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Protect Our Seas
News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
River wreck revealed
A waterway authority was conducting a routine measurement in northern Germany ’ s Trave River when they stumbled upon a rare piece of history — a 17thcentury shipwreck . Researchers from Kiel
University , who revealed the find on July 26 , 2022 , believe the ship sank during the end of the Hanseatic period , between the 13th to 17th centuries when a network of 190 cities in 16 northern European countries dominated maritime trade in the Baltic . “ Independent dating of the ship ’ s timbers suggests it was constructed in the mid-17th century ,” said Dr Fritz Jürgens of the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University . “ You always hope to make a find like this , and suddenly you have one right before your eyes .”
Remember the Mesaba
Researchers from Bangor University say they have located the wreck of SS Mesaba , a merchant vessel that had been travelling in the same waters as the Titanic at the time of the infamous tragedy in 1912 . The Mesaba reportedly sent Titanic a message warning of heavy pack ice and a great number of icebergs , but it was never relayed to the Titanic ’ s bridge . In 1918 , SS Mesaba sank in the Irish Sea after being torpedoed by a German submarine . The research team found the Mesaba among 273 shipwrecks scattered across 7,500 square miles ( 19,400 square kilometres ) of the sea . The researchers used multibeam sonar and combined the results with maritime archives to identify the merchant ship ’ s final resting place . A dramatic sonar image shows the Mesaba split into two main parts .
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