HOT NEWS !

By Darren Bernhardt


To the uninitiated, the items look like rusted junk found in a scrapyard or at the bottom of a river.

The tangled and encrusted objects on display in a Saskatoon boardroom Friday were in fact pulled from the South Saskatchewan River's sandy riverbed, but they may be much more than clutter.

They may be a century-old link to this city's greatest marine disaster.

The SS City of Medicine Hat sank on June 7, 1908, when it struck the newly built Traffic Bridge and capsized. The 40-metre long, flat-bottomed sternwheeler had been destined for Winnipeg after having departed from its namesake city in late May.

Several steamships that previously plied those waterways also encountered difficulties, mostly becoming marooned on shifting sandbars.

It was the Medicine Hat's fateful voyage, however, that put an exclamation point on the end the steamship era in Saskatoon.

Labelled by the local press of the time as "The Greatest Marine Disaster in the History of Saskatoon," the incident eventually drifted into history.

It resurfaced in August 2006 when members of the Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services dive team found a five-foot, 150-pound cast-iron anchor about 300 metres north of the Traffic Bridge.


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By Dorie Turner


$200 million worth of treasures exhibited at aquarium.

The brightly lit room looks like any nondescript warehouse packed with boxes and dusty shelves, but inside this plain brick building is nearly $200 million worth of treasures from the world's most famous shipwreck.

The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912.

When the fine china, brine-soaked shoes and water-stained sheet music aren't on tour around the world, they have a permanent home in Atlanta, the headquarters of Premier Exhibitions, which has guardianship over the artifacts.

"It's like the Smithsonian - you could be here for weeks and not see everything," said Leslie Cone, an assistant registrar with Premier, as she looked at the collection of delicate papers from the Titanic. "There's just endless surprises and wonders in this collection."

About 200 pieces from the Titanic collection now are exhibited at the Georgia Aquarium.

By Daniel Barbarisi


When the bow of the sunken Soviet submarine Juliett 484 broke the surface of the Providence River on July 24, both the military divers and the sub’s caretakers rejoiced. 

The work of raising the submarine, however, was not finished. Since then, divers raised the stern of the submarine, and spent a few weeks securing the 43-year-old submarine so that it could be safely towed. 

“They’ve taken [time] to fabricate a set of steel flotation pontoons, which make it a lot easier and safer to tow,” said Frank Lennon, president of the Russian Sub Museum. “Think of it like training wheels on a bike.”

Where it will be towed, however, is not yet clear. Lennon said it is still not certain what will become of the sub, which has deteriorated badly after so much time flooded at the bottom of the harbor.

It could be restored if money is found, or it could end up as a sunken reef somewhere, or as scrap metal.

From Andi Europe


Czech diver dies in Croatia, divers´ team fined, its head expelled. A Croatian court today fined members of a Czech scuba diving expedition in Croatia for breaching the local scuba diving law, a decision that has nothing to do with the death of the team´s photographer earlier this week, Czech diplomatic sources have stated.

The expedition has allegedly been fined the equivalent to 107,000 crowns. Later today, Nova TV said the team had to pay the fine otherwise the team leader would be threatened with imprisonment.

The leader, Zdenek Partyngl, has been expelled from Croatia, Nova TV said.

The court proceedings reportedly were not linked to the death of the diver who did not survive his ascent from the 90-meters depth in the Cavtat area, becoming the 20th Czech who died in Croatia in this season alone.

Members of the Czech expedition, which monitors the wreckage of the World War One Italian cruiser Garibaldi, which sank along the Croatian coast in 1915, have been accused of transgressing the depth scuba divers are allowed to sink to.
 

From The Daily Mail


The government today sparked uproar by revealing Lord Nelson's legendary flagship HMS Victory could be given away to a private owner as a cost cutting measure.

The Ministry of Defence revealed the historic 18th century warship may be too expensive to maintain and her funding is currently under review.

This could see her passed to a private firm or given to a charity to save cash, which critics say would be 'a tragedy'.

The MoD argues that increasing budgetary pressures mean it must review Victory's future like any other ship.

But a former Commanding Officer of Victory and ex-First Sea Lord said handing over the oldest commissioned warship in the world to a private company would make a mockery of Britain's naval heritage.


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By Clodagh Sheehy


Old fish bones and dead insects could be the key to the story of Ireland's transport system, 500 years before gridlock.

The fish bones, insect carcasses and dead plant material are wedged in the timbers of a medieval boat recovered from the river Boyne, near Drogheda.

The boat has now been lifted from the river-bed and the Department of Environment is looking for experts who will be able to unravel the story from minute remains left in the vessel.

The "Drogheda Boat" was discovered during dredging operations in the river and carbon dating of some of the timbers suggest it is at least 500 years old.

The Department wants a proper analysis, which should be able to pinpoint the age of the boat to within a couple of decades.

The wreck of the medieval coastal boat is the first discovery of its kind in Ireland and, unusually, much of the boat is intact.

It was excavated and lifted from the river bed by the Department's Underwater Archaeology Unit in cooperation with the National Museum of Ireland and Drogheda Port company.


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By Nancy Shields

When local history enthusiasts announced plans earlier this week for an observation next year of the 75th anniversary of the S.S. Morro Castle disaster, they gave out information from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, that said victims of the burning cruise ship were buried in a small West Long Branch cemetery.

But someone who would know, a West Long Branch historian and expert on that borough's cemeteries, said Thursday that is just not the case.

Arthur T. Green II, a careful documenter of the dead, said he knows of no Morro Castle victims buried in West Long Branch. "My family's lived here for over 300 years," Green said.

"There's nothing to do with Morro Castle here."

From Turkish Daily News


Artifacts from the oldest known shipwreck Uluburn, dating back to 1300 B.C., will leave their exhibit in the Bodrum Underwater Archeological Museum to go on display in “Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C that will start in New York this November.

Museum director Yaşar Yıldız said all of the 140 unique pieces removed from the 3,300-year-old Uluburun ship, discovered in Kaş in 1982 and exhibited in the Bodrum Underwater Archeology Museum, would go on public display in the world-famous Metropolitan Museum in Nov. 18.

Among the 140 artifacts, the most notable are the golden seal of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, glass beads, golden necklaces, precious jewels, a stone hoe, containers for food and hunting items used in ancient times, he said.