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By Ross McSwain


Over a 167-year period, the great state of Texas and its parent, the Republic of Texas, have had to negotiate with the government of France twice. Both disputes were settled with a compromise.

The first dispute, in 1841, was called the "Pig War," the name given to the quarrel between French diplomat Alphonse Dubois de Saligny and the Lamar administration that resulted in a temporary rupture of diplomatic relations between France and the Republic of Texas. More about this later.

The most recent dispute had to be settled in 2003 through the U.S. State Department and then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who met with representatives of the French government to solve the difficulty.

This situation came to light recently when some 50 or more local and area history buffs met at Fort Concho to hear about the story of the 17th century shipwreck that may have played a role in changing the history of North America.


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By Erica Blake


The images are blurred shapes of dark and light and they have undefined lines and portions shaded out.

But even to the untrained eye the photos that emerged from the side scan sonar that pierced into the waters of Lake Erie were unmistakably boats. Shipwrecks to be exact.

More than a year after first glimpsing the boats on sonar and working to discover what they were, shipwreck hunters searching the waters off Cleveland have just recently announced their finds.

The shipwrecks are among many that have been discovered through the collaborative efforts of the Cleveland Underwater Explorers and the Great Lakes Historical Society in Vermilion, Ohio.

There are many more to find.

From European Commission


In the 17th century the kingdom of Sweden embarked on the construction of the most expensive and ornamented warship of its time.

Taking three years to build, it involved the work of carpenters and sail-makers, as well as sculptures and painters to work on carving and painting the intricate woodwork motifs and decorations that adorn this ship.

Unfortunately the ship sank on its maiden voyage. The king's misfortune however turned out to be our good fortune as it has been a vital resource for historians, giving us valuable insight into the times.

Now the royal warship Vasa is facing a battle for its life as it is under threat from its own iron armoury.

Since early 2000, scientists have noticed certain changes taking place in the wood of the ship: changes that threaten the very stability and life of the ship. Now a team of experts working on Vasa have been able to identify the culprit that was threatening the ship: iron.

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By Elaine Yong


Twenty meters below the surface of the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Malaysian Borneo, I'm getting blasted by the ripping current.

Desperately, I grasp at the loose coral littering the top of the reef wall trying to find an anchor. My husband, Aaron, has a slippery grip on my other hand and my two younger sisters are clutching the tips of my fins.

It would be downright comical if I weren't concentrating so hard on staying put.

The four of us tenuously hang on by our fingernails, while our bodies are buffeted by the washing-machine current that whips around Sipadan Island's most famous dive site, the aptly named Barracuda Point.

The battle is worth it. I'm staring at a huge school of those voracious predators.

There are hundreds of them, astonishingly still in the rushing waters, perfectly posed so I can get a good look at their toothy grins. Then in a silvery flash, the school turns on itself and swirls into a massive ball.

The barracudas swim off into the blue yonder.


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By Ned Rozell


About 150 years ago, a few days after summer solstice, the gray skies above the Diomede Islands were heavy with smoke from whaling ships set ablaze by Confederate sailors who didn't know the Civil War had ended.

"The red glare from the eight burning vessels shone far and wide over the drifting ice of these savage seas," wrote an officer aboard the Shenandoah, a ship commissioned by Confederate leaders to wreak havoc on Yankee whalers harvesting bowhead whales off the western and northern coasts of Alaska.

Though their timing was off -- the Civil War had been over for two months when the Shenandoah reached Alaska waters from England (after an eight-month trip around the southern capes of Africa and Australia) -- the captain and crew of the Shenandoah succeeded in destroying the Yankee fleet, burning 22 whaling ships and capturing two others.

"It was the last hurrah of whaling -- the place where commercial whaling died in the U.S.," said Brad Barr, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries in Woods Hole, Mass.

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By Bob Crivello


The annual family bonfire and cookout was loads of fun - riding four wheelers, playing chase the ace, cooking hot dogs and eating chili, good folksy conversations and tall tales. 

And then, after darkness had settled in, we took our walk in the woods, with flashlights casting eerie shadows from creepy vines and old snags from dead trees that lined the trail.

This year, there was no one in the woods to scare us. There were no grave markers, spider webs or snakes hanging from trees. 

We laughed and joked about that old tale of the ghost of Jean Lafitte who roamed the woods at this time of the year.

We are now much older and can't be scared anymore, and Jean Lafitte, that's just a lot of baloney. But maybe we shouldn't have been so loud! Maybe, just maybe, our voices carried a little too far in the woods and were heard by someone who was not invited to the party. 

We all know the story of Jean Lafitte, that old pirate from New Orleans who was enlisted by General Andrew Jackson to help the American forces against the British in the Battle of New Orleans in 1812.

After the war, this scalawag and his band returned to their old ways and set up a colony of privateers and made the mistake of attacking some American ships.

From Science Daily


Small islands dwarf large ones in archaeological importance, says a University of Florida researcher, who found that people who settled the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus preferred more minute pieces of land because they relied heavily on the sea.

“We've written history based on the bigger islands,” said Bill Keegan, a University of Florida archaeologist whose study is published on line in the journal Human Ecology. “Yet not only are we now seeing people earlier on smaller islands, but we're seeing them move into territories where we didn't expect them to at the time that they arrived.”

Early Ceramic Age settlements have been found in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Montserrat, for example, but are absent from all of the larger islands in the Lesser Antilles, Keegan said.

And all of the small islands along the windward east coast of St. Lucia have substantial ceramic artifacts — evidence of settlement — despite being less than one kilometer, or .62 mile, long, said Keegan, who is curator of Caribbean archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus.

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By Eric Berger

A mysterious shipwreck deep in the Gulf of Mexico has provided a glimpse of life aboard a sea vessel two centuries ago, when the body of water was akin to the "Wild, Wild West", scientists say.

At the time, privateers ruled the Gulf, which was poorly policed as America, Britain, France and Spain all claimed interests and ports along its borders.

Archaeologists and oceanographers were therefore eager to explore the 50-foot "Mardi Gras Wreck" — an unidentified ship named after a nearby pipeline — which was found in 2002 by employees from Okeanos Gas Gathering Co. who were surveying the seafloor with remote cameras.

The team, lead by a Texas A&M scientist, did so last summer using two remotely operated vehicles to capture video of the shipwreck and bring artifacts to the surface.

A just-released report shows the scientists recovered numerous artifacts, including a cannon, cannon shot for a few different sizes of cannon, and a chest of weapons including carbines, rifles and swords.

"It's a fairly large arsenal," said Ben Ford, a nautical archaeologist at Texas A&M University.

"They were either out for mischief, or they were concerned about coming to some harm."

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