Shipwrecks - Time Capsules of Human Civilization

Our Corporate Web Site Acknowledged By Prestigious Organization

One of the major goals and missions of the Nautical Research Group is to fostering the education of nautical and maritime history. We accomplish these objectives by offering a full array of diverse educational products that support these educational values. Our corporation has been recognized for its intrinsic educational source by the National First Ladies' Library organization. As the first and only facility of its kind, the National First Ladies' Library serves as a unique national resource for patrons from school children to serious scholars.  I am pleased and honored that my corporation, Nautical Research Group has been designated as a primary source link for the education of students in the area of the great ocean liners. The link for access to their educational site is:  http://www.firstladies.org/curriculum/curriculum.aspx?Curriculum=1484 . Our corporate site, under the link to Educational Services, provides valuable information on various shipwrecks and include a recent scientific research paper on the decay of Titanic and over 40 copyrighted photographs from our underwater expeditions to Titanic.

The following is an excerpt from Nautical Research Group's Corporate Profile:

Nautical Research Group, Inc. is a consulting firm that provides full service discovery, exploration, research and analysis on the sea and shipwreck disasters throughout the world. Our group of professional consultants are the leaders in their field for the scientific analysis of ships, shipwrecks and their historical preservation. Our corporation has had great success in the discovery and exploration of historic shipwrecks. Utilizing the latest in underwater and deep-diving technology, we have been exploring shipwrecks for thirty-five years. Our corporation provides nautical expertise in the following main areas:

DISCOVERY&EXPLORATION                     RESEARCH

PRESERVATION                                                   MARITIME EXHIBITS

MEDIA SERVICES                                                ACADEMIC SERVICES

                                      EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

Please visit Nautical Research Group, Inc. main corporate web site at: http://www.nauticalresearch.com for more information about our corporation and for many rare underwater and land-based photographs of historic vessels.

Nantucket Lightship during the Heydays of the Queen Mary and Andrea Doria

The Nantucket Lightship station marked the southern extremity of the extensive shoals that make out south and east from Nantucket Island.  It served as a primary leading mark for both coast-wise and trans-Atlantic traffic.  It was located variously at distances from 20 to 50 miles from the nearest land throughout its history.  It was repositioned several times to provide a greater safety margin from shoal areas, and to conform to changed in the international traffic lanes.  Nantucket Shoals was one of the most exposed lightship stations in the world and it was the last of the U.S. lightship stations to be discontinued.

LV 112 / WAL 534 served as the Nantucket Lightship from 1945 - 1958 and was in place during the Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision. This vessel was overhauled in 1958 and was later deployed back as the Nantucket Lightship from 1960-1975. She was one of the longest standing lightships that the Nantucket Shoals ever had. She served 39 years as a lightship and is currently used as a museum that very recently was berthed in New York City. Although there were variations in the locations, they never deviated too much during its later years.

Comparing Titanic's Decay with the Empress of Ireland, Lusitania, Britannic and Andrea Doria

Although Titanic is deteriorating while subjected to the natural force of the Atlantic Ocean, it has been preserved relatively well throughout the past ninety-three years. More recent shipwrecks, like the ill-fated Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria which sank in 1956, is in much worse shape structurally than Titanic. The Doria lies in 260 feet of water about 40 miles southwest of Nantucket Island. The relatively shallow depths, strong currents, aluminum-alloy- based superstructure and weather conditions have battered the Doria to the point where the top five deck levels have fallen down to the bottom of the ocean. With its entire superstructure gone, the Doria is now a huge steel hull with all of its once-beautiful infrastructure lying next to it on its starboard side in a vast heap of metallic wreckage.

It is important to put the decay of Titanic in the context of other contemporary twentieth century ocean liner shipwrecks. These once-opulent liner shipwrecks like the Lusitania, the Empress of Ireland and Titanic’s sister, Britannic have all sunk in different parts of the world and been exposed to a variety of different environmental factors. Despite their environmental differences, all of these fine liners are in relatively similar states of deterioration to that of Titanic. Judging by these many differences in environmental conditions, the fact that their states of deterioration are similar may prove to be a mere coincidence.

RMS Olympic's Encounter with a U-boat

Many stories have been written about the two ill-fated White Star ocean liners, Titanic and Britannic. Because of the tragic sinking of these two liners, one by iceberg and the other due to a mine, these ships have been documented extensively in the press, web, documentaries and movies. The account of these other sisters have dwarfed those of the most successful White Star liner named RMS Olympic. The Olympic was known as "Old Reliable" because of its long service as a passenger liner, troop carrier and general purpose ship that the Crown used for various purposes. In its twenty-five year service, the Olympic steamed close to two hundred thousand miles into various ports around the world.

The Olympic has the unique distinction of being the only vessel of its kind to directly sink an enemy ship without the use of armaments. In 1915, the Crown needed to bring her into the war as a troop carrier to ferry soldiers to the front. Immediately she was repainted in the "dazzle" motif which was a bizarre, geometric-like abstract color pattern of black, white and gray on a yellow backdrop. This paint pattern was meant to confuse enemy ships from attacking this huge liner. In May of 1918, the Olympic, on its twenty-second voyage as a troop carrier, was attacked by a marauding German submarine U-103 in the English Channel. The submarine started the assault on the much quicker liner by launching two torpedoes directly at the ship's port-side bow. Unarmed but not defenseless, the Olympic used evasive maneuvers and was able to escape the torpedoes destructive impact. Even though the huge liner could of steamed away from harm's way following this torpedo attack, in a most courageous act, she turned on this deadly submarine and proceeded to ram the U-103. Even though the impact on the submarine was a glancing blow, the size and weight of the Olympic's attack proved to be deadly to the submarine and she quickly sank. Several submariners were able to escape and eventually were picked up by an American destroyer. The Olympic was the only merchant ship to sink an enemy warship during the war.

Oregon - Cunard's Greyhound of the Atlantic

Long before the Queen Mary and even before the beautiful swift sisters, Lusitania and Mauritania, was the fast and opulent liner called Oregon. In the 1880's, the Oregon was the fastest transatlantic vessel in the world and holder of the Blue Riband ( or Hales Trophy) while initially running under the Guion Line flag. The Oregon succeeded in capturing the westbound record from Queenstown to Sandy Hook in six days, ten hours and ten minutes ending on April 19th, 1884. She would later grab the eastbound record as well to have the fastest recorded times both ways across the Atlantic Ocean. The leading British shipping company, the Cunard Line, saw the potential in having a fleet of beautiful and fast ships. Five months after the Oregon's record-breaking performance, the Cunard Line acquired her from the Guion Line in August 1884. The pairing of Oregon with their other fast liners, Etruria and Umbria, the Cunard Line had the world's three fastest transatlantic vessels in their fleet. Oregon broke her records well into 1885 until her running mate, the Etruria, took the record away from her.

At the peak of her popularity, the greyhound Oregon collided with and was sunk by a schooner named Charles H. Morse on the morning of March 14th, 1886, off of Fire Island-Long Island, New York.  The Oregon stayed afloat long enough to have all of her passengers saved by nearby boats (with most passengers saved by the Fulda) that ply this heavily traveled waterway just outside of New York harbor. This tragic accident stunned the transatlantic shipping community, as the Oregon was a long favorite of the many European and American passengers. She sank in approximately 140 feet of water about 35 miles from Captree State Park. This wreck site is my favorite inshore wreck site in the entire New York Bight area.

The first time that I dove the Oregon was in the early 1980's with the dive boat Wahoo operating out of Captree and captained by Steve Bielenda.  I was amazed by its immense size and mesmerized by all the history that was still surrounding this vessel. Many personal and ship-related items were scattered all across this ship and an occasional porthole or piece of china were discovered. I continued visiting the Oregon several times a year for the next twenty years and she has aged gracefully. On several occasions over the past two summers, I have visited this once-proud liner using the Eagle's Nest dive boat with an old friend of mine, Captain Howard Klein, using a closed-circuit rebreather. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, I used to be Howard's deep-diving mate on board his wonderfully maintained dive boat and was very comfortable in using his dive boat for exploring this liner with a rebreather. Because of its relatively shallow depth (if you can call 140 feet relatively shallow), I had a long bottom time and a fairly long decompression. The nice thing about the rebreather is that it optimizes your breathing mixture based upon pre-set limits of oxygen partial pressure. Using this additional time on the wreck site gives much more opportunities to explore the wreck site without having to be too concerned about running out of gas. After shackling into the high section of the engine, the remainder of the wreck can be explored by looking forward beyond the huge boilers or aft in various collapsed hull plating that hide a vast array of ship items or huge lobsters.

One of the best ocean liner books and the definitive source of information on the steamer Oregon is a book by Herb "Cap" Kaasmann called Oregon Greyhound of the Atlantic . Mr Kaasmann has written the complete story of this beautiful liner from its inception to the many diving expeditions to visit her historic watery remains. The book was published in 1993 in soft cover and quickly went out of print. I have had the pleasure of chatting with "Cap" a couple of times this year and he has confided to me that he has copies remaining of his book that can be ordered directly through him at his email address of olwalrus@comcast.net . This book is an absolutely MUST HAVE for any person interested in ocean liners, shipwrecks and diving. For me, the fascinating history of this ocean liner and the advent of the generation of huge super-ocean liners like Titanic, Lusitania, Mauritania and Olympic makes this book a real treasure to have in your collection!

RMS Republic - Sad Times for Older Sister of Titanic

I noticed in recent days the news about the plight of Titanic's older White Star Line sister named Republic.  The Republic sank on January 24th, 1909 when she collided in a dense fog with an immigrant ship named SS Florida. The approximate location of her sinking is about 50 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The Republic was reportedly carrying a fortune of 5 tons of newly minted American Gold Eagle coins valued at $3 million in 1909, 15 tons of gold bars, a Navy payroll with estimated current value around $70 million and several tons of silver, as well as passengers' jewelry.  Additionally, it was reported to have on board JP Morgan's rare library of documents and books. She was discovered in 1981 by Martin Bayerle and salvaged throughout the mid-1980's. While I was diving the Andrea Doria through the 1980's, I could look off to the horizon and see about 5 miles away all the machinery of the rigs that were used to split open the Republic like a ripe watermelon. In all their destruction of this once-beautiful vessel, not one part of this vast fortune was found. Evenually, the salvors lost money and abandoned their claim to the ship. Auctions were held for the recovered artifacts from the Republic; however, there were very few buyers for these items. Literally boxes of artifacts were sold at a cheap rate and then the ship seemed to disappear for the past 15 years. In the mid-1990's, many of us that dove the Andrea Doria every year would then come over and dive Republic once.  Unfortunately, the salvors had broken up the ship very badly and we were all disappointed in the structural integrity of the ship.

Now Mr. Bayerle has, once again, secured salvage rights to the Republic. Since she lies in the shipping lanes into and out of New York, the Coast Guard has a mandatory 180 day notice to mariners period that must be given before diving can commence. With the weather window to dive the Republic all but closed, the operations will not begin until 2006. It will be certainly interesting to see if Mr. Bayerle's efforts will pay off or whether he will only succeed in desecrating the wreck site a second time.

Underwater Gold Mine - The Story of RMS Niagara

In 1913, the Royal Mail Ship, RMS Niagara was built by John Brown & Co. in Clydebank, Glascow, Scotland, to the highest standards of the great ocean liners of her time. This same shipyard had produced both the mighty Lusitania and the beautiful Empress of Ireland. She was made specifically for New Zealand-based Union Shipping Line's transpacific fleet and her ports of call were Vancouver, Auckland and Sydney. Although not a very large ocean liner at 525ft long and a displacement of 13,415 tons, she was considered quite luxurious and her passengers affectionately called her the “Titanic of the Pacific”. She served the Pacific route for quarter of a century and became an icon of style, quality and reliability.

In 1940, the Niagara was appropriated for Britain's fight against the Germans in World War II. Since New Zealand was a commonwealth of Britain, the Niagara was used quite strategically for its transpacific ties into North America. On June 18th, her four-year captain, Bill Martin was given a secret project. In order to fuel Britain's war efforts, the Niagara was to haul a cargo of eight tons of gold bullion from its home port of Auckland to Vancouver, British Columbia. The bullion was being used to pay the United States for munitions that were essential for Britain's struggle in defense of its homeland.

Unfortunately for the Niagara, the Germans knew of this sea passageway across the Pacific and ordered a German raider, Orion, to lay an extensive minefield in the Hauraki Gulf under cover of the night that very same week. The Niagara hit a mine and slowly sank in a calm sea with no loss of life. Although all the passengers and crew were returned safely to Auckland later the same day, the beautiful liner RMS Niagara was lost with eight tons of gold bullion in 400 feet of water.

Following the sinking, plans were immediately made to recover the gold from the Niagara. A deep salvage attempt of this depth would be one of the most ambitious efforts ever undertaken. Led by Captain J P Williams, a salvage crew and boat named Claymore, the salvage team was assembled for the recovery. It took this crew almost a full year of arduous work to recover the majority of the gold bullion. Later in 1953, an original salvage dive leader employed by Captain Williams named Johnstone recovered all the remaining gold bars with the exception of five bars.

In January of 1999, the first technical divers ( Tim Cashman and Dave Apperley) to visit the Niagara using mixed-gas, closed circuit rebreathers were accomplished at close to 400 feet. Using full-support diving and video teams, the Niagara was extensively filmed and this footage has been shown several times on National Geographic television. The film shows a very beautiful and intact ship with very little damage from the mine or the previous salvage expeditions. May this beautiful ship rest in peace!

Niagara Falls Nostalgia - RMS Niagara and two USS Niagara(s)

I would like to thank Belinda Sawyer for breaking away from her busy schedule to give us a live report from the beautiful Malpelo and Cocos Islands. In three weeks, Belinda will report LIVE from the wreck site of the German battleship, Bismarck and our blog will have that exclusive story.

I would like to continue this coming week with ships that have a theme related to Niagara Falls.  The first ship that we will report on is the Royal Mail Ship - RMS Niagara. This converted luxury liner was carrying eight tons of gold bullion and hit a mine. She sank off New Zealand's waters on June 19th, 1940 in about 400 feet.

The other ships that we will report on are the two different USS Niagara(s). USS Niagara (the first) was built in 1857, served the Union in the Civil War and led a very long life. The second USS Niagara originally was called the steam yacht Niagara and was built in 1898. Because of the onset of World War I, the United States Navy purchased her in 1917 and renamed her USS Niagara.

Philadelphia's Rich Nautical History - Part IV SS United States

Last month, we ran a weblog story on the SS United States, that lies at Pier 82 on Philadelphia's waterfront.  Since that time, I had a chance to visit this beautiful but aging ship at its berth. Since I spend so much time diving sunken ocean liners, it is so humbling to see how huge and majestic these ships are at their piers. The United States is not opened to the public and is fenced in by industrial corporations that let trucks ladened with cargo in and out of the piers. I took this photo on Sunday while positioning the camera through a metal fence.

There are two conservatory groups that are trying to preserve and save the United States. The two groups are the SS United States Foundation and the SS United States Conservancy. Obviously there is a lot of love for this ship and it is probably too simplistic to think that these two organizations should work together in preserving and saving the United States. I had a wonderful conversation with Daniel Trachtenberg, President of the SS United States Foundation about the ship and he felt very optimistic that the United States can be saved. Both organizations have very active groups that conduct regular meetings and activities throughout the year. I applaud all their efforts and I wish them the best of luck on their objectives. This ship is a national treasure that I would hate to see leave us! The United States is still recognized for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing and the Hales Trophy (or Blue Riband) has her name enshrined on the trophy. Nautical Research Group spends quite a bit of time doing presentations and research at the Unites States Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, Long Island, New York where this beautiful trophy is displayed. The following picture was taken in November while visiting with Andrea Doria survivors. To visit our earlier weblog on the United States, please go to:
http://shipwreck.blogs.com/shipwrecks_historical_tim/2005/03/united_states_s.html

Philadelphia's Rich Nautical History - Introduction

Lately, I have been flying out of the Philadelphia Airport more and more. It is not to say that it is any easier to get to than Newark or the other New York-based airports. However, as I travel southbound from Nautical Research Group's central-New Jersey office on Interstate 95, through Philadelphia Center City, along the Delaware River, I get a sense of elation as I see a huge spectrum of our country's nautical history along the river banks.  I am truly amazed at how much maritime heritage ( and the diversity of ships and their related time-frames) is within plain view as we travel towards the airport. Every time I drive through this section of Interstate 95, I am craning my neck to see all the fabulous vessels that defined our history. 

For my next series, we will give a brief description of many of the tremendous ships that are docked in a brief five mile section of Interstate 95.  The diversity of ships is staggering and is literally a living text book on American nautical history. Within the Penn's Landing section, we will visit the USS Olympia, the flagship of Admiral Dewey during the Spanish-American War. Our next part of this series will be a tour of the Moshulu, the largest four-masted sailing ship in the world that was built in 1904, and now serves as a fine dining restaurant. The final ship in Penn's Landing that we will visit is the USS Becuna Submarine. This veteran of World War II completed 5 battle patrols and later served our country during the Cold War. Moving further southward from Penn's Landing is the beautiful ocean liner SS United States. Last month, we did a segment on the SS United States ( http://shipwreck.blogs.com/shipwrecks_historical_tim/2005/03/united_states_s.html ) and I hope to revisit this ship within the next eight weeks. Our last segment will be an overview of the Philadelphia Naval Yard, our countries oldest and most historic ship yard. Many of our most decorated naval ships were either built or served in this ship yard.  I hope that you enjoy our tour of Philadelphia's great nautical history!