Shipwreck discoveries

[kayakerChuck]

Hmmm, the link works for me in assorted browsers. Weird, but I'm no computer wiz ;-)

Below a non-hyperlink version. Let me know if that works. If not, I'll see if I can host a copy or some way to post it directly.

http://www.whitelakeareahistoricalso...L.J.Conway.pdf

Thanks!

Chuck

[Rumrace]

There is a great group called SOS Save Ontario Shipwrecks. It took some doing but one by one the States on the Great Lakes joined us. Quebec was the big holdout and the US helped us put pressure on them. We got the RCMP FBI and US coast guard back up and legislation in every state an province to fight looting or damaging historic wrecks.
The Willis in Lake Erie sank dragging two anchors. Some diver stole them and ended up in a Ohio Motel driveway as decoration. The motel owners charged with receiving stolen goods. The US coast guard delivered the anchors back to the wreck in Canadian waters while an international dive team waited to return the anchors to their position.
So fair warning don’t touch our wrecks. Anyone who pumps air in the Great Lakes are watching you.

[GordMay]

“A Massive Medieval Cargo Ship Was Just Found Underneath The Capital Of Estonia” ~ by Kaleena Fraga
Archeologists estimate that the 700-year-old ship was likely a cargo vessel and part of the Hanseatic League trading network.
➥ https://allthatsinteresting.com/tall...val-cargo-ship

[GordMay]

"The shipwrecks rewriting ancient history” ~ by Alessia Franco & David Robson, for BBC
For centuries, historians believed that any physical evidence of the pivotal Battle of the Aegates was long gone. Then came a chance discovery – which led to dozens of shipwrecks.
➥ https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...ory?ocid=twfut

[GordMay]

Black Sea expedition discovers world's oldest intact shipwreck

A 2,500-year-old ship, found a mile beneath the surface of the Black Sea, is the world’s oldest intact shipwreck, researchers, from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeological Project [1] say.
The 75ft vessel has lain undisturbed on the bottom, and is perfectly preserved, due to the lack of oxygen at that depth.

[1a] ➥ https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archae...ck-found.page?

[1b] ➥ https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2...black-sea.page

Video ➥ https://youtu.be/k04nQ2WJQZ0




Carbon dated to 500 BC, the oldest vessel is 2,500 years old, and resembles the ship depicted in the famous "Siren Vase", now at the British Museum.

[GordMay]

The wreck of the infamous “Clotilda” has been found [1]
In the summer of 1860, more than fifty years after the United States legally abolished [in 1808] the international slave trade [tho’ slavery itself was still legal in 1860], 110 children, teenagers, and young adults, from Benin and Nigeria, were brought ashore in Alabama, under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States.
Timothy Meaher, an established Mobile businessman, sent William Foster's ship, the “Clotilda”, to Ouidah in the Bight of Benin, on a bet that he could "bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses."
He won the bet.
In May 2018, Harper Collins published Zora Neale Hurston’s “lost” interview [2] with Cudjo Lewis [Kossula], the last survivor of the ship, who died in 1935.

[1] The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found
➥ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smith...und-180972177/

[2a] “One of the Last Slave Ship Survivors Describes His Ordeal in a 1930s Interview” ➥ https://www.history.com/news/zora-ne...tilda-survivor

[2b] Descendants of Last Slave Ship Still Live in Alabama Community
The story of the Clotilda and the people who built Africatown.
➥ https://www.history.com/news/slaves-...ilt-africatown

Slave Wrecks Project ➥ https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initia...wrecks-project



Sonar Image of “Clotilda” wreck site

[GordMay]

“How the world's deepest shipwreck was found” ~ by Stephen Dowling, for BBC

“In 1944, the USS "Johnston" [#557] sank after a battle against the world's largest battleship. More than 75 years later, her wreck was finally located, 6km (3.7 miles) below the waves.

On 23 October 1944, the first engagements of a gigantic naval battle began in Leyte Gulf, part of the Philippine Sea. It was the biggest in modern human history.

Over the following three days, more than 300 US warships faced off against some 70 Japanese vessels. The Americans had with them no fewer than 34 aircraft carriers – only slightly fewer than all the carriers in service around the world today – and some 1,500 aircraft. Their air fleet outnumbered the Japanese five to one...

... Nearly 30 Japanese ships were sunk, and many of the remainder – including the biggest battleship ever built, the "Yamato" – would be so badly damaged they would be largely confined to port for the rest of the war...

... Just after 07:00, the USS "Johnston" was hit by shells from the Yamato, but fought for another two hours, peppering much larger enemy ships with shells and scaring off a flotilla of IJN destroyers trying to attack the lightly armed American aircraft carriers. It was only after two hours of fighting, with the ship hit by dozens of shells and its survivors clinging to the rear of the battered vessel, the ship finally sank, taking with it 186 of her 327 crew. Survivors reported one of the Japanese destroyer captains saluting as it slid beneath the waves ...

... Johnston's final resting place was more than 6km (3.7 miles, 19,500 Ft.) deep. "It's half again as deep as where the Titanic is – and that's pretty damn deep, that's 4,000m (13,123ft)," says Vescovo ..."

Much more ➥ https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...pest-shipwreck

[GordMay]

The Oseberg Ship, Norway

In 1903, Oskar Rom, a farmer in Oseberg, a village about 70 kilometres (43 miles) from Oslo, brought some timber remains to the university museum, that he had unearthed from a six-metre-high (20-foot-high) mound, on his land.
A subsequent visit to the site, by archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson, led to a spectacular discovery: a complete Viking ship, impeccably preserved by the blue-clay subsoil, containing numerous artifacts.
Measuring 21.5 metres (70 feet) long and 5.1 metres (17 feet) wide, the ship (circa 820) was an incredible treasure to discover, with its rich carved wooden ornaments.
The skeletal remains of two women were also found on board, one of which may have been a notable figure from the Norse sagas!
Although the excavation itself took less than three months, it took 21 years to prepare and restore the ship, and most of the finds. The ship was dried out, very slowly, before it was put together. Great emphasis was placed on using the original timber where possible. Today over 90 per cent of the reconstructed Oseberg ship consists of original timber.

More ➥ https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit...tions/oseberg/

And ➥ https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en...e-oseberg-ship

[GordMay]

HMS “Association”: Sank in 1707 - Discovered in 1967

One of the worst disasters in British maritime history, the wrecking of HMS “Association”, led to two acts of parliament [Longitude Act of 1714, & Protection of Wrecks Act of 1973] and the establishment of longitude [John Harrison’s “H4" chronometer].

At around 20:00 [8:00PM], on 22 October 1707, believing they were off the coast of Brittany, and heading into the English Channel, the fleet of 21 ships, ploughed on through the darkness, and straight into the Outer Gilstone Ledges, at the South Western edge of the Scilly Isles [Western Rocks], and sank within two minutes.
Three other ships – the Eagle, the Romney and the Firebrand – were also wrecked.
Some 1,450 men were lost, across the four ships, with only 24 survivors between them. It remains one of the worst disasters in British maritime history.

In 1963, Richard Larn, then a Chief Petty Officer First Class in the Royal Navy, initiated the search for the wreck, when he approached an admiral to ask if he could borrow a minesweeper. It took Larn, and a team of divers from the Naval Air Command Sub Aqua Club (NACSAC), three years to find the “Association”, but on 4 July 1967 they discovered a bronze cannon, and gold coins on the Gilstone Ledge.
More ➥ https://www.crayfordhistory.org.uk/p...r-richard-larn



Bill Saunby, Reciever of Wreck, with the first finds from the "Association", in 1967.

[GordMay]

HMS “Pandora”: Sunk August 1791 - Discovered November 1977

HMS “Pandora” was a Royal Navy warship, sent to the South Pacific, to search for the Bounty mutineers in 1790. Although the crew did capture many of the mutineers, the ship was then wrecked, on the Great Barrier Reef, in Australia, during its return journey.

The shipwreck – one of the most important to be found in the Southern Hemisphere, not to mention one of the best preserved – was discovered in 1977, and later excavated by Queensland Museum.
In November 1977, the wreck of the Pandora was located-186 years after its loss. Its rediscovery, by Steve Domm, John Heyer, Ben Cropp, and Ron Bel, was the result of a methodological search, based on analysis of historical information, compiled by John Heyer.

The wreck's value is unknown although it is unlikely to be raised, unless someone spends millions in insurance costs. However, fascinating recovered artefacts are on display at the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville.

Much more ➥ https://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Explore/Fi...ry/HMS+Pandora

[GordMay]

Missing piece of HMS "Invincible" shipwreck uncovered

The rudder of the 250-year-old British warship, the HMS “Invincible”, was located on May 24, 2022, after five years of shipwreck excavation, at the bottom of the Solent — a small section of the English Channel, that flows between the Isle of Wight and the southern coast of mainland England.

Originally a French ship dubbed “L'Invincible”, the first HMS “Invincible” was built in 1744. However, her time serving in the French Navy was cut short on May 3, 1747, when she was captured by the British, in the first Battle of Finisterre.

Unfortunately, a series of adverse events led to the “Invincible's” demise in 1757, as she was setting out for a voyage to Louisbourg (modern-day Nova Scotia). She wrecked on a shallow sand bar, seven meters (23 feet) below the surface. There she stayed for more than two centuries, before the wreck was discovered by local fishermen in 1979. On Tuesday 24th May, a team led by Bournemouth University, finally found the complete (over eleven metre long) rudder, lying sixty metres from the original wreck site.

More ➥ https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2...reck-uncovered

Video ➥ https://youtu.be/0tNwao3KLNE

[GordMay]

Wreck of Royal Navy warship HMS “Glouchester” sunk in 1682 identified off Norfolk coast

The wreck of one of the most famous ships of the 17th century - which sank 340 years ago while carrying the future King of England James Stuart - has been discovered off the coast of Norfolk in the UK, it can be revealed today.

Since running aground on a sandbank on May 6, 1682, the wreck of the warship the “Gloucester” has lain half-buried on the seabed, its exact whereabouts unknown until brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, with their friend James Little, found it after a four-year search, in 2007.

The Gloucester had set sail from Portsmouth and was travelling to Edinburgh. James Stuart (1633-1701), Duke of York, and later King James II, joined the ship off Margate, having travelled by yacht from London. He was going to conduct royal business at the Scottish Parliament before bringing his family back to London. Also on board were courtiers and prominent members of the English and Scottish aristocracy including the Earl of Roxburgh, John Churchill (the future 1st Duke of Marlborough), and Colonel George Legge, plus many ordinary crew members. The diarist Samuel Pepys was travelling alongside the Gloucester in the Royal Yacht Katherine as part of the royal fleet and wrote about the tragedy.

The ship ran aground on the Leman and Ower sandbank, 45km off Great Yarmouth at 5.30am on May 6th 1682 and sank within an hour. Between 130 and 250 people (of approximately the 330 passengers and crew in total onboard – no muster list survives) are estimated to have died. They included the Earl of Roxburghe, Lord Ibrackan, Sir John Hope and the Duke’s brother-in-law James Hyde, 2nd lieutenant on the Gloucester.

It was hard to find and identify as there are a number of 17th and 18th century wrecks off the Norfolk and Suffolk coastline, and the sandbanks off Yarmouth and Lowestoft are particularly dynamic so marine charts quickly become outdated.

Due to the time taken to confirm the identity of the ship and the need to protect the security of an ‘at risk’ site while finalising appropriate governance, it is only now that its discovery can be made public. The wreck has been declared to the Receiver of Wreck, Historic England, and Ministry of Defence.
The exact location of the wreck is protected and cannot be made public.

Much more ➥ https://www.uea.ac.uk/news/-/article...-english-coast


A new paper by Prof Claire Jowitt offers a comprehensive academic analysis of the disaster and its political implications and legacies. It is published in the journal English Historical Review on Friday, June 10, 2022.
“The Last Voyage of the Gloucester (1682): The Politics of a Royal Shipwreck” ~ by Claire Jowitt
➥ https://academic.oup.com/ehr/advance...21?login=false

[GordMay]

Who owns the San José?
The international fight over a 300-year-old treasure-laden Spanish galleon

How the “mother of all shipwrecks” became the mother of all legal battles.

On June 8, 1708, the "San José", a 45-meter-long Spanish galleon armed with 64 cannons, a crew of more than 600, and a cargo of millions of gold and silver coins, emeralds and other treasures, burst into flames and sank off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia, after a battle with a British squadron.
The clash was part of the War of Spanish Succession, a 13-year conflict that drew in most of the powers of western Europe.
Today, the "San José" is the subject of a very different international dispute — this one involving thorny questions of international law, national sovereignty and the legacy of colonialism.

More ➥ https://www.grid.news/story/global/2...anish-galleon/

[GordMay]

Bodies of the Titanic: Found and Lost Again

The Titanic’s microcosm of class distinctions are now infamous. “From the allegations that some steerage passengers were locked below decks, to the overwhelming better chances of survival for first-class passengers, such distinctions were assumed to be a natural part of society,” writes Jess Bier. Class distinction also, it seems, extended beyond death.

The story of the Titanic usually ends with the ship’s sinking in April 1912, the rescue of survivors, and the ensuing scandals and subsequent safety improvements on ocean liners. But what of Titanic’s dead? Most of the more than 1,500 victims were lost to the North Atlantic. Crews aboard four recovery vessels pulled just 337 bodies out of the water.

Scholar Jess Bier examines what was done with those bodies and explains how their identification and treatment was wrapped up in their economic valuation. All the recovered dead were numbered for the records, but some counted a lot more than others. As she notes, “Decisions about which bodies to bury at sea were made largely according to the perceived economic class of the recovered victims, and those with third-class tickets were far more likely to be returned to the water.”

More ➥ https://daily.jstor.org/bodies-of-th...=pocket-newtab

[GordMay]

Wreck of ancient Roman cargo ship found near Rome

A 2,000-year-old wreck of a Roman cargo ship has been found in the Mediterranean seabed, Italy’s Carabinieri police said Friday.

The ship was found 80 km north-west of Rome, about 160 meters deep off the port of Civitavecchia, according to the department’s art squad.

The ship is longer than 20 meters and believed to be from around the 1st or 2nd century BC, around the same time the Roman Colosseum was built.

The ship was found mostly intact, carrying hundreds of ‘Dressel 1 B’ amphorae, an ancient Roman jar with handles, narrow neck, and a collar rim. Two metal anchors were also found nearby.

More about ➥ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...me-2023-07-28/

Video ➥

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6I6RQVlLeI