HOT NEWS !

By David Ljunggren


Explorers trying to trace two ships from the doomed 1845 Franklin expedition in Canada's Arctic found fragments of copper sheeting likely to have come from the vessels, one of the explorers said on Friday.

Sir John Franklin, his 128 crew and the British ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were seeking the fabled Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans when they became stuck in ice. The men all died and the ships vanished.

"The archeological discoveries exceeded our expectations. We found copper fragments which could well have come from one of the ships we're looking for," said Robert Grenier, chief of underwater archeology at Parks Canada.

"They revealed the prior presence of considerable number of these sheets," he told reporters. "This was for us, I would say, a very significant find."

Copper did not exist naturally in the region and the sheets could not have been made by the local Inuit, he said.

The team found the fragments during a six-week trip in August and September to three islands near O'Reilly Island in the Queen Maud Gulf, close to where Franklin's ships are believed to have sunk.

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By Emilio J. Lopez


U.S. treasure-hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration denied Spanish government claims that it "secretly" scoured the ocean floor to find a wreck containing a $500 million haul of colonial-era coins.

"Odyssey in this case followed all the appropriate archaeological and legal protocols," Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm told Efe, calling allegations to the contrary false and "inflammatory." 

Spain's Culture Ministry on Tuesday accused Odyssey of carrying out "this underwater excavation in secret after having received specific instructions that it was prohibited.

Madrid on Monday provided evidence to a U.S. federal court in Tampa, Florida, that the wreck in which Odyssey found hundreds of thousands of gold and silver coins is the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes, sunk in October 1804 after a battle with British warships off the coast of Portugal in which more than 250 Spaniards died.

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By Ed Johnson


The Pacific island nation of Micronesia wants Japanese help to avert an environmental disaster as Imperial Navy ships destroyed during World War II break up and leak oil in a tropical lagoon. 

Scientists last month recorded a 5-kilometer-long slick oozing from the wreck of the Hoyo Maru oil tanker in the Chuuk Lagoon, where more than 50 Japanese vessels litter the seabed. 

Researchers say the site is a "ticking time bomb" and highlights the environmental danger posed to other island nations across the Pacific, where more than 900 World War II wrecks, predominantly from Japan and the U.S., are rusting away and threatening to spill oil.


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Fy Frauke Jensen


A team of international archaeologists is working round the clock to rescue the wreck of what is thought to be a 16th Century Portuguese trading ship that lay undisturbed for hundreds of years off Namibia's Atlantic coast.

The shipwreck, uncovered in an area drained for diamond mining, has revealed a cargo of metal cannonballs, chunks of wooden hull, imprints of swords, copper ingots and elephant tusks. 

It was found in April when a crane driver from the diamond mining company Namdeb spotted some coins. 

The project manager of the rescue excavation, Webber Ndoro, described the find as the "the most exciting archaeological discovery on the African continent in the past 100 years". 

"This is perhaps the largest find in terms of artefacts from a shipwreck in this part of the world," he said.


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From Canada


Spain's government said Tuesday it has proof of the Spanish origin of treasure recovered from a wreck in the Atlantic by deep-sea explorer firm Odyssey, and demanded the U.S. company hand it back.

"Spain yesterday (Monday) presented to the court in Tampa (Florida) the proof" that the treasure came from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, the culture ministry said in a statement.

The ship, which sank off southern Portugal with a massive cargo of gold and silver, is our "historical patrimony and also constitutes the tomb of 250 seamen and Spanish citizens," it said.

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By Mary Ann Bragg

Off the coast of Wellfleet are the spoils of the richest colonial-era pirate in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

Englishman Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, whose sunken Whydah ship is immortalized in a private museum in Provincetown, emerged as the wealthiest pirate in Forbes "20 Highest Earning Pirates" list published Friday.

Forbes described high-seas piracy as "the colonial era's version of investment banking."

Bellamy made about $120 million over his lifetime, valued in current dollars, Forbes said.

Second to him is Sir Francis Drake, another Englishman, who made $115 million.

The former slave ship, the Whydah, sank in a gale off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet in April 1717 after Bellamy seized it earlier that year with at least four tons of treasure on board, said Ken Kinkor of the Provincetown museum, the Expedition Whydah Sea Lab & Learning Center.

When the Whydah sank, Bellamy was using it as his primary ship, and it contained the loot of at least 50 other ships as well, Kinkor said.

From Cayman Net News


The Ministry of Tourism and the Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA) have signed an agreement that will see the acquisition of USS Kittiwave, a decommissioned naval ship.

The ship will be used to create an exciting site attraction and artificial reef while providing much desired relief for some of the frequently visited dive sites, the Government Information Services (GIS) said last week.

Tourism Minister Hon Charles Clifford and Chief Officer Gloria McField-Nixon signed on behalf of the Ministry while President Steve Broadbelt and Secretary Bud Johnson signed for the CITA.

Minister Clifford said the acquisition of the Kittiwake would add diversity to Cayman’s diving attractions and promote the preservation of marine life.

“This ship fits Cayman’s positioning as a dive destination,” he said. “Our seafaring heritage, our strong interest in presenting varied tourism offerings and our belief in preserving the environment, all played a major role in the decision to acquire this latest diving attraction.”

He further noted that shipwrecks are a great interest to divers worldwide, providing both exciting sites for diving, and allowing persons to explore a naval heritage through studying vessels from bygone eras.

By Jannette Pippin


A new museum building, a full-scale sailing replica of the Queen Anne's Revenge, and an exposition center to serve the community are among the recommendations of a statewide committee that studied future plans for the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources announced the completion of the study Friday and posted the full report on its Web site.

The report makes recommendations regarding the development of the museum's expansion site at Gallants Channel, including the construction of three main buildings: a new museum, an exposition center and an education center.

The vision for the new museum is for a 50,000-square-foot facility of a scale similar to that of the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.

It would have three principal galleries, with permanent space dedicated to the Queen Anne's Revenge and the "Golden Age of Piracy;" permanent space dedicated to fishing, boating and maritime and natural history; and space for temporary exhibits.