Southern Sun Archaeology

(title unknown):

On my way to learn how to preserve Historical Wooden Ships and their Artifacts:

We, the Captain and I have found an English Cargo Ship at the bottom of the sea off Borneo. It was on its way from Singapore to Macao when it was blown off course, then becalmed, then ran onto the reef in the middle of the South China Sea on the 8th January 1842. She was carrying a cargo of Saltpeter, Rice & Cotton and had two passengers on board, a 22 year old woman Mrs Dare with her two children a 2 month old and 2 year old .........and a Colonel Campbell  who was being re-stationed from Madras to Macau a total of 72 persons on board.  We know this because the 16 year old apprentice on board at the time kept a log and that log was published in the Singapore Times one hundred years after the event and after 4 days of research in the Singapore National  Library we came across this article on microfilm.( I have since found out that the two month old Julius Dare went on to establish Rugby in Japan)

It is a remarkable story and one that will share with you at a later date ............... watch this space  :-) 

I am now on my way to the Netherlands to learn as much as I can from the "experts" about historical wooden ships and their artifacts. I have been looking after the artifacts form the Viscount Melbourne ( I am also salvaging them) and by a "chance meeting in Miri I met an Archaeologist who happened to be in Miri for ONE NIGHT!!!  As Joke waited for her beautiful 16year old daughter to have her nails painted I was having coffee at the shop near by. We acknowledged each other, then I asked her to join me, which she did. It took forever for those nails to be pained and so we girls managed to find out about each others life stories, and I was totally blown away that I should meet he on her on her one and only night Miri 

                                             Myself & Joke on our chance meeting in Miri

Believing as I do that there are no coincidences I understood that I had to whisk her off to "my" artifact room as I craved to have an "expert" guide me, and I also needed to know that I had preserved them correctly......oh by the way, our intention is to have these artifacts go into a museum, they are NOT for our own personal gain.......... So now here I am on my way to visit this very interesting woman, her co- workers and her family

   

Maritime Mysteries Explorers-Miri, Day 2

Just after breakfast, we had our Skype call from Frank Joseph Hoff, which we filmed although we were able to get a picture from Frank's end.  Still we have the audio and the reactions from the wheel house of the Southern Sun.  To add to the importance of this call, Frank was able to add Dr. Robin Harger to our conference call, who would agree to help Hans secure some needed contacts in the Indonesian government.  Dr. Harger is a noted marine biologist and author, who spent 14 years with UNESCO in its Jakarta office before he retired as a director of the International Oceanographic Commission.  He gave Hans a contact within the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, who will help him navigate through the usual bureaucracy.  After finishing what had to get done before departing, we sailed out of the Miri marina just after 3 in the afternoon.  As luck would have it, we ran right into a squall and pandemonium  ensued with sail flapping, rain pounding down on the crew as they struggled to everything back under control with Eric and I filming all the action as it happened.  This was an opportunity that was too good to pass up but I must confess, being a sailor that I did feel a bit guilty not helping out.  We got through the storm but it was far from smooth sailing and it got later in the day it look like there was another one developing on the horizon.  Captain Hans decided we would be better off returning to the marina and leaving tomorrow when things had settle down.  The blackened skies continued to follow us back to Miri and when we were in sight of the shore night had fallen with no moon or stars to light the way into the channel.  With the storm coming up fast behind us it was much to dangerous to try and make it into the marina channel so we headed up into the wind to ride out the storm in open water and wait until morning to enter the marina.  Needless to say, we had a bit of a rough night.

Southern Sun Archaeology

(title unknown):

We the Berekoven Family, set sail from Australia in 2005 on a quest to discover evidence of an Ice-aged civilisation on the Sunda Shelf right here in Southeast Asia.  

We set sail from Fremantle on the west coast of Australia to Indonesia to seek permissions from the Indonesian Government to do a Sonar Survey of the Sunda Shelf because we believed that we would find this evidence somewhere in the Java Sea. With the help of our Australian Government we received those permissions but with too many restrictions for us to proceed. However we are now not alone in believing that the Sunda Shelf was once dry land and that there was not only inhabitants, but an intelligent and quite advanced civilization. So basically we believe that History is not what we know it to be today and are keen to prove this belief.
After realizing that we could not accept the demands attached to the permissions we sailed into Borneo where we have been well supported by the community here in Miri Sarawak. The local dive community has benefited from our sonar with us finding modern wrecks for them to dive on. Also as a result of our survey and a bit of research we have come across a historic find with a captivating story the HMS Viscount Melbourne of which will unfold in our blog