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From Afloat

Silver recovered from the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa which was sunk by a German U-boat 300 miles southwest of Galway on February 17, 1941 is to be put on public display for the first time at an exhibition at Discovery Times Square in New York on May 24.

The SS Gairsoppa was a British steam merchant ship that saw service during the Second World War. The name Gairsoppa was given in honor of the stunning waterfalls in Karnataka, India.

She sailed with several convoys, before joining Convoy SL 64. Running low on fuel, she left the convoy and headed for Galway, Ireland, until a German U-boat torpedoed and sankher.

The SHIPWRECK ! exhibition features hundreds of authentic artifacts and historical treasures recovered from marine expedition firm Odyssey's deep-ocean projects from around the world.

Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered the silver from the 412 foot steel-hulled British cargo steamship at a depth of 4,700 metres below the surface. Recovery work began in 2012.

Odyssey recovered Silver from the wreck, which lies approximately three miles deep off the Galway coast will be going on display in the first public showing of some of the 1,218 silver bars of silver recovered the Gairsoppa, which is the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metal from a shipwreck in history.

By Drew Dixon - The Florida Times Union

Nassau Sound is known for its tricky waters to navigate, shark infestations and a remote, narrow pass where the Nassau River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Doug Pope also sees the sound as a possible site of treasure from the long-lost Spanish galleon San Miguel that wrecked in 1715.

Pope is president of Amelia Research & Recovery LLC, based in Fernandina Beach, and his quest to find the San Miguel’s loot is the basis of his business.

Pope said the find of a jeweler’s furnace in 1993 near Amelia Island is believed to be from the ship that was part of a fleet of about a dozen that went down during a hurricane nearly 300 years ago.

The treasure salvaging season for Pope commences in about two weeks, when area waters are most calm.

Curious Britannia, a historical research organization in the United Kingdom, estimates the lost San Miguel treasure with gold and silver bars along with coins, jewels and other valuables to have a value of up to $2 billion.

The organization’s website, named the San Miguel as potentially one of the most valuable shipwrecks that has yet to be recovered.

“You got to be excited. There’s a lot of anticipation this year,” Pope said last week. “We’ve got a little more research leaning toward where the San Miguel is and the value of it.”

Full article...

By Megha Satyanarayana - Freep

Visitors to the Grand Haven area may see something odd peeking back at them from the water -- shipwrecks now more visible because lake and river levels have fallen to historic lows.

"You can just walk out among them," said Craig Rich of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association in Holland. "They are actually sticking out of the water."

Rich said that since January, the association has found five ships and boats previously under several feet of water in the Grand Haven area.

They are among hundreds, or maybe thousands, of cargo boats lost to Lake Michigan since shipping began in the Great Lakes.

It's a rare occurrence, Grand Haven harbormaster Jeff Hawke said, and for the time being, the ships that have surfaced will stay put, since they don't pose a hazard to navigation.

He said his team started seeing old ships at the end of 2012, about the time water levels hit record lows in the Lake Michigan-Huron system.

Two of the ships have storied histories, Rich said, including a former life on the Detroit River.

Just off the north edge of Harbor Island in Grand Haven sits the remains of the Aurora, built in 1887 in Cleveland. Rich said the boat was 300 feet long -- nearly the size of a football field -- and about 40 feet wide.

Before finding its way to Grand Haven, the Aurora traveled the Detroit River, where, in 1898, it burned to the water line. After being rebuilt, Rich said, the boat carried salt.

By Simone Orendain - VOA News

Philippine officials say 12 fishermen who were onboard a suspected Chinese ship are facing the first of several charges after their vessel got stuck on a major protected reef in the southwestern Philippines.

The Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Management Office says the fishing vessel ran aground on an atoll close to the park rangers’ barracks.

Staff at the park took photographs of the suspected Chinese ship, which they say was equipped with fishing gear, but had no fish nor marine life on board.

Tubbataha Management spokeswoman Glenda Simon says this was enough to file the first charge of poaching, according to Philippine law.

“The mere presence of a fishing vessel inside a protected area, particularly Tubbataha, is prima facie evidence of fishing, even if they’re not caught fishing in the park,” she said.

Simon said further charges include unauthorized entry, damage to the reef and a corruption charge for an alleged bribe of $2,400 the fishermen are reported to have offered to park rangers to be set free.

The massive 97,000 hectare Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea is a UNESCO World Heritage site, prized for its marine animal biodiversity. The reefs are popular with recreational divers. The region is far from reefs and islands in the South China Sea that are contested by China.

Full article...

By Toby Meyjes - This Is Cornwall

A shipwreck uncovered off the Isles of Scilly last summer could have belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh and been lost when a storm scattered his vessels as they headed for the West Indies.

The wreck, which has been named the Lizzy by the divers who discovered it, is thought to have possibly sunk in 1617 and been one of two ships lost out of a fleet of 30 shortly after they left Plymouth.

The exciting possibility is one of two theories of the wreck's identity put forward by local shipwreck diver Todd Stevens who, along with Robin Burrows and their team, have slowly uncovered the remains since last summer.

If correct, the ship could have been the Flying Joan, one of the fleet on one of the last voyages led by Sir Walter Raleigh before he was executed at the Palace of Westminster in 1618.

Mr Stevens, 50, who also discovered the famous wreck of the HMS Colossus off the Isles of Scilly, labelled the idea of the discovery "amazing".

He is now awaiting a visit from English Heritage to hopefully help further identify the wreck site.

He said: "Since we first found the Lizzy, I have always said that the evidence we have on the seabed leads me to believe it to be the wreck of an armed pinnace.

"This would be a small, single-masted ship without a bowsprit and consequently a gun in the bow instead.

"The ship Sir Walter Raleigh lost here in a storm in 1617 was indeed an armed pinnace. The wreck fits in age and style."

Full article...

From Sea Search Armada

In a case filed March 29 with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a group of American investors claim the government of Colombia has violated their human rights by preventing them from salvaging their jointly owned property, a Spanish galleon sunk in 800 feet of water near Cartagena, Colombia.

The investment group, named Sea Search Armada (SSA), brought the suit after more than 20 years of various legal efforts to affirm SSA’s initial agreement with Colombia.

Jack Harbeston, SSA managing director since 1988, said that “Colombian courts have invariably ruled in favor of SSA (Constitutional Court, Administrative Court and Civil Court, including the Supreme Court) for more than 20 years.

“However, the Presidents of Colombia have bitterly refused to implement the court rulings,” he said.  “In a true demonstration of hostility, they have threatened SSA with military force if it tried to salvage this galleon.

This is in spite of the ruling by the Colombian Supreme Court that we own 50% of the ship wreck and Colombian law that says we should have free access to it.  Such denial of access is detailed as a human rights violation to IACHR in SSA’s petition.”

Initially the U.S. group partnered with Colombia in a search for the San Jose, a Spanish ship laden with treasure which was sunk by British war ships in 1708 as it sailed from Portobello, Panama, toward Cartagena.

Spain and France were at war against England, Holland and other European nations, and the treasure on board, including two tons of platinum as well as gold from Peru, was intended to help Spanish ally Louis XIV of France pay for the war.

In 1979 SSA signed a search license agreement with the Colombian government that they would each own 50% of any shipwrecks found and SSA would have preferential rights to salvage its finds. 

SSA funded the search with an initial $10 million investment in hopes of finding the San Jose, often called the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks.

After three years of archival research in Europe and an extensive deep water search financed exclusively by the Americans, SSA found what they believe to be the San Jose and, as part of their agreement, officially notified Colombia they had located the galleon. 

At that time, the ship’s value was estimated to be between $3 billion and $10 billion. Recent estimates of value exceed $17 billion.

Immediately after being advised of the ship’s location, the government of Colombia (GOC) changed the rules of its agreement with SSA.  It issued edicts and laws rescinding SSA’s 50% share while offering instead a five percent finder’s fee. 

This was accompanied by a threat to cancel the agreement completely if SSA complained.

SSA’s preferential right to salvage was also ignored. The GOC negotiated a contract with a third party who later admitted to paying “commissions” to high level government officials. 

A major scandal erupted when the Colombian Senate learned of secret meetings between representatives of the firm selected to salvage SSA’s property and the President of Colombia and his immediate staff.   In the glare of the scandal, that particular attempt to take all of the San Jose without payment unraveled.

However, the individual involved in that effort was appointed by President Uribe as an official on the Antiquities Commission.  The Commission has again introduced legislation aimed at taking the San Jose without compensating SSA as required by Colombian law.

In January 1989, following five years of rebuffed SSA attempts to settle with the GOC, the Americans filed suit in the 10^th Civil Circuit Court in Barranquilla, Colombia.  In the years that followed, a succession of five Colombian presidents personally represented Colombia’s interests in Colombian courts—and lost in each instance.

SSA’s Jack Harbeston said, “During 20 years of litigation, Colombia’s courts at every level and in every case ruled that SSA actions were consistent with the law, while the GOC actions were not. Colombian citizens can be proud of their courts, which were not only wise but courageous. 

In one instance, a court went so far as to officially reprimand the office of the president for attempting to coerce a ruling from the judges that would uphold the GOC’s illegal actions.”

By 2010 SSA had won all of its court cases in Colombia, but Presidents Uribe and Santos insisted they would not implement the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court, and if SSA tried to implement the law on its own, the Colombian armed forces would prevent it from doing so.

With no wish to confront the GOC's armed forces, the only recourse remaining for SSA was to seek damages in U.S. courts for the losses incurred as a result of GOC illegal actions.

In December 2010 SSA filed a law suit in U.S. District Court to recover the funds it had lost because of the GOC’s intransigence.

A year later the District Court dismissed the case on the grounds that too much time had passed between the GOC's illegal acts and SSA's filing of the lawsuit in the U.S. Then, on April 8, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the District Court dismissal. Immediately, the GOC heralded the District Court dismissal as a reversal of the Colombia Supreme Court decision, and that SSA had been stripped of its property rights by the U.S. District Court.

James DelSordo, SSA’s legal counsel in the case, said, “Nothing could be further from the truth. The outcome of this U.S. lawsuit in no way changes the rulings of Colombia’s Supreme Court, or SSA’s ownership of property and its preferential right to salvage what it found.

The legal views circulated by the GOC are simply inconsistent with the facts."

In the meantime, Colombian officials are attempting to circumvent their legal system through their legislative system.  Harbeston said, “The leaders of this latest predatory attempt to take the San Jose are the same corrupt officials who in years past attempted to take SSA’s property by government fiat.  This time they are conspiring to pass a law designed solely to take over the San Jose. 

Bill 125 now being debated in Colombia’s Congress really should be entitled “A License to Steal from American Investors.” 

The bill has been before the Congress for more than a year.

Among the bill’s opponents are a group of legislators who want to keep the San Jose entirely, not to benefit them financially but because they view it as Colombia’s patrimony. 

Harbeston says he does not oppose Colombia keeping the whole ship, commenting, “If they want to keep the San Jose entirely as patrimony, I understand and appreciate their position and would welcome discussions with them that would lead to a fair and reasonable settlement for SSA’s property.

He added, “SSA cannot legally deny them the legal process of eminent domain, whereby the government may take possession of private property.  The corollary for that law is that government must pay full market value for what it takes.

“In fact,” he continued, “this is the basis for all of SSA’s legal efforts, first with the GOC, then with the U.S. court system and now with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: that certain GOC officials want to take our share of the San Jose and not pay for it.

Other legal actions are being considered.  Aside from a false offer in 1984 that was almost immediately withdrawn, the GOC has never made an offer of any kind, express or implied.   It just keeps trying to take our property without paying for it, the most recent example being Bill 125.

The IACHR must first decide if the SSA petition is admissible and qualifies under its rules as violations of human rights.  Once approved, a more detailed legal process will ensue.  The Commission is a judicial agency of the Organization of American States (OAS). 

In filing the petition, Harbeston said, “SSA hopes to bring global attention to the GOC’s dishonest officials who willfully refuse to be ruled by their own laws.

By Kyle Swenson - Miami New Times

When Jay Miscovich stepped off Duval Street into the Bull & Whistle bar in January 2010, Key West was shivering through a cold spell, the thermometer parked at a rare 70 degrees.

A bearish guy in his 50s with a beach-ball gut and an ever-present baseball cap pulled over his bald head, he crossed the stone floor, extending a hand to an old acquaintance.

The room was nearly empty. Afternoon shadows mossed the high ceilings. Steer horns poked from the corners.

The walls surrounding the U-shaped bar were splashed with fading murals of Florida legends, yellowed like old photos: a beer-bloated Hemingway; railroad baron Henry Flagler; and next to a pair of regal galleons, Mel Fisher, the famous treasure hunter.

Even though Miscovich hadn't seen him in over a decade, Mike Cunningham looked the same. A drifter, he was tanned and whittled thin from day labor. A clean white sweatshirt hung off his shoulders.

"How's it going ?" Miscovich asked, his consonants sloshing around in a wet lisp.

When he'd known Cunningham years earlier, back in their hometown of Latrobe, the handyman had been painfully shy, preferring to mow grass or paint walls alone.

Back then, Miscovich hired him regularly, and Cunningham still checked in a few times a year after moving to Florida for year-round work. Knowing that his former employer had an interest in treasure hunting, he'd asked to meet today.

Full article...

 
Photo Marcel Mochet

From AFP

The wreck of a German World War II submarine that was sunk with 48 people on board has been found off Norway's coast during work on an oil pipe, a maritime museum official said Monday.

The "U-486" was torpedoed and broken in two by a British submarine in April 1945 shortly after leaving the western Norwegian town of Bergen, according to Arild Maroey Hansen of the Bergen maritime museum.

There were no survivors.

Lying at a depth of some 250 metres (820 feet), the wreck was found when Norwegian oil company Statoil was scouting the area as a possible location to lay down an oil pipe.

"The submarine had a special coating on the hull. It was a synthetic rubber coating designed to significantly reduce its radar signal," Maroey Hansen told Norwegian public radio NRK.

The "U-486" lies some two kilometres (1.25 miles) from the German "U-864" submarine, which was also sunk in 1945 with dozens of tonnes of mercury on board, a dangerous cargo which has caused politicians headaches for years.

They have been examining how to best limit the environmental risks posed by the mercury, hesitating between whether to lift the wreck -- it is also broken in two parts -- or to cover it in a hard sarcophagus.