|
* STAY INFORMED ON THE MOST RECENT SPECTACULAR OR SIGNIFICANT NAUTICAL AND SHIPWRECK DISCOVERIES *
the 02/04/2008 at 03:57 :
Great Moments in World Trade: The Fall of China's Treasure Fleet
by Jeremy N. Smith
Prince Zhu Di stormed the Chinese Imperial Palace and occupied its throne by force on a July day in 1402. As his first order of business, the new emperor executed hundreds of Confucian officials considered loyal to his sibling predecessor and thus launched a boom in trade.
Confucians had argued domestic agriculture alone must supply the Chinese economy. Now, private trade was permitted to Chinese citizens and port access granted to foreign merchants. “All within the four seas are one family,” Zhu Di said. “Let there be mutual trade at frontier barriers in order to supply the country’s needs and to encourage distant people to come.”
Unprecedented construction began on 1,700 oceangoing warships and support vessels. The largest of the fleet—so-called “treasure ships”—required nine masts and spanned 400-by-160 feet. Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria would stretch only eighty-five feet. In fact, until World War I, the early-fifteenth-century Chinese armada was by far the most impressive the world had ever known. Its total crew numbered nearly 30,000. Their commander was eunuch Zheng He.
To be a eunuch was an invitation to power in fourteenth and fifteenth century China. Outside the Imperial Palace these men specialized in seafaring and trade. The most successful grew as rich as royalty. None would merit more than Zheng He.
Over the next three decades, the Treasure Fleet crossed the China Seas and India Ocean seven times, reaching the Persian Gulf, Africa, and, some claim, North America. From South Asia, ships carried home cardamom and cinnamon, ginger and turmeric, pepper and pearls. From present-day Sri Lanka and Malaysia came elephants, tigers, leopards, rare birds, and relics. In east Africa, Chinese silk and porcelain were traded for ivory, medicine, and precious stones.
“Half the world was in China’s grasp, and with such a formidable navy the other half was easily within reach, had China wanted it,” writes Louise Levathes, author of When China Ruled the Seas. “China could have become the great colonial power, a hundred years before the great age of European exploration and expansion.”
Link : |
the 25/03/2008 at 02:34 :
 £254m battle of the Black Swan
by Sam Jones
The crew of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes must have thought their ship had fought its final battle on the morning of October 5 1804. A little after 10 o'clock, their seven-month voyage from Peru, via Uruguay, to almost within sight of the Iberian peninsula came to an end with the British broadside that sent the treasure-laden frigate and 200 souls to the bottom of the Atlantic and brought Spain into the Napoleonic wars.
But after lying undisturbed on the seabed off Portugal for more than two centuries, the Mercedes is now at the centre of the biggest treasure grab in history.
The battle for ownership of its £254m cargo of gold and silver coins, which has already pitted a US treasure-hunting company against the Spanish government, has been joined by a third party. An emotive campaign is welling up from within Peru to reclaim the treasures the conquistadores and their descendants took by force over the course of almost three centuries.
Last May, the Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration announced that it had recovered 500,000 gold and silver coins weighing 17 tonnes from a wreck in international waters in the Atlantic and flown them back to the US from Gibraltar.
Link : |
the 24/03/2008 at 03:53 :
 Wreck hunters will not release any photos of sailors’ remains
From thewest.com.au
Photographs of the watery grave of the 645 men who died aboard HMAS Sydney will be censored to protect the relatives of the dead sailors.
Finding Sydney Foundation director Keith Rowe said he did not know what the cameras would capture at the wreckage but no images of human remains would be publicly released.
A remotely operated vehicle will film the damaged light cruiser from all possible angles. But Mr Rowe said it was unlikely to come across any skeletons because it would not be sent though portholes or ripped metal into the bowels of the ship.
“The ROV will not go close enough to touch the wreckage or for its propulsion jets to disturb the site,” he said.
The searchers are expected to leave Geraldton tonight or tomorrow morning for the Sydney, which lies about 112 nautical miles off Shark Bay’s Steep Point.
Link : |
the 20/03/2008 at 02:53 :
28 Treasure hunter to set out from Miami, seeking $100 million in gold
by Mike Clary
The treasure is out there: a fortune in shipwrecked silver, gold bullion and centuries-old artifacts, in the crystalline waters of the Caribbean, just waiting to be found.
And Burt Webber Jr. is confident he'll find it.
"It's not just about getting rich," said Webber, referring to at least $100 million in riches that went to the bottom after the Spanish galleon Concepción foundered on the Silver Bank, about 80 miles north of the Dominican Republic, in 1641. "It is also history, the mystique of it all. It is just fascinating."
Now 65, Webber won renown as a treasure hunter in 1978 when he first located the Concepción and recovered booty then valued at $14 million. But more remains, and when Webber and his 13-member crew head down the Miami River aboard the Ocean Lady next week, they will take with them an unprecedented array of high-tech hunting gear.
Link : |
the 14/03/2008 at 02:18 :
Underwater Archeology in Iran
From Iranian.ws
As evidenced by archeological documents, the ancient city of Kish, the wall of the ancient city of Gorgan, Takht-e Suleiman and part of the Portuguese Castle are submerged in Iran's coastal waters. Although Iran's underwater archeological activities are over half a century old, this topic is yet to be treated in a suitable manner.
Two centuries have passed and archeology has yet to achieve its rightful position in Iran. This science needs full revision, as Iran has special importance in human civilization and its role in establishing other cultures inspired by its civilization is undisputed. For this reason, Iran Cultural Heritage Organization (ICHO) is not able to take charge of many historical grounds. Dissemination of information is so poor that many in our society still consider archaeologists as treasure hunters! On the other hand, Iranian archaeologists are deprived of the most elementary facilities, with credits being allocated to field activities being grossly disproportionate with the vast expanse of historical sites, cited 'Iran International Magazine'.
Link : |
the 12/03/2008 at 03:33 :
 28 Neolithic hand axes recovered from seabed off Norfolk
From 24 Hour Museum
The remarkable find was made by a Dutch amateur archaeologist, Jan Meulmeester, who sifted through gravel unearthed from a licensed marine aggregate dredging area 13km off Great Yarmouth and delivered to a wharf in southern Holland.
Reckoned to be the finest hand-axes that experts are certain come from English waters, the rare finds show that deep in the Ice Age, mammoth hunters roamed across land that is now submerged beneath the sea.
“These finds are massively important,” said Ice Age expert Phil Harding of Wessex Archaeology and Channel 4’s Time Team. “In the Ice Age the cold conditions meant that water was locked up in the ice caps. The sea level was lower then, so in some places what is now the seabed was dry land.”
Bones and teeth, some of which may be from mammoths, and fragments of deer antler were also recovered along with the axes, which archaeologists believe would have been used by hunters in butchering the carcasses of the animals.
Link : |
the 23/02/2008 at 03:48 :
Pirate inspires treasure quest
From The Standard
The swashbuckling lives of pirates have captured the imagination of adults and children alike for generations.
And the life of Qing dynasty pirate Cheung Po Tsai is no exception.
Jackie Wu Ming-chuen, chairman the of 150-member Hong Kong Underwater Archaeological Association, was so inspired by stories of the famous pirate that he went on his own modern-day quest for treasure.
Cheung, who harassed ships in Guangdong, had - at the height of his power - command of an army of 20,000 men and hundreds of ships.
Wu and friends explored shipwrecks around Hong Kong and Southeast Asia in 2006 and produced five programs about their adventures.
Link : |
the 21/02/2008 at 08:53 :
 Recently unearthed cannons may be from wrecked 1800s ship
by Dean Baker
Saturday’s discovery of two cannons that had been buried for many years on the beach near Arch Cape, Ore., has raised speculation that they may be from a ship that visited Fort Vancouver 162 years ago.
Greg Shine, chief ranger and historian at Fort Vancouver, was withholding judgment Wednesday on whether the cannons came from the USS Shark, a 198-ton clipper ship that sailed into Fort Vancouver on July 24, 1846, and spent two months here. It ran aground on an attempted passage of the Columbia Bar and sank on Sept. 10, 1846.
No one died, but the entire ship’s cargo was lost, including a box containing $4,000. Apparently the money is still missing.
“I was talking to the Oregon state parks archaeologists yesterday and wondering where the word got out that the cannons were associated with the Shark,” Shine said. “There have been dozens, maybe more than 100, shipwrecks in that area, and narrowing it down to one shipwreck in 1846 would take some doing.”
Shine said the cannons could just as well be from the USS Peacock, another ship that sank on the bar five years before the Shark went down.
Link : |
the 20/02/2008 at 03:38 :
 Zheng He: China Embraces Legacy of ‘Legendary’ 15th Century Explorer
From World Hum.com
The city of Nanjing plans to reproduce one of the boats in the fleet of Zheng He, who led explorations to Vietnam, Siam, Malacca, Java, India, Sri Lanka, Arabia and other lands in the early 15th century, well before European explorers made their marks on history. From Archaeology magazine
China’s leaders are seizing on history as a tool to influence the perception of the nation abroad. Through a careful, calculated celebration of Zheng He and his travels, the government hopes to project an image of itself as open and benevolent—a powerful but peaceful nation interested in trade, not domination.
The recreation of one of China’s “Treasure Ships” is the centerpiece of the effort. It’s based on archaeological evidence of a Zheng He boat, and is being built with many 15th century methods. Ten million dollars and three years have been budgeted for the project. Once it’s completed, a crew will climb aboard and trace Zheng He’s travels.
|
the 20/02/2008 at 03:34 :
 High-tech conservation solutions for old warship
from PhysOrg.com
Scientists from the Mary Rose Trust are using cutting edge synchrotron technology at Diamond Light Source to provide 21st century solutions to enhance the conservation of Henry VIII’s Tudor warship. This work is part of an ongoing research programme to safeguard this unique historical artefact for posterity, and thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the hull of the Mary Rose will be displayed in a controlled environment within a brand new museum which is due to be built in time for the Olympic Games in 2012.
Scientists from the Diamond synchrotron are working with the Mary Rose Trust and researchers from the National Museum of Scotland, Daresbury Laboratory (STFC) and the University of Kent. The team are using Diamond’s intense X-rays to enhance their knowledge of the conservation process to preserve the historic timbers of the ship.
The Mary Rose capsized in the waters of the Solent in 1545. The ship settled on the soft silts of the old Solent rivers which washed into her, eventually filling almost half the hull with a protective anaerobic covering. The resultant lack of oxygen preserved the timbers of the starboard side, whilst the exposed port side and masts slowly rotted away. Over 400 years later, on 11 October 1982, archaeologists raised her remains from the seabed.
Link : |
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Previous page | Next page |
