Engineer from Dutch Wylde Swan Lost in Attempt to Assist Sinking Wyvern

In a tragic twist, the engineer from the Dutch topsail schooner Wylde Swan is presumed to have drowned while attempting to assist the sinking Norwegian ketch Wyvern. When the Wyvern began taking on water while sailing in the Baltic in the … Continue reading

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor ? Breathalyzers on Navy Ships & a Couple of Drunken Captains

From 1655 to 1970, the Royal Navy issued daily rations of rum to their sailors.  In the US Navy, alcohol was prohibited in 1913.  Now almost 100 years later, the US Navy is going one step farther.  Ray Mabus, the Secretary of … Continue reading

The World’s Oldest Champagne Sells at Auction

Last  July we posted about divers finding intact bottles of champagne, believed to date from between 1782 and 1788, in the hold of a shipwreck on the Baltic seabed.   In November, a bottle of the “world’s oldest champagne” was opened and tasted by … Continue reading

Titantic eaten by bacteria while shipwrecked fleets in Baltic well preserved

Two interesting stories of shipwrecks in the press recently – the wreck of the Titanic is being consumed by newly identified steel-munching bacteria, while scientists are discovering large numbers of well preserved shipwrecks in the dark and cold Baltic where there are 1,500 confirmed wrecks … Continue reading