Tag: shipwrecks

There are about 5,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes The May-June edition of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources magazine "Outdoor Indiana" has a feature article by Nick Werner about Indiana's underwater history.It is a tale worth telling by both teachers and moms and dads. It is a fascinating subject.According to Brad Bumgardner, the interpretive naturalist with the Indiana Dunes State Park, there are about 5,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. That is more shipwrecks than in the Bermuda Triangle.Between 100 and 200 ships met their graves in the deep off of Indiana, at the bottom of Lake Michigan.Lake Michigan is about 300 miles long and can be more than 900 feet deep at the farthest northern end of the lake. According to Bumgardner the southern rim of Lake Michigan near Indiana is about 70 feet deep. "That is relatively shallow for a great lake," said Bumgardner.Back in the 1980s the attempt was made to raise the wreck of the J.D. Marshall, which went down in 1911 off the shore of the Indiana Dunes State Park. That brought about a state and federal laws protecting wrecks from salvage operations.In 2011, 100 years later, the DNR was given federal funding from ...

Removal of the wreck of the MV Tycoon from the Port of Christmas Island. The Australian Government has stepped in to remove the wreck of the MV Tycoon from the Port of Christmas Island. The vessel broke free of its moorings and crashed into cliffs on 8 January 2012, and is now a wreck. Removal of the wreck is normally the responsibility of the ownerHowever, as the owner has not taken any practical action to commence a salvage or wreck removal operation, the Australian Government has stepped in to arrange the operation. The wreck removal will be undertaken by a contractor to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and managed through a cooperative agreement between AMSA and the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport.The contractor is Titan Maritime (Australia) Pty. Ltd. Divers will survey the wreck site soon and develop a wreck removal plan. The registered owner of the vessel is Tycoon Navigation SA, based in Singapore. Once the operation commences, arrangements will be made to minimise disruption to port operations. The Christmas Island community will come first during this operation to ensure their safety, as well as restoring vital maritime infrastructure.The Australian Government has approved funding ...

RMS Titanic still rests on the seafloor One hundred years after it sank on April 15, the RMS Titanic still rests on the seafloor, vulnerable to damage and salvage. An international agreement was signed by the US, U.K., Canada and France that recognizes the wreck site as a memorial and one of great archaeological, historical, and cultural importance.Learn more about NOAA and Titanic at http://www.noaa.gov/titanic

Passenger ship sunk into the Xunjiang River after colliding with a cargo ship The death toll in a shipwreck in south China two weeks ago has risen to 20 as six missing people were confirmed dead, local authorities said Tuesday night.A passenger ship sunk into the Xunjiang River after colliding with a cargo ship in the city of Guiping in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 11.A total of 14 passengers were found dead and six were missing as of March 15. The search efforts lasted until Sunday when the bodies of all six people were retrieved, the Guiping city government said in a statement.Thirty people, including two crew members, survived the shipwreck.According to a preliminary investigation, the cargo ship was blamed for the accident. It was traveling outside of the river's designated shipping lane when it collided with the passenger vessel.With a maximum capacity of 30 people, the passenger vessel also was overloaded at the time of the collision.The cargo ship's pilot, the passenger vessel's captain and owners of both the ships have been detained.Source: China.org

Further deterioration of the stern and forward section of Rena Further deterioration of the stern and forward section of Rena have been caused by heavy weather in the Bay of Plenty over the past couple of days. Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) says that this has resulted in a release of an unknown number of containers, and a debris field trailing from the wreck site.The Astrolabe Reef was hammered with swells of up to 6 metres overnight. Svitzer salvors have confirmed the list on the stern section of the wreck had reduced slightly as a result.MNZ Tauranga Response and Recovery Manager David Billington said it was evident during an observation flight this morning that the bad weather event had resulted in damage to bulkheads at the front of the stern section and structural damage on the forward section of Rena. Bulkheads are like the internal walls of the ship."This has resulted in some containers and some debris going into the sea," Mr Billington said."There is a light debris field of about 2 nautical miles stretching east south east of Rena. At the moment it is quite localised, but it is likely this will spread further out as the day progresses."The debris ...

How the Navy gets rid of most of its old ships ? In 2005, the USS America aircraft carrier was towed out to sea on her final voyage. Hundreds of miles off the Atlantic coast, U.S. Navy personnel blasted the 40-year-old warship with missiles and bombs until it sank.The massive Kitty-Hawk class carrier - more than three football fields long - came to rest in the briny depths about 300 nautical miles southeast of Norfolk.Target practice is now how the Navy gets rid of most of its old ships, an Associated Press review of Navy records for the past dozen years has found. And they wind up at the bottom of the ocean, bringing with them amounts of toxic waste that are only estimated.Navy documents state that among the toxic substances left onboard the America were more than 500 pounds of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a chemical banned by the United States in 1979, in part because it is long-lasting and accumulates throughout the food chain. Disposing of the carrier that served in the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and Desert Shield cost more than $22 million.In the past 12 years, records show the Navy has used missiles, torpedoes and large ...

Empress of Ireland sunk in 1914 On its 100th anniversary, the sinking of the Titanic continues to fascinate people around the world. But another shipwreck, almost equal in human tragedy, has slipped from popular memory, even though the vessel helped build modern Canada.The Empress of Ireland sank in 1914 in the St. Lawrence River after colliding with the Storstad, a Norwegian coal ship. A total of 1,012 passengers and crew died (compared to the Titanic's 1,514). The loss of the Empress of Ireland remains the largest maritime accident in Canadian history.Unlike the Titanic, which went down on its maiden voyage, the Empress of Ireland regularly plied the Atlantic Ocean. Between 1906 and her sinking, the Empress completed 95 round trips, mostly between Liverpool, England, and Halifax or Quebec City. It was one of two Canadian Pacific ships - its sister ship was the Empress of Britain - plying the Atlantic between the United Kingdom and Canada, bringing thousands of immigrants, mostly drawn by the prospect of free land on the Prairies.For years, the remains of the Empress lay on the river bottom off Rimouski, Que., where it was picked over by souvenir-hunting divers. It was designated a national historic site ...

IMO MEPC.1/Circ 779 At the request of the US Coast Guard, the IMO issued a circular requesting that, in advance of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS TITANIC, international shipping voluntarily refrain from certain activities that have the potential to pollute, disturb, or otherwise disrespect this international maritime memorial.For more information, click here.Source: IMO

Cargo ship capsized in the South China Sea Nineteen people were rescued and three people remained missing following a shipwreck off the coast of south China's Guangdong Province Wednesday night, local marine authorities said.The municipal marine rescue center of Shantou received a report at 9:27 p.m. that a cargo ship capsized in the South China Sea near the Nan'ao Cross-sea Bridge, which is currently under construction, throwing its eight crew members into the water.A container vessel then hit the wrecked ship and lost power, stranding 14 people on board and endangering the nearby bridge construction, the center said.As of noon on Thursday, 19 people had been rescued from the water and from the stranded vessel, while rescuers continued to search for the three missing people.An initial probe found that sea conditions were rough when the accidents happened.Source: Xinhua

The wreck of a cargo ship is leaking diesel into Gulf fishing waters The wreck of a cargo ship is leaking diesel into Gulf fishing waters, despite ministry assurances that it poses no threat to marine life, fishermen say."We have seen the spill with our own eyes after the weather was rough for a few days," said one fisherman, pointing to a rainbow sheen on the surface of the water."It could be that the strong winds caused another leakage on the ship. What we are doing is to avoid those places where the spill is."The White Whale was carrying 440 tonnes of diesel when it sank about 16 kilometres off the Umm Al Qaiwain coast on October 25 last year.Nine crew members were arrested and referred to Public Prosecution on charges of overloading the vessel.The ship now lies about 30 metres below the surface, 11 nautical miles off the coast.Officials at the Ministry of Environment and Water have issued a second assurance that the White Whale is secure."The technical team formed to follow up the sunken ship off the coast of UAQ is regularly monitoring the situation and submitting periodic reports to the ministry," said Sultan Alwan, the assistant undersecretary. ...