Wrecks & Archaeology

Last July, David Trotter, a shipwreck hunter who had spent 30 years searching for a century-old ship, and a team of divers finally located the missing vessel: a 436-foot steamship named Hydrus, which sunk during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913.

The ship, carrying a load of iron ore, was headed for the shelter of the St. Clair River off of Lake Huron when a terrible blizzard struck the region. During the storm, which struck in early November, more than 19 ships were lost and 250 sailors died, reported Garret Ellison for The Grand Rapids Press.

The shipwreck was first discovered in 2013. It was first code-named "Dandong No.1" and has been tentatively identified as the Cruiser Zhiyuan.

On 17 September 1894, during Battle of the Yalu River - the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War, involving ships from the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Chinese Beiyang Fleet - the Zhiyuan came under attack from Japanese cruisers. It was hit in the bow by a Japanese shell after which the Chinese cruiser rapidly sank with the loss of 245 officers and crewmen out of a complement of 252 complement.

The wreckage was first discovered 56km south of Cairns in 35m of water by Cairns diver Kevin Coombs in 2013, but weather and planning challenges delayed the final dives to complete the investigation.

The A24-25 was part of a task force flying long‑range missions against Japanese shipping and submarines during World War Two. On 28 February 1943, Catalina A24-25 and its 11 aircrew were on a 17-hour mission to provide anti-submarine cover to a convoy heading for Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea.

The Flying Fortress took part in a raid on Palermo on April 18 1943 when it was attacked by several German ME-110 fighters that knocked out one of its engines. The aircraft, part of the 353rd Bomber Squadron of the American air force, crashed into the sea, with the loss of all nine crew.

The WW2 bomber was found a few months ago by a group Italian divers who are part of a project called “Shadows of the Deep”, which aims to locate the wrecks of planes and boats off Sicily.

SS Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot (85 m) sidewheel steamer which sank in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas in September 1857, along with more than 420 passengers and crew and 14 tonnes of gold with an estimated value of $300 million on today's market.

With so much money on the line, ownership of the loot has been entrenched in legal battles ever since its discovery by Columbus-America Discovery Group in 1989.

The bell was successfully recovered the 7th of August. Mr. Allen's team led the operation using his yacht M/Y Octopus, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Once restored, the bell will respectfully serve as a tangible and fitting memorial for the 1,415 lives lost when the Bismarck sunk the ship in the North Atlantic.

Artefacts on the wreck indicate it might date to the American Revolution. Amid the shipwreck’s broken remains are an iron chain, a pile of wooden ship timbers, red bricks (possibly from the ship cook’s hearth), glass bottles, an unglazed pottery jug, a metal compass, and another navigational instrument that might be an octant or sextant.

On 2 July archaeologists surveying the waters off the island of Takashima confirmed a shipwreck found here is a vessel from a 13th-century Mongolian fleet that foundered in a typhoon in a failed attempt to invade Japan.

The recently discovered ship is estimated to have been 65 feet long and around 20 feet wide and was carrying 13th-century Chinese ceramics, as well as ironware that positively identified it as a ship belonging to one of the two doomed Mongol fleets. The two invasion attempts in 1274 and 1281 ended in vain as both fleets were destroyed in typhoons.

At the time of its sinking, Rio de Janeiro was carrying a contingent of German soldiers meant for the invasion of Norway, which occurred on the following day, 9 April 1940. Of the 380 onboard, 50 were crew, the rest were soldiers. Of these numbers, almost 200 lost their lives, but 183 survived and were helped by the locals. Survivors told officials they were heading to Bergen, and even though they were wearing military uniforms, the Norwegian government failed to realize that a German invasion was imminent.