Two 18th century shipwrecks found by British Scuba Divers in the Caribbean June 20, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : WreckDiving , 1 comment so farIn 2005 the Bristol University team were trying to locate the HMS Nymph, a warship which sank in the British Virgin Islands in 1783. They found not one wreck, but two, a vessel of 80-100 tons, built for trade, and originating in Bermuda or the Caribbean region, and a 250-ton vessel, also built for trade, and constructed along the eastern North American seaboard.
The team plan on returing to the site and using a robot to collect video data which will then be catalogued.
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USS Lagarto found in Gulf of Thailand June 19, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : News, WreckDiving , 1 comment so far
During the last months of World War II the USS Lagarto, an american submarine, was lost on a mission to attack a Japanese convoy. The US Navy now says that a wreck they have found at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand, may be the lost sub.
From a report in the Timesleader;
“I have never in my life, unequivocally, felt such a high,” said Kenney, who was 2 years old when her father and the submarine did not return from their mission in May 1945.
“We can just feel a sense of relief and a sense of peace in knowing what happened and where they are,” said Kenney, of Lake Leelanau, Mich.
Navy discovers centuries-old Spanish ship buried in sand June 13, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : WreckDiving , add a commentNo sooner has Pensacola become the destination with the largest artificial reef in the world, the American Navy find a 16th century Spanish ship buried near the Pensacola Naval Air Station. This news is perhaps not so useful for divers though, as the ship is buried on land! It was found whilst construction workers were rebuilding the swim rescue school, which had been destroyed during Hurrican Ivan in 2004.
From the Albuquerque National;
“There are Spanish shipwrecks in Pensacola Bay,” Benchley said. “We have worked on two - one from 1559 and another from 1705. But no one has found one buried on land. This was quite a surprise to everybody.”
During initial work to determine the ship’s origin, archaeologists found ceramic tiles, ropes and pieces of olive jars. The settlement was founded in 1559; its exact location is a mystery. The Spanish did not return until more than a century later in 1698 at Presidio Santa Maria de Galve, now the site of the naval station.
So what about the swim center? Well, the navy plans to move the construction of the Swim Rescue center and enclose the exposed part of the ship.
Grand Bahama to get a new artificial reef June 7, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Conservation, WreckDiving , add a commentIt seems that it is all the rage to rid yourselves of an unwanted ship by sinking it as an artificial reef. Although not on the same scale as the USS Oriskany, an aircraft carrier which was sunk last month near Pensacola, the tugboat ‘La Rose’ will be sunk on June 12th at Grand Bahama. This news came from DiveNewsWire;
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An elite group of amateur divers has found an important wreck June 6, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : WreckDiving , 1 comment so farJames Woodford, from the Sydney Morning Herald, writes a piece about the Sydney Project, a group of divers who are dedicated to finding shipwrecks in deep water. They recently found the Iron Knight, a ship which was sunk by the I-21 Japanese Submarine during World War II, and now lies in a depth of nearly 125 mtrs.
Alhafith, Michael Kalman, Mark Eaves and Tony Keen, all Sydneysiders with regular jobs, were descending onto a giant freighter no person had seen since February 8, 1943. On that terrible day, the Iron Knight was sunk by a Japanese submarine. The ship was one of 16 vessels destroyed by Japanese submarines off the NSW coast during World War II. Only three of these have been found.
What makes the Iron Knight so significant is that it was the victim of one of the most infamous Japanese subs - the massive I-21, which also launched a float plane over Sydney during the midget submarine attack in 1942 and shelled Newcastle.
Diving the yamashiro at 200m/660fsw June 2, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : WreckDiving , 1 comment so far
There are some crazy people in diving it has to be said, and what could be crazier than diving to 200mtrs to explore a sunken battleship in the Phillipines, for a bottom time of 15 minutes which will require over 5 hours of decompression? The Yamashiro Project entails doing exactly that, and was founded by Cedric Verdier, a keen diver who has trained almost 1500 diving instructors all across Europe. The project hopes to achieve a number of goals;
To positively identify the different wrecks in the Surigao Strait.
To confirm the resting place of one of Japan’s greatest Naval Commanders and his Battleship.
To dive the deepest battleships ever explored by Technical Divers worldwide. (Might have already been beaten)
To help the victims of the mudslide in Leyte, a small village in the area which was devastated by a mudslide in February, killing 1800 people.
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