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shipwrecks, Page 2

Meet our facilitators

For the third run of Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds, our facilitators are: (L-R) Crystal Safadi, Dani Newman, Rodrigo Ortiz Vazquez and Ammandeep Mahal. To find out more about the facilitators, click on our interactive image. Crystal, Dani, Rodrigo and Ammandeep will be responding to queries posted by learners in 'Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds', as well as taking part in our weekly TweetChats. Continue reading →

HMS Invincible dive

Thanks to Rodrigo, one of our new facilitators, for sharing this short video from last weekend's dive on Royal Navy's first HMS Invincible. The ship sank on Horse Tail Sand in the Eastern Solent in 1758. The bow of the site has been scoured out, revealing the gun deck and various artefacts. For more information about the site, please visit: http://www.maritimearchaeologytrust. Continue reading →

Improved timelines in Shipwrecks course

The course team has been busy reading through all of the feedback from the last run of the course, so that we can make improvements before the course goes live again (hopefully at the end of March/beginning of April). Before then, we will include some updates on changes that we have made to the course. You may remember that the course features two timelines: 1.15 The development of a discipline 2.26 The archaeology of seafaring through the ages (N.B. Continue reading →

T – 24 hours

After a lot of hard work by a huge number of people the Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds course goes live tomorrow.  I and my colleagues have been spending the weekend reading through the different elements trying to iron out any minor issues, all the while thinking about how it will be received.  At points while we were putting this together it felt like we'd taken on an impossible challenge. Continue reading →

Shipwreck: Empress of Ireland

Built by the Fairfield Shipping Company of Scotland and launched in 1906, The Empress of Ireland and her sister ship, the Empress of Britain were steam liners built for the transatlantic trade. At 14,000 tonnes in weight and with a length of 550ft (167m), the liners would routinely make the trip from Liverpool to Quebec in six days at a speed of 20 knots. Each ship was designed with watertight doors so that it would float if any two compartments flooded. Continue reading →

Shipwreck: SS Richard Montgomery

When asked which shipwreck is my favourite shipwreck the SS Richard Montgomery immediately sprang to mind. The WW2 liberty ship has been quietly sat atop Sheerness Middle Sand bank within the outer Thames Estuary since 1944. Sandwiched between two shipping channels, her masts eerily protrude from the water’s surface and carry warning signs of her dangerous nature. Continue reading →

Dutch Schooner the Fenna

Dutch Schooner Fenna lost 11th March 1881. Video footage courtesy of New Forest National Park Authority. http://youtu.be/6rs7nHNl5tk With thanks to the Maritime Archaeology Trust (formerly The Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology) for the use of their archive footage. The Fenna was a two-masted Dutch schooner of 172 tons constructed of timber in 1863. En route to Italy from the Netherlands, severe weather conditions caused the 18 year old vessel to leak badly. Continue reading →