5 January 2024: Here we are in a shiny new year with the prospect of everything good looming on the horizon (we hope!). So, happy new year! We start the year - our 11th calendar year - with over 183,000 readers, so with that in mind, we will try to continue posting interesting articles for you until either we run out of things to write about or we lose interest....or you do!
This first post of the new year will start a series of posts on shipwrecks discovered since the discovery of the Titanic wreck by Bob Ballard. Not sure how many posts will be necessary, but we will try to offer a broad selection concluding with the 2022 discovery of Shackleton's ship, Endurance, under the ice in Antarctica. All from the Wall Street Journal (on line edition).
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It often seems that people have been fascinated with shipwrecks for quite some time. Since the time of the Greek poet Homer in 675BCE, shipwrecks have played an integral part in literature, featuring prominently in great works, from “The Odyssey” by Homer, to “Twelfth Night” and “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare. The most well-known shipwreck in history, the RMS Titanic, which went down in the North Atlantic Ocean in April 1912, has always captured the attention of people throughout the world.
Although explorers such as Jacques Cousteau have long stirred imaginations with underwater probes of doomed vessels, it was the discovery of the RMS Titanic in 1985, 73 years after its sinking, by professor of oceanography and maritime archeologist Robert Ballard that caused interest in shipwrecks to soar. Since then, there’s been an explosion of shipwreck finds around the world.
Finding a shipwreck has been the stuff of fantasy for as long as people have sought opportunities beyond the horizon. There are many sites worldwide that have wrecked vessels to discover, where divers can explore remains of sunken history; it’s estimated that there are more than three million undiscovered shipwrecks around the world.
24/7 Tempo gleaned information from sources such as Guernsey Museums, Naval History and Heritage Command Marine Insight, UNESCO, History, and Archaeology Mysteries, as well as various media websites to compile a list of shipwrecks located after discovering the Titanic.
David Mearns, who discovered a few of the notable shipwrecks on this list, told History that there are several reasons for the uptick in finding sunken vessels. Records around the world have been digitized, making them more easily accessible and explorers have better tools for searches. These include autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, and remote-operated vehicles, or ROVs, which allow explorers to probe almost any ocean depth and cover a wider area than had previously been practical.
Since discovering the Titanic’s final resting place, shipwreck hunters have discovered ships battered by hurricanes like the SS Central America, which contained gold from the 1849 Gold Rush; vessels from the fleets of the Spanish Armada, Vasco da Gama, LaSalle, and Kublai Khan; the world’s oldest intact boat lying off the Bulgarian coastline; and many World War II-era ships sunk in battle, some of them found by the research team of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The most recent significant discovery came in early March 2022, when researchers and maritime archeologists found the British vessel Endurance, the lost ship of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, that was crushed by sea ice and sank in 1915.
Here are shipwrecks unearthed after discovering the Titanic
1985: Ships from Spanish Armada
- Year lost: 1588
- Location where found: Off the Scottish and Irish coasts
- Found by: Local British divers
You might recall from your grade-school history books that the Spanish Armada, sent by Spain to invade England in 1588, encountered raging storms off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Ships foundered, killing 5,000 Spaniards. In 1985, local divers discovered the wrecks of three vessels of the doomed fleet – La Lavia, La Santa María de Visión, and La Juliana. Thirty years later, several cannons from La Juliana were found off the Irish coast.
1985: Nuestra Señora de Atocha
- Year lost: 1622
- Location where found: Off the Florida coast
- Found by: Treasure hunter Mel Fisher
Famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher hit
the jackpot in 1985 when he discovered this Spanish merchant ship off the
Florida coast. The ship was one of at least eight vessels lost in a hurricane
in 1622 that sent to the bottom cargo worth more than $450 million today. The
ship contained 40 tons of gold and silver and around 70 pounds of Colombian
emeralds. The discovery ended Fisher’s quest for the ship, which had begun in
1969. [ed: the Maritime Museum in Key West has many of the artifacts and they are quite fascinating. If you are in KW, make this a priority!]
1988: SS Central America
- Year lost: 1857
- Location where found: Off the South Carolina coast
- Found by: Columbus-America Discovery Group
The SS Central America, bearing 477 passengers
and almost 10 tons of gold discovered in California during the 1849 Gold Rush,
was bound for New York City from Panama when it was struck by a hurricane off
the coast of South Carolina. The shipwreck was discovered in 1988 along with
$150 million worth of gold. The find triggered a complex legal case involving
research scientist Tommy Thompson who claimed not to know the whereabouts of
the haul, enraging his investors. Thompson refused to cooperate with
authorities and was jailed for contempt.[ed: as far as we know, he still languishes in prison]
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OK we have a start with a few - some we have written about in Maritime Maunder while others are/will be new to these pages. Hope you will enjoy learning about some of these discoveries.
Until next time,
Fair Winds
Old Salt
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