Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Did you know 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald?
• Learn why some of Gordon Lightfoot's famous song lyrics were wrong.
• Discover some scintillating unknown facts about the story of the doomed ship.
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"Those bells should represent a lot more than just the oiler, the captain, or, you know, the mates on board the Fitzgerald, it should ring loudly for the lifesavers who gave their lives and so many other stories that didn't have Gordon to write a song about them." – Ric Mixter About Ric Mixter Millions of television viewers recognize Ric Mixter as a shipwreck researcher, diving over 100 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, including the Edmund Fitzgerald. He has produced over 30 programs for PBS and the Outdoor Channel, and appeared as a shipwreck expert on the History and Discovery Channels. Ric's stories appear in books, magazines (including Michigan History Magazine) and in radio and TV news programs. He hosts the Shipwreck Podcast, and his YouTube videos have over 3 million views, covering shipwrecks in four of the Great Lakes and adventures in several foreign lands. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Delve into one of the most poignant maritime disasters in an area known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.
• Learn how new 20th Century technologies were not yet ready to help the outcome.
• Discover how human error and a cascade of events lead to the preventable tragedy.
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"When the ship ran aground, there was nothing there and no one there to help them. They could not have picked a worse place to run aground." – Rod Scher

About Rod ScherRod Scher began his working life teaching English in high schools in California and Oregon; he continued teaching at the post-secondary level until 2016. In between, he worked as an editor for textbooks and magazines. Rod has built a "retirement" career as an experienced writer/editor who has annotated or edited many books and written countless magazine articles. His love of sailing attracted him to books of a nautical nature, resulting in the acclaimed Sailing by Starlight The Remarkable Voyage of Globe Star. His newest book "Ship of Lost Souls: The Tragic Wreck of the Steamship Valencia" can be found on Amazon. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Did you know it took several tech systems to create Endurance in 3D?
• Learn about how Canadian firm Voyis' technology provided true colour correction to the famous image.
• Discover how numerous teams worked together to find Endurance and bring the ship to life virtually.
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"Underwater, you've got that natural green, blue hue. We're trying to remove that so that you can see that the asset underwater as if it was on land." – Brenden St John About Brenden St John Brenden is the Head of Ocean Science at Voyis Imaging Inc and has been with the organization for the past 7 years. His background in electro-mechanical engineering and project management has allowed him to extend his expertise across multiple Blue Economy segments, including Offshore Energy, Ocean Sciences, and Maritime Defence. In his current role, Brenden's focus is working closely with academic and Ocean Science organizations to identify areas where optical solutions support critical research initiatives in areas such as mapping marine protected areas, digitizing marine archeology, monitoring ecosystem health, and much more. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Did you know more passengers died on the Empress of Ireland than Titanic?
• The doomed ocean liner sank in 14 minutes after a collision in the fog.
• See amazing photos of the salvage operations that took place in 1914.
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"We tend to forget that the survivors were also victims. And when you put that into perspective, and you add to that the fact that they were pretty much never compensated for anything, it's a hard thing to live through." - David Saint-Pierre About David Saint-Pierre David Saint-Pierre was born and raised on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, hearing the tales and stories of his ancestors being lighthouse keepers, captains, shipbuilders and shipowners. History became a passion, and then an academic interest: he studied contemporary history up to Ph.D. level. He has been a consultant for maritime museums in Quebec for almost three decades, did independent research under contract with the Naval Museum in Quebec City, and worked for five years for the Empress of Ireland museum in Rimouski, Quebec, not far from where the Empress of Ireland foundered. Mr. Saint-Pierre has published a number of books and articles on history, among which two books on the Empress of Ireland, one in 2016 and the other in 2023. These two books are only available in French for now, but the last one, mostly dealing with the deep sea diving and salvage operations on the wreck in 1914, has been translated and was released by the United Kingdom publisher The History Press in May 2025. The book will be released in North America in August 2025. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Did you know there is such a thing as a ship graveyard?
• Learn about the WWI ship graveyard at Mallows Bay in Maryland.
• Discover how maritime archaeology students are helping document the wrecks.
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"Some of the largest ship graveyards in the world are just vessels stacked together. I've looked at them in Australia, in Bermuda, abandoned vessels in Costa Rica, across the United States. They really are everywhere." - Dr. Nathan Richards About Dr. Nathan Richards Dr. Nathan Richards specializes in maritime archaeological theory and method with a focus on cultural site formation processes of the archaeological record. He has an interest in 19th and 20th century maritime history, the history of technology, and in comparative and anthropological approaches to maritime archaeological subjects. He has been involved in field schools run by Departments of Archaeology at Flinders University and James Cook University, and has been employed in cultural heritage management work by the State Governments of South Australia and Tasmania. He is also the author of several journal articles, book chapters, and numerous reports and reviews and his research has appeared in several industry publications, such as the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. Dr. Richards assumed the role of Director of the Program in Maritime Studies (Department of History) at East Carolina University (ECU) in 2018. He has taught classes in the history, theory, method, and ethics of maritime archaeology, field schools, and cultural heritage management at ECU since 2003. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Le Lyonnais collided with Adriatic off the coast of Nantucket and sank.
• Just 18 people survived, enduring horrendous conditions before being rescued.
• The collision sparked a trial of Adriatic's captain Jonathan Durham, who left the scene.
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"There is a huge focus on the characters. What they went through. About 19th-Century life and experiences and some education about what it was like to travel the oceans during that time. It's my hope that there's something for everyone." - Jennifer Sellitti About Jennifer Sellitti Jennifer N. Sellitti is a lawyer and a shipwreck hunter. A criminal defense attorney by profession, she and her partner, Joe Mazraani, spend their spare time operating D/V Tenacious, a vessel that locates, dives, and salvages artifacts from shipwrecks in the North Atlantic. Jennifer is a U.S.C.G. licensed captain and a certified diver. She was part of the crew that discovered WW1-casualty West Point, the 1856 steamship Le Lyonnais, and the bow of M/V Stockholm – the vessel that collided with and sank SS Andrea Doria in 1956. She has served as surface support for expeditions to RMS Lusitania, SS Andrea Doria, and Titanic's sister ship, HMHS Britannic. Jennifer is passionate about educating the public about maritime history. She serves on the board of the New Jersey Maritime Museum, is an associate member of Boston Sea Rovers, and speaks frequently at museums, dive clubs, and conferences about underwater exploration. She is the creator of All Aboard!, an educational program aimed at bringing maritime history into classrooms and communities. Jennifer earned her B.S. in public relations from Boston University and her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. Her first book, "The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-And-Run Off the Coast of Nantucket" (Schiffer Publishing) is available for preorder now and will be released on February 28, 2025. The book tells the story of the collision that sank Le Lyonnais and its aftermath and includes an epilogue that chronicles how she and a team from D/V Tenacious discovered and identified the steamship's remains in August of 2024. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Do you know what a side scan waterfall is?
• Learn about the first seamless colour photomosaic of a shipwreck
• Discover how technological advances are changing the side scan sonar industry
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"As technology developed, we went from these very large, ungainly systems with very flimsy printouts to thermal paper, integrating position. Eventually you had a computer that interfaced with the sonar, and now everything appears on a computer screen." - Vince Capone About Vince Capone Vince started his underwater career in the mid-1970s as a certified NAUI advanced diver exploring the shipwrecks of New Jersey. He went on to earn degrees in Marine Biology and Marine Science with minors in geology and experimental statistics. An expert in marine technology, Vince has over 35 years of worldwide hydrographic and underwater search and survey operations experience and is the renowned President and Founder of Black Laser Learning. He is an expert in side scan sonar search operations/sonar image analysis and regularly designs and conducts training seminars for the U.S. Navy, law enforcement, fire rescue, fire, rescue, and commercial clients. Capone is a member of the Explorer's Club and, in 2014, he received Citation of Merit, as operations manager for locating and recovering the Apollo rocket motors from the deep ocean off the Florida coast. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Did you know we've only mapped about 25% of the seafloor?
• Learn about coastal geology and morphodynamics.
• Discover how advances in robotics is changing how we explore the ocean.
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"It's like this whole alphabet soup of autonomous systems, robotic systems that are giving us a force multiplier in doing ocean exploration and mapping. They give us the ability to spend more time in the environment." - Art Trembanis

About Dr. Art Trembanis Arthur Trembanis is the director of the Coastal Sediments, Hydrodynamics and Engineering Laboratory (CSHEL) in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware. The work of CSHEL involves the development and utilization of advanced oceanographic instrumentation, particularly autonomous underwater vehicles for seafloor mapping and benthic habitat characterization. He received a bachelor's degree in geology from Duke University in 1998, a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Sydney in 1999, and a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in 2004. His research interests include coastal and estuarine morphodynamics, sediment transport, hydrodynamics, autonomous underwater, aerial and surface vehicles, seafloor mapping, and geoacoustics. © 2025 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks

The USS Constitution was launched in 1797 and is still a commissioned naval warship. She was nicknamed "Old Ironsides" during the War of 1812 due to her sturdy oak hull which was seemingly impenetrable against enemy cannonball fire. Today, the ship is still on duty, used as a training vessel with a ship's complement of about 75 enslisted sailors. She also serves as an educational tourist attraction. In this episode, maritime archaeologist Ryan Miranda talks with host Kathy A. Smith about his early interest in the underwater world, his thesis, Oak, Steel, and Men: The History of USS Constitution through Artifact Biographies, and how technological advances like augmented reality are changing the way the public can interact with shipwrecks. About Ryan Miranda Ryan Miranda is a maritime archeologist and historian with a master's in Maritime studies from East Carolina University. From the Chesapeake Bay to the shores of Costa Rica and the Gulf Coast of Texas, his career has allowed for diverse experiences in underwater research and cultural resource management. His interest in emerging technologies focuses on technologies to improve the public's knowledge about maritime archeology and the stories it reveals about the past. @ 2025 Fascinated by Shipwrecks

• Monitor, the famous iconic ironclad warship is now being reimagined.
• Did you know over 200 tons of material has been recovered from the ship?
• Hear compelling stories about Monitor's legacy and plans for the 50th anniversary of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in 2025.
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"With all the archival data and that real archaeological data coming together, we've built the most accurate virtual model ever of Monitor, and I'm not just talking just the shell of it. Every single nut and bolt is there." Tane Casserley

The USS Monitor was commissioned during the Civil War for the Union Navy in answer to the Confederate Navy's new ironclad ship CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) and famously fought Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads. Known as the first irconclad warship to be equipped with a rotating gun turret, the vessel's low, freeboard design contributed to it being lost in storm off Cape Hatteras on December 31, 1862.

In this episode, host Kathy A. Smith talks with NOAA's Tane Casserley about Monitor, plans for the 50th anniversary of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, and how digital technologies are reimagining the way the public interacts with the iconic shipwreck.

About Tane Casserley

Tane Casserley joined the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries in the spring of 2001. As the Resource Protection and Permit Coordinator for both Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and Mallows Bay – Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary, Tane is responsible for the development of programs to address commercial and recreational uses in and around the sanctuaries. Tane's specialties include 19th-century warships and deep-water archaeology, as well as building collaborative partnerships, public outreach and exhibit design. He has led NOAA archaeological expeditions in the Florida Keys, the Great Lakes, California, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, and USS Monitor. He's also participated in projects including a sunken Boeing B-29 Superfortress in Lake Mead, a Civil War blockade runner in Bermuda, USS Arizona, and was most recently part of an expedition to RMS Titanic. Tane's projects have used technical diving, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and manned submersibles. © 2024 – Fascinated by Shipwrecks