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From The Maritime Executive

One of NSW’s wartime mysteries has at last been solved with the discovery of the wreckage of the MV Limerick off Ballina on the NSW far north coast, Heritage Minister Robyn Parker announced.

Ms Parker said that while a lot is known about the sinking of the MV Limerick in 1943, it has taken almost 70 years and the opportunistic use of Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel, Southern Surveyor, to identify the ship’s final location.

“Limerick was one of the largest vessels sunk by Japanese submarines off Australia’s east coast during their offensive submarine patrols through 1942 and 1943,” Ms Parker said.

“Local fishermen using modern depth sonars identified a large shipwreck in about 100 metres of water some 18 kilometres off the coast late last year.

“Following their discovery, NSW Water Police assisted the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) in an initial survey of the deep site with a side scan sonar but due to bad weather they were unable to conclusively identify the shipwreck as being Limerick.”

OEH then approached Australia’s Marine National Facility (AMNF), which operates Australia’s ocean-going research vessel, the 66-metre Southern Surveyor.

Owned and operated by the CSIRO and funded by the Commonwealth, AMNF is a research facility which is available to all Australian scientists and their international collaborators.

“The team at AMNF were contacted by OEH and coincidentally a research voyage was already scheduled to operate in the suspected wreck area. OEH approached the lead scientist on board to see if they could assist in locating the wreck,” Ms Parker said.

Full article...

By Katy Mantyk - The Epoch Times
 

Two Spanish ships, loaded with the belongings of nobility returning to Spain with the armada in 1622 never made it past the Florida Keys.

It is believed that at least one of the ships was sunk by a storm.

Fast forward nearly 400 years. The sunken ship was found by a team of divers hunting for shipwrecks. Only in their dreams could they imagine what they found inside the ship when they swam upon the hull.

A Colombian emerald set in gold, dating back to the Renaissance period, was recovered from the shipwrecked Spanish galleon, Nuestra Señora de Atocha.

It will be among the fascinating, history-rich offerings at Sotheby’s sale of Masterworks on Friday Feb. 1 in New York during Old Masters Week. The treasure is estimated to sell for between $150,000 and $250,000.

The ship Atocha was commissioned by the Casa de Contractación, a Spanish government agency which attempted to regulate Spanish exploration and colonization efforts, and was named for Our Lady of Atocha, whose shrine in Madrid was regularly visited by Spanish kings.

The ship was constructed in Cuba and, after ill-fated attempts to depart the shipyard due to needed repairs, she finally crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Spain late in 1620.

Next, in Cartagena, Colombia and Portobelo, Panama, the galleon was loaded with the belongings of the noble families and other passengers making the return journey to Spain with the armada.

The fleet set sail for Spain with goods and passengers on September 4, 1622 in the midst of hurricane season.

Both the Atocha and the Santa Margarita only sailed as far as the Florida Keys before they hit a squall and sank along the reefs.

Full article...

By Greg Tuttle - Independent Record

The silver Spanish coin that Harold Holden found while diving off the Florida coast had been missing for nearly 300 years.

Now it's missing again, and his family would like it returned.

Holden, a Florida construction supervisor whose hobby was diving for treasure, died Jan. 10 in a Red Lodge nursing home at age 88.

When his sister, Evelyn Grovenstien, of Billings, went the next day to collect his belongings, the silver coin Holden wore daily on a chain around his neck was gone.

"He wore it all the time," Grovenstien said. "I don't think he hardly ever took it off."

The Red Lodge Police Department is investigating the matter at the Cedar Wood Villa nursing home as a theft, a spokesman for the agency said.

Officers continue to interview employees, but so far the necklace remains lost.

The coin, also known as a Spanish piece of eight, was verified to have come from a fleet of Spanish ships that was sunk by a hurricane off the Florida coast in 1715.

Hundreds of sailors died in the disaster, which scattered the ships' cargo of gold and silver coins across the ocean sands just a few hundred yards from shore.

Some of those coins continue to be found, and Holden was among those who made a hobby of diving in the area to search for the treasure.

Full article...

By Mai Lan -Vietnam Net

Dr. Nguyen Dang Vu, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ngai province, says that the Department signed a contract with Doan Anh Duong Co., Ltd. on the excavation of antiques in the shipwreck in the waters of Binh Chau commune, Binh Son district on January 29.

The excavation began on January 30 and will last for 60 days. Doan Anh Duong Co., Ltd. is responsible for excavating the shipwreck on an area of 600 m2, at the cost of more than VND40 billion ($2 million).

There are about 40,000 artifacts in the shipwreck.

It is estimated that over VND54 billion ($2.5 million) can be collected from auctions. The State will hold the shipwreck and exclusive artifacts.

The remaining objects will be divided in three parts, with two parts for the excavator and one part for the State.

"This division has been approved by the People's Committee and it is strictly in accordance with law," Dr. Vu said.

According to experts, the shipwreck dated back to the late Yuan Dynasty in China in the 14th century. The antiques are mainly household ceramic wares such as bowls, pots, cups, plates, incense ...

The unique feature of these artifacts are being decorated by the patterns of chrysanthemum, orchid, lotus and wrestlers.

The artifacts in the shipwreck in Binh Chau are the oldest compared to the underwater antiquities found in Vietnam so far.

From New Kerala
 

The Spanish navy has documented 1,580 shipwrecks in a database created in 2011 to track ships lost at sea based on information in the naval archives, the defense ministry said.

The database confirmed that most of the ships lost at sea went down off the Iberian Peninsula and in the Caribbean, with many of the vessels involved in the intense maritime traffic with the Americas over the past few centuries.

The project's goal is to locate and identify the vessels whose sinkings are documented in the navy's vast records of both Spanish ships that sank around the world and foreign ships that went down in Spain's territorial waters.

Of the 1,580 shipwrecks registered so far, references to locations exist in 1,176 cases, or 75 percent.

Europe accounts for 59.3 percent of the documented losses, with Spain accounting for 596 shipwrecks, or 50.7 percent.

North America, Central America and the Caribbean account for 314, or 26.7 percent, of the shipwrecks, with 176 of the sinkings occurring off Cuba.

South America accounts for 80, or 6.8 percent, of the shipwrecks, while the Far East, especially the Philippines, and Australia account for 5.4 percent of the losses.

The Philippines alone were the scene of 50 of the documented shipwrecks.

North Africa, according to the navy database, accounts for 21 shipwrecks.

The date of the shipwreck is known in some 85 percent of the cases.

The project, which has not been completed, will continue over the next few years, depending on the availability of funding, the defense ministry said.

By Denise Hruby - The Cambodia Daily
 

In pitch-black waters, with only their hands to guide them, Cam­bo­dia’s first batch of salvage div­ers will soon start to recover the thousands of tons of unexploded artillery shells and bullets that lie at the bottom of the country’s lakes and rivers.

But before they begin their perilous underwater operations, the 40 staff members of the Cam­bo­dian Mine Action Center (CMAC) will first learn to swim.

“We will start with 40 people, and most have never put their face under the water,” said Allen Tan, general manager for the Golden West Humanitarian Or­gan­i­zation, an American non-profit entity that specializes in mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance.

“Recreational swimming is not really big here,” he said.

The first steps toward becoming professional ordnance salvage divers will take place in a 1.2-me­ter-deep swimming pool in Phnom Penh, Mr. Tan said.

“We will have a licensed Aus­tra­lian swimming instructor who will teach them how to swim in the first two weeks,” Mr. Tan said of the intensive program, which is scheduled to start next week and last for a month.

At the end of the two-week period, the 20 divers who show the most promise will learn how to scuba dive off the coast of Sihanoukville.

Eventually, Golden West hopes to select four fully trained salvage divers whose job it will be to re­cover U.S. ordnance that was lost while trying to supply the Lon Nol military government in Phnom Penh.

Tens of thousands of tons of munitions were sunk with the boats and barges ambushed by Khmer Rouge forces on the Me­kong River and Tonle Sap River and lake during the civil war from 1970 to 1975.

According to Heng Ratana, CMAC’s general director, the stockpiles of ammunition, shells and other unexploded ordnance in Cambodia’s waterways continue to pose a major threat to civilians diving in shallow waters.

“If people find the [boats], they will try to collect the UXOs for the metal” in order to sell them, he said.

By Eric Egan - ABC News

 Is it time to rewrite the history of the final moments of the Hunley ? Hunley research teams recently uncovered a new, very old piece of evidence.

"This was so solidly attached to the submarine," said Paul Mardikian, the Hunley research team's senior conservator.

It's a spar, in simplest terms a long rod that extended out from the Hunley. At its tip a torpedo was attached, that torpedo is believed to have sunk the USS Housatonic in 1864.

"This evidence, right here and on the front, indicates the explosive was probably within 20 feet of the crew," said Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell, the Hunley Commissioner.

This contradicts what researchers have thought for years, that the spar rammed the torpedo into the Housatonic. It was believed the crew of the Hunley then backed away to a safe distance, as the federal ship exploded.

What's new, a piece of copper found on the end of the spar. It tells archaeologists the torpedo was still attached, and only feet from the Hunley and crew members when it blew up.

"It was close up at the Housatonic," McConnell said.

"They (the Hunley crew) controlled the explosion, so it wasn't an accident. The question is now what happened ?"

Experts like Mardikian say this latest discovery could reshape the Hunley's history.

Full article...

From BBC News
 

Marine archaeologists working on a wreck off the coast of Sicily have discovered five large cannon from a British ship, believed to have sunk in a major battle with Spanish galleons.

The team searching waters near the city of Syracuse said the "exceptional" find dates back to the Battle of Cape Passaro in the early 1700s. Pictures taken by divers show the cannon were barely covered by sand.

The discovery has helped pinpoint the exact location of the famous battle. The cannon have now been brought to the surface - after 300 years in the deep sea - and cleaned.

According to the archaeologists, they are in such fine condition that - in some places - the barrels still gleam in the light. The team said they were able to identify the guns using part of an inscription on the handle of a piece of cutlery also discovered nearby.

The letters LONDO were found under what appeared to be a picture of an English rose, clearly indicating the word London - they said. This and other evidence has convinced the researchers that the cannon came from a British vessel sunk at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718.

The battle involved more than 60 ships and ended in defeat for the Spanish. At the time, the British were attempting to drive them out of Sicily.