HOT NEWS !

By Grace Hammond

Far beneath the waves off the coast of the Bahamas lies the Black Hole of Andros and it does not sound like a lot of fun.

Paul Rose says: "There's a layer of bacterial matter 18m down, it's incredibly oily and, as you enter, you lose all visibility.

It's unusual to smell anything underwater but, because your skin absorbs it, you can smell it – like rotten eggs. It's also baking hot, about 35º C, and you get quite disorientated."

Paul is a former vice president of the Royal Geographical Society, the base commander of the British Antarctic Survey base and is now the presenter of Oceans, an eight-parts series that covers maritime archaeology, biology, conservation, history and culture.

A breezy east Londoner, who began diving in 1969, Paul ventured into the black hole in search of evidence about how the oceans work. Located in the part of the Atlantic Ocean from which the Gulf Stream springs, it offers an insight into a past world – a snapshot of what the oceans were like three-and-a-half billion years ago.

"I've really wanted to present a series about great diving expeditions with great settings," he says.

"I've always been inspired by slightly-old fashioned films, along the lines of the programmes that first inspired me to dive, like the great Jacques Cousteau expeditions and the adventure series Sea Hunt."

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From Perth Now

Scavengers have been accused of stealing WA's maritime history by taking artefacts and bottles from the seabed at an historical Fremantle site.

The WA Museum said divers had been disturbing the seabed to remove material from the historical Long Jetty site and Bathers Bay.

Museum acting chief executive Diana Jones said Long Jetty was declared an historic site in 1988 and was protected under the WA Maritime Archaeology Act 1973.

“Long Jetty was recognised as a site of historical significance after the museum’s maritime archaeologists surveyed the area and found a wealth of objects dating as far back as the 1840s,” Ms Jones said.

Thousands of bottles and jars, cutlery, lumps of coal, sheep bones and other items were surveyed and documented. Among the personal belongings recovered were watches, toys, shoes, costume jewellery and coins.

The jetty was at its busiest during the gold rush days of the early 1890s.

It became known as the Long Jetty when the original Ocean Jetty was extended in 1887.

From Colombo Page

Kuda Ravana and Maha Ravana seas in Sri Lanka's southern maritime territory have been proclaimed as Secured Zones due to the archaeological value of the area.

Maritime archaeological researchers have found a number of places and objects of archaeological and historical value from this zone which can be accessed by boat from Kirinda.

The decision to proclaim this area a security zone was taken at a discussion held in last July between the Archeological Department, Central Cultural Fund and Sri Lanka Navy.

Legend says King Ravana had build fortresses at these locations which are submerged in the sea now.

From Radio new Zealand News


A New Zealand heritage group says it has discovered what appears to be a German U-Boat lying in a watery grave off the Kaipara Coast in Northland.

The Underwater Heritage Group says the mystery of how the U-boat came to be there involves Nazis and stolen treasure.

The group's vice-president, Noel Hilliam, believes the submarine is U-196 and that it sailed to New Zealand in 1944.

Mr Hilliam claims the U-boat was used to smuggle 13 high-ranking nazis onto Northland soil, where they assumed identities as Austrians.

He says the story has now come to light because the descendants of one of the men want to find stolen treasure the group brought with them and repatriate it to Germany.

Mr Hilliam says the sunken boat has been observed seven times and three divers have been on it, but its identity as U-196 is only speculation. He hopes divers can go onto the wrecked submarine early next year to take photographs, proving it is a U-boat.

The location of the treasure he says the nazis brought with them remains unknown.

By Norma Connolly
 

Treasure hunter and former owner of the Holiday Inn in Cayman, Herbert Humphreys has laid claim to what he says is a historically important wreck in international waters.

Captain Humphreys, known as Herbo, said he had found the wreck of a wood–hulled paddle wheel steamship that sank in the 19th Century with a large loss of life.

He said that because a documentary and feature film about the shipwreck and its recovery are planned, he could not reveal the name or location of the wreck at the moment.

“We can’t say anything more about the wreck or where it is until everything is documented and the salvage completed,” said Capt. Humphreys, who is a resident of both Cayman and Memphis, Tennessee.

He said the wreck was “mostly intact, very valuable, and is not a warship. It is in international waters and is less than 500 feet deep, which makes for an affordable recovery.”

By Sharon Hill

An archivist who was digging through old documents in the basement of a Harrow chuch says she has unearthed a 19th century ledger that provides a rare glimpse into Great Lakes shipping history.

"It was as I went through the book and went closer to the back ... I realized this was something unbelievable and exceptional," Debra Majer said Wednesday.

The Catholic diocese of London archivist was holding a treasure trove: a ledger dating to the 1800s with hundreds of names of ships' captains and vessels with the dates they sailed and their fates.

She held 255 pages detailing brigs, tugs and steamships that sailed the Great Lakes.

She knew she'd found something unique when she saw a list of steamboats and propellers lost since 1857.

At the bottom was a legend identifying how the ship was lost, whether it was foundered, run ashore, burnt, sunk by collision, exploded, sunk by ice, capsized or dismantled.

One vessel is recorded as the Phoenix, 1846 with a dot to indicate it was burnt.
 

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By Tony Henderson

An island-hopping Pacific voyage will give North East scientists the chance to plot the route of one of the most dramatic human migrations in history.

The Durham University bio-archaeologists will be a key part of the 6,000km trip which set sail from the Philippines this week.

Doctors Keith Dobney and Greger Larson will be among crew members on two traditional Polynesian double canoes. The main aim of the voyage is to find out where the ancestors of Polynesian culture originated.

Dr Dobney said that the migrants left the South East Asia mainland in their canoes around 4,500 years ago and crossed vast distances to settle in most of the Pacific islands. “It was one of the most remarkable human migrations in history, not least in terms of the distance travelled,” said Dr Dobney.

“It is hard to imagine how far these people travelled. It is phenomenal.”

The key to plotting the migration route is through the plants and animals which the travellers took with them.

The Durham scientists will take thousands of genetic samples on hundreds of islands from pigs, dogs, chickens and Pacific rats which are the descendants of those animals which accompanied the original migrants.
 

From Today's Zaman


Artifacts discovered in the wreckage of the world's oldest-known seafaring ship, discovered in 1982 near Uluburun on the southern coast of Turkey, are traveling to New York City this month for a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Artifacts from the Uluburun wreck will be featured in an extensive collection titled "Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.," set to go on public display on Nov. 18.

In addition to pieces from Uluburun, the show will feature nearly 350 objects coming from places such as royal palaces, temples and tombs, highlighting a sophisticated network of interaction among kings, diplomats and merchants in the Near East at the time.

It will begin with the Middle Bronze Age, in which a rising elite class sought valuable objects in foreign lands along with the objects from Babylon in Mesopotamia.

It will continue with the palatial centers of the Late Bronze Age -- including the sites of Qatna and Ugarit in Syria, featuring Aegean-style wall paintings, royal archives and an intact royal tomb.