HMS PANDORA

 18 September 2022: Last week of "official" summer, friends and yet the weather continues picture perfect.... soon enough, we fear, the snow will fly (global warming notwithstanding!) and we'll be dreaming of warm sunny days, past and future. For now, though, a piece from ABC Australia that is kind of near and dear to your 'umble scribe as, about 10 years (maybe 15?) I wrote a book entitled When Fortune Frowns which told the story of HMS Pandora and her travails in the Pacific fetching the Bounty mutineers. In connect with research on that subject, I was privileged to visit the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville (Australia) and see "behind the curtain" courtesy of the Chief Archeologist and Senior Diver, Peter Gesner, in the exploration of the wreck of Pandora. It was an amazing experience. In addition to the images accompanying the ABC Australia article I have included some of my own from my visit to the museum.

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Thousands of underwater films, photographs, hand-drawn maps, field journals and other unseen [ed: I have seen much of it!] archive material are being digitised to bring to light the untold story of the discovery and excavation of the Pandora wreck 120 kilometres east of Cape York.

Curators at the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville believe it's the first time a digitisation project of this scale has been attempted in Queensland.

 

"This is a once in a lifetime chance to have it all digitised and the fact that it can then be publicly available is just incredible," said the museum's senior curator of maritime archaeology, Dr Maddy McAllister.

HMS Pandora was a 24-gun Royal Navy warship dispatched to the South Pacific to hunt down the mutineers of HMS Bounty, a story etched in seafaring folklore.

Pandora hit the far northern Great Barrier Reef and sank in 1791, taking 35 men down with her.

 

For almost 200 years, the wreck lay undetected in the Torres Strait until its discovery in 1977.

Australian researchers have been collecting artefacts and information from the site for more than 40 years.

"My favourite piece from the archive collection is the hand drawn site plan from 1986 from the excavations," Dr McAllister said.

"It shows a cannon, jars and hairbrushes, some of the really incredible personal objects that we have in the collection.

"Maritime archaeologists record and record and record lots on information when they are excavating a site."

The Surgeon's watch (author's collection)

The Museum of Tropical Queensland holds the world's largest collection of artefacts from the shipwreck, with more than 6,000 stored in archives.

the Captain's stove (author's collection)

 "It's making it accessible to people who don't have the chance to come into the museum or maybe don't have the opportunity to look at that sort of content," said the museum's assistant curator of anthropology, Sophie Price.

The museum hopes to complete the digitisation project by mid-2023, but it is painstaking work to convert material stored on outdated devices like floppy disks and analogue slides.

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This is truly a labor of love, as the collection is amazing and extensive. More artifacts would have been recovered had the team not found 3 bodies (skeletons) which they recovered, identified, and reburied, effectively shutting down the site for further exploration. Should any of our readers wish further information on this story (yes, here comes the crass commercialization) please read When Fortune Frowns by William H White - available in paper or digital through Amazon.com.

Until next time.

                                      Fair Winds,

                                           Old Salt

 

MORE TREASURE FOUND IN BAHAMAS WRECK

 11 September 2022: First off, a moment of remembrance of the tragedy that occurred on this date 21 years ago, killing so many and not just Americans. A terrorist act that can not be forgot! 

And on a lighter note, this from the British Guardian on the recovery of artifacts (read priceless jewels) from the Spanish treasure ship  Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) sunk just north of the the Bahamas. 

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It was a Spanish galleon laden with treasures so sumptuous that its sinking in the Bahamas in 1656 sparked repeated salvage attempts over the next 350 years. So when another expedition was launched recently, few thought that there could be anything left – but exquisite, jewel-encrusted pendants and gold chains are among spectacular finds that have now been recovered, having lain untouched on the seabed for hundreds of years.

The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) went down on the western side of the Little Bahama Bank, over 70km offshore, but the newly discovered treasures were found across a vast debris trail spanning more than 13km.

Allen Exploration, with Bahamian and US marine archaeologists and divers, was licensed by the Bahamian government to explore the Maravillas scientifically and is committed to displaying the finds in a new museum in the Bahamas.

An elaborate, gold filigree chain, with rosette motifs, is among treasures that suggest some of the discoveries were destined for wealthy aristocrats, if not royalty. A gold pendant bearing the Cross of Santiago (St James) and an Indian bezoar stone, then valued in Europe for its healing properties, is shaped like a scallop shell, the symbol recognised by pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. It is among finds linked to the sacred Order of Santiago, a military-religious order of knights, who protected pilgrims and were active in Spain’s maritime trade.

Another pendant features a gold Cross of St. James Santiago over a large, green, oval emerald framed by a dozen square emeralds, perhaps symbolising the 12 apostles.

Clusters of emeralds and amethysts mined in Colombia and now recovered offer evidence of contraband trafficking as they were not registered on the manifest.

Dr Sean Kingsley, an English marine archaeologist and editor of Wreckwatch magazine which will feature the finds in a forthcoming issue, told the Observer that such “marvels” are particularly dramatic as they were in the middle of nowhere, under dense sand. “This is successful key-hole archaeological surgery,” he said.

The Maravillas, named after a “miraculous” 13th-century sculpture of the Virgin Mary in a Madrid convent, was part of a fleet. It was heading home to Spain from Havana with treasures from the Americas, both royal and private consignments, as well as contraband and a lavish cargo rescued from another Spanish galleon wrecked off Ecuador.

But at around midnight on 4 January 1656, it sank, following a navigational error in steering clear of shallow waters. Colliding with its fleet flagship, it hit a reef and only 45 of 650 people on board survived. Many were eaten by sharks.

Allen Exploration was founded by Carl Allen, who developed a successful plastics business before retiring early, becoming a philanthropist and explorer with two passions – the Bahamas and its sunken past.

“When we brought up the oval emerald and gold pendant, my breath caught in my throat,” he said. “I feel a greater connection with everyday finds than coins and jewels, but these Santiago finds bridge both worlds. The pendant mesmerises me when I hold it and think about its history. How these tiny pendants survived in these harsh waters, and how we managed to find them, is the miracle of the Maravillas.”

 He added: “The wreck of the galleon had a tough history – heavily salvaged by Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Bahamian and American expeditions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and blitzed by salvors from the 1970s to early 1990s. Some say the remains were ground to dust. Using modern technology and hard science, we’re now tracking a long and winding debris trail of finds.”

He was convinced that not all the ship was destroyed and pulled together a team and ships to search for the lost sterncastle, which is thought to have broken away and drifted off. But he wanted to study the wreck archaeologically, unlike his predecessors who did not publish any science, and who simply sold off finds.

His team is using cutting-edge science to work out how the Maravillas was wrecked and then scattered by centuries of hurricanes.

The expedition is also collecting data on the reef health, seafloor geology and plastic pollution to understand how the archaeology and marine environment interact.

“The sea bottom is barren,” said Allen. “The colourful coral that divers remembered from the 70s is gone, poisoned by ocean acidification and choked by metres of shifting sand. It’s painfully sad. Still lying on those dead grey reefs, though, are sparkling finds.”

The team has recorded stone ballast, iron fasteners that once held the hull together, and iron rings and pins from the rigging. Evidence of shipboard dining, from olive jars to Chinese and Mexican plates, and personal belongings, including a soldier’s silver sword-hilt and a pearl ring, have also been found.

All wreckage in Bahamian waters is the property of the government of the Bahamas and Allen Exploration is keeping the finds together by sponsoring the Bahamas Maritime Museum, which opened on 8 August in Freeport.

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Quite a tale and probably more to find! I would love to get to the museum displaying these Maravillas (marvelous?) artifacts.

Until next time,

                                            Fair winds,

                                                              Old Salt

 

BATTLESHIP TEXAS RESTORATION

 3 September 2022: Well, folks, there's only 113 days left til Christmas! Labor Day Weekend (in the United States) is in full swing, marking the unofficial end to summer. For many of us, the best is yet to come - cool September evenings, bright blue skies and pleasant temperatures in the day, and fewer folks out on the water! Not us, though! September is prime boat weather in the mid-Atlantic coast and we intend to participate as often as possible! 

In Texas, where the weather has been anything but friendly, life goes on and the U.S. museum ship, the battleship Texas, has been towed to the ship yard for some much needed repair and renovation. Thanks to Texas native, friend, and Maritime Maunder reader, Danny Adkins, for the heads up from the AP via Fox News.

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The only surviving battleship to endure both World War I and World War II was hauled to a shipyard in Galveston, Texas, for repairs after the ship's upkeep proven difficult due to a leaky hull. 

 

The USS Texas is currently undergoing a $35 million repair project to fix its hull and restore the ship to its original state. The 110-year-old battleship was pulled 40 miles by four tugboats at about 5 knots from its original home along the Houston Channel, with the boat expected to arrive in Galveston Wednesday afternoon. 

Battleship Texas Foundation workers helped transport it to Galveston, with about 100 onlookers gathering to catch a glimpse at the boat as it went by. 

"It went smoother than we thought and quicker than we thought… and she’s gone, down the channel," Tony Gregory, president of the Battleship Texas Foundation, told the Associated Press. Gregory said any problems should have arisen within the first 15 minutes but fortunately none did. 

The Battleship Texas Foundation has been working on the ship's repairs for the last three years, and the ship has been closed off from the public since 2019. That year, the state legislature approved the $35 million for the necessary repairs so as to move the ship to a new location where it can garner more visitors. 

Gregory told the AP that moving the ship was a "major step in getting the ship back to tiptop shape."

The USS Texas has been on display at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site since 1948, later being taken to the same Galveston shipyard for repairs in 1988. The ship has gradually deteriorated over the years, forcing workers at times to pump out nearly 2,000 gallons of water per minute. Along with the repairs made using the state legislature's funds, the Battleship Texas Foundation intends to make additional repairs for which that it will be paying. Repairs are expected to take up to a year to complete. 

update: she made it safely as scheduled

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Again, our thanks to reader Adkins for the timely news. We are sure he will update us should there be any further developments. 

For our American readers, happy Labor Day Weekend. Get out and enjoy these days before the weather changes again!

  Until next time,   

                                     Fair Winds, 

                                               Old Salt