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There are a lot of weird things in the ocean, really
weird things. Whether they belong there or not, the sheer volume of
strange discoveries that have been recovered from the sea is
mind-boggling, and it grows day by day. Here's a list of some of the
most unique.
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Greece's Ancient Computer
The Antikythera mechanism is one of the most amazing discoveries of the
present age, despite being in the ocean for thousands of years. The
oldest known complex gear mechanism, its uses are unclear, but it's
sometimes called the first analog computer due to its sheer complexity
in construction. Believed to be designed to predict lunar and solar
eclipses based on Babylonian arithmetic progression cycles, the true
function of the mechanism remains a mystery. It was discovered in 1900. |
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Apollo 11's Engines
In March of 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apparently decided that it was
time to do something completely insane, albeit fascinating, and went
about recovering the engines that were used in the takeoff of Apollo 11.
They'd had been lying at the bottom of the ocean since the craft's
launch in 1969. The modern age artifacts were recovered in secret, and
remained cloistered until they could be positively identified as being
from the legendary flight. The two engines and parts that were recovered
are currently being restored before they go on display at the Kansas
Cosmosphere and Space Center. |
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An Ancient City
How do you lose a whole city? Surprisingly, it happens more often than
you might think. With sea levels constantly rising thanks to melting ice
caps and other factors, losing cities to the sea is an unfortunate fact
of history. Thankfully, today's technology allows us to rediscover and
study these underwater ruins. One of the most notable examples exists
off the coast of Egypt. The city of Thonis, known as Heracleion to the
ancient Greeks, has a foundation that dates back over a thousand years.
Parts of the ancient city have been excavated and the quality of the
materials recovered gives us a glimpse into its past importance and
wealth. We might not have been able to pull it out of the water in its
entirety, but finding it at all after believing that it was lost to
history forever is definitely recovery enough. It was discovered in
2000. |
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Doomed Emeralds
Jay Miscovish of Key West, Florida bought a treasure map from a friend
in a bar in 2010. Part-time treasure hunter and amateur diver, Miscovich
went on to discover a multimillion dollar fortune in emeralds deep in
the Gulf off Florida. The exact origin of the emeralds is still unknown,
but when a 60 Minutes segment on the find hit the public airwaves, it
got the attention of federal investigators. The stress of waiting for
the big payoff from his discovery, which was more than 80 pounds of
emeralds, and the prospect of dealing with a federal investigation just
for believing in buried treasure led Miscovich to take his own life.
Maybe it's best sometimes to let the treasure sit. |
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Lazarus Fish: The Coelacanth
Believed to have gone extinct 65 million years ago, a living specimen of
the coelacanth was discovered in 1938 while a marine biologist trawled
through a local fisherman's catch off the coast of Africa. Eventually, a
second species was discovered in Indonesia. It was found to be
genetically distinct from the original population by millions of years
of separation. Unfortunately, the fish has very little value outside its
displacement in the fossil record since it is inedible and considered a
bad catch by deep sea fishermen today. So don't expect dinofish for
dinner any time soon.
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Pirate Ships and Gunnery
Shiver me timbers. How long have those been there? In 1718, the
legendary pirate known as Blackbeard was forced to sink his ship after
it was stranded in shallow water off the coast of Beaufort. In 1966, the
ruins of Queen Anne's Revenge were discovered in the water; it was a
wreck with thousands of artifacts. In 2013, North Carolina's Department
of Cultural Resources whipped out the big guns, literally, pulling a set
of cannons weighing more than 2000 pounds apiece from the depths. All in
all, twenty different cannons have been recovered thus far, with the
recovery set to conclude in 2014.
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Lost Silver of the Third Reich
Over 61 tons of silver worth $36 million was recovered from the Atlantic
Ocean. Along with being a world record for treasure discovered in one
location, it turns out that the shipwreck was Britain's SS Gairsoppa, a
cargo ship that sank in 1941 when it was torpedoed by Nazis. The vessel
sank nearly 300 miles off the coast of Ireland, and was believed to be
lost forever. As of the summer of 2012, Odyssey Marine Exploration of
Tampa, Florida claimed to have recovered about 20 percent of the total
silver indicated by research to be on board. The total is believed to be
close to 240 tons.
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The Mythic Kraken
No list of weird undersea discoveries would be complete without the
giant tentacled beast of legend. Known to exist from bodies recovered by
fishermen and those that have washed up on shore for centuries – some
over 40 feet in length – the first observation of a living specimen of
the giant squid was made in 2001 with a larval specimen. Footage of a
living adult wouldn't be achieved until 2012, showcased on the Discovery
Channel's “Chasing Giants: On the Trail of the Giant Squid.”
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