Shipwrecks!

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Port Nicholson - a similar ship
British shipwreck holds £2.6 billion treasure, explorers claim
Salvagers claim to have found the world's richest wreck – a British ship sunk by a Nazi submarine while laden with a £2.6 billion cargo that included gold, platinum and diamonds.
By Jasper Copping
25 Jan 2009

In a project shrouded in secrecy, work is due to start on recovering the cargo, which was being transported to the United States to help pay for the Allied effort in the Second World War. The scale of the treasure trove is likely to unleash a series of competing claims from interested parties. Salvage laws are notoriously complex and experts say there could be many years of legal wrangling ahead.

In order to protect its find until the cargo is brought to the surface, the company that located the wreck has not released the name of the vessel or its exact location, but has given the ship the code name "Blue Baron". It says the merchant ship, which had a predominantly British crew, had left a European port, laden with goods for the US Treasury under the Lend-Lease scheme, whereby the American government gave material support to the Allied war effort in exchange for payments.

The Blue Baron first sailed to a port in South America, where it unloaded some general cargo, before continuing north in a convoy, heading for New York. However, the company claim it was intercepted by German U-boat U87 and sent to the bottom by two torpedoes in June 1942, with the loss of three crew members. Their nationalities are not known. Sub Sea Research, a US-based marine research and recovery firm, claims it has now located the wreck under 800ft of water about 40 miles off Guyana.

Greg Brooks, the company's founder and co-manager, said: "This British freighter had an extremely valuable cargo and we decided there wasn't a lot of point in leaving it at the bottom of the sea. This will definitely be the richest wreck ever."

Until now, historians have not credited U87 with sinking any vessels in that area in June 1942 and it was thought to have been operating further north in the Atlantic. However, Sub Sea Research claims to have located the submarine's log book which prove it did sink the "Blue Baron", as well as documents from the port of origin, the US Treasury and the Lend-Lease programme giving clues as to what was on board.

A picture of the Blue Baron supplied to The Sunday Telegraph by the company shows it is a tramp steamer and her funnel appears to resemble those of the shipping line Hogarth and Co, of Glasgow, whose ships were known as Hungry Hogarths. Tantalisingly, the names of its ships all began with the word Baron – indicating that the Blue Baron could be one of them. However, none of the fleet's 17 ships lost in the war appear to have been sunk in this area in June 1942. The picture also resembles Port Nicholson, a steamer sunk by U87 in June 1942 but 2,000 miles north of Guyana off Cape Cod. Sub Sea Research insists that the Port Nicholson is not the Blue Baron.

It claims that the Blue Baron's cargo included at least ten tons of gold bullion, 70 tons of platinum, one a half tons of industrial diamonds and 16 million carats of gem quality diamonds. In addition, there were several thousands tons of tin and a few thousand tons of copper ingots. Although the tin and copper may have lost some value after years on the sea bed, the precious metals and diamonds would not have done so. The haul's total worth is calculated at £2.6 billion at today's prices, according to the firm.

Captain Richard Woodman, author of The Real Cruel Sea, a history of the merchant navy in the Second World War, said: "A lot of merchant ships did have to carry valuable cargoes like this. Any heavy materials had to go by sea. It was the only way to get from A to B. There would have been an element of protection for them, but in the end it is just the coincidence of war that a ship happens to stop a torpedo."

A 220ft salvage vessel is currently being equipped to recover the cargo. It is due to sail next week from the US state of Louisiana to the wreck site, which lies in international waters. The company has refused to reveal which government sent the valuables to the US or which was the Blue Baron's final port of call in Europe.

It is thought much of the treasure could be Russian, although part, including the diamonds, may have been British. Britain and Russia were the two main beneficiaries of the Lend-Lease scheme, under which the US provided $50 billion of supplies - equivalent to $700 billion (£510 billion) in today's money.

Although explorers are permitted in law to stake claims on items they recover from the seabed, the original owners can make counter claims. Sub Sea Research was forced to go public with its discovery when it filed a claim on the treasure in a US federal admiralty court, to which no counter claims have been lodged so far.

Mr Brooks said: "No one has stepped forward to make a claim yet, probably because the government that lost it does not realise. We are trying to keep it as quiet as possible until we have it in our possession. We think the possessions on board may belong to more than one country. I know for a fact that everyone possible will try to take it from us, but we are doing everything by the book. I think the worst case scenario, under salvage law, is that we would get 90 per cent of it. But we are trying to go for 100 per cent."

Mike Williams, an expert in salvage law at Wolverhampton University, said the Government which had owned the cargo would retain a strong claim on it. He said: "Both Britain and Russia transhipped large quantities of precious goods to the US to pay for their war effort. It would be unlikely the salvors would be able to keep it all. The real winners will be the lawyers. There is a marine lawyers' saying that treasure is trouble."

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ker-frickin-ching!

The fact that Britain paid its final payment for America's help in WWII at the end of December 2006 should mean that the haul is nothing to do with the USA. But who knows? A big pile of diamonds is always going to get people scrabbling!

[pirtybirdy]

I'm workin' on hatching a scheme right now to lay claims to that ship whilst listening to Pink Floyd's "Money". Yahoo!! Bring it on! LOL!

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Bronze Age shipwreck found off Devon coast
One of the world's oldest shipwrecks has been discovered off the coast of Devon after lying on the seabed for almost 3,000 years.
By Jasper Copping
13 Feb 2010

The trading vessel was carrying an extremely valuable cargo of tin and hundreds of copper ingots from the Continent when it sank. Experts say the "incredibly exciting" discovery provides new evidence about the extent and sophistication of Britain's links with Europe in the Bronze Age as well as the remarkable seafaring abilities of the people during the period. Archaeologists have described the vessel, which is thought to date back to around 900BC, as being a "bulk carrier" of its age.

The copper and tin would have been used for making bronze – the primary product of the period which was used in the manufacture of not only weapons, but also tools, jewellery, ornaments and other items. Archaeologists believe the copper – and possibly the tin – was being imported into Britain and originated in a number of different countries throughout Europe, rather than from a single source, demonstrating the existence of a complex network of trade routes across the Continent.

Academics at the University of Oxford are carrying out further analysis of the cargo in order to establish its exact origins. However, it is thought the copper would have come from the Iberian peninsular, Alpine Europe, especially modern day Switzerland, and possibly other locations in France, such as the Massif Central, and even as far as Austria.

It is first time tin ingots from this period have ever been found in Britain, a discovery which may support theories that the metal was being mined in the south west at this time. If the tin was not produced in Britain, it is likely it would have also come from the Iberian peninsular or from eastern Germany.

The wreck has been found in just eight to ten metres of water in a bay near Salcombe, south Devon, by a team of amateur marine archaeologists from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group. In total, 295 artefacts have so far been recovered, weighing a total of more than 84kg. The cargo recovered includes 259 copper ingots and 27 tin ingots. Also found was a bronze leaf sword, two stone artefacts that could have been sling shots, and three gold wrist torcs – or bracelets.

The team have yet to uncover any of the vessel's structure, which is likely to have eroded away. However, experts believe it would have been up to 40ft long and up to 6ft wide, and have been constructed of planks of timber, or a wooden frame with a hide hull. It would have had a crew of around 15 and been powered by paddles. Archaeologists believe it would have been able to cross the Channel directly between Devon and France to link into European trade networks, rather than having to travel along the coast to the narrower crossing between modern day Dover and Calais. Although the vessel's cargo came from as far afield as southern Europe, it is unlikely it would have been carried all the way in the same craft, but in a series of boats, undertaking short coastal journeys.

The wreck site is on part of the seabed called Wash Gully, which is around 300 yards from the shore. There is evidence of prehistoric field systems and Bronze Age roundhouses on the coast nearby and it is thought the vessel could have sunk while attempting to land, or could have been passing along the coast. The coastline is notoriously treacherous and there is a reef close by which could have claimed the vessel.

The recovery work took place between February and November last year but the discovery was not announced until this month's International Shipwreck Conference, in Plymouth. The finds have been reported to both English Heritage and the Receiver of Wreck, which administers all shipwrecks. The artefacts are due to be handed over to the British Museum next week. They will be independently valued and the museum will pay the team for the items.

Mick Palmer, chairman of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, said: "For the British Isles, this is extremely important. This was a cargo trading vessel on a big scale. There is more down there and we will carry on searching for it. We anticipate a lot more will be found."

Dave Parham, senior lecturer in marine archaeology at Bournemouth University and a member of the team, said: "What we are seeing is trade in action. We are not stuck with trying to work out trade based on a few deposits across a broader landscape. We are looking at the stuff actually on the boat being moved. Everything that is in the ship sinks with it and is on the seabed somewhere. What you would call this today is a bulk carrier. It was carrying what was for the time a large consignment of raw materials."

Dr Peter Northover, a scientist at the University of Oxford who has been analysing the find, said: "These are the produce of a multitude of countries, scattered right around Europe, up and down the Atlantic coast and inland. It came from a combination of places. It is showing the diversity of the trade. Metal traders and workers would have traded parcels of metal with each other. The metal would have moved in steps, along networks of contacts exchanging metal as and when they need it."

Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age archaeologist, said: "This is genuinely exciting. Everyone knows that man has been walking around on land since time immemorial, but I think people now will be surprised to know how much they were plying the seaways at this time, up and down the Atlantic seaboard and across the Channel. There's a complex lattice of interactions across Europe happening throughout this period.

"A lot of stuff may have moved across land, but it is eminently possible at this stage that there were quite sophisticated maritime networks with specialist mariners – people who know how to read the tides and the stars and who are not just casually going out on the sea to do some deep sea fishing. If you have got specialist mariners plying the Atlantic seaways, there is every possibility they could be picking up material in different locations and stockpiling it. The mainstay of this exchange network might have been a number of vessels undertaking short journeys. It doesn't mean there weren't occasional vessels and people going longer distances."

One other Bronze Age vessel has previously been found near Salcombe, where just 53 artefacts were recovered. Another eight Bronze Age items have also been found at a third nearby spot, indicating another possible wreck. The only other Bronze Age wrecks found in the UK have been located on land, or on the foreshore, at Dover and North Ferriby, on the Humber.

Ben Roberts, Bronze Age specialist at the British Museum, said: "It is an incredibly exciting find. What we have here is really, really good evidence of trade. We don't get many shipwreck sites. It is very rare to get a snapshot of this level of activity. It is very possible there were also animals and people going across the Channel too. We hardly ever get to see evidence of this cross Channel trade in action. It is a huge amount of cargo."

[pirtybirdy]

I'm still scheming......revert to January 29th, 2009 entry.

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haha yeah, I'm sure it just needs some evil masterplanning!

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Nazi wreck puts Berlin at odds with salvager
The Admiral Graf Spee, the German "pocket battleship" scuttled to Uruguay in 1939, is caught in the middle of a struggle between the businessman salvaging it and the German government, which wants to prevent its commercialization.
12 Mar 10
thelocal.de

During a visit to Montevideo this week, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his desire was "to prevent the remains of the symbols of the Nazi regime from becoming commercialized." "What we want really is to reach a constructive deal," he said, adding that Germany was prepared to support the presentation of the remains "in a historical context, like a museum."

In 2006, divers hired by Etchegaray recovered an imposing Nazi bronze eagle measuring 2.8 meters (nine feet) wide by two meters high and weighing 350 kilogrammes (770 pounds) from the stern of the Graf Spee. Two years earlier, they had come up with a 27-tonne rangefinder used to direct the ship's cannons. And in 1998, a 155 millimeter (six-inch) gun from the ship's secondary armament was salvaged. The underwater salvage group planned to bring up more cannons and other pieces of the Graf Spee, but were barred from doing so by a Uruguayan government decree. After the recovery of the Nazi eagle, with its outspread wings and swastika, Germany sent a note to the Uruguayan foreign ministry claiming ownership of the Graf Spee and opposing continuation of the salvage work.

Etchegaray, who had received permission from the Uruguay government to undertake the salvage work, has spent $2.5 million over the past 25 years scouring the Rio de la Plata estuary for sunken ships. The Graf Spee was scuttled by its captain just outside Montevideo harbor where it had gone for repairs after the first major naval battle of World War II. The Nazi warship was used to raid commercial shipping in the Atlantic until it was intercepted by two British cruisers and one from the New Zealand navy off Montevideo.

Etchegaray claims the wreck was sold in 1940 by the then German ambassador Otto Langmann to Uruguayan Julio Vega Helguera, who concluded the deal as an undercover agent for the British government for the sum of 14,000 pounds. The sale is recorded in the diplomatic dispatches preserved in the Public Record Office in London, a copy of which was provided to AFP by Etchegaray. "The British took only eight items from Graf Spee" to examine their technology and design, he said.

Etchegaray said that in 1973 Uruguay issued a decree claiming ownership of all shipwrecks in its waters. "For the past four years I have been proposing a museum... or an auction with a prequalification of interested parties and a guarantee of a historic-cultural destination for the (eagle)," he said. "We all want a deal that is constructive and sensitive for the remains of the Graf Spee," he said.

The Graf Spee, halfway between a battleship and a heavy cruiser, was designed to outrun larger ships that might have sunk it, and outgun smaller but faster vessels. But after capturing and sinking nine British cargo ships without loss of life following the outbreak of war, Captain Hans Langsdorff allowed himself to be trapped by the British force on December 13, 1939. In the ensuing Battle of the River Plate, Graf Spee's 11-inch guns crippled the British heavy cruiser Exeter but the German ship suffered irreparable damage from the other two cruisers, the Ajax and Achilles.

Taking refuge in Montevideo, the Graf Spee was ordered to leave within 24 hours by the Uruguayan authorities. Facing destruction by the British ships waiting off the mouth of the Plate, Langsdorff blew up his vessel in the middle of the estuary on December 17. Langsdorff, praised as a considerate gentleman by the crews of the British ships he had captured, shot himself two days later in a hotel room in Buenos Aires, after laying the flag of the old imperial German navy on the floor.

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Now that's vintage! Divers find ancient champagne from 1780s on shipwreck in Baltic Sea
18th July 2010

Divers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. They have already tested out the contents of one bottle and claim it tastes 'fantastic' despite dating back to the late 18th century. Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia. 'We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was. We didn't know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something,' he said. 'It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak,' Ekstrom said.

Ekstrom said the divers were overjoyed when they popped the cork on their boat after hauling the bubbly from a depth of 200 feet (60 meters). The divers discovered the shipwreck Tuesday near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland. About 30 bottles are believed to be aboard the sunken vessel. Ekstrom said he is confident of the champagne's age and authenticity, but samples have been sent to laboratories in France for testing.

'We're 98 per cent sure already because of the bottle (we found),' he said. Swedish wine expert Carl-Jan Granqvist said each bottle could fetch £50,000 if the corks are intact and the sparkling drink is genuine and drinkable. 'If this is true, it is totally unique,' he said. 'I don't know of any other (drinkable) bottle this old. I've never even heard of it.' The expert said he had seen pictures of the bottle, and it had languished in near-perfect storage conditions - in the dark at a constant cold temperature. 'If it's the right atmosphere outside, and inside the bottle the cork is kept dry in the middle; it keeps itself,' he said.

According to French champagne house Perrier-Jouet, a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard, their vintage from 1825 is the oldest recorded champagne still in existence.

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British warships sunk 90 years ago found off Estonian coast
HMS Cassandra, HMS Myrtle and HMS Gentian, which struck mines in 1918 and 1919, located near island of Saaremaa
Martin Wainwright
guardian.co.uk,
23 August 2010

The wrecks of three British warships sent to forestall a Soviet and German takeover of the Baltic states after 1917's October revolution have been found off the coast of Estonia. Sonar searches by an Estonian minesweeper have located the remains of the cruiser HMS Cassandra and two Flower Class sloops, HMS Myrtle and HMS Gentian, in deep water near the island of Saaremaa. The operation completes a jigsaw started by divers who found parts of the Myrtle in 1937 and a later team which attached a memorial plaque to the ship's sheared-off stern 10 years ago. It is also a belated tribute to the accuracy of Royal Navy navigation in 1919, when the two smaller ships sank after hitting mines.

The chief of staff of Estonian naval forces, Lieutenant Commander Ivo Võrk, said the co-ordinates of the site made during the rescue of the Gentian and Myrtle's crews were surprisingly accurate, considering methods at the time. The measurements were taken by the commander of the British anti-Bolshevik squadron of 22 ships, Admiral Sir Edwyn Sinclair Alexander-Sinclair.

A hero of the epic Battle of Jutland in the first world war, when his light cruiser fired the first shots after signalling an enemy in sight, the admiral was given the honour in 1918 of leading the defeated German High Seas fleet into the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands. He was sent to war again soon after, when the British government took the controversial decision to intervene in the Baltic.

The Cassandra was sunk by an uncharted German mine early in the campaign, in December, with the loss of 11 of her 400-strong crew. The Myrtle and Gentian hits mines the following July, on the same day, with the loss of nine men, while clearing a passage to supply the fledgling independent Estonian government with rifles and field guns.

"We can be sure that these are the British ships that went down during the war of independence," said Võrk, who authorised the use of new sonar equipment by the Estonian minesweeper Ugandi. The ship's captain, Lieutenant Villu Klesmann, said less sophisticated equipment would have had problems sorting the remains from other seabed debris at the wrecks' depth of up to 100 metres.

"But we now have quite clear sonar images that give reason to believe these are the Cassandra, Gentian and Myrtle," he told Estonia's public broadcaster ERR. The Myrtle had the distinctive "op-art" dazzle camouflage of black, grey and white shapes, which broke up the ship's outline at sea.

The wrecks belong legally to the British government and are likely to be given official protection as war graves. The bodies of three crew of the Myrtle and Gentian are buried in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, but not all were recovered. One lieutenant, Henry Macdonald, was awarded the distinguished service cross after the tragedy for "displaying seamanship of the highest order".

The Estonians, who were fighting German as well as Soviet invaders to regain independence lost 700 years earlier, have always acknowledged the role of the squadron in their successful campaign. The fleet's supply of arms and blockade of the Soviet naval base of Kronstadt was one of the few relative successes in the Allied intervention against the Soviets, which petered out in a withdrawal from northern Russia and Siberia in 1920.

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Blackbeard's "Queen Anne's Revenge" wreck reveals secrets of the real Pirate of the Caribbean
Divers exploring the wreck of Blackbeard’s flagship Queen Anne's Revenge are bringing to the surface new evidence of the terrifying tactics used by the pirate.
Jasper Copping
28 May 2011
telegraph.co.uk

He was a real-life pirate of the Caribbean, who carefully cultivated a bloodthirsty reputation that struck fear through seafarers. Now, almost 300 years after Blackbeard's death, marine archaeologists have discovered a huge anchor and an arsenal of "improvised" ammunition from the wreck of his flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. New evidence about the terrifying and deadly tactics employed by Blackbeard is emerging from the diving expedition on the vessel’s presumed remains. The divers have discovered that weapons used by the pirate were not only intended to kill but were designed to strike terror into survivors and force them into a swift surrender.

The shipwreck lies in about 25ft of water just off the coast of the American state of North Carolina and the expedition to recover artefacts is being led by the state’s Department of Cultural Resources. During the two-week exploration, the team aimed to recover a 1.4 ton (3,000lb) anchor from the ship, which they have now successfully raised.

They are also searching for three large “artefact conglomerates” – or “clusters” of metallic objects – which, as they have deteriorated, have stuck together. Once on the surface, the items can be separated up into their constituent parts and identified. The “conglomerates” – which cover areas of up to a metre and a half by a metre square of the sea bed – are thought to contain an unusual assortment of “improvised” missiles and weaponry used by the pirate to inflict both terror and casualties on enemy ships.

On earlier dives, the researchers have found evidence of a range of “makeshift” devices, such as canvas bags filled with a lethal mass of lead shot, nails, spikes and glass and then fired from the cannon, pouring a deadly hail of projectiles onto opponents. This type of bundled ammunition was known as “langrage” and was not used by Royal Navy ships, according to 18th-century documents. The ship’s unusual arsenal already identified also includes nine-inch bolts, which were pushed down in the barrels of cannons and would by fired out by a cannonball loaded behind them, as well as “double-headed” cannonballs – where two are linked together by a bar or chain – and which produced a spinning effect when fired from cannon and were effective at bringing down rigging.

The researchers’ bid to bring the ordnance to the surface comes as Blackbeard himself is resurrected in the new film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which was released earlier this month. His ship is also depicted in the new film, in which the pirate is portrayed by British actor Ian McShane, while his fictional daughter, Angelica, is played by Penelope Cruz.

The leader of the expedition and deputy state archaeologist, Dr Mark Wilde-Ramsing, said: “This vessel is heavily armed but the crew are not using that many cannonballs. Mostly, they seem to have used these improvised missiles that can be used to take out the crew or disarm the other ship’s sails. “These weapons would terrorise the enemy. It is all part of Blackbeard’s terror tactics. These are the sorts of things we hope we can find in these conglomerates. I think we will see more contrivances like that which will shed light on the kind of person he was.”

Angus Konstam, author of Piracy: The Complete History, said: “The improvised charges show a lot of ingenuity on the part of the pirates. These would have been anti-personal charges. They wouldn’t do much damage to a ship but would do a lot of damage to people in it. Their aim was to capture a ship by intimidation and leave it in pristine condition. They didn’t want to damage the ship or its cargo.”

During the expedition, which ends this week, the team are also fixing experimental zinc anodes to any large metal items they are not yet able to recover, including cannons. The devices will conserve the artefacts before they can be brought to the surface by slowing, and possibly even reversing, the process of corrosion.

The wreck was first discovered in 1997 and the state government is now behind a scheme, similar in scale to the Mary Rose project, to excavate and recover items from the ship, before it is lost, as sand around the vessel is eroded away by storms. A further recovery expedition is planned for the autumn.

Blackbeard is believed to have been born Edward Teach, or Edward Thatch, in Bristol, in 1680. He fought as a privateer for the British, attacking Spanish and French ships in the War of the Spanish Succession, before turning to piracy. His troop captured a French slave ship called La Concorde near the Caribbean island of St Vincent in November 1717 and renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge. It became his flagship, sailing alongside three smaller sloops. The ship ran aground on a sandbank about a mile from shore on June 10 1718, as Blackbeard’s flotilla of four vessels was heading for Beaufort Inlet, in the then British colony of North Carolina.

Blackbeard’s striking appearance and character has inspired many subsequent depictions of pirates. He is said to have had 14 wives, and would tie burning fuses into his long beard before battle to give himself a demonic appearance. His flag depicted a skeleton spearing a heart while toasting the devil. It has been claimed that he deliberately cultivated a fearsome reputation so enemy sailors would not put up a fight, allowing him to seize vessels without the need for violence.

After the loss of his flagship, Blackbeard sought and was granted a pardon. But he continued to seize ships, and the Royal Navy were sent to track him down. He was killed in a battle in November 1718, after which his head was cut off and his body tossed overboard. According to legend, his headless corpse swam around his ship five times before he finally died. His head was attached to the bowsprit of a Navy ship and his skull was later used as a punch bowl.

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Not exactly a shipwreck, but pretty close...