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From Art Daily

Turner Auctions + Appraisals will present an online sale on February 12 from the renowned “Hoi An Hoard” – historic treasures of 15th- and 16th-century Vietnamese ceramics that were recovered from a trading ship that sank over 500 years ago in a typhoon in the Dragon Sea.

Excavated from the deep with extreme difficulty under death-defying conditions in the late 1990s, the shipwreck’s collection of porcelain artifacts is considered by many experts to be the most significant find in Vietnamese art.

The auction features over 160 lots, almost all with multiple items. Among the offerings are vases large and small, boxes, wine flasks, bowls, tea and wine cups, serving plates, platters and more.

Some items are decorated with blue and white designs, enamel or white glaze; some are undecorated; and some include marine encrustations from over five centuries buried at sea.

An auction highlight is a small, one-of-a-kind box in the form of a crab, decorated with green enamel that has degraded over the years due to underwater exposure at the bottom of the sea.

The works for sale from the Hoi An Hoard are sure to tempt today's treasure hunters.

These 500-year-old ceramics – probably created in the mid-1400s, before Johannes Gutenberg printed his first bible and Leonardo da Vinci was born – infrequently come up for auction.

Focused on individual buyers, this auction presents a rare opportunity to obtain art objects with a unique historical, cultural and archaeological provenance – and at prices that enable most people to participate.

The story of the Hoi An Hoard – from the collection itself, which is the only known cache of Vietnamese ceramics, to the extraordinary underwater archaeological excavation, which involved smuggling, typhoons and hazardous diving operations – is an amazing tale. 

Full story...

By Davis Wells - The Herald

Scuba diver Allen Murray has spent the best part of two decades dedicated to researching and exploring historic shipwrecks, perhaps most notably bringing to life a mystery that has puzzled researchers and defence experts for a hundred years.

The seasoned diver, aged 60 from Plymouth, and who has been an active and leading member of a several diving clubs across the South West over the years, has now been honored for his work in archaeological wreck investigation.

The British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC), the sport's national governing body which grants a number of awards to honour amateur divers' achievements, has appointed Mr Murray as a 'Wreck Champion'.

The award is a recognition of his efforts over two decades to explore, photograph and research historic wrecks.

One of the most notable of such explorations, and one that required a great deal of sensitivity during the mission, was research into the protected wreck of the Royal Navy's sunken submarine HMS A7, which sank in Whitsand Bay in Cornwall in 1914, with the loss of all 11 men on board.

The wreck site is the last resting place of the submariners who lost their lives and diving on her is prohibited without a licence from the Ministry of Defence.

However, Mr Murray, was granted special permission to dive the protected wreck in 2014, as part of an academic research project to bring the history of the vessel to life and create a virtual tribute to the crew of HMS A7.

From Daily Sabah

An underwater research team has discovered the shipwreck of a military cargo vessel made by the Russians in 1915 in Lake Van, located in Turkey's eastern Bitlis province, reports said on Thursday.

After almost 18 months of research, the team found the 100-year-old Russian vessel, which was used for military freight shipment, and ran aground 23 meters down Lake Van during a storm in 1958.

The vessel is reportedly 40 meters in length and is still in good condition, despite the fact that it hit rocks before it sank.

Underwater Cinematographer Tahsin Ceylan, Lake Van Underground Research Association (VANSAD) Chairman Dr. Mustafa Akkuş and six more members of the team have been conducting research off Çanakdüzü coast in Reşadiye district, Bitlis, the Doğan News Agency reported.

The finding marks the first time a sunken-ship has been discovered in the lake.

Cinematographer Tahsin Ceylan said that the lake is full of 'mysteries' and the team is working collectively to solve these mysteries.

"We learned that there are three cargo vessels from the 1900s, which sank around Bitlis region" Ceylan said.

He continued by adding that they would love to work with a Russian team to find out the rest of the remaining shipwrecks under Lake Van.

From Christie's

When the Atocha sunk in a hurricane nearly 400 years ago hope of recovering its rich cargo seemed lost. This silver ingot in our 20 January sale, however, is a remarkable survivor.

‘On 6 September 1622, the Nuestra Senora de Atocha sunk during a hurricane near Florida Keys,’ explains Christie’s specialist Jill Waddell. ‘Two hundred and sixty lives were lost at sea, along with tons of treasure bound for Spain.’ Weighing 79lb, this bar of silver was marked with the name of a silversmith who also went down with the ship. 

More than half a century before the foundation of colonial cities including Boston, Philadelphia and New York, the Spanish were leading the rapid expansion of the New World in centres including Potosí, Lima and Mexico City.

The continent’s mineral wealth became vital to the Spanish throne: from 1561 to 1748, two fleets carrying supplies were sent to colonists each year, returning to Spain filled with silver and gold.

‘The Atocha was so richly-laden with treasures that it had taken two months to load, and it left port at Havana six weeks later than scheduled,’ continues Waddell.

‘It was the most heavily guarded ship in a fleet of 20, and was carrying clergymen, slaves and members of the Spanish nobility. When a hurricane struck, the boat was slammed into a reef, sinking in just 55 feet of water.

Just five of those who had been on board survived.’

Full story...

From The Telegraph

The sinking of the largest ship ever built, the Titanic, may owe as much to a enormous fire onboard as it did to a gigantic iceberg, it has been claimed.

The doomed vessel, which measured more than 880ft long and 100ft tall, went down with the loss of more than 1500 lives on April 15, 1912 during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

However fresh evidence that the Titanic’s hull may have been crippled by a massive blaze that burned unchecked for almost three weeks immediately behind the spot where it was later pierced.

The claim was made by journalist and Titanic expert Senan Malony, who has spent more than 30 years researching the disaster. He used little known photographs taken by the Titanic’s chief electrical engineer before it left Belfast shipyard to identify 30ft-long black marks along the front right-hand side of the hull.

Mr Malony said: “We are looking at the exact area where the iceberg stuck, and we appear to have a weakness or damage to the hull in that specific place, before she even left Belfast”.

Experts subsequently confirmed these were likely to have been caused by fire damage, as a result of hundred of tonnes of coal catching fire due to “self-heating” in a three-storey-high fuel store behind boiler room six.

Twelve men battled to bring the resulting conflagration under control, but it was still raging days later - as temperatures of between 500 and 1000 degrees Celsius.

Ship’s officers were reportedly under strict instruction from J Bruce Ismay, president of the company that built the ship, not to mention the desperate situation to any of the Titanic’s 2,500 passengers.

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From Janet Begley - USA Today

A Salvation Army bell ringer received a coin with ties to a fleet of Spanish galleons sunk in 1715 off the coast of Vero Beach.

Longtime volunteer Jim Bessy received the gold Spanish escudo worth several thousand dollars from a donor who wished to remain anonymous. He said the donor handed him the coin for safekeeping Thursday so it wouldn’t get mixed up with the other coins in the kettle.

Bessy then turned over the coin Friday to Salvation Army Lt. Jay Needham in Vero Beach. When Needham, in his first year as Salvation Army corps officer in Indian River County, began researching the coin on the Internet, he said he was amazed to learn of its history.

The coin is in a plastic case, marked with the words “1715 Fleet 1 Escudo.” “This is certainly a big welcome for me,” Needham said. “My first Christmas here comes with treasure from a 300-year-old ship. It brings a 300-year-old story about treasure together with a 2,000-year-old story about the birth of our Savior at Christmas.”

In 2015, more than 200 coins were retrieved along the Treasure Coast and valued at more than $1 million. A contractor working for 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC, a historic shipwreck salvage company based here, recovered the coins that were part of the fleet that sunk in a hurricane off the coast July 31, 1715.

The shipwrecks are what give the area of Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties its Treasure Coast nickname.

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From Agi.it

A Borbonic corvette, named Flora, was found in the waters of Naples Harbour. It brings back memories of a very difficult time in the history of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, when King Ferdinand I had to flee Naples to find refuge in Palermo, while the French army arrived in Naples and set off the Republic Revolution.

The Flora, a three-mast ship was built by the innovative shipyards of Castellamare di Stabia - the same yards that centuries later built the glorious ship Amerigo Vespucci.

The Borbonic corvette, which is still at the bottom of the harbour, was found by a team of underwater archeologists belonging to a temporary joint-venture that was awarded a research contract by the Naples Port Authority, in view of works to expand the basin.

Divers started excavating at the end of November and continued through mid December. Their work led to the accurate identification of the shipwreck site. When the French fleet arrived in Naples in 1799 to help the rebels, the king ordered the Flora to be set on fire and sunk, together with five other ships that were at anchor in the port of Naples.

Precious documents were collected during the initial stage of the investigation.

An 1828 map was of great importance. It was found by Armando Carola from Naples' Underwater Studies Centre. It reports with great accuracy the wrecks resting in the Gulf of Naples, which were subsequently confirmed by a Sonar Side Scan and a multibeam prospection used by the joint-venture in charge of the research work, under the scientifc direction of Filippo Avilia, and the technical management of Alessandro Scuotto, CEO of Deep Sea Technology. 

Full story...

By Maggie Gillis - CBC News

A group of researchers will explore the underwater battlefields off the coast of Bell Island, to try to uncover more about what happened when four ore carriers were sunk off Newfoundland by German U-boats in 1942.

Memorial University archaeology student Daniel Rees, whose great grandmother nursed the injured sailors, was awarded a JR Smallwood Foundation research grant to study the shipwrecks.

Rees told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show he will use forensic analysis — similar to methods employed by crime scene investigators — to learn about the tactics used by the Germans and piece together how the attacks unfolded.

"We can understand the angles the torpedoes would have fired from the German U-boats, we can understand where they would have been in relation to where the guns on the island are that would have been firing back at them, so we can really try to reconstruct everything," said Rees, who received approximately $4,500 from the foundation on Monday.

The SS Saganaga and SS Lord Strathcona were struck by torpedoes on the same day, Sept. 5, 1942. The SS Rose Castle and the Free French Forces vessel PLM27 were hit later that year.

In total, 70 men were killed. Rees said while many divers have explored the Bell Island wrecks, his archeological study will include the use of sonar to map the area and also determine the rate of deterioration of the vessels.

Full story...