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Author Topic: Would the castaways have written a diary of events?  (Read 40380 times)

Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Would the castaways have written a diary of events?
« Reply #30 on: December 25, 2011, 08:43:42 PM »

Richie

That is not one of the propellers from the NC.  Fist, the prop of the NC would have been a lot bigger.  Second, the whole back end of the ship went down into the deep water, we couldn't even find any significant part of it down to 300 meters with the ROV.  I was one of the divers who inspected the reef below the remains of the NC stuck on the reef.  There is no propeller there to be seen.

I find that photo at this link http://coralreefsystems.org/blog/shipwreck-ahoy

The photo is attributed to David Obura, and carries the following caption:

"The black reef at the site of a shipwreck on uninhabited Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner Island) in the Phoenix Islands. Photograph by David Obura."

I'm very certain it was not taken on the reef at Niku.  We would know about it if it was.  I've emailed David to ask him to verify where the photo was taken.

Andrew

amck
« Last Edit: December 25, 2011, 09:26:48 PM by Andrew M McKenna »
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Would the castaways have written a diary of events?
« Reply #31 on: December 25, 2011, 09:12:35 PM »

Richie

The "sunken room" is most likely a babai pit, and it strikes me odd that Tukabu would not have recognized it as such.  There are several on Niku, and they really are not quite large enough to "go into" other than walk through if you wanted.  As described below, they are only a couple of yards deep - maybe a yard at most on Niku - and perhaps up to 12 yards long.

google babai pit and you will find many hits that say things like:

"The coconut economy of such coral islands as those of the Kiribati Group is a difficult one, demanding the utmost of the inhabitants. The idyllic life depends, not on the beneficence of Nature, but upon the resources and energies of the people. Here the human has had to develop techniques that permit survival. To grow taro or babai, the starchy root that is one of his main food crops, he must excavate a pit about twelve yards square and perhaps two yards deep - deep enough, anyway, to reach down to the table of fresh water that collects at sea-level below these porous islands where no fresh water flows." http://www.janeresture.com/kirricom/

We've never seen a cat on Niku, other than the skeleton of one in the old village store, but we've seen abundant rats.  The rats don't seem to have slowed down the bird population.  I think one factor is that the Coco crabs and land crabs eat the rats (and probably cats too).  In the rest of Micronesia, most of the Coco crabs have themselves been eaten, but not on Niku, so maybe the natural checks and balances still exist there.

amck


http://pipa.neaq.org/2009/09/searching-for-invasive-species-on.php

Searching for invasive species on Nikumaroro

Today, after a spectacular series of dives, PIPA director Tukabu Teroroko, Tuake Tema, Rob Barrel, Alan Dynner, Kate Madin, Larry Madin, Brian Skerry, Jeff Wildermuth and I landed on Nikumaroro to check for the presence of invasive species.

Invasive species are organisms that do not belong there and were brought by humans. Nikumaroro is uninhabited today, but over the centuries there had been periodic settlements. We were checking for rats, cats, rabbits, and other organisms that can harm the native animals and plants. Kiribati has successfully worked hard on Phoenix and McKean Islands to eradicate rats and rabbits. But Tukabu and I wanted to check for rats here on Nikumaroro. He knew there were cats on this island, but rats are more devastating to the hundreds of thousands of birds that call Nikumaroro home, and if he found strong evidence, he would plan an eradication.

We explored a small portion of the island, found old village structures, including a sunken room with coral walls that Tukabu said was perhaps an ancient marea, a place of worsiop. Tukabu looked at the fallen coconut fruits and reasoned that rats might not be too bad here, as they were not abundant bite marks on the coconut. Part of the long-term management plan for PIPA is to eradicate invasive species on all the islands to protect the amazing bird life on these islands; the Phoenix Islands are considered among the most important seabird nesting sites in the Pacific.
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Irvine John Donald

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Re: Would the castaways have written a diary of events?
« Reply #32 on: December 27, 2011, 10:41:12 AM »

Richie

That is not one of the propellers from the NC.  Fist, the prop of the NC would have been a lot bigger.  Second, the whole back end of the ship went down into the deep water, we couldn't even find any significant part of it down to 300 meters with the ROV.  I was one of the divers who inspected the reef below the remains of the NC stuck on the reef.  There is no propeller there to be seen.

I find that photo at this link http://coralreefsystems.org/blog/shipwreck-ahoy

The photo is attributed to David Obura, and carries the following caption:

"The black reef at the site of a shipwreck on uninhabited Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner Island) in the Phoenix Islands. Photograph by David Obura."

I'm very certain it was not taken on the reef at Niku.  We would know about it if it was.  I've emailed David to ask him to verify where the photo was taken.

Andrew

amck

Hi Andrew. What was the visibility like for both diver and ROV?  Is it clear enough to conduct a search easily or is it cloudy where searching is slow due to visibility limitations?
Respectfully Submitted;

Irv
 
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Would the castaways have written a diary of events?
« Reply #33 on: December 28, 2011, 09:20:27 AM »


Irvine Asks:

"Hi Andrew. What was the visibility like for both diver and ROV?  Is it clear enough to conduct a search easily or is it cloudy where searching is slow due to visibility limitations?"


Visibility out on the reef was very good in 2001, you could easily see from 60 to probably near or beyond 100 ft would be my estimate.  Same was true for the days when the ROV was in use during the 2010 expedition.

Visibility in the lagoon in 2001 was about 3-5 ft which made getting towed on a manta board behind the skiff interesting.  At that time the Baureke passage was not open to the sea.  In 2007 and 2010 when Baureke was open, the lagoon visibility was somewhat better, but we didn't do any diving in the lagoon on those trips, and the AUV didn't need good visibility to accomplish the side scan sonar survey of the lagoon bottom.

amck
« Last Edit: December 28, 2011, 09:22:04 AM by Andrew M McKenna »
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Monty Fowler

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Re: Would the castaways have written a diary of events?
« Reply #34 on: December 28, 2011, 12:20:02 PM »

Yeah, I am NOT a steamship expert by any means, but two things about that prop pic don't ring true for it being off the Norwich City - 1) not nearly big enough, the NC was a single-screw ship so the individual prop blades might have been at least 6-8 feet long each, and 2), the shape looks more "modern" than what the NC was probably using at that time period.   
Ex-TIGHAR member No. 2189 E C R SP, 1998-2016
 
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