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From Wetherby News


After more than 60 years of silence, the dying tales of a warship named the HMAS Sydney were finally heard by the world.

The vessel, one of the Allies’ lesser known combatants against the German-Japanese pact, went down on November 19, 1941.

Critically wounded in combat with a disguised German vessel, it took some 645 crewmen with it to the seabed.

It was the greatest single loss of Australian life in the entirety of the war, and the fractured hull of the Sydney would be the country’s largest war grave.

Yet despite its scale, the ship sunk without trace.

It left many hundreds of families waiting for closure, the explanation of their loved ones’ deaths uncertain, their bodies never laid to rest.

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From WCAX News


It may be Lake Champlain's best kept secret: a sunken Revolution War gunboat lying on the bottom of the lake for the past 231 years.

Only a handful of people know where it's at. The boat is in one of the deepest parts of the lake, beyond the depths of most divers.

"It fell as if it was still sailing," said Art Cohn with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. "

We see artifacts showing in some places. We know there are dozens, hundreds, thousands of artifacts contained under the mud."

The Spitfire was sunk by the British at the Battle of Valcour Island, one of eight identical boats that held off the British advance from Canada.

"All of them were accounted for, either captured, sunk or burned, except for the Spitfire," said Rich Isenberg with the Maritime Museum.
 

From Daily Mail


Hollywood duo Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck portrayed the American desire to avenge the infamous Pearl Harbour bombings playing two US pilots in Michael Bay's hit 2001 epic.

But, the true devastation of the revenge attacks on Japanese forces in 1944 has been captured in one of the most ambitious underwater projects ever undertaken.

Operation Hailstorm was two years in the making - but on February 17, 1944, American forces blitzed the Chuuk Islands, in the south western region of the Pacific Ocean, sinking 70 Japanese ships, 270 aircraft and killing close to 3,000 people - though the official death toll has never been confirmed.

And commissioned by the BBCs Natural History Unit, a 30 strong team of divers, deep sea biologists and under water cameraman explored remotest depths of the Pacific to unravel some of the secrets behind the America's revenge attacks.


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From NOAA


A team of maritime heritage archaeologists from NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered the shipwreck remains of the 1837 British whaling ship Gledstane.

The shipwreck was foundoff Kure Atoll within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument during a month-long expedition to discover and document shipwrecks in monument waters.

At the end of the first exploratory dive of the day, the NOAA dive team discovered a pile of iron ballast and some chain.

The ballast led to a trail into the dramatic topography of the reef where more artifacts were found scattered, including four massive anchors, iron ballast, cannons and cannon balls, a trypot. 

“For years I have been coming up to Kure Atoll in hopes of searching for this particular shipwreck, but in the past we have been deterred by the weather and unworkable conditions,” said Kelly Gleason, NOAA archaeologist for the Monument and mission leader.

“This year, the Gledstanes was revealed to us, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the opportunity to share this wreck site and its story with the public.


 

By Sandra Dick


It was the aftermath of the doomed Darien Scheme, when Scots' pride had been dented in a failed bid to establish Scottish colonies in the Americas and anger towards the English was fuelled by their neighbours' refusal to answer pleas for help.

And it couldn't have been a worse time for Captain John Green to sail his vessel, the Worcester, up the Forth seeking sanctuary from a violent storm. Soon the English captain and his crew were under siege, accused of piracy and murder.

What happened next was the most spectacular of Edinburgh's pirate trials, the result of a bizarre sequence of events and played out against a feverish background of wounded national pride.

Angus Konstam recalls the episode with a degree of glee – for there's nothing the Edinburgh-based international expert on all things to do with pirates likes more than a good swashbuckling yarn played out on home soil. 

"The trial of the Worcester's crew was quite sensational at the time," explains Angus, whose new book claims to explode a catalogue of myths surrounding how we've come to view pirates. "It was probably the most famous of all Scottish pirate trials.

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By Laura Clout


The disappearance of three Australians whose yacht was found adrift on the Great Barrier reef was not murder, but a freak accident, a coroner has ruled.

The catamaran Kaz II was found drifting off the Great Barrier reef in April last year, with no sign of the crew Derek Batten, 56, and brothers Peter, 69, and Jim Tunstead 63. 

A table was laid for a meal, computers and navigation systems were switched on and life jackets were on board but a search by helicopter and boat of the open sea and nearby Whitsunday Islands proved fruitless. 

The crew's fate prompted intense speculation, with theories ranging from pirate attack and insurance fraud to freak weather or a drug deal gone wrong. 

Police said the men were probably swept overboard in rough weather, but relatives insisted they were experienced sailors and it was inconceivable all three could have been knocked into the water.


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From All Hungary News


Archaeologists searching the Danube for important shipwrecks have found what they believe may be the vessel which carried Queen Mary of Hungary (Mary of Habsburg) to Vienna after the disastrous Battle of Mohács against the Ottoman Turks in 1526.

According to stop.hu, the 15-meter-long wreck, which is buried in gravel and mud in the Danube "bend" north of Budapest, may contain gold and jewelry, and the team which located it is currently looking for sponsors to excavate the site. 

Attila J. Tóth, associate of the National Office of Cultural Heritage, said that a team of 30 divers started scouring the Danube Bend for historical relics buried under the mud a few months ago. 

Initial funding of $10,000 (€6,600) was provided by the American Hungaria Nostra Foundation, which allowed for the purchase of boats and a sonar device. 

To excavate the wreck, the team estimates it needs a further Ft 5 million (€21,000).

While sponsors could benefit from an association with the enterprise, they should not expect any treasure, as any relics found would belong to the Hungarian state.

From Seeking Alpha


Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (OMEX) is engaged in the archaeologically-sensitive exploration and recovery of deep water shipwrecks that contain treasure throughout the world.  

Odyssey’s May 2007 recovery of the estimated $500M Black Swan treasure and subsequent legal dispute with Spain has made headlines worldwide.

Odyssey utilizes innovative methods and state-of-the-art sonar technology to conduct extensive deep ocean search and recovery operations on high value shipwreck targets.

Sea exploration has dramatically changed due to state-of-the-art technologies that enable the search, discovery and recovery of shipwrecks that were previously beyond reach.

Odyssey is transforming activities long associated with "pirates and treasure hunters", into a serious and legitimate commercial industry founded on strong business practices, a commitment to the environment and high archaeological standards.

There are well over 1,000 high-value shipwreck targets ($50 million - $2+ billion).


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