A pocket watch that once belonged to one of the Titanic’s most renowned passengers has sold at an auction for $2.3 million — a record price for memorabilia related to the historic shipwreck, according to the auction house.
The 18-carat gold watch was gifted to its original owner, Isidor Straus, by his wife, Ida Straus, for his 43rd birthday, said Henry Aldridge and Son, the auction house that sold it on Saturday. It was recovered from his body after the Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic in April 1912.
Isidor Straus was an American businessman and politician who owned the Macy’s department store in New York City. He and his wife were first-class passengers on the Titanic during its maiden voyage from England to New York, and the couple are remembered for their final act of selflessness while on board.
Isidor and Ida Straus
Henry Aldridge and Son
Witnesses who survived the Titanic wreck said afterward that the Strauses were offered two seats on a lifeboat once the ship had struck an iceberg, according to the U.K. government’s National Archives. But Isidor Straus refused his seat, instead insisting that it should have been offered to younger men, and Ida Straus followed him, reportedly saying, “Where you go, I go.”
According to those archives, Isidor and Ida Straus were last seen standing arm in arm on the deck of the Titanic, before a wave crashed overhead and washed them out to sea. The Strauses were the ancestors of Wendy Rush, wife of OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, who died in the infamous Titan submersible explosion in 2023 en route to the Titanic wreck site.
Straus’ pocket watch exceeded the previous record sale for a piece of the Titanic’s history memorabilia by about $300,000, according to Henry Aldridge and Son. The previous record was set for another gold pocket watch, which sold an auction last year for about $1.97 million. It had been gifted by Titanic survivors to the captain of the RMS Carpathia, who steered his ship toward the Titanic wreck on the night it sunk and ultimately rescued hundreds of passengers still afloat on life boats, according to the auction house.
“Pocket watches are incredibly personal items,” said Andrew Aldridge, managing director of the auction house, in a statement. “Every man, woman and child passenger or crew had a story to tell and they are told 113 years later through the objects that they owned. Items like this keep the story alive and bring us closer to the memory of one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century.”
A cannon, three coins and a porcelain cup were among the first objects Colombian scientists recovered from the depths of the Caribbean Sea where the mythical Spanish galleon San José sank in 1708 after being attacked by an English fleet, authorities said Thursday.
The recovery is part of a scientific investigation that the government authorized last year to study the wreckage and the causes of the sinking. Colombian researchers located the galleon in 2015, leading to legal and diplomatic disputes. Its exact location is a state secret.
President Gustavo Petro’s government has said that the purpose of the deep-water expedition is research and not the treasure’s seizure.
A cannon, three coins and a porcelain cup were among the first objects Colombian scientists recovered from the depths of the Caribbean Sea where the mythical Spanish galleon San José sank in 1708 after being attacked by an English fleet, authorities said Thursday.
Colombia Culture Ministry
Colombia’s culture ministry said in a statement Thursday that the cannon, coins and porcelain cup will undergo a conservation process at a lab dedicated to the expedition.
The wreckage is almost 2,000 feet deep in the sea.
“This historic event demonstrates the strengthening of the Colombian State’s technical, professional, and technological capabilities to protect and promote Underwater Cultural Heritage, as part of Colombian identity and history,” Yannai Kadamani Fonrodona, Minister of Cultures, Arts, and Knowledge, said in a statement.
The prevailing theory has been that an explosion caused the 62-gun, three-masted galleon to sink after being ambushed by an English squadron. But Colombia’s government has suggested that it could have sunk for other reasons, including damage to the hull.
A cannon, three coins and a porcelain cup were among the first objects Colombian scientists recovered from the depths of the Caribbean Sea where the mythical Spanish galleon San José sank in 1708 after being attacked by an English fleet, authorities said Thursday.
Colombia Culture Ministry
The ship has been the subject of a legal battle in the United States, Colombia and Spain over who owns the rights to the sunken treasure.
Colombia is in arbitration litigation with Sea Search Armada, a group of U.S. investors, for the economic rights of the San José. The firm claims $10 billion corresponding to what they assume is worth 50% of the galleon treasure that they claim to have discovered in 1982.
Earlier this year, researchers analyzed intricately designed gold coins found near the wreck, confirming they are indeed from the iconic San Jose. The coins feature depictions of castles, lions and crosses on the front and the “Crowned Pillars of Hercules” above ocean waves on the back, according to a new study published in the journal Antiquity.
In 2024, Colombian authorities said one remotely operated vehicle surveyed the wreck, uncovering numerous artifacts, including an anchor, jugs and glass bottles.
The Colombian government announced last year it would begin extractions from the ship off its Caribbean coast, using multiple remotely operated vehicles. The ship’s exact location has been kept secret to protect the storied wreck from potential treasure hunters.
Since its discovery, multiple parties have laid claim to the shipwreck, including Colombia, Spain and Indigenous Qhara Qhara Bolivians who claim the treasures on board were stolen from them. The wreck has also been claimed by U.S.-based salvage company Sea Search Armada, which says it first discovered the wreck more than 40 years ago.
The cause of the San Jose’s sinking has also been debated. British documents indicate that the ship did not explode, according to Colombia’s government, but Spanish reports suggest the ship was blown up in battle.
Either way, the ship — laden with chests of emeralds and about 200 tons of gold — sank with most of its crew while heading back from the New World to Spain on June 7, 1708.
In May 2024, Colombia declared the site of the shipwreck a “protected archeological area.”
A dive team has identified a shipwreck off the coast of Nantucket as a World War I-era fishing boat that sank nearly 100 years ago with more than 20 men aboard.
The ST Seiner was last seen in January 1929, according to a news release from the Atlantic Wreck Salvage, a company that searches for lost wrecks. The 139-foot ship, built in 1921, set sail from New London, Connecticut, on Jan. 9. The ship’s captain made his last daily report to the Portland Trawling Company on Jan. 18. The next day, no report was made. The ship was set to arrive in port on Jan. 22, but never did, according to the news release. The news release did not say which port the ship was headed to.
Seiner’s sister ship, Harvard, which shares some features with the Seiner. The vessel’s windlass, hawsepipe, and raised forecastle deck are visible in the photo.
Boothbay Historical Society
The Seiner was believed to have foundered and sank in a storm, the news release said. There were 21 men, including the captain, aboard when the ship went down. The men were from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Newfoundland, Canada.
The Portland Trawling Company and the U.S. Coast Guard mounted a search and rescue mission at the time, but no survivors were found. Previous attempts to search for the wreck in the 1990s failed because of the location of the wreck site.
In 2022, a team used Atlantic Wreck Salvage’s search vessel D/V Tenacious to discover the wreck site on Georges Bank, about 125 miles off the coast of Nantucket. The wreck site was about 200 feet underwater, the company said. Time and weather conditions meant the team members could not dive down to the wreckage. The shipwreck was not identified at the time.
In July 2025, the team returned to the site and made a total of seven dives over two days. The team was able to identify the wreck as that of the Seiner.
Diver Joe Mazraani photographs the Seiner’s rounded stern.
Andrew Donn
The ship had a number of distinctive features, including a double drum trawl winch and a raised forecastle deck, which helped divers confirm its identity, the news release said. Divers also took note of the ship’s steam engine and boiler. Photos taken by the dive team show the ship’s unique features.
Sonar scans confirmed that the sunken vessel’s length and beam matched that of the Seiner.
“No other steel or iron hull steam trawlers of this size are known to have sunk on Georges Bank,” said Captain Eric Takakjian, one of the leaders of the expedition, in the news release.
The Seiner’s double drum trawl winch.
Joe Mazraani and Becca Boring
Jennifer Sellitti, the managing member of Atlantic Wreck Salvage, said that the discovery is “bittersweet.” The company said that the descendants of the men lost aboard the ship are encouraged to reach out to them.
“While the team celebrates this important historical find, we are mindful of the loss endured by the families, colleagues, and loved one of those who went down with the ship,” Sellitti said. “We hope this discovery can provide some measure of closure to the descendants of those who perished.”
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
Legendary Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sank more than a century ago and its wreck lay undiscovered at the bottom of the Weddell Sea until March 2022.
Now, the team behind its discovery has joined forces with an Oscar-winning film crew for a new National Geographic documentary showcasing how they located the storied vessel’s last resting place.
“Endurance” features thousands of 3D scans shot by a 4K camera deployed to a depth of nearly 10,000 feet. It premiered at the London Film Festival last weekend before its release in cinemas and then on Disney+.
The never-before-seen footage captures everything from a flare gun and man’s boot to dinnerware used by the crew and identifiable parts of the vessel.
Endurance Taffrail and ship’s wheel, afte well deck.
Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust / National Geographic
“We were absolutely blown away,” Mensun Bound, the 2022 discovery team’s director of exploration, told AFP. “We didn’t expect to see the ship’s wheel — the most emblematic part of the ship — just standing there, upright.”
History broadcaster Dan Snow, an executive producer on “Endurance”, called finding it in such a “stunning state” an “astonishing achievement”.
“No one’s ever found a wooden shipwreck 3,000 metres down in one of the most remote places on earth underneath the ice,” he said.
“It’s important because it is connected with this story of Shackleton and the 1914-16 expedition, which is one of the greatest stories ever told — a story of leadership and survival like nothing else.”
The flare gun that was discovered was fired by Frank Hurley, the expedition’s photographer, as the ship was lost to the ice, the BBC reported.
“Hurley gets this flare gun, and he fires the flare gun into the air with a massive detonator as a tribute to the ship,” expedition leader John Shears said. “And then in the diary, he talks about putting it down on the deck. And there we are. We come back over 100 years later, and there’s that flare gun, incredible.”
Anglo-Irish explorer Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was meant to make the first land crossing of the frozen continent.
But its three-masted timber sailing ship Endurance fell victim to the treacherous Weddell Sea, becoming ensnared in pack ice in January 1915. It was progressively crushed and sank 10 months later.
Shackleton, who died in 1922, described the site of the sinking as “the worst portion of the worst sea in the world.”
3D scan of the Endurance in her final resting place at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.
Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust / National Geographic
He cemented his status as a legend of exploration by leading an epic escape for himself and his 27 companions, on foot over the ice and then in boats to the British overseas territory of South Georgia, some 870 miles east of the Falklands.
“I do believe of all the great survival stories I’ve ever heard of, this one takes the cake because it involves so many people,” said Jimmy Chin, who directed and produced the new film jointly with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.
The husband-and-wife team behind Oscar-winning movie “Free Solo” saw the expedition organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust as a chance to “bring the story to a new generation.”
“The ultimate polar challenge”
The documentary alternates between accounts of the original and the 2022 missions, as the modern-day explorers conduct dozens of fruitless deep-sea dives using a state-of-the-art submersible as a deadline nears to leave before winter sets in.
A trailer for the film shows footage from the original 1914 expedition combined with video from the modern-day search.
Bound recounted the various challenges the latter-day team faced, including technology, research and climate, with one thing reminiscent of what Shackleton’s men confronted.
“Ice, ice and ice,” he said, adding that the documentary clearly highlights “the brutality” of the conditions they faced.
“This is probably the most difficult project I’ve ever been involved in… it wasn’t called the unreachable Endurance for nothing, was it?”
Shears also said there was a “real parallel” between the two endeavors and that like Shackleton he was drawn to “the ultimate polar challenge.”
“More people have been into space orbit than have ever walked on the surface sea ice where the Endurance sank,” said Shears, who previously led an unsuccessful attempt to find the wreck in 2019.
Chin and Vasarhelyi said combining the two stories was challenging but they were complementary.
“The two stories, even though they’re separated by 110 years, speak to each other,” said Vasarhelyi.
“They both chronicle this fundamental human condition of the audacity to dream big… have ambition, coupled with the diligence, determination, the grit and the ingenuity to see it through.”
To tell the original story, they opted to use AI to capture Shackleton and six crew members’ diary entries in their own voices, based on other recordings.
The filmmakers also used restored and colorized photographs and film expedition footage taken by Frank Hurley.
But audiences must wait until the closing stages of the documentary to see the new imagery of Endurance — a choice Vaserhelyi admitted felt “terrible” but necessary.
“This was a great story with a great payoff, but you have to earn it, right?” she explained.
“What’s nice is that the film really plays as this introduction… and it builds to this amazing moment.”
Coast guard officers in Trinidad and Tobago fired on intruders who attempted to board the wreck of a mysterious oil tanker that capsized off the Caribbean country months ago, its energy ministry said Saturday.
The ship, named the Gulfstream and sailing under an unidentified flag, had spilled 50,000 barrels of oil near Tobago’s southern coast when it capsized in February and was found abandoned.
“There was an attempted unauthorized boarding of a support vessel by unidentified individuals” on Friday night, the energy ministry said.
“Officers attached to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard were on-site and intervened. There was an exchange of gunfire, and one member of the response crew sustained a non-life-threatening injury.”
A massive oil spill from is seen from an overturned vessel off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
Tobago Emergency Management Agency
The Gulfstream had recently been refloated and taken for salvaging to the Sea Lots area near Trinidad’s Port of Spain, where the attempted boarding took place.
Police say Sea Lots is a hot spot for gang activity. The ministry said it is working with police and the army to protect the site.
The Gulfstream’s ownership remains a mystery. The “Solo Creed,” a barge that had been towing it at the time it capsized, had turned off its tracking beacon and then vanished, along with the crew.
The energy ministry said in May that official requests had been made to Tanzania, Nigeria, Panama, Aruba and Curacao to help track down those responsible.
At the time of the spill, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said the country was grappling with a national emergency. Images and video released by the government showed crews working late into the night working to halt the spread of the oil. The government alos posted satellite imagery on social media, showing affected areas.
Trinidad and Tobago, famous for its beaches and carnival, is an archipelago of 1.4 million inhabitants.
Its proximity to Venezuela has made it a favored stopping point for a variety of illicit trafficking.
About a week after the oil spill, a black plastic bag containing more than a kilogram of cocaine washed up on a beach near the spot where the barge capsized. It was not clear if the drugs were linked to the vessel.
Though the wreck’s location has been known since 2016 and is registered in Sweden’s National Antiquities Office’s cultural environment, it was only on July 11 that Polish scuba divers found the precious cargo.
The wreck, which sits at about 190 feet deep off the coast of the southern Sweden county of Blekinge, was found by the divers while they were checking spots of interest about 20 nautical miles south of the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Oeland.
Bottles of centuries-old champagne on a shipwreck in the depths of the Baltic Sea
Tomasz Stachura
“I’ve been a diver for 40 years. From time to time, you see one or two bottles,” Tomasz Stachura, who leads the team, told CBS News’ partner network BBC News. “But I’ve never seen crates with bottles of alcohol and baskets of water like this.”
Wine and water experts have quickly contacted the divers and been vying to carry out laboratory tests on the contents of the bottles, according to Stachura. However, Swedish authorities have put their foot down and labeled the sunken ship “an ancient relic” which the county says requires “a clear and strong protection” to remain intact.
“You must not damage the ancient remains, which also includes taking items from the wreck, e.g. champagne bottles, without permission from the county,” Magnus Johansson, a county official told The Associated Press. “The champagne bottles are a fantastically well-preserved find that gives us a snapshot of shipping and life on board at the end of the 19th century,” he added.
Had the wreck been from before 1850, it would automatically have been listed as an ancient relic, local authorities said.
“But we have established that the cultural and historical values of the wreck were so high that it should be declared as an ancient relic,” Daniel Tedenlind, a county official in neighboring Kalmar.
Stachura, the diver, earlier said it was believed that the cargo could have been on the way to the royal table in Stockholm or the Russian tsar’s residence in St. Petersburg when the ship sank sometime in the second half of the 19th century.
Champagne has been discovered on historic shipwrecks before.
In 2011, a bottle of nearly 200-year-old champagne found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea sold for 30,000 euros at an auction in Finland, the BBC reported. The year before, diving instructor Christian Ekstrom and his team discovered 30 or so bottles of bubbly on a sunken ship near the Aland Islands. Ekstrom said the bottles, found at a depth of 200 feet, were believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia.
A new survey of an iconic ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece has revealed new treasures — and the remains of a second sunken vessel — more than 2,000 years after it plunged to the bottom of the Aegean Sea.
During a recent expedition at the site of the Antikythera shipwreck, marine archaeologists uncovered about 300 new objects, including 18 marble statue fragments, a previously undiscovered part of the vessel’s hull and the remains of a wooden ship that was “beneath the crushed cargo it was carrying,” the Greek Ministry of Culture announced last week.
The Antikythera shipwreck, which dates to the 1st century BC, was originally discovered in the Aegean Sea by sponge divers in 1900. In the decades since, researchers have tried to the identify human remains found in the wreck, as well as learn more details about the mysterious fate of the Roman-era ship.
Archaeologists uncovered about 300 new objects, including 18 marble statue fragments, a previously undiscovered part of the vessel’s hull and the remains of a wooden ship, officials said.
Greek Ministry of Culture
The most recent survey, conducted from May 17 to June 20, revealed the wreckage of a second ship and new artworks, which scientists said triggered brand new questions.
“Was there only one ship involved in this ancient maritime tragedy? How exactly did the wreck happen? Did the human remains recovered in recent years belong to passengers or crew members?” the ministry wrote in a news release, which included seven images from the expedition.
The archaeologists, aided by exceptionally good weather conditions, were able to study two sites, Area A and Area B, which are more than 600 feet apart and over 150 feet below the water’s surface. Researchers said “the most important find” in Area A was a previously unseen part of the ship’s hull that combines important nautical features, including wooden planks and copper pins, which confirmed the exact orientation of the ancient ship.
“Through the ongoing comparative study of data, the question arises whether more than one ship sank during the same event in Antikythera,” the ministry said.
In Area B, archaeologists discovered pottery very similar to that recovered over the decades from the main wreck site — and further excavation confirmed the presence of the remains of a wooden ship, found under its crushed cargo.
At both sites, divers found marble fragments from sculptures, including several marble fingers, a part of a palm, and fragments of clothing. Researchers were able to determine that all the fragments were parts of different statues.
Divers also uncovered more than 200 ceramic fragments, including an oil lamp, a two-handled vase and table pottery.
Researchers said “the most important find” was a previously unseen part of the ship’s hull.
Greek Ministry of Culture
The recent expedition, led by Angeliki G. Simosi and Lorenz Baumer, was part of the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece’s (ESAG) 2021-2025 research program, the ministry said. The site is perhaps most famous for the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism, a mysterious device with interlocking gears that appears to be an “astronomical calculation machine of immense complexity,” according to Scientific American. It is often referred to as the world’s oldest analog computer.
Countless shipwrecks are scattered off the coast of Greece. Earlier this year, Greek researchers using Homer’s “Iliad” as a guide announced they found 10 shipwrecks, including one estimated to be more than 5,000 years old and another from the World War II era.
Stephen Smith is a managing editor for CBSNews.com based in New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was previously an editorial producer for the Washington Post, and has also worked in Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.
Nearly 1,000 pieces of treasure — including copper coins and ornate pottery from the Ming Dynasty — were recovered from a pair of ancient shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea, officials said on Thursday.
The yearlong retrieval operation came after the two shipwrecks were discovered in 2022 about 5,000 feet underwater near the northwest continental slope of the South China Sea, according to China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration. Archaeologists used a crewed submersible called “Deep Sea Warrior” to conduct the excavation, officials said.
The team of scientists recovered 890 pieces of artifacts from the first shipwreck, including copper coins, porcelain and pottery items, officials said. The second shipwreck yielded 38 relics, including lumber, turban shells and deer antlers.
The National Cultural Heritage Administration released images of the recovered treasure as well as photos of the submersible retrieving artifacts from the ocean floor with a robotic “claw.”
Nearly 1,000 pieces of treasure — including copper coins and ornate pottery from the Ming Dynasty — have been recovered from a pair of ancient shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea.
National Cultural Heritage Administration
While the shipwrecks and their treasure hold obvious cultural value, they also reinforce China’s political objectives of asserting territorial claims over the region. Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea under its “nine-dash-line” policy and has tried to leverage those claims with China’s historical presence in the region.
In 2016, an international court ruled that major elements of China’s claims in the South China Sea were unlawful, but Beijing says it does not recognize the ruling.
Six countries have claims to parts of the sea — China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia — and the stakes are high. Trillions of dollars worth of trade pass through the South China Sea each year, and there is a massive amount of oil under the seafloor.
And then there is also shipwreck treasure, which China uses to amplify its contested claims.
“The discovery provides evidence that Chinese ancestors developed, utilized and traveled to and from the South China Sea, with the two shipwrecks serving as important witnesses to trade and cultural exchanges along the ancient Maritime Silk Road,” said Guan Qiang, deputy head of the NCHA, said Thursday.
Nearly 1,000 pieces of treasure have been recovered from a pair of ancient shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea.
National Cultural Heritage Administration
China’s Ming dynasty, which stretched from 1368-1644, was “a period of cultural restoration and expansion,” according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum said vast landscapes and artwork featuring flowers and birds “were particularly favored as images that would glorify the new dynasty and convey its benevolence, virtue, and majesty.”
The news of the shipwreck treasure comes just weeks after an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk during World War II was located 3,000 feet underwater in the South China Sea off the coast of the Philippines.
Stephen Smith is a managing editor for CBSNews.com based in New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was previously an editorial producer for the Washington Post, and has also worked in Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.
Wreckage likely belonging to a British submarine that sank during World War II was found off the coast of Norway, researchers said this week.
The wreckage was found in the spring of 2023, according to a news release, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that it could be identified as the HMS Thistle. The discovery was made by Norway’s Institute of Marine Research and MAREANO, a program that maps seabeds in the country’s waters, while on a routine cruise.
While planning the cruise, the researchers noticed “strange structures” and set up a research location that could allow them to take a closer look. Researchers then explored the seabed with an underwater camera and spotted the wreck.
A fish hides within the wreck of the HMS Thistle.
MAREANO / Institute of Marine Research
“It is not very often that I am in the video room when new locations are being investigated, but on this particular occasion my curiosity was piqued well before the video rig was submerged in the water,” senior engineer Kjell Bakkeplass said in the news release.
The Institute of Marine Research shared video showing the wreck underwater.
After examining the wreck with the camera, Bakkeplass continued investigating which submarine it could be. After conversations with British and Norwegian navies, it “became clear it was a British submarine,” the Institute of Marine Research said, and researchers narrowed it down to two options. Researchers then contacted submarine experts, maritime museums and other professionals in the field, and determined it was “probably” the HMS Thistle.
When the MAREANO program took a research cruise in October, they passed the submarine wreck and were able to identify the wreck.
Parts of the wreck of the HMS Thistle are overgrown with various plants that thrive at this depth.
MAREANO / Institute of Marine Research
“In advance, we knew what characteristics we should look for; thus we were able to identify the wreck as ‘Thistle,’ but with a small caveat that it is the Royal Navy who is responsible for the final identification,” cruise leader Kyrre Heldal Kartveit said.
The HMS Thistle sank on April 10, 1940, when it was sunk by a torpedo launched from a German submarine. All 53 crew members died.
The vessel is now considered a “war grave,” according to the news release, because it sank during war. The British Royal Navy maintains ownership rights over the submarine, which rests 160 meters below the surface of the ocean.
Shattered by bomb impacts, the 100-meter-long British destroyer “Keith” has been lying at the bottom of the Dunkirk channel since its sinking in 1940.
It went down during Operation Dynamo, when hundreds of thousands of Allied troops were rescued by sea from the advancing Germans.
Now the World War II warship appears in brightly colored 3D, vertical slice by vertical slice, on the screen of Mark James, a geophysicist from Historic England.
New multibeam survey of the wreck of the destroyer HMS Keith, showing the displaced hull section.
Drassm, multibeam processed by A. Rochat (Drassm) and M. James (MSDS Marine/Historic England)
James has joined a group of archaeologists taking stock of the traces of the battle still lurking under the waves.
A British government agency, Historic England has joined the search for wrecks dating to the Dunkirk evacuation run by France’s DRASSM, which is in charge of underwater archaeology.
Firing sound waves down to the seabed, a multibeam sonar “allows us to create a really nice 3D model of the seabed and any wrecks and debris,” he said.
“It’s quite an emotional feeling seeing somebody’s wreck come up on the screen,” he added. “You kind of realize the human sacrifice that was made.”
Although a large ship, the “Keith” is set to “disappear bit by bit,” said Cecile Sauvage, an archaeologist with DRASSM who is one of those leading the search launched on September 25.
Surveying the wrecks now will allow both countries to “preserve the memory of these ships and the human history behind these wrecks”, she added.
Encircled in northern France by Nazi German forces, the Allies threw everything into a mass evacuation.
Over those nine days, 338,220 soldiers — mostly British, but also 123,000 French and 16,800 Belgians — were evacuated on all kinds of vessels, cramming into military ships, fishing trawlers, ferries and tugboats.
Allied troops wait on the beach of Dunkirk for the rescue ships to take them to England, on June 4, 1940.
/ AP
Winston Churchill, who had been British prime minister for just 16 days when the evacuation began, called it a “miracle of deliverance” in his famed “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech in 1940, the BBC reported.
The shortest route from Dunkirk to safe harbor across the English Channel in Dover is 40 miles.
But that path was within range of German guns already in place at Calais.
“Between 1,000 and 1,500 vessels of all types made the crossing”, with 305 sunk by “shelling, enemy torpedoes, mines and even collisions caused by the panic around the operation,” said archaeologist Claire Destanque, another of the search mission chiefs.
Almost 5,000 of the fleeing soldiers were drowned, according to Dunkirk-based historian Patrick Oddone.
“It’s very moving”
The three-week search by two archaeologists and two geophysicists has quartered the English Channel to tally up the lost ships — the first hunt of its kind in French waters.
Volunteer divers had already catalogued the locations of the wrecks, with the scientists’ job to confirm the sites and shore up their identifications by comparing them with archive data.
Sailing on from the “Keith” under the autumn sun, the crew next heads for a French cargo ship, also around yards along the keel.
The “Douaisien” had made the trip from Algeria to unload its goods at Dunkirk before being requisitioned to transport 1,200 soldiers.
It had barely left the port before it hit a mine and sank, Claire Destanque recounts.
She points out the point the mine struck on the sonar screen, still visible more than 80 years later.
“Knowing the history that’s behind it, it’s very moving,” she says.
After a successful emergency sealift from a beachhead at Dunkirk, these British and French soldiers arrive safely at an unknown British port, in June 1940. Over three houndred thousand Allied troops from Belgium, France and England were rescued in this evacuation effort, code-named Operation Dynamo.
The campaign has allowed the archaeologists to definitively identify 27 Operation Dynamo wrecks. Three more have been found, but need closer inspection by divers next year given the extent of the damage.
Historic England said another “19 features have been studied, three of which appear to correspond to the location and characteristics of vessels lost during Operation Dynamo that were previously undiscovered.”
Sauvage says their aim has been “to better locate and get to know the remnants”, as well as “to protect them better, especially if there’s a construction plan like a wind farm that could destroy them”.
Plans have been afoot for several years to build turbines in the sea off Dunkirk.
Another benefit of the search is the return to the headlines of “an important milestone” in World War II history that is far less familiar to the French public than in Britain, Sauvage adds.
The sunken wrecks represent “305 stories within the sweep of history,” Destanque believes.
Dr. Antony Firth, the head of marine heritage strategy, told the BBC that some of the ships were heavily loaded with troops, and would have sunk “within minutes” with many lives lost.
“Undoubtedly a lot of people were wrapped up in Dunkirk. Most of them survived, got back to the U.K. and carried on their seafaring histories, and that’s obviously very good,” Firth told the BBC. “For some people, their family stories had a catastrophic element at Dunkirk, and that, I know for certain, still resonates with people today.”
An investigation into a Spanish warship that sank over 200 years ago has revealed “buried secrets” including well-preserved structural details, Spanish authorities announced Thursday.
The Santa María Magdalena, a Spanish Navy frigate that was sunk by a powerful storm in 1810, is currently the subject of an “exciting investigation” by the Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities, according to a news release from the agency. The effort first aimed to preserve the ship, which remains underwater, but has “evolved into a saga of astonishing discoveries,” the agency said. The ship is the only wreck of its time currently being excavated in Spain, and was featured in a 2020 documentary looking at its history.
A diver examines the Santa María Magdalena, a warship of the Spanish Navy that shipwrecked in 1810.
Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities
The story of the ship’s sinking began in October 1810, when the it set sail as part of a Spanish-British collaboration to take a city that was under French rule during Spain’s War of Independence. The ship had 34 guns and a “rich history of service,” the agency said, but after losing its anchors, it was caught in a “sudden and violent storm” that led to its sinking in November 1810. An estimated 500 sailors and soldiers were aboard at the time, making it “one of the greatest maritime tragedies” in the country’s waters. According to wrecksite.eu, an online database that tracks shipwrecks, just eight men survived and swam to shore. Five of those men died from their injuries.
One major discovery, the agency said, was that as the ship was being excavated, it was found that around 86 square feet of the lining boards along the frigate’s bilge are “free of structural or biological damage.” The bilge is where a ship’s bottom curves to meet its sides. The ship is “truly unique” because of this preservation, the Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities said, and overall, the ship is in an “exceptional state of conservation.”
Cleaning of the ship shows preserved wood under sand and sediment.
Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities
According to local newspaper La Voz de Galicia, the purpose of the expedition is to map the structure of the ship and understand how it was built. This means that researchers have to work underwater to clear sand and sediment from the ship.
Underwater archaeologist and lead investigator Antón López told La Voz de Galicia that researchers had found “ballasts and ammunition” aboard the ship, calling it a “real underwater museum.”
Round projectiles found aboard the ship.
Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities
The Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities said that these discoveries allow Spain’s naval history to emerge.
“Each find is a tribute to the brave sailors and soldiers who braved the treacherous waters more than two centuries ago, and a tribute to their legacy that endures through time,” the agency said.
Shipwreck hunters have discovered the intact remains of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in 1881 and is so well-preserved it still contains the crew’s possessions in its final resting spot miles from Wisconsin’s coastline. Historians on Friday called it a “remarkable discovery” of a “significant shipwreck.”
Wisconsin maritime historians Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck found the 156-year-old Trinidad in July off Algoma at a depth of about 270 feet. They used side-scan sonar to hone in on its location based on survivor accounts in historical records.
“The wreck is among the best-preserved shipwrecks in Wisconsin waters with her deck-house still intact, containing the crew’s possessions and her anchors and deck gear still present,” states a Thursday news release announcing the Trinidad’s discovery.
This July 2023 photo provided by State Historical Society of Wisconsin shows the schooner Trinidad.
Tamara Thomsen/Zach Whitrock / AP
The 140-foot-long schooner was built at Grand Island, New York, in 1867 by shipwright William Keefe, and was used primarily in the grain trade between Milwaukee, Chicago and Oswego, New York.
But it was carrying a load of coal bound for Milwaukee when early on May 13, 1881, it developed a catastrophic leak after passing through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal.
This image provided by John S. Rochon shows the schooner Trinidad wintering at Sarnia, Ontario in 1873.
/ AP
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the captain was nearly killed by a block that fell from the decaying wire rigging as the owners did not invest much money into the vessel’s upkeep.
On its final voyage, the Trinidad “suddenly and violently lurched” and sank about 10 miles off the coast of Algoma, the society said.
“The captain and the crew immediately escaped in the ship’s yawl,” the society said in a Facebook post. “The only loss aboard the Trinidad was the ship’s mascot, a large Newfoundland dog who was asleep next to the stove when the ship began to sink.”
This July 2023 photo provided by State Historical Society of Wisconsin shows the Trinidad’s intact deck house.
Tamara Thomsen/Zach Whitrock / AP
Captain John Higgins and his crew of eight survived and reached Algoma, about 120 miles north of Milwaukee, after rowing for eight hours in the ship’s yawl boat. Higgins believed the Trinidad’s hull was damaged a few days before the sinking as it passed through ice fields in the Straits of Mackinac.
After discovering the Trinidad in July, Baillod and Jaeck reported their finding to an underwater archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society who arranged for the site to be surveyed with an underwater vehicle that verified the vessel’s identity and documented historic artifacts, according to the news release.
A three-dimensional model of the ship has been created to allow people to explore the site virtually. Baillod and Jaeck plan to work with the Wisconsin Historical Society to nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places.
This July 2023 photo provided by State Historical Society of Wisconsin shows the schooner Trinidad’s wheel.
Tamara Thomsen / AP
Experts estimate there are more than 6,000 ships have gone down in the Great Lakes since the late 1600s.
In July, researchers searching for World War I-era minesweepers that mysteriously vanished in Lake Superior over a century ago instead found a long-missing ship that sank to the bottom of the lake in 1879.
In April, researchers found the wreckage of two ships that disappeared in Lake Superior in 1914. In March, a ship carrying a load of coal when it sank in a storm in 1891 was discovered in the lake.
And in February, a 144-foot shipwreck that searchers called a “Bad Luck Barquentine” was found in Lake Superior more than 150 years after it sank.
The U.S. Coast Guard is leading search and rescue efforts after a submersible vessel with 5 people aboard lost contact on a dive to the Titanic shipwreck site, about 900 miles east of Cape Cod. Rear Admiral John Mauger held a briefing Monday afternoon with the latest on the search.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A massive search unfurled on Monday as authorities probed the North Atlantic for a tourist submarine that went missing over the weekend on an expedition to explore the famous Titanic shipwreck. Here’s what we know so far about the submersible craft and what may have happened to it.
What happened?
A five-person crew on a submarine named Titan and owned by OceanGate Expeditions submerged Sunday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday afternoon, and the crew of the Polar Prince research ship lost contact with the submersible nearly two hours later.
Hamish Harding, a British billionaire, is reportedly onboard the submersible along with four additional, as-of-yet unidentified, people.
The Coast Guard is expected to release more information during a Monday afternoon briefing slated for 4:30 p.m., ET.
The @USCG is searching for a 21-foot submersible from the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince.
The 5 person crew submerged Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince lost contact with them approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive.
News of the vanished submersible and subsequent search broke earlier on Monday. At the time, Lt. Jordan Hart, of the Coast Guard in Boston told CBS News that personnel there were leading the rescue mission, and focusing on waters off Newfoundland in eastern Canada. Hart said Coast Guard personnel were “currently undergoing a search and rescue operation” in that area in an effort to locate and recover the submarine.
The Boston Regional Coordination Center was managing the rescue operation, a spokesperson for the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed. The location of the Titanic shipwreck falls within the Boston coordination center’s territory, according to a map of jurisdictions along the East Coast of North America.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it had a C-130 crew searching for the sub approximately 900 miles off Cape Cod, and that the Rescue Coordination Center Halifax is assisting with a P8 Poseidon aircraft, which has underwater detection capabilities.
The missing submarine
The unique submersible craft that disappeared is owned by OceanGate Expeditions, a company that deploys manned submarines for deep sea exploration and has in the past advertised this particular sub’s endeavor to carry tourists down to the wreckage of the RMS Titanic for $250,000 per seat. More than a century after the Titanic sunk in April 1912, the wreck lies about 400 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast.
A map shows the point where the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, on April 15, 1912, about 380 miles southeast of the Newfoundland, Canada, coast and some 1,300 miles east of its destination in New York City.
Getty/iStockphoto
OceanGate said recently on its website and on social media that an expedition to the shipwreck was “underway,” describing the seven-night trip as a “chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary.” In addition to one ongoing expedition, the company had planned two others for the summer of next year, according to the site.
In a statement, OceanGate confirmed the missing submarine is theirs and acknowledged that a rescue operation had been launched to find and recover it. The company said it was “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.” The company did not clarify how many people were inside the sub when it departed from Canada, and it was not clear whether anyone on board the vessel was a passenger who paid to tour the Titanic.
Who is Hamish Harding?
Hamish Harding, a 59-year-old British billionaire, businessperson and explorer, was reportedly onboard the submarine when it disappeared, according to BBC News, which noted that Harding announced publicly his decision to join the Titanic shipwreck expedition. In a post shared to his Facebook page on Saturday, Harding wrote: “I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.”
I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist…
“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” the Facebook post continued. “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.”
That post was Harding’s most recent social media update related to the submarine trip. It included multiple photographs of him, including one that showed Harding signing his name on a banner that read “Titanic Expedition Mission V” and another that pictured the submersible vessel itself.
Harding’s company, Action Aviation, later confirmed that he was one of the tourists on board, The Associated Press reported.
“There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” the company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told the AP. “We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”
Harding is a veteran adventure tourist who traveled to space aboard a Blue Origin rocket last year.
“Focus is on the crewmembers”
“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” OceanGate said in its statement Monday, adding that it was “deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.”
Exactly when the vessel last made contact has not been made public either, although the Coast Guard said in an update Monday that a crew was “searching for an overdue Canadian research submarine” in waters roughly 900 miles from the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
A @USCG C-130 crew is searching for an overdue Canadian research submarine approximately 900 miles off #CapeCod.
For more info and inquiries, please email d1publicaffairs@uscg.mil
Personnel from the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, a city in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, near Newfoundland, sent its P8 Poseidon aircraft to assist in the search since the craft has “underwater detection capabilities,” the Coast Guard wrote in a separate update Monday afternoon.
OceanGate said in a tweet shared earlier this month that it was using the satellite company Starlink to maintain communication with the submersible craft as it journeyed toward the Titanic wreckage.
Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our #Titanic dive operations a success – thank you @Starlink! pic.twitter.com/sujBmPr3JD
— OceanGate Expeditions (@OceanGateExped) June 1, 2023
“Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our Titanic dive operations a success — thank you Starlink,” OceanGate wrote in the tweet, which it posted alongside an image of the submersible attached to a deck on the surface of the ocean. The company last tweeted about its Titanic expedition on June 15.
The Titan
Dubbed the Titan, OceanGate’s deep sea vessel is said to be the only five-person submersible in the world with capabilities to reach its depth at nearly 2 1/2 miles beneath the ocean’s surface, CBS “Sunday Mornings” correspondent David Pogue reported last year.
It is one of three submersible crafts owned by OceanGate that appear on the company’s website, BBC News reported, adding that the vessel typically carries a pilot, three paying guests and another person described as a “content expert” by the company. Referencing the OceanGate website, which was down on Monday afternoon, BBC News additionally reported that the Titan, weighing around 23,000 pounds, is billed for its ability to reach depths of up to 4,000 meters — just about 2 1/2 miles — and has about 96 hours of live support for a crew of five people.
In the fall, Pogue hoped to accompany the Titan crew on a successful round-trip from Newfoundland to the Titanic wreck, but their expedition was canceled when weather conditions indicated it may not be safe. At the time, he described the Titan as a one-of-a-kind submersible craft made from thick carbon fiber and coated on both ends by a dome of titanium.
Ahead of the planned dive, Pogue recalled signing paperwork that read, in part, “This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death.” Space inside the submarine was similar to the interior of a minivan, and, with just one button and a video game controller used to steer it, the vessel “seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components,” Pogue said.
A search and rescue mission was underway Monday morning for a submarine that went missing in the North Atlantic on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic. Lt. Jordan Hart of the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston told CBS News that personnel were “currently undergoing a search and rescue operation” when asked about the rescue efforts off the coast of Newfoundland.
OceanGate Expeditions, a company that deploys manned submersibles for deep sea expeditions, confirmed in a statement that its sub was the subject of the rescue operation, adding that it was “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.”
The company did not say how many people were on board the missing vessel or whether any of them were paying tourists, whom it does take as passengers on its expeditions.
“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” said OceanGate, adding that it was “deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.”
A map shows the point where the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, on April 15, 1912, about 380 miles southeast of the Newfoundland, Canada coast and some 1,300 miles east of its destination in New York City.
Getty/iStockphoto
The U.S. Coast Guard said in a tweet that “A @USCG C-130 crew is searching for an overdue Canadian research submarine approximately 900 miles off #CapeCod,” and that the Rescue Coordination Center Halifax is assisting with a P8 Poseidon aircraft, which has underwater detection capabilities.
OceanGate recently said on its website and social media feeds that an expedition to the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which lies about 400 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast, was “underway.”
Contacted by CBS News, the Canadian Coast Guard said the rescue operation was being managed by the Boston Regional Coordination Center, and a map showing jurisdictions for the various coastal search and rescue agencies off the North American coast shows the location of the Titanic wreck within the Boston center’s area of responsibility.
Earlier this month, OceanGate said on Twitter that it was using satellite company Starlink to help maintain communications with its expedition to the Titanic.
Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our #Titanic dive operations a success – thank you @Starlink! pic.twitter.com/sujBmPr3JD
— OceanGate Expeditions (@OceanGateExped) June 1, 2023
“Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our Titanic dive operations a success — thank you Starlink,” the tweet said. The company’s website advertises seven-night voyages to see the Titanic wreckage priced at $250,000.
The company last tweeted about the Titanic expedition on June 15.
On Saturday, British businessman Hamish Harding shared on Facebook that he was among the group on the OceanGate expedition that had departed from St. Johns, Newfoundland, the day before, BBC News reported. “The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s,” Harding wrote. He said it was “likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023” due to weather conditions, and that the team planned to start dive operations at around 4 a.m. Sunday.
OceanGate’s submersible, The Titan, is the only five-person sub in the world capable of reaching the Titanic wreck, which sits 2.4 miles below the sea surface. CBS News “Sunday Mornings” correspondent David Pogue joined the crew of the vessel, along with a small group of intrepid tourists, for a journey to see the world’s most famous shipwreck last year.
As he got situated in the vessel, which he said had about as much room inside as a minivan, Pogue said he “couldn’t help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components,” including a video game controller that was used to pilot the sub.
A shipwreck off the coast of Okinawa, Japan has been identified as that of SS Mannert L. Abele, a U.S. Navy destroyer that was sunk by a “human-guided kamikaze bomb” during World War II, authorities said Thursday.
The craft, named for a U.S. submarine commander, was the first U.S. warship to be sunk by a Japanese suicide rocket bomb, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. It was sunk on April 12, 1945, when it was operating about 75 miles off the island’s northern coast. Multiple Japanese aircraft appeared on the ship’s radar, and the two engaged, with the warship damaging several aircraft until one of the planes crashed onto the warship.
That crash damaged the ship, and was followed by a “rocket-powered human-guided bomb” that hit the ship near its waterline. The resulting explosion “caused the ship’s bow and stern to buckle rapidly,” the Naval History and Heritage Command said.
Eighty-four American sailors were killed in the sinking, according to the command.
USS Mannert L. Abele seen from directly ahead while underway off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, on August 1, 1944.
Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives
The command’s underwater archaeology branch said the identity of the wreck was confirmed thanks to information provided by Tim Taylor, an ocean explorer and the chief executive officer of Tiburon Subsea, an ocean technology company. Taylor also operates the “Lost 52 Project,” an underwater archaeological project that is working to identify and find missing battleships from World War II.
A news release on the Lost 52 Project’s website said the find of the Mannert L. Abele was “very personal” to Taylor, whose father served in the U.S. Navy and witnessed a similar kamikaze attack on his own ship.
“My father came close to the same fate of the crew of the Abele just days earlier,” Taylor said in a statement. “This was a very emotive discovery for me connecting me to my father.”
The USS Mannert L. Abele off the Boston Navy Yard in Massachusetts on August 1, 1944.
Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives
There was little information provided about how Taylor and the command identified the ship. In the news release, the command said the shipwreck is protected by U.S. law and under the jurisdiction of the Navy. The wreck should also be regarded as a war grave because of the soldiers who died in the sinking, the command said.
“Mannert L. Abele is the final resting place for 84 American Sailors who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country,” said command director Samuel J. Cox, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, in a news releae. “My deepest thanks and congratulations to Tim Taylor and his team for discovering this wreck site. Its discovery allows some closure to the families of those lost, and provides us all another opportunity to remember and honor them.”
The news comes about a month after a team of explorers announced it found a sunken Japanese ship torpedoed off the coast of the Philippines in 1942, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths.
Brand new images of the Titanic have been released, offering unprecedented views of the shipwreck. The images could shed new light on how the iconic liner sank over a century ago.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A man diving off the coast of Israel discovered an “enormous, rare cargo” of centuries-old marble artifacts underwater, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.
The artifacts are 1,800 years old, the agency said in a Facebook post, making it “the oldest sea cargo of its kind known in the Eastern Mediterranean.” The artifacts are architectural pieces, including multiple decorated Corinthian column heads and a “huge” marble architrave, the decorative molding meant to go around a door. The architrave measured up to six meters, or nearly 20 feet.
The swimmer, Gideon Harris, was swimming at the Beit Yanai beach, a popular spot for swimmers, surfers and divers about 24 miles from Tel Aviv. Harris contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority, it said.
One of the decorated Corinthian column heads found by Gideon Harris.
Israel Antiquities Authority
It turned out that the authority had “been aware of the existence of this shipwrecked cargo for some time,” according to Koby Sharvit, director of the underwater archaeology unit at the agency. However, the authority did not know where exactly the cargo was located, so Harris’ sighting was “gratefully received.”
“We didn’t know (the cargo’s) exact whereabouts as it was covered over by sand, and we … therefore could not investigate it,” Sharvit said. “The recent storms must have exposed the cargo, and thanks to Gideon’s important report, we have been able to register its location, and carry out preliminary archaeological investigations, which will lead to a more in-depth research project.”
The authority said it’s likely the items, which evidence shows were carried by a merchant ship that was shipwrecked in a storm, were “destined for a magnificent public building—a temple or perhaps a theatre.”
A diver measures the large marble architrave found underwater.
Israel Antiquities Authority
“From the size of the architectural elements, we can calculate the dimensions of the ship; we are talking about a merchant ship that could bear a cargo of at least 200 tons,” Sharvit said in the Facebook post. “These fine pieces are characteristic of large-scale, majestic public buildings. Even in Roman Caesarea, such architectural elements were made of local stone covered with white plaster to appear like marble. Here we are talking about genuine marble.”
The items likely came from the Aegean or Black Sea regions, in Turkey or Greece, Sharvit said.
Another decorated column head found underwater.
Israel Antiquities Authority
In addition to helping researchers find the long-missing cargo, Harris’ report has helped resolve a major debate among experts, Sharvit said. Archaeologists have argued for years about whether architectural elements, like the ones found by Harris, were completely made in their lands of origin or transported in a partially carved form and finished at the destination. Because the items Harris found were partially worked, the latter argument is now believed to be true.
Harris has been awarded a “certificate of appreciation for good citizenship,” the antiquities authority said.
“Gideon’s report epitomizes the value of a citizen’s awareness regarding antiquities, and even more the importance of reporting them to the Israel Antiquities Authority,” said Eli Escusido, the director of the agency. “The cooperation of the community plays an important role in archaeological research. We ask citizens who come across antiquities in the sea to note the exact location and to call us to the site. This provides invaluable information contributing to the history and cultural heritage of the country.”
Michigan researchers have found the wreckage of two ships that disappeared into Lake Superior in 1914 and hope the discovery will lead them to a third that sank at the same time, killing nearly 30 people aboard the trio of lumber-shipping vessels.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced the discoveries this month after confirming details with other researchers. Ric Mixter, a board member of the society and a maritime historian, called witnessing the discoveries “a career highlight.”
“It not only solved a chapter in the nation’s darkest day in lumber history, but also showcased a team of historians who have dedicated their lives towards making sure these stories aren’t forgotten,” Mixter said.
The vessels owned by the Edward Hines Lumber Company sank into the ice-cold lake on Nov. 18, 1914, when a storm swept through as they moved lumber from Baraga, Michigan, to Tonawanda, New York. The steamship C.F. Curtis was towing the schooner barges Selden E. Marvin and Annie M. Peterson; all 28 people aboard were killed.
In this image taken from video provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, lettering identifying a wrecked ship as the Selden E. Marvin is seen in Lake Superior in August 2022.
Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society via AP
The society’s team found the wreck of the Curtis during the summer of 2021 and the Marvin a year later within a few miles of the first discovery. The organization operates a museum in Whitefish Point and regularly runs searches for shipwrecks, aiming to tell “the lost history of all the Great Lakes” with a focus on Lake Superior, said Corey Adkins, the society’s content and communications director.
“One of the things that makes us proud when we discover these things is helping piece the puzzle together of what happened to these 28 people,” Adkins said. “It’s been 109 years, but maybe there are still some family members that want to know what happened. We’re able to start answering those questions.”
Both wrecks were discovered about 20 miles north of Grand Marais, Michigan, farther into the lake than the 1914 accounts suggested the ships sank, Adkins said. There was also damage to the Marvin’s bow and the Curtis’ stern, making researchers wonder whether a collision contributed, he said.
In this image taken from video provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, lettering identifying the wrecked ship as property of the Edward Hines Lumber Company is seen in Lake Superior in August 2022.
Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society via AP
“Those are all questions we want to consider when we go back out this summer,” Adkins said.
Video footage from the Curtis wreckage showed the maintained hull of the steamship, its wheel, anchor, boiler and still shining gauges — all preserved by Lake Superior’s cold waters, along with other artifacts.
Another recording captured the team’s jubilant cheers as the words “Selden E. Marvin” on the hull came into clear view for the first time on a video feed shot by an underwater drone at the barge wreck site.
“We’re the first human eyes to see it since 1914, since World War I,” one team member mused.
An oceanographic institution is releasing over an hour of “mostly unreleased” footage from the 1986 dive exploring the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic.
The footage is being shared by the Woods Hole Oceanic Institution in honor of the 25th anniversary of James Cameron’s Academy Award-winning movie, “Titanic,” which has been re-released in theaters around the country.
The wreckage of the Titanic was first found by researchers from the WHOI, working in partnership with a French institute, in 1985. That expedition was led by Dr. Robert Ballard, the WHOI said in a statement. In June 1986, the team returned to the wreck site with the human-occupied submersible Alvin, and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) called Jason Junior. That mission marked the “first time humans set eyes on the ill-fated ship” since its sinking in 1912, according to the institution.
The remotely-operated vehicle Jason Jr. on the deck of the “Titanic” in 1986.
The “rare, uncut and mostly unnarrated footage” is expected to be uploaded to the WHOI’s YouTube channel later on Wednesday. Currently, a one-minute preview video is available on the institution’s channel. The brief narration that does exist is done by Ballard, the WHOI said.
According to the WHOI, video highlights from the footage will include images of the Alvin submersible approaching the ship and parking on its deck, interior shots of the wreck including a look inside a chief officer’s cabin and footage of debris on the ocean floor.
“More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” said Cameron, in a statement provided by the WHOI. “Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr. ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”
About 2,200 people were aboard the ocean liner, heralded as “unsinkable” and designed to be the most luxurious ship available, when it set out into the North Atlantic. About 1,500 people died after the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early hours of Apr. 15, 1912 with only 700 passengers and crew members surviving to be rescued by the R.M.S. Carpathia. The wreckage of the ship has remained about 12,600 feet below the ocean’s surface ever since.
According to the WHOI, efforts to “locate and salvage” the ship began almost immediately after the sinking, but technical limitations kept the wreck hidden for nearly 75 years. By 1985, new imaging technology captured photographs of the ship and helped researchers find the wreck.
Dana Yoerger, a WHOI engineer and a member of both the 1985 and 1986 missions, said the 1986 expedition “changed how we explore the deep ocean.”
“The human-occupied submersible Alvin brought scientists down 12,500 feet to the Titanic,” Yoerger said in a statement. “Operating from Alvin, we used the Jason Jr robot to penetrate Titanic and transmit images of the ship’s interior while the people remained safely outside the wreckage. For WHOI and the entire ocean research community, these advances provided an important foundation for modern deep-sea exploration technology.”
