Shipwrecks & Sunken Treasure

[Kondoru]

All Archaeologists have beards. Same as Philosophers and Dwarves.

Some are invisible though.

 

[Coal]

This sounds suspiciously like just another way to hamstring the petrochemical industry: “We don’t care if there are 10B barrels of oil down there, that plank might be a Viking ship! Buyanelectriccarbuyanelectriccar…“

maximus otter

Well, they're free to take the oil companies word for it being clear, or go down there themselves...

I suddenly feel a strange urge to buy an electric car. Odd.

 

[hunck]

All Archaeologists have beards. Same as Philosophers and Dwarves.

Even the women.

Some are invisible though.

The archeologists or the beards?

 

[ramonmercado]

Lake Huron wreck found after 130 years.

Searchers have found a long-lost Great Lakes ship that came to a tragic end.

Officials with the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, say they have located the Ironton, a freight schooner that plunged to the bottom of Lake Huron in 1894.

The 191-foot (58-metre) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both.
The Ironton’s captain and six sailors clambered into a lifeboat but it was dragged to the bottom before they could detach it from the ship. Only two crewmen survived.

A lifeboat is tethered to the Ironton in Lake Huron off Michigan’s east coast (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary via AP/PA)

The gravesite long eluded shipwreck hunters.
Now, the mystery has been solved, officials with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, said on Wednesday.
A team of historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians located the wreckage in 2019 and deployed remotely controlled cameras to scan and document it, Superintendent Jeff Gray told AP.
The sanctuary plans to reveal the location in coming months and is considering placing a mooring buoy at the site. Officials have kept the find secret to prevent divers from disturbing the site before video and photo documentation is finished.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41082802.html

 

[Floyd]

Lake Huron wreck found after 1390 years.

Searchers have found a long-lost Great Lakes ship that came to a tragic end.

Officials with the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, say they have located the Ironton, a freight schooner that plunged to the bottom of Lake Huron in 1894.

The 191-foot (58-metre) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both.
The Ironton’s captain and six sailors clambered into a lifeboat but it was dragged to the bottom before they could detach it from the ship. Only two crewmen survived.

A lifeboat is tethered to the Ironton in Lake Huron off Michigan’s east coast (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary via AP/PA)

The gravesite long eluded shipwreck hunters.
Now, the mystery has been solved, officials with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, said on Wednesday.
A team of historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians located the wreckage in 2019 and deployed remotely controlled cameras to scan and document it, Superintendent Jeff Gray told AP.
The sanctuary plans to reveal the location in coming months and is considering placing a mooring buoy at the site. Officials have kept the find secret to prevent divers from disturbing the site before video and photo documentation is finished.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41082802.html

Your maths is worse than mine Ramon.

 

[maximus otter]

Not wrecked, but suffering major issues:

​

Multiple people injured after large ship dislodges in Edinburgh dry dock​

A major rescue operation is ongoing at Imperial Dock in Leith after the vessel lurched towards its right-hand side.

The Scottish Ambulance Service sent five ambulances, an air ambulance, three trauma teams and other resources to the scene, while the fire service and police also attended after being alerted at 8.35am.

Sky News believes there are multiple casualties.

https://news.sky.com/story/multiple...nburgh-dry-dock-sky-news-understands-12840073

maximus otter

 

[ramonmercado]

Denarii found on uninhabited Swedish island.

Mystery of Roman coins discovered on shipwreck island has archaeologists baffled
​

Two silver coins minted in during the Roman Empire have been found on a remote and uninhabited island in the Baltic Sea. Archaeologists have no idea how they got there.

The coin on the left is a silver denarius minted in the reign of Antonius Pius, from A.D. 138 to 161. The emperor's head and some Latin characters can just be seen.The coin on the right is a silver denarius minted in the reign of Trajan, from A.D. 98 to 117. It shows the emperor's head and part of a Latin inscription. (Image credit: Johan Rönnby)


Archaeologists are baffled but excited by the discovery of two silver coins from the Roman Empire on a remote island in the Baltic Sea, halfway between Sweden and Estonia.

No clues reveal how the coins got there, but they may have been left by Norse traders, lost in a shipwreck or brought there on a Roman ship that voyaged to the far north.

Johan Rönnby(opens in new tab), an archaeologist at Södertörn University in Stockholm, was part of the team that found the coins with metal detectors in March, at a beach site marked by old fireplaces on the island of Gotska Sandön.


"We were so happy," he told Live Science. "We have this site, but we don't know what it is. But now that we have the coins there, it makes it even more interesting to continue to excavate it."


The two silver coins found on the island are both Roman "denarii" — one from the reign of the emperor Trajan, between A.D. 98 and 117, and the other from the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius, between A.D. 138 and 161. They each weigh less than an eighth of an ounce (4 grams) and would have represented about a day's pay for a laborer when they were minted.

Denarii were the standard coin of ancient Rome, and their name survives today in the word for "money" in several Latin-based languages, such as "denaro" in Italian and "dinero" in Spanish.

Rönnby said coins from the Roman Empire could have stayed in circulation for a long time, because the silver they contained always remained valuable; and they might have been brought to Gotska Sandön by Norse traders who had taken shelter there from storms at sea.

But it's also possible they were carried there by survivors from a shipwreck: The waters around the island are notoriously dangerous, and the area is littered with wrecks, he said.

Another possibility is that the coins were taken to Gotska Sandön by Romans on a Roman ship, though no records of such a voyage into the Baltic exist. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...n-shipwreck-island-has-archaeologists-baffled

 

[hunck]

German WW1 U-boat found off the coast of Shetland​

The SM UC-55 submarine was sunk about eight miles south-east of Lerwick by the Royal Navy in 1917.

Divers aboard the Stromness boat Valhalla have become the first to inspect its wreckage.

The U-boat had been laying mines in the convoy channel between Orkney and Shetland before being forced to surface due to a technical fault.

The submarine met its end after a loss of trim resulted in it sinking below its maximum dive depth, resulting in some flooding but it managed to rise to the surface.

Shortly afterwards two Royal Navy destroyers appeared and opened fire, sinking it.

Jacob Mackenzie, one of the divers who visited the wreck, said it was "eerie" being down there given that the some of the crew had perished along with their vessel.

"You are aware of that, although I believe about 15 of the crew did escape the rest of the crew of course didn't so they are still inside and that's very obvious when you're looking around it," he said.

The team were able to confirm the identity of the wreck because details of the damage had been recorded in the logbooks of the Royal Navy destroyers that sank the submarine.

"It certainly didn't sink by accident. This was wartime and if you haven't been to those depths before you won't appreciate that it's pitch black, it's very quiet, it is quite eerie when you swim around doing this," he said.

"In the back of your mind as well you have to remember the fact that this is essentially a grave for probably 20 men who didn't make it out alive unfortunately."

 

[ramonmercado]

An interesting find.

IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, A large haul of Roman storage containers were found in the wreckage

The wreckage of an ancient Roman ship from more than 2,000 years ago has been found off the coast of Italy.

The cargo ship was found off the port of Civitavecchia, about 50 miles (80km) north-west of Rome. It dates from about the 1st or 2nd Century BC and was found laden with hundreds of amphorae - a type of Roman terracotta jar. The pottery was found mostly intact, the Carabinieri police's art squad said in a statement.

The ship, estimated to be more than 20m long, was discovered on a sandy seabed 160m (525ft) below sea level.

"The exceptional discovery is an important example of the shipwreck of a Roman ship facing the perils of the sea in an attempt to reach the coast, and bears witness to old maritime trading routes," the Carabinieri said.

The police art squad - which is in charge of protecting Italy's priceless cultural heritage - said the relic was found and filmed using a remotely operated robot.

They did not say whether experts will now try and recover it, or its precious cargo, from the sea floor.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66337902

 

[kesavaross]

Denarii found on uninhabited Swedish island.

Mystery of Roman coins discovered on shipwreck island has archaeologists baffled​

​

Two silver coins minted in during the Roman Empire have been found on a remote and uninhabited island in the Baltic Sea. Archaeologists have no idea how they got there.


Johan Rönnby(opens in new tab), an archaeologist at Södertörn University in Stockholm, was part of the team that found the coins with metal detectors in March, at a beach site marked by old fireplaces on the island of Gotska Sandön.

???

The coins are of interest but for me the real question is why is the site marked by old fireplaces?

 

[Mythopoeika]

???

The coins are of interest but for me the real question is why is the site marked by old fireplaces?

Lots of tourists camping overnight?

 

[kesavaross]

Lots of tourists camping overnight?

Maybe? There again the article states 'old fireplaces'.

 

[maximus otter]

…why is the site marked by old fireplaces?

l’m guessing that it’s a clunky translation of “fire pit”, “campfire site”, etc.

maximus otter

 

[Swifty]

Denarii found on uninhabited Swedish island.

Mystery of Roman coins discovered on shipwreck island has archaeologists baffled​

​

Two silver coins minted in during the Roman Empire have been found on a remote and uninhabited island in the Baltic Sea. Archaeologists have no idea how they got there.

The coin on the left is a silver denarius minted in the reign of Antonius Pius, from A.D. 138 to 161. The emperor's head and some Latin characters can just be seen.The coin on the right is a silver denarius minted in the reign of Trajan, from A.D. 98 to 117. It shows the emperor's head and part of a Latin inscription. (Image credit: Johan Rönnby)


Archaeologists are baffled but excited by the discovery of two silver coins from the Roman Empire on a remote island in the Baltic Sea, halfway between Sweden and Estonia.

No clues reveal how the coins got there, but they may have been left by Norse traders, lost in a shipwreck or brought there on a Roman ship that voyaged to the far north.

Johan Rönnby(opens in new tab), an archaeologist at Södertörn University in Stockholm, was part of the team that found the coins with metal detectors in March, at a beach site marked by old fireplaces on the island of Gotska Sandön.


"We were so happy," he told Live Science. "We have this site, but we don't know what it is. But now that we have the coins there, it makes it even more interesting to continue to excavate it."


The two silver coins found on the island are both Roman "denarii" — one from the reign of the emperor Trajan, between A.D. 98 and 117, and the other from the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius, between A.D. 138 and 161. They each weigh less than an eighth of an ounce (4 grams) and would have represented about a day's pay for a laborer when they were minted.

Denarii were the standard coin of ancient Rome, and their name survives today in the word for "money" in several Latin-based languages, such as "denaro" in Italian and "dinero" in Spanish.

Rönnby said coins from the Roman Empire could have stayed in circulation for a long time, because the silver they contained always remained valuable; and they might have been brought to Gotska Sandön by Norse traders who had taken shelter there from storms at sea.

But it's also possible they were carried there by survivors from a shipwreck: The waters around the island are notoriously dangerous, and the area is littered with wrecks, he said.

Another possibility is that the coins were taken to Gotska Sandön by Romans on a Roman ship, though no records of such a voyage into the Baltic exist. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...n-shipwreck-island-has-archaeologists-baffled

Could it be possible that they were brought to the island in much later years by someone who collected ancient coins simply as a pastime?.

 

[ramonmercado]

Earliest known diving bell.

A copper dome recovered from the bottom of the ocean may be the remains of a 17th-century primitive submarine known as a diving bell — one of the world's first, and the earliest ever found.

The dome was found in 1980 near the 160-foot-deep (50 meters) shipwreck of the Santa Margarita, a Spanish treasure galleon that sank in 1622 in the Florida Straits, about 40 miles (65 km) west of Key West.

The discoverers assumed the circular object was an oversized cooking cauldron, and it's been housed ever since at the Mel Fisher Museum in Sebastian, Florida.

Maritime archaeologists now think the object was the apex of a 17th century diving bell used in an early attempt to salvage treasure from the wreck. (Image credit: Mel Fisher Museum, Sebastian)

But new research suggests the object may actually be the top of an early diving bell lost during a salvage of the treasure ship a few years after it sank. These primitive submarines were sometimes used by divers in shallow waters; they are often open at the bottom and filled with air.

"There's all these convergences of information, and they seem to all point in one direction," Sean Kingsley, a maritime archaeologist and editor of Wreckwatch magazine, told Live Science.


Image 1 of 3

The researchers think the diving bell was based on a 1606 design by the Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz, which was later used to gather pearls in Venezuela (left). A diving bell designed in 1616 by the German inventor Franz Kessler is also shown (right).(Image credit: public domain)

Several designs for diving bells were produced in the 17th century; one of the most famous is this 1690 design by the English scientist Edmond Halley, who discovered Halley's Comet.(Image credit: public domain)

The Santa Margarita was a Spanish treasure galleon that sank in a hurricane in the Florida Strait in 1622. Several early attempts were made to salvage treasure from the wreck, but its location was lost in later centuries.(Image credit: Model by Daniel P. O’Neall, photo © Carol Tedesco)

Kingsley and maritime archaeologist Jim Sinclair — a member of the team that recovered the object — detailed their reasons for proposing the artifact is a diving bell in the magazine's latest issue.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...sed-to-salvage-treasure-from-a-sunken-galleon

 

[ramonmercado]

Europe's oldest known shipboard cannon found.

Credit: Bo Niklasson/Bohusläns museum An international research team led by maritime archaeologist Staffan von Arbin of the University of Gothenburg has studied what might be Europe's oldest shipboard cannon. The cannon was found in the sea off Marstrand on the Swedish west coast and dates back to the 14th century.

The findings from the interdisciplinary study contribute new knowledge about the early development of artillery on land and at sea, but also bears witness to a troubled period for seafarers as well as coastal populations.

The small, muzzle-loading cast copper-alloy cannon, found by a recreational diver at a depth of 20 meters in the sea off Marstrand, is believed to come from a shipwreck. The researchers conclude that it is a shipboard cannon, and not a cannon that was being transported as cargo, because it still had parts of a charge left in its powder chamber when it was found. This means the cannon was loaded and ready for use in combat at the time it ended up on the sea floor.

"Thanks to the preserved remains of the charge, it has been possible to use radiocarbon dating to establish the age of the find," says Staffan von Arbin, maritime archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg.

"The study's findings show that the Marstrand cannon is probably from the 14th century, making it one of the oldest artillery pieces ever found in Europe."

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-shipboard-cannon-swedish-coast-oldest.html

 

[hunck]

Diver’s huge discovery of ancient coins off coast of Italy hints at hidden shipwreck

30,000 to 50,000 large bronze coins dating back to the fourth century AD have been found by a member of the public during a dive off the coast of Sardinia, Italy—a discovery that could point to the presence of a shipwreck, according to the Italian culture ministry.

The diver spotted some “metal remains” in shallow water near the town of Arzachena, the ministry said in a statement Saturday. These turned out to be “follis”—Roman bronze or copper coins also later used as Byzantine currency.

All the coins retrieved are in a “rare state of preservation,” with only four damaged yet still legible. According to the statement, the coins date from 324 to 340 CE and were produced by mints across the Roman empire.

 

[Floyd]

Filmmakers discover 128 year old shipwreck in Lake Huron Canada;

On the morning of 4 October 1895, the Africa departed from Ashtabula, Ohio, carrying coal over Lake Huron to Owen Sound, Ontario. But it didn't make it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-67585811

 

[Steven]

Colombia looks to raise the ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’ possibly worth billions

'The Colombia culture minister, Juan David Correa, said the first attempts will be made between April and May, depending on ocean conditions in the Caribbean. Correa pledged it would be a scientific expedition.

“This is an archaeological wreck, not a treasure,” Correa said following a meeting with President Gustavo Petro. “This is an opportunity for us to become a country at the forefront of underwater archaeological research.”

But the ship is believed to hold 11m gold and silver coins, emeralds and other precious cargo from Spanish-controlled colonies, which could be worth billions of dollars if recovered.'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/21/san-jose-shipwreck-recovery-treasure-colombia-spain

 

[Kondoru]

Like I believe that.

 

[kesavaross]

Of course, it's all about the archaeology.

 

[ramonmercado]

As legal quarrels continue, researchers want to carry out an archaeological and anthropological survey of the wreck,

The San José was a galleon ship owned by King Philip V of Spain (1683–1746) in the 18th century. It sailed from Portobelo in present-day Panama to Cartagena in Colombia in 1708.

The ship was sunk—still laden with treasure including 11 million gold and silver coins, emeralds and other precious cargo—during the Battle of Barú (also known as Wager's Action), part of the War of the Spanish Succession. This war was between Spain and France on one side, and Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic and other European allies on the other.

The search for the San José and its treasure, sunk 600 meters deep, has now become possible thanks to advances in remotely operated underwater vehicle technology. The ship is now in the process of being pulled up from the sea floor. But who is entitled to San José's riches?

In 1979, the US salvage company Sea Search Armada made an exclusive agreement with Colombia to divide the proceeds of the San José 50:50. They had bought out the Glocca Morra Company which discovered what was thought to be the wreck of the San José in 1982.

In 2007, the US Supreme Court ruled that Colombia holds the rights to items deemed to be "national cultural patrimony". Anything else will be halved between the US salvage company Sea Search Armada and Colombia. Ownership of each item would probably have to be decided by independent experts.

However, in 2015, Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, challenged the location Sea Search Armada's suspected held the San José wreck. He confirmed that the San José's true location had been found by the Colombian navy—with the help of British maritime archaeology consultants and the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution—in Colombian waters.

Spain and Peru have also claimed ownership, since the San José was a Spanish ship carrying wealth created by enslaved indigenous Peruvian workers. The descendants of the indigenous Bolivian Qhara Qhara people and enslaved African workers in New Granada, who were forced to mine precious metals, have also made a claim. ...

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-sunken-treasure-san-jos-shipwreck.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Sank almost 300 years ago.

A wrecked warship discovered decades ago off the Florida Keys has been identified as a British frigate that sank in the 18th century.

National Park Service archaeologists used new research to determine that the wreckage first spotted in 1993 near Dry Tortugas National Park is the HMS Tyger, the agency said.

The findings were recently published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

The HMS Tyger was a Fourth-Rate, 50-gun frigate built in 1647. It sank in 1742 after running aground on the reefs of the Dry Tortugas while on patrol in the War of Jenkins Ear between Britain and Spain.

A diver identifies a ‘broad arrow’ marking on a copper barrel band (Brett Seymour/National Park Service via AP)

“This discovery highlights the importance of preservation in place as future generations of archaeologists, armed with more advanced technologies and research tools, are able to re-examine sites and make new discoveries,” maritime archaeologist Josh Marano said.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/s...-as-18th-century-british-frigate-1604427.html

 

[Cochise]

HMS Tyger. Brilliant name. If I was pressganged I'd much rather be on HMS Tyger than, say, HMS Queen Charlotte.