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From BBC News

The London sank off Southend-on-Sea in 1665 and was only rediscovered in 2005.

Artefacts salvaged from the wreck since 2010 have included shoes, pieces of instruments and a compass.

Steven Ellis, a licensed diver from Leigh-on-Sea, said the finds were remarkably well-preserved. Mr Ellis, who works as a fishmonger, said The London was the last surviving "large ship" built between 1642 and 1660 for the Anglo/Dutch War from "such an important period of time".

An estimated 300 people drowned when the ship mysteriously exploded on a journey along the coast to Gravesend and sank on 8 March 1665.

Mr Ellis said: "I've been diving it since 2010 and we've brought loads of bits up.

"We've found two gun carriages, all kinds of personal items like shoes, a compass - loads of stuff. "You can see by the shoe how well-preserved things are."

"When they eventually go on display, there is going to have to be a whole wing of the museum for them," he said.

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From Alexander Vershinin - Russia Beyond the Headlines

On the eve of WWII the Soviet submarine fleet was the largest in the world. In terms of the number of subs it was twice as big as the fleet in the U.S. and almost four times as big as the Kriegsmarine, the German navy.

Nevertheless, the challenges placed before it were rather narrow. Due to its geographical position the USSR could not fight for supremacy in the oceans. It had only two entrances to the open ocean, but both the North Pole and the Far East did not present the necessary possibilities to set up full naval infrastructures.

What remained were only closed seas: the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. It was believed that after the beginning of the war the Soviet navy would be able to strike the enemy communications located in these regions.

But the Soviet submarines could not compete with those from Germany, while the position of the UK (which had the biggest fleet in the world) in the event of a war was unclear.

Therefore the decision to develop the submarine fleet was very logical: Relatively low production costs helped create a powerful force, capable of playing an important role in the war's naval battles.

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From Victor Ning - CRI
 

The shipwreck that was code-named "Dandong No.1" has been tentatively identified as the Cruiser Zhiyuan of the Beiyang Fleet.

But Song Jianzhong with the National Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage says it is still too early to make a final conclusion on the ship and its history."The relics and information currently in hand indicates it's the wreck of the warship Zhiyuan, but more work needs to be done before the publishing of the final conclusion."

The shipwreck was first discovered in 2013.

In the past month, over a hundred relics have been salvaged from the depths of the Yellow Sea, including canons, shells, and other artillery. The most crucial piece of evidence for the ship's identity is a shattered porcelain plate that features the words 'Zhiyuan' written in the middle of its back.

Song Jianzhong says all of the recovered items will studied further.

"Archaeology mainly focuses on the investigation, excavation, study and protection of cultural relics. Items to be found during the current underwater probe will be sent to labs where they will undergo procedures of de-watering, desalination and de-sulfated before being renovated and pieced together."

Also among the findings is a boiler cap found 30 meters away from the wreck at the bottom of the sea.

Sa Su, a Chinese scholar of Japanese studies, says the artifact could reveal details of the final moments of the brave sailors who operated the ship during combat.

"It's said that the sailors sealed the boilers at last in the hope of enabling them to generate more power and make the ship run faster than usual. Only with that, could it catch up with Japanese warships that were more advanced. But as seawater poured in after Zhiyuan's hull was penetrated by shells, the boiler exploded with the cap blown out."

The 2,300-tons warship, with 246 officers and soldiers aboard, was lost in the Battle of the Yellow Sea on September the 17th, 1894, during the first Sino-Japanese war.

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From TASS

Russia’s Northern Fleet divers have raised a US Sherman WWII tank from the bottom of the Barents Sea during drills, acting Head of the Fleet’s press office Andrei Luzik said on Tuesday.

The Sherman tank is the second combat vehicle recovered from the US Arctic convoy ship Thomas Donaldson sunk by a German submarine during World War Two.

"In addition to the tank, a 102mm gun, an antiaircraft machine gun and a pair of locomotive wheels, as well as a number of small items like artillery shell casings and projectiles were brought to the surface," the officer said.

The Northern Fleet personnel are using two diving boats with operational pressure chambers and a team of medical specialists for descents to the sea bottom, the officer said.

Also, remotely operated vehicles are being used to survey objects under the water, he added.

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By Paul Gilkes - Coinworld

Twelve-hundred troy ounces of Alaskan Gold Rush gold recovered in 2012 from the 1901 shipwreck of the SS Islander is being offered for $4 million exclusively through private treaty by Fred N. Holabird from Holabird Western Americana Collections LLC.

The gold is unrefined placer gold contained in five original leather pokes, all sealed, and the contents of a sixth leather poke that broke open during the recovery process, according to Holabird.

Holabird is acting as the exclusive agent for the salvors. Placer gold is often found in alluvial deposits of sand and gravel in modern or ancient stream beds.

The Islander, a 240-foot-long steamship owned by the Canadian-Pacific Navigation Co., was bound from Skagway, Alaska, to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in the early morning hours of Aug. 15, 1901, when the vessel struck a submerged iceberg in Stephens Passage, next to Douglas Island, shearing the port bow.

The ship sank in 20 minutes, claiming the lives of 40 among the 107 passengers and 61 crewmembers reported aboard. Records suggest that gold valued then at $275,000 was aboard the Islander, a total that subsequently was quickly reported in news accounts as high as $2 million to $3 million.

The gold was in the form of placer gold that was secured in either locking leather mail sacks or gold pokes — elongated leather sacks containing the unrefined gold from Alaska’s Klondike.

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By Kate Hill - ABC

"Survivor invited to premiere" was the headline that appeared in Mount Gambier's Border Watch newspaper in April 1959.

The story told of local man John Butler who had been asked to attend the premiere of the new film about the Titanic — A Night to Remember — being the only Australian survivor of the 1912 maritime disaster the theatre was able to locate.

The story spun a tragic tale of the nights events, saying that Mr Butler was one of eight quartermasters on board the fateful cruise liner when it hit the iceberg and how he had been put in charge of Lifeboat No. 7 along with 40 survivors, which "rocked in the icy seas for about 14 hours before its occupants were picked up by rescuers".

The former ward councillor told the Border Watch he would not be attending the Adelaide premiere, because the film would recall "too many memories".

"I do not like to think about it," Mr Butler was quoted as telling the reporter.

"I have never liked to talk about the sinking of the Titanic.

It was an incredible story and one that raised the eyebrows of South Australian historian and author Dave Gittins, who extensively researched the one of the world's greatest maritime tragedies for his book Titanic: Monument and Warning.

"It certainly made a good headline, didn't it ?" he said.

"There is a chapter in my book called Legends, Myths and Ratbaggery — and Mr Butler gets a guernsey."

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By Umberto Bacchi - International Business Times

A seasoned Italian diver who found a submarine wreck off the Sardinian coast said he was all but sure it was the long-lost British HMS P311 that disappeared in Mediterranean waters during World War II.

In his first extensive interview since the discovery, Massimo Domenico Bondone told IBTimes UK he was proud of having brought closure to the families of the vessel's 71 crew members who never returned home.

The 59-year-old shipwreck hunter found the stricken vessel on the seabed at about 90m of depth five miles east of the island of Tavolara during a dive last weekend (22 May).

He said the type of hull, its location and on-deck cargo left little doubt it was HMS P311.

A seasoned Italian diver who found a submarine wreck off the Sardinian coast said he was all but sure it was the long-lost British HMS P311 that disappeared in Mediterranean waters during World War II.

In his first extensive interview since the discovery, Massimo Domenico Bondone told IBTimes UK he was proud of having brought closure to the families of the vessel's 71 crew members who never returned home.

The 59-year-old shipwreck hunter found the stricken vessel on the seabed at about 90m of depth five miles east of the island of Tavolara during a dive last weekend (22 May). He said the type of hull, its location and on-deck cargo left little doubt it was HMS P311.

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From Fox News

In July of 1944, an American warplane, a TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bomber, went down in the Pacific.

Now, 72 years later, the Navy plane has been identified near Palau, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego has announced.

Eric Terrill, an oceanographer at Scripps, explained that the remains of the aircraft are resting under 85 feet of water within a lagoon. It wasn't until his team dove the wreck this April and May that they identified it as the Avenger they had been looking for.

“The plane had a number of Japanese targets that it was focused on in World War II, and was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and then crashed within the lagoon a few miles overshore from the target that it was going after," Terrill told FoxNews.com.

Avengers, which took off and landed from aircraft carriers, had a crew of three.

"We’re hopeful that this will eventually lead to the recovery of three MIA," Terrill added, pointing out that a report stated that one person had parachuted out before the crash.

"This particular aircraft had a lot of fire-damage associated with it, which is consistent with the after-action report," Terrill added. He said it's the U.S. government's purview at this point to identify the individuals associated with the plane, and that his team had given a report to the government.

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