HOT NEWS !

By Staten Island Advance

Could there be a fortune lurking beneath the Arthur Kill ?

In 1903 a barge listed in the channel while carrying nearly 8,000 silver bars belonging to the Guggenheim family.

The precious cargo spilled over the side. Most of the bars were recovered, but it is believed about 1,400 of them -- worth $6,000 to $7,000 each -- are still scattered on the bottom of the busy shipping channel.

Now, Aqua Survey, a Hunterdon County-N.J. company that specializes in environmental research, is on the hunt for the remaining bars, according to a Star Ledger report.

Since the spring of 2006, it has used advanced technology to map the waters, and it believes it is close to a find. It even has petitioned a federal judge for scavenger rights.

A shipwreck from the imperial Roman era, found off Cyprus, could lead to the discovery of vessels sunk in antiquity's largest naval engagement, the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC, said an official statement on Thursday.

"According to (historian) Diodoros, it was somewhere in the area where in 306 BC the Macedonian (King) Demetrius Poliorketes triumphed over Ptolemy of Egypt in one of the largest naval battles of antiquity," said Cyprus' Antiquities Department.

More than 300 ships were believed to have been engaged in the battle that saw Demetrius capture Cyprus.

The Roman ship, dating from the first century AD, was discovered sunk off Cape Greco on the Mediterranean's southeast coast during an underwater survey to determine the area's long-term maritime history.

Material found provided solid evidence of maritime traffic from the archaic or classic period.

The discovery had encouraged international archaeologists working in deeper waters offshore, and more extensive mapping of the wreck and the seabed is planned for next summer.

From CNN Money


RMS Titanic, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. , today announced that it will conduct its first research and recovery expedition at the wreck site of the RMS Carpathia.

Departing from Brest, France on August 16, 2007, the expedition team will oversee the archaeological recovery of artifacts from the Carpathia along with site documentation and assessment of the overall structural integrity of the historic ship.

RMS Carpathia was built in 1902 for the oceanic passenger trade, and provided service primarily between New York City, Queenstown and Liverpool, and between New York City and ports of the Mediterranean.

On April 15, 1912, the Carpathia became the most famous rescue ship in the world. After receiving a distress signal from the Titanic, Carpathia's Captain Rostron quickly responded and rescued 705 passengers from the North Atlantic.

Six years later on July 17, 1918, Carpathia was torpedoed by a German U-Boat and sank while transporting military passengers for the British government during World War I.

Carpathia was re-discovered in 2000 by a team of shipwreck explorers funded by author Clive Cussler of the United States.

By Emily Ford

Darren Morgan, a salvage expert, tells what it’s like recovering high-value cargo from sunken freighters Celia was already 1,200 metres under water by the time Darren Morgan reached her.

“It took 18 months of planning and preparation,” he says. But the lengthy courtship paid dividends – the salvage generated sales worth more than £1.75 million for the company.

Celia, the codename given to this particular shipwreck, sank off northwest Spain in the 1970s.

Morgan, head of salvage at SubSea Resources, coordinated the cargo recovery operation with a small team, retrieving about 550 tonnes of copper and zinc.

“It is not treasure hunting,” he says. “These are commodity metals.”

Before separating a shipwreck from its ghostly secrets, the firm first has to find it. Researchers identify possible freighter vessels lost at sea which must meet strict criteria.

“Wrecks must be located in international waters and war graves are strictly off limits.”

Permission must also be sought from the underwriters, who are the legal owners of the cargo. Navigators study the last sightings of the ship to pinpoint its location to within 100 nautical square miles.

“We look at where survivors were picked up... what the currents were like,” he says. A target being considered for 2008-09 was sunk during the Second World War. “We have the log from the U-boat commander.”

From Associated Press

Salvagers discovered thousands of pearls Friday in a small, lead box they said they found while searching for the wreckage of the 17th-century Spanish galleon Santa Margarita.

Divers from Blue Water Ventures of Key West said they found the sealed box, measuring 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches, along with a gold bar, eight gold chains and hundreds of other artifacts earlier this week.

They were apparently buried beneath the ocean floor in approximately 18 feet of water about 40 miles west of Key West.

Five ancient cannons, and some cannon balls have just been found in Thuan An port, Thua Thien Hue province.

According to the Thua Thien-Hue Revolutionary History Museum, these five cannons and cannon balls were discovered by fishermen in Tan An village, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue province.

Nguyen Huu Hoang, a member of the Vietnamese UNESCO Antique Research and Collection Club, on May 22 bought the four brass copper cannons from fishermen.

The cannons weigh 250kg each. Each cannon has designs around the top, the middle of the body and the end. The near-end part has Latin letters. Two cannons are 175cm long. The other two are 162cm in length.

According to researcher Ho Tan Phan, these cannons date back to the Nguyen Dynasty (1648 – 1687).

Deputy director of the Thua Thien-Hue Revolutionary History Museum theorised that these cannons could have been on ships of French or Spanish origin which were wrecked when attacking Hue imperial city in 1883.

By John Garvey - Newbury Weekly News


Could this mysterious, 3,000-year-old ring be part of the lost - and cursed - treasure of Tutankhamun ?

It's owner, Markas Dove of Kintbury, certainly believes so. Since the ring was unearthed by a huge storm in 1987, Mr Dove has been offered a fortune for the ring, although bad luck has followed in its wake.

Mr Dove said: "My dad found the band with a metal detector after the hurricane of 1987 removed about 10 feet off the beach at the Isle of Wight."It was about 18 inches down beneath the shingle, among the bedrock."

Mr Dove revealed how everything went wrong for his father and mother following the discovery. He said: "Mum developed cancer almost immediately and they lost their home. Dad developed severe depression and nothing seemed to go right for them."

The ring has since passed to Mr Dove, who took it to the British Museum to be authenticated. Elisabeth O'Connell, the research curator at the British Museum's Egyptology department, said:

"The inscription suggests it belonged to either Tutankhamun or one of his inner court. "I would not like to try and put a figure on its value."

She added that an early-20th-century shipwreck of a vessel carrying Egyptian antiquities was the most likely explanation for the find.

Mr Dove said: "To be honest it has caused nothing but grief. I won't have it in the house now. It's in a friend's safe."

International treasure hunters who have been searching for colonial shipwrecks off the Jamaican coast under a license from the government have declared bankruptcy.

US-based Admiralty Holding Company announced Thursday that it has ceased operations as it has been unable to get funding to continue its search and recovery efforts. A release from Admiralty states that it is in a dire financial condition.

It says as of Wednesday it became legally insolvent and its ships have been seized by creditors.

The release further states that Admiralty Corporation has been notified by its attorney in Jamaica that a conditional license may be granted to perform Verification & Identification of wrecks located on the Pedro Bank.

In September 2003, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, on behalf of the Government of Jamaica gave the Corporation the green light to begin an underwater archaeological treasure hunt in the Pedro Cays.

The area is a known ship graveyard.

It is believed that some of the richest colonial shipwrecks in the world, laden with gold and silver plus valuable gemstones and artefacts still lie on the ocean floor.

Jamaica was expected to retain 50 per cent of the artefacts and treasures recovered.