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* STAY INFORMED ON THE MOST RECENT SPECTACULAR OR SIGNIFICANT NAUTICAL AND SHIPWRECK DISCOVERIES *
the 20/02/2008 at 02:55 :
 Oil may hold secret to war-time casualty
From Stuff.co.nz
A sample of oil from the war-time casualty RMS Niagara could unlock some of the ship’s secrets.
Known as the Titanic of the Pacific, the Niagara was sunk off the Hen and Chicken Islands by a German mine in 1940, with a cargo full of gold worth millions.
Since sinking, the ship has been leaking oil, says Northland harbour master Ian Niblock.
In 2000 the Northland Regional Council and Maritime New Zealand set up a monitoring programme, to keep an eye on the slow leak.
For the first time ever, a sample of oil was collected last weekend by a recreational fisher, who noticed slightly more oil than normal coming to the surface, says Mr Niblock.
The sample is being analysed by Maritime New Zealand to find out what type of oil is leaking.
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the 16/02/2008 at 04:25 :
Storm unveils XVI century galleon in Spain
from Eitb 24
The 180 tons ship was used to commercialize with The Americas. It might have belonged to Saint Medel and Celedon, sank in 1544.
According to the Spanish 20minutos web edition (text in Spanish), Spanish Civil Guard in Huelva (Spain) sealed off a few meters of El Portil beach in order to protect a discovery. If the information is confirmed, it could be one of the last few years’ most important discoveries.
The remains might have belonged to a galleon of the beginning of XVI century. The expert underwater archaeologist Claudio Lozano Guerrero-Librero, has been studying them for a few days.
Claudio Lozano considers that the ship could have belonged to Saint Medel and Celedon, two very popular saints in the Basque Country, an habitual carrack construction place. He also thinks that it could have sunk in 1544. According to his documents, the 180 tons ship was constructed at the beginning of XVI century, and it was used to commercialize in the Americas.
The shipmaster was Juanes de Lubelza and left New Spain and set a course for the Peninsula but a storm did not allow him to reach the coast. Around 20 men shipwrecked.
The remains of the carrack/galleon found correspond to the ship’s bottom and are made from oak wood. It was the owner of a beach bar in the area of Matagrana who found out the remains after a storm.
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the 12/02/2008 at 02:40 :
 Fourth voyage in hunt for gold
by Paul Easton
A maritime entrepreneur - and 50 friends - is steaming for the Auckland Islands for a fourth attempt to find gold from a ship that sank 142 years ago.
The General Grant foundered on the remote sub-Antarctic islands on May 14 1866, along with its cargo of gold.
The group left Bluff on Friday, led by Bill Day, of Wellington, who has tried to find the wreck of the General Grant three times.
Over 20 other salvage attempts have been made since 1866.
Mr Day said the trip was as much about showing friends and family the beauty of the islands and sub-Antarctic region as finding gold. "It's such a majestic place. Having said that, there are definitely a couple of sites I want to check out."
The General Grant had 2576 ounces (73kg) of gold on its manifest, worth around $2.4 million today.
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the 12/02/2008 at 02:21 :
 Hermitage Treasures of Catherine the Great to be Salvaged from Sea Floor
from dni.ru
The 18th century sailing ship Frau Maria (Vrouw Maria) that was carrying the Hermitage treasures onboard when it sank in the Baltic Sea near the shore of Finland is going to be lifted.
The salvage works will be jointly carried out by the Russian and Finnish parties.
This schooner was transporting treasures ordered by Catherine II the Great for the Hermitage says Anatoli Vilkov, Head of Rossvyazokhrankultura, the Russian media and culture supervision agency. According to him, jewelry and China collections might have remained intact on board the ship. Previously divers discovered that the cargo had not been damaged during the shipwreck, yet they managed to lift only six items.
The precious cargo intended for the Russian imperial court never reached the shore of the Northern capital. The schooner started off from the seaport in October 1771 yet was caught in a heavy storm and wrecked nearby Aland Islands.
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the 06/02/2008 at 05:33 :
 Low-tech scuba divers of Bangladesh
by Alastair Lawson
The sunken valuables of some of South Asia's largest rivers are being retrieved by a daring new breed of amateur diver in Bangladesh.
Using a pipe connected to a rudimentary oxygen compressor, the divers say they can go as low as 200ft in some of the world's most fast-flowing rivers.
It's a kind of low-tech scuba diving.
The divers collect valuables and artefacts from vessels that have sunk in strong currents in wet and windy weather. Every year ferries sink in Bangladesh, especially during the monsoon season. Sometimes the divers - who earn around $6 a day - are called upon to recover the bodies of people who have been killed in ferry disasters.
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the 04/02/2008 at 02:01 :
 Adolf Hitler's 'lost fleet' found in Black Sea
by Jasper Copping
The final resting place of three German U-boats, nicknamed "Hitler's lost fleet", has been found at the bottom of the Black Sea.
The submarines had been carried 2,000 miles overland from Germany to attack Russian shipping during the Second World War, but were scuttled as the war neared its end. Now, more than 60 years on, explorers have located the flotilla of three submarines off the coast of Turkey.
The vessels, including one once commanded by Germany's most successful U-boat ace, formed part of the 30th Flotilla of six submarines, taken by road and river across Nazi-occupied Europe, from Germany's Baltic port at Kiel to Constanta, the Romanian Black Sea port.
In two years, the fleet sank dozens of ships and lost three of their number to enemy action. But in August 1944, Romania switched sides and declared war on Germany, leaving the three remaining vessels stranded.
With no base and unable to sail home - the Bosporus and Dardanelles were closed to them because of Turkish neutrality - their captains were ordered to scuttle the boats before rowing ashore and trying to make their way back to Germany. However, all three crews were caught and interned by the Turks.
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the 30/01/2008 at 15:23 :
 Calypso sails free of Jacques Cousteau feud
by Matthew Campbell
SHE may look ready for the scrapyard but Calypso, the former British minesweeper from which Jacques Cousteau explored the undersea world, is to be rebuilt to roam the oceans once more as the symbol of an environmental campaign being piloted by his widow.
Calypso had been rusting in the port of La Rochelle, in western France, as a vicious legal battle raged among the fractious Cousteau clan over ownership of the legendary vessel which had featured in so many films and books about the deep.
“All these awful legal battles are over, thank heavens,” said Francine Cousteau, second wife and widow of the explorer. She has been at loggerheads with Jean-Michel, Cousteau’s son from his first marriage, and Alexandra, the explorer’s granddaughter, both of whom she accuses of trying to profit from the illustrious family name.
She said that a recent court decision on the Calypso in her favour would have been welcomed by the figure universally referred to in France as “the commander”. He died in 1997, aged 87, and is remembered as a pioneer of scuba diving, underwater photography and environmentalism.
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the 25/01/2008 at 02:08 :
 Sri Lanka: China's ceramic trade with ancient Rajarata
by Prof. W. I. Siriweera
SRI LANKA has had close contacts with China during the period of the ancient Rajarata Civilization. The contacts between the two countries were mainly motivated to enhance direct and indirect commercial relations. This essay focuses primarily on the Chinese Ceramics trade.
The recorded evidence of Chinese trade relations with Sri Lanka dates back to the first century A. D.. From this period onwards, sporadic textual references are found to missions exchanged between the two countries.
The earliest mission originated from China during the reign of Emperor P'ing (1-6 A.D.) of the Han Dynasty who sent a delegation of Chinese officials to several South Asian countries including Ssu-Cheng-Pu which can be identified as Sinhadipa, one of the ancient names of Sri Lanka. The object of the mission was to "spread the power and virtue" of the Han Emperor and search for precious objects. Later on, around 131 A.D., 414 A.D., 428 A.D., 435 A.D., 455 A.D., 527 A.D., 670 A.D., 712 A.D., 742 A.D., 746 A.D., 750 A.D., 762 A.D., and 989 A.D., thirteen missions were sent to China by kings of Anuradhapura.
Some of these missions were of a purely religious nature but undoubtedly their objective was to establish cordial political relations presumably aimed at securing greater trade contacts. The fact that Anuradhapura kings took the initiative in sending all these missions suggests that Sri Lanka was a major beneficiary of trade between China and South Asia as well as China and the kingdoms of West Asia.
This trade was conducted at the time either through long-haul merchant voyages or zonal segmented merchant voyages with merchants of each region navigating and trading mainly within its sailing zone.
Later on, the Chinese also initiated missions to Sri Lanka. The Mongols who assumed the dynastic name Yu'an, despatched four missions to Sri Lanka, all of them during the reign of Kublai Khan (1260-1294 A.D.), in the years 1273 A.D., 1284 A.D., 1291A.D., and 1293 A.D.
The outward-looking foreign policy of Kublai Khan and the greater Chinese interest in foreign trade were perhaps the key factors in the change of attitudes in initiating these missions.
The only Sri Lankan mission to the Yu'an court was sent in 1293 A.D., i.e. during the reign of Sri Lankan King Parakramabahu III. Subsequently, under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) Sri Lanka became one of the focal points of attention during the well-known maritime expeditions of Cheng-Ho.
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the 25/01/2008 at 01:50 :
Wine-carrying ship dating back 2,300 years discovered on seabed off Cyprus
from PR-Inside.com
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - Marine archaeologists will begin work in June to uncover the sand-buried hull of a 2,300 year-old cargo ship thought to have been ferrying wine from the Aegean island of Chios before it sank off Cyprus' southern coast, researchers said Thursday.
The vessel, dating from the late Classical period (mid-fourth century B.C.) is one of only a few such ships to have been found so well-preserved, said University of Cyprus visiting marine archaeologist Stella Demesticha.
«The shipwreck looks very promising about shedding light on the nautical and economic history of the period in the east Mediterranean»
The wreck rests on the seabed at a depth of 44 meters (144 feet) some 2½ kilometers (1½ miles) off the island's southern coast.
Demesticha said the wreck was also unique because it lies at a depth that divers can easily reach, unlike similar discoveries found in deeper waters.
Unreleased underwater photographs that researchers took of the vessel on initial surveying dives in November show a jumble of dozens of amphorae _ clay urns used in antiquity to carry liquids and solid foodstuffs _ lying on the seabed in the shape of the ship.
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the 24/01/2008 at 01:39 :
Ships wrecked on a terrible shore
by Murphy Givens
Four ships were making ready to sail from San Juan de Ulúa, the port of Veracruz, on April 9, 1554. They were homeward bound for Seville, with a stop to meet the rest of the armada at Havana. As the ships were taking on cargo and passengers, a Dominican priest, Juan Ferrer, had forebodings of disaster.
"Woe be those who are going to Spain," Ferrer told fellow passengers. "Neither we nor the fleet will ever arrive. Most of us will perish."
Four great-bellied galleons -- the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, Espíritu Santo, and San Andrés -- were loaded with gold, cochineal, but mostly silver from the vast silver mines at Zacatecas. It was a treasure fleet -- Plata Flota, the silver fleet.
The priest's forebodings of disaster were forgotten. The ships had smooth sailing across the Gulf. They landed at Havana to join other ships in the armada, a precaution against the dangers of piracy.
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