Stay informed on the most recent spectacular or significant nautical news and shipwrecks discoveries
by Graham Tibbetts
Marine archaeologists who explored the 600-ton vessel off Dorset believe it may have been as luxurious in its day as the Titanic.
Among the treasures they have retrieved is a statue of a merman whose eye sockets would have held precious stones. The 4.5ft wooden figure was one of a number of statues that would have adorned the stern of the vessel.
At 130ft long, the oak-timbered ship would have been one of the largest of its kind on the seas when it sank in around 1620.
Its identity is not known but it is likely to be British or Dutch. The wreck was found half a mile from the Sandbanks peninsula during recent dredging work of Poole harbour.
Marine archaeologists have carried out a series of dives on the vessel, which lies in 23ft of water.
by Richard Giedroyc
The Solomon Islands aren't the only place making numismatic news recently regarding odd and primitive money. A yet to be identified 15th or 16th century shipwreck encountered off the coast of Namibia in Africa was apparently carrying both coins and odd and curious items meant for barter with the local inhabitants.
Archaeologist Dieter Noli is associated with the excavation being undertaken by Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint venture of the government of Namibia and the De Beers diamond mining company from South Africa that discovered the wreck by accident.
Noli was quoted in a May 1 Associated Press article as saying, "Sending a ship toward Africa in that period [14th to 15th centuries], that was venture capital in the extreme."
Namdeb Diamond Corporation had been clearing and draining an area of seabed in search of diamonds when they unexpectedly uncovered what was left of the unidentified ship. At first the team found some partial sphere-shaped ingots that they were unable to identify. This was followed by finding cannons, which were much more easily recognized.
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by Michael Peltier
Private treasure hunters are squaring off with state historic officials over a new proposed set of rules to govern the salvaging of sunken ships and the financial and historic troves they bear.
At a workshop held last week at the state museum and archives, salvers, academic archaeologists and rule makers expressed dramatically different concerns over a proposed set of rules that would place tougher restrictions on the recovery of artifacts from historic shipwrecks.
Backers of the proposed changes say they would enhance the protection of cultural artifacts in state waters, bringing Florida into compliance with other states and foreign countries that have drastically limited or eliminated the private excavation of historic underwater sites.
“It is wrong and it has always been wrong,” said William Lees, an archaeologist at the University of West Florida, echoing scores of other researchers who sent letters and e-mails.
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by Alan Brook
American scientists searching for the wreck of an 18th century warship say they have found four possible sites.
The team from the Ocean Technology Foundation in Connecticut are being helped in their search for the Bonhomme Richard which sank somewhere off Flamborough head in 1779, by the US Navy who are using a unique 150ft long nuclear powered submarine to scour the sea bed.
It is their third expedition to find the remains of the vessel captained by John Paul Jones who is credited as being the father of the American Navy.
Melissa Ryan, project manager for the team who have been onboard the sub's mother ship at a location several miles off Flamborough Head for almost two weeks, said: "Much like our last survey in 2006, we have discovered four shipwrecks which we think could potentially be the Bonhomme Richard.
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by Erica Blake
Loaded with passengers and a cargo of liquor and wine, the Anthony Wayne had not traveled far on its voyage from the docks of Toledo to a port in Buffalo, when an inexplicable explosion occurred - one that sent it to the depths of Lake Erie.
Now, more than 150 years later and two years after it was first discovered deep beneath the Lake Erie waves, underwater archaeologists are studying the sidewheel steamboat in its final resting place. Believed to be the oldest steamboat shipwreck in the lake, the Anthony Wayne is broken up and buried in the lake's muck. It's cold down there - hovering at about 50 degrees - and the murky water makes visibility tough.
Despite the less-than-ideal research environment, archaeologists are working to preserve Great Lakes history by measuring and recording every detail of the vessel to re-create how it was built.
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by Michael Peltier
State historic officials want to institute the first major rewrite in 30 years. Private treasure hunters say a proposed set of state rules could sink their business.
State historic officials want to institute the first major rewrite of the treasure salvaging rules in 30 years — and their plan includes provisions that would require a certified archaeologist on site at all times and ban searching on wreck sites that could include human remains.
Treasure hunters, also called salvers, balked at the proposals at a meeting Thursday and said without private searchers the flow of artifacts to museums will drastically decrease.
Backers of the proposed changes say they would enhance the protection of cultural artifacts in state waters and bring the state into compliance with other states and foreign countries that have drastically limited or eliminated private excavation of historic underwater sites.
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by Kate Dilworth
He has broken records for rowing across the Atlantic, but intrepid adventurer Stuart Kershaw is off in search of deep sea treasure closer to home.
The 27-year-old documentary maker, who crossed from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 33 days with Team La Mondial in January, has been selected to join a covert salvage operation, hoping to recover artifacts from an old shipwreck.
Both the target and its exact location are shrouded in secrecy – we can only reveal the team will spend around 40 days scouring seas off the British coast, using a mobile rig platform as their base.
The trip is due to start in three weeks’ time.
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from Herald Tribune
Experts have started to examine a gold chalice that shipwreck salvagers recovered while searching for the wreckage of a Spanish galleon off the Florida Keys.
The ornate two-handled chalice stands on a gold base and is adorned with etched scrollwork on the upper portion. Blue Water Ventures diver Michael DeMar found the object beneath about a foot of sand in 18 feet of water approximately 30 miles west of Key West. DeMar said he first thought the chalice was just a beer can.
The late Key West treasure hunter Mel Fisher began the search for artifacts from the Santa Margarita, which sank in 1622, more than a quarter-century ago.
from the Advertiser24
Archaeologists working on the north Suffolk coast have unearthed an early medieval boat.
Excavations being carried out in Sizewell in advance of the onshore works for the Greater Gabbard Wind Farm unearthed the remains of the craft.
The boat, which was probably a small inshore fishing vessel, had been broken up some time between the 12th and 14th Centuries and parts of the hull re-used to create a timber lining for a well, experts said.
The waterlogged conditions has ensured that the planks are very well preserved and this will allow archaeologists a rare opportunity for study. Although much more modest, the boat was constructed using the same techniques as the great Sutton Hoo ships.
The excavations are being undertaken by Suffolk County Council's Archaeological Service and a council spokesman said: “It is clinker-built with the planks joined together along their edges with closely spaced iron rivets before being attached to the boat frame with wooden pegs; and there is evidence of luting, wool like fibres between the planks to seal the joints.
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from The Times
A great port city swallowed by the sea is about to float its secrets, writes Adam Fresco.
As a great port on the East of England, Dunwich was nothing short of a medieval metropolis. Eight churches, 80 ships, five religious orders — including the Benedictines, Dominicans and Franciscans — and prosperity from its trade in wool, grain, fish and furs to rival London. Such was the city’s prestige that, under Edward I, it was granted two seats in parliament.
But that was before Dunwich was swallowed by the sea. This month , more than five centuries after the last of a succession of storms and sea surges battered the Suffolk city into little more than a village, a research team set sail to discover the secrets of a British Atlantis.
Using the latest acoustic imaging technology — designed to penetrate the high silt levels that have reduced visibility in the water at the site, 1.6km off the coast, to centimetr es — the researchers hope to reveal Dunwich in its prime.
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