On opposite sides of the planet from each another, two historic shipwrecks sit in a constant state of change. Both bear historical witness to the story of their day, yet they are very different: One is a Mediterranean cargo vessel from over 2,300 years ago, the other a Norwegian tanker that sank off the coast of New Jersey in 1964.
Today, the wreck of the Italian Regia Marina submarine Scirè lies at a depth of 33m in Haifa Bay and four IANTD expeditions were necessary to survey the wreck, collect measurements for a 3D reconstruction and accomplish historical, cultural and scientific research.
About 13 hours later, at 4:40 pm, three submarines—Щ-205, Щ-206 and Щ-209 (Щ is short for Щука or shuka, which means pike in Russian)—received approval from the Kremlin to move towards the eastern shores of the Black Sea, while the M-33 and M-34 left for long-range patrol near the main base. It was the first day of the war in the Black Sea.
The SS Cotopaxi—an American merchant steamer—left Charleston, South Carolina, on Nov. 29, 1925, with a cargo of coal, destined for Havana, Cuba, but the vessel didn't make it far. The vessel vanished without a trace and the fate of the Cotopaxi and the 32 people on board has long puzzled experts.
Earlier that summer, the government of Spain successfully argued that, under the terms of international Sovereign Immunity, it never abandoned or otherwise relinquished its ownership of the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, which sunk during a sea battle with the British Navy in 1804. At the time of its loss, the Mercedes was sailing back to Spain from South America.
The identification of the wreck, which sits upright in 85m (275 ft) of water off Saugatuck, took over a year and was facilitated by technical scuba divers Todd White of Saugatuck, Bob Underhill of Kalamazoo and Jeff Vos of Holland working in conjunction with Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates (MSRA). These three divers comprise the premiere deep technical dive team in West Michigan.
There are many benefits to living in Asia. One advantage is that the waters around Asia still have countless numbers of unexplored shipwrecks. As a certified technical diver and an explorer at heart, the Gulf of Thailand has been my playground.
In one of the largest, most complex underwater archeological undertakings in Canadian history, Parks Canada and Inuit are working in collaboration to explore the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror―the storied ships of the 1845 Franklin Expedition that set sail from England on a quest to find the sea route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean―across what is now Canada's Arctic and Nunavut.
We asked our contributors what their favorite wreck dive was and they answered with tales and images of remarkable wrecks of all sorts and the artifacts found on them, giving first-hand accounts of their experiences on these underwater time capsules as well as glimpses into the history of each wreck.