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Maddy McAllister had her first taste of scuba diving at 15 and has loved it ever since.(Supplied) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article Maddy McAllister spent her childhood in south-east Western Australia listening to her grandfather's tales of ships lost at sea. Now Dr McAllister has turned her love of fishermen's tales into a career. As the senior curator of maritime archaeology at the Museum of Tropical Queensland, she spends her days overseeing about 8,000 artefacts recovered from 28 shipwrecks along the Queensland coastline. "I would spend my summer holidays snorkelling and exploring anything underwater I...

For centuries, a legend has persisted across the Ozarks. Lore holds marauding Spaniards once discovered a rich silver deposit within a cave somewhere in the hills, and then sealed it shut for future mining. Several variations of the tale are told, but one notion is constant, the treasure is said to still remain hidden. Many people in South-Central Missouri have searched for this fabled lost silver mine. Some went empty-handed to their graves after a lifetime of digging. Others got so far as thinking they found the site, and even had their ore tested at Missouri S&T. However, no great...

BREVARD HISTORY: Last Naval Battle of American Revolution Fought Near Cape Canaveral March 10, 1783BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – On March 10, 1783, the last naval battle of the American Revolution was fought off Cape Canaveral, as Captains John Barry and John Green tried to deliver a shipload of Spanish silver to the Continental Congress. Barry, captain of the Alliance, the Continental Navy’s 36-gun sailing frigate, arrived in Martinique from France in January 1783 and found orders from Robert Morris of the Continental Congress to sail to Havana, Cuba to pick up 72,000 Spanish silver dollars that were to be used...

Pirates based in West Cork made millions from plundering shipping and they almost destroyed trade between Europe and the Americas — but were beloved by locals as they gave them three times the going price for supplies. The extent of the pirate presence in the region and their huge influence is detailed in a new book written by Dr Connie Kelleher, an underwater archaeologist, based in Killarney, who works for the National Monuments Service. Her book, 'The Alliance of Pirates — Ireland and Atlantic Piracy in the Early 17th Century,' describes how West Cork became a magnet for pirates and...