amulet
An ornament or small piece of jewellery thought to give protection against evil, danger, or disease. The word is recorded from the late 16th century; it comes from Latin, but is of unknown origin.
archaeology
The study of past human cultures through the analysis of material remains (as fossil relics, artefacts, and monuments), which are usually recovered through excavation.
archaeology, underwater
The potential richness of the sea for salvage or accidental finding of sunken valuables was recognized from earliest times, but the possibility of defining meaningful groups of wrecked material or ...
Augustus Siebe
(1788–1872),German inventor and manufacturer of diving equipment. Born in Saxony, Siebe was raised in Berlin. He became an artillery officer and was wounded at Leipzig in 1813. In 1819 ...
awash
The situation of an object almost submerged, as when seas wash over a shipwreck or shoal, or when a ship lies so low in the water that the seas wash over it. A falling tide which exposes a rock or ...
Batavia
A Dutch East Indiaman, widely known for its bloodthirsty mutiny after it had hit a reef in the Houtman Abrolhos off the Western Australian coast in 1629. About 250 of the 316 people aboard, including ...
Bounty
A ship's name made famous for the mutiny which occurred on board. Originally a merchant ship called Bethia, the Bounty was built at Hull in 1784. She was bought, renamed, and fitted out as an armed ...
Captivity Narrative
Account of kidnapping by Indians of white persons, usually women, taken by long journeys into the wilderness. The tale of Mary Rowlandson (1682), the earliest example, is representative of New ...
coin
[Ar]A metal token, usually a disc, with specific weight and value, usually stamped with designs and inscriptions. The earliest known coins in the world were minted by the kingdom of Lydia in the Near ...
disasters
A hazard event (natural or induced) that seriously disrupts the normal functions of society and causes widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected ...
economy, Hellenistic
The regions brought under the control of the Hellenistic kingdoms showed little economic unity or uniformity. Land-use systems ranged from irrigation regimes in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and parts of Iran ...
fiction
The general term for invented stories, now usually applied to novels, short stories, novellas, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose, even though most plays and narrative poems are ...
Flying Dutchman
Perhaps the most famous of all legends of the sea. There are several variations of it. The most usual story is that of a Dutch skipper, Captain Vanderdecken, who, on a voyage home from Batavia and ...
Lusitania
A Cunard liner which was sunk by a German submarine in the Atlantic in May 1915 with the loss of over 1,000 lives; the event was a factor in bringing the US into the First World War.Lusitania was ...
marine and underwater archaeology
Humankind's artefacts litter the seabed, partly as a result of mercantile and naval activities, but also because landscapes have become submerged. This submergence is not only the result of the sea ...
Mary Rose
[Si]A Tudor warship, flagship of Henry VIII's fleet, which sank in the Solent off Portsmouth, Hampshire, on its maiden voyage on the warm sunny afternoon of Sunday, 19 July 1545. The site of the ...
mutiny
N. pl. -ies an open rebellion against the proper authorities, especially by soldiers or sailors against their officers: a mutiny by those manning the weapons could trigger a global war | mutiny at ...
Riace warriors
Two masterpieces of Greek bronze‐casting, from (it seems) an ancient shipwreck; found off the toe of Italy in 1972. Standing nudes, 1.97–8 m. (6½‐26 ft.) high, they originally held weapons; on ...
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
A poem by S. T. Coleridge, published 1798 in Lyrical Ballads.An ancient mariner meets three gallants on their way to a marriage feast, and detains one of them in order to recount his story. He tells ...
