Wednesday, May 30, 2007

344 - Boats and Ships

Treasure Hunt

1. Treasure Hunt
It should be a happy time for investors in the publicly traded treasure seeking company, Odyssey Marine Exploration. Recently granted exclusive rights and permission to salvage payed off big when these adventures started pulling in what is expected to be the largest recovered shipwreck treasury in history, estimated to be worth somewhere around $500 million.

Dinner is Served

2. Dinner is Served
A container ship load of provisions destined for Southern Chinese restaurants was found drifting off the coast of China. Where was the crew? Well, it is suspected thatthey abandoned ship to avoid being caught smuggling in their cargo of over 5000 rare and "critically endangered" animals that wealthy Chinese diners love noshing on despite the legal and environmental ramifications.

Ghost Ship

3. Ghost Ship
Another drifting ship story. This one was a three man yacht found mysteriously with its passengers missing despite the fact that its engines were running, computers were active, and dinner was set on the table ready for eating.

Avast

4. Avast
If I had to make a guess, I'd say those yachters were probably taken by real life, modern pirates. I suspect, they were killed and probably dumped overboard near whichever one of these pirate activity areas is closest to Australia.

You're the One

5. You're the One
I imagine you've heard this story before since the article is nearly 3 years old, but it is still pretty interesting. It's the story of how oceanographers have used rubber bath toys, which were washed off a cargo ship, to track and study wind patterns and ocean currents. See. I told you you heard it before.

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5 comments:

Gina said...

I had never heard of a pangolin before this. Thank you!

JD said...

why are abandoned ships so creepy but the movies about ghosts ships always fail to creep?
you should write your June script about a seriously creepy ghost ship.
but no pirates - i hate those bastards.

Christopher Clark said...

I just watched Ghost Ship with Julianna Margulies a little while ago. It goes wrong in so many ways that could have easily been fixed. The only other I can think of is Below, and I thought it was pretty good.

Christopher Clark said...

I had never heard of a pangolin either, but after looking at a picture of one, I recognized it as something I thought was already extinct.

Gina said...

I also just wanted to say that I watched "Dead Calm" like fifty times my senior year of college. It's irrelevant, I guess.