HOT NEWS !

From The Jakarta Post


Forestry police at the Karimunjawa National Park captured a ship and its crew attempting to salvage material from sunken wreckage off the park's coast Friday. 

Chief investigator of the East Java national park Agus Prabowo said beside capturing the vessel -- the KM Puji Jaya -- the forestry police detained six crew members and the ship's captain, all of whom were undergoing interrogation. 

According to a preliminary inquiry, the attempted salvage, from which the suspects retrieved 1.3 tons of scrapped iron, was prevented with assistance from regency police. 

The wreckage belongs to the national park, as it lies in waters within park territory, Agus added. The incident took place near the southern tip of Sintok Island, on the Menjangan Besar waters, part of the national park. 

Another park investigator, Eko Novi, said salvaging of parts had long since been prohibited because of potential damage to coral reefs and because surrounding waters belong to the park. 

"Vessels involved in salvaging attempts have damaged numerous aquatic species, such as anthipates, as well as coral reefs, in addition to threatening the underwater ecosystem, which is protected by the 1990 Natural Resources Conservation Law," he said. 

Agus said the suspects would face natural resource conservation disturbance charges, which carry a maximum five-year jail sentence and a Rp 100 million (US$10,900) fine for convictions. 

Asked about the sunken ship's owner, Agus repeated the national park had authority to preserve the vessel wreckage because it lay within park territory. 

"They would not have been prohibited, had they tried to salvage parts outside the park's territory," he added. 

The suspects, residents of Jepara, said they planned to sell the scrapped iron in local markets and did not know salvaging from wrecks in the waters off the park was illegal. 

"We look for iron from shipwrecks, which we can sell for Rp 2,500 per kilogram. This is how we earn our living. We won't be able to pay the Rp 100 million fine," said the vessel's captain, identified as SU.

By Times of Malta.com


This year marks the 603rd anniversary of the western voyages of China's great maritime explorer, who between 1405 and 1433 led huge fleets of Chinese sailing ships on seven transoceanic expeditions.

The expeditions, which reached as far as the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa, were unprecedented in the history of maritime exploration.

Details about the voyages and the ability of this great Chinese maritime explorer are being displayed until August 10 at St James Cavalier, in Valletta.

Organised by the China Cultural Centre of Valletta and called Envoy Of Peace From China: Zheng He's Great Voyages (1405-1433), the exhibition includes replicas of contemporary maritime instruments and copies of porcelain ornaments and utensils.

During his time as a trusted friend of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, Zheng He came into contact with the highest echelons of China's ruling class, greatly expanding his knowledge.

In recognition of his extraordinary abilities and loyal service, the emperor chose him from among his most trusted advisors as the ideal commander for the western voyages.

His voyages marked the beginning of the age of maritime exploration in both East and West.

Undertaken before the invention of any type of mechanical propulsion and into largely uncharted waters, his voyages were exceptional feats.

Read more...

By Dominik Jůn


Public broadcaster Český Rozhlas or Czech Radio is financing an unusual project – the attempted recovery of a WWII tank rumoured to be lost somewhere at the bottom of the river Labe (or Elbe). Diving teams are trawling through the river hoping to find a lost artefact from the past.

May 1945, Nazi military units are in turmoil as Soviet troops move across Europe from the east, and American troops move in from the west. Keen to avoid leaving any easy targets for the Allies to destroy, the Nazis either hid or destroyed most of their abandoned hardware in occupied Czechoslovakia.

Earlier in February, the Allied bombing of Dresden had forced many nazis to flee into Czechoslovakia.

This is where the legend of the lost tank was born. Czech Radio along with the River Elbe Administration and the Military History Institute have been following up on a specific report found in the radio archives of a man, now sadly deceased, who claimed that there was indeed a tank at the bottom of the Elbe.

The man, one Václav Patka had helped to clear the Labe river bed of military hardware right after the end of WWII. He stated that there was indeed a tank at a place called Dolní Zleb. Now, a team of specialists is trying to find out if this is true. 


Read more...

By Roger Boyes

When Sweden scuttled 20 huge wooden warships more than 250 years ago, it was seen as a desperate measure to block the enemy Danish fleet.

Now those same wrecks could scuttle the key component of a European energy plan - the construction of a 1,200km (746-mile) gas pipeline along the cluttered floor of the Baltic Sea.

Russia and Germany are building the pipeline to avoid the political problems of transporting gas overland - Ukraine and Belarus, in the midst of price rows with the energy supplier Gazprom, have threatened to interrupt supplies to Western Europe.

The seabed route, known as Nord Stream, is turning into an obstacle course of a different kind.

Not only do 100,000 tonnes of unexploded Nord Stream ammunitions lie scattered along the route, but the German Navy is concerned that one of its live shells might hit the pipeline and set off an explosion during Baltic exercises.

By Mike Reilly

The bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean are home to more than 2,000 confirmed and documented shipwrecks. Experts believe there could be another 2,000 that are not documented.

That's the word from David Southall, curator of education at the Collier County Museum. He gave a talk on the subject Tuesday at the Marco Island branch of the Collier County Public Library.

The Friends of the Library sponsored his appearance.

But his first comments to the large gathering were aimed at letting them know it was not going to be a discussion of where to find the lost treasures buried in the sea.

By Catherine Kozak

Deep purple water with streaks of sparkling azure concealed a war grave 110 feet beneath the surface.

A vessel plying the waters off the Outer Banks on Saturday was hunting for what was once the hunter, a German submarine sunk 66 years ago by depth charges dropped by an American bomber.

Divers on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new 41-foot catamaran were geared up and waiting to descend to survey the U-701, the most intact of discovered U-boats sunk off the North Carolina coast.

Boat captain Chad Smith, NOAA's East Coast vessel coordinator, slowed the catamaran's motor and circled the position above where the wreck lay mostly buried on the ocean floor about 22 miles off Avon.

 

From Naples News


They sound like treasure hunters. HammerHead. Fiberglass Bob. Caucasian Tim. And they talk like them, too. The grizzled salts and the young ones, too.

I believe the gold’s out there,” said Jake Wicburg, the 14-year-old son of Capt. Tim (not Caucasian Tim) Wicburg.

And is he going to be the one who finds it ? “Oh yeah,” he says.

The plane’s there and the gold’s there,” the elder Wicburg said. “I’ll be looking for it for the rest of my life.

When a young Timmie Wicburg snagged a piece of an airplane on a fish hook in 1990, he had heard the stories. So had his dad, the late Capt. Jim Wicburg.


Read more...

By Norman Hammond


Amphorae were the workaday containers of the ancient world, used to ship everything from aromatic wine to smelly fish sauce around the Mediterranean and beyond.

Thousands have been found, in shipwrecks and in fragments at their destinations. 

Over the years, certain assumptions have grown up as to what was shipped in particular forms of amphorae and from specific source areas, and the remains of pottery containers have stood proxy for their presumed contents’ significance in ancient economies.

In most cases no direct evidence of those contents could be obtained: long burial in the ground or on the seabed had, it was thought, washed away any evidence. 

A new study now shows that traces of ancient DNA can survive more than two millennia underwater.

These can be multiplied using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) established in forensic analysis to yield evidence of what the amphorae contained: sometimes the results are surprising.


Read more...