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Researchers seek Lost Colony descendants By Miller Resor Rocky Mount Telegram Sunday, August 26, 2007 Researchers hope genetic testing will connect the dots of a 420-year-old mystery that has lingered since England's first attempt to colonize North America. In 1587, a group of English colonists on Roanoke Island disappeared, leaving behind a single clue – the word "CROATAN" carved into a tree. The Croatan were a group of American Indians who lived near Roanoke Island. The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research, the pre-eminent group investigating the Lost Colony, will hold a symposium the second weekend of September to present recent findings and collect DNA samples officials hope will eventually solve one of America's oldest mysteries. Complete article at - http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/con...ontent/news/sto ries/2007/08/26/colony.ht... Search for 'Lost Colony' continues centuries after group disappeared 5 hours ago GREAT DISMAL SWAMP, N.C. - After trudging for two hours through thick vegetation to a blurry mark found on Google Earth, George Ray started making up a song: "If you're lost, I'll find you tomorrow," he sang in a thick Southern drawl. Or, perhaps, he'll find you four centuries later. Ray is one of the many amateur archeologists entranced by the Lost Colony - the 117 English settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Outer Banks in the late 1500s, having left behind only a single clue to their fate. In all the years since, no one has found much of anything else. But there have long been stories told about a rotting boat in the Great Dismal Swamp, a national wildlife refuge that straddles North Carolina's border with Virginia. Ray's colleagues think the colonists may have passed through the swamp after leaving Roanoke Island. They studied satellite images until they found something that looked like a boat, then set out to find it. "We're not looking for gold," Ray said. "We're looking for history." Complete article at - http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ig4Sl_h oqgKBpJ8WwaqEPljh3zJw

I think that's exactly why I posted it in Captain Twill - the link between the movie's lion and the real cat wandering around the same area was pretty obvious. How many odd bits of history are quickly forgotten or fictionalized (like those freak waves towering over mast-tops), until something happens in present day to reawaken our collective memories?

Spain releases US treasure-hunt ship A US treasure-hunting ship intercepted and searched by Spanish police investigating a mysterious haul of riches has been cleared to leave port. The Ocean Alert is owned by a company in Miami which recently raised a record haul of silver coins from a shipwreck. Spanish authorities suspect the discovery might have been made in their territorial waters. But Gibraltar disputes the claim, saying the ship had been boarded in international waters. The Ocean Alert was stopped and boarded by Spanish police after leaving the British colony last Thursday. It was then escorted to the Spanish port of Algeciras, where crew members were searched and computer equipment confiscated. Acting on the orders of a judge, the police were hoping to pinpoint the location of a shipwreck which in May yielded half a million silver coins, worth $500m (£244m). Diplomatic dispute The salvage company has refused to say where it made the haul - which was promptly transported to the United States. Initial speculation held that it was found off the coast of Cornwall in south-west England. But the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid says some politicians there suspect the mysterious wreck is of Spanish origin, or was found in Spanish territorial waters. Neither the police nor the vessel's American owners - Odyssey Marine Exploration - will confirm what, if anything, was found during the Spanish search. But the answer is probably very little, our correspondent says. The American crew of the Ocean Alert were expecting to be stopped and even had a lawyer on board, he says. It is understood that some confiscated items, including computer hard drives, have yet to be returned. . The dispute became a three-way diplomatic incident when Britain complained to the Spanish foreign ministry, arguing that Madrid did not have the right under shipping laws to intercept a vessel in international waters. For now, the Ocean Alert remains in Algeciras and is expected to leave port after completing routine paperwork. Spain has launched legal action over the treasure and the wreck. But some experts believe it to be the Merchant Royal, an English ship carrying stolen Spanish treasure which sank in 1641. US coin expert Dr Lane Brunner has said there is evidence the shipwreck was found off England's Cornish coast. Odyssey has kept the location of its find secret, citing security and legal reasons. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6903807.stm

La Bête du Gévaudan was a real wolf-like monster prowling the Auvergne and South Dordogne areas of France during the years 1764 to 1767, killing about 100 people, often in bizarre circumstances. Every effort to stop her failed and she became nationally infamous. The King - Louis XV - took a personal interest, one reason being the unrest she caused in an area of religious/political tension and potential revolution. Many explanations - mutant, prehistoric beast etc. - were put forward at the time and during the two centuries since but none has ever been generally accepted. The important firm fact is that sufficient evidence remains to prove La Bête really did exist and was not just a myth. Among all the popular monster mysteries she is unique - she left behind one hundred bodies proving herself real and guilty beyond doubt. http://labete.7hunters.net/bete1.htm

A bit-post period, but does anyone remember the tale? Tiger feared on the loose Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:33AM EDT BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - Police in southwestern France are searching for a big cat, possibly a young tiger, that has been spotted prowling in a village near the city of Bordeaux, the village's mayor said Thursday. Officials from the National Hunting Office have also laid traps for the animal after a woman and her daughter saw it repeatedly in their garden. "At first they didn't believe it, but the third time the animal was 10 meters (yards) away from them," Pierre Soubabere, mayor of Saint-Louis-de-Montferrand, told Reuters. Another resident has seen the cat roaming the countryside, and its tracks suggest it is a young tiger, though it could be a jaguar or a leopard. Soubabere said no such animal had been reported missing in the area, not even by circuses that spend part of the year in a neighboring town.

Some pistols, from either end of the time period http://www.sitemason.com/page/cTKBzO http://www.sitemason.com/page/fjZuZq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england...ire/6229320.stm A mass grave believed to contain the bodies of followers of the Quaker religious movement has been uncovered in Cambridgeshire. Environment Agency workers found the rare Quaker burial site while carrying out work for flood defences at St Ives. Sixteen bodies were in the unmarked grave dating back to the late 1600s. Archaeologists described the find as "remarkable and unusual" as it gave an insight into Quaker burial practices just after the movement started. Pipe facet The Society of Friends was still emerging and developing as a religious movement in the last 1600s and now has many millions of members across the world. Nine male bodies, five female and two of undetermined gender were uncovered during excavations for a £8.8m flood defence scheme at St Ives designed to protect 1,600 homes. The men and women were buried between 1680 and 1720, local historians have traced most of their names and archaeologists have examined the skeletons. One male skull revealed evidence of a pipe facet - two holes in teeth on one side of the jaw formed by years of pipe smoking. Another male body had had his feet amputated some years before his death. The skeletons also helped to provide an insight into the health of people at the time of their death.

Oh com'n, I'm sure you'll bear him beautiful babies.

"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

That's a confusing statement. Islands rising from the middle of the ocean would have been treated the same way by history as tales of mermaids and sea monsters, scoffed at until proven otherwise - like the freak waves were recorded in oral accounts and ship's logs, but no one believed were real until recently. Read all about it - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3917539.stm http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/n...s/2004/07/64369

I ran several searchs and found no prior reference to this event. First, the pictures - http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/s...nd-volcano.html If this had been recorded in a 17th century ship's log, no one would have believed it.

Ancient Remains Reveal 'First Gun Victim' By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Posted: 2007-06-20 05:48:44 WASHINGTON (June 20) - The musket blast was sudden and deadly, the killing nearly 500 years ago of what may have been the first gunshot victim in the Western Hemisphere. "We didn't expect it. We saw this skull and saw the almost round hole and thought people must have been shooting around here recently," said Guillermo Cock, an archaeologist who found the remains near Lima, Peru. But he realized that the skull was ancient, and a recent bullet strike would simply have shattered it, Cock said in a telephone interview. The skull was found among a large group of bones of ancient Incas, who had died violently in the early 1500s as the Spanish Conquistadors battled the native empire. The bones were in shallow graves, leading the archaeologist to speculate the burials were done hurriedly during conflict, perhaps an uprising against the Spanish in 1536. To be sure this was a gunshot wound - making it the earliest one documented in the Americas - the skull was studied by forensics expert Tim Palmbach at the University of New Haven, who brought in other experts. Al Harper, director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science in New Haven, Conn., said the team "tried to rule out all kinds of causes of the hole - a rock from a slingshot, spear, sledgehammer." Harper and Palmbach studied the skull with a powerful scanning electronic microscope. "We all thought it was a million-to-one chance that we would find any traces of metal on a skull that old, but it was worth a try," Harper said in a statement. But there they were, fragments of metal from a musket ball impregnated the area surrounding the hole. Cock and archaeologist Elena Goycochea discovered the burials in a Lima suburb in 2004 and have since recovered 72 apparent victims of violence from the site. "These bodies were strangely buried," Cock said. "They were not facing the right direction, they were tied up or hastily wrapped in a simple cloth, they had no offerings and they were buried at a shallow depth. "Some of the bodies also showed signs of terrible violence. They had been hacked, torn, impaled - injuries that looked as if they had been caused by iron weapons - and several had injuries on their heads and faces that looked as if they were caused by gunshots." One skull in particular had both an entrance and exit wound, suggestive of a musket ball and prompting him to seek experts to study it. A plug of bone from one of the holes was recovered nearby, he added. The conclusion: A musket ball less than an inch in diameter struck the back of the skull and passed through the head. "This conclusively proves that the person was killed by a gunshot, and he is the first identified shooting victim in the Americas," Cock said. Since the initial find, at least two other apparent gunshot victims have been identified and the research is continuing. Cock discussed his find during a visit to the National Geographic Society, which supported the work. His findings will be detailed June 26 on a NOVA/National Geographic television special, "The Great Inca Rebellion." In 2002, Cock reported finding more than 2,000 Inca mummies buried beneath a shantytown near Lima, a find he said helped shed light on the life, health and culture of this civilization.

I really like CNN's near-gleeful headline. Perhaps Ted Turner's minions expect every patrol vessel to be carrying a SEAL team and be able to turn day into night at the snap of the Captain's fingers. "The strongest deterrent to pirates is patrolling US warships, but they are not allowed within 200 nautical miles of the Somali coast". http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.....aspx?id=488214 "For now, Mwangura said more attacks were expected in the coming weeks. "They’ll be more rough seas in June and July so many vessels will be forced into shallow waters where the pirates are," he said." Uh huh. Another problem in the recent past has been ship's masters ignoring the WELL PUBLICIZED international warnings about the Somali coast. One explanation is that some of the cargo ships are carrying munitions for the gangs ashore and the hostage situation is either A) rival gangs or B.) honor among thieves after a deal/delivery goes bad. What's the old saying, about the company you keep?

A Spanish court has issued a warrant for the capture and search of two American exploration ships suspected of removing sunken treasure from Spanish waters. Who controls the waters around Gibraltar The ships, belonging to Odyssey Marine Exploration, which is based in Florida, are docked in Gibraltar and cannot leave because Spain controls the waters surrounding the British enclave. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...07/wship107.xml Uppity Madrid poofters, obviously they'll need a broadside or three of 18 pound shot.

A man carries a "rifle" at Jamestown Settlement, a museum of 17th-century colonial Virginia, in Williamsburg, Virginia, May 1, 2007. In a high-tech age of instant communication, old-fashioned history is enjoying a renaissance in U.S. popular culture. REUTERS/Jim Young

Who sez they're Indian bones? Florida Drought Exposes Old Debris in Lake Okeechobee Tuesday , June 05, 2007 AP MIAMI — A statewide drought that has bared portions of Lake Okeechobee's bottom has also been a boon to archaeologists, exposing human remains, boats and other finds that could date back hundreds of years. Thousands of pieces of pottery, five boats and scores of human bone fragments have been discovered as the lake — the second-largest freshwater one in the continental U.S., behind Lake Michigan — reached a historically low level. It is the first time in years some areas have been exposed, prompting archaeologists to scour the lakebed. "Right now, it's just a rush to identify things before they go back under water," said Chris Davenport, the archaeologist for Palm Beach County. More than 17 sites have been identified in Palm Beach County's portion of the lake in the last three months. They are scattered over miles of terrain. The bone fragments range from a couple inches long to about 6 or 8 inches, Davenport said. "It looks like it's part of one of the American Indian settlements that were there — people that were intentionally interred at some point," said State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler. The state has alerted the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes of the bones, but no decision has been made on their fate. No studies have been done on the human remains, but Wheeler said they likely were 500 to 1,000 years old, or possibly older.[/color=red] Davenport said an examination of the style of pottery found in the lakebed might actually do more to tell of the tribes who lived in the area than the bones themselves because the human remains are so fragmented. The boats uncovered, however are relatively intact. They include a steam-powered dredge believed to have been used to dig a canal, a steam ship whose remains are scattered across a mile and a half, a wooden motorized canoe, an early 1900s catfishing boat with a large one-cylinder engine and a fifth boat so badly decayed it is hard to determine its purpose. Wheeler said one of the vessels is 50 to 60 feet long. Archaeologists have left most of their finds where they were found, though an anchor, bottles, tools and some pottery have been excavated from the massive lake, which is at its lowest level since officials began keeping track in 1932. On Monday, it was about 8.96 feet deep, about 4 to 5 feet below normal. The drought has bared a rim around the lake, up to a mile and a half wide at some points. Davenport said he considers it a once-in-a-lifetime experience to examine the dry lakebed but that with thieves seeking his finds, he's left yearning for rain. "I'm hoping that the rains come back," he said. "Once it's covered it's protected."

Ok, which one of you human barnacles is responsible for this? Shiver me timbers! A wayward pirate has been captured by police in west Belfast. A swashbucklin' Captain Hook was found abandoned in Andersonstown and is now in police custody. The six-foot tall fibreglass figure was discovered lying on a roundabout in the Dart Hill area. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/norther...and/6700121.stm

Families end search for crew of ghost yacht adrift off Queensland Barbara McMahon in Sydney Tuesday May 8, 2007 The Guardian The families of three men who disappeared from their yacht off Australia in mysterious circumstances have reluctantly called off a search for the missing sailors, acknowledging that they may never know what happened to them. http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/...2074489,00.html There has been no sign of the skipper, Derek Batten, and brothers Jim and Peter Tunstead since their catamaran, Kaz II, was found adrift in calm waters off the coast of Queensland on April 18. Rescuers who came upon the boat were puzzled because everything appeared normal. The engine was ticking over in neutral, mobile phones, laptops, wallets and cameras were in the cabin and food and cutlery had been laid out for a meal. A half-read Sunday newspaper was lying on the table.

Keep your eyes peeled for Verizon's PIRATE PARTY commercial, there's a guy on the deck with a hand mortar.

http://thebosh.com/archives/2007/04/sienna...a_knightley.php Sienna Miller will replace Lindsay Lohan in a steamy film threesome with Keira Knightley. The British actress will take Lindsay's role as Caitlin - the wife of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas - in new movie 'The Best Time Of Our Lives', written by Keira's mother Sharman Macdonald. Lindsay reportedly pulled out of the project when she was unable to reach an agreement with the film's financiers. Keira is set to play Vera - a childhood friend of Dylan's who is said to have had a sexual relationship with him and Caitlin. Matthew Rhys, who will play the hard-drinking poet, said: "There will be a bit of a ménage a trois scene going on. I hope I'm up for it!"[/color=red] Speculation that Lindsay had dropped out of the movie surfaced last week, when the actress failed to appear on set to start shooting.

E) All of the above, repeat as needed. (Filthy drunken vermin...)

Hmmm... the stars are right for that Friday. http://dixonmuzzleloading.com/index.php?se...ink=generalinfo

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/science/22deep.html When, more than 70 years ago, William Beebe became the first scientist to descend into the abyss, he described a world of twinkling lights, silvery eels, throbbing jellyfish, living strings as “lovely as the finest lace” and lanky monsters with needlelike teeth. “It was stranger than any imagination could have conceived,” he wrote in “Half Mile Down” (Harcourt Brace, 1934). “I would focus on some one creature and just as its outlines began to be distinct on my retina, some brilliant, animated comet or constellation would rush across the small arc of my submarine heaven and every sense would be distracted, and my eyes would involuntarily shift to this new wonder.”

I had the pleasure of hearing Mr Kennedy's talk on pistols at Dixon's Gunmaker's faire in July 05'. He also took the time prior to discuss ebony stock materials with me. Sad to read this. Via con Dios.

The operative word is *cache*. Obviously, they buried it with the intent to dig it up later, but for whatever reason couldn't/didn't. Furthermore, historical accounts mention that military equipment was buried in the fort in June 1610, when the colonists decided to abandon Jamestown after the “Starving Time” winter.