along with Rostron's sextant, the sale will also feature an extensive catalogue of Titanic, ocean liner and transport memorabilia

Collectible artefacts and memorabilia related to the Titanic have performed superbly this year.

In the US, letter written by the Titanic's band leader sold in April for $154,974, while a deck chair from the ship (thought to be only one of seven still in existence) also achieved $65,351.

From The Oregon Live

Hidden beneath the ever-changing waters at the mouth of the Columbia River and its world-famous bar, the Sand Island spit and the Graveyard of the Pacific is a pioneer vessel that played a significant role in the greatest period of Chinese emigration in U.S. and Chinese history. 

The S.S. Great Republic, one of the four original Pacific Mail Steamships that were the world's largest passenger vessels of their day, brought ashore thousands of Chinese who shaped the heritage of Oregon and the U.S.

The pioneers from the Pearl River delta and Guangzhou (Canton) in Guangdong Province seeking Gum Shan -- their Mountain of Gold -- could not have established Portland's Chinatown, mined the state's silver and gold, helped build its railroads or tilled the rich soil of the Willamette and Hood River valleys without these ships. 

The Great Republic's final resting place was last observed in 2004 just off Sand Island on the Washington side of the Columbia Bar, across the river from Oregon's Maritime Museum in Astoria.

It is the sole wreck site in the U.S. that represents the origins of Chinese immigration before the 1882 exclusion laws.

Two months before his assassination in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation authorizing construction of the four largest passenger sidewheel steamers in the world in New York, and a subsidy for the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. to operate them.

Full article...

 
Photo Cheryl Hapke

By Becky Oskin - NBC News

A wrecked schooner long buried on Fire Island — a barrier island off of Long Island, N.Y. — now lays fully exposed following Hurricane Sandy's attack on the beach.

The weathered hull of the shipwreck lies about 4 miles (6 kilometers) east of Davis Park, between Skunk Hollow and Whalehouse Point, in the Fire Island National Seashore, as first reported by Newsday.

The remains are thought to be the Bessie White, more than 90 years old, said Paula Valentine, public affairs specialist for the park. Historic photographs and news accounts don't agree on the year of the ship's grounding, but here is an outline of its story:

The ship, a four-mast Canadian schooner, went aground in heavy fog about a mile west of Smith's Point, Long Island, in either 1919 or 1922.

The men escaped in two boats.

One capsized in the surf, injuring one crew member, but everyone (including the ship's cat) made it to shore safely. But the crew couldn't save the 3-year-old ship or its tons of coal.

The ship was salvaged in the following weeks.

The bus-size ship's skeleton has poked up through the sand before, such as after a nor'easter in 2006, exposing long boards and metal pegs, Valentine told OurAmazingPlanet.

The dune that used to bury the wreck eroded back an average of 72 feet, said U.S. Geological Survey coastal geologist Cheryl Hapke, who is studying the changes on Fire Island.

Archaeologists and park officials are documenting the shipwreck before the sea reburies it with sand, Valentine said.

By Cheryl Burke - Carolina Coast Online

State underwater archaeologists were pleasantly surprised recently to find two more cannons to add to the growing number found at the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site in Beaufort Inlet.

Divers were about to close down the site for the fall dive season on Oct. 23 when they found two carriage guns north of a larger pile of cannons in the mid-ship section, according to John Morris, deputy state archaeologist who oversees the QAR project.

“We didn’t expect to find these guns,” he said.

This brings the total number of cannons discovered at the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship to 27. One of those is a signal gun, which is on display at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, responsible for curatorship of QAR artifacts.

Mr. Morris said the cannons would remain on the ocean floor until a future dive season. The goal is to retrieve all remaining artifacts, including 14 cannons, by 2014.

Mr. Morris said the two cannons would have been mounted in carriages with wheels and sat on the ship’s deck.

Dave Moore, archaeologist with the N.C. Maritime Museum, was diving at the site the day the cannons were found. He said they’re about 4-foot long and would have shot a 1.5-pound cannonball.

The cannons add to the 280,000 artifacts discovered at the shipwreck site, which was found in 1996 by Intersal Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla. The site was turned over to the State of North Carolina in 1997.

Many of the artifacts have already gone through the conservation process and are on display at the N.C. Maritime Museum.
Thousands of others are going through the cleaning and conserving process at the QAR lab at East Carolina University in Greenville.

The conservation process is slow and painstaking, with archaeologists removing layers of crust and salts that have built up for the 300 years they have remained on the ocean floor.

Blackbeard’s flagship plundered merchant ships in 1717 and 1718 off the coast of the Carolinas, with records indicating it sunk in 1718 after being abandoned by Blackbeard.

Full article...

From the Inquisitr
 

Franco Banfi, a 53 year-old explorer who is an avid snake lover has unearthed images of the huge 26-foot anacondas of Mato Grosso in Brazil.

The Mato Grosso do Sul is a Brazilian river and Banfi was able to take numerous photos of the huge snake scanning the water for food, which comes in the form of mice, fish or birds.

The Swiss diver and his team visited the region for ten-days and were able to locate several of these beasts and get extremely close to them as they laid on the riverbank.

One particular anaconda had recently eaten a capybara rodent so was resting and not hungry.

Banfi, who is a father-of-two stated, “As the snake had just eaten it didn’t take much interest in us. Everything is possible but I don’t think it would have eaten us. I was very close, I could have touched it if I wanted to.”

Throughout his trip he unearthed six different female anaconda snakes in the Mato Grosso do Sul region, which is in the heart of South America.

“At the first moment it’s scary because you don’t know the animal and everybody say it’s dangerous,” added Banfi. “But after a while you understand that nothing happens if you respect the snake.

I have never been so close to a snake like this before.”

Banfi then went on to state, “I think a small poisonous snake is more scary than a big one.

At least you can see the anacondas clearly and know what they’re doing.”

 
From Garret Ellison

By Garett Ellison - MLive

After 18 hours spent battling a blizzard on Lake Michigan, the fate of the Westmoreland was sealed less than three miles from safety.

At 10 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1854, rising water in the bilge finally extinguished the fire in the boiler, leaving the cargo-laden steamer powerless and thrown to the mercy of heavy, icy seas off a then-remote stretch of Lake Michigan coastline.

Half the souls on board the Westmoreland would soon perish in the deep, frigid waters of Platte Bay.

The other half would spread the legend of a ship reputed to be carrying $100,000 in gold coins in her safe, and 280 barrels of whiskey in her hold, sparking more than a century of treasure hunters that would search in vain for the wreck.

Search in vain, that is, until 155 years after the sinking, when a diver and shipwreck sleuth from Grand Rapids would find what others could not; the wreck of the Westmoreland sitting upright on the lake bed, 200 feet under the surface of a bay where summer vacationers frolic in the shadow of the Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore.

“It is probably one of the most well-preserved shipwrecks from the 1850s on the planet,” said Ross Richardson, who found the wreck on July 7, 2010.

“It’s in amazing condition.”

Richardson, a former 17-year Steelcase employee who lived in Grand Rapids for 40 years before relocating to Lake Ann in 2008, will return to West Michigan on Thursday, Nov. 15 for a presentation on the search and discovery of the Westmoreland at the Grand Rapids Public Library main branch downtown.

Full article...

By Noel Baker - The Irish Examiner

Sunken ships in our waters are heritage sites. The work of preserving their artifacts is chronicled in a new pictorial guide by the geological survey, says Noel Baker.

The most spectacular and important shipwrecks in Irish waters are detailed in the book Warships, U Boats and Liners: A Guide to Shipwrecks Mapped in Irish Waters, which is published this week.

The book, a joint venture between the Geological Survey of Ireland and the Underwater Archaeology Unit at the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, includes photographic and sonar images of 300 shipwrecks.

Underwater wrecks have dotted our coastline for centuries, but the interest in them, from abroad and at home, has increased hugely.

In the autumn of 1588, the mighty Spanish Armada took up positions off the west coast of Ireland and was almost blown to bits by westerly gales.

Its remnants lie below water, awaiting discovery.

Last August, the RV Keary, a 15m aluminium catamaran operated by the Geological Survey of Ireland, stationed itself a few hundred metres off the coast of Rutland Island, near Burtonport, to search for a wreck that may have been part of the Armada.

The dive was carried out by the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) of the National Monuments Service, and led, for the third year in a row, by Corkwoman Connie Kelleher.

This site, and that of a French vessel a few hundred metres away, are two of the best preserved wrecks off the Irish coast, but they hold secrets.

Archaeologists have not confirmed that the well-preserved wreck was part of the Armada, but there are indicators.

Connie, one of three State underwater archaeologists in the UAU&, said: "We have one side bow to stern [intact] and it’s 18m long at the bottom.

"She was a medium-sized vessel, so she might have been 30m, and she was a war ship." Musket-shot balls and burnt material have been discovered, so it is a fair guess that she burned.

Full article...

By Johnny Clark - The Associated Press

Most of the jewelry recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic will begin a tour of three US cities, its first public display since being salvaged from the ocean depths.

In a nondescript industrial office in north Atlanta, Premier Exhibitions Inc. and RMS Titanic Inc. officials previewed the artifacts before they go on display Friday in Atlanta.

Alexandra Klingelhofer, vice president of collections for RMS Titanic Inc., said the purpose of the exhibit is to enlighten the public of the wonder of exploration.

"Going down two and a half miles below the ocean, recovering a bag, bringing it back up and opening it and finding ... jewelry," Kingelhofer said.

"We're able to give them a glimpse of how it must have been to have opened that for the first time and to see, together, the beautiful jewelry of the Edwardian Period."

The jewelry recovered is from a single purser's bag found during a 1987 research and recovery mission. The collection includes diamond and sapphire rings, brooches, necklaces, cuff links and a gold pocket watch.

Conservators and curators have been studying and preserving the jewelry to gain a better understanding of individual passengers' lives aboard the ill-fated voyage.

Although single pieces of jewelry have been on display at one or more permanent and traveling exhibits sponsored by Premier Exhibitions Inc., their Atlanta debut is the first time the majority of the collection has been available to the public.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, opened in Atlanta earlier this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. Klingelhofer noted that this jewelry mini-exhibit is being added to provide personal insight.

"We are constantly researching the artifacts, learning more about their story, and we thought jewelry is so beautiful and responds well to people," she said.

After a two-month exhibit at the Atlantic Station gallery in Atlanta, the jewels travel to Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas.