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newspaper Kyiv Weekly Subscribe.Передплата Advertising.Реклама Find: About us.Про нас Contacts.Контакти Poland’s cold shoulder warming up to UkrainePoliticsJavier Solana: The partnership between the EU...EconomyBeware of social awareness adsSocietyMAIN Current issue # №15–16 (291) Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:51 PMTreasure troves of the Black SeaPoliticsEconomySocietyEnvironmentCultureSportsUcrainicumArt of livingtop 10ArchiveHave you ever received anything on a charity basis?YesNoCurrencies(in hryvnias)26.07.07chng100USD505.0000.000100EUR694.022-4.54510RUR1.987-0.001Last year’s discovery of a Byzantine shipwreck on the bottom of the Black Sea was the most significant scientific discovery for Ukraine. Kyiv Weekly learned about the individuals that risk their lives diving to the bottom of the sea in search of hidden treasures. Profiting on fake rarities A sailor named Ihor works on a pleasure cruise ship. While at sea he casts cone-shaped rifle bullets used during the Crimean War. “I’m preparing for the summer season,” he smiles. Ihor is an experienced diver, who earns decent money during the high season guiding tourists from Kyiv, Tyumen and other cities far from warm waters to depths of 10-15 meters. Ihor says that the antiquarian bullets he tosses into the sea are like cannon fodder for tourists. In the winter and spring the diver throws the bullets into the sea and within a few months they are covered with an oxidized film. Just imagine how happy a beginner diver from Uzhgorod or Gomel will be to find a 100-year-old rarity on the bottom of the sea. Today, Ihor’s bullets decorate the apartments of people from all over the CIS, who told their relatives, friends and sweethearts about how they found these relics. Needless to say, Ihor has a massive collection of underwater findings. Among them are a tea set with swastikas from the German ship Santa Fe, which sunk near Yevpatoriya after a Soviet air raid in 1944, a copper water tank from a WW I Russian submarine that sunk near Zmiyiniy Island and more than a hundred similar antique rarities. Although the underwater treasure hunter could get hundreds and even thousands of dollars for each item in his collection at an auction, he has does not want to earn on them and rather reluctantly tells about his trophies. Ihor is a so-called “black archaeologist”, an underwater species of this pack not very respected by law enforcers. He realized years ago that one cannot make fortunes from finding underwater treasures. Actually, he earns money making fake treasures and his collection is simply a side product of his business. Ihor learned the following truism from his own experience: “A person must have lots of money to go on a serious treasure hunt.” Shallow waters harvest A number of media publications about the treasures of ships that sank in the Black Sea in the spirit of Monte Cristo bring a smile to the faces of many “black archeologists”. They are certainly aware of the fact that the crews of the rescue service of the USSR Navy brought all treasures lying at 60 meters under the sea to the surface. The fact is that in those times hundreds of ships and thousands of divers had at their disposal the most state-of-the-art technologies. Robert Ballard, who is famous for discovering the shipwrecks of the legendary Titanic under the thousand meters of Atlantic water and the German battleship Bismarck sunk by the British Navy in 1940, frowned as he watched images transmitted by an underwater robot on a computer screen. The media reports alleged that the Lenin steamship bombed by the German Luftwaffe in 1941 on its way from Odesa to Sevastopol was presumably still loaded with treasures. However, the underwater robot did not find anything but rusted walls of the ship’s body. The very same picture was on another ostensible “treasure trove” - the Soviet hospital ship Armenia that sunk near Yalta in 1941. Apparently, up to 60-meter depth the shelf of the Black Sea was very thoroughly “cleaned” back in the Soviet times. Anything that has left, was pilfered by the “black archeologists” during the years of Ukraine’s independence. The aforementioned Santa Fe was probably the only large ship lying in shallow waters that has not been unloaded. The ship was carrying German tanks that the Soviet authorities did not need, while underwater archeologists did not have the capacity to bring it to the surface. Five years ago, two tanks were finally lifted from the bottom of the sea and immediately sold at US $35,000. Though the transaction sparked a scandal, everything ended well: some Germans bought them in the spirit of nostalgia for their history. The local authorities did not confiscate the money from the entrepreneurial treasure hunters, but banned raising the rest of the tanks to the surface - just in case. True treasures At depths of more than 60 meters, Soviet military rescue equipment did not or poorly operated. The bottom of the Black Sea is literally strewn with shipwrecks. Any captain of a ship traveling from Odesa to Sevastopol and back will tell you that the radar system shows a rather startling picture of sunken ships lying so close to one another as if they were deliberately aligned in such perfect order. Today, there are two genuine treasures lying on the bottom of the Black Sea. The first are old cables used for underwater communication. There is only one ship from Sevastopol that is licensed to collect these cables from the bottom of the sea. The ship pulls up around 100 tonnes of cable every month. Copper makes up 70% of the cable’s weight. At a price of US $2 per 1 kg, cable collectors bring in close to US $2 mn per year. In Istanbul, copper is worth US $3 and in Italy – US $5 per kilo. The second treasure is training torpedoes of the Soviet Navy. Over the years of the Cold War, thousands of torpedoes were fired by torpedo boats, destroyers, cruisers and submarines during training exercises. Some of them were later caught by minesweepers, but the majority still lies on the bottom of the sea. Every torpedo contains over 100 kg of silver in its battery and nearly one kilo of gold in its electronic circuits. A torpedo is a solid and compact weapon. Lifting a torpedo to the surface requires less equipment than a search for the content of safes on a corroded ship. Underwater policy Two years ago, treasure hunting in the Black Sea reached new heights. In the summer of 2006, Ballard created a map of the bottom of the sea off the Crimean coast on the ship Endeavor under the aegis of the University of Rhode Island. This ship carries the same name as that of the famous Captain Cook, who name went down in the history of maritime navigation for all his discoveries. The Ukrainian ship Nautilus with a team of scientists led by Serhiy Voronov, Director of the Underwater Heritage Department at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences, accompanied Ballard’s Endeavor. Using on-board sonar equipment and Hercules and Argus ROVs (remotely operated vehicles), which helped Ballard find the sunken Titanic, a map was created showing thousands of underwater objects worthy of note. In the summer of 2007, Ballard returned to the Black Sea on the German ship Alliance with the aim of salvaging the first treasures he had noted on his map. These were amphorae lying at a depth of 136 meters. In the 10th century, a Byzantine ship carrying these amphorae filled with wine to the seaside port of Khersones sank about 30 miles off the shore. Looking from the outside, spending US $20 mn on a two-year expedition to recover half a dozen Byzantine amphorae might seem rather strange if not to take into account that the detailed map of the Black Sea floor drawn by Ballard has more than archeological significance. The process of recovering these ancient treasures under the camera eye of foreign mass media was reminiscent of the discovery of a gold mine. President Viktor Yushchenko arrived at this ceremony to bring up the first ancient amphora under the guidance of Ballard. In this way the president made it clear that underwater treasures are in the national interests of Ukraine and not those of foreign countries. After this adventure the Black Sea can lay claim to a new treasure. The Argus ROV suddenly lost contact with Alliance and Nautilus and disappeared. This wonder of modern science and technology – a one-meter long Argus equipped with sensors for all waves in all frequencies worth US$ 1.5 mn – is currently lying somewhere on the bottom of the Black Sea. So, the fact that the Black Sea is a true treasure trove of thin gold metal plates, emeralds and diamonds is beyond a shadow of doubt. After all, it is simply unfathomable that ships sailing across the sea for thousands of years were not carrying valuable treasures.Lidia Yakusheva[eng] [ukr]News SPF against immediate privatization of Ukrtelecom Apr 18, 5:21 PMGrain export quotas may be cancelled soon Apr 18, 5:56 PMTop court: amending constitution via referendum possible upon Rada approval Apr 18, 5:19 PMYushchenko guarantees coalition unity Apr 18, 5:50 PMIsrael seeks free trade zone with Ukraine Apr 18, 5:29 PMUN troubled with ineffectiveness of Ukraine’s measures against AIDS Apr 18, 5:39 PMEx-FM may initiate early withdrawal of Russian Black Sea Fleet Apr 18, 11:57 AMAll newsPic of the day PHLAll pixWeekly headlines e-mail: password:Subscribe to KWfree daily news headlinesMAIN | News Politics | Economy | Society | Environment | Culture | Sports | Ucrainicum | Art of living | top 10 разделы детский лагерь пионер стопный пластырь метрореклама нижнийновгород крутой xxx видео восстановление информация полиолефиновая пленка телефонный обзвон компания доминике поставка тройник стопный пластырь нард скачать подбор холодильный камера sharp ar-m205 билет задорнов промывка инжектор скребковый конвейер архыз ларсен центр терапевтический гидромассаж кострома жилье трехмерный презентация вышивка флаг отпуск конец sony ericsson k790i купить купить минимойку qtek детский лагерь пионер dhl меховой холодильник нард скачать бесплатный клеить 88 люкс охота гончий sharp ar-5415 kiev apartaments rent автошкола слименд лифт международный конкурс проект электропроводка длинный нард напыление ппу квн съемка мачта флагшток концентрирование кислорода купить аудиоплееры госпиталь мэш телематические служба внешний антенна электроинструмент метабо букмекерский контора фаворит варочный поверхность cata купля производственный комплекс венеролог рукавица kyiv apartaments service