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.

Empress of Ireland Side-Scan Sonar Imagery

On the Internet are fascinating side-scan sonar (SSS) photographs of the Empress of Ireland taken some years ago by the Canadian Navy Route Survey Office using a Klein 5000 SSS. The web site's URL for seeing these photos are at: 

http://www.northernatlanticdive.com/empress_sss.htm

It looks like the Empress is literally melting into the bottom of the St. Lawrence. What you are seeing is in fact the way she is lying on the sea floor. The upper decks have collapsed and have slid down the starboard side of the wreck exactly like the Klein SSS is showing. It is very difficult to get a view of the whole wreck because you would have to capture small glimpses of the wreck over multiple dives. Visibility is very bad and the lighting is extremely dark. These Klein sonar pieces are dated as the wreck has deteriorated much more than what is seen on these sonar pictures. The center portion of the ship where salvage was undertaken to remove the teak decking in the mid-1990's causing most of the long term damage. I would suspect that the removal of this teak has accelerated the demise of this shipwreck by about 75 years. Additionally, it has caused the stern to partially "cave-in" and its once pristine section where I once sat in a wrought-iron ship deck chair, paying my respects to over 800 still entombed in her wreckage, now totally gone. I will be leading a dive expedition out to the wreck site beginning next weekend with the purpose of capturing video and photographs of the ship's current state of decay.

Reuters Report on the Titanic Auction

A couple of weeks ago, Reuters television reported on the successful auction of Titanic-related materials and rarities at the Christies auction held in New York City. Many fantastic items from the Titanic that included plaques and other items from the recovered lifeboats were included in this event. I was invited to this auction but unfortunately had some other projects that kept me away from attending this gala affair.

For those of you that missed this auction, the following link is a Reuters news report about the auction that highlights several of the key Titanic pieces. Included in this film clip is my underwater video footage of the Titanic that I took during my 2003 scientific research diving expedition to the wreck site.  I have been profiled several times by Reuters news service for my underwater video footage of Titanic. The link for this news report can be found at : http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoChannel.aspx?storyid=ba90bbbe52187f3d646516b2d5cef91d12de720d

Additional footage that I have shot on Titanic have found themselves in several television documentaries that include two National Geographic specials, a History Channel special and a commercially-available National Geographic DVD. Our Titanic underwater footage was used by Partisan Pictures for the promotion of the 2004 Robert Ballard  / NOAA expedition to Titanic.

Do I Save the Passengers or Save the Ship?

The captain of the Andrea Doria, Piero Calamai, had a huge decision to make. Should he save the ship by driving it into the Nantucket Shoals or should he save the passengers by staying out in the "Times Square" of shipping and rescue his passengers. If he drove the ship off to the Shoals he would not be able to lower the lifeboats and potential rescue crafts would of been too far away to assist should abandon ship be required. Remember, the list of the boat was at least 20 degrees making the rudder ineffective. If he stayed in the Times Square area, many ships would be in the area and there would be a high percentage of passengers saved; however, the ship would be doomed. Captain Calamai did the heroic thing and saved the passengers over the ship. He was the last Italian Officer to leave the ship and was pretty much resolved to go down with the ship (Second Officer Guido Badano convinced him to leave the ship). Initially Calamai did wait and hold out for a tow but realized by the time he left that any efforts were in vain. His valiant attempts to save the passengers and ship will be formally recognized by the Andrea Doria Survivors Reunion.

The Andrea Doria's Untold Psychological Scars

A new book about the Andrea Doria will be put out by Andrea Doria survivor Pierette Domenica Simpson this month entitled Alive on the Andrea Doria. This book is advertised as the first Doria book written by a survivor about the tragedy.  Actually, two survivors have written about their Andrea Doria accounts in two very obscure books that deal with psychological trauma of surviving this tragedy and how they deal with their lives. The first book was written by Canadian Doria survivor Eugene Gladstone and was printed in the mid-1960's entitled In the Wake of the Andrea Doria and the second book was printed in the late 1960's by Doria survivor Barbara Boggs Benzinger entitled The Prison of my Mind. In both books, the authors try to deal with their lives following the psychological impact of this tragedy. I can tell you that there were only 46 deaths on the Andrea Doria but uncounted hundreds of survivors that experienced post-traumatic stress syndrome following this tragedy.

Eugene Gladstone's book was originally a 'diary' that his doctor suggested he put together following his psychological trauma on board the Andrea Doria.  It delves into his coming to terms with his entire life and what it means to him to be alive. He has taken this diary and made it a remarkable book about the dealings of mental disorder.

Barbara Boggs Benzinger's book "The Prison on my Mind" is a fascinating read. The book was written from her coming to terms with her own mental illness that she became aware of following the trauma caused by the Andrea Doria tragedy. The book branches out into her own phobias and how she tried to overcome her demons. Although you might not learn much more about the tragedy itself, you will finally gain an understanding of the hidden scars that the Andrea Doria tragedy produced in many survivors. No book about the Andrea Doria has captured this element and I have found that it was one of the most devastating emotion that many survivors carry even to this day.