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American entrepreneur Gregg Bemis finally gets courts go-ahead to explore the wreck off IrelandIt is the best known shipwreck lying on the Irish seabed, but it is only today that the owner of the Lusitania will finally begin the first extensive visual documentation of the luxury liner that sank 93 years ago. Gregg Bemis, who bought the remains of the vessel for £1,000 from former partners in a diving business in 1968, has been granted an imaging licence by the Department of the Environment. This allows him to photograph and film the entire structure, and should allow him to produce...

Shipwreck Yields World's Oldest Salad Dressing Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News June 20, 2008 -- Olive oil infused with fragrant herbs has been identified in an ancient Greek ceramic transport jar known as an amphora, along with another container of what could be the world's oldest retsina-type wine, according to a recent Journal of Archaeological Science paper. It is the first time DNA has been extracted from shipwrecked artifacts -- the two large jars were recovered from a 2,400-year-old wrecked vessel off the Greek island of Chios. If the second jar indeed contained a retsina-like wine, which is preserved and flavored...

Excerpt - Rescuers who have reached a ferry sunk by a typhoon in the Philippines and carrying more than 700 people say they have recovered only three survivors. The Princess of the Star ran aground after being hit by massive waves caused by typhoon Fengshen. ~ snip ~

A British warship which sank during the American War of Independence has been found in remarkable condition at the bottom of Lake Ontario. The HMS Ontario had long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks and is the oldest shipwreck and only fully intact British warship ever found in the Great Lakes. The 22-gunship was lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale in 1780. It was found by shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville using side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible Historian Arthur Britton Smith, whose book The Legend...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers announced Friday.

This handout image from video released Friday, June 13, 2008 by Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville, shows the crows nest and foremast of the sunken 228-year-old British warship HMS Ontario, a British warship built in1780 that has been discovered in deep water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Kennard and Scoville used side scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible to locate the HMS Ontario, which was lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people on board during a gale in 1780. (AP Photo/ courtesy of Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville) SYRACUSE — A 22-gun British...

A mission to find the lost wreck of the Titanic was actually a cover story for inspecting the wrecks of two nuclear submarines, the man who discovered the famous liner has revealed. Dr Bob Ballard led a team in 1985 that pinpointed the wreckage of the enormous ship 73 years after it sank in the Atlantic. But he almost didn't succeed after his top secret mission to find two Cold War subs left him with just 12 days to find the Titanic. The United States Navy lost two submarines during the 1960s - the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion -...

The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines. When Bob Ballard led a team that pinpointed the wreckage of the liner in 1985 he had already completed his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. Both of the United States Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them, Scorpion, had been sunk by the USSR....

Spain, Egypt to investigate 19th century shipwreck 19:27 | 22/ 05/ 2008 CAIRO, May 22 (RIA Novosti) - Spain and Egypt will start a project later this year to investigate the 19th century sinking of a ship that some believe contained the mummy of a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh, news agency MENA said. MENA cited Egyptian Ambassador to Spain Yasser Murad as saying the countries would first hold consultations and compare historical records, and attempt to establish the location of the shipwreck. Khafre, who ruled Egypt more than 2,500 years ago, is known for building the second largest of the three...

NEW ORLEANS (May 14) - A steamship that sank off the Louisiana coast during an 1846 storm has produced a trove of rare gold coins, including some produced at two largely forgotten U.S. Mints in the South, coin experts say. Last year, four Louisiana residents salvaged hundreds of gold coins and thousands of silver coins from the wreckage of the SS New York in about 60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, said David Bowers, co-chairman of New York-based Stack's Rare Coins. "Some of these are in uncirculated or mint condition," Bowers said, predicting the best could bring...

Harold Heckle in Madrid, Spain Associated PressMay 9, 2008 Spain formally laid claim Thursday to an 1804 shipwreck that yielded a reported U.S. $500 million treasure, saying Spain has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes—a Spanish warship sunk by the British Navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board. Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration on Thursday disputed Spain's claim. In May 2007, Odyssey...

MADRID, Spain — Spain formally laid claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded a US$500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes — a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board.

500-year-old shipwreck found by diamond firm Last Updated: 1:47AM BST 01/05/2008 A shipwreck, believed to be 500 years old, containing a treasure trove of coins and ivory has been discovered off the southern African coast. The site yielded a wealth of objects including thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins A Namibian diamond company, Namdeb, said on Wednesday that it found the wreck during mining operations in the Atlantic. "The site yielded a wealth of objects including six bronze cannon, several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese...

The group searching for HMAS Sydney has found the wreckage of the World War II Australian warship off the coast of Western Australia, the ABC has confirmed. The breakthrough by the Finding Sydney Foundation comes less than 24 hours after it announced it had located the wreckage of the German raider Kormoran, which also sank after a battle with the Sydney in November 1941.

The discovery of a pair of pre-Civil War era cannons on the Oregon Coast this week has caused a stir among archeologists, historians and coast residents who have flocked to Arch Cape to get a look. The cannons, which residents and a state park official speculate came from the USS Shark, a survey schooner that ran aground on the Columbia Bar in 1846, washed up this week. One appeared Saturday and the other appeared Monday night as a state park official was documenting the discovery of the first one. The first cannon was spotted by a Tualatin father and daughter,...

On Dec. 13, the IU archaeologists announced the discovery of a ship they believed to have been abandoned by notorious pirate Captain William Kidd. According to legend, Kidd was accused of stealing the ship, which was rumored to have held riches from East India. After allegations naming the captain as a pirate reached authorities, Kidd fled the Merchant and raced to clear his name. The ship was left in the care of Kidd's crew. When Kidd left the deck of the Merchant, it was the last time he or anyone else would see the ship intact. The men left behind...

(BEIJING) — After 800 years at the bottom of the sea, a merchant ship loaded with porcelain and other rare antiques was raised to the surface Friday in a specially built basket, a state news agency reported. The Nanhai No. 1, which means "South China Sea No. 1," sank off the south China coast with some 60,000 to 80,000 items on board, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wu Jiancheng, head of the excavation project. Archaeologists built a steel basket around the 100-foot vessel, and it took about two hours for a crane to lift the ship and surrounding silt to...

A shipwreck off the south coast may provide valuable information about the nautical and economic history of the region, according to the Department of Antiquities. The shipwreck at Mazotos is the first underwater research project to be exclusively run by Cypriot institutions. The project was undertaken by the Research Unit of Archaeology of the University of Cyprus in agreement with the Department of Antiquities. According to a statement from the Department of Antiquities, the shipwreck seems to have been a commercial vessel of the Late Classical period. Part of the cargo of the ship lies on the sea bottom and...

The wreckage of a pirate ship abandoned by Captain Kidd in the 17th century has been found by divers in shallow waters off the Dominican Republic, a research team claims. The underwater archaeology team, from Indiana University, says they have found the remains of Quedagh Merchant, actively sought by treasure hunters for years. Charles Beeker of IU said his team has been licensed to study the wreckage and convert the site into an underwater preserve for the public. It is remarkable that the wreck has remained undiscovered all these years given its location, just 70 feet off the coast of...

A cold, abrupt end to a honeymoon By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer Encinitas couple that fled Witch Creek fire returns home after cruise ship sinks off Antarctica ENCINITAS -- Three times since marrying June 11 in a beachside ceremony at La Jolla Cove, Trevor Takayama and Torrey Trust have dodged disaster. In August, the Encinitas couple fled an approaching hurricane while camping in a Costa Rican rain forest, on a summerlong honeymoon tour of Central and South America. In October, the Witch Creek fire forced the newlyweds to evacuate the hilltop three-bedroom home she grew up in, near Manchester...

Archaeologists explore wreck off Fla. By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 27, 4:19 AM ET PENSACOLA, Fla. - When Matthew Kuehne dives to the sandy bottom of Pensacola Bay, he reaches back 450 years to Spaniard Don Tristan de Luna's hurricane-doomed effort to form the first colony in the present-day United States. Archaeologists say the buried hull of a ship from de Luna's fleet of 11 ships holds crucial clues to the 1559 expedition, which sailed from Mexico to Florida's Panhandle. The ship's discovery was announced in October after lead sheeting and pottery from the wreck site were...

The shipwreck was filmed by a remote-controlled submarine A near-intact shipwreck apparently dating from the 17th century has been found in the Baltic Sea, Swedish television has said.The discovery was made during filming for an under-water documentary series. Public service SVT television said the wreck could be from the same era as the famous Vasa warship, which sank on its maiden voyage in August 1628. The broadcaster said the Baltic's low oxygen content and low temperature had helped preserve the wreck. SVT said the origins of the ship were unclear but its features resembled the work of Dutch ship-builders...

Genetic analysis has revealed the contents of an ancient shipwreck dating back to the era of the Roman Republic and Athenian Empire. The cargo was olive oil flavored with oregano. Beyond discovering ingredients for Italian salad dressing on the sea floor, such research could provide a wealth of insights concerning the everyday life of ancient seafaring civilizations that would otherwise be lost at sea. An international team of U.S. and Greek researchers investigated the remains of a 2,400-year-old shipwreck that lies 230 feet (70 meters) deep, roughly a half-mile (1 kilometer) off the coast of the Greek island of Chios...

SAVANNAH, Ga.— Captured by Confederate sailors in a bloody midnight sneak attack in 1864, the gunboat Water Witch became one of the few Civil War ships to sail under the flags of both the Confederate and Union navies. Archaeologists say they found strong evidence Thursday they've located the Water Witch's wreckage buried under more than 10 feet of mud in the Vernon River south of Savannah. Divers pushed a 20-foot metal rod through the river mud Thursday and tapped solid wood and metal underneath. It was the same location where an 1865 survey map showed Confederate sailors burned the ship...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - In 1559, a hurricane plunged as many as seven Spanish sailing vessels to the bottom of Pensacola Bay, hampering explorer Don Tristan de Luna's attempt to colonize this section of the Florida Panhandle. Almost 500 years later and 15 years after the first ship was found, another has been discovered, helping archaeologists unlock secrets to Florida's Spanish past. The colony at the site of present-day Pensacola was abandoned in 1561, and no trace of it has been found on land. Teams of University of West Florida archaeology students last summer discovered what they thought was the...

September 10, 2007 Builder found Vikings washed up at pubJack Malvern Archaeologists believe they have found the only intact Viking boat in Britain beneath the patio of a Merseyside pub. The 10th-century vessel was discovered in the 1930s by builders excavating the basement of the Railway Inn on the Wirral peninsula, but they covered it up because they feared an archaeological dig would disrupt their work. The boat would have been forgotten had one of the builders not reported his discovery to his son, who passed the information on to academics at Nottingham University. Stephen Harding, of the university’s archaeology...

WASHINGTON - Undersea explorer Robert Ballard leans back and smiles at the screens arrayed above his desk. One displays a view of a remote operating vessel, another scans along a seafloor never before viewed by humans. It's the Black Sea, not far from Ukraine, a region long closed to outsiders and now yielding a treasure trove of Byzantine vessels that met their ends 1,000 or more years ago. For Ballard the archaeologist, those vessels and their contents are a delight. For Ballard the explorer, the modern technology he's testing for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pretty exciting, too....

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The mangled remains of a vessel found in the Bering Sea are likely those of a World War II submarine that disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska. The discovery of the USS Grunion on Wednesday night culminates a five-year search led by the sons of its commander, Mannert Abele, and may finally shine a light on the mysterious last moments of the doomed vessel. "Obviously, this is a very big thing," the oldest son, Bruce Abele, said Thursday from his home in Newton, Mass. "I told my wife about it when...

THE 66-year search for the wreck of HMAS Sydney is believed to be over. The ship, in which 645 Australians died, is believed to have been found by a group of West Australians using a grappling hook and a camera last weekend. The Sydney sank after a battle with German raider, Kormoran, on November 19, 1941, Fairfax newspapers said. Video film of the find shows tangled wreckage over large, much longer than any other ship known to have sunk nearby.

Despite challenges such as darkness, limited visibility and cold temperatures, the waters in and around Sweden offer unique opportunities for underwater exploration. Worlds away from the warm, clear waters of the tropics, Swedish diving is in a class of its own.

Volvo’s treasure hunt finds real-life pirate treasure worth $500 million Posted on: June 22nd, 2007 Filed under: Industry News, Volvo Remember Volvo’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End treasure hunt? The Volvo treasure chest is filled with $50,000 in gold and a key to a new Volvo from the sea floor. Well the retrival of that chest will hang in the balance until controversy dies down over the discovery of real life treasure by Volvo’s Hunt partner, Odyssey Marine Exploration. Earlier this year, Volvo selected Odyssey to sink a treasure chest in the Western Mediterranean. They had planned to...

The Americans will be taking to the high seas off the Yorkshire coast this summer in search of their nautical "Holy Grail". Martin Hickes reports on an expensive obsession. THIS August, a flotilla of American scientists will mount a £175,000 expedition off Flamborough Head in search of a wreck, more than 200 years after it sank. Two US teams will plunge into the North Sea in search of the flagship of a Scottish captain, known to the Brits as little more than a pirate, but to the Americans as a hero of the American Revolution and the "Father of the...

IT WAS billed as the shipwreck find of the century with £250m of treasure recovered from a sunken 17th-century vessel lost off Land’s End. Mike Williams, senior lecturer in underwater cultural heritage law at Wolverhampton University, said the situation was making the British authorities uncomfortable. “There is the potential here for a serious diplomatic incident,” he said.

KEY WEST, Fla. - Salvagers discovered thousands of pearls Friday in a small, lead box they said they found while searching for the wreckage of the 17th-century Spanish galleon Santa Margarita. Divers from Blue Water Ventures of Key West said they found the sealed box, measuring 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches, along with a gold bar, eight gold chains and hundreds of other artifacts earlier this week. They were apparently buried beneath the ocean floor in approximately 18 feet of water about 40 miles west of Key West. "There are several thousand pearls starting from an eighth of an inch...

The mystery of a galleon believed to be buried in a North Stradbroke Island swamp could be solved within months. For a century, rumours have circulated that the remains of a 16th or 17th-century Spanish or Portuguese vessel lie in the snake-infested 18 Mile Swamp at the southern end of the Moreton Bay island. Tales persist of Aborigines finding gold coins and amateur explorers stripping the ship of its anchor, fastenings and planks. Brisbane archeologist Greg Jefferys has been searching for the wreck for nearly 20 years and is confident he is closing in. Last week he found three metal...

Chinese find shipwreck laden with Ming porcelain Wed Jun 13, 4:21 AM ET BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese archaeologists have found an ancient sunken ship in the South China Sea laden with Ming Dynasty porcelain, the Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. Divers used satellite navigation equipment to find the vessel, dubbed South China Sea II, which is about 17 to 18 meters (yards) long and lying at a depth of 20 meters. "A preliminary study of the sunken ship shows it may have sunk 400 years ago after striking a reef," archaeologist Dr Wei Jun was quoted as saying. The...

A hoard of pirate’s treasure worth £200 million at today’s prices is to be raised from the seabed. The notorious pirate ship the Whydah, which was captained by Devon-born “Black Sam” Bellamy, sank in heavy storms in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts in April 1717. When the ship went down she was laden heavily with ingots of gold, valuable gem-stones and dozens of tusks of precious ivory. The booty was so vast that each member of the 180-man crew was entitled to 50lb (23kg) of the haul by weight......

Investors are dancing in the Streets in Tampa, Florida, and it is not even the Gasparilla Festival yet. Treasure salvers occupy a beloved place in Florida lore, and the work of high tech salver Gregg Stem has hit stratospheric heights with today's announcement. In what is believed to be the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a shipwreck, Odyssey Marine Exploration (Amex symbol OMR) has recovered over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, ......

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday. Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up three meters (10 feet) above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people. The Solomons' coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol...

MADRID, Spain (3 Apr 2007) -- In February 1694, British admiral Francis Wheeler set sail from the Bay of Gibraltar with an important mission. He was to bring a large sum of money to the Duke of Savoy in order to buy his loyalty and to ensure victory in Britain's ongoing war against France's Sun King Louis XIV. But when the HMS Sussex arrived in the Strait of Gibraltar, it was hit by a violent storm, and Wheeler struggled in vain to save it. The 50-metre warship went down with more than 500 men, 80 cannons and an estimated 10...

There was intense competition today to rescue items, many of them worth considerable amounts of money, from containers washed ashore from a stricken freighter. There were reports of threats and squabbling as people sought to secure the most valuable items, including £12,000 brand new BMW motorcycles. As news of the wreckage spread, people travelled from as far away as 60 miles to Branscombe beach in east Devon to see investigate. Goods washed ashore included a container which split apart to reveal 20 of the K1200GT motorcycles. Groups of men man-handled the heavy machines 500 metres up the beach to the...

GEORGETOWN - A shipwreck that could be the remains of a lost Confederate blockade runner, or possibly a vessel that predates the Civil War, was found Thursday near the entrance to Winyah Bay, researchers said. Divers from the Maritime Research Division of the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology dove in about 13 feet of water and discovered a vessel that is about 90 feet long, with a wooden hull and a possible copper coating. The wreck could be the Sir Robert Peel, a blockade runner that was used by Confederate soldiers to get supplies to Georgetown during the Civil...

La Paz, Sep 2 (EFE).- At least eight are missing including five military men and three civilians in the shipwreck of a Bolivian navy (FNB) vessel on the Paraguay River along the Brazilian border, a military official reported Saturday. The Bolivian river craft en route from Puerto Suarez to Puerto Busch sank late Friday night in the Albuquerque area in Brazilian territory, Capt. Reynaldo Pinola, spokesman for the FNB, told EFE. With 22 people on board, the ship was carrying the replacement crew and provisions for the forward military post at Puerto Busch, in the extreme southeast of Bolivian territory...

WHITEFISH POINT, Mich. (AP) - Relatives of the 29 mariners lost with the Edmund Fitzgerald were honouring their memory Thursday, 30 years after the ore carrier sank in a vicious Lake Superior storm. Hundreds of people were expected to gather Thursday evening for a memorial service at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, the nearest spot on land to the Fitzgerald gravesite 27 kilometres northwest. Members of the crewmen's families and survivors of other shipwrecks were among those invited to ring the Fitzgerald bell during the ceremony. The bell was recovered by divers in 1995 and is on...

MOSCOW - Russian divers have spotted the wreckage of a legendary U.S. submarine that was lost in the Pacific in 1943, a Russian news agency reported Thursday. The ITAR-Tass news agency said that a diving team from the Far Eastern State Technological University in Vladivostok found the USS Wahoo in the La Perouse Strait and took pictures of it during a recent expedition. It didn't give further details. Under the command of Dudley "Mush" Morton, the Wahoo became one of the most famous U.S. submarines of World War II. With 19 Japanese ships sunk, Morton was ranked as one of...

The Polish navy says it is almost certain that it has located the wreck of Nazi Germany's only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin. A Polish firm searching for oil first detected the wreck in the Baltic Sea, 55km (34 miles) offshore. The ship's whereabouts had been a mystery since the end of World War II. The navy investigated and said it was 99% certain that the wreck was the Graf Zeppelin. The ship, built in 1938, never saw action in the war. The navy said it was unlikely that the 250-metre (820-foot) wreck would be recovered from the seabed, as...

The location of the wreck of the Graf Zeppelin had been a mystery for more than half a century POLISH divers have discovered the rusting wreckage of Nazi Germany’s only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, solving one of the most enduring maritime riddles of the Second World War. For more than half a century the location of the huge vessel was kept secret by the Soviet authorities. Even the opening of the Moscow archives in the 1990s failed to produce a precise bearing. The once-proud ship was simply one of dozens of wrecks that littered the bed of the Baltic...

Elizabeth City | State underwater archaeologists have found the remains of several boats in the Currituck Sound, including two they believe sank more than 100 years ago. Divers discovered last week what they believe was the steam freighter Undine, which struck a log and sank off Mackay Island in March 1912 while en route from Norfolk, Va., to Coinjock, said Richard Lawrence, director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. "We feel pretty confident that is what it is," Lawrence said. Lawrence believes the freighter was carrying passengers when it sank. His team discovered the...

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Experts at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., have confirmed that a World War II submarine wreck found in the Gulf of Thailand last year is USS Lagarto (SS 371). Underwater archeologists at the center completed their examination of evidence obtained in June by Navy divers from USS Salvor (ARS 52) and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1, both based in Pearl Harbor. "We now know for certain that this is Lagarto," said Rear Adm. Jeffrey Cassias, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force. "I am grateful to all those involved in helping...

The Uluburun II, which is on display in Bodrum and sponsored by the Bodrum Peninsula Promotion Foundation started to be built in 2004 using late Bronze Age techniques and was launched in 2005... The [original] Uluburun sank in the 14th century 8.5 kilometers southeast of Kafl in Uluburun Bay while carrying copper and tin from Alexandria to Crete. It was discovered in 1982 by a diver. The remains of the shipwreck were unearthed by an excavation team consisting of archaeologists and divers and the process has lasted over 20 years. Considered to be one of the most significant archaeological finds...