HOT NEWS !

From The Associated Press

A Greek fisherman must have been expecting a monster of a catch when he brought up his nets in the Aegean Sea last week. Instead, Greek authorities say his haul was a section of a 2,200-year-old bronze statue of a horseman.

A Culture Ministry announcement said Monday the accidental find was made in waters between the eastern islands of Kos and Kalymnos.

The fisherman handed over the corroded metal figure to authorities, who have started the cleaning process. Dating to the late 2nd century B.C., the statue represented a male rider wearing ornate breast armor over a short tunic and armed with a sheathed sword.

The trunk of the horseman and his raised right arm have survived.

From VNS

Archaeologists believe that a sunken ship salvaged last week from under the Hong (Red) River between Hung Yen Province and Ha Noi belonged to 19th century Chinese merchants.

Among the objects recovered from the wreck was cu nau, a substance used centuries ago for colouring cloth.

"The cu nau had not yet dissolved but was fossilised," Pham Trung Hieu, curator of the Hung Yen Province Museum, said.

A wooden trunk, a porcelain statue of the Goddess of Mercy, three bowls, and some dishes, all made in China in the 18th century, were among the other objects found.

"The word Jiangnan, the name of a province in China, is painted on the trunk," Hieu said. From the shape of the 27m long wooden vessel and its equipment, archaeologists place it in the 19th century and believe it was powered by coal.

From the Sydney Morning herald

A search for the Australian hospital ship Centaur, torpedoed in World War II with the loss of more than 250 lives, could begin as early as November.

The AHS Centaur, well lit and clearly marked as a hospital ship, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine southeast of Cape Moreton, off Queensland's southeast coast, in May 1943. She sank within minutes and only 64 of the 322 people on board survived.

International dive company Blue Water Recoveries was on Friday granted the tender to manage the search for the vessel. Blue Water Recoveries played a key role in last year's finding of HMAS Sydney II.

It is estimated that the AHS Centaur lies at depths of up to two to three kilometres. Once the search area has been defined, a tender process will be undertaken to contract an appropriate search vessel and equipment.

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From Balkan Travellers

Archaeologists announced today they have begun underwater excavations of the prehistoric site of Limantepe in western Turkey.

The underwater research, headed by Professor Hayat Erkanal of the Archaeology Department of the Ankara University, explores the prehistoric settlement located in the coastal town of Urla near İzmir in western Turkey.

The harbour settlement was inhabited as early as starting from 6,000 years ago and, as such, it is one of the oldest known artificial harbours in the Aegean Sea.

A big part of it, including a fortification wall, was submerged in the sea due to a massive earthquake which occurred in 700 BC, according to Erkenal.

Layers from three different periods have been found at Limantepe. The lowest layer belongs to the Early Bronze Age and dates from the third millennium BC onwards. The second one dates to the Middle Bronze Age from the first half of the second millennium BC onwards.

According to experts, evidence from these two early periods indicate cultural ties with the nearby prehistoric sites of Tepekule, Bayraklı within the city of İzmir and the Panaztepe site at the mouth of the River Gediz.

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From the Guardian

Don't miss your chance to visit this astonishing shipwreck before the museum closes for a major overhaul.

This summer will be the last chance to see the Mary Rose, the early 16th-century wooden warship miraculously salvaged by underwater archaeologists in the Solent in the 1980s, before the ship's current display closes for several years for an ambitious redesign.

When it opens, this will be – from the looks of the model – a museum truly worthy of one of the most amazing historic finds of the 20th century.

Here, you'll be able to look across from the ship in its sealed conservation chamber to facing displays of the unique objects that were preserved in it – from medical equipment to what looks like Lord Flashheart's boots.

The Mary Rose is a Renaissance Pompeii – a window on a lost way of life. But where Pompeii was a minor Roman city, this ship was one of the pearls of Henry VIII's navy, and one of the first purpose-built battleships in history.

That's why, when it mysteriously capsized and sank, it was so crammed with gear. What makes it moving is what makes Pompeii moving – the astonishingly detailed survival of everyday artefacts.

You can see, in the current museum of finds near the boat shed in Portsmouth's historic dockyard, big cauldrons in which meals were cooked below decks, a brass syringe from the barber surgeon's cabin, strange wooden carvings that sailors made to pass the time.

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From The Independent

The wreck of a liner torpedoed in 1917 has been discovered. But who owns its £3m cargo, asks Cahal Milmo.

Britain is locked in a court battle with an American treasure-hunting company over ownership of the wreck of a cruise liner with its valuable cargo of bullion, torpedoed in the First World War by a German U-boat in the Atlantic.

The 18,000-tonne Royal Mail Ship Laconia, which had been commandeered by the British government, was attacked with the loss of 13 passengers, including three Americans, en route from New York to Liverpool on 25 February 1917.

That changed the course of the war: a graphic account of the sinking by an American journalist aboard was credited with helping to push the United States into joining the conflict after it was read to both Houses of Congress.

But the discovery of the hull of the former Cunard liner 160 miles off Ireland by Odyssey Marine Exploration, a Florida-based company, has turned RMS Laconia into the source of a new transatlantic power struggle.

The treasure-hunters have been appointed "custodian" of the wreck and its contents, including 852 bars of silver and 132 boxes of silver coins worth an estimated £3m.

Odyssey found the Laconia last November along with another First World War British merchant vessel, but kept secret the identity and precise location of the wrecks.

The names of the ships were disclosed in a British government document obtained by The Independent.

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From The Packet

Deep sea divers from Truro, Falmouth and Helston, who face charges of plundering treasure from a Spanish shipwreck, are considering accepting a plea deal offered by the country’s authorities.

The deal would see the three men receive a 12 month suspended sentence, fined in excess of £5,000 and left with a criminal record for a crime they insist they did not commit.

Professional diver and owner of Force 9 Salvage, Pete Devlin from Falmouth, electronics expert Steve Russ from Helston, and professional diver Malcolm Cubin from Truro are due to face trial in Spain on March 24.

The team has had the threat of six years in jail and huge fines hanging over their heads since 2002.

The Spanish government has now threatened to issue an international arrest warrant if they do not come to Spain to face charges, or plead guilty.

The team has been warned they would not receive a fair trail because of slanted local press coverage.

Father of four, Malcolm Cubin aged 38 from Truro, who is considering fighting the extradition request said that having the threat of jail hanging over his head has been “mental torture” for him and his family.

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By Shelby Sebens

The dilapidated light tower 35 miles from the mouth of the Cape Fear River could become a home for a dive charter business and fishery research.

Shipwrecks Inc. of South Carolina was the high bidder for Frying Pan Shoals light tower, which includes 5,000 square feet of living space and has its own helipad.

The company bid $515,000, said Lee Spence, one of the owners.

“We will be fixing it up very rapidly,” he said, noting he had not anticipated spending that much money.

Spence said not all of the details have been worked out yet, but the company plans to use the prime fishing spot for a sport fishing group, a dive charter business and probably do fisheries and oceanographic research with two or three universities.

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