The sunken wreck of a WWII Nazi arms ship has been found in the Baltic Sea by Russian authorities who are preparing to remove its huge arsenal of shells.

More than 10,000 shells containing explosives are on board, but without detonators, a Russian government official told the BBC.

The removal work could take two years, Maxim Vladimirov said.

The operation, involving 18 divers, is scheduled to begin later this month.

Mr Vladimirov, a senior official in the Russian Ministry for Emergencies, said the wreck had already been fully surveyed. There was a potential hazard, he said, although the wreck was not in a shipping lane.

Once ashore, the shells will be blown up by engineers at a military site, he said.

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According to a new book, the Titanic, which sank tonight 98 years ago, didn’t send out a distress signal for 47 minutes after hitting the ice-berg.

Mr Maltin said: ”They (the ship’s authorities) may have been considering the public relations aspect of it and was it going to sink or not because then they would have rather kept it quiet, there may have been a slight bit of delay.”

He said the order to go to the lifeboats was given at the same time as the distress signal.

The writer added: ”It may be that it took them that long to look at the damage but it seems likely to me that they were unwilling to send out a distress message.”

He said it was a moot point whether lives could have been saved but added the relatively nearby Californian vessel could have been at the scene earlier had the alert gone out before midnight when key crew were awake.

When it eventually received the alert it was after midnight and the Californian waited until 5.30am to respond.

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Investigators have found what may be the oldest shipwreck on the North Carolina coast.

Investigators from the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch came to Corolla, N.C., to document the estimated 400-year-old wreck before it disappears, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday.

The wreck has already drifted two miles since storms uncovered it in December.

“It wants to go south,” Branch curator Nathan Henry said.

During its movement floorboards and the keel of the 70-foot ship have come loose and disappeared, and the wreck is in danger of completely falling apart, the Virginian-Pilot said.

Some local residents, including the avid beachcomber who first discovered the wreck, want it raised from the sands and preserved.

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The skeleton of a mongrel who went down with the Mary Rose on July 19, 1545 has been pieced together.

The dog, now preserved as an almost complete canine skeleton, acquired the nickname Hatch after divers discovered her remains near the sliding hatch door of the Mary Rose’s carpenter’s cabin.

Experts believe the hound, estimated to have been between 18 months and two years old, earned her keep as the ship’s ratter – superstitious Tudor seafarers did not have cats on board ship as they were thought to bring bad luck.

And she was probably very good at her job – only the partial remains of rats’ skeletons have been found on board the Mary Rose.

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The discovery of a 3,000-year-old shipwreck shows that European trade was thriving way back in the Bronze Age.

The vessel, carrying copper and tin ingots used to make weapons and jewellery, sank off the coast near Salcombe in Devon and is thought to date from 900BC.

But it was only last year that the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, a team of amateur archaeologists, brought its cargo to the surface.

The discovery was not announced until this month’s International Shipwreck Conference, in Plymouth, Devon.

It is thought that the goods – 259 copper ingots and 27 of tin – were destined for Britain but collected from several different sources in Europe.

The discovery reveals the high level of sophistication maritime trade in Europe had reached, even in ancient times.

Tin ingots from this period have not been found in Britain before.

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