500 year-old shipwreck loaded with gold found in Namibian desert

Fox News.com ^ | June 7, 2016 | Walt Bonner

[Captain7seas]

Wow! Wilber Smith books. I started reading his books as a young sat diver in the North Sea in the 70’s. Those were the golden days of deep sea commercial diving and Wilber Smith books were part of it.

[minnesota_bound]

bing

[Tijeras_Slim]

He’s still writing, pretty good stuff.

[GingisK]

They must have been moving really fast...

[stormer]

You’re right about that. I’ve been to the Skeleton Coast and it is about as inhospitable place as you’re find. Shipwrecks and bones.

[Kartographer]

Close

[spyone]

What are the best 5 Wilbur Smith books?

[rlmorel]

LOL, read about the USS Missouri running aground back in 1950. 60,000 ton ship with powerful engines driving her at 15 knots beached herself on Thimble Shoals, and the bottom where she grounded was thick, gooey, slick black mud covering the shoal that had only the slightest incline.

Basically, thick, black clay/mud.

The decrease in depth was so small over distance, that nobody even knew they ran aground until men on the stern saw the screws churning up mud, and the condenser temperatures soared when the inlets got clogged with the goo. People walking didn't even so much as brush a bulkhead.

I am a Navy guy, but this story just has the best of everything, even a scar at the end for the ship. If there was ever a time where a Captain should be held to account for grounding a ship due to rank arrogance and stupidity, Captain Brown is that man. A textbook on how not to be a Captain.

[rlmorel]

LOL, sorry, didn’t mean to hijack your thread. This is very cool I love stories of things being uncovered by shifting sand (though this is mining, and not shifting sand)

Up here in New England, off Cape Cod there were glimpses of HMS Somerset, sunk off the Cape, pieces becoming visible and disappearing just as quickly with the shifting of the sand.

[ameribbean expat]

Writing on that coin does not appear to be in Ebonics. Just one more exploitation by The Man.

[OldNewYork]

Fascinating.

[Jack Hammer]

For desert, read ‘seashore.’

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj. I gotta tell ya, *that* was a confusing headline. :')

[SunkenCiv]

Ooh, good call.

skeleton coast Namibia (image search):

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, smooth move, and a well made ship.

[SunkenCiv]

https://mpora.com/travel/these-haunting-shipwreck-photos-are-like-a-window-into-the-past/7

http://www.andybiggs.com/photo/skeleton-coast-of-namibia/
http://www.andybiggs.com/images/large/AndyBiggs_COA02_SkeletonCoast.jpg

http://www.travelnewsnamibia.com/featured-stories/early-explorers-into-the-unknown/

http://www.travelnewsnamibia.com/featured-stories/crater-with-a-difference-messum-crater/

http://www.google.com/search?q=!nara+seeds

http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2014/10/03/five-secret-cooking-oils-of-sub-saharan-africa/

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin, links to the images (not sure we can post 'em or not):

• Image 1
• Image 2
• Image 3

[wildbill]

Read ‘em all and one of the best IMHO—The Sunbird— is about an expedition of Phoenicians/Carthagenians that flees the destruction of their city and goes south around the western shores of Africa to try to start a colony in the interior.

He also has a whole series on Ancient Egypt which are great historical reads.

As an aside,I have a good friend who wasn’t much of a reader and he asked me for a good book to read. I got him started on Wilbur Smith and he now reads a lot in different genres/

[madison10]

So THAT’S where the Bermuda Triangle ships go! :)

[spyone]

Will try Sunbird. Read one of the Egyptian ones, and liked it.