Some were legendary ships that fascinated people for generations, like the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ship that sank in Antarctica in 1915. Others were common workhorses that disappeared into the depths, such as the Ironton, a barge carrying 1,000 tons of grain when it sank in Lake Huron in 1894.
Regardless of their place in history, more shipwrecks are being found today than ever before, say those who work in the exclusive world of deep-sea exploration.
“More are being found, and I also think more people are taking notice,” said James P. Delgado, an underwater archaeologist based in Washington, D.C. He added: “We are in a transitional period where the real time “The deep sea begins.” and the exploration of the oceans in general is just beginning.”
So what’s behind the increase?
Experts point to a number of factors. They say the technology has made it easier and cheaper to scan the ocean floor and made hunting accessible to both amateurs and professionals. More and more people are exploring the ocean for research and commercial purposes. Shipwreck hunters also look for wrecks for their historical value rather than sunken treasure. And climate change has increased storms and beach erosion, exposing shipwrecks in shallow water.
Underwater robots and new imaging are helping.
Experts agreed that new technologies have revolutionized deep-sea research.
Free-swimming robots called autonomous underwater vehicles are far more common than they were 20 years ago and can scan large swathes of the ocean floor without being tethered to a research vessel, said J. Carl Hartsfield, the director and senior program manager of the Oceanographic Systems Laboratory at Woods Hole Massachusetts Oceanographic Institution.
Remotely operated vehicles could travel 25 miles beneath the ice in polar regions, he said. And satellite images can detect shipwrecks based on clouds of sediment moving around them and visible from space.
“The technology is more powerful and portable and fits scientists’ budgets,” Hartsfield said, adding, “You can sample larger and larger areas of the ocean per dollar.”
Jeremy Weirich, director of ocean science at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the expanded use of telepresence systems that stream images of the ocean floor to anyone with an internet connection has allowed more people to explore and discover shipwrecks in real time.
And digitizing archives has made it easier to find and consult historical documents, said David L. Means, a marine scientist and shipwreck researcher.
Still, it is still easier to organize a mission to search for a famous wreck than an unknown one, Mr. Hartsfield said.
“You can get investors to find out what happened to Amelia Earhart, but you can’t get investors to find cargo ships,” he said. “It’s all about the compelling story.”
Climate change is a factor.
Experts say climate change is playing a role, causing more frequent and powerful storms that erode coastlines and stir up sunken ships.
For example, in late January, several months after Hurricane Fiona struck Canada, a 19th-century shipwreck stranded in the remote part of Cape Ray, Newfoundland, causing a stir in the small community of about 250 residents.
In 2020, a couple walking along a beach in St. Augustine, Florida noticed wooden beams and bolts sticking out of the sand. Archaeologists said the pieces were most likely remains of the Caroline Eddy, a ship built during the Civil War that sank in 1880. According to experts, they were likely exposed due to coastal erosion caused by a tropical storm called Eta and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Such coastal discoveries could become more common, said Dr. Delgado. “As the ocean rises,” he said, “things that have been buried or hidden for more than a century will be unearthed.”
Treasure hunting isn’t what it used to be.
Private treasure hunters still search for shipwrecks in the hope of finding sunken gold, coins or jewels. But their discoveries often get mired in litigation and rarely are their claims ever realized, said Deborah N. Carlson, president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, a nonprofit research organization.
She pointed out that underwater archaeologist Peter Throckmorton once called sea treasure hunting “the worst investment in the world” and noted that it “only benefits promoters and lawyers.”
Private claims to a sunken ship can be challenged by states or insurers. Spain, for example, successfully defended its claim that it remained the owner of a Spanish frigate sunk by the British in 1804 after an American treasure-hunting company found the shipwreck off Portugal in 2007 and took its hoard of gold and silver coins to a warehouse in Florida.
The UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2001, aimed to protect shipwrecks from looting and called for countries to preserve them and other underwater relics “for the benefit of humanity.”
Mr Hartsfield said if the goal is to “observe and not disturb” a shipwreck, costs go down because no one has to lower a submersible on a winch to retrieve items from the seabed. Scientists, he said, could simply record the artifacts they find with a video camera.
“Now your gold coin is a 4K image,” Mr. Hartsfield said, referring to a type of high-definition video. “If your sensors are better, you don’t necessarily have to recover an object to study it.”
Others join in and explore the ocean depths.
While treasure hunters still ply their trade, they have been joined by more and more commercial and research companies that have expanded the scope of deep-sea exploration.
Mr. Weirich said more and more shipwrecks have been found over the years, in large part as private companies seek oil and gas concessions, cables and pipelines.
Phil Hartmeyer, marine archaeologist with NOAA Ocean Exploration, said more private research groups are also scanning the ocean floor, helping bring scientists around the world closer to their goal of mapping the entire ocean floor by 2030.
For example, NOAA works with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a nonprofit research group founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt; the Ocean Exploration Trust, a nonprofit organization founded by Robert Ballard, who led the 1985 expedition to discover the Titanic; and OceanX, a marine research company founded by billionaire investor Ray Dalio and his son Mark.
Dr. Carlson said the field of underwater archeology has also “expanded significantly” as more graduate programs produce archaeologists interested in excavating sunken ships for their historical value.
“There are a lot more people in this discipline than there were 50 years ago,” said Dr. Carlson, “and a lot more people are looking for and finding shipwrecks.”
Source link
2024-03-23 14:05:22
www.nytimes.com
