The buccaneering ways of yesteryear are returning to the oceans, as salvage teams compete to get their hands on the most valuable shipwrecks.

By Jonathan Brown and Esther Walker

Captain John Limbrey was a not poor man. When his ship the Merchant Royal put into Cadiz harbour for repairs in January 1637, his personal fortune was estimated at 100,000 gemstones. But in the buccaneering and avaricious spirit of the times, he could not pass up the opportunity to make a little more.


Read full article: 'The treasure of the oceans: rise of the salvagers'

TAMPA, Florida - The legal fight between Florida deep-sea explorers and the Spanish government over an estimated $500 million (¤347 million) in sunken treasure could drag on for another year or more, court documents filed Tuesday said.


Read full article: 'US court dispute over Spanish shipwreck treasure far from over'

One of DEMA’s most important programs, Ships 2 Reefs (S2R), strives to keep our oceans healthy and the dive industry thriving by providing a way for members of the dive community to enhance the dive-ability of their area, boost their business, and aid their local economy all at the same time by sinking ships to create man-made reefs.


Read full article: 'DEMA Ships To Reefs Program Helps Give New Life to Retired Vessels'

By Molly Shen

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Hundreds of millions of dollars in gold, silver and gemstones and ancient works of art, all buried in the sea in a violent shipwreck.

It's not just the stuff of pirate dreams. It's the loot local divers are finding halfway around the world.

The most precious pieces are on the other side of bulletproof glass and past the secret codes of a high-security vault in Bellevue.


Read full article: ''It's hard for me to believe''

Thomas Catan on the Odyssey Explorer, Gibraltar
A Spanish warship threatened to open fire on American treasure hunters yesterday as they tried to flee Gibraltar in the battle for a haul of gold and silver coins estimated to be worth half a billion dollars.

Amid rough seas, The Times watched from aboard the Odyssey Explorer as Spanish Civil Guards made two unsuccessful attempts to board the ship minutes after it set sail. However, high waves and driving rain made the operation impossible, prompting them to force the ship to port instead.


Read full article: 'Treasure seekers run the gauntlet over world’s biggest haul of gold'

TED MAHAR The Oregonian Staff
If at first you don't succeed, don't worry. You will always have plenty more chances to fail. This principle came sadly into play for England's White Star Line, a passenger ship company that was a paragon of its day.

But White Star also lost its two biggest ships, RMS Titanic on its April 1912 maiden voyage and Titanic's sister ship RMS Britannic on Nov. 21, 1916. The latter is the subject of The History Channel documentary "Titanic's Tragic Sister."


Read full article: 'Mysteriously fast sinking of Britannic explored'

In 1559, a hurricane plunged as many as seven Spanish sailing vessels to the bottom of Pensacola Bay, hampering explorer Don Tristan de Luna's attempt to colonize this section of the Florida Panhandle.

Almost 500 years later and 15 years after the first ship was found, another has been discovered, helping archaeologists unlock secrets to Florida's Spanish past. The colony at the site of present-day Pensacola was abandoned in 1561, and no trace of it has been found on land.


Read full article: 'Researchers find 1559 shipwreck off Florida'

NORFOLK, Va. -- The chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality joined other federal and State of Florida officials Monday, Oct. 8, to examine a decommissioned U.S. Air Force missile-tracking ship being prepared to be intentionally sunk as an artificial reef off Key West, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

James Connaughton viewed some of the major cleanup work already accomplished on the 524-foot-long General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship once tracked Mercury and Gemini space liftoffs and was a movie set in "Virus," a 1999 release that starred Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland.


Read full article: 'White House Environmental Chief, Others Examine Vandenberg Keys Artificial Reef'

The Mary Rose is a national treasure which could soon be lost.
That is the stark warning from the team that helped to raise the Tudor warship from the Solent 25 years ago.

The Mary Rose Trust needs £35m to complete conservation work and to house the vessel in a new, permanent museum - but it can only raise £14m by itself.


Read full article: 'Mary Rose 'at risk of being lost''

The last time Sam Hall saw the big warship was 62 years ago in New York Harbor, at the end of World War II.

Back then, Hall was a young soldier returning from the Pacific. When he walked off the former Gen. Harry S. Taylor to cheering throngs that day, he never looked back.

But on Monday, he was in Norfolk to see his old ship again, and to learn how the former Taylor - later renamed the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, now a 524-foot behemoth of rusting steel, peeling paint and odd Hollywood fame - will become the next big thing for divers and scientists off the Florida Keys.


Read full article: 'Ship from ghost fleet headed to Florida Keys'

Arendsee, Germany (dpa) - Archaeologists have made significant mediaeval finds in the northern German lake, the Arendsee, that reveal fishing activities linked to a nearby monastery.

Speaking before the 14th annual meeting this weekend of European underwater archaeologists at the lake, Rosemarie Leineweber of the monuments and archaeology office of the state of Saxony-Anhalt noted in particular the discovery of a dugout.


Read full article: 'Underwater archaeologists find mediaeval artefacts in German lake'

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) Two divers have found another shipwreck on the bottom of Lake Ontario.

Underwater explorers Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville have discovered several wreck sites on the lake, including the well-preserved remains of a schooner that sank in 1849.


Read full article: 'Divers find another wreck site on Lake Ontario'

Visitors to the Florida Keys pavilion at DEMA Orlando can register to win an archeological treasure dive trip to the salvage site of the Spanish galleon Santa Margarita, sunk off Key West in 1622.


During the Oct. 31-Nov. 3 show, divers searching for the wrecksite of the Margarita will be at the Florida Keys pavilion (booths 1166-1175), displaying artifacts and treasure found along the trail of the 1622 shipwreck.



Read full article: 'Treasure Salvors at Spanish Galleon Wrecksite'

A retired military ship that had been rusting away on a Virginia river for almost a quarter-century is to be intentionally sunk off Key West by mid-2008 to serve as a new habitat for marine life.

And to commemorate the scheduled arrival of the newest artificial reef in the region, the Florida Keys & Key West has created a collector’s lapel pin featuring Key West artist David Harrison Wright’s interpretation of what the former U.S. Air Force missile-tracking ship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg should look like after it is scuttled in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.


Read full article: 'Details about the Vandenberg Artificial Reef Project Detailed During DEMA Show'

TRENTON, NJ (AP) -- Some 600 New York City subway cars will spend the rest of their days down the shore as artificial reefs.

The decision by state Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson was eagerly anticipated by fishermen and divers excited about the fish the subway cars will attract.

But some environmentalists are wary, saying the subway cars contain potentially hazardous materials.


Read full article: 'Hundreds of NYC Subway Cars Becoming Reefs in New Jersey'