A dozen shipwrecks, some of which are unusually well-preserved, have been found at the bottom of the Baltic sea by a gas company building an underwater pipeline. [Thx Kristen]

The oldest wreck probably dates back to medieval times and could be up to 800 years old, while the others are likely from the 17th to 19th centuries, said Peter Norman, of Sweden’s National Heritage Board.

“They could be interesting, but we have only seen pictures of their exterior. Many of them are considered to be fully intact. They look very well-preserved,” Norman told The Associated Press.

Thousands of wrecks from medieval ships to warships sunk during the world wars of the 20th century have been found in the Baltic Sea, which doesn’t have the ship worm that destroys wooden wrecks in saltier oceans.

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A team of archaeologists are hoping to determine once and for all whether American whalers discovered the east coast of Australia before Captain Cook.

The story began in 1803, after Matthew Flinders had completed his epic circumnavigation of Australia and was returning to England. He was a passenger on HMS Porpoise, a 10-gun sloop under the command of Lieutenant Robert Fowler. The ship was travelling in convoy, accompanied by Cato, an armed cargo ship, and Bridgewater, a cargo ship owned by the East India Company.

But disaster struck close to midnight on August 17 when Porpoise hit an uncharted reef in the dark. Fowler ordered a cannon to be fired to warn the other ships. In the confusion Cato and Bridgewater were heading for a catastrophic collision until Captain Park, on the Cato, changed course, even though that meant hitting the reef about 400 metres from the Porpoise.

To his shame, the captain of the Bridgewater made no effort to rescue the two shipwrecked crews, ignominiously sailing on to India. ”The Bridgewater’s captain did the dirty,” says Hosty. ”His crew were so revolted by his actions that some of them jumped ship in India, refusing to sail with him.”

Flinders and Fowler stayed on board the Porpoise that night, rescuing those still in the water – only three men out of 98 died – and salvaging whatever might aid their eventual survival.

But on the treeless sand island itself, other crew members made a startling discovery: the timber remains of a previous wreck.

[Full story]

Toptenz has posted an fascinating list showcasing ten ghost ships and their strange stories.

8. The Ourang Medan

The story of the Ourang Medan begins in 1947, when two American ships received a distress call while navigating the Strait of Malacca, off the coast of Malaysia. The caller identified himself as a member of the crew of the Ourang Medan, a Dutch vessel, and supposedly claimed that the ship’s captain and crew were all dead or dying. The messages became jumbled and bizarre before trailing off and ending with the words: “I die.” The ships quickly raced to the scene to help. When they arrived, they found that the Ourang Medan was undamaged, but that the entire crew—even the ship’s dog— was dead, their bodies and faces locked in terrified poses and expressions, and many pointing at something that was not there.  Before the rescuers could investigate further, the ship mysteriously caught on fire, and they had to evacuate. Soon after, the Ourang Medan is said to have exploded and then sank. While the details and the overall veracity of the Ourang Medan story are still widely debated, there have been a number of theories proposed about what might have caused the death of the crew. The most popular of these is that the ship was illegally transporting nitroglycerin or some kind of illegal nerve agent, which was not properly secured and seeped out into the air. Others, meanwhile, have claimed the ship was a victim of a UFO attack or some other kind of paranormal event.

The waters surrounding the island of Dominica are littered with colonial wrecks and artifacts. Due to a lack of funds to officially recover historically important pieces, looters have been raiding the ocean floor.

The Archaeology advisor to the Cultural Patrimony Office said the underwater patrimony is being lost “from being stolen” while the country loses an opportunity for not contracting companies specialized in recovering the historically important pieces. “I feel that this subaqueous patrimony is being lost, it’s being diluted, they are stealing it.”

Borrel, speaking in the seminar “Convention on the Protection of the Subaqueous Cultural Patrimony” held in the Museum of Modern Art, said he can cite 20 sackings of ships whose pieces were removed to later sell and were even offered on the Web.

Divers off the coast of North Carolina have recovered an anchor thought to belong to the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. [Thx Matt Poland]

An anchor from a shipwreck thought to be Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was so unstable that divers in North Carolina retrieved it Wednesday rather than waiting until next year.

Divers raised the 4.5-foot, 160-pound grapnel, or anchor, from the wreck in the Atlantic Ocean near Beaufort on Wednesday and will display it Thursday at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. The anchor originally had four prongs, but now has 1 1/2.

Two divers put straps on the anchor, then small lift bags that they filled with air, said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, the director of the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck project. When the grapnel reached the surface, a crane brought it on the boat.