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By Brian Benson - The Patriot Ledger

On a stormy October morning in 1849, strong winds blew the brig St. John and its 120 Irish immigrant passengers into Grampus Ledge off the Cohasset coast.

Rocks rapidly tore through the ship, cutting away its masts as passengers were swept into the strong surf.

More than 99 people died.

While the tale of the St. John is well-documented, there are fewer details of many of the other 250-plus wrecks off the coast of Hull, Cohasset and Scituate, historians said.

That is why staff at maritime museums in the three towns work to preserve the history by displaying artifacts recovered from the wrecks, model ships and tools used by lifesavers who braved storms to rescue seafarers.

“The shipwreck history is almost completely invisible,” said Victoria Stevens, curator at the Hull Lifesaving Museum. “You can look out at the beautiful ocean and have no idea what’s below the water.”

Most wrecks occurred in the 19th century, when the shipping channel into Boston Harbor was narrow and passed close to many ledges. Ships were predominantly powered by sail and at the mercy of the wind, which frequently blew them into rocks, Stevens said.

“The St. John broke apart in 20 minutes,” said Paul Fiori, a Cohasset resident who wrote about the wreck in his book, “On Grampus Ledge.” “The water was rising below deck and people were drowning or jumping overboard.”

By the 1900s, wrecks were rare because navigation equipment improved, steam replaced wind power and a safer channel was dredged, historians said.

“We’re trying to recapture the feel of the time,” said David Wadsworth, a historian at the Cohasset Historical Society. “We’re providing insight into what things were like a century-and-a-half ago.”

By Greg Bryan - Arizona Daily Star

Nils Martin Ödahl set sail aboard the R.M.S Titanic with hopes of traveling to the U.S. to study botany.

Ödahl traveled alone and was an avid student of agriculture, having studied the subject before in Sweden and Denmark.

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. Ödahl perished with the ship. As a male traveling in third class, the 23-year-old had little chance of survival.

Ödahl's story is one of many that can be experienced at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, opening today at the Rialto Building.

The exhibit is making its debut in Tucson, and has traveled around the world with current exhibits running in Australia and Canada.

The exhibit resonates with the public, said Alexandra Klingelhofer, vice president of collections for Premier Exhibitions Inc.

"If you've ever heard of Titanic, if you've ever had an interest in Titanic, if you've ever seen the movie, you have to come see the exhibition," she said. "This is the real story, these are the real artifacts."

The tour includes 127 authentic artifacts recovered from the Titanic's grave site. Four of the artifacts, including two postcards, a handkerchief and a letter from the luggage of Howard Erwin, are making their debut at the Tucson show. Erwin missed the ship, but his luggage still made it on board.

The exhibit is designed to chronologically tell the story of the Titanic through the perspective of its passengers, from its construction to its discovery on the ocean floor. Visitors are given a boarding pass with the information of an actual passenger aboard the ship.

From English Cri

East China's Jiangxi Province will launch an underwater archaeological investigation in Poyang Lake next month, China's first such project in inland waters.

"This time, we will go into China's largest fresh-water lake to study its repository of underwater sites and artifacts," said Fan Changsheng, director of Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Archeology.

Archaeologists will start by identifying submerged indigenous sites, waterlogged ancient battlefields, and shipwrecks at "Laoyemiao" , a mysterious and dangerous area in Poyang Lake, according to Fan.

World-class equipment, including advanced sonar sound machines and sand pumps, will be used for the mission, said Fan.

The development of China's underwater archaeology began in the late 1980s when China start salvaging its ancient shipwrecks. While a new field of exploration, it has seen rapid development in recent years.

"China has previously conducted several maritime archaeological projects in its coastal regions, but this will be the first time it will take place in the country's fresh waters," said Fan.

Along with Laoyemiao, the Anhui sections of the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers have been selected as the second coveted spot for such underwater archaeological studies.

Laoyemiao, a narrow water channel linking Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River, was chosen for its historical and archeological significance.

According to Fan, ancient vessels carrying famous Jingdezhen-made porcelain ware had to pass this gateway before heading out to destinations outside China.

In 2007, a merchant ship of Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Nanhai No.1, was excavated from the South China Sea.
Experts said the vessel was traveling on the "Maritime Silk Road" to sell fine chinaware, much of which were loaded at Jiangxi, where Jingdezhen is located, to be shipped off to other countries.

"The Poyang Lake has long been an important water route for ancient porcelain exports, and we think many treasures and secrets may be lying below," said Fan.

Furthermore, in the 14th century, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), defeated Chen Youliang, his rival for the throne, near Poyang Lake, making the water part of the ancient battlefield.

Compared with working on dry land, experts say that underwater archaeology is more challenging, and to be successful, a mission requires advanced equipment and intense preparation.

"In an underwater probe, archaeological divers can face poor visibility, high water pressure and attacks from aquatic animals.

The divers also need to complete the mission in a limited amount of time," said Zeng Jin, who was part of the salvage crew of Nanhai No.1.


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From Hürriyet Daily News

A press conference will be held Friday to provide information on an upcoming regional meeting designed to help protect underwater cultural heritage in the Mediterranean and Arab region.

The 1st Regional Meeting on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which will be held October 25-27 at the Istanbul Archeology Museum, is organized by UNESCO and with support from Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency.

The meeting will be the first regional meeting to be organized anywhere in the world to promote the convention and its scientific protection standards among UNESCO member states.

The meeting aims to promote the convention and its scientific protection standards among UNESCO member states. It also aspires to inform country representatives and cultural decision-makers and will provide a forum for the exchange of national experiences.

Initiated in 2001 with the signatures of nine countries, the “UNESCO Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention” now sets the basics for the protection of underwater cultural heritage in coastal and high seas with signatures from more than 40 countries.

The meeting will draw specialists from England, Australia and the Netherlands in addition to representatives from Mediterranean, Black Sea and Arab countries.

The meeting will introduce UNESCO efforts at the protection of underwater cultural heritage; country representatives will present the current status of the legal and practical protection of underwater cultural heritage as well as the situation of underwater archaeology in their countries.

The press conference that will be held in Alayköşkü building in Gülhane Park will be hosted by Professor Ahmet Emre Bilgili, the Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Ulrike Guerin from the UNESCO Section of Museums and Cultural Objects, as well as Hakan Öniz from the Underwater Photography and Video Center of Eastern Mediterranean University.

By Jayesh Limaye - Techtree

Remember that car in the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me, which could run on land and also in water, well, the one this article is about, can even fly.

The Halo Intersceptor can do it all, except of course, going underwater. This car can change into a speedboat, a helicopter or simply jet across the highway full throttle whenever you want, how you want.

Quite possibly, this could be the answer to all our transport woes, (or it could possibly create more problems depending on the driver).

The brainchild of British designer Phil Pauley, this concept sports car comes with attachments which allows it to float like a boat on water or fly like a helicopter or jet when that mode is selected.

The designer has laid emphasis on the fact that the Halo Intersceptor should not be viewed as another flying car, but rather as a plane, helicopter, boat and car all combined into one.
 

By Clara Moskowitz

The remains of a sunken warship recently found in the Mediterranean Sea may confirm the site of a major ancient battle in which Rome trounced Carthage.

The year was 241 B.C. and the players were the ascending Roman republic and the declining Carthaginian Empire, which was centered on the northernmost tip of Africa. The two powers were fighting for dominance in the Mediterranean in a series of conflicts called the Punic Wars.

Archaeologists think the newly discovered remnants of the warship date from the final battle of the first Punic War, which allowed Rome to expand farther into the Western Mediterranean.

"It was the classic battle between Carthage and Rome," said archaeologist Jeffrey G. Royal of the RPM Nautical Foundation in Key West, Fla. "This particular naval battle was the ultimate, crushing defeat for the Carthaginians."
 
The shipwreck was found near the island of Levanzo, west of Sicily, which is where historical documents place the battle.

In the summer of 2010, Royal and his colleagues discovered a warship's bronze ram - the sharp, prolonged tip of the ship's bow that was used to slam into an enemy vessel. This tactic was heavily used in ancient naval battles and was thought to have played an important role in the Punic fights.

The ram is all that's left of the warship; the rest, made of wood, apparently rotted away.

"There's never been an ancient warship found - that's the holy grail of maritime archaeology," Royal told LiveScience. "The most we have are the rams and part of the bow structure."

Yet a ram alone can reveal intriguing clues about what these archaic vessels were like.

"The ram itself gives you a good idea of how the timbers were situated, how large they were, how they came together," Royal explained.

From eurekalert.org

The conservation of the royal warship Vasa, which sank in Stockholm on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised in 1961, has provided a unique insight into how large waterlogged wooden archaeological relics can be preserved for the future, reveals an evaluation of the conservation programme by a researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

"I hope that the importance of the conservation of the Vasa will be recognised and provide inspiration and guidance for other attempts to stabilise the dimensions of waterlogged archaeological timber.

As conservation projects of this kind are not carried out all the time, my thesis is a way of preserving experience," says Birgitta Håfors from the Department of Conservation at the University of Gothenburg.

After spending her entire career as a chemist working on the conservation of the Vasa, the now retired Håfors has evaluated the conservation programmes using polyethylene glycol (PEG) that was chosen for the vessel's hull and loose wooden items.

At the age of 75, she is now presenting a doctoral thesis on the treatment developed for the warship and used from 1962 until January 1979.

The evaluation focuses particularly on the ability of PEG to prevent or reduce shrinkage during the drying-out of waterlogged archaeological timber, with special emphasis on the oak of the Vasa.

"It turned out that there was often shrinkage during the actual treatment, especially when timber was treated in baths of the preservative solution. This phenomenon is due to water molecules migrating out of the waterlogged timber and into the preservative solution more quickly than the PEG molecules move the other way."

In her research, Håfors conducted experiments to find the ideal temperatures and concentrations of the preservative solution to prevent waterlogged wood from shrinking during the actual preservative treatment.

"I soon realised that temperature-raising programmes were unsuitable, as they increased the tendency for water molecules to leave the timber. For the conservation of wood from the Vasa in baths, therefore, a stable temperature was chosen, namely 60°C.

From The Leader

The Spanish sea bed is alleged to be littered with treasure from sunken ships dating back over 4 centuries.

Now that a multitude of new technology makes finding the sunken gold and valuable antiques a lot easier, the race is on to see who is capable of locating the booty first.

Odyssey Marine Exploration took home a trove of gold and silver from the wreck of the Spanish vessel Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes two years ago, not without a fair amount of controversy. The treasure hunters have yet to return their find, despite several court decisions in Spain’s favour.

Ever since, authorities have started taking the protection of the country’s underwater archaeological heritage seriously.

Until recently, only the regions of Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia had specific centres devoted to this type of cultural asset. But now, the central government is getting involved and the navy recently sent the minesweeper Sella out for a month to comb the bottom of the Gulf of Cádiz in search of archaeological remains.

This was the first time that military units were involved in such a task, following an agreement reached last year between the Culture and Defence Ministries. But this kind of cooperation is expected to become commonplace as authorities seek to chart the archaeological remains lying in waters off the entire coast of Spain.

Experts estimate that there may be around 3,000 shipwrecks yet to be explored in this vestige-rich part of the world.

During the month that the minesweeper was out in the Gulf of Cádiz, it located 128 wrecks at depths of no more than 200 meters. Archaeologists are now determining how many of these, if any, are of historical value.

When a shipwreck is located less than 50 meters below the surface, the initial analysis will be carried out by divers. For ships deeper down mechanical devices will be deployed.

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