Diving Thoughts

William Lindesay OBE is presenting a lecture called “Great Wall Revisited” at The Royal Geographical Society – Hong Kong on Thursday 17 December 2009. Mr. Lindesay is the first person in modern times to walk the whole 2,500km length of the wall, in 1987, following in the footsteps of William Geil who published the first ever book on the wall in November 1909. Over the last 5 years, Mr. Lindesay has been comparing Mr. Weil’s wall of 100 years ago with the Wall today. He will be presenting photographs and commentary of this comparison.

The talk is at 2/F Olympic House, So Kong Po, Causeway Bay. Drinks Reception 6.30 pm; Lecture 7.30 pm

There are more details on the RGS – HK website.

Some of the relics from Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, are being shown for the first time. The warship sank in 1545 in the Solent and was raised in 1982. It is now in a drydock in Portsmouth’s historic dockyard. Volunteers are now attempting to raise the final GBP 4 Million that is needed to build a new museum which will allow the relics to be housed much nearer to the ship itself. Currently the Mary Rose museum is near the entrance to the historic dockyard, a long way from the drydock containing the vessel which is near HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar.

The Mary Rose itself is currently being sprayed continuously with polyetheylene glycol, which is a was-based solution. This is due to be completed in the next couple of years, and then the ship will be gradually dried.

There is more information on this plus a video on the BBC’s website.

In 1928, renowned Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, was on a Latham 47 flying boat which disappeared on its way to Spitzbergen. He was attempting an expedition to rescue Umberto Nobile, an Italian, whose airship had crashed on a return journey from the North Pole. He and the surviving crew were marooned on pack ice. No-one knows exactly what had happened, although the plane had flown into foggy conditions, and it’s possible they had to put down on the water, which may have been too rough for the flying boat.

Now an expedition is going to try and find the plane. They believe that the last radio message was received while the Latham 47 was 19 miles south of Bear Island. Two ships are going to search 45 square miles of seabed using state of the art technology. They hope to find the engines, as the rest of the plane was made mainly of perishable materials.

You can read more in this BBC article, from which the above photo was taken.

Last year a replica of a 16th century junk was built with the intention to demonstrate that Zheng He, China’s greatest admiral, could have reached North America nearly 600 years ago.  The Princess Taiping was 54 feet long and powered by cotton sails on three masts. It was built according to Ming dynasty specifications.

After a 10 month voyage from Taiwan to various ports on the US west coast, it sank 30 miles off Suao, a port in north-eastern Taiwan. All 11 crew were rescued. It was apparently hit by a freighter.

The Taiwanese captain describes himself as really ashamed for failing at the last minute. I find that a little harsh, since the chances of such a junk colliding with a freighter large enough to sink it 600 years ago is pretty remote. So as far as I’m concerned by getting from Taiwan to North America and within 30 miles of home, the team did demonstrate that Zheng He could have reached North America 600 years ago. The jury is still out on whether he actually did of course.

More from the BBC website, from which the above photo was taken.

The ongoing inquiry into the 1941 sinking of HMAS Sydney has concluded that a body which was washed up on Christmas Island in February 1942 came from the ship. It had drifted in a life raft called a Carley float for 3 months and is the only body to have been recovered. A theory for what happened to the others was raised ealier at the inquiry.

The body was buried on Christmas Island by a district officer, and there were doubts as to whether it was an Australian or a sailor. However it was exhumed in 2006 and forensically examined before being reburied with full military honours in Geraldton last year.

The examination of four press studs showed that they had the markings of “Ca Au”, which inducated they had been made by an Australian company. Fragments of textiles that were attached to the press studs indicated that he had been wearing a boiler suit of the type worn by Australian sailors.

The commissioner of inquiry into the sinking, Terence Cole, QC, found that the remains were those of a sailor from the HMAS Sydney. A fragment of metal taken from the skull contained manganese, chromium and silicon, all of which were used by Germany to produce armour piercing shells.

Here is a link to an article from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Evidence from an inquiry into the sinking of HMAS Sydney in November 1941 contradicts a theory that crewmen were machine gunned in their life raft by men the German ship Kormoran.

All 645 men from the Sydney were lost. The theory grew up because one life raft was recovered by HMAS Helos shortly after the battle, and it had  a large number of holes in i. However expert witnesses have studied the 339 ruptures in the float and believe they were caused by shrapnel from a shell exploding rather than by bullets.  The damage came from a horizontal angle and was more likely to have happened when the raft was on the ship’s deck, whereas if they had been caused by bullets, the angles of entry would have been from the top. The metal that was recovered from the float also looks more likely to have come from the casing of a German shell than bullets.

This seems to vindicate the German survivors from the Kormoran, which also sank after the battle, who have always denied shooting Australian sailors after the Sydney went down.

HMAS Sydney was a light cruiser and was sunk on 19 November 1941 by the Kormoran, a German auxiliary cruiser. Last year both wrecks were  found off Western Australia.

You can read more about the inquiry from the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Mary Rose was built in Portsmouth in 1509-1510 and was one of the most powerful warships afloat in the Tudor era. She sank in the Solent on 19 July 1545, but was rediscovered and finally raised  in 1982. She now lies in a dry dock in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, very close to Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory. There is also a museum about the ship, but this is half a mile away near the dockyard gates.

Now planning permission for a new GBP 35 million building has been granted, and this building will be built around the dock containing the ship.  Galleries shaped like the ship’s missing port side will be built and will hold items from the wreck displayed in their original context. Galleries at either end of the ship will contain other artefacts and exhibits. At the moment only 6% of the 19,000 artefacts from the ship are displayed, so a lot of items will be displayed for the first time.

Building work is expected to start in the autumn.

Last June we posted a story about an Elizabethan warship that had been found off Alderney dating from around 1592. Further research seems to be confirming some of the initial findings, that Elizabeth I’s navy was becoming more professional and effective. Tests seem to show that was carrying powerful cast iron guns of a uniform size, firing standard ammunition. This was in stark contrast to the Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, which carried a wide variety of different weapons, many of which had been designed for land warfare.

The Alderney wreck was a pinnace, which would have carried 12 cannon, two of which have been recovered. Using these, replicas have been built and tested, which seem to show that they were capable of throwing shot at almost the speed of sound. While the guns are relatively small, theywere powerful enough to hit a target up to a mile away. Although whether they were accurate enough is another question. However, at a more typical fighting distance of around 100 yards, they packed enough of a punch to have been able to penetrate the oak planks of a ship and go out the other side.

Elizabeth’s navy seems to have worked out that a lot of smaller guns all firing at once, was more effective than a few larger guns. Presumably there would also have been a significant benefit in standardising gun sizes and ammunition. Although drawing the conclusions about standardisation when they have only recovered 2 of the cannons, is perhaps a bit of a stretch.

There is a good article on this from the BBC website, along with video of the tests they carried out on one of the replica cannon.

The Danton was a French battleship was laid down in 1906 and launched in 1909. She was a pre-dreadnought battleship which served with the French Mediterranean Fleet in the First World War. On 18th March 1917 she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, U-64, while travelling between Toulon and Corfu.  She was carrying 1102  men, which was more than normal as she was carrying the crew of other ships to Corfu. 896 were rescued, but 296 including her captain, Captain Delage, were lost.

It has just been announced that in late 2007 a company doing a survey for  a gas pipeline discovered the wreck in 1000 metres of water, sitting upright with most of her gun turrets intact. The wreck is 35 km SW of Sardinia, some distance from where she was reported lost.

According to a BBC article, Rob Hawkins, project director with Fugro GeoConsulting Limited said that  “Its condition is extraordinary.” He also said that “After it was hit by the torpedoes, the Danton clearly turned turtle and rotated several times. You can see where it dropped some infrastructure on the way down and then impacted on the seabed. You can see where it slid along the seabed before coming to a rest,”

Researchers compared the position of its heavy guns with those shown on the original plans to confirm its identity.

The gas pipeline has been diverted south-east of the wreck location to avoid the wreck and any structural items that may have fallen from it as it fell to the seabed.

The photographs are from  BBC’s website where you can read the full story and even see some video of the wreck.

No, not Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Trafalgar, which is still safely in dry dock in Portsmouth. Or at least it was just over a year ago when I visited her. But Nelson’s flagship wasn’t the first HMS Victory, in fact she was the sixth. Her immediate predecessor was built between 1726 and 1737 and when launched was considered the most technically advanced vessel of the age. She was one of the last ships to be lost at sea with a full complement of bronze cannons, before bronze was replaced by iron. Although a History channel programme the other night mentioned that Henry VIII started introducing iron guns in order to cut the cost of fitting out his fleet nearly 200 years earlier.

Anyway in 1744 HMS Victory was sent down to Lisbon to rescue a convoy that was being blockaded by a French fleet. After chasing the fleet away she was returning to the UK in October 1744 when she sank in a violent storm, killing approximately 950 men including 74 year old Admiral John Balchin, one of Britain’s highest regarded admirals.

For many years the ship was believed to have  hit the Casquets, a group of rocks north-west of Alderney in the Channel Islands. As a result Admiral Balchin’s reputation as a fine mariner was tarnished, as well as that of his captain and navigator. In addition a lighthouse keeper was also blamed and  charged with failing to keep his light lit.

On 18 November 2008 Odyessey Marine Exploration discovered the wreck approximately 60 miles from where she was believed to have hit the Casquets, which would seem to exonerate all involved in the sinking. It is now believed that the ship sank as a result of a violent storm, and that the ship’s design and construction may have contributed to her loss.

Two bronze cannons have been recovered from the wreck site and used to confirm the identity of the ship. These are a 12 pounder featuring the royal arms of George II, and  a 42 pounder with the arms of George I.

Odyssey Marine have apparently been working closely with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which hopefully means that their relationship with the UK will be better opinion that with Spain, whose government is suing them to recover 17 tons of silver coins that they recovered from a shipwreck which they believe is the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas, which sank off Portugal in 1804. HMS Victory was believed to be have been carrying a substantial amount of gold and silver coins when she sank.

Discovery Channel will apparently be showing a Treasure Quest; Victory Special in the UK on 8th February. They have quite a good section on their website about the discovery. And here’s a press release from Odyssey Marine, along with more details of the project. The photos on this page also come from their website.

The BBC have got an interesting story which argues that a higher percentage of British passengers died on the Titanic compared with Americans. Researchers suspect that this is because Brits were more “gentlemanly” and queued politely for lifeboats, whereas Americans were more “individualist”. Husbands would put their wives in lifeboats and then go to the back of the boat and have a cigar while the ship sank around them.

So if Hong’s boat sinks with SCDC on board, we now know that the first in the lifeboats will be Rob and Erin. Meanwhile Our Glorious Leaderess will be up on the top deck, surrounded by stiff upper lips, leading a rousing rendition of “Rule Britannia”, while the icy cold waters of the South China Sea lap gently over her flip flops.

Ceramics from the wreck (Maritime Explorations)

I’ve just come across a story of about an Arab dhow that was found off Belitung Island near the SE coast of Sumatra 10 years ago. It was found by fishermen in about 17 metres of water. When it was excavated, about 60,000 pieces of cargo were recovered. These were made up largely of ceramics, primarily Changsha ware. This was mass produced during the Tang dynasty for export, and allowed archaeologists to date the wreck at between 826 and 850 AD.

In addition to the mass produced Changsha ware, they also found some high quality goods. These included the largest Tang gold cup ever found, some intricately decorated gold dishes and a cup with Islamic themes, plus some Yue ware from Zhejiang province – which the ancient Chinese compared to snow because of its delicacy. These could have been some sort of royal tribute.

The ship’s construction suggests that it was an Arab dhow, which implies that there was a maritime “Silk Road” between China and Arab lands as early as the 9th century. Europeans were not making such long voyages until the Portuguese in the 15th century.

Singapore’s government purchased the artefacts in 2005.

The photo above comes from Maritime Explorations’s website, where you can read more and see more of the photos and a video.

Plus there is a good blog from the Southeast Asian Archaeology website, which was  based on a talk given by Rosemary Scott at the National University of Singapore. Coincidentally Rosemary Scott will be doing 2 talks on ceramics for Christie’s in Hong Kong at the end of November.

The BBC also has an article.