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From ISGTW

Submerged beneath the waves lies a large part of human history.

For our ancestors, the ancient coastlines were attractive places to settle and experiment with what became the foundations of civilization.

As the major glaciers melted between sixteen and six thousand years ago, these sites — where people first began to make fishing equipment, build boats and create permanent settlements — became engulfed by the rising seas.

But rather than destroying these ancient landscapes, the rising sea level instead preserved many of them, and with them many details in the story of our past.

“We have a lot to learn by looking under-water. There are many sites to discover and examine, and preservation is in fact often better than on land,” says Geoff Bailey, at the Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK.

“There are large gaps in our general knowledge of early history.”


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 From Rebekah Allen - Pnj

These are just a few of the items that have been recovered from a 450-year-old shipwreck sitting under 12 feet of water in Pensacola Bay.

The wreck, designated Emanuel Point II, is part of the fleet commanded by Pensacola's founder, Don Tristan de Luna, University of West Florida archaeologists said.

The underwater excavation is being conducted this summer by about 20 UWF maritime archaeology students.

"This helps us get a better understanding of the people who came here to start a colony — what they brought and what they ate," said John Bratten, anthropology and archaeology department chair. "It also helps fill in the gaps that the historical record doesn't tell us."

The vessel was located in 2006 and identified in 2007 as part of Luna's colonization fleet that made landfall in 1559.

The first ship was discovered in 1992 just a quarter-mile from the original site.

By Abigail Wilkinson - The Santiago Times

More than nine and one half tons of gold and silver that were lost aboard the Chilean trawler "Polar Mist" when it sank Strait of Magellan have been located in the sunken ship’s cargo hold.
 
The discovery puts to rest speculation that the US$16.5 million cargo was not aboard the boat (ST April 23) and that the cargo had been “invented” as part of an insurance-scam attempt.

The Polar Mist regularly carried similar cargo through the Strait of Magellan to Punta Arenas (Region XII) en route to Swiss refineries.

The cargo was finally pinpointed by a submarine robot, following days of delay due to adverse weather conditions. The remote-controlled robot managed to enter the hold and make video recordings of the gold and silver.

No one knows what kind of technology the insurer-funded rescue team will use to recover the precious metals.

Owners Cerro Vanguardia and Triton (mining companies extracting gold and silver in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina) had demanded that the London insurers Lloyd’s pay for the sunken ship’s lost treasure. But Lloyd’s hired the Dutch company Mammoet to attempt a rescue. 

The sunken ship’s crew abandoned their boat when it ran into a fierce storm upon entering the Magellan Strait on January 15.

The men were later rescued by a helicopter belonging to the Argentine coastal authorities.

The Polar Mist was later being towed to shore when it sank in mysterious circumstances on January 18.

The vessel now lies in 80 meters of water on a sea shelf some 40 kms to the east of Cabo Vírgenes.

Rumors that the cargo had been located began circulating last Monday afternoon and the find was confirmed by the rescuers that evening with the statement: “Phases one and two of the rescue mission have been successfully completed.” 

The team aims to recover the cargo during July without re-floating the vessel.

From Telegraph

David White, 42, and Kaye Moss, 43, ran out of air as they tried to find their way out of a small compartment on the HMS Scylla off Whitsand Bay in Cornwall.

They dived to the artificial reef and entered a room via a hatch but stirred up silt as they went in.
The sediment made it impossible to see and they were unable to find the exit, an inquest in Plymouth, Devon, heard.

Both bodies were later recovered from the room, with Kaye's buried beneath the silt.

Thousands of tonnes of dredged material is dumped near the Scylla from the nearby Devonport Naval Base to keep the River Tamar clear for ships.

An MoD spokesperson confirmed that 40,000 tonnes of dredged material had been deposited at the site last year.

Despite being experienced divers with hundreds of dives between them, Mr White and Miss Moss failed to attach a safety line which could have lead them out of the wreck, the inquest heard.

The couple died during a trip with three other divers from the South Gloucester Sub Aqua Club on August 2, 2007.

From BBC News


The Scottish Parliament has been asked to support a campaign to clear the name of a captain who was hanged for piracy more than three centuries ago.

Captain William Kidd had been appointed by the Crown to tackle piracy and capture enemy French ships.

In 1698, he looted the Armenian ship the Quedagh Merchant, which was apparently sailing under a French pass. However, the captain of the ship was an Englishman and Capt Kidd was executed in London in 1701.

The Quedagh Merchant had been carrying satins, muslins, gold and silver when she was attacked by Kidd.  It is thought that a large amount of the booty belonged to the British East India Company.

As well as the piracy charges, Capt Kidd was accused of murdering one of his crewmen during a row in 1697.

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From Xinhua News Agency

Chinese archaeologists have won permission to start an "excavation" into the cabins of the 800-year-old shipwrecked merchant vessel Nanhai No. 1, the local government said Sunday.

The municipal government of Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, where the Nanhai No.1 boat has been preserved since it was hoisted from a depth of 30 meters below the South China Sea at the end of 2007, won permission from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in May for the "excavation", Feng Shaowen, director with the municipal publicity bureau, told Xinhua.

The 30-meter-long vessel ship has been soaked in a sealed pool in the "Crystal Palace" at the Marine Silk Road Museum in Yangjiang.

The glass pool - 64 meters long, 40 meters wide, 23 meters high and about 12 meters in depth - was filled with sea water and silt to replicate the water temperature, pressure and other environmental conditions of the seabed where the vessel had lain for centuries.

The details of the excavation have not been released so far but it could last three to five years.

Construction of the Marine Silk Road Museum began in early 2006, costing 170 million yuan ( 24.9 million U.S. dollars). Discovered in mid 1987 off the coast near Yangjiang, Nanhai No.1 was recognized as one of the oldest and biggest merchant boats sunk in Chinese waters.

Archaeologists have already recovered more than 4,000 artifacts including gold, silver and porcelain, as well as about 6,000 copper coins from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) boat.

Among the 1,000 delicate porcelain wares , many were made by handicraftsmen to feature foreign porcelain patterns and styles, said Feng. The well-preserved vessel might confirm the existence of an ancient maritime trade route linking China and the West.

As early as 2,000 years ago, ancient Chinese traders began taking china, silk and cloth textiles and other commodities to foreign countries along the trading route. It started from ports at today's Guangdong and Fujian provinces to countries in southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

The 'Marine Silk Road', like the ancient Silk Road that connected China with south, west and central Asia and Europe, was also a bridge for connecting Eastern and Western cultures, but evidence for the existence of the route is rare, said Huang Zongwei, professor with the Guangdong-based Sun Yat-Sen University.

By Joe Rojas-Burke - The Oregonian

Super-low tides will provide ideal conditions for exploring tide pools and searching for shipwrecks at the Oregon coast this weekend and next week.

There are minus tides this weekend. And on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, tides will drop as low as minus 3 feet -- about as low as they can get on the Oregon coast.

Extreme minus tides reveal seascapes and marine life that's hidden under pounding surf most of the year. Check a tide table for detailed times, and for safety, make sure to keep an eye on incoming waves.

Here are some great places to explore during minus tides:

1. The Peter Iredale, a ship that sank in 1906, stands out at Clatsop Beach. And north of the Columbia River, where Jetty A meets Cape Disappointment, you might see the remains of the Bettie M, a tuna seiner that sank in 1976.

2. Easily accessible tide pools around Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach are loaded with anemones, chitons, several kinds of crab, limpets, nudibranch, sea stars and urchins.

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By Candace Piette - BBC News

A vessel which sank carrying $18m (£11m) in gold and silver ingots has been found in the Magellan Straits off the coast of Argentina.

The cargo belonged to Argentine mining companies Cerro Vanguardia and Minera Triton and was on its way from mines in southern Argentina to Europe.

The boat sank in heavy seas in mysterious circumstances in January.

Although the vessel has been found, it is unclear if the nine and a half tons of cargo remain on board.

The Chilean fishing boat, the Polar Mist, set sail from Santa Cruz in southern Argentina for the port of Punta Arenas in Chile.

The bullion was heading first to Santiago in Chile, and then on to Switzerland for sale. But a day after setting sail, the crew abandoned ship in a heavy storm.

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