S. B. Atkinson

An ancient Greek trading ship dating back more than 2,400 years has been found virtually intact at the bottom of the Black Sea, the world’s oldest known shipwreck, researchers said on Tuesday.

The vessel is one of more than 60 shipwrecks identified by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project including Roman ships and a 17th-century Cossack raiding fleet.

During the three-year project, researchers used specialist remote deep-water camera systems previously used in offshore oil and gas exploration to map the sea floor.

“A small piece of the vessel has been carbon dated and it is confirmed as the oldest intact shipwreck known to mankind,” the project said in a statement.

Ship wreck at Cape Cod 1925

England Expects…

From Geoff Hunt’s spectacular series of prints depicting some of Admiral Nelson’s most famous commands. H.M.S. Victory makes Nelson’s signal, 21st October 1805. In this definitive image, H.M.S. Victory leads the Windward Squadron as the first part of the signal flies at the mizzen. The Franco-Spanish line is seen ahead, with the Spanish flagship Santisima Trinidad on the left, her distinctive orange-yellow paintwork clearly discernible…. At about 11:45 Nelson instructs his signal officer, Lieutenant John Pasco, to signal to the fleet…

His Lordship came to me on the poop, and after ordering certain signals to be made, about a quarter to noon, he said, ‘Mr. Pasco, I wish to say to the fleet, ENGLAND CONFIDES THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY’ and he added ‘You must be quick, for I have one more to make which is for close action.’ I replied, ‘If your Lordship will permit me to substitute the confides for expects the signal will soon be completed, because the word expects is in the vocabulary, and confides must be spelt,’ His Lordship replied, in haste, and with seeming satisfaction, ‘That will do, Pasco, make it directly.’ 

Relics of Ireland’s ancient past have been uncovered - thanks to the recent heatwave and drought.

Images captured by a drone show a previously undiscovered monument or henge close to the 5,000 year old Newgrange monument in County Meath.

Measuring up to 200m in diameter, it is believed to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age enclosure.

“The weather is 95% responsible for this find,” said Anthony Murphy who found the site along with Ken Williams.

“The flying of the drone, knowledge of the area, and fluke make up the rest in this discovery,” he said.

“There’s more moisture in the field where the features of this site are and that’s why the grass is greener.

A 16th-century shipwreck that may be all that’s left of one of the first European voyages to America holds treasures worth millions of dollars. But now a judge has ruled that the company that discovered the wreck off the coast of Florida has no right to salvage the valuable artifacts.

That’s because the artifacts may be from a small fleet of French ships, led by the explorer Jean Ribault, which sailed to establish a colony in Florida in 1562 and 1565. In a decision on the legal dispute released last week, U.S. judge Karla Spaulding gave ownership of the wreck and its valuable artifacts to the nation of France.

Photographed 2018 by Slade Powell

Charles W. Morgan with her topsails set! So good to see canvas on her at last. It’s been a long winter.

sailing fast and free