Swiss scientist and underwater explorer Jacques Piccard, who made the deepest-ever manned dive to 11km in the western Pacific’s Mariana Trench, has died.

Piccard, who died at his home on Lake Geneva, aged 86, made the dive in the Trieste bathyscaphe, a submersible co-developed with his famous balloonist father, Auguste Piccard, who first took a hot-air balloon into the stratosphere.

After some initial dives in the Atlantic, the Piccards’ sub was taken on by the US Navy, the resources of which were used to improve the design. Then came the stunning Mariana Trench dive, made with co-pilot Don Walsh, a US Navy lieutenant.

The pair descended 10,916m to the bottom of Mariana, the deepest point on the Earth’s crust. They made discoveries of deep ocean life which helped bring to an end the dumping of nuclear waste in deep oceanic areas.

“By far the most interesting find was the fish that came floating by our porthole,” Piccard said. “We were astounded to find higher marine-life forms down there at all.”

Piccard later worked for Nasa in deep-sea exploration. He built four medium-depth submarines, including the world’s first tourist submarine, revealed at the 1964 Swiss National Exhibition. This is reputed to have taken more than 30,000 passengers to the bed of Lake Geneva.

Piccard’s son Bertrand, who continued the family’s ballooning tradition by becoming the first person to fly a hot-air balloon around the world without stopping, described his father as “a true Captain Nemo”, in reference to Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

He had gained from his father “a sense of curiosity, a desire to mistrust dogmas and common assumptions, a belief in free will and confidence in the face of the unknown”.

Source: Divenet

HMS London, a 17th century warship sunk in the Thames Estuary, is to be designated as a protected historic site under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

On 23 October Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture, announced that she had decided to take up the recommendation of protection by English Heritage, on the ground that “these rare and well-preserved remains provide a unique insight into one of the most significant periods in England’s history - a time when British naval power was emerging on the European stage”.

The three-deck, Second Rate warship sank in 1665 when she blew up in spectacular fashion near Southend after sailing from Chatham, taking 300 people with her. The criticised raising of some bronze cannon from the wreck site last summer, without pre-survey or other suitable archaeological practices, contributed to the decision to protect the site.

HMS London was one of seven wrecks featured in September’s BBC2 documentary Thames Shipwrecks: A Race Against Time, about the work of governmental contractor Wessex Archaeology and Port of London Authority in surveying key sites in the Thames.
 
Source: Divenet

CAPE COD, Massachusetts (24 Oct 2008) — The Steamship Portland went down off the New England coast during a terrible storm back in November 1898. It became known as the Titanic of New England. Now, over a century later, divers have reached the wreck for the very first time.

“When we came down on the wreck, this was one of the first things we saw,” said Bob Foster, pointing out dinner plates in underwater video taken by his dive team.

“It was a thrill just to be there,” Foster described. “We had been working for two years just to get to that point.”

Foster recently led a team of divers to the wreck of the Portland, the first divers ever to accomplish that. At a depth of almost 500 feet, the divers could only survey the wreck for 15 minutes before returning to the surface. They plan to resume their dives in the spring.

“It’s really a funny feeling to come down on this wreck for the first time and see all these real personal artifacts,” Foster said. “It really brings it home just how many people were lost on this ship.”

The Steamship Portland sank north of Stellwagen Bank in what is now Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary holds the wreck in trust. No sunken artifacts can be removed, maintaining what amounts to an underwater museum.

“New England’s stormy weather has resulted in hundreds of shipwrecks,” said Matt Lawrence, a maritime archaeologist with the sanctuary.

The weekend of October 25, the Cape Cod Maritime Museum is hosting a two day event on marine archaeology. The museum is located at 135 South Street in Hyannis (508-775-1723).

Source: Divenet

Navy divers have descended to Scapa Flow’s HMS Royal Oak wreck to place the remains of one of the ship’s wartime crew.

Royal Marine bandsman Fernleigh Judge was aboard the battleship in October 1939 when, while anchored in the Flow, she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47. He was one of 401 survivors, but 833 other crew perished as the ship went down.

Judge, who lived near Peterborough, died in March at the age of 88. The Navy elected to carry out the operation after learning of his desire to have his ashes scattered in the area, backed by the revelation from his only surviving relative, a daughter in Australia, that he had wanted to visit the Orkneys to pay tribute to his lost shipmates, but could not afford the trip.

A fellow survivor, Kenneth Toop, accompanied the navy team which went out to the wreck on 13 October and placed a weighted urn containing Judge’s ashes within the ship, one of the tranch of vessels protected as war graves under the Protection of Military Remains Act.

“Every year on the anniversary of the sinking, we dive down to check over the wreck,” Andy Ward, the diving team’s commanding officer, told Peterborough Today. “We held a small ceremony for Mr Judge before the two divers put his ashes 20m deep inside one of the port holes.”

Ward added: “He hoped that his ashes would be scattered at Scapa Flow, but as the divers were already going down to the wreck, we thought it would be nice to fulfil his final wish as best we could.”

The day after the placement, HMS Royal Oak’s annual remembrance service, organised with the ship’s survivors association, was held to mark the 69th anniversary of the vessel’s sinking.

The ship was the first of five RN battleships and battle cruisers to be sunk during WWII.

Wreck website - www.hmsroyaloak.co.uk

Source: Divenet

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (8 Oct 2008) — The Navy has confirmed the wreckage of a sunken vessel found last year off the Aleutian Islands is that of the USS Grunion, a submarine that disappeared during World War II.

Officials at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park at Pearl Harbor have been closely monitoring the efforts to identify the World War II vessel.

Charles Hinman, director of education and outreach at the museum, will join Navy officials and family members of Grunion’s crew at a memorial service in Cleveland on Saturday. The service will honor the 70 crew members killed on or about July 30, 1942.

Underwater video footage and pictures captured by an expedition hired by sons of the commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele, allowed the Navy to confirm the discovery, Rear Adm. Douglas McAneny said last week in a news release.

The Abele brothers - Bruce, Brad, and John Abele - located the submarine near Kiska almost a mile below the ocean’s surface.

The Abele brothers contacted the USS Cod Submarine Memorial and Hinman, seeking help in identifying the wreckage. The vessel is lying at a depth of about 3,200 feet, and the very cold water and lack of significant currents have preserved much of the wreckage.

Hinman said he has been following the Abeles’ search efforts closely and is gratified that the Navy has officially identified the wreckage.

“That gives closure to the families,” he said.

The Grunion arrived at Pearl Harbor on June 20, 1942, according to Pacific Fleet Submarine Force records. It departed on its first war patrol June 30 and was ordered to the Aleutian Islands and patrolled westward from Attu between the Aleutians and Japan.

On July 10, Grunion was reassigned to the area north of Kiska. During the next 20 days, the submarine reported firing on an enemy destroyer, sinking three destroyer-type vessels, and attacking unidentified enemy ships near Kiska.

Grunion’s last transmission was received on July 30, 1942. The submarine reported heavy antisubmarine activity at the entrance to Kiska, and that it had 10 torpedoes remaining forward.

There was no contact or sighting of the submarine after July 30, and on Aug. 16, Grunion was reported lost.

Abele was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for heroism.

Sourse: CDNN