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From BBC News

Artefacts from a 17th Century shipwreck found off the Dorset coast have gone on display. Students and experts from Bournemouth University have worked for two years on the wreck site, in an area off Poole Harbour known as the Swash Channel.

The ship, which lies about 23ft (7m) under the sea, is thought to date from the 1620s. Its country of origin is unknown.

The university is holding a Maritime Archaeological Day on Saturday.

Paola Palma and Dave Parham, the university's maritime archaeology experts, are speaking about their experiences of working on the wreck site.

Artefacts raised from the seabed and on display include two leather shoes, musket balls, kitchen utensils and an apothecary jar.

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By MaryAnn Spoto -The Star Ledger

Deep in the recesses of a cluster of one-time Army buildings in Wall Township, a 900-pound piece of history sits crusted and rusted in a trough of water, waiting to take its place among other relics once lost in maritime disasters.

Like many artifacts recovered from shipwrecks by deep sea divers, the 210-year-old cannon was a closely guarded secret. Plucked in 1996 from a wreck off the coast of New Jersey, it sat for most of the time since then in a vat of water in the backyard of a Manasquan home.

But a group of New Jersey divers, eager to share their finds with the public, have opened a portal to history by showcasing objects like the 5-foot long iron cannon and other items that date back to a time when ships were the primary mode of transportation. 

"A lot of these items were stored in people's garages, houses and basements," said Dan Lieb, president of the New Jersey Historical Divers Association.

"We had collected so much information over the years we felt it was incumbent on us to open it to the public." 

The divers don't just retrieve items. They research each piece so they can tell its story: who owned it, why it was aboard the ship, where it was going, what role it played in the evolution of society.

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By Reggie Ponder - DailyAdvance

Plenty of proof of the Albemarle’s role as “Cradle of the Colony” lies out of sight in the depths of the Pasquotank River.

“Don’t forget — there’s things underwater,” Mark Wilde-Ramsing of the N.C. Office of State Archaeology said Saturday in one of six presentations by archaeologists at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.

Those “things underwater” include remnants of Civil War gunboats, commercial steamers and barges, and even Native American dugout canoes.

Remains of the CSS Black Warrior, a 92-foot-long Confederate schooner, were found recently in the Pasquotank River. A gun carriage from the boat will be returned to the museum once the state conservation lab completes preservation work on the artifact.

Confederate shipwrecks in the Pasquotank River, and Native American artifacts from Currituck County were among the topics of discussion as the state’s top archaeologists converged on the museum this weekend for the 75th Annual Spring Meeting of the N.C. Archaeological Society. About 75 people were registered for the event.

Wilde-Ramsing spoke on “Underwater Archaeological Explorations and Discoveries in Waters of Northeastern North Carolina.”

It was the first time the society had gathered this far east, according to Clay Swindell, a society member who lives in Elizabeth City and is an archaeologist with the Virginia-based James River Institute for Archaeology. He also works part-time at the museum.

Another Civil War-era boat found in the Pasquotank River, the Scuppernong, was built in Elizabeth City, according to Wilde-Ramsing.

From Underwater Times

For the first time, adventure-hungry certified divers can work alongside professional treasure salvage experts excavating the wrecksite of the , one of the most significant shipwreck discoveries of the 20th century.

The weeklong Atocha Dive Adventure includes training in commercial treasure salvage techniques, behind-the-scenes tours of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum and laboratories where Atocha artifacts are conserved and two full days of diving the site alongside salvage experts seeking the galleon’s sterncastle. The first adventure is scheduled Monday through Sunday, June 8-14.

Approximately $400 million of the Atocha’s treasure and a significant portion of the vessel’s structure were discovered in 1985 by the late shipwreck salvor Mel Fisher, submerged in approximately 55 feet of water 35 miles southwest of Key West.

Crews led by Fisher’s family continue to search for the ship’s sterncastle and the gold and silver bars and coins that are listed on the Atocha’s manifest but remain undiscovered.

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From Perth now

A shipwreck discovered off Rottnest Island is believed to be a steam dredge which built Fremantle harbour more than 100 years ago.

Former Member for Fremantle the Hon. Jim McGinty, WA Museum principal author Graeme Henderson and Geoff Kimpton found the 48-metre long iron wreck lying on reef in 12 metres of water, 1km west of Straggler’s Rocks during a recreational dive.

Although the vessel was in many pieces and camouflaged by marine growth, Mr Henderson said but the location, depth, size and condition of the wreck point towards it being the Fremantle.

The dredge was built in 1894 and played an important role in building the port harbour during the 1890s when shipping access to the Swan River river was blocked by a rocky bar across the entrance.

Graeme Henderson said other vessels were scuttled off Rottnest Island but records showed the Fremantle was the only one scuttled on reef west of Straggler’s Rocks.

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From Gainesville.com

A WWII-era fighter plane is brought to land from Lake Michigan at Waukegan Harbor, Friday, April 24, 2009, in Waukegan, Ill.

A group of undersea treasure hunters and Great Lakes salvage experts have retrieved the plane 60-plus years after it fell off a training aircraft carrier and into the water some 50 miles off shore from Chicago.The plane will be restored and displayed at the WWII Museum in New Orleans.

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By Leonard Sparks - Capital News Service

The carcass of a World War II-era German submarine has rested for 60 years on the bottom of the Potomac River in southern Maryland, visited only by sport divers and marine archeologists.

But now Maryland officials charged with protecting the U.S. Navy-owned U-boat are moving to add it to a new federal system of protected marine areas being created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"It's nice to be part of a larger scientific system," said Susan Langley, underwater archeologist for the Maryland Department of Planning. "It's sort of bragging rights for Maryland."

The submarine's location, designated as the Black Panther Shipwreck Preserve, is one mile west of Piney Point Lighthouse in St. Mary's County.

The sub was launched into service in June 1944 as part of the feared German U-boat fleet which patrolled the Atlantic Ocean in search of Allied supply convoys.

Better naval tactics, the cracking of Germany's "Enigma" code and the use of radar and sonar combined, sinking more than 750 U-boats, soon helped the Allied forces reverse control of the Atlantic.

But technological advances continued on both sides. The Maryland sub is one of an estimated 10 that were coated with an experimental rubber skin designed to elude Allied sonar; it earned the nickname "Black Panther."

"It was an early attempt at stealth technology," Langley said. "It does seem to be the precursor to the rubber coating that the Russian and American subs began using later."

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From Reuters - India

A group of adventurers are aiming to build another Chinese junk after their first replica of the ancient vessel was shipwrecked off Taiwan just before completing a rare round-trip journey to the United States.

The crew from Taiwan and five countries were trying to show that Chinese seafarers may have reached America before Europeans.

But their junk collided with a freighter on Sunday during the last leg of its return journey across the Pacific from the United States. All 11 crew members were rescued after the accident which occurred 74 km (46 miles) east of their final port in Taiwan.

Had the journey been finished, it would have been the first Asia-North America round-trip on record by an ancient Chinese-style ship, said Angela Chao, a publicist for the crew.

The project, initiated by Taiwan hobbyist and junk captain Liu Ning-sheng five years ago, was intended to show that Chinese people might have sailed to the Americas hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus reached the New World.

"That boat made it to the United States, so I think it's possible the ancient Chinese made it," Chao told Reuters on Tuesday.


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