An oil platform operated by Mariner Energy exploded today near Vermilion Bay in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. One worker was reported injured. No one was killed and no significant oil spill resulted. Mariner Energy has been involved at least 13 offshore accidents since 2006 in Gulf of Mexico waters — including a blowout and four [...]
Last week the yacht, Making Waves, a 48 foot Sea Ray Sundancer, with its engine running and the autopilot engaged, came ashore on Redding Beach, FL, on the Gulf of Mexico, with no one aboard. The boat is estimated to be worth around a million dollars. Not quite the Mary Celeste but mysterious all the [...]
Divers have stolen from the Holland 5, a historically important submarine wreck lying in the English Channel. English Heritage said divers stole the torpedo tube hatch of the Holland 5, which sank six miles off Eastbourne in East Sussex in 1912. The theft was discovered during a licensed dive by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) [...]
By Daniel Leaderman - Gazette.net
A piece of Bladensburg history may rise again after lying at the bottom of the Patuxent River for two hundred years.Over the next two years, archeologists will work near Upper Marlboro to excavate the wreck of a ship believed to be the USS Scorpion, part of an American flotilla that clashed with the British Navy just prior to the Battle of Bladensburg in the War of 1812, to coincide with the war's upcoming bicentennial."It represents a time capsule of what a...
A 9,000-year-old coral reef found in the South Pacific may provide clues as to what will happen to coral when sea temperatures rise. The samples confirmed that it was indeed coral and radiocarbon dating confirmed its age. Other similar ancient reefs – called relict reefs – have been discovered before, but none as far south [...]
From BBC News
Thieves have targeted a historically important submarine wreck lying in the English Channel, it has emerged.English Heritage said divers stole the torpedo tube hatch of the Holland 5, which sank six miles off Eastbourne in East Sussex in 1912.The theft was discovered during a licensed dive by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) in June and confirmed during a dive last month.The NAS described the wreck as a "remarkable piece of naval heritage".Sussex Police and English Heritage...
An expedition to Titanic has revealed that the famous shipwreck is not as badly corroded as feared. The hi-resolution images show the ship’s iconic bow, complete with railings, four kilometres below the surface. A team of scientists used a pair of robots to take thousands of photos and hours of video. More than 1,500 passengers [...]
By Joe Wojtas - The Day.com
The Ocean Technology Foundation will launch its fifth expedition later this summer to search for the wreck of John Paul Jones' Revolutionary War ship the Bonhomme Richard in the North Sea.The two-week expedition may provide the best chance yet to find the famed ship off the northeast coast of England as the U.S. and French navies are providing state-of-the-art sonar systems, an oceanographic survey ship, a mine hunter, underwater vehicles and divers."This is the latest...
By ndy Philip - Times of Malta
A bid to keep the world’ oldest passenger clipper ship in Britain was rejected in favour of proposals to send it to Australia. The 145-year-old City of Adelaide, currently resting on a slipway on the west coast of Scotland, faced being broken up for display in a museum.Campaigners from Sunderland, where the ship was built, were told by the Scottish Government that their bid lacked practical detail, but they vowed to fight on. The ship, which predates...
By ndy Philip - Times of Malta
A bid to keep the world’ oldest passenger clipper ship in Britain was rejected in favour of proposals to send it to Australia. The 145-year-old City of Adelaide, currently resting on a slipway on the west coast of Scotland, faced being broken up for display in a museum.Campaigners from Sunderland, where the ship was built, were told by the Scottish Government that their bid lacked practical detail, but they vowed to fight on. The ship, which predates...
By Deidre Woollard - Luxist
From the depths of the ocean to your wine cellar. Spectrum Wine Auctions, Southern California's leading auction house of fine and rare wine, will hold its first sale of the fall 2010 auction season on September 24 including a bottle of shipwrecked Madeira wine dating to the 1800s. The bottle, which is estimated at $1200 was discovered off of the Savannah, Georgia coast by professional diver Bill Kinsey in the late 1970s. The lot comes from a collector who bought the...
From Yle.fi
A group of Swedish divers have begun lifting to the surface a sunken consignment of champagne dating from the 1700’ from the seabed in the Åland Islands. Diving for the liquid treasure of around 80 champagne bottles started last week. The bottles are located in the hull of a vessel that sunk sometime in the eighteenth century. Both the vessel and its cargo of champagne are property of the Åland autonomous region. It has not yet decided what to do with the bottles....
From VOA News
Russian authorities say a mini-submarine plumbing the depths of Lake Baikal has found several shiny metal objects that could be evidence of the legendary Czarist gold lost nearly a century ago during the country's civil war.Explorers discovered the metal objects - described as resembling gold bullion - 400 meters below Lake Baikal's surface Monday. Attempts so far, however, to pick up the objects with a mechanical arm have failed. Explorers have long been hunting for the treasure,...
By Pete Hardie - Santa Barbara Independent
Researchers hope to use sonar images of the SS Montebello to determine if the sunken vessel could leak oil. The Montebello Assessment Task Force sent a robotic submersible down to the wreck — which lies seven miles off California’ coast, near Cambria — last week. The vessel’ tanks are presumed to still contain the three million gallons of Santa Maria crude oil that were loaded before its departure in December 1941.The SS Montebello...
Dry weather in the UK has revealed “cropmarks” indicating the presence of hundreds of previously unknown archaeological sites. The surveys show marks made when crops growing over buried features develop at a different rate from those nearby. The newly-discovered Roman and prehistoric settlements include a site near Bradford Abbas, Dorset. The Roman camp was revealed [...]
By Lacie Lowry - The News On 6
A massive restoration project is under way in Muskogee on a true war hero. The USS Batfish is a World War II submarine that's highly decorated with military honors, but her condition has highly deteriorated over the years.A group of Active Duty and Reserve Chief Petty Officers of the United States Navy spent Saturday painting the USS Batfish black, restoring the submarine to her glory days of World War II."It amazes me how many people don't realize we have a sub...
By Marilyn Ong - he Star
Sunken treasures ! The very words conjure up dazzling visions of romance and adventure on the high seas. Professor Augustine Vinh speaks on the perils of collecting sunken treasures.Internationally acclaimed sunken treasure hunter and collector Professor Augustine Vinh does not at all comply with one’ image of a treasure hunter — deeply-tanned and with rock solid physique.“I don’ dive nor scour the sea beds, picking up centuries-old porcelain...
By Edward D. Murphy Kennebec Journal
Treasure hunter Greg Brooks, who led a trouble-plagued relief mission to Haiti last winter, has set his sights on a salvage job with both business and humanitarian components.Brooks, who is from Gorham, wants to put his sea salvage skills to work removing an estimated 16,000 pounds of valuable mercury from a 66-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Maine. He contends the mission would defuse a ticking environmental time bomb, though scientists have concluded...
By Monica Haynes - Post-Gazette.com
Be prepared to spend at least 90 minutes, probably longer on the weekends when attendance tends to be heavier. There are 140 artifacts from a variety of sources, including the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, cultural institutions such as the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and private collectors. Among the artifacts are ancient coins that archaeologists believe bear Cleopatra's likeness. And guess what ? She looked nothing like Elizabeth Taylor.Still, like...
In today’s busy work-a-day world getting out on your boat is a great way to get away from it all close to home. But when you need to stock the boat for meals or entertaining, the process can actually elevate your stress level and not lower it as intended… Never fear! A new service called [...]