#maritime-archaeology

#maritime-archaeology

It gets darker and darker. Eventually, out of the gloom, the seabed appears-or, if you've done it right, the shipwreck appears. Mortimer, the leader of the British technical diving team Gasperados, was searching for the Tampa, a United States Coast Guard cutter that sank in 1918. A German submarine torpedoed the vessel, killing all 131 people on board-the largest single loss of life in American naval combat during World War I.

A shipwreck discovered off the coast of Copenhagen has been identified as a cog, a medieval cargo ship, of massive dimensions. Approximately 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 20 feet high when intact, the ship had an estimated cargo capacity of 300 tons. It was built around 1410, and is the largest cog ever found. Cogs were designed to be highly navigable, even when fully loaded with bulky cargo.

Strabo had visited the Egyptian city around 29-25BC and wrote of such boats: These vessels are luxuriously fitted out and used by the royal court for excursions; and the crowd of revellers who go down from Alexandria by the canal to the public festivals; for every day and every night is crowded with people on the boats who play the flute and dance without restraint and with extreme licentiousness.

The ship's purpose was confirmed by the discovery of 152 pieces of light blue-green Buncheong stoneware, bearing the characters Naeseom, referring to the Naeseomsi, the state official responsible for managing tribute food and drink for the royal court and high-ranking officials. Grain transport ships were part of the state-run joun transport system. The cargo ships carried grain and other goods from provincial warehouses to the royal capital of Hanyang.

A remarkably preserved Roman merchant ship from the late Roman Empire resting just about six feet (two meters) beneath the crystal blue waters off the coast of the island of Mallorca, near the Iberian Peninsula, is set to be recovered and raised starting in 2026. The Ses Fontanelles shipwreck, dating back to the mid-4th century CE, has provided researchers with a detailed look at a time when Christianity was becoming more predominant across the Mediterranean.

Then I quickly realized, yeah, trying to tell stories about this history in 200-word bits didn't make any sense,

It's a 2,000-year-old boat from the Sea of Galilee, the type mentioned in the Gospels, and sized for about 12 people. You can actually connect it to one of the most famous stories every Christian knows, the account of Jesus walking on water and calming the storm on the lake.