Discovery
In December 2007, 70 feet (21 m) off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic, the remains of shipwreck were discovered and subsequently investigated by archaeologists from Indiana University. The team was surprised that this ship, that had been sought after by many a treasure hunter over the centuries, was located so close to shore in shallow, crystal clear water. Confidence among the investigators were high that this was the remains of the Quedagh Merchant due to consistencies of historical records, and the cannons found in the wreckage. The Indiana University team has been licensed to investigate the site, and convert the site into an underwater preserve, where it will be accessible to the public.
Since the ship is an important symbol of Armenian commercial history, attempts to find the ship had for some time been made by Armenian scientists as well. Ayas Nautical Research Club led by Karen Balayan, who in 2004-6 had sailed around Europe in a replica of the 13th-century Armenian vessel Kilikia, published a paper in March 2007, saying they would undertake an expedition to the Caribbean Sea aboard a 46-foot yacht, Anahit, sailing under the flag of the Republic of Armenia.
Read more about this topic: Quedagh Merchant
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“Next to the striking of fire and the discovery of the wheel, the greatest triumph of what we call civilization was the domestication of the human male.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)
“The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“That the discovery of this great truth, which lies so near and obvious to the mind, should be attained to by the reason of so very few, is a sad instance of the stupidity and inattention of men, who, though they are surrounded with such clear manifestations of the Deity, are yet so little affected by them, that they seem as it were blinded with excess of light.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)