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By Callum Hoare - Express.co.uk

A Titanic breakthrough was made after a "monumental" piece of the vessel was saved, in what was described as a "miracle" for preserving history.

The British passenger liner famously sunk after hitting an iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912, in a devastating event that saw more than 1,500 people lose their lives. Its wreck was discovered in 1985 by a Franco-American expedition sponsored by the US Navy. 

The ship was split in two, and is still gradually disintegrating at the bottom of the North Atlantic, sparking concerns from experts who wanted to save it before it was lost forever.

And Channel 4's "Titanic: Into the Heart of the Wreck" detailed how, in 1994, diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet made a huge contribution in its survival bid. The narrator said: "He discovers an enormous piece of Titanic's hull lying on the ocean floor, measuring eight by seven metres and weighing 18 tonnes.

"Nicknamed the 'Big Piece', its recovery is a huge challenge, costing millions of dollars. "Nothing like this has ever been achieved by any archaeologist before.

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From mail Online

Two centuries-old shipwrecks packed with ceramics and other artefacts have been found off Singapore in a rare discovery that will shed light on the city-state's maritime heritage, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The prosperous island nation has long been a key trading hub on global shipping routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

The wrecks were found off Pedra Branca, a rocky outcrop east of Singapore, according to the National Heritage Board and think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which worked together on the project.

The first wreck, discovered after divers accidentally came across ceramic plates in 2015, was carrying Chinese ceramics that possibly date back to the 14th century, when Singapore was known as Temasek.

From mail Online

Two centuries-old shipwrecks packed with ceramics and other artefacts have been found off Singapore in a rare discovery that will shed light on the city-state's maritime heritage, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The prosperous island nation has long been a key trading hub on global shipping routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

The wrecks were found off Pedra Branca, a rocky outcrop east of Singapore, according to the National Heritage Board and think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which worked together on the project.

The first wreck, discovered after divers accidentally came across ceramic plates in 2015, was carrying Chinese ceramics that possibly date back to the 14th century, when Singapore was known as Temasek.

From Keep Talking Greece
 

The underwater archaeological site off the island of Alonissos, the Peristera Shipwreck, will open to visitors on June 1, 2021, the Greek Culture Ministry said in a statement.

The first underwater museum in Greece was inaugurated off  the coast of the island of Alonisos, Sporades, last summer. The Shipwreck Peristera is now the oldest marine archaeological site that can be visited.

The site with more than 5,000 intact antique amphorae.

The water museum of Alonisos with the famous amphorae shipwreck of 5th century BC opens its water gates for amateur divers and free diving divers in the summer months. The underwater museum is located on the site of the ancient shipwreck off the islet of Peristera, off its rocky shore on the West and at a depth of 28 meters.

The shipwreck was discovered by a fisherman in 1985.

The large merchant ship, probably an Athenian one, sank around 425 BC. It was loaded with wine amphorae from Mendi, an ancient city in Halkidiki, and Peparithos, today’s Skopelos. Both regions were famous in the antiquity for their wines.

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By Paulina Karavasili - Greek City Times

109 years ago, one of the darkest pages of the world history was written. The transatlantic Titanic, one of the largest ships to ever be built, and the largest ship of its time, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, carrying 2,224 passengers and crew.

After colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York, US, the gigantic ship was wrecked in two, killing more than 1,500 people. Even to this day, the tragedy of the Titanic, is considered to be one of the deadliest maritime accidents in modern history.

What many do not know is that among the casualties, there were four Greek passengers, who left Europe, looking for a better life and new opportunities in America. Panagiotis Lymperopoulos, Vassilios Katavelos and brothers Apostolos Chronopoulos and Dimitrios Chronopoulos, came from the same village, Agios Sostis, in the region of Messinia in the Peloponnese.

They were all under the age of 30 and once they heard the news about the Titanic and the cruise to the US, they travelled to Marseilles in France, to board the ship at the port of Cherbourg.

Tragically, their dreams, like those of many others who were lost that night, never came true, as all four of them died in the most famous shipwreck in naval history, and although the bodies of Lymperopoulos and Katavelos were believed to have been recovered, those of the two Chronopoulos brothers were never found.

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By Kathianne Boniello - The New York Post

A Bronx man who has long hunted for a famed shipwreck in Hell Gate — and the fortune it’s rumored to contain — allegedly scammed an investor out of $100,000 by claiming to have gold coins from the long-lost vessel, according to a lawsuit.

But instead of precious metal from the legendary British frigate HMS Hussar, which sank in 1780 in the treacherous waters of Hell Gate — where the tide-driven currents of the East and Harlem Rivers and Long Island Sound converge — Joseph Governali’s purported find was “junk purchased on e-bay,” claims James Kays in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing.

Governali, Astoria lawyer Alex Antzoulatos and Antzoulatos’ brother, Spiro, knew the coins were fake when they got Kays to invest, he charges in court papers.

Kays also accuses the three men of lying to a Manhattan Federal Court judge overseeing a two decade-long proceeding regarding Governali’s lengthy pursuit of the Hussar.

Governali, a one-time actor who also goes by the name Joey Treasures, says in previously filed federal court papers that he heads a group called HMS Hussar Inc.

He swore he’d “never give up” in his bid to find the ship.

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From The Guardian

A US navy destroyer sunk during the second world war and lying nearly 6,500 metres below sea level off the Philippines has been reached in the world’s deepest shipwreck dive, a US exploration team said.

A crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the wreckage of the USS Johnston off Samar Island during two eight-hour dives completed late last month, Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic said.

The 115-metre-long ship was sunk on 25 October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf as US forces fought to liberate the Philippines – then a US colony – from Japanese occupation.

Its location in the Philippine Sea was discovered in 2019 by another expedition group but most of the wreckage was beyond the reach of their remotely operated vehicle.

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By Dale Berning Sawa - The Art Newspaper

In January, the French department for marine archaeological research—known as Drassm from its French name—launched the Alfred Merlin, the newest member of its highly specialised fleet.

Built in a shipyard in La Ciotat on the Côte d’Azur, the ship is a 46m-long gleaming white beauty with red and blue stripes running at a slant down its side. Ahead of testing this month and delivery in May, the vessel has been equipped with, among other things, a stern gantry that is tall enough to load a small submarine and a bridge bristling with the latest technologies called “une passerelle du futur”—a bridge of the future.

The Alfred Merlin is named after the French archaeologist who in 1907 led the world’s first underwater excavation, off the coast of Tunisia. France became the first nation to have a dedicated underwater heritage department when André Malraux, the then culture minister, created the Drassm in 1966.

Its global leadership in the field has remained unchallenged, not leastbecause it has a lot on its plate. France’s underwater territory is the world’s second largest, with European waters accounting for a mere 5% of that: the nation’s colonial past writ large.

The Alfred Merlin’s 2021 schedule is already full, with surveys in the Mediterranean and an ongoing search off the coast of Brest for the 16th-century wrecks of the Cordelière and Henry VIII’s Regent.

The Alfred Merlin will also contribute to the ongoing search for the Leusden slave ship in Suriname and French Guiana waters. Locating the site of this catastrophic 1738 sinking, in which 664 African captives drowned after the Dutch crew imprisoned them in the hold before jumping ship, is crucial as it is both a mass burial ground and a historical crime scene.

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