04 December 2009

Crowds Turn out to See Ancient Chinese Treasure Cargo

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28 November 2009

Thailand's deepest secrets

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EDITOR'S PICK

Thailand's deepest secrets

By Manta Klangboonkrong
The Nation
Published on November 28, 2009

Thailand's deepest secrets

The government's Underwater Archaeology Division has the daunting task of protecting and preserving dozens of shipwrecks

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Fishermen found the iron steamboat Ruea Mail last year, 90 minutes by boat off Rayong's Klaeng district. Only about 10 divers have visited the completely intact vessel since then.

It's believed to have sunk en route to Vietnam, laden with coins and other metal ware. A handful of these are being retrieved - everything else will be preserved in situ.

That noble ambition isn't easily realised.

The Underwater Archaeology Division of the government's Fine Arts Department is striving to protect 64 wreck sites and others being regularly reported.

Barring illegal treasure hunters is the biggest part of the challenge, but the artefacts have also to be protected from the ravages of time and unwitting human damage.

The threat of treasure hunting and the commercial exploitation of marine artefacts were the reasons Unesco is involved in this venture. The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was adopted in 2001.

Earlier this year, the Unesco AsiaPacific Regional Field Training Centre in Underwater Cultural Heritage was established in Chantaburi.

The centre's first course is under way, with 16 participants from seven Asian countries learning maritime law, shipwreck preservation, museology and monitoring techniques.

Led by experts from Australia, England, and the Netherlands, they're taught about the aims and techniques of the treasure hunters, how boats have traditionally been built in Asia, and how shipping has been tracked.

And their training takes place deep in the Gulf - on the Ruea Mail.

The National Maritime Museum in Chantaburi has 10,000 articles recovered from underwater wrecks in waters all around Thailand. You can visit any Wednesday through Sunday, students for free, other Thais for Bt20 and nonThais for Bt100. Call (039) 391 431 or (039) 391 433.

 

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27 November 2009

Gold Rush: world’s most golden destinations

First it was Goldfinger. Now the whole world has gold fever. The value of this precious metal hit a historic high this week reaching a whopping $1183 an ounce. Companies with names like WeBuyAnyGold (dot com) are desperate to melt down your jewelery, prospectors are flocking to rivers and sales of gold pans have soared.

Posted via web from batavia08's posterous

24 November 2009

MEXP,MEXP Marine Exploration Weekly Salvage Report: Over 100 Valuable Artifacts Recovered Including Silver Coins and Diamond Jewelry from 1700s Shipwreck

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Marine Exploration Weekly Salvage Report: Over 100 Valuable Artifacts Recovered Including Silver Coins and Diamond Jewelry from 1700s Shipwreck

Mon. November 23, 2009; Posted: 06:00 AM
Stocks RSS

MIAMI, Nov 23, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- MEXP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Marine Exploration, Inc. (OTCBB: MEXP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) weekly salvage report announces recovering over one hundred artifacts from the site of the 1700s wreck.
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Marine Exploration President Paul Enright states: "Burt Webber and his crew continue daily operations on a 1700s shipwreck in the Dominican Republic contract area. We are very excited with the numerous one-of-a-kind valuables recovered; especially the silver coins and gold, pearl and diamond jewelry. Over one hundred pieces have been salvaged from this particular site. We feel there is much more to come since Webber's team has covered only one-eighth of this particular shipwreck area. Our operations will continue here indefinitely. We will post pictures of the latest finds to our website in the coming days."

www.mexp.biz

Marine Exploration, Inc. and joint venture partner Hispaniola Ventures, LLC, headed by Burt D. Webber, Jr., plan to continue the shipwreck site survey and salvage and anticipates locating and recovering additional historic shipwrecks with valuable artifacts and treasure. Working under exclusive contract with the Dominican Republic, the Company has plans in place to pursue multiple notable shipwrecks in Dominican Republic territorial and jurisdictional waters.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements, which may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Prospective investors are cautioned (http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?type=424B3&dateb=&owner= include&count=40&action=getcompany&CIK=0001019654) that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include fluctuation of operating results, the ability to compete successfully, and the ability to complete before-mentioned transactions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results. To see our website, go to http://www.mexp.biz.

SOURCE: Marine Exploration, Inc.

  Emerson Gerard Associates   Media Relations Contact:   Jerry Jennings, 561-881-7318   mediareply@emersongerard.com  
For full details for MEXP click here.

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B.C. researchers discover gold rush ghost ship in Yukon lake

A B.C.-led team of archeologists has discovered the wreck of a Klondike Gold Rush steamer perfectly preserved in the icy waters of Lake Laberge, north of Whitehorse.

The vessel A.J. Goddard sank in a winter storm 108 years ago, leaving behind a snapshot of life during the frenzy of prospecting and mining that engorged the Yukon Territory and enriched the ports of Vancouver and Victoria during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The detritus littering the deck of the vessel tells a harrowing tale of shipwreck and death, said Vancouver marine archeologist James Delgado, president of the Institute of Nautical Archeology.

"The boiler door is open and the firewood they tossed in to get try to get up enough steam to get out of trouble is still in there with charring on it," Delgado said. "Somebody shrugged off their coat and kicked off their shoes as they tried to swim for it and that's still lying on the deck."

Three men - Captain Charles McDonald, cook Fay Ransome, and fireman John Thompson - perished in the wreck, later buried by the North-West Mounted Police after their bodies washed ashore.

As the vessel sank engineer Stockfedt and crewman Snyder were left clinging to the tiny pilothouse that was torn away. They were spotted by a trapper camping nearby who came to their rescue. What is known of the crew is garnered from a few scant newspaper accounts.

The survey that solved the 108-year-old mystery about the A.J. Goddard's final resting place was conducted by a team of researchers led by B.C.-based project-leader John Pollack and transplanted Albertan Doug Davidge, president of the Yukon Transportation Museum. The diving mission to the wreck was photographed by Vancouverite Donnie Reid.

The iron sternwheeler and her sister ship F.H. Kilbourne was built in San Francisco in 1897 for Seattlite A.J. Goddard and shipped in pieces to Skagway, Alaska where it was hauled inland, through B.C. over the Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass and assembled at Bennett, B.C. The tent city at Bennett was the jumping off point for stampeders travelling up the Yukon River system.

The vessel was registered at Bennett and would then have navigated the rivers and rapids to Lake Laberge for ferry and freight duty and as a floating repair shop.

"It was a pre-fab ship, so it was likely carried on another ship up B.C's inside passage to Alaska and carried over those mountains," said Delgado. "Talk about an amazing feat."

For three years, the A.J. Goddard served as a ferry for stampeders who flocked by the thousands to Whitehorse at the south end of the lake on their way to Dawson City and points north. More than 260 steamboats plied the Yukon River during the gold rush.

Southwestern British Columbia was the first staging point for the tens of thousands of miners who swarmed up the gold rush trail through Hope, Lytton and Cache Creek to the Klondike.

"Vancouver and Victoria boomed as a result of that gold rush and a lot of supplies come out of here and a lot of businesses thrived," Delgado said. "That link continued through the First World War and beyond."

Goddard was the owner of Seattle's Pacific Ironworks and likely crewed the A.J. Goddard with tradesmen from his foundry to make the trip north and assemble it and its sister, according to Davidge. That work was completed by May 1898.

Goddard sold the two vessels and the associated business interests about a year later.

Unlike wooden wrecks of the era, the A.J. Goddard is in excellent condition.

"This ship may have gone down 108 years ago, but it looks as if it had just gone down the day before," Delgado said.

"This craft was self-sufficient and that reflected the crew, he said. "It had its own repair shop, a blacksmith's forge, an anvil and a workbench."

The stove was out on deck along with the remains of a pipe tentframe covered with canvas.

"That canvas wasn't just for the bugs in summer it was for winter, too. They are cooking and living their lives out in the open on the deck," he said.

Space beneath deck was only one metre high and filled with supplies and firewood.

"They were making a go of it on the frontier, very tough self-reliant guys," he said. Their dishes and tools are scattered on the deck and in the mud alongside the ship.

"It literally is a ghost ship," he said.

rshore@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Posted via web from batavia08's posterous

22 November 2009

Newcomer in Prosperous...!

Dear Fellow Divers, Explorers or Adventure Lovers,

You are looking for information on shipwreck discoveries, expeditions, underwater archaeology and treasures from the deep ?

Welcome to my underwater world of shipwrecks ! Check this out... www.oceantreasures.org

Unknown shipwreck stories... Plenty of photos... The latest news on the subject... The underwater lost treasures website dedicated to all genuine treasure lovers and scuba divers, underwater archaeology and maritime history re-discovered.

You can also register (for free) at http://www.oceantreasures.org/zonemembre.html and post messages/photos in the forum or your news on the blog, chat with other members or write your own announcement.

Enjoy !

Pascal

Posted via web from batavia08's posterous

Newcommer in Posterous...!

Dear Fellow Divers, Explorers or Adventure Lovers,

You are looking for information on shipwreck discoveries, expeditions, underwater archaeology and treasures from the deep ?

Welcome to my underwater world of shipwrecks ! Check this out... www.oceantreasures.org

Unknown shipwreck stories... Plenty of photos... The latest news on the subject... The underwater lost treasures website dedicated to all genuine treasure lovers and scuba divers, underwater archaeology and maritime history re-discovered.

You can also register (for free) at http://www.oceantreasures.org/zonemembre.html and post messages/photos in the forum or your news on the blog, chat with other members or write your own announcement.

Enjoy !

Pascal

Posted via web from batavia08's posterous

20 September 2007

...One hundred and twenty persons missing. Official report.

Loss of the P&O steamer Bokhara
by Pascal Kainic

In response to the message dispatched by Sir Thomas Sutherland, Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, to the agents of the company at Shangaï and Hong Kong, asking for the fullest particulars respecting the wreck of the steamship “Bokhara”, together with a list of the drowned and the names of the survivors. Hong Kong 18th October – “Chief Officer “Bokhara” reports:

“Bokhara” struck Monday night, 10th October, vessel becoming helpless at 10 pm., owing to the heavy seas putting fires out. All deck fittings and boats gone before vessel struck, she sinking immediately. European and native crew acted splendidly throughout. One hundred and two of the crew missing…
Further details will be forwarded as soon as the weather permits.

The cargo consisted of : - Treasure $ 200.000, silk 1300 bales, tea 800 tons and general cargo”

11 September 2007

The forgotten explorer's submerged treasure

The Golden Scarab
by Pascal Kainic

This ship had been especially chartered by a famous, but also controversial explorer returning to Europe after a 18 long years voyage of discoveries through Abyssinia, Middle East and Asia. All the fruits of his ventures had been loaded on this ship who was finally lost en route with all her contents.

Amongst various exotic goods was a consignment of 15 tons of silver coins; fine gold jewellery, precious stones, antiques from Petra (the mysterious city) and Egypt; cameos, precious statues in bronze, golden beetles, hieroglyphs, old inscriptions on bas-reliefs, and a whole library of books, manuscripts and works revealing amongst others, the Mysteries of Isis …

More of this story at Lost Treasures of the Seven Seas

Loss of l'Aimable Marthe returning from Senegal with a cargo of gold

L’Aimable Marthe
by Pascal Kainic

This story is about the loss of L’Aimable Marthe, on the coast of Wales, in the year 1786, from the account of one of the passenger, M. Durand, formerly Governor of Isle Saint Louis :

“I left the Senegal for Le Havre, says M. Durand, on the 24th of July, 1786, on board the brigantine L’Aimable Marthe; the crew consisted of Captain Dore, a Lieutenant, a Carpenter, a Mate and three sailors. The passengers were Messrs. Gourg, Naval Commissioners at Senegal, Longer, Captain of a frigate, Bernard, my cook, a young negro, and myself. 
After an uncommonly long and dangerous passage, we were of opinion, on the morning of the 12th September that we should arrive in the course of the night at Havre, in Normandy, and we in consequence gave ourselves up to that pleasure which travellers always experience at the end of a long voyage; when I perceived that the Captain was out in his reckoning, and that we were in the British Channel. I informed him of this circumstance and his surprise was equal to my own....


Read the full story and much more at...
Lost Treasures of the Seven Seas