Lost Underwater City Found

Amazing.

A lost city and vital port known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to ancient Egyptians was thought to be nothing but a memory until a team from the European Institute for Underwater Archeology (IEASM) discovered the mystical city submerged in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Traces of Thonis-Heracleion were found four miles off the coast of Egypt, 30 feet below the Aboukir Bay in 2000. The team, under French underwater archaeologist Dr. Frank Goddio’s direction, discovered many ruins, among them a monolithic chapel, a giant red granite statue of the god Hapi and the largest known concentration of ancient ships. It was the chapel that tipped off Goddio that it was in fact the lost city.

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Captain Morgan's Pirate Ship Discovered

Back in March we reported on the discovery of Captain Morgan's lost cannon in Panama's waters.

Now archeologists one of Captain Morgan's five ships has been discovered in the same waters.

The lost wreckage of a ship belonging to 17th century pirate Captain Henry Morgan has been discovered in Panama, said a team of U.S. archaeologists -- and the maker of Captain Morgan rum.

Near the Lajas Reef, where Morgan lost five ships in 1671 including his flagship "Satisfaction," the team uncovered a portion of the starboard side of a wooden ship's hull and a series of unopened cargo boxes and chests encrusted in coral.

The cargo has yet to be opened, but Captain Morgan USA -- which sells the spiced rum named for the eponymous pirate -- is clearly hoping there's liquor in there.

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The underwater research team included archaeologists and divers from Texas State University, volunteers from the National Park Service's Submerged Resources Center and NOAA/UNC-Wilmington's Aquarius Reef Base. And pirate booty or no, they said the story of Captain Henry Morgan was the real treasure.

"To us, the ship is the treasure -- the story is the treasure," Hanselman told MSNBC's Alan Boyle. "And you don't have a much better story than Captain Henry Morgan's sack of Panama City and the loss of his five ships."

Artifacts excavated by the dive team in 2010, including the six cannons, as well as any future relics will remain the property of the Panamanian government and will be preserved and displayed by the Patronato Panama Viejo.

Scuba Divers Retrieve Cannon from Mystery Shipwreck

The artifact is one of many being pulled from a mystery shipwreck, estimated to be about 200 years old, off the coast of St. Augustine.

Archaeologists reeling in the artifacts said they possibly date back to the American Revolution. Now, they're working to solve the puzzle.

"It's just an exciting shipwreck. I mean, this is an exciting day," said Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program.

For Meide, a cannon raised from the second-oldest shipwreck was quite the catch. The artifact came from the vessel buried about 30 feet below the surface.

"It's a totally different world when you go from that silent dark world underwater, and you're just vaguely seeing these ghost-like outlines of these features, then all of a sudden we see it really clearly for the very first time," Meide said.

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Scuba Diver Searches for Remnants of Apostle Paul's Shipwreck

Talk about diving into Scripture.

Even long before the times of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, Malta was the rocky knob at the western edge of the Roman Empire, the place where the leftovers of the Mediterranean Sea washed up and dug in.

Prehistoric worshipers left mysterious stone structures. Phoenician traders planted their alphabet and Arabic-inflected language. Greeks added new words and traditions. Sailing across the water the Romans grandly called "Mare Nostrum," "Our Sea," a rich Roman governor arrived to add a mosaic-floored villa on a wind-swept hill with a view of the island curved like a pelican's beak to catch the peoples and ideas blown from across the known world.

Malta was the site of the last battle of the Crusades and one of the most-bombed targets of World War II as the Germans unsuccessfully sought to gain a foothold there for the push into North Africa.

And Malta is the site of what John Harkins of Huntsville believes will be the last and best quest of his life.

Harkins, mild-mannered Bible-reading Church of Christ deacon, proud grandpa, Auburn-educated marine biologist who now sells software for a living, is determined to be the first person since the biblical Luke to see with his own eyes evidence of the ship that carried the Apostle Paul nearly to Rome.

Foolish?

Quite possibly, he cheerfully concedes.

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Captain Morgan's Lost Cannon Believed to be Recovered in Panama's Waters

Raise yer glass for ye ol' Captain! For what once was lost is now back again!

An international team of marine archaeologists has recovered six iron cannon from a reef in shallow waters not far from the mouth of the Panama Canal. They believe the weapons were lost during one of the less glorious chapters of British adventurism in the 17th-century featuring Captain Henry Morgan.

The cannon were prised from the reef a week ago amid fears that they might be plundered by treasure-hunters and could be the only physical evidence tying Capt Morgan to the region upon which he had such an impact more than 300 years ago. He remains a legend thanks to the brand of rum named after him. "Every school kid learns about Morgan's activities, but we have never seen any of his materials," said archaeologist Tomas Mendizibal, of Patronato Panama Viejo, a government agency that is overseeing excavation of the original site of Panama City. "If these are indeed his cannon, it would be a first."

A privateer for the Crown sent to protect trade routes to the Americas, Capt Morgan was seeking to capture the Castillo de San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the Chagres River, from the Spanish when his command ship, the Satisfaction, foundered on the reef with three other ships that were following him.

The fort, as it happened, had already been taken by a forward party of his own men. But Capt Morgan was not quite done. His ships sinking in the shallow waters behind him, he paddled upriver with his soggy men in search of Spanish gold in Panama City.

He inadvertently burned the town to the ground in violation of a treaty between Britain and Spain. Capt Morgan, who was from South Wales, was eventually forgiven by King Charles II for his carelessness and sent to Jamaica where he became Lieutenant-Governor.

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Arrrgh matey!

Cave Divers Discover Skull Underwater, May be Earliest Trace of Americans

And as you would expect, NatGeo has stunning photos to accompany the intriguing article.

Alex Alvarez, Franco Attolini, and Alberto (Beto) Nava are members of PET (Projecto Espeleológico de Tulum), an organization that specializes in the exploration and survey of underwater caves on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Alex, Franco and Beto have surveyed tens of thousands of feet of mazelike cave passages in the state of Quintana Roo. The team's relatively recent explorations of a large pit named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole, in Spanish), deep within a flooded cave, resulted in their breathtaking and once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the remains of an Ice Age mastodon and a human skull at the very bottom of the black abyss.

Read the details of their discovery...

Florida Shipwreck Mystery Unfolds

Former scuba diver, Joe Mecko, is shedding new light on the source of shipwreck artifacts found off the Florida coast.

Claims by a local treasure hunter that there is a century-old shipwreck off our shores got a boost from a former diver in the area.

“I’ve seen that wreck,” said Joe Mecko, of Madeira Beach, after reading a story on the subject in the Beach Beacon.

The article told about Jim Leatherwood’s discovery of shipwreck artifacts while metal detecting on the beach in Indian Rocks Beach and Indian Shores. Leatherwood said he believed his finds were the remains of an as-yet-undiscovered shipwreck not far offshore.

The story revived Mecko’s memory of a dive he made a few years back. He was searching for a friend’s boat that had gone down. Mecko, who was a charter boat captain at the time, said sunken boats often make ideal reef material that attract fish.

The fiberglass boat he was looking for was missing, except for its anchor.

“I followed the anchor rope,” Mecko said, “and at the end I saw metal spikes sticking out of the ground.”

The spikes were standing straight up in the sand, over a dark area, he recalled. There was no rock exposed, only sand. The location was about 10 to 15 miles offshore from Indian Rocks Beach, in about 40 to 60 feet of water.

Mecko said he knew the spikes had to be attached to an object as they were straight up, and he assumed they were a part of something hidden in the dark area underneath.

It was then Mecko knew he was face to face with history.

“This has to be some kind of wreck, I decided. It couldn’t be anything else, with the spikes sticking up like that.”

At that point, Mecko recalls getting an eerie sensation. “It gave me the shivers,” he said. “I wanted to get out of there.”

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World's Oldest Heidsieck Champagne Found in Shipwreck Cache

You may recall last year a group of scuba divers discovered a cache of 230-year old champagne in a Baltic wreck, as well as the Finnish government subsequently imposing a dive ban on -- what became dubbed -- Champagne Wreck.

Yesterday it was reported that a third brand of champagne has been discovered among the vintage bubbly.

Champagne experts have discovered what are believed to be the oldest existing bottles of Heidsieck champagne, salvaged from a shipwreck near the Finnish province of Aaland, local authorities said Monday.

Divers stumbled across a cargo of around 150 champagne bottles last July in a two-masted schooner which had run aground sometime between 1825 and 1830, and by last November experts had already identified the world's oldest Juglar and Veuve Clicquot brands among the bottles.

"When re-corking the almost 200-year-old bottles a third brand has now been discovered," Aaland authorities said in a statement.

Four bottles have been identified as having come from the Heidsieck & Co Monopole house, which is now owned by Vranken Pommery Monopole.

"In the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s it was one of the leading champagne houses, and it was one of those that we expected we might find in the cargo," Richard Juhlin, one of the world's leading champagne experts, told AFP.

Juhlin, who has been helping local authorities re-cork and catalogue the champagnes, added that only one of the Heidsieck bottles was in prime condition.

"The Heidsieck Monopole is around 75 percent pinot noir... It has some flower notes, slightly more toasty notes than the Veuve Clicquot," he said.

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Anyone else suddenly thirsty?

Scuba Diving Scapa Flow Leads to Book on Maritime History

Sometimes inspiration strikes at depth.

A WORCESTER historian has published his first book on maritime history.

Dilip Sarkar, already well known for his books on the Battle of Britain and Spitfires, has written a book about the HMS Royal Oak, a British Royal Navy battleship that was infamously torpedoed at anchor just six weeks into the Second World War.

The ship sank in 10 minutes and 832 men – many of whom were boy sailors aged between 15 and 17 – died.

The wreck, about 30 metres underwater at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland, is now a protected war grave.

Mr Sarkar’s book, Hearts of Oak, tells the human story of the tragedy.

Talking about the inspiration behind it, Mr Sarkar said: “In 1999 I learned to scuba dive.

“By 2003, having gained some experience of diving wrecks around the British coast, and undertaken deep diver training, I joined the Harpers’ expedition to dive the German High Seas Fleet wrecks at Scapa Flow – scuttled there after the end of the First World War.

“It was then that I became interested in HMS Royal Oak and I returned to dive Scapa’s wrecks with the Harpers several times.

Mr Sarkar was, however, more interested in the story of the men who served on the Royal Oak.

“I was moved by the number of souls lost,” he said.

“So I set out to trace relatives of some of those who died. In this way, through the pen pictures and photographs collated, their likeness would be preserved.

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Scuba Divers Remove Ancient Human Skeleton from Mexican Cave

Via Reuters:

The remains of a prehistoric child were removed from an underwater cave in Mexico four years after divers stumbled upon the well-preserved corpse that offers clues to ancient human migration.

The skeletal remains of the boy, dubbed the Young Hol Chan, are more than 10,000 years old and are among the oldest human bones found in the Americas.

The corpse was discovered in 2006 by a pair of German cave divers who were exploring unique flooded sandstone sinkholes, known as cenotes, common to the eastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo.

Scientists spent three years studying the remains where they lay before deciding it was safe to bring the skeleton to the surface for further study, according to the Mexican National Institute for Anthropology and History.

The institute is coordinating a study of early human migration to eastern Mexico that aims to deepen understanding of the movement of people across the Bering Strait at the end of the last Ice Age.

The Young Hol Chan, named after the cenote where he was discovered, was found in a darkened cave 27 feet (8.3 meters) beneath the surface.

19th-Century Shipwreck Could be USS Scorpion from the War of 1812

From The Washington Post:

A neoprene-clad diver slipped into the murky water of the Patuxent River near Upper Marlboro Wednesday to examine the wreck of a 19th-century ship that archaeologists and state officials hope to make a star attraction in Maryland's commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

The sailing ship could be the USS Scorpion, part of a fleet known as the Chesapeake Flotilla that was designed to navigate the shallow waters of the Patuxent and harass the British, whose Royal Navy at the time was terrorizing towns from Havre de Grace to Norfolk.

The excavation is part of Maryland's effort to create a tourism cash cow from the bicentennial of a war whose biggest claim to fame is inspiring "The Star-Spangled Banner." Based in part on Virginia's experience with revenue generated by Civil War sites, bicentennial boosters estimate the 32 months of events planned to commemorate the War of 1812 could generate $1 billion in tourism spending.

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The site of the wreck that could be the Scorpion lies a couple of miles upstream from Pig Point, also known as Bristol Landing, just past where Route 4 crosses the river. Since late July, underwater archaeologists from the U.S. Navy, the Maryland State Highway Administration and the Maryland Historical Trust have been working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, from a cluster of barges crammed with an excavator, a Port-o-Potty, a shipping container-cum-office and two large bins that filter water and sediment. Seven divers spend an hour or two at a time underwater with about a foot of visibility, carefully working through several yards of mud, silt and clay to what they believe is the hull of the vessel.

A couple of previously excavated artifacts indicate it might be the Scorpion: a grog cup with the initials C.W. that may have belonged to a cook who was transferred to the Scorpion, and a surgical kit that would likely have been on the ship. Researchers hope to find more definitive proof when they map the ship's dimensions.

The Scorpion was part of the Chesapeake Flotilla, which, under the command of Commodore Joshua Barney, battled the British in St. Leonard's Creek before retreating up the Patuxent, where the flotilla became trapped. Barney then destroyed his fleet to prevent the boats from falling into British hands. The British ultimately advanced on Washington, where they set fire to the president's mansion and the Capitol.

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Hat tip: TJ

"No greater prize" than Andrea Doria’s Bell

In a follow-up to the story we brought you earlier this month about the discovery of the bridge bell from the historic shipwreck of the Andrea Doria, it's safe to say the find was the pinnacle of David Sutton’s career.

Sutton, 50, who has been scuba diving since he was 6 years old and flying MiG fighter jets since he acquired a fleet from the dissolving Soviet Union, didn’t dive the lowest or fly the highest. His greatest achievement, on June 26-27, was bringing home the bridge bell from the wreck of the Andrea Doria.

“Simply going down to the shipwreck and coming back alive is compared to climbing Mount Everest,” Sutton said Monday from his research vessel, the Explorer, docked in South Kingstown. “There is no greater prize in shipwreck diving than the bell of the Andrea Doria.”

On June 27, he hung the bell from the Explorer’s boom, swung it over the dock at Stone Harbor Marina and sounded it with his diver’s hammer, ringing it for the first time since the Italian ocean liner sank on July 26, 1956, about 55 miles off the coast of Nantucket, or 100 miles from Sutton’s boat.

The wreck of the luxury steamship rests in about 240 feet of very cold water. Strong currents race in different directions at different depths. At the bottom, the currents bang objects around inside the hull and stir up sediment, sometimes reducing visibility to zero. The wreck itself is collapsing slowly into the ocean, but the tangle of fishing nets and the boat’s ropes and wires makes diving especially treacherous. Fifteen have died diving there over the years.

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Jersey Divers Discover Historic Andrea Doria Bridge Bell

Very cool.

Two New Jersey divers sent waves throughout the wreck-diving community with the discovery of what is believed to the "bridge bell" from the historic shipwreck of the Andrea Doria, the luxury Italian ocean liner that sunk in 1956 off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Ernest Rookey, of Jackson, and Carl Bayer, of Hillsborough, were part of an expedition team diving on the wreck when they made the find 240 feet below the ocean's surface. Both men were diving the Andrea Doria for the first time as last minute fill-ins on the expedition after two other crew members dropped out.

“All we hoped for was to get a little trinket to take home to remember our dive,” Rookey said. “I’m still stunned, the bell was totally unexpected. There’s just no way else to describe how we feel."

The bell, which weighs about 75lbs and stands two feet tall, is one of the few artifacts which has the ship’s name engraved on it.

“This is an incredibly significant find,” said expedition group leader, Joel Silverstein, of Arizona. “Think of it like finding a needle in a haystack.”

The last major discovery was made when the stern bell was discovered by a group led by Gary Gentile in 1985, according to Silverstein.

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Archeologists Explore Mysterious, Century-Old Key Largo Shipwreck

Courtesy of My Fox Orlando:

Archeologists have spent the last week diving off Key Largo to try and determine the origin of a century-old shipwreck.

Researchers with the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society in Washington were expected to finish documenting the wreck on Saturday.

The society's board president says the ship is likely a barge because of its lack of motorized parts.

Brenda Altmeier, of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, says remains of cement sampled in 2008 date to the mid-1800s.

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112-Year-Old Shipwreck Discovered Preserved in Lake Michigan

In cold freshwater and at a depth that protects it from storm damage, this beauty is in great shape for being well over a century old.

A great wooden steamship that sank more than a century ago in a violent Lake Michigan storm has been found off the Milwaukee-area shoreline, and divers say the intact vessel appears to have been perfectly preserved by the cold fresh waters.

Finding the 300-foot-long L.R. Doty was important because it was the largest wooden ship that remained unaccounted for, said Brendon Baillod, the president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association.

"It's the biggest one I've been involved with," said Baillod, who has taken part in about a dozen such finds. "It was really exhilarating."

The Doty was carrying a cargo of corn from South Chicago to Ontario, Canada in October 1898 when it sailed into a terrible storm, Baillod said. Along with snow and sleet, there were heavy winds that whipped up waves of up to 30 feet.

The Doty should have been able to handle the weather. The ship was only five years old, and the 300-foot wooden behemoth's hull was reinforced with steel arches.

But it was towing a small schooner, the Olive Jeanette, which began to founder in the storm after the tow line apparently snapped, Baillod said. The Doty probably sank when it came to the schooner's aid. All 17 of its crew members died, along with the ship's cats, Dewey and Watson.

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Also be sure to check out photos of the wreck here, as well as the videos contained within this article.

Judge Rules 19th Century Lake Erie Shipwreck to Remain Sunk

Agreeing with state attorneys, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio has ruled that the state of New York, under the U.S. Abandoned Shipwreck Act, is the owner of a 19th century sailing ship sunk in Lake Erie near Dunkirk.

The two-masted wooden sailing ship may have been used by the British during the War of 1812 and later may have had a role in the Underground Railroad, transporting escaped slaves from the United States to Canada, Foschio said in court papers.

Since 2004, officials of Northeast Research, a private company that specializes in searching for shipwrecks, have been seeking ownership of the vessel, which they want to raise from the lake’s depths and put on display on Buffalo’s waterfront.

But historic preservation officials in state government contend that the ship is better off where it is, in a deep pocket of the lake about 20 miles from Dunkirk.

State officials also contend that divers working for Northeast Research damaged the ship and mishandled human remains on the ship during a dive to examine the vessel in 2004.

Your thoughts?

"Ghostly" Underwater Photos of the Great Wall of China

Courtesy of the Telegraph:

The section of wall lies under the surface of Panjiakou reservoir about three hours drive northeast of Beijing.

A team of professional divers braved the murky conditions to get some ghostly shots of the wall which ran from 13 metres below the surface to the bottom at 35 metres.

Though urban legend has it being the only man-made object visible from space this one part is lying up to 100 feet below a valley flooded when a dam was built.

Mr Meur, the expedition photographer, said just getting the 500kg of equipment down hundreds of steps to the water's edge was a challenge in itself.

"The lake itself is rather barren, with only a couple of species of freshwater fish and shrimps," he said.

"The real stars here really are the ruins. The wall is in amazingly good condition considering that it is several hundred years old, and is underwater.

"The top of it was at around 13m depth, and we located a guard tower, with openings on all sides, which created underwater tunnels."

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University of Ulster Divers Granted Rare Access to Egyptian Ruins, Great Lighthouse of Pharos

What an honor.

University of Ulster divers have been passing on their expertise to maritime archaeologists in the historic Egyptian port of Alexandria.

Staff from the UU's maritime archaeology centre conducted a 10-day training workshop for 15 archaeologists from north and east Africa who wanted an insight into the challenges of working underwater.

During their stay the UU divers were granted a rare opportunity to explore the underwater remains of the famous Pharos lighthouse - one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Work on the great lighthouse began in 290 BC and when it was completed 20 years later, it was the first lighthouse in the world and the tallest building in existence with the exception of the Great Pyramid.

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Scuba Volunteers Map Channel Islands Archeological Sites

Right here in our own backyard.

A dedicated group of volunteer scuba divers employ their expertise surveying underwater archeology in the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary.

Coastal Maritime Archeology Resources members spend about a week living aboard research vessels twice a year, to measure and map shipwrecks, sunken airplanes and archeological sites scattered on the ocean floor.

CMAR Director of Operations Patrick Smith says there’s nothing quite like seeing a shipwreck for the first time. “It’s indescribable. There’s excitement, maybe a little bit of trepidation,” says Smith. “There’s that wonderful feeling of breaching the unknown. There’s the anticipation of seeing something that nobody has seen for scores of years, or maybe hundreds of years.”

Smith says diving on shipwrecks evokes thoughts about the people who sailed on the historic vessels and sometimes perished aboard them. “Each shipwreck is unique. They are a snapshot of that period of time, and they become a time capsule of that period of time,” says Smith. “A shipwreck goes down, and it freezes that moment. It freezes all aspects of the human environment. What the people were eating and wearing. You can tell what their technology was.

It’s just a wonderful snapshot of history and humanity.”

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Shipwreck off Australia Dubbed "Significant Find"

Almost 110 years after it set off from Lakes Entrance for a regular short run to Bairnsdale and sank mysteriously off Victoria's east coast, a team of divers has discovered the Glenelg.

The iron steamer's captain Thomas English is believed to have double-checked the ships two lifeboats moments before sailing, telling bystanders it was always best to be prepared.

The lifeboats were used by the ship's only three survivors when it ran into bad weather and monstrous waves not long after leaving shore.

Survivors told a marine board inquiry they heard a crash before water began to fill the ship.

More than a century later, their evidence helped a group of wreck divers discover the Glenelg lying upright on the sea bed.

Southern Ocean Exploration group leader Mark Ryan said the team had been searching for the ship for more than three years.

The divers used the survivors' recollections along with CSIRO data and the ship's logical course to find the 135-foot wreck, which remains in surprisingly good condition.

"We believe it to be a very significant find," Mr Ryan said.

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