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| 12/01/12 US diving crew finds wreck of famous WWII British submarine HMS Olympus |  | |  Explorers have discovered the wreck of a British submarine that sank off the coast of Malta in one of the worst naval disasters of the second world war.
Nearly 90 men lost their lives when HMS Olympus struck a mine and sank as it tried to evade German and Italian warships blockading Grand Harbour in the early hours of 8 May 1942.
A team of divers from a Florida-based exploration trust found the wreck while surveying the ocean floor off Malta last year. They announced their findings to the British government and the Royal Navy this week.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is expected to now formally designate the site.
"We are extremely excited by this discovery, it's a very important piece of Malta's history during the war," said Timmy Gambin, archaeological director of the Aurora Trust, a foundation set up to promote knowledge of maritime cultural history.
"The Royal Navy ran a large number of operations using submarines in and out of the island for many purposes, not least as a magic carpet ferrying fuel, ammunition and food, and Olympus played an extremely important role."
The trust, which has headquarters in Key Largo and a logistical base in Malta, visited the wreck, seven miles off the coast, twice last summer. During the second dive in September it sent down a remotely operated vehicle equipped with video cameras to capture images that confirmed the 80-metre-long vessel's identity.
"We had suspicions it was the Olympus. Armed with our research on the features of the submarine, where the guns were, the placing and types of the rudder and propeller, we were able to identify her," Gambin said.
"Except for the damage from the mine she was in pristine condition, sitting upright as if she'd been placed on the seabed."
He stressed that Aurora had treated the site with "every sensitivity possible" given that so many lives were lost.
Many of the crew aboard HMS Olympus – an Odin-class submarine built in Clydebank in 1927 – when it sank were survivors from the recent sinkings of three other Royal Navy submarines in the area by German bombers.
The British naval base at Malta was a crucial staging post for convoys moving through the Mediterranean to support Allied operations in north Africa, but it suffered heavy losses.
"What happened with the Olympus is a sad and tragic story," Gambin said. "Many survived the blast and sinking but not the swim back to shore."
There were only 11 survivors, while 89 men, disorientated by the darkness and distance from shore, perished, according to George Malcolmson, archivist of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, Hampshire.
"One of the survivors told me how he looked back from the water to the incongruous sight of all these shoes and boots lined up in neat rows on the deck as the sub was sinking," he said.
Aurora has passed video footage from the dives to the British embassy in Washington and sent photographs to the submarine museum.
"It's a double-edged sword," Malcolmson said. "On one hand I'm pleased that for some people it's nice to know where there loved ones died but the publicity dredges up the possibility of intrusion and interference from people who are less concerned with the sanctity of a British war grave." | | more info | guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/11/british-second-world-war-submarine-wreck?fb=o.. | | Related wrecks | Olympus HMS (N35) ? [+1942] | | ref. used | guardian.co.uk | | entered | Aquilina Kevin | | category | archaeology, discovery |
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| 01/11/11 Should Shipwrecks be left alone? | | |  It is 10 years since a deal to protect the world's thousands of shipwrecks, but the UK and several other major maritime powers are yet to ratify it. Should this underwater heritage be protected or is it acceptable to plunder?
When a ship sinks and lives are lost, it is a tragedy for the families involved.
For the relatives of the dead, the ship becomes an underwater grave but as the years pass the wreck can become a site of archaeological interest.
In recent years technological innovations have allowed commercial archaeologists, decried by some as "treasure hunters", to reach wrecks far below the surface.
The most famous of them all, the Titanic, is more than four miles down and to get there as film director James Cameron has shown, involves using "robot" divers which are prohibitively expensive - around $50,000 (£32,000) a day.
Continue reading the main story
Unesco convention
Adopted in Nov 2001 but only came into force in 2009 when the 20th nation - Barbados - ratified it
Designed to complement the 1982 UN Law of the Seas, which failed to mention shipwrecks
40 nations have ratified it but the only major seafaring nations are Spain and Portugal
The convention only covers wrecks or ruins which are over 100 years old
States are responsible for ships in their territorial waters but for wrecks in international waters a number of "interested parties" could be involved
Salvage firms are most interested in ships with cargoes of gold and silver, ceramics or other valuables.
In November 2001, the Unesco Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage was finally adopted.
But 10 years on, it still has not been ratified by the UK, France, Russia, China or the US, and commercial archaeologists continue to locate wrecks, remove their cargoes and sell them off.
Please continue reading at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15031084 | | more info | bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15031084 | | ref. used | BBC News | | entered | Allen Tony | | category | legal, law, crime |
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| 19/06/11 STEREOGRAPHIC charts | | | 
The wrecksite is now also compatible with Stereographic projected charts. This allows the website to display both, the Arctic and Antarctic region planning charts and wrecks on them (via the select tool).
| | entered | Lettens Jan | | category | wrecksite |
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| 30/04/11 Ridiculous FFESSM law | | | 
According to the FFESSM, a French CMAS dive leader is not the same as a non-French CMAS dive leader. A French dive leader is recognised (better and superior), unless the non-French dive leader pays 12 €.
When reading it, we first thought this was a plain 1st of April joke, but it isn't, it is true! It boils down to the following:
From now onwards, any [*] European dive leader who wants to dive in French waters, is not considered to be a dive leader by the French anymore, unless paying 12 euro.
And what has this non-French dive leader have to prove to be recognised as a dive leader? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Except that he can pay FFE$$SM 12 €. In other words: All pigs are equal, but some (French) pigs are more equal than others.
Even a French 3* CMAS Diver, who is 2 levels below a 1* CMAS Instructor, is superior in France.
The question is, who is dictating that ridiculous law ? Well, it is the French Government. And whose advice is the French Government following ? Yes, it is said to be FFESSM's advice. In France, the diving federation and military and Government are much closer to each other than in any other country.
 A new type of underwater Péaje? The French diving federation FFESSM, hiding itself behind the law, clearly needs money.
Sadly, following diving federations have already succumbed to the FFESSM money cow-system: BELGIUM (BEFOS/FEBRAS), GERMANY (VDST), AUSTRIA (TSVOE), SWISS and LUXEMBOURG (FLASSA).
This is a FLAGRANT DISCRIMINATION of European citizens and should be an easy case to fight in European Courts, but it looks like no one has the courage and money to do this and where the hell is 'mother' CMAS in all of this ?
[*] Except 2* and 3* CMAS instructors. | | entered | Lettens Jan | | category | legal, law, crime |
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