Before Europe's Industrial Revolution, seagoing vessels were the world's grandest and most complex machines, carrying people and ideas, as well as precious cargo, between countries, continents and cultures. In the 1760's, at about the time Carsten Niebuhr was drawing the first European chart of the Red Sea, an immense ship of more than 900 tons' burden slammed into a coral reef in that sea and sank beneath 30 meters (90') of water. In cooperation with Egyptian authorities and institutions and under my direction, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) in College Station, Texas has meticulously excavated the 50-meter (164') vessel and recovered a wealth of clues about the ship's last voyage. Those clues open windows on a time and place about which scholars know relatively little. Egypt's first shipwreck excavation in the Red Sea has provided a unique and wide-ranging look at international trade relationships in the middle and late 18th century.

759 Views | 0 Comments | Rating: (0 rates)

8131 Views | 1 Comments | Rating: (1 rates)

The warship HMS Agamemnon was built in 1777 at Henry Adams shipyard next to Portsmouth. She was built in accordance with the plans of naval architect Sir Tomas Slade, who created the Ardent ship type whose plans are keep in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The HMS Agamemnon is the third in a seven-ship succession, whose last survivor is the Victory (Deane 1998).

1059 Views | 0 Comments | Rating: (1 rates)

The so-called Golden Age of Euro-American Piracy lasted less than fifty years, from the closing decades of the seventeenth century through the 1720s. During this era the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic coast of North America, West African coast, and Indian Ocean were the main cruising grounds for pirates. This period of lawlessness came about just as the nation-states of Europe began to take on their modem borders and the trappings of centralized power - standing armies and fleets. The War of the Grand Alliance (King William's War, 1689-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War, 1701-14) drew thousands of men into naval and privateering ships. While the central focus of these conflicts was preventing any one country from dominating the continent of Europe and upset-ting the balance of power, these were truly Worldwide wars. By the late seven-teenth century the nascent European-focused world economy was beginning to take form. In the Americas, Africa, and Asia were the colonies and trading posts of England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Along these long sea lanes flowed specie, spices, and slaves in the bottoms of European and local vessels. The capture of these valuable cargoes would not only enrich the lives of the victorious crew and their sponsors at home and in the government but would aid in crippling their enemy's economy and ability to wage war. These wars of empire often devolved into guerrilla warfare and piracy (Karraker 1953:29), where the adversaries would prey on enemy and neutral ships. Part of this devolution came about because honesty cut into profits. As much as 60 percent of the value of a prize went to pay the royal share, custom duties, and court charges. One New York privateer returned to the colony in 1695 with ?160,000 in stolen goods. He paid bribes of some ?4,000 and so avoided the ?32,000 royal share and other court costs. There was indeed a fine line between privateers and pirates (Lydon 1970:48, 56-57).

2952 Views | 2 Comments | Rating: (1 rates)

A Shipwreck is an entity caught between the past and present. A sunken ship may speak of a bygone era but the relentless forces of the sea are in perpetual motion to dissolve, oxidize and chemically reduce any remnant of its existence. Hence, the contemporary dilemma with what to do with the past. Do we leave everything ?in situ,? touch nothing and pretend relics will last forever if only we don?t disturb them? Do we leave all shipwrecks to archaeological teams to survey? Or do the facts demand a balanced approached to sensibly record past maritime events?

1093 Views | 0 Comments | Rating: (0 rates)

To divers, these are magical names, representing some of the finest sites in the Egyptian waters of the Red Sea. And ever since the early explorations of Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau, they have been a prime destination for diving enthusiasts from all over the world. What is it about this desert-edged sea that has captured the imagination of people who have seen the best that the underwater world has to offer? More than the astonishing contrast between the hot, monochromatic desert and the multicolored reefs below the surface, the Red Sea has everything that divers look for.

1049 Views | 0 Comments | Rating: (0 rates)

Minted in Philadelphia at Saudi Arabia's request, a cargo of three million silver Saudi one-riyal coins was shipped to the oil port of Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, late in World War II. But the Liberty ship that was transporting them, the S. S. John Barry, never arrived. Torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Arabian Sea more than 185 kilometers (100 nautical miles) off Oman in August 1944, the John Barry sank in waters so deep that no one thought she could ever be reached.

1413 Views | 1 Comments | Rating: (2 rates)

The careening of a sailing vessel is laying her up on a calm beach at high tide in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance below the water line when the tide goes out. The process could be accentuated by securing the top halyard to a fixed object like a tree or rock and pulling the mast over as far as possible. Such maintenance might include dry rot or cannon shot repair, tarring the exterior to reduce leakage or barnacle removal to increase her speed. A particularly well protected area might be called "Careening Bay" to the locals and they would know shallow, calm water could be found. Pirates would often careen their ship because there was no dry dock available to them. A secluded bay would suffice and this is where they would careen their ships for necessary repairs and/or cleaning of the hull. This would make the ships faster and able to overtake a prize vessel. Similar to beaching.