HOT NEWS !

By Louise Gray

The £3 million Caitlin Arctic Survey, to set off later this month, will be the first Arctic expedition to take regular radar measurements of the depth of the sea ice. It is hoped the results will give a definitive picture of how fast the ice caps are melting and how long it will take before they disappear altogether.

Mr Hadow, who will lead the British expedition, has been traveling to the far north since the late 80s and was the first man to trek to the North Pole solo in 2003. 

But he was expecting to have to swim across much more open water in the latest expedition because of climate change.

"We will traveling on the sea ice across the Arctic Ocean for 1,500 hours. We estimate that up to 15 per cent of our time – over 150 hours – will be spent in the sea in immersion suits with polar boots and Arctic clothing underneath," he said. "That is not something I would have anticipated 20 years ago." 

Mr Hadow said the team were ready to cross waters of up to 1.2 miles (2km) while dragging their floating sledges behind.

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From BYM Marine & Maritime News

Australia is to receive a significant collection of artefacts recovered from four Dutch shipwrecks found off the Western Australian coast following an announcement made by the Netherlands Government today.

Until now the collections of the Zuytdorp (1712), Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656) and the Zeewyk (1727) had been shared between the Western Australian Museum, the Netherlands and the Commonwealth Government as agreed under the Australian and Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS) established in 1972.

The collections to be transferred consist of 633 coins and 1,326 artefacts which include bricks; building blocks; lead ingots; pottery; elephant tusks; cannons, cannon balls; amber and pitch as well as rare objects owned by crew and passengers, including navigational instruments and ornaments. Culture and the Arts Minister John Day said the gift to Australia from the Government of the Netherlands would allow WA scientists to delve even further into the rich history of the Dutch explorers off the WA coast.

“Having all of these precious artefacts in Australia will allow greater access to the complete collections of these important shipwrecks by maritime historians, scholars and researchers,” Mr Day said.

“It will allow thorough research and analysis to be undertaken and ensure the collections are accessible to the Australian public to enable everyone to learn even more about their history and heritage.

“Staff at the Western Australian Museum are looking forward to working with the Netherlands research workers and Museum curators in developing a better understanding of this unique collection.”

The share of artefacts from these four shipwrecks held by Australia is currently on display at the Western Australian Museum - Shipwreck Galleries and the Western Australian Museum in Geraldton. Arrangements for the transfer of the Netherlands Government’s collection, as well as details of where the collection is to be housed, will be finalised later this year.

By Paul Post

Deep beneath the ice on Lake George, a newly designated national historic resource awaits exploration by scuba diving enthusiasts.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has listed the lake’s first-ever gasoline-powered motorboat on the National Register of Historic Places, making it part of an underwater state park called “Submerged Heritage Preserves” that includes boats from the French and Indian War.

The 45-foot long Forward, built in 1906, was owned by W.K. Bixby of Bolton Landing and St. Louis, a noted early 20th century industrialist.

“There are 80,000 properties on the National Register, only 300 shipwrecks,” said Wilton’s Joseph Zarzynski, an underwater archaeologist and founder of Bateaux Below, a not-for-profit group that nominated the Forward for the National Register.

“It’s very rare to find something from the 20th century on the Register,” Zarzynski said. “It took 20 years to get this done. It’s sort of like creating a fine wine. We had to wait a little extra time.”

By Rick Allen

A mysterious sinking, a group of dedicated scientists and technicians and a 200 year old shipwreck have all collided in the Gulf of Mexico.

Four thousand feet below the choppy seas the remains of a 19th century shipwreck lie in wait and a month long expedition has been mounted to uncover her secrets.

This is the deepest underwater archaeological project ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico. And it's a race against time to uncover the Mardi Gras shipwreck and solve the mystery.

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From SMH

Two Burmese men who say they spent 25 days adrift at sea in a large esky after their vessel sank off Indonesia must have survived strong winds and possibly thunderstorms, the pilot who rescued them says.

Helicopter pilot Terry Gadenne said Cyclone Charlotte was active in the Gulf of Carpentaria during the time the men were to the north in a large fishing esky.

"The week before (the rescue) was really rough, strong winds feeding into the cyclone in the gulf, and a lot of heavy rain," Mr Gadenne told Fairfax Radio.

"In the days just prior to the rescue it was fairly hot and some isolated thunderstorms.

"It was a really hot time, and if they were in the sun they would have been in dire straits."
 

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By Andrew Johnson

The most complete ancient Greek ship ever found – which is being painstakingly pieced back together by marine archaeology experts in Portsmouth – is shown here as it would probably have looked when it sailed around the Greek islands at the time of Homer.

Discovered in silt off the coast of Sicily, the vessel is believed to be around 2,500 years old. It arrived in boxes at the Mary Rose Centre in Portsmouth Harbour last week for what is expected to be a 10-year programme of preservation and reconstruction.

Archaeologists believe the craft was heading for Gela, then a Greek colony, when it was caught in a storm and sank with its cargo. Charles Barker, of the Mary Rose Centre, said: "It has an elm keel, an oak frame and pine planking. It is the most complete Greek trading vessel yet found."

By Jenny W. Hsu

With bowed heads and teary eyes, descendants of the victims in the Taiping steamer shipwreck 60 years ago appealed to the government yesterday to pay more respect to the incident by designating a national holiday to commemorate the tragedy. 

More than 1,000 people, including the father of forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺), died when the vessel — with a capacity of only 580 passengers — sunk off the coast of Shanghai, China, after colliding with a small cargo ship on a dark night in 1949.

Only 36 people were rescued and the bodies of the victims were never found. The journey was part of the massive wave of Chinese emigration to Taiwan after it became clear the Chinese Communist Party was winning the civil war against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

“The passengers came from different places in China but had the same dream, which was to escape the claws of the communist regime and build up a home of prosperity and cultures,” said Sun Mu-shan (孫木山), 76, who sailed across the Taiwan Strait on the Taiping’s third journey.

His friends and relatives, however, were not so blessed when they boarded the Taiping the fourth and last time it embarked from a Shanghai berth.

Sun, holding pink lilies, was one of 13 people who gathered around a small white monument yesterday to pay tribute to the victims. The 2m monument is tucked away in a corner of a Keelung Harbor naval base.

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From Bexhill-on-sea Observer

The struggle to get wrecks protected was fascinatingly recounted and illustrated with slides by Dr Peter Marsden, of the Shipwreck and Coastal Heritage Centre, at Hastings at the Bexhill Museum lecture on Wednesday, January 7.

We heard about four local wrecks - the English warship 'Anne' in 1690 off Pett Level, one of the 30 new ships approved by Charles 11 in 1670; The 'Amsterdam' in 1749, the Dutch East Indiaman, off Bulverhythe on its maiden voyage to Batavia; The Danish ship 'Thomas Lawrence' in 1862 en route to the Caribbean - and how in the 1980s Customs and Excise still wanted the customs duty when 500 bottles of cognac were eventually brought ashore!

Finally the 'Storaa', originally a Danish merchant ship, torpedoed in November 1943, 10 miles off Beachy Head and in which 21 men died.

The story of the subsequent struggle through the courts resulted in this being the first merchant ship to be protected as a war grave by law as recently as May 2007.

The next lecture entitled Four Brothers And A Friend Called Dan about the experiences of a Sussex village whose sons served with the Sussex Regiment during the Great War, is at 2.30 pm on Wednesday, January 21, at St Augustine's Hall, off Cooden Drive.