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Evidence shows merchants flouted imperial trade ban
From China Daily
Archaeologists working on the wreck of a 400-year-old merchant vessel off south China have found evidence that Chinese merchants probably flouted bans on foreign trade at the time.
The salvage team has recovered more than 800 pieces of antique porcelain and copper coins from the ancient ship off the coast of Guangdong province, said the provincial cultural relics bureau Sunday.
Archaeologists believe the ship, which sank in the Sandianjin waters off Nan'ao county, Shantou city, may have been carrying 10,000 pieces of blue-and-white porcelain, mostly made during Emperor Wanli's reign (1573-1620) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Some big porcelain bowls found in the vessel, dubbed "Nan'ao-1, " were probably made for foreign trade as they were not commonly used in Chinese daily life at that time, they believe. The find is particularly interesting as the administration of Wanli had imposed a ban on sea trade.
Guangdong was a major center for the sea trade in ancient China. Sheet copper and coins found during the salvage operation indicated the ship might have been smuggling copper too, as the export of copper was also banned at the time, said Sun Jian, head of the salvage team.
The Ming Dynasty restricted private sea trade to deter piracy, which had imposed huge hardships on legitimate sea traders, and ensure maritime security along Chinese coastal areas.
BVI: Shipwrecks, corals, easy diving
From Global Adventures, LLC
The first divers may have come by boat to the British Virgin Islands (BVI), since chain of more than 60 sparsely inhabited islands and rocks is a haven for sailing enthusiasts.
Calm waters along with steady breezes culminate to make some of the best sailing conditions in the Caribbean.
What has attracted boating enthusiast for centuries is now drawing scuba divers from around the world to the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke. Intact reefs, a healthy marine life, and some interesting shipwrecks can easily keep divers busy for a week.
The RMS Rhone, a royal mail steam packet ship that transported cargo between England, South America, and the Caribbean, is the flagship dive in the BVI.
The 310 feet (94 meter) long vessel was one of two ships deemed unsinkable by the British Royal Navy. Passengers liked to travel on the RMS Rhone due to her speed and 253 lavishly appointed first class cabins. A late season hurricane did sink the ship on October 19, 1867.
Today, the bow section of the ship rests in eighty feet of water. Due to her mast sticking out of the water, and her shallow depth, the HMS Rhone was deemed a hazard by the Royal Navy in the 1950s and her stern section was blown apart.
While the wooden decks have rotten away, divers can still explore the well preserved stern section. The hull is encrusted with corals, sponges, and sea fans, jew fish and barracudas are a frequent site.
The wreck was also the stage for the movie “The Deep”. Director Peter Yates shot the movie, which was based on the novel by Peter Benchley, here in 1977.
Another wreck is the 268 feet (82 meter) Chikuzen. The former refrigerator vessel went down in 1981 off Tortola’s east end and lies in 75 feet (23 meter) of water.
Barracuda, octopus, jew fish, drum fish, and schools of yellow tail frequent the wreck that can be usually seen from the surface.
While the dive site can be accessed by boat only, the excellent visibility and the abundance of marine life make the Chikuzen a favorite for underwater photographers.
Alice in Wonderland is a coral wall at South Bay off Ginger Island. It is named for its huge mushroom and gallant brain corals.
Easy dive conditions with no currents and great visibility make the wall, which starts in 15 feet (5 meters) and ends on the sandy bottom in 90 feet (27 meter), a favorite among beginner divers and photographers.
Noah's Ark hoax claim doesn't deter believers
By Lauren Green - Fox News
Earlier this week a group of Chinese Christians held a news conference to announce they were 99.9 percent sure they had found Noah's Ark — the boat the Bible says was built by God's most righteous man before a "sinful" human race drowned in the Great Flood.
Maybe the find on Mount Ararat in Turkey really is Noah's Ark. More likely, it isn't. But if it isn't, that won't stop Ark enthusiasts from believing it is out there somewhere.
Immediately in the wake of the news flash, experts weighed in to shoot it down. "The wood in the photos is not old enough" ... "There are no location pictures to verify the site" ... "No independent experts have looked at the data" ... "There's never been evidence of a great flood."
And the people voicing the loudest caution are biblical archeologists who believe the ark is real and that it can be found. Dr. Randall Price, head of Judaic Studies at Liberty University, had been a cohort of the Noah's Ark International team until two years ago.
He pulled out of the project, sensing they were being taken advantage of by Kurdish guides, who've turned Ark searching into a cottage industry.
"I think we can't rule out the possibility that this is a hoax, because a lot of the things that happen in that region of the world, and especially with the Kurdish guides that are involved, are designed to try to extract money from gullible people," Price said.
But he added: "I'm reserving my opinion at this point until I see how things are developing."
Dr. John Morris, lead archeologist at the Institute for Creation Research, says "I'm leaning towards that the Chinese people have been deceived."
Morris has led 13 expeditions to Mount Ararat looking for the ark. He knows the area well and says of the recent find, "At best, it is an elaborate deception."
Morris and Price were contacted by the Chinese team to take part in the press event, but they declined based on how little evidence they saw. Professor Porcher Taylor at the University of Richmond says he, too, believes it is not Noah's Ark, because "they're digging in the wrong place on Mt. Ararat."
Old Corolla shipwreck to go to Hatteras museum
By Jeff Hampton - The Virginian-Pilot
Remains of a ship nearly 400 years old salvaged from the surf early this month will be moved from Corolla, N.C., to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras.
The wreck now sits exposed to the elements under an oak tree near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.
State and local officials agreed it would be better off out of the weather. Typically, sand and salt water protect old wrecks but once up on land and dried, they tend to deteriorate.
Plans are to move the wreck about 90 miles south the museum within the next few weeks, said Joe Newberry, spokesman for the North Carolina Maritime Museums.
Held together with wooden pegs, the skeleton of large timbers, 17 feet wide and 37 feet long and weighing 12 tons, could be the oldest ship wreck ever discovered on the North Carolina coast.
State underwater archaeologists plan to study the wreck further to document its construction and try to identify the ship.
When the remains appeared years ago deep in the sand near the Currituck lighthouse, local beachcombers found coins and other artifacts around them.
Severe winter storms late last year fully exposed the timbers and grabbed the attention of state scientists.
In the last few months, surf and tide moved the wreck two miles south and washed away some of its pieces.
Scuba diving volunteers discover underwater archeology
By Alex Wilson - VCR Reporter Online
A dedicated group of volunteer scuba divers employ their expertise surveying underwater archeology in the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary.
Coastal Maritime Archeology Resources members spend about a week living aboard research vessels twice a year, to measure and map shipwrecks, sunken airplanes and archeological sites scattered on the ocean floor.
CMAR Director of Operations Patrick Smith says there’s nothing quite like seeing a shipwreck for the first time. “It’s indescribable. There’s excitement, maybe a little bit of trepidation,” says Smith.
“There’s that wonderful feeling of breaching the unknown. There’s the anticipation of seeing something that nobody has seen for scores of years, or maybe hundreds of years.”
Smith says diving on shipwrecks evokes thoughts about the people who sailed on the historic vessels and sometimes perished aboard them.
“Each shipwreck is unique. They are a snapshot of that period of time, and they become a time capsule of that period of time,” says Smith.
“A shipwreck goes down, and it freezes that moment. It freezes all aspects of the human environment. What the people were eating and wearing. You can tell what their technology was.
Read more...
Latest Noah's Ark 'just wood planted on Ararat'
By Joe Kovacs - WorldNetDaily
Has the real Noah's Ark spoken of in the Bible truly been found ?
At least two seasoned archaeologists who have made numerous expeditions to Mount Ararat in search of Noah's Ark are throwing cold water on this week's claim the Old Testament vessel has finally been discovered, saying it's a hoax involving wood hauled in from the Black Sea region.
"To make a long story short: this is all reported to be a fake," said Randall Price, director of Judaic Studies at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
"This is not Noah's Ark," adds Bob Cornuke of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute. "This is a fake. It's a fraud and it's of the highest caliber according to what I can assess from the evidence and talking to eyewitnesses and people from Turkey."
WND reported yesterday that Chinese and Turkish explorers with Noah's Ark Ministries International said they were "99.9 percent sure" they found the remnants of the legendary biblical vessel high up on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.
The 15-member team claims it recovered wooden specimens from a structure at an altitude of 13,000 feet and that carbon dating suggested it was 4,800 years old.
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Several compartments, some with wooden beams, are said to be inside and could have been used to house animals, the group indicated.
"The search team has made the greatest discovery in history," declared Prof. Oktay Belli, an archaeologist at Istanbul University. "This finding is very important and the greatest up to now."
Noah's Ark discovered. Again !
By Benjamin Radford - LiveScience's Bad Science
A Chinese Christian filmmaker claims to have found the final resting place of Noah's Ark on Turkey's Mount Ararat.
Yeung Wing-Cheung says he and a team from Noah's Ark Ministries found the remains of the Ark at an elevation of about 12,000 feet (3,658 meters).
They filmed inside the structure and took wood samples that were later analyzed in Iran. He claims the wood was carbon-dated to around the reputed time of Noah's flood, which would be remarkable since organic material should have long since disintegrated in the last 5,000 years.
Yeung said that he is "99 percent certain that it is Noah's Ark based on historical accounts, including the Bible and local beliefs of the people in the area, as well as carbon dating."
While news of the find is making headlines around the world, there's one part of the story that Yeung is conspicuously silent about: He is only the latest in a long line of people who claim to have found Noah's Ark.
In fact, there have been at least half a dozen others — all of them funded by Christian organizations — who have claimed final, definitive proof of Noah's Ark. So far none of the claims have proven true.
Noah's Ark is routinely re-discovered, because there are many who fervently want it to be found. Biblical literalists — those who believe that proof of the Bible's events remains to be found — have spent their lives and fortunes trying to scientifically validate their religious beliefs.
There are several reasons why the new claims should be treated with skepticism. For example, Yeung refuses to disclose the location of the find and is instead keeping it a secret. This of course is inherently unscientific; for the claims to be proven, the evidence must be presented to other scientists for peer-review. Nor has the alleged 5,000-year-old wood been made available for independent testing.
Campaign to save world's oldest clipper ship
From STV
The passenger ship City of Adelaide, which travelled between Australia and Britain, is lying in Irvine.
A firm has been appointed to review options for the future of the 145-year-old City of Adelaide, currently resting on a slipway in North Ayrshire. The Sunderland-built ship, which predates the Cutty Sark, took people and wool between Australia and Britain on 28 round trips.
Later known as the Carrick, it has been left to the elements at Irvine and could still face deconstruction for display in a museum. Campaigners are competing to re-float the vessel and take it to Australia or back to Sunderland.
Scottish Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop announced that Historic Scotland had commissioned a firm, DTZ, to review the category A-listed ship's options.
Ms Hyslop said: "The appointment of DTZ to carry out this review is a very positive step and will help us to determine the best outcome for the SV Carrick.
"There are several options to consider: whether the Carrick is moved to Sunderland, Adelaide in Australia or retained in a different location in Scotland. The alternative is a managed deconstruction of the vessel.
"Officials from Historic Scotland and the Scottish Government have held a wide range of discussions with a number of bodies and individuals regarding this category A-listed ship."