HOT NEWS !

By Nancy Shields

When local history enthusiasts announced plans earlier this week for an observation next year of the 75th anniversary of the S.S. Morro Castle disaster, they gave out information from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, that said victims of the burning cruise ship were buried in a small West Long Branch cemetery.

But someone who would know, a West Long Branch historian and expert on that borough's cemeteries, said Thursday that is just not the case.

Arthur T. Green II, a careful documenter of the dead, said he knows of no Morro Castle victims buried in West Long Branch. "My family's lived here for over 300 years," Green said.

"There's nothing to do with Morro Castle here."

From Turkish Daily News


Artifacts from the oldest known shipwreck Uluburn, dating back to 1300 B.C., will leave their exhibit in the Bodrum Underwater Archeological Museum to go on display in “Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C that will start in New York this November.

Museum director Yaşar Yıldız said all of the 140 unique pieces removed from the 3,300-year-old Uluburun ship, discovered in Kaş in 1982 and exhibited in the Bodrum Underwater Archeology Museum, would go on public display in the world-famous Metropolitan Museum in Nov. 18.

Among the 140 artifacts, the most notable are the golden seal of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, glass beads, golden necklaces, precious jewels, a stone hoe, containers for food and hunting items used in ancient times, he said.

From Associated Press


A researcher investigating the 1950 crash of an airliner in Lake Michigan has found an unmarked grave that she believes contains the remains of some of the 58 victims. 

Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 went down off the coast of South Haven on June 23, 1950, as it flew from New York to Minneapolis en route to Seattle, killing all 55 passengers and three crew members aboard the DC-4. The crash happened during a raging thunderstorm but no cause could be determined. 

Author Clive Cussler and Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, an organization that documents shipwrecks in the big lake, have searched extensively but unsuccessfully for significant wreckage for several years. 

But Valerie van Heest, a co-founder of the shipwreck group, discovered that human remains washed ashore after the crash and were buried in a mass grave.

They were interred in Riverview Cemetery without the knowledge of the victims' families and the grave never was marked.

By Werner Menges


A team of local and international experts visited the site this week after its sand covering was removed on Monday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, Dr Peingeondjabi Shipoh, told The Namibian yesterday.

He said the team is expected to work at the site for a month or longer, depending on what they find at the spot.

The discovery of the remains of a wrecked ship, now believed to date from the 16th century, some 12 kilometres north of the Orange River near Oranjemund on April 1 has been trumpeted by diamond mining company Namdeb as Namibia's most important archaeological find of the century.

In an initial recovery of objects from the shipwreck site during April, artifacts that included thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins, minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s, bronze cannons, more than 50 elephant tusks, several tons of copper, navigational instruments and pewter tableware were discovered at the site and removed for safekeeping.

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By Sandra Jontz


The waters are deep and murky, but with high-tech equipment — and a little good luck — U.S. and Ukrainian oceanographers and scientists hope to find a World War II Soviet-flagged hospital ship that was sunk with 7,000 people on board.

The oceanographic survey ship USNS Pathfinder, under Military Sealift Command, started searching Sunday in Ukrainian territorial waters for the SS Armenia, sunk in 1941 by the German Luftwaffe, one of the world’s most powerful air forces at the time, officials said.

"This would be a significant find," said Marian Clough, senior Naval Oceanographic Office representative on board. "Over 7,000 people died when that hospital ship was bombed from the air. It went down in four minutes and was a serious of loss of life. It is very significant to the Ukrainians. …

There were wounded soldiers on board, and also families, women and children who were allowed to visit the ship, and the crew of the vessel. It was quite a wide group of people."


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By Alex Emery


Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.'s 17 ton-haul (15,400 kilograms) of sunken treasure from the Atlantic Ocean originated in Peru and must be returned, the Andean country's Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde said today. 

The 500,000 gold coins on Spanish warship Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes were minted in Peru, at the time a Spanish colony, Garcia Belaunde said. The ship was sunk by the British navy in 1804. 

"This gives us ownership, as this was and continues to be Peruvian territory," Garcia Belaunde said at a press conference.

"It belongs to us through the principle of succession of states." Spain has also filed a claim for the treasure. 

Odyssey was little changed at $4.77 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock is down 23 percent this year. 

The case is Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. v. The Unidentified Shipwrecked Vessel, 07cv614, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa)

From Novosti


Divers in Irkutsk have discovered an ancient ship that sank over 100 years ago on the bottom of Siberia's Lake Baikal, a team member said on Thursday. 

The ship, thought to have been built in the late 18th or early 19th century, was found in the southern part of the lake at the depth of around 30 meters. 

The vessel's hull, constructed without iron nails, is 16 m (52 feet) long, 5 m (16 feet) wide and 4 m (13 feet) deep. There is a hole in the right side of the hull and divers believe the ship sank during a storm. 

They also discovered suspected human remains. 

The expedition to the depths of the world's deepest and oldest lake was organized to search for historic artifacts linked with the Krugobaikal Railway, which saw numerous train crashes in the 19th century.


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By Chad Petri


From dishes, to deities, hundreds of pieces of post civil war life went down with the SS Republic in 1865.

If you're building a civilization you are starting with things that are necessary for religion, for school, for doctors and pharmaceuticals, for household goods,” says education director of the Baldwin County Heritage Museum Becky Holliday.

The republic was running supplies to help the war-ravaged south when it sank in a hurricane off the coast of Georgia.

When you consider bailing with buckets when you consider the size of the ship, captain young's story is another thing that's fascinating to me because it's heroic,” says Holliday.

The exhibit is thanks in large part to the efforts of the marine exploration company Odyssey.

Their massive robotic ship Zeus carefully pulled hundreds of treasures from the deep.

This is the first time the Republic's artifacts have been on display without another Odyssey expedition.

Holliday says the Republic has a special place here.


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