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Bullet Types

The identity of the remains in a grave at Harbour Grace displaying the pirate’s skull and crossbones might never be known, but there is a possibility that it’s the resting place of Capt. John Keating.
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Hallmark Metal Markings

For those of us who thought that modern gold prospecting required drill holes, assay analyses and millions of dollars of investment, an amateur Australian prospector has proven otherwise.
Media stories from the past week have been telling the story of a prospector who unearthed a 177 troy

ounce (5.5kg) gold nugget using just a metal detector.
Found near the town of Ballarat in the state of Victoria, which can expect an influx of hopeful prospectors, the Y-shaped ingot reportedly measures 8.6 inches (22cm) long and 5.5 (14cm) wide.
The region has been referred to as Australia's "Golden Triangle", following a gold rush in the area during the 1850s. The "Hand of Faith", a 874 troy ounces (27.21kg) nugget that is now on display at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas, was also recovered from this region in 1980.
Although the current market value of the gold is about about US$ 300,000, as a natural specimen, it will likely sell for much more to a collector or museum.

Blackbeard's sword found : archeologists discover pirate treasure off North Carolina coast link

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Blackbeard's sword found : archeologists discover pirate treasure off North Carolina coast link

National Geographic pictures

From Time

It's likely Edward Teach didn't need much to scare his enemies.
After all, the notorious pirate better known as Blackbeard boasted a thick mass of facial hair so intimidating that it got immortalized in history.

He also numbered among the first corsairs to fly a black flag with bones on it.
And, according to some accounts, he had a habit of lighting fuses beneath his hat, a halo of smoke giving the bristly sea dog a decidedly demonic aspect.

Circa 1715, Captain Edward Teach (1680 - 1718), better known as Blackbeard,
a pirate who plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia.

But archaeologists now suspect they've found one more clue behind the pirate's menace: what could very well be Blackbeard's sword, or at least part of it.

National Geographic published photos released by a team that has for over a decade been excavating the Queen Anne's Revenge, which was Blackbeard's flagship until it ran aground in an inlet off the coast of North Carolina in 1718.
These include fragments of a gilded hilt and pommel, possibly of French design (Blackbeard's ship was a retrofitted French merchant vessel, formerly known as Concord and La Concorde de Nantes).
The shipwreck has been worked on since 1997. (position in the Marine GeoGarage)
NatGeo has more pictures of objects recovered here.

Before abandoning the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard used it in a daring 1717 blockade of the port of Charleston, S.C, where he and his fleet successfully managed to obtain ransom from the British colonial government for the town and its inhabitants.
But troops dispatched from Virginia would eventually catch up to him — after he had already abandoned his flaghsip — and in a fearsome sea fight Blackbeard was eventually surrounded and hacked to death.
His headless body was then tossed into the ocean.

The pirate may now languish in Davy Jones' Locker, but his likely blade may have been brought to light — further evidence of how Blackbeard's bite was as bad as his bark.
Links :

• DailyMail : Found, Golden hilt of sword belonging Blackbeard, the world's most feared pirate
• NC Maritime Museum : Blackbeard the Pirate. . . and the presumed wreck of Queen Anne's Revenge
• The Queen Anne's revenge shipwreck project : archaeological investigations of Blackbeard's flagship (video)
• Queen Annes's Revenge found

Early Submarine Discovery: The Secret of the Pearl Islands

By Sven Röbel

For the past 137 years, a mysterious wreck has emerged at low tide each day on a beach off the coast of Panama. Researchers now know that it's the presumed lost "Sub Marine Explorer," one of the world's first submarines and a vessel that would ultimately kill its German inventor.

The tower was the first thing Jim Delgado saw. Inch by inch, it emerged from the deep-green surf of the Pacific Ocean -- an encrusted piece of black metal covered with barnacles, rust and seaweed, a ghostly apparition slowly rising from the sea.

ANZEIGE

Delgado was sitting on the roots of an ancient palmetto tree, staring at the water as if transfixed. Aside from the hermit crabs digging in the sand at his feet and the brown pelicans screeching in the treetops, Delgado was alone -- the only human being on this godforsaken island known as San Telmo, somewhere southeast of Panama City. Low tide came slowly and sluggishly, eventually exposing the mysterious rust-eaten wreck a fisherman had described to Delgado. The man believed it was a Japanese submarine that had been on a mission to attack ships near the Panama Canal during World War II, only to fall prey to the treacherous waters of the Pearl Archipelago.
But the more the tide retreated, the more Delgado -- director of the renowned Vancouver Maritime Museum -- was convinced that the fisherman's story couldn't possibly be true. This thing appearing before his eyes had to be older, much older.
The design reminded the scientist of an "iron cigar," and he instinctively thought of the "Nautilus," that legendary underwater vessel author Jules Verne described in his novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Delgado had devoured the book as a young boy.
But could something like this be possible? Delgado was mesmerized. Years ago, working as a marine archaeologist, he had recovered the wreck of the "General Harrison," a ship from the days of the California gold rush, from San Francisco Bay. He was also involved in the raising of the "H.L. Hunley" from the harbor entrance at Charleston, South Carolina -- the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship, during the American Civil War in 1864.
And now, on this isolated beach on a tropical island -- during his vacation, no less -- he had apparently happened upon the most spectacular find of his career.
Without any equipment, and wearing nothing but boxer shorts, Delgado swam out to the mysterious wreck. He cursed when he scraped his left leg on the sharp-edged metal -- and because he didn't have a measuring tape to document the object's exact dimensions. The size, shape and condition of the chambers corresponded to none of the vessels he was familiar with -- and Delgado thought he knew just about everything that had ever floated. But this craft's technology seemed much more modern that that of the "Hunley." The shape of the hull was more reminiscent of the fantasy forms he'd seen in old science fiction books. Why on earth, he wondered, had he never heard about this vessel?
When Delgado heard the sound of the approaching rubber dinghy that had come to take him back to his cruise ship, he quickly took a few shots with his camera -- hardly able to believe his luck at having decided to pass on the dull bird-watching outing the other passengers had taken. His few hours on this remote island had truly been worth it.
Historic find
That was five years ago, and by now it's become clear that Delgado made a sensational historic find. He discovered the lost "Sub Marine Explorer," one of the world's first functioning underwater boats, designed by a brilliant German engineer whose invention eventually brought him an agonizing death.

DER SPIEGEL

A look at the workings of the submarine.

The well-preserved wreck off the shores of San Telmo offers an unprecedented glimpse into the maritime past. Even though the beginnings of manned underwater vessels aren't so distant, the pioneer days of submarines remain filled with unanswered questions. Old construction plans often diverge from the actual designs, and many boats were either lost or destroyed. In some cases it remains unclear as to exactly how -- and whether -- the vehicles actually worked. The San Telmo discovery could provide answers to many questions about the first submarines. Some of Delgado's colleagues believe that the wreck in the Pacific is a unique example of a handful of submarine prototypes that have remained preserved. They are craft in which daring men -- essentially the Space Shuttle pilots of their age -- ventured into the unknown world beneath the ocean's surface in the 19th century. Only five diving machines from the years before 1870 have survived the ravages of time:

•  The "Brandtaucher" designed by German inventor Wilhelm Bauer, now in a museum in Dresden.
  
• A nameless submarine used by the Confederates in 1862, during the American Civil War, now on display in New Orleans.
  
• The "H.L. Hunley," built in 1863 and currently being restored in Charleston, South Carolina.
  
• The "Intelligent Whale," a submarine built in 1866 and now in a New Jersey museum.
  
• And the "Sub Marine Explorer" off the coast of San Telmo in the Pacific, built in 1865.

The "Explorer" marks a high point in maritime engineering, but also a tragic one. Equipped with a cleverly designed system of ballast chambers and a compressed air tank that allowed for pressure compensation, it also had two hatches beneath the hull enabling divers to exit the craft underwater. But about 130 years ago, when the vessel was being used to collect oysters and pearls from the ocean floor off the coast of Panama, the condition known as "the bends," or decompression sickness, was largely unknown. The condition can cause an agonizing death when divers rise to the surface from deep water too quickly. Technical progress had fatally outpaced medical science, costing the inventor and team of the "Explorer" their health and their lives.
But on the evening following his discovery, as he sat excitedly in the dining room of his cruise ship, Delgado had no idea of the tragedies that must have transpired in this iron coffin in the Pacific's pearl beds. Instead, he couldn't stop describing the details of the strange wreck to his wife Ann.
Back home in Vancouver, the scientist had the pictures he took on San Telmo developed and promptly e-mailed the images -- together with a description and a request for further information -- to colleagues around the world.

One man, Richard Wills, an expert on American Civil War submarines, wrote back to inform Delgado that his data were a perfect match to a description Wills had discovered in a scientific article from 1902. The piece even included a precise drawing of the largely unknown diving device. This couldn't possibly be a coincidence -- the vessel had to be the "Sub Marine Explorer."
Little known inventor

Sven Röbel

Inside Kroehl's craft.

Little was known at the time about the man who designed the craft, a German inventor named Julius H. Kroehl who had emigrated to the United States. He built an iron fire watchtower in Harlem in 1865 and was then hired by the New York magistrate to demolish -- unsuccessfully, as it turned out -- a reef that obstructed shipping in the East River. But how did the mysterious German hit upon the idea of designing such a progressive diving ship? Delgado decided to get to the bottom of the story. A search through historical archives revealed that the "Sub Marine Explorer" last belonged to an outfit called the Pacific Pearl Company, which planned to dig for oysters off the coast of Panama in the 1860s.

As far back as the days of the Conquistadors, divers had been digging up treasures from the depths of the "Archipiélago de las Perlas." Black slaves had once fished the famed "La Peregrina" pearl -- a magnificent, softly shimmering 50-carat jewel -- from the waters of the archipelago. The shells also held the promise of fortune, offering wealth in the form of mother-of-pearl, a highly sought-after luxury material used in the fashion of the day. According to old business records, one of the partners in the company with offices near New York's Wall Street was a certain W.H. Tiffany, apparently a member of the eponymous jewelry and lamp dynasty.
The story was becoming more and more fascinating, and after making two more trips to San Telmo in 2002 and 2004, Delgado had finally collected enough material to justify launching an expedition to delve into the final secrets of the "Explorer" and its inventor.

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• Part 1: The Secret of the Pearl Islands
• Part 2: Continue to page 2 to read more about the expedition.

Scientists find rare coin in Kenya

HICAGO –  Scientists from Illinois have found a rare, 600-year-old Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda.
The Field Museum in Chicago announced the find Wednesday. The joint expedition was led by Chapurukha Kusimba of the museum and Sloan Williams of the University of Illinois-Chicago. Researchers say the coin proves trade existed between China and eastern Africa decades before European explorers set sail.
The coin is made of copper and silver. It has a square hole in the center so it could be worn on a belt. Scientists say it was issued by Emperor Yongle of China and his name is written on the coin.
Scientists from Kenya, Pennsylvania and Ohio also participated in the expedition. They also found human remains and other artifacts predating the coin.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/13/illinois-scientists-find-rare-coin-in-kenya/#ixzz2NRvqR4Ub