HOT NEWS !

By Claire Smith

An 18th-century warship laden with gold worth an estimated £700 million has been found at the bottom of the English Channel. Marine explorers have discovered the wreck of HMS Victory, the predecessor to Nelson's ship of the same name.

Talks are taking place between the Ministry of Defence and the US company that discovered the ship, over the fate of the gold bullion, the 110 bronze cannons and treasure looted from foreign ships believed to be on board.

Dr Sean Kingsley, a marine archeologist from Odyssey Marine Exploration, which specialises in underwater exploration said: "I think this is the shipwreck of the century. It is more important than the Marie Rose or the Titanic.

"When it was built it was the biggest ship in the world – something people never believed could possibly go down."

The HMS Victory was lost in a ferocious gale in the Channel in 1744. When it sank the ship was carrying four tons of gold coins, a cargo for Dutch merchants from Lisbon.

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From PR Newswire

Odyssey Marine Exploration (O.M.E) announced today that it has found the HMS Victory, believed to be one of Britain's greatest historic shipwrecks and potentially an estimated value of one billion dollars for four tons of gold.

Featured in the fourth episode of Discovery Channel's world premiere original series TREASURE QUEST, to air in the U.S. on Thursday, February 5 at 10PM EST/PST, viewers will witness first-hand how each artifact and piece of evidence leads OME to this resounding conclusion.

In the UK, viewers can tune in to a two-part special TREASURE QUEST: Victory Special beginning Sunday, February 8 at 9PM GMT.

"Discovery has a nearly 25-year history of documenting exploration as it unfolds and our series TREASURE QUEST is the latest example of being at the forefront of the action," said John Ford, President and General Manager of Discovery Channel.

"This ongoing series provides viewers with the perfect blend of adventure, knowledge and edge of your seat excitement. Being able to follow OME as they search the ocean floor for shipwrecks is a thrill ride each week."

As reported by Odyssey Marine Exploration, they discovered and solved in 2008 one of the world's most enduring naval mysteries.

In 1744, HMS Victory, the direct predecessor to Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, was the largest and most sophisticated warship in the world.

This first-rate, three-decked man-of-war is the only ship lost with a complete consignment of 110 bronze cannon, including colossal 42-pounders, the biggest guns in the world and the ultimate naval deterrent.

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By John Wilkens

It's one of the most famous ships in history, whose name is memorized by generations of schoolchildren learning about Christopher Columbus, the ocean blue and 1492.

The Niña. In the mind's eye, it's a majestic vessel, larger than life, not so much slicing through the water as conquering it.

But those who visit a full-size replica of the ship when it docks in San Diego this week for a 13-day stay will learn the truth: The Niña was a runt.

“People are usually surprised by how small she is,” crewman Vic Bickel said. “The first time I saw the ship, I thought it must be a three-quarter-scale model. But it's not.”

The replica, built by hand with Old World tools and techniques in the late 1980s, is not quite 94 feet long – about one-third the length of San Diego's resident maritime marvel, the Star of India.

Like the Star, the Niña is a floating museum, but it rarely stays in one place for long. It has visited hundreds of coastal and inland river ports in the Western Hemisphere in the past 17 years – sometimes drawing protests from people who link Columbus to oppression and genocide. This is the third time it has been to San Diego.

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By Danny Buckland

It's enough to make Captain Jack ­Sparrow salivate – a £3billion haul of gold and silver lying at the bottom of the ­ocean since a British ship sank in 1694.

Gordon Brown has his eyes on £1billion of the haul after the Ministry of Defence struck a controversial deal with US treasure-hunters to split the takings if the wreck is found in the Straits of Gibraltar.

This is where The Sussex, an 80-gun flagship, was sunk by a three-day storm as it carried the bullion – then worth £1million – to the Duke of Savoy to seal his backing in the War of the Grand Alliance against French king Louis XIV.

It was leading a fleet of ships when it hit a violent three-day storm.

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By Vanessa Thorpe

The wreck of one of the most famous ships in British naval history has been discovered by a controversial US marine salvage company - a find that will fuel a major row about the UK's heritage.

HMS Victory, a warship known as "the finest ship in the world", went down with all hands in 1744 off the Channel Islands and its exact location has remained a mystery for more than 250 years.

But now Odyssey Marine Exploration claims it has proof of the whereabouts of the wooden wreck, in which 1,100 seamen died during a fierce storm.

The valuable remains, including 100 brass cannon, would be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds today.

After weeks of secrecy, Odyssey, an American based commercial company which is regularly accused of exploiting historic shipwrecks, plans to unveil artefacts retrieved from the wreck.

HMS Victory led the Channel fleet before Nelson's flagship of the same name and has been described this weekend as of "enormous financial value", as well as historic significance.

Its brass cannon are estimated to be worth £10,000-£20,000 each.


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By John Christopher Fine

Ocean explorers in West Palm Beach found the treasure of Hernan Cortez.

Long after the conqueror of Mexico's death, his family was shipping some of his personal fortune back to Spain. The cargo contained Aztec crystal skulls.

The ship was lost in a fire at sea. It burned to the water line, then sank in deep water off Florida's coast.

Diver, art expert and undersea explorer Dr. Victor Benilous was contacted by a representative of the Cortez family and given information about the shipwreck.

Benilous was well known for his work on the oldest shipwreck in the western hemisphere, found off Juno Beach. The information he was given was sparse.

With the use of world-renowned psychics, Benilous and his team of divers located the wreck. One of the psychics was taken aboard the dive vessel.

"Dive here," the psychic said. Deep below the spot where the psychic said dive, not 10 feet from the place where the anchor was dropped, an Aztec crystal skull was recovered.

Power ? Special properties ? Healing and spiritual abilities ?

Margaret Ann Lembo thinks so. She is the affable owner of The Crystal Garden on North Federal Highway in Boynton Beach.

She invited Bill Homann from Indiana to speak at the Boynton Woman's Club and bring the famous Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull with him.

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By Paul Post


Deep beneath the ice on Lake George, a newly designated national historic resource awaits exploration by scuba diving enthusiasts.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has listed the lake’s first-ever gasoline-powered motorboat on the National Register of Historic Places, making it part of an underwater state park called “Submerged Heritage Preserves” that includes boats from the French and Indian War.

The 45-foot long Forward, built in 1906, was owned by W.K. Bixby of Bolton Landing and St. Louis, a noted early 20th century industrialist.

“There are 80,000 properties on the National Register, only 300 shipwrecks,” said Wilton’s Joseph Zarzynski, an underwater archaeologist and founder of Bateaux Below, a not-for-profit group that nominated the Forward for the National Register.

“It’s very rare to find something from the 20th century on the register,” Zarzynski said. “It took 20 years to get this done. It’s sort of like creating a fine wine. We had to wait a little extra time.”

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From Taiwan News

Peru says it is pushing forward with a legal claim in the U.S. seeking $500 million in silver coins plucked from the wreck of a Spanish galleon that sank in 1804.

A public decree issued by the Foreign Ministry orders Lima's ambassador in Washington to hire attorneys to try to recover 17 tons of coins.

Peru claimed the treasure in U.S. District Court in Florida last year, arguing that the coins were made from Peruvian silver and minted in Lima.

Spain's government is also suing Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration for the loot, which was found off Portugal in 2007. Peru was a Spanish colony at the time the ship sank.