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some earlier Ballard work:

Ancient Shipwrecks Discovered Off Coast of Israel
by The Associated Press
The pair of Phoenician cargo ships were found using an underwater robot and deep-water tracking equipment. The ships are almost perfectly preserved -- a result of the cold deep-sea waters and the relative absence of sediment at such depths. The contents of the ships indicate that they set sail from the Phoenician port of Tyre -- now a city in Lebanon -- about 750 B.C. Both vessels were transporting hundreds of amphorae, large ceramic containers filled with wine. Although the amphorae were found intact, the wine had seeped out and sand had filled them. The ships were headed either for Carthage -- in modern-day Tunisia -- or Egypt. The vessels are positioned upright about 1,500 feet deep on the ocean floor, about 30 miles off the shores of Israel. The route was not previously known as one used by Phoenician sailors.

Similar article.

Search for Phoenician Shipwrecks
from Biblical Archaeology Review
Two Phoenician shipwrecks were discovered this summer in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, about 30 miles from the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. The two ships are the world's oldest known deep-sea wrecks. The longer craft, measuring about 60 feet, is the largest pre-classical vessel ever found. The ships, which were found sitting upright in about 1,500 feet of water, are believed to have capsized in a storm in about 750 B.C., after setting sail from the Phoenician port of Tyre. Their cargo of wine, housed in hundreds of large ceramic jugs called amphorae, was likely bound for Egypt or the Phoenician colony of Carthage. The artifacts that the team recovered -- 12 amphorae, crockery for food preparation, an incense stand for offerings to the weather gods and a wine decanter -- have allowed Stager to estimate not only the ships' point of origin, age and likely destination, but also the size of the crews (a half dozen sailors each) and their likely diet (fish stew).

Before the PLO destabilized Lebanon in the 1970s, National Geographic did a cover story on the Phoenicians and visited the site of ancient Tyre. There were still traditional fishermen then, and as they pulled their nets, they chanted "ell -- lee -- sah". The author was told, "If you ask them why they do it, they do not know." His source then attributed it to an ancient tradition, going back to the time when Elissa, princess of Tyre, left to found Carthage. I love that story, and don't care if it's true. How it could be disproved is beyond me. : )