The bell was successfully recovered the 7th of August. Mr. Allen's team led the operation using his yacht M/Y Octopus, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Once restored, the bell will respectfully serve as a tangible and fitting memorial for the 1,415 lives lost when the Bismarck sunk the ship in the North Atlantic.
Artefacts on the wreck indicate it might date to the American Revolution. Amid the shipwreck’s broken remains are an iron chain, a pile of wooden ship timbers, red bricks (possibly from the ship cook’s hearth), glass bottles, an unglazed pottery jug, a metal compass, and another navigational instrument that might be an octant or sextant.
On 2 July archaeologists surveying the waters off the island of Takashima confirmed a shipwreck found here is a vessel from a 13th-century Mongolian fleet that foundered in a typhoon in a failed attempt to invade Japan.
The recently discovered ship is estimated to have been 65 feet long and around 20 feet wide and was carrying 13th-century Chinese ceramics, as well as ironware that positively identified it as a ship belonging to one of the two doomed Mongol fleets. The two invasion attempts in 1274 and 1281 ended in vain as both fleets were destroyed in typhoons.
At the time of its sinking, Rio de Janeiro was carrying a contingent of German soldiers meant for the invasion of Norway, which occurred on the following day, 9 April 1940. Of the 380 onboard, 50 were crew, the rest were soldiers. Of these numbers, almost 200 lost their lives, but 183 survived and were helped by the locals. Survivors told officials they were heading to Bergen, and even though they were wearing military uniforms, the Norwegian government failed to realize that a German invasion was imminent.
Within a day’s drive from New York City is a wreck junkie heaven, with numerous shipwrecks to explore along the St. Lawrence River on the US-Canadian border, in the area called the Thousand Islands. Larry Cohen and Olga Torrey give a sampling of the wrecks in the region popular with both the American and Canadian diving communities.
The four week online course – called ‘Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Maritime Archaeology’ - starts today and is open to everyone.
The course will introduce you to the pioneers of the discipline and explain what maritime archaeology is and why it is relevant today. We’ll also explore the technologies used to investigate these challenging environments and the new horizons that are opening to us daily.
Finally, we’ll help show you ways in which you can become further involved in the exciting world of maritime archaeology.
HMS Tamar was a 4,600 tons displacement sail and steam-powered Royal Navy troopship launched in Britain in 1863. She served as a supply ship from 1897 to 1941 and gave her name to the shore station HMS Tamar in Hong Kong (1897 to 1997).
In 1897 Tamar was hulked as a base ship and used as the Hong Kong receiving ship and served as the 'name' ship for R.N. headquarters until it was replaced by the shore station, which was named HMS Tamar, after the ship.
Captain Kidd was executed in 1701 for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Legend had it that Kidd hid much of his loot, which has prompted numerous treasure hunts around the world and inspired Robert Louis Stevenson when he wrote Treasure Island.
Finland’s accomplished diver and wreck researcher Rauno Koivusaari, who discovered the famous treasure ship Vrouw Maria in 1999, has now also found the wreck of the Hanneke Wrome just south of the island of Jussarö in Finland. According to historic documents, the ship was carrying 10,000 gold coins, estimated to be worth around €50 million today.
In a video streamed live from the Queen Maud Gulf off Nunavut, underwater archaeologist Ryan Harris moved from stern to bow, stopping at a handful of different points along the wreck to share clues from the long-sunk vessel.
He started by inspecting two brass six-pounder canons, one of the first features the team saw with a remotely operated vehicle when they began inspecting the site with an “underwater robot”, after the 19th-century wreck was discovered late last summer.
