Well, it's that time of year again, time to renew the web hosting. And for those of you that don't know, that has become a lot more expensive than it used to be. Fifty dollars a year is now several hundred. Not to mention the price of domain names has gone up ten-fold.
And I just found out that the nice folks at PayPal disabled all my Support buttons, and I never got a notice (although that may be my fault.) In any case, it is all working again now, so if you would like to make a small donation to help defray these costs, it would be greatly appreciated.
China makes happy diversDivers with part of over 1000 dishes recovered from the Mohawk in 19962004 - there are still plenty more to be found
A stack of 9" dishes from the Mohawk (1935), some of many recovered in 2004. The inset shows the manufacturer's stamp on the back. "Vitrified" refers to the shiny non-porous glaze. The Grindley company is still in business, since 1889.
These dishes were part of the cargo, probably bound for Cuba, and are quite ordinary and unremarkable. If they had actually belonged to the ship, they would most likely bear the Line's name and emblem - in this case Clyde, Clyde-Mallory, or Ward ( the Mohawk changed hands several times. ) Apart from a few stains, they are perfectly usable, after 70 years buried in the shipwreck!
A fancy dish from the MohawkGerman Navy markings on a dish from the U-869An ordinary marmalade jar from 1870 - EmeraldA broken teapot on the CarolinaThe same teapot, with some other pieces
From the Andrea Doria:
from the collection of Dan Crowell
Miscellaneous:
The now-famous "Horenberg knife" from the U-869Cheap spoons from the MohawkCheap coffee cup from the Mohawk
Notes: Zebra Mussels were introduced into the Great Lakes in the mid-eighties from the Caspian Sea region of Eurasia. They probably arrived as larvae in the ballast water of visiting ships. Since then, they have been having a regular party - spreading like wildfire and often covering every available hard surface, including each other. This wreaks havoc with power-plant cooling systems and municipal water supplies, where masses of the tiny bivalves clog pipes and water intakes. The mussels also radically alter the native lake ecology by efficiently filtering nutrients from the water. This does have one positive effect for divers, however. Apparently, the Great Lakes and surrounding waters have never been cleaner or clearer.
