September 4, 1622 Nuestra Senora de Atocha ("Our Lady of Atocha") was the most famous of a fleet of Spanish ships that sank off the Florida Keys while carrying copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, jewels, jewelry and indigo.[1]  Found, July 20, 1985.

The H.L. Hunley, a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War, but a large role in the history of naval warfare.  Lost February 17, 1864,,,found in 1970 or 1995 (depending on which claim
you hold as true).[2]

RMS Titanic lost April 15, 1912, found in 1985, 375 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.[3] 

The "Millenium Falcon" date of loss,,,unknown.  Found,,,late 2011.

OK maybe not the Millenium Falcon made famous by Hans Solo in the Star Wars saga, but dang intriguing never-the-less,,,


  [4]

Tuesday, January 30th, 2012,,,Huffington Post reports "UFO Found In Baltic Sea?"
A team of shipwreck hunters that found a strange circular object on the floor of the Baltic Sea in 2011 now says they have discovered visual evidence of a second "disc-like shape" some 200 meters from the original find, CNN reports.

Peter Lindberg, who leads the group, previously joked to CNN that the first object they found 300 feet below the surface might be an unidentified flying object.  (Actually IMHO this should read USO, just a minor technicality.)

When the object, which has a diameter of 195 feet, was first discovered in June of last year, many believers thought it was a wrecked UFO that had crashed onto the seafloor and left behind a path of destruction measuring some 900 feet, according to News.com.au.

The team is waiting until the spring to further investigate their intriguing discovery.

HuffPo goes on to quote,,

According to Yahoo News, the Baltic Sea is a hotbed for salvaged items.

"Right now, we know about 20,000 objects, mostly shipwrecks, in the Baltic Sea. But I think there may be more than 100,000," sonar expert Andreas Olsson told Yahoo News. "I'm not sure what you will see when you go down. But I'm excited. It's going to be interesting to see what it is."[5]
In another article from CNN,,,
Lindberg's team believe the objects are too big to have fallen off a ship or be part of a wreck, but it's anyone's guess what could be down there.

"We've heard lots of different kinds of explanations, from George Lucas's spaceship -- the Millennium Falcon -- to 'it's some kind of plug to the inner world,' like it should be hell down there or something.

"But we won't know until we have been down there," said Lindberg.

The Head of Archaeology at Sweden's Maritime Museums, Andreas Olsson, admits he's intrigued by the picture, but remains sceptical about what it could be.[6]
After initially reading this article and many more, some thoughts/questions began to form in my mind?

If this "object" was found in June of 2011, why the 6-7 month delay in reporting this? The anwser is three-fold and the naysayers abound on this, with money being the contentious point:

Some have accused the Ocean Explorer team of milking the news for advertisement of their company.  Where as others will go so far as to state ",,,even if the mystery object doesn't contain retrievable treasure the site could still prove to be a gold mine for the Ocean Explorer team, with tourists and private investors PAYING to see it up-close, in a submarine."[7] And the third point, ",,,they are talking to TV production companies, hoping one will FUND them and make a documentary about their work. In the meantime, they are keeping the precise location of their find a secret, and waiting for spring and warmer weather."[8]

Personally I can't fault them for needing/wanting money from investors, being on the high seas roaming to and fro is not a cheap endeavor.  Costs run high, but when teams hit it big, the pay off can be enormous.  But not every search has that pot of gold.

A second thought is in regards to the accuracy or "trustworthiness" of the sonar image: Hanumant Singh, a researcher with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, states "regardless of what the picture looks like, these sonar images cannot be trusted."

He points out three areas of concern in an article originally published in the August 2011 edition of Popular Mechanics:

a] "This means you’ve got 'cross-talk' in which one channel is electrically contaminating the other,,,In other words, the sonar instruments aren’t wired properly,,,"

b] "The black horizontal lines going through the image show that sonar signals are dropping out (that is, the instruments aren’t detecting them), further calling the measurements (of the object) into question,,,

c]  "The edges of the image, just beyond the circular formation, are gray, meaning the sonar couldn’t tell what was there. That shows the sonar isn’t calibrated well enough to trust,,,"[9]
Another article, from JD Journal, also references the sonar image.  They would like to know where the picture is oF the second alledged object: 

"But, new reports surfacing from earlier this week have said that the team found a second object close by the first one. There was one thing missing as the rumors swirled across the internet; a picture of the second object.[10]

Now herein lays my speculation, we now may have an answer as to why this story resurfaced, and it does tie into the money issues mentioned above.  By releasing the news of a purported "second object", of which no pictures have been released, new interest is generated, hence--NEW MONEY!!  Just my humble opinion!

In Lindberg's defense he does realize "there is a lot of disturbance on the sonar image when we passed it, so it’s very blurry. We can see it’s something but to an untrained eye it might just look like ‘pea soup.’”[11]

My 3rd thought,,,

"The Baltic Sea is a literal treasure trove for salvage teams and a "shipwreck laboratory" for researchers. The sea's low salinity levels help preserve objects that sink to the bottom." [12]

In other words, it can be just about anything our conspiratorial minds can think up!!  Which brings me to my last thought concerning the news reports,,,then we shall delve into some speculation!!

And finally,,,until the team is able to return in the spring, many speculate as to WHAT the "object" is:

"Some theories about the object include it being Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon from ‘Star Wars,’ the lost continent of Atlantis, a crashed flying saucer, Russian warships, a marine version of a Stonehenge or an opening to another world inside the Earth."[13] OR,,,"or a bloody Nazi spaceship from the dark side of the Moon,,,"[14]

I had to throw that last bit in just for the simple fact that the description I read of the movie IRON SKY (to be released April 2012) mentions Antartica:

"In an alternative Earth, Hitler had a Plan B: A secret colony on the Moon, founded by troops launched from Antarctica. According to Iron Sky, that's exactly what happened. And soon, they will be back to fight back, flying UFOs."[15]

Nice little tie in to last week's pod on "Lake Vostok"

What do I think it is??  Sonar glitch,,,maybe.  Money grab,,,possibly.  But the most likely it is a natural formation of the ocean floor like an underground volcano.  My unscientific guess, a undersea volcano ring since there is a smaller one nearby. The trail leading up to it is probably in reality a lava flow that came FROM the volcano.

So are you ready for some wild speculation, some of which I have already touched upon??

Speculation #1: Is it the Russian ironclad Novgorod or some other Russian experimental seafaring ship?

The salvage team is correct in pointing out that the size and the shape of the objects seem to preclude any kind of conventional sea-faring vessel.  They are correct. But the Novgorod was not a conventional ship.

The Novgorod was a Russian ironclad battleship built in 1871.  It was almost completely circular.  However, the dimensions seem to be about half that of the object found by the salvage team and from what I've read, it sounds like it saw the bulk of its action on the Black Sea, not the Baltic.  The Novgorod had a sister ship, The Rear-Admiral Popov, which was nearly identical in design, so it may stand to reason that there were more ships of this ilk in different theaters of operation.  These ships proved to be a very unsuccessful design for the Russian Navy, so they might have used them as target practice and sunk them.  Maybe there's a really big one at the bottom of the Baltic.[16,17]


(Intriguing if I do say so myself - http://www.militaryimages.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5805)

Speculation #2: Aliens have established undersea bases on our planet.  Makes sense when you think about it.  The vast majority of our planet is water.  We know relatively little about the ocean depths and even our military submarines do not travel into the truly deep areas.  Aliens could remain undetected there for quite a while and come and go with ease.  There are speculations among some USO researchers that the theoretical  anti-gravity drives that propel UFOs through the air with such speed and maneuverability could also project an electromagnetic "bubble" around the craft, allowing it to traverse the ocean depths without resistance.  In fact, many of those who claim to have sighted UFOs dive beneath the ocean say that there was little to no disturbance of the water's surface when the craft entered.  If this is all the case, then we must ask ourselves this unsettling question: If they are sharing our planet with us secretly, just what is their agenda?

Speculation #3:  An opening to another world?? UHM,,,OK!!

Remember the scenario presented in the movie IRON SKY?  Hitler in Antartica?  Not so farfetched if you're a Hollow Earther.  Obviously the Baltic is nowhere near Antartica, but the Hollow Earth theory is so tantalizing, I must share.

The following is from Professor Fringe

"There are several hollow Earth theories. The most prevalent one holds that there are great but hidden openings at both the North and South poles, and that it is possible to enter those holes. Some - including the respected Admiral Byrd - claimed to have entered those holes. According to the legends, other civilizations live within the Earth on it's inner surface, warmed and lit by an interior sun. The idea has inspired novels by Edgar Allen Poe (MS Found in a Bottle), Edgar Rice Burroughs (At the Earth's Core), and Jules Verne (A Journey to the Center of the Earth).

"A second theory, call the "inverted Earth" theory, claims that we - our civilization - actually exists on the inside of the globe. We are held fast to the ground not by gravity, but by centrifugal force as the Earth rotates. The stars, so goes the theory, are twinkling chunks of ice suspended high in the air, and the illusion of day and night is caused by a rotating central sun that is half brilliant, half dark. Cyrus Teed, an alchemist from Utica, N.Y., was one of the first people to popularize this idea. So obsessed was he with the idea that he founded a religion based on it, changed his name to Koresh, and established a commune for Koreshanity in Chicago in 1888. In Germany, independently of the Koreshans, another group also was founded that adhered to the inverted Earth idea, and it was this concept that was accepted by some segments of the Nazi hierarchy.

,,,

"Hitler's Nazis were convinced that they were destined to rule the world, and they came to this warped conclusion through the acceptance of many occult beliefs and practices, including astrology, the prophecies of Nostradamus and the
hollow/inverted Earth theory...hohlweltlehre. Because they suspected that our surface is on the interior of a concave Earth, Hitler sent an expedition, including Dr. Heinz Fischer and powerful telescopic cameras, to the Baltic island of Rugen to spy on the British fleet. Fischer did so not by aiming his cameras across the waters, but by pointing them up to peer across the atmosphere to the Atlantic Ocean. The expedition was a failure, of course. Fischer's cameras saw nothing but sky, and the British fleet remained safe.

"Then there's the legend that Hitler and many of his Nazi minions escaped Germany in the closing days of World War II and fled to Antarctica where at the South Pole they had discovered an entrance to the Earth's interior. According to the Hollow Earth Research Society in Ontario, Canada, they are still there. After the war, the organization claims, the Allies discovered that more than 2,000 scientists from Germany and Italy had vanished, along with almost a million people, to the land beyond the South Pole. This story gets more complicated with Nazi-designed UFO's, Nazi collaboration with the people who live in the center of the Earth, and the explanation for "Aryan-looking" UFO pilots."[18]

"AND IT WILL BE IN THE LAST DAYS," sayeth the Lord, "That I will pour forth my spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; "Even upon My bondservants, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above, and signs on the Earth beneath, blood and fire, vapor of smoke." ~ ACTS 2:17 (KJV)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ For some more information,,,

Nuestra Senora de Atocha

The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum: 1622 Fleet
Treasure of Atocha: A Four Hundred Million Dollar Archaeological Adventure

H.L. Hunley

Friends of the Hunley
A Civil War Time Capsule From the Sea By Andrew Curry
Ghosts from the Coast
Treasures of the Confederate Coast: The 'Real Rhett Butler' & Other Revelations
Shipwrecks.com: Sea Research Society
Sea Research Society: Online Magazine
NUMA
Clive Cussler - Just happens to be one of my favorite authors!!
Lost Liners: Titanic
NOAA: Explorer
The Ocean Explorer Team
The Ocean Explorer Team on facebook

R.M.S. Titanic

History of the White Star Line
Titanic Archive
Titanic RMS
Titanic Historical Society
Robert Ballard: URI Graduate School of Oceanography
NOAA: Ocean Explorer

News Clips

Strange anomaly was found during a sonar, USO / UFO or stonehenge standing on the bottom ?
From The Ocean Explorer team Sweden. A very strange anomaly on the 19 June a very strange anomaly was found during a sonar survey of the sea floor. Peter Lindberg, the initiator of the expeditions, says that he has never seen anything like it even if he has spent hundreds of hours watching sonar images of the sea floor, "it's up to the rest of the world to decide what it is" he says. "It is not in our sphere of interest to go for this object since the e it might be nothing we can not afford spending funds just to have a look at it, even if it might be a "new" Stonehenge standing on the bottom.
UFO FOUND IN BALTIC SEA ( MAINSTREAM REPORT ) - RT News Report
The remains of a UFO were reportedly found by a team of Swedish explorers carrying out a 92-meter-deep sonar survey of the Baltic Sea, the Daily Mail reported. Sea surveyors say they have found what can only be described as the wreckage of a crashed space ship, like the "Millennium Falcon" from "Star Wars."
Photos of the ship immediately went viral on the internet, gathering thousands of clicks from UFO lovers. They are sure the finding could prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, as well as aliens' interest in Earth.

The discovery is round, about 18 meters in diameter.The bottom surrounding "the ship" is all crumpled; it looks like the "flying saucer" tried to move upon reaching its final resting place.  The captain of the ship says he has never seen anything of the kind in his entire 18-year career. He believes that the discovery is not a UFO, but rather a new Stonehenge.

The captain, however, remarked that the mystery may remain unsolved, as the group lacks funds to study the "saucer" in the deep.
About: Iron Sky

Novgorod

Russian Ironclad Novgorod (1874)

Hollow Earth

Nazis and the hollow Earth
An excerpt from Admiral Bird's Diary
Cyrus Teed
Cyrus Reed Teed (October 18, 1839 - December 22, 1908, erroneously Cyrus Tweed) was a U.S. eclectic physician and alchemist turned religious leader and messiah. In 1869, claiming divine inspiration, Dr. Teed took on the name Koresh and proposed a new set of scientific and religious ideas he called Koreshanity, including a unique Hollow Earth theory that posits the Earth and sky exist inside the inner surface of a sphere. In the 1870s, he founded in New York the Koreshan Unity, a commune based around his teachings that moved in 1894 to the small Florida town of Estero. After a peak at 250 residents in 1903–1908, the group went into decline after his death and disappeared in 1961, leaving the Koreshan State Historic Site behind.

Koreshan State Historic Site
The Hollow Earth Insider

SOURCES:
[1] Nuestra Señora de Atocha
[2] H. L. Hunley (submarine)
[3] RMS Titanic
[4] Shipwreck hunters stumble across mysterious find
[5] UFO Found In Baltic Sea? (VIDEO)
[6] Shipwreck hunters stumble across mysterious find
[7] ibid
[8] Shipwreck in Baltic Sea? A UFO? Mystery to Treasure Hunters
[9] Underwater UFO? Get Real, Experts Say
[10] Claim of 2nd UFO in Baltic Sea Needs to be Further Explored
[11] ibid
[12] Video: Divers find large, unexplained object at bottom of Baltic Sea
[13] Shipwreck hunters stumble across mysterious find
[14] Is This a UFO On the Bottom of the Ocean?
[15] Inside a Nazi UFO
[16] Russian monitor Novgorod
[17] Russian Ironclad Novgorod (1874)
[18] Nazis and the hollow Earth