http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/ Maritime Matters Copyright OnTheLam 2006 Solupress News - www.solupress.com http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article402.aspThe shipwrecked predecessor to Lord Nelson's HMS Victory, which is thought to contain millions of pounds' worth of gold, is thought to have been found at the bottom of the English Channel. Naval historians have expressed concern that the British Government might be planning to "do a deal" with Odyssey over the contents of the wreck, which is officially a war grave and therefore inviolable in law.http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article362.aspThousands of pieces of timber have now been washed up on the beaches across southern England from the cargo ship Ice Prince which sank during a storm off the Dorset coast on 13 January 2008. Coastguards said the timber, several feet deep on the tide line, now stretched along the Sussex coast and was moving east towards the Kent coast http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article310.aspA third round of explosives has finally split the beached container ship MSC Napoli in two off the Devon coast. The explosions were triggered soon after midday on 20 July 2007 on MSC Napoli, which has been stranded off Branscombe since it was damaged in a storm in January. http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article305.aspExplosives will be used for a second time on the MS Napoli, the freight ship grounded off the south coast of Devon after attempts last night to use tugboats to pull it apart failed. Efforts to break up the stricken ship for salvage were renewed as questions surfaced about previous incidents involving the ship and its overall seaworthiness. http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article303.aspThe stricken container ship the MSC Napoli is to be split apart today using explosives, after a failed attempt last week to refloat it, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. The operation risks more oil spilling into the sea and on to the Devon coast - part of a world heritage site - but the coastguard agency said splitting the ship would give the salvage teams more options for safely disposing of its parts.http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article299.asp[bold]update: 18 July 2007[/bold]http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article298.aspThe container vessel MSC Napoli will be beached off the coast of southern England after inspections showed she had a three-metre wide crack in her hull. Salvagers said the cracks in the ship were so bad that the vessel could not be towed and will be beached at high tide on Thursday in shallower waters about half a mile north of where she was originally sittinghttp://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article263.aspMaritime lawyer James Goold said today Spain filed claims against three wrecks recovered recently by Odyssey Marine Exploration the Florida based treasure-hunting company, who recently announced the "discovery" of a 17th-century ship wreck, code-named [bold]"Black Swan"[/bold]. The trove of 500,000 silver coins displayed by Odyssey this month drew international attention and nearly doubled Odyssey's stock price.http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article277.aspUS deep-sea treasure hunters have found a record haul of half a million silver and gold coins, hundreds of millions of dollars, in a 17th century shipwreck off the English Coast. Initial reports said it was from the [italic]Merchant Royal [/italic] which sank off the Cornish coast in 1641. However the Spanish government has challenged this claim and is investigating suspicions that the haul is from its waters or from a shipwrecked Spanish galleon. http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article270.aspThe Cutty Sark was one of the last great sailing ships which sailed between the UK and the Far East. It was a tea clipper - bringing tea from China back to the UK. It is believed to be the last surviving ship of its type in the world. Click on heading to read story in full.http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article264.aspThe Cutty Sark, the world-famous 19th century tea clipper and a historic relic of the golden age of sail, was engulfed by flames on Monday 21st May 2007. Maureen Taylor, whose home adjoins the Cutty Sark site, said she was woken by a "loud bang". "As soon as I looked out of the window I saw flames and they were high already. There was ash everywhere in the sky", she added. [bold][italic] 31:05:07 Latest News: the Public Appeal has raised over £500,000 to date.....now read on [/italic][/bold]: http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article234.aspIt is believed mermaid legends may have originated when sailors from a distance glimpsed dugongs swimming in the water, and mistook them for half-human/half-fish creatures. These aquatic mammals, also known as Sea Cows, can have very lifelike faces. Our illustration shows a Dugong being exhibited in Aden in the early 20th century under the title of Mermaid.http://onthelam.solupress.com/onthelam/news/articles/article188.aspIn the wake of last week's gales, the container ship MSC Napoli was scuttled off Boscombe Bay Dorset and over 200 containers washed overboard. An orgy of looting followed on the beach. Or is it legitimate salvage? UK Law is unclear.