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From The Star

It's the world's most famous shipwreck, lying on the sea floor two and a half miles below the surface of the storm-tossed Atlantic Ocean.

But a team of Sheffield engineers have been bringing memories of the Titanic back to life - by creating an exact replica of the mighty ship's anchor.

The project at Sheffield Forgemasters was commissioned by Channel 4 for a new five part series to be shown this autumn, titled We Built Titanic.

Weighing approximately 16 tonnes, the anchor is the result of more than six months of meticulous planning, casting, forging and machining at the company's Brightside Lane base.

Researchers for the series discovered that Forgemasters was the only company in the UK capable of manufacturing the heavy components required for the anchor.

The finished product will be hammer tested - a tradition Edwardian method which uses a 10lb sledge hammer to test its durability - before being transported for display in Netherton, Dudley, where the original anchor was manufactured in the early 20th century.

Roger Richardson, director of the foundry at Forgemasters International Ltd, said: "The anchor has been a very rewarding project to work on.

"The Titanic was the most famous ship in modern history, its story captivates people all over the world and to be involved in recreating part of that story is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"At Forgemasters we still use some of the traditional techniques and processes that would have been used to make the original anchor, but we combine these with some of the most state-of-the-art technology and equipment in the world."

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From India Education Diary

The first ever UNESCO exhibition on global underwater cultural heritage to be held in the Asia-Pacific region will be staged in central Bangkok this month.

The showcase, titled "Saving Our Underwater Cultural Heritage," will be officially opened at 1.30 p.m. on 16 August 2010 at Siam Ocean World Bangkok, on the B1-B2 floors of Siam Paragon shopping centre.

Visitors will journey through stunning underwater heritage scenes from around the world displayed in large format photographs; view a lifesize-scale replica of a Thai shipwreck; explore a showcase of discoveries recovered from the seabed; and enjoy special demonstrations of underwater archaeologists in action in the aquarium tank.

Various interactive play zones will give children the opportunity to experience life as a junior archaeologist.

UNESCO is seeking cooperation from the general public to help fight the trade in underwater cultural heritage and protect our marine environment for generations to come.

Illegal treasure hunting is the biggest threat to our global marine heritage. Over three million shipwrecks and other underwater sites are at risk from treasure hunters who loot the sites to sell artefacts on the black market.

Director of UNESCO Bangkok, Dr Gwang-Jo Kim, said "UNESCO calls upon countries to cooperate to protect the underwater cultural heritage in order for us to pass it on to the next generations to come."

Thai Minister of Culture, HE Nipit Intrasombat, has been invited to co-preside over the launch, along with the Director of UNESCO Bangkok, Dr Gwang Jo-Kim.

Senior officials from Thai Fine Arts Department, along with representatives of the diplomatic corps, museums and professional dive associations have been invited to the opening ceremony.

The exhibition is expected to attract over 150,000 local and foreign visitors during its run until 31 October 2010.

The event is a partnership between UNESCO Bangkok, the Thai Fine Arts Department, and Siam Ocean World Bangkok.

Siam Ocean World Bangkok Deputy General Manager, Mr Ross Werner, said "Siam Ocean World is very pleased to have the opportunity to be the co-sponsor of the exhibition 'Saving Our Underwater Cultural Heritage'.

This is a good occasion for children and the public to understand and learn the importance of the marine environmental conservation along with enjoying Siam Ocean World various types of aquatic animals."

The exhibition is part of a regional programme which established the first training centre in underwater cultural heritage in Asia Pacific in Thailand's Chanthaburi province. The project is supported by the Government of Norway.

In order to strengthen the protection of underwater cultural heritage, UNESCO in 2001 established an international treaty, the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

"There are many sunken wrecks scattered in Thai waters. I'm hoping that this exhibit in Thailand will engage many Thai people to help in protecting our precious underwater cultural heritage," said Mr Erbprem Vatcharangkul, Director of the Underwater Archaeology Division of the Fine Arts Department.

By Randy Boswell - Postmedia News

The discovery of a sunken U.S. submarine from the Second World War by a Canadian father-son dive team in the Philippines has finally given closure to hundreds of relatives of the 78 men who died in the 1944 sinking.

The USS Flier was lost after it struck a mine in the Balabac Strait entrance to the South China Sea on Aug. 13, 1944 — 66 years to the day before a memorial service for the lost seamen was held Friday at a Michigan naval museum.

Among those attending the ceremony were the discoverers of the wreck, Mike and Warren Fletcher — the shipwreck mystery hunters from Port Ryerse, Ont., and stars of the History Television documentary program Dive Detectives.

The sub's destruction set in motion one of the most dramatic survival stories of the war, as a handful of sailors who escaped the initial terror swam and floated 18 hours to reach land — an uninhabited island with no fresh water.

Only eight of the 14 submariners who survived the sinking made it to that shore. Those men were then forced to raft to other islands in search of food, water and help to reach U.S. forces.

After being hidden and smuggled through Japanese-held territory by Filipinos sympathetic to the Allied cause, the eight American sailors were finally delivered safely into U.S. hands and were able to return home.

In 2008, the last of the sub's survivors — Michigan businessman Alvin Jacobson — died with his long-held dream of discovering the wreck of the USS Flier unfulfilled.

But last year, his son Steve gathered his father's research on the Flier's whereabouts and joined in a search for the sub organized by the Fletchers and Toronto-based YAP Films.

At a depth of about 110 metres off the coast of the Philippines, the dive team captured images of what they believed was the sunken USS Flier.

"It was a pretty emotional experience," Steve Jacobson said at the time. "It is tremendous closure and I wish that my dad could have experienced this."

In February, the U.S. navy's Hawaii-based Pacific submarine command confirmed the discovery.

From Voice of America

A team of marine archeologists using sonar scanners has discovered new underwater treasures in the Italian seas.

Trading vessels dating from the first century BC to the 5th through 7th centuries AD were found in the waters of the Pontine Islands. Their cargoes were found to be intact.

Italian culture authorities and the Aurora Trust, a U.S. foundation which promotes underwater exploration in the Mediterranean, discovered four shipwrecks resting on the seabed.

The discovery was made in a beautiful stretch of sea off the tiny rock of Zannone, part of the Pontine Islands in central Italy.

After the discovery, the team of marine archaeologists used sonar scanners for the exploration and filmed the targets lying on the seabed.

The remains of the ships, up to 18 meters long, were found and documented at a depth of between 100-150 meters.

Annalisa Zarattini is an underwater archaeologist with Italy's culture ministry. She says the deeper a wreck is found, the higher the chance that it is better preserved.

These, she adds, are in such good condition after so many centuries because they have not been disturbed by fishermen or illegal archaeology hunters.

Zarattini says Italy's seas are an incredible museum which help uncover history.

Traveling with her on a finance police boat, which helps the ministry patrol the waters, she described this latest find.

"We identified four Roman wrecks, four ships that probably sunk during a storm at different time periods," said Zarattini.

Read more...

From Robert Trigaux - Tampa Bay.com

We've gotten used to Tampa undersea treasure hunting pro Odyssey Marine Exploration announcing new deep water finds of sunken ships and the potential for new riches to be salvaged.

So we were a bit surprised to read Odyssey's ongoing involvement in helping the government of Lebanon document the underwater crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409.

Flight 409 was a scheduled international flight from Beirut, Lebanon, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off on Jan. 25, 2010, killing all 90 people on board.

Here's a New York Times account of the crash at the time. Odyssey says its Ocean Alert search vessel was nearby at the time, using the Beirut port for fuel and supplies while the company negotiated an agreement with Lebanon to partner in a deep-ocean project.

When Flight 409 crashed, Lebanese authorities asked Odyssey to assist in the search and recovery efforts. Before the plane wreckage was discovered, Odyssey's task was to help document the site. Odyssey says it has been paid $1.4 million for the work completed so far by the Lebanese government.

"We presently have a signed agreement with the insurance company to create a photomosaic of the entire area of wreckage and debris which we are commencing in August 2010," the company says.

Nice to see Odyssey can lend its underwater talents to such mercy missions. I'm sure this will not be the last time the company will be called on to assist in submerged tasks other than treasure hunting.

By Tim McGlone - The Virginian-Pilot

A federal judge has granted a salvage award to the company that maintains thousands of Titanic artifacts, but it remains unclear how the company will collect the estimated $110 million value of the pieces.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith late Thursday issued an opinion granting RMS Titanic Inc. an award equal to 100 percent of the fair market value of the artifacts.

But she said she will take up to another year to decide "the manner in which to pay the award," according to a court filing.

RMS Titanic Inc. and its parent, Premier Exhibitions Inc., has been battling in court for years to get title to about 5,500 Titanic artifacts that were lifted from the North Atlantic during company-run salvage operations over the past 20 years.

The federal court here, in the 1990s, awarded the company salvor-in-possession status, meaning the company had exclusive rights to salvage Titanic artifacts. But the court has maintained a tight control over what the company could do with the objects, including strictly prohibiting selling them.

The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 on its maiden voyage. The company plans an expedition to the wreck site next week. Company-hired scientists will assess the deteriorating condition of the shipwreck.

The fate of the Titanic artifacts has been the subject of a federal court case here for more than 15 years. Smith heard six days of testimony last fall to help her determine the value of the artifacts.

Premier officials expected the ruling to come in two parts. The judge could have made the extreme decision to award the company nothing, or a percentage of what appraisers pegged as the artifacts' value.

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By Greg Reynolds - Coinlink

In 1987, there was the greatest discovery of a shipwreck relating to the history of the United States. Yes, other shipwrecks may be especially important to the history of Spain and Latin America.

The loss of the S.S. Central America in Sept. 1857, however, had an impact on the history of the United States.

Although a recession had already started in 1856, and a major insurance company failed in August 1857, the loss of this ship caused upheaval in financial markets and exacerbated the “Panic of 1857.”

The Library of Congress website reveals that the S. S. Central America “had aboard 581 persons, many carrying great personal wealth, and more than $1 million in commercial gold. [This ship] also bore a secret shipment of 15 tons of federal gold, valued at $20 per ounce, intended for the Eastern banks

In this context, the Library of Congress website cites several pertinent, recognized 19th century books and other contemporary sources.

“As banking institutions of the day dealt in specie (gold and silver coins instead of paper money) the loss of some thirty thousand pounds of gold reverberated through the financial community.” In October, many banks suffered terribly or failed altogether. There were ‘runs’ on many banks by depositors.

The crisis reached its worse point on Oct. 14, about a month after the sinking of the S. S. Central America, which was Suspension Day, when banking was suspended in New York and throughout New England. The U.S. economy did not fully recover for years.

In the wreckage of the S. S. Central America, there were thousands of 1857-S Double Eagles ($20 gold coins), which were very scarce before the salvaging of the S.S. Central America.

Of all the Double Eagles found in the wreckage, however, only fifty were designated as being Prooflike, and only seven as Deep Mirror Prooflike, by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).

In late 1999 and/or early 2000, the PCGS certified and graded most of the coins found in this shipwreck. As far as I know, these fifty-seven PCGS certified 1857-S Double Eagles and one NGC certified 1858-S Double Eagle coins are the only reliably certified, Prooflike gold coins from the early years of the San Francisco Mint, which formally began striking coins in 1854. 

The 1857-S Double Eagles that the PCGS has designated as Prooflike are unusual in that it is generally the policy of the Professional Coin Grading Service to not designate gold coins as being ‘Prooflike.’ In a Dec. 2000 Christie’s auction, it is stated that a PCGS certified ‘MS-65 PL’ 1857-S is “Tied with two others for finest of 50 PL examples from the S.S. Central America treasure certified by PCGS.”

According to the Christie’s cataloguer, who is an expert regarding the histories of coins found on shipwrecks, nineteen 1857-S Double Eagles are (or then were) PCGS certified as ‘MS-64 PL.’

Sources indicate just seven of the S. S. Central America 1857-S Double Eagles were designated as Deep Mirror Prooflike (DMPL) by the PCGS. The NGC has not designated any 1857-S Double Eagles as PL or DMPL.

Before the finding of the wreck of the S. S. Central America, it is likely that no Prooflike 1957-S Double Eagles were known to exist. Furthermore, probably all (or almost all) of these certified Prooflike 1857-S Double Eagles are in PCGS holders with their respective original gold foil inserts (labels) that were specially designed for coins found in the wreck of the S.S. Central America.

Therefore, it seems that there exist fifty-seven Prooflike (PL) or Deep Mirror Prooflike (DMPL) 1857-S Double Eagles. Only a handful of these have been publicly sold since the initial offerings in 2000 when coins from the S.S. Central America appeared in coin markets.

From Reuters

A huge quantity of olive stones on an ancient shipwreck more than 2,000 years old has provided valuable insight into the diet of sailors in the ancient world, researchers in Cyprus said Thursday.

The shipwreck, dating from around 400 B.C. and laden mainly with wine amphorae from the Aegean island of Chios and other north Aegean islands, was discovered deep under the sea off Cyprus's southern coast.

Excavation on the site, which started in November 2007, has determined that the ship was a merchant vessel of the late classical period.

"An interesting piece of evidence that gives us information on the conditions under which the sailors of antiquity lived, are the large numbers of olive pits that were found during excavation, since these pits must have been part of the crew's food supply," Cyprus's antiquities department said Thursday.

The excavation is shedding light on seafaring in Cyprus in antiquity, commerce between the island and the Aegean and the sizes of the period's cargo ships, it said.

Olives and olive oil are a staple of the Mediterranean diet and their consumption over hundreds of years has been well documented.

Italian archaeologists discovered that some of the world's oldest perfumes, made in Cyprus, were olive oil based. The commodity was also used to fire copper furnaces.

Apart from the amphorae, or large clay wine jars, two lead rods with remains of wood were found.

"This especially rare find enhances the importance of the shipwreck and strengthens the possibilities of finding preserved wood from the ship's keel," the department said.