HOT NEWS !

By Ted Hayes

Divers discover the wreck of the long-lost bark Trajan, sunk outside Newport Harbor in 1867.

To the untrained eye, the scene that greeted John Stanford and Mark Munro 30 feet beneath Newport Harbor Saturday, Dec. 6, wouldn’t have looked like much: A massive pile of concretion and timbers covered in algae, seaweed, barnacles and anemones that rose up eight feet off the bottom and faded off into the murky distance. 

But for the two hardcore wreck divers and maritime historians, the modest scene was paydirt: They’d found the long-lost Trajan, a 125-foot bark loaded with lime that sank August 17, 1867.

The Trajan, one of thousands of ships that have gone down in Rhode Island waters since the days of the colonists, had been all but forgotten in the 141 years since she was lost.

The men’s discovery that chilly December morning was the culmination of years of research, hard work and more than a bit of luck.

By Phil Hammond

For more than 200 years, ships have been integral to Australia's history. And the record of those ships, in a collection of 300 models, is housed adjacent to Brisbane's Goodwill Bridge at the Queensland Maritime Museum.

Warships from the 19th-century British Navy, like HMS Victory, and James Cook's converted 18th-century coal transporter, HMS Endeavour, are large, detailed scale models on permanent display in the museum's main hall.

On two upper levels, until February 6, the museum has dusted off 100 lesser-known items in its collection for the fascinating Great Model Ship Expo.

As preparations continue for southern Queensland's next government-funded maritime treasure hunt – locating the remains of the Centaur hospital ship torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off North Stradbroke Island during World War II, a model of the vessel is a poignant reminder of the tragedy.

By Jessie Moniz


If there is one game you don't want to play with Steven R. McPhee it is counting the number of bottles of beer on the wall. 

Mr. McPhee has a collection of over 2,000 antique bottles, most of which he has found himself while diving. 

He has shared his passion by releasing a book 'A Guide to Collecting Old Bermuda Bottles'.

It is now available at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI), Brown & Company and other bookstores around the island. 

"When I first started bottle diving I never knew how to date a bottle, or identify it," he said. "I never had a source to refer to.

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From KBTX News

Hundreds of items from the world’s oldest-known seafaring ship – believed to be from around 1,300 B.C. – discovered off the coast of Turkey and excavated by members of Texas A&M University’s Institute of Nautical Archeology are on display in a first-of-its kind showing at New York City’s legendary Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibit, “Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C . ,” displays priceless items that represent a time capsule of Bronze Age art and culture and are on view in the United States for the first time, says George Bass, Texas A&M professor emeritus of nautical archeology who helped catalog and archive many of the artifacts.

The more than 350 items retrieved from the wreck – often referred to as the Uluburun, because it was in that region of southern Turkey where it was found in about 140 feet of water – show the intricate art work of some of the world’s earliest civilizations. The ship was carrying a full cargo, and Bass says it’s believed the items came from Africa, Syria , Cyprus , Greece , northern Europe and other areas.

“It (the shipwreck) was true globalization in its earliest form,” he explains.

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From Chosun

The Dry Tortugas is a cluster of seven islands 112 kilometers west of Key West, Florida.

Surrounded by coral reefs and sandy shoals, this island chain is the graveyard of dozens of sailing ships and their crews.

One modern day treasure hunter mounted a search for a Spanish galleon laden with riches that went down near the islands in a hurricane more than three centuries ago.

After 16 years of searching, Mel Fisher's persistence paid off with the discovery of a treasure worth nearly half a billion dollars.

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon is credited with discovering the Dry Tortugas islands in 1513. He named the islands for the many sea turtles living on these arid landmasses.

Jack, a tour guide at the Dry Tortugas National Park says these waters have been treacherous for ships.

"Well the area has many shipwrecks, over 200 shipwrecks easily in the area,” he said. “It's because of the shoaling and because of these corals that are around."

Stories of sunken gold on these wrecks have attracted treasure hunters for years. One of the most famous is Mel Fisher, a tenacious salvager who realized his dream of finding riches beneath the waves.

Fisher has since passed away, but his grandson Sean carried on the family business.

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From The Canadian Press

A travelling exhibit showcasing hundreds of salvaged artifacts from the Titanic has docked in Montreal.

The show, which runs until April 2009, incorporates artifacts from the vessel and replicates sections of the ship.

Viewers can admire the grand staircase, peer into first-and third-class quarters, walk down the halls and discover the personal stories of passengers on board the doomed ship.

"The visitors become actors, part of the show," said Serge Grimaux, one of the promoters of the event.

Grimaux and business partner Paul Matte bought and refurbished a former cinema in the downtown Eaton Centre to run a series of 'edutainment' exhibits, of which Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, is the first.

The exhibit has been seen by more than 22 million visitors worldwide, but viewers will learn that the tragedy of the Titanic is partly a Canadian - and a Montreal - tale.

The ocean liner sank on April 15, 1912, 722 kilometres off Newfoundland's coast.

Because of the tragedy's proximity to Canadian shores, the passenger office of the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company picked up the ship's first distress signal and the city's papers scooped the world with news of the disaster.

The city also has a large number of Titanic-related graves, and 30 Montrealers were on board the ill-fated luxury liner.

By Sandra Walls

Three Hamilton-based divers were the first to find the wreck of a large fishing trawler sunk by a German U-boat in 1942.

Jim McAllister, from Hamilton, and his colleagues Ralph Lennox, Auldhouse, and Livingstone man Bud Campbell discovered the trawler’s bell as they went diving in the North Sea this year.

The trio are members of the Central Scotland Dive Club who meet at Hamilton Water Palace.

The wreck was in deep water in the North Sea about 20 miles off the coast of Eyemouth. But the brave divers managed to secure the bell and bring it up from the depths of the sea. Ralph Lennox (56), who lives with his wife Linda, has been involved in the club for the last 15 years. He said: “During the Second World War, large fishing boats were prime targets.

From the Euro Weekly Group

 
Guardia civil officers from the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) have discovered and seized 19 amphorae dating from the first and second centuries AD. Two Spanish men, aged 60 and 55, were arrested and accused of being in possession of archaeological remains.

In late October, the Guardia Civil began to suspect a local diver may be in possession of a collection of amphorae which they believed could have been taken from the Bou Ferrer, a Roman shipwreck found in the neighboring waters of Villajoyosa in March 2001.

Further investigation lead to local antiques dealers, and it was discovered that a single man had an important collection of amphorae, many of which had indeed come from the shipwreck.

The officers searched several properties and finally found the 19 amphorae just before the defendants tried to move them to a safer place to hide them, or possibly even destroy them so no trace of them could be found.

The 19 amphorae have now been taken to the Museo Arqueologico Provincial de Alicante.