Eighteenth century ship washed up

Interesting wreck materializes overnight

Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida was transformed when the remains of a very old ship was washed up onto the sand.

Julie Turner and her 8-year-old son were taking an early morning walk when they made this fascinating find.

Spanish Main Antiques owner Marc Anthony, a self-proclaimed treasure hunter, told Action News Jax the ship appeared to be from the 18th century.

He said it is extremely rare for such wreckage to wash ashore.

"To actually see this survive and come ashore. This is very, very rare. This is the holy grail of ship wrecks," Anthony said.

Action News Jax was there as an archaeology team surveyed it.

"Taking lots of notes, doing drawings, mapping it out. There are so many details that go into trying to assess the date, where it came from," Tonya Creamer of St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum said.

She said it is up to the state to decide what to do with the wreckage.

"This is state land, state beach area, so we just share our knowledge and our information, what we’re documenting right now, with officials and its up to them what to do next," she said.

With thanks to Jacqueline Church Simonds

Mass grave of WHYDAH pirate crew uncovered

"Black" Samuel Bellamy was reputed to be the richest pirate in booty terms. And now, perhaps, they have found his body.

In 1716, he was first recorded as sailing under Captain Hernigold, who quit his post because he didn't like seizing and looting British craft.  In true pirate fashion, once he had gone, the crew held an election, in which Bellamy was voted captain, presumably because he didn't have the same scruples.

He thought his piratical existence was justified.  According to the legend, he declared that the British aristocracy was no better.

They vilify us, the Scoundrels do, when there is only this Difference, they rob the Poor under the Cover of Law, forsooth, and we plunder the Rich under the Protection of our own Courage. 


In March 1717, Bellamy and his cruise captured the Whydah, a slave ship returning to London from the Caribbean with the profit made from carting Black captives to the slave market -- gold ivory, sugar, and the immensely valuable dye, indigo.  A few more prizes were taken, but then the little fleet was overtaken by a tempest, and on the night of May 17, the Whydah ran aground on a sandbar, near Wellfleet, Massachusetts.  Naturally, since then there have been strenuous efforts to bring up the cargo.

Well, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald, the last resting place of a number of the crew of the Whydah has been discovered.

America's largest pirate mass grave has been discovered after 300 years, with more than 100 sets of remains offering clues to the crew's exploits.

Archaeologists believe the site is the last resting place of Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy's crew, who drowned when the Whydah Gally, their ship, was wrecked at sea in 1717.

The body of Bellamy, thought to be the richest pirate ever, has not yet been accounted for but around 100 of his crew were recovered and given a land burial in Massachusetts.

Casey Sherman, leading the investigation into the Whydah, said: "We believe that we have found the largest mass burial ground in the US.

"Over 100 pirates washed ashore on Cape Cod [after the wreck], and our team believe that we have located it [the grave site].

"It's very hallowed ground. Almost every day we're learning more about what happened 300 years ago."

The archaeologists have also uncovered the homesteads of the Cape Codders who first responded to the wreck, Sherman told the Daily Telegraph.

He explained that the pirates, who counted Indians and runaway slaves among their number, were in fact "very progressive" in the democratic way they ran their ship.

Bellamy, born in Devon, the UK, in 1689, was himself an unusual captain, attempting to avoid violence wherever possible.  Despite this most unpiratical codicil, in just a year, Bellamy used the Whydah to raid 54 ships along the US east coast and the Caribbean, collecting treasure equal to around US$120 million today, said Forbes Magazine.

It is believed that Bellamy's corpse is among those found.  Read more about it in the Telegraph.

Iconic South-East Asian beaches closed to save the eco-system

Maya Bay, Thailand, Mike Clegg, photographer

From the Kuala Lumpur New Straits Times

Popular beaches will be closed to tourists this season, to help preserve increasingly fragile ecosystems, including Maya Bay (pictured above), where the movie The Beach was filmed.

The beaches "simply cannot handle so many people, pollution from boats and beachfront hotels," said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine expert in Bangkok.

"Coral reefs have been degraded by warmer seas and overcrowding.  Sometimes complete closure is the only way for nature to heal."

More than three-quarters of Thailand's coral reefs have been damaged by rising sea temperatures and unchecked tourism.

Thailand closed dozens of dive sites to tourists in 2011, after unusually warm seas caused severe damage in the Andaman Sea, one of the world's top diving regions.  It also shut some islands in 2016.

The country's sandy beaches helped draw record numbers of tourists last year, contributing about 12% of the economy.  The government expects 38 million visitors this year.

This continuing damage, plus rising seas and warming temperatures, deprives fishermen of their living, and contributes to bigger, more devastating storms.

The Philippines is facing the same problem.  Last year, about two million people visited Boracay, which used to be celebrated for its pristine white beaches.  On a visit last month, President Duterte called the island a "cesspool."  Sewage from hotels has simply been dumped into the sea.

The island is to be closed for six months, much to the fury of tour operators, who say that 36,000 jobs are at stake.

Thailand's Thon warned against short-term fixes.  "Tourism is important," he agreed, "but we need to preserve these spaces for our future generations, for future livelihoods."

Checking what Facebook sends out about you

With all the public fuss about Facebook's free and easy way of sharing your private information -- and the private information of your Facebook friends' -- it is a good idea to find out exactly what Facebook knows about you.  And it is easier than it might look.  And when you go through the process, you will find that the Facebook robots are surprisingly cooperative.

On your Facebook home page, go up to the top righthand corner, and you will see a small downward-pointing arrow.  Click on this, and you will get a drop down menu.

Second to bottom, right above "Log Out" you will see "Settings."  Click on this.

Then choose "General" from the menu that comes up.  You will find your basic profile information, with a message right at the bottom, saying "download a copy" of your data.  Hit this, and you will get a message saying the robot will collect your archive, and it will come to you attached to an email.

It doesn't take long to arrive, in the form of a zip file.  Download this, and save it, as it will lapse if you do not.  Then go through it.  Interesting stuff -- the ads that are aimed at you, for instance.

Going back to the "settings" menu to do some tinkering and editing is a worthwhile exercise.  For instance, you can edit the apps area.  By the side of each icon you will see a pencil, and hitting this allows you to stop the app from publicizing every time you use it, or you can remove the app altogether.

Have fun.

Reading improves your health!

Book lovers know there’s no feeling like getting lost in a great book. Page after page seems to fly by as you get more and more entrenched in the plot and character development. It’s almost as if you’re in the scenes and participating in the outcome. What you may not realize, however, is this activity is not only fun, but also great for your health! Check out these five surprising health benefits of reading.

1) Reduced Stress

When you get caught up in a great book and all your thoughts are consumed by the plot and characters, it seems like your everyday worries and stresses disappear. Not only does it seem that way, but it’s actually a proven fact! This 2009 study proves that reading for only six minutes can reduce stress by 68 percent, as well as slow your heart rate and minimize muscle tension. After a stressful day at work, instead of turning on the television, crack open a great book or fire up the Kindle in order to relax.

2) Improved Memory

Ok, maybe this one isn’t too surprising. Just like your muscles, your brain loves a good workout too. Reading regularly exercises your noggin, and all those synapses firing can actually improve your memory. In addition, a recent study showed that elderly people who read regularly are 2.5 times less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease.

3) Younger Brain

Of course we can’t stop the aging process (as much as we’d like to), but reading can help slow it down. This study showed that reading can significantly reduce your rate of cognitive decline. So curl up with a good book each night if you want to keep that brain young and spry.

4) Increased Empathy

Who knew that reading books could make you a nicer person? Apparently getting emotionally absorbed in a book carries over into real life. This study found that people who regularly immerse themselves in fictional stories are more empathetic. Even though the characters are fictional, relating to their situations causes us to be more open to real people in our lives.

5) Increased Tolerance for Uncertainty

Let’s be honest, all of us have struggled with ambiguity or lack of control in personal situations in the past. It can be stressful not knowing the future. Surprisingly, one easy way to cope is to read more. One study showed that reading fiction can cause an increase in tolerance for uncertainty. As people dive deeper and deeper into fictional stories and characters, their minds actually open up, and they become more comfortable with possibilities, options, and uncertainty.

Everyone knows reading is fun, but the benefits outlined above can really improve your health and life. If you’re reading a lot already, good for you! And if you’re not, try to find more time to read if you can. One thing you’ll need for sure is…LOTS OF BOOKS!

With thanks to Catherine Mayhew

Another Discovered Diamond -- Eleanor Reid's journal

 Non-fiction is very rarely reviewed on Helen Hollick's Discovering Diamonds blog, so it is particularly rewarding to see her wonderful assessment of Eleanor's Odyssey.

Eleanor's Odyssey: Journal of the Captain's Wife on the East Indiaman 'Friendship' by Joan Druett

non-fiction

AMAZON UK £4.61

AMAZON US $6.45

AMAZON CA $8.38

Nautical History/ journal / non-fiction

1799-1801

Various locations

“1799, and French privateers lurked in the Atlantic and the Bay of Bengal. Yet Eleanor Reid, newly married and just twenty-one years old, made up her mind to sail with her husband, Captain Hugh Reid, to the Pacific, the Spice Islands and India. Danger threatened not just from the barely charted seas they would be sailing, but from the lowest deck of Captain Reid’s East Indiaman Friendship, too—from the cages of Irish rebels he was carrying to the penal colony of New South Wales. Yet, confident in her love and her husband’s seamanship, Eleanor insisted on going along.”

A fascinating read, and a must for anyone interested in Nautical History, particularly of the Far East and the East India Company. Joan Druett’s highly entertaining and expert commentary between Eleanor Reid’s own journal entries give an informative background to the voyage, some detail of which would be a little baffling to today’s ‘landlubber’ readers. Aboard ship, and on land, this wonderful view of a by-gone world and its inhabitants going about their daily lives is intriguing and absorbing. From the insight of a Captain’s wife’s wardrobe, through the difficulties of navigation, the threat of privateers, distasteful events (like dealing with constipation) and enjoyable ones, like sighting new and exotic lands, Eleanor’s journal is a joy to read. She is to meet storms, shipwrecks, cannibals, sharks, tigers and (as we know now) just as dangerous mosquitos.

Eleanor herself is a delight to get to know. Charming, witty, obviously well-educated, fearless and undoubtedly brave

A pleasurable read and highly recommended - especially for Women’s History Month

© Helen Hollick

Oscar the unsinkable cat

It's a wonderful story of a super-survivor ship's cat.

According to the yarn, the cat lived on the German battleship Bismarck, though in what capacity is unknown.  Was he the official mouse-hunter, or a smuggled seaman's pet?  Whatever, he was one of the few survivors when the Nazi battleship was sunk in May 1941.

Of the Bismarck's crew of over two thousand, only 114 men survived.  One hundred and fourteen men, that is, and one cat.

The cat was found some days later, clinging to a plank, from which he was rescued by the crew of the destroyer Cossack.  Naturally, he was adopted, being a portent of good luck.  And he was given a new name.  Good choice -- Oscar (or Oskar), the letter "O" (pronounced Oscar) being the signal for "man overboard."

A few months later, on 24 October 1941, Cossack was torpedoed and sunk.   Again, Oscar was found on a floating plank, to be rescued by HMS Legion and taken to Gibraltar.  Somehow, he caught the eye of a seaman of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and was carried on board, where he was given another name -- Unsinkable Sam.

And on 14 November, guess what, his latest ship was sunk.  And again he was rescued and taken to Gibraltar, where he found a safer berth as the appointed mouse-catcher in the Governor General's office.  The end of the war saw the end of that job:  Oscar-Unsinkable Sam was carried to Britain, where he spent the rest of his life in a Seamen's Home in Belfast, passing away in 1955, and memorialized by a pastel portrait that is now held by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

artist, Georgina Shaw Baker NMM, UK

Lovely yarn.   But is it true?

Unfortunately, there are flaws in the story.   By the time the Bismarck went down, the destroyer Cossack had withdrawn.  The survivors were rescued by the ships Maori and Dorsetshire, and there is no mention of a cat in their records.  And none of the Bismarck survivors mentioned a cat, either.

In October 1941 when Cossack was sunk, the survivors were picked up by HMS Legion, HMS Carnation, and FS Ariguani. Again, no mention of a cat.  Interestingly, however, the destroyer Legion was based in Gibraltar, and was one of the ships that stood by for survivors when Ark Royal was sunk.

So, it is a tangled web, with a mysterious cat lurking inside. And maybe HMS Legion is the link to the solution of the mystery.

THE MONEY SHIP shortlisted for book of the month

From Helen Hollick's book review blog, Discovering Diamonds

Joan Druett is a Master Mariner of her craft – the craft of writing maritime history and fiction, that is. This highly entertaining – and absorbing – nautical tale is one of those novels that keeps you turning the pages anxious to know what happens next. Descriptions, dialogue, aboard and ashore scenes are filled with incredible believability so much so that you feel you are a fly on the wall watching real people perform, not fictional made-up characters. You can feel the ship moving, hear the wind in the rigging, the crash or gurgle of the waves. Feel the spray on your face and smell the smells. Intrigue and adventure takes us with the Captain and crew to different ports and harbours on different voyages  over a period of years and all the while we grow to know the characters well and try to puzzle out the mystery that is deepening about Turtle Island and its lure of treasure.

There are distant lands and their native peoples, shipwrecks, pirates, clement weather and storms. A superb tale of adventure populated with nice, likeable characters and boo-hiss baddies.

Loved the entire series!

© Helen Hollick

Facebook in big, big trouble

From the Singapore Straits Times

WASHINGTON: As Facebook reels from the scandal over hijacked personal data, a movement to quit the social network has gathered momentum, getting a boost from a high-profile co-founder of the WhatsApp messaging service acquired by the huge social network in 2014.

"It is time. #deletefacebook," Brian Acton said in a tweet, using the hashtag protesting the handling of the crisis by the world's biggest social network.

The WhatsApp co-founder, who now works at the rival messaging application Signal, posted the comment amid a growing uproar over revelations that Facebook data was harvested by a British political consulting firm linked to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

"Delete and forget. It's time to care about privacy," he said.

Several websites offered tips on how to quit Facebook, while noting that the process is more complicated than it appears.

Facebook offers users the option to "deactivate" an account for users who want to take a break and return later, or to "delete" the account and its data entirely.

But Facebook noted that some data such as posts on friends' timelines might remain in the system even after an account is deleted.

And longtime Facebook users could face complications on dealing with log-ins and authorizations to other websites and apps through the social network.

The website The Verge published a guide to deletion, advising users to download a copy of all personal data including photos and posts before quitting.

The website noted that it could take up to 90 days to fully delete an account, and that data may be inaccessible during that period.

Users may also face choices on what to do about other Facebook-owned properties such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

It was unclear how many users were following through on plans to quit Facebook, which has more than two billion users worldwide.

But Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, said the social network was losing the trust of its users.

"The issue is a callous disregard for the privacy rights of users and a lack of care with respect to data that had been entrusted to Facebook," McNamee told National Public Radio.

"I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but I'm afraid there is a systemic problem with the algorithms and the business model of Facebook that allow bad actors to cause harm to innocent users of Facebook." — AFP

The Million Dollar Mouse -- success!

The Million Dollar Mouse project team return, to announce the success of the mission.  No mice were found on Antipodes Island, so it can now be called predator free.


From Voxy

Wednesday, 21 March, 2018 - 09:45

In a world-leading conservation effort, mice have been successfully eradicated from Antipodes Island in the New Zealand Subantarctic, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today.

Million Dollar Mouse, a joint initiative between the Department of Conservation (DOC) and funding partners the Morgan Foundation, WWF-New Zealand, Island Conservation and public supporters, has successfully delivered one of the most complex island eradication projects ever undertaken.

"This is huge news for conservation both in New Zealand and internationally," Ms Sage said.

"Special plants and wildlife, including 21 species of breeding seabirds, more than 150 species of insects - 17 per cent of them only found on the Antipodes; 21 uncommon plant species and four unique land birds are found on the Antipodes Island. They can now thrive with mice no longer preying on the insects or competing with the land birds."

The Minister visited Antipodes Island aboard the HMNZS Wellington in February when the outcome monitoring team were dropped off to review whether the winter 2016 baiting operation was successful.

During her visit, she saw first-hand the challenges the project faced, including remoteness, scale, and difficult terrain.

"The successful Antipodes Island mouse eradication is another landmark conservation achievement which underlines DOC’s technical expertise in pest control and threatened species protection.

"Seeing so many Antipodean and Reischek’s parakeets, pipits and insects flourishing on what is now a predator-free island is a tribute to the ambition, planning, dedication and skills of everyone involved from the helicopter pilots and bait crews in 2016 to the monitoring team this year."

Led by DOC’s Finlay Cox, the monitoring team searched the island for almost a month and found no sign of mice. They were assisted by three rodent detecting dogs from the Conservation Dogs programme, supported by Kiwibank and Auckland City Council. They returned to Dunedin yesterday.

DOC’s Island Eradication Advisory Group (IEAG) has declared the Antipodes Island officially mouse free.

DOC Project Manager Stephen Horn said work started on the project in 2014, but planning started much earlier.

"The success of this project was built on the lessons and experience from many other island eradications in New Zealand and abroad. The Subantarctic islands are remote, but the role they play in global conservation as the home for so many unique species can’t be overstated," he said.

"This success is not down to any single organisation or country and thanks must go to everyone involved, particularly the New Zealand public. Their donations and belief in the outcome got this project off the ground."

The Raft

This was yet another book I picked up at a whim.  I was in the library, and the title piqued my interest.  So I took it off the shelf and read the blurb:

Lydia and Martin Napier decide to get away from it all at a remote property in Far North Queensland [Australia].  It is their chance to spend time with their eight-year-old daughter, and also a chance to get their relationship back on track. The family hit the road for what they hope will be a taste of paradise.

Instead, they run into cyclone weather.  And as the rains stop, the floodwaters rise.

Caught up in the dramatic rescue of a policeman and his prisoner, within hours the family find themselves marooned on the roof of an isolated farmhouse.  With limited food and water, little hope of rescue, and a killer in their midst, they face the most terrifying ordeal of their lives.

A novel of heart-stopping suspense, The Raft is a deft psychological drama that will force you to keep turning the pages.

Interesting.  I suppose it was the blurb that made me borrow the book, though I must admit I also read the first few pages, to make sure it was decently written.

Within the first three chapters, I came to the conclusion that the author should have sued the blurb-writer.  Well, the blurb-writer was just doing his or her job, to sell the book, but this was truly under-rating it.  I really wondered if he or she had either (a) actually read the book, or (b) understood it.

So, let's see what I found.  First, we have a yuppie family, of two parents and one child.  The father has just been informed that his comic strip is going to be ... well, stripped from the franchise.  While his hunky hero, Zardan, has made megabucks in the past, Martin was silly enough to sign away his copyright, and now that there is a new CEO, who doesn't consider Zardan very sexy.

Martin's wife, Lydia, would like to be a fulltime mom (with lots of spare time at the gym) but her brother has talked them out of the Zardan millions with a really silly financial scheme, and so they are broke and she has to work.  And, while they have a lovely little daughter, the death of a son from meningitis lurks in the psyches of both.  Therefore, both are obsessive parents.  And, on the practical side, it looks as if they are going to have to get along on Lydia's salary.

So, weighed down with angst, they head off to Cairns (lovely town, great shopping center, good place to buy mosquito repellent, but surrounded by intimidating landscape) and then drive into the unknown, to spend a couple of weeks working through their problems at a farmhouse loaned by Lydia's boss.  And we all know that the Australian landscape, though stunning, is a field of extremes.

From that moment on, disaster after disaster.  Floods, and more floods. Total inundation. A broken bridge blocking their escape.  Dangling off the broken bridge is a police van carrying a couple of repellent nasties.  One (like one of the two policemen) succumbs to the flood.  The other, along with a cop with huge personal problems, is rescued -- not so much by Martin Napier, as by a truckie called Tony who happens along.

And so they go back to the farm, to retreat floor by floor as the flood engulfs them, until they are stranded on the roof.  So we are left with a group of virtual castaways. One aggressive cop, one murderous felon, a rather engaging truckie with a Croatian past, and a family of three trying to get their shattered existence in order.  There are crocodiles, a dam breaks, and there of a couple of looter/raiders. 

It sounds as if it was made for a movie, right?  Maybe (though the Australians have already made Dead Calm, a movie I recommend unreservedly) but there is a difference from the usual thriller genre.  A big difference.  Martin Napier's hero, Zardan, is facing similar problems in Napier's final comic strip, and Napier is constantly comparing himself with his comic book hero, and feeling utterly inadequate because of it.  A very nice touch is the interpolated description of Zardan's ordeal, and the awful story of his end.  Very Game of Thrones, believe me.

So this is an unusual look into the minds of people when taxed by extreme challenges.  With an unexpected ending.  And a different approach.

An interesting read, most definitely.

Is the seizure of the yacht Trump's revenge?

On the last day of last month (February 28), Indonesian authorities made a surprise descent on the luxury yacht Equanimity in Benoa Bay, Bali, and seized the vessel, said to be worth US$250 million.

According to "financetwitter" four United States "chief investigators" accompanied the Indonesian police, suggesting a joint operation.

Registered in the Cayman Islands, the yacht is claimed to be the property of financier Low Taek Jho, generally known as Jho Low.  However, he was not on board at the time.   His present whereabouts are unknown -- the best guess is that it is somewhere in Taiwan.  He has been a shadowy figure, reported as spending most of his time on Equanimity -- which was sailing under the radar, as it were, with its positioning signals turned off -- and the rest in Shanghai.  The yacht has been reported in Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, and some of Indonesia's most remote islands, as well as Bali, as Jho Low secretly cruised the South China Sea.  It was probably just a matter of luck that he was not in his plush stateroom on the Equanimity when the police climbed on board.

Agung Setya, the director of Special Crimes at Indonesia's equivalent of the British CID, announced that when the yacht was seized there were 34 crew present, and that these were being cross-examined.  "I have been told by the US Department of Justice," he said, "that this vessel is among the assets resulting from criminal activity."  This is, of course, part of the investigation into the 1MDB scandal, where Malaysian development funds were allegedly misappropriated.  And a prime figure in this investigation is the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, who is also the Chairman of 1MDB.  As the writer for "finance twitter" observes, he has been "caught with his hand in the cookie jar -- a whopping US$681 million in his private banking accounts."

This investigation has been going on for quite a while.  In August 2017, when it was well underway, the US Department of Justice asked for a stay on the civil move to seize assets bought with 1MDB funds, as they were conducting a related criminal probe -- one where offenders could be extradited to face justice.  And so the matter stalled for months, while Jho Low flitted about the South China Sea -- and then, suddenly, the investigators sprang into action. And it is probably no coincidence that it happened at the same time that Najib Razak was about to call a snap election.

According to the Straits Times, this could be held as early as the last week or so in April.  And Najib Razak's coalition government has a good chance of getting back into power, courtesy of a reshaping of electoral boundaries.

So, why the rush to discredit him?  It goes back, perhaps, to his visit to the White House in September 2017, where he pledged a US$20 billion investment, to "help make America great again."  Was it in the hope that the US investigation into 1MDB money-laundering be closed?  If so, it was doomed, because the promise was an empty one: the money has never materialized.

And so the order to expedite the investigation and, incidentally, seize the yacht, was issued.

Both Jho Low and Najib Razak must be sleeping uneasily.  Jho Low has no diplomatic immunity, and if found could be extradited, to face charges and give evidence.  And, if the Prime Minister of Malaysia loses the election, he loses his diplomatic immunity, too.

The controversial luxury yacht.

It is billed as the 50th biggest luxury yacht in the world, but is now number one in terms of controversy.

She is certainly impressive.

Built by Oceanco to an Andrew Winch design, and with Azure Naval Architects engineering, the yacht Equanimity was delivered to her owner in June 2014.  Undoubtedly, he enjoyed her. The yacht can accommodate 26 guests in 9 staterooms and has a crew of 28. Equanimity’s features include a spa and beach club, a beauty salon, a gym, a sauna, a Turkish bath and a large pool. The interior has some oriental inspired themes, lush with bamboo and gold.

The identity of the owner is a bit of an imponderable.   According to one source, Do Won Chang is the lucky fellow, while other experts says that Malaysian billionaire Jho Low is the owner.  Whatever (or whoever), the owner has Chinese roots -- which could mean either man, but was confirmed as Low in a 2017 USA court case. 

Jho Low is an interesting man, with interesting ancestors.  His grandfather, Meng Tak, settled in Thailand in the early 1960s, and accumulated great riches as a mining and liquor-distillery entrepreneur.   Most of this was invested in real estate.

Low's father was Sri Larry Low Hock Peng (known as Larry Low).  He carried on under the name of Strategic Resources Global,also dabbling profitably in the stock market, holding stakes in the Frencken Group, among others.  It seems he also had excellent connections in Malaysia, because the King accorded him the honor of Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia, something the government of Malaysia may be regretting, right now.

Jho Low himself is the co-founder and CEO of Jynwel Capital Ltd., an international investment and advistory firm based in Hong Kong.  Through this body, the family has invested heavily in the US, owning shares, in EMI, Myla Lingerie, and the Park Lane Hotel in New York.

From these heights the family fortunes have abruptly plummeted.  Last year, US authorities filed a criminal case against Jho Low, claiming that he had transferred one billion greenbacks from the Malaysian authorities to a private account.  Allegedly, a strategic investment and development company owned by the government of Malaysia, called 1MDB, formed a joint venture with a Saudi oil company, PetroSaudi International, for this illicit shifting around of funds.  The money went into a Swiss bank account held in the name of Good Star Ltd., which was owned by Low.

With this money, he bought:

A Bombardier 5000 private jet
A Van Gogh painting
Two paintings by Monet
Two paintings by Picasso (one of which he gave to Leonardo Dicaprio for his birthday)
A penthouse in the Walker Tower in New York
A Laurel mansion in Beverly Hills
The Quentas townhouse in London
A penthouse in Stratton Street, London
A 22-carat pink diamond necklace
And the yacht Equanimity

Oh dear.  Flaunting such wealth can be a big mistake, as important people start asking where it came from ... and why.

Last month, as the Equanimity lay quietly in Benoa Bay, Bali, Indonesian police marched and board and seized her, at the request of the US and Malaysia.

You can read all about it in Old Salt Blog.

As Rick Spilman points out, 1MDB was set up by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and it would only be natural if he and his government were panicking.

According to the Singapore Straits Times, they are calling it FAKE NEWS, and are issuing stern warnings.

Deputy Minister for Communications and Multimedia Jailani Johari said, as quoted by the Malay language Sinar Harian daily, that following the seizure in Bali of luxury yacht Equanimity believed to be owned by businessman Low Taek Jho, the foreign media has been spreading fake news to tarnish Datuk Seri Najib's name ahead of the upcoming general election.

The warning came as the Malaysian government is preparing legislation to strengthen punishments to whom it deem to be spreading "fake news".

"The ministry has identified several news portals that are trying to revive the 1MDB issue following the seizure of the Equanimity. Among those portals are The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and the latest, MSNBC," Datuk Seri was quoted Jailani as saying on Sunday (March 11) by Sinar Harian.

"While the government is trying to combat fake news here, these issues are brought up by sources from outside the country," he added. "We believe that these efforts are by certain quarters who have a political agenda and are trying to damage the prime minister's good name" ahead of the 14th general election.

His ministry is monitoring the matter through the country's Internet regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and advised these news outlets to stop publishing such "fake news".

The 1MDB fund is at the centre of billion-dollar money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including the Unied States, Switzerland and Singapore.

The US Justice Department alleges in civil lawsuits that US$4.5 billion (S$5.93 billion) was stolen from 1MDB - which was set up by Mr Najib - in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering.

Mr Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The suits list US$1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with the stolen funds, which US officials are seeking to recover.

Those assets include the 90m yacht Equanimity which US officials said was purchased by Malaysian financier Mr Low, also known as Jho Low, an unofficial adviser to 1MDB. The boat was seized by Indonesian authorities in Bali two weeks ago at the request of US investigators.

The yacht was handed over to the FBI on Thursday (March 8).

Malaysia's police chief said there is no link between Mr Low and 1MDB.

A spokesman for Mr Low has said the yacht's seizure was part of the DOJ's "pattern of global overreach - all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing" in the 1MDB case.

The Malaysian goverment is meanwhile preparing legislation proposing that those who spread "fake news" be punishable with fines of up to RM500,000 (S$159,000) and 10 years in jail. This is 10 times the limit for transmitting data deemed "offensive" and a possible "annoyance", a clause which has already been criticised for stifling free speech.

All very mysterious.  Maybe it will all be explained, one day, but, in the meantime, it seems that there is a lovely yacht coming up for sale. 

Echoes of the Battle of the Java Sea

From the Jakarta Post

An evocative find in East Java.

A team from the Lamongan administration has excavated a grave, reported to be the burial site of three Dutch navy personnel killed in a World War II battle in the Java Sea, in Brondong subdistrict last week.

It is suspected that the remains belong to navy personnel of the Netherlands’ De Ruyter warship that sank during a battle against a Japanese warship in the Java Sea. The battle reportedly claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Dutch soldiers.

Brondong subdistrict head Sariono said the excavation took place at a local cemetery belonging to Suko residents in Sedayu Lawas village in Lamongan, East Java.

Representatives from the Foreign Ministry and the Netherlands Embassy attended the excavation, he went on. "The bones were later handed to the East Java Police to be examined," Sariono told The Jakarta Post.

The presence of the grave in Sedayu Lawas village is related to the remnants of the De Ruyter warship found in the waters surrounding Bawean Island in Gresik, East Java.

“Skeletons were found scattered around the ship's remnants when it was found by a company seeking undersea metal debris,” said Sariono.

“Some of the remains were left in the sea while the rest had been buried in the public cemetery in Suko.

Previously, the Dutch government had lodged a protest to the Indonesian government after remnants of the country’s sunken warship in the Java Sea were reportedly stolen. The Dutch government is waiting for an explanation about the stolen remnants from the De Ruyter warship. 

With thanks to Kevin Boatman Foster

Future of eBooks

Believe it or not, this is the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Kindle.  And yet, it feels as if the eBook reader has been around for ever.

In the beginning, it was hugely successful.  The "print" run of the first model sold out in less than six hours.  Everyone thought that this was the future of reading.  Print book sales would plummet, and digital books had a golden commercial future.

Well, it didn't work out like that.  People who cleared their shelves of traditional books came to regret it very fast.  After all, there is nothing like the weight and intimacy of a printed book in your hand.  And, have you ever tried reading a Kindle in the bath?

So, while it is hard to put a figure on it, digital books have hung about the 25% of total book sales mark.  And now, the blame is being placed on the Kindle itself.

The first evidence that the Kindle was clunky came when reading eBooks became possible on other devices -- tablets (the iPad in particular), phones and laptops.  But still there are huge drawbacks, a major being the stress on the eyesight.

And so the gurus and geeks in the back rooms of Amazon are working on a digital device that you could easy mistake for a proper book.  It has pages that can be folded and dog-eared, and hold a proper bookmark, instead of that annoying digital tag.  And, at the same time, it can be connected to the internet.

But will it bring more readers to the market?  Maybe, but maybe not.  Because the sad truth is that people are reading fewer books than ever.  Because of social media, the entire industry, both traditional and digital, is facing a serious threat.

Post inspired by an article, "E-book tech makes for page-turner" by Cas Carter in the Dominion Post. 

Oldest message in a bottle

A Western Australian family picked up a bottle after getting bogged down on the beach, and took it home as an ornament.  Then it was noticed that there was something that looked like a rolled up cigarette inside.  Dropped out, and dried briefly in the oven, it turned out to be a message.

The BBC reports that experts have confirmed it is an authentic message from a German ship.

The note in the bottle, which was dated 12 June 1886, was jettisoned from the German ship Paula, as part of an experiment into ocean and shipping routes by the German Naval Observatory.

Previously, the Guinness world record for the oldest message in a bottle was 108 years, between it being sent and found.  This one was dropped into the sea almost 132 years ago.

Dr Ross Anderson, Assistant Curator Maritime Archaeology at the WA Museum, confirmed the find was authentic after consulting with colleagues from Germany and the Netherlands.

"Incredibly, an archival search in Germany found Paula's original Meteorological Journal and there was an entry for 12 June 1886 made by the captain, recording a drift bottle having been thrown overboard. The date and the coordinates correspond exactly with those on the bottle message," Dr Anderson said.

The handwriting on the journal, and the message in the bottle, also matched, he added.

The bottle was jettisoned in the south-eastern Indian Ocean while the ship was travelling from Cardiff in Wales to Indonesia, and probably washed up on the Australian coast within 12 months, where it was buried under the sand, he wrote in his report.

Thousands of bottles were thrown overboard during the 69-year German experiment but to date only 662 messages - and no bottles - had been returned. The last bottle with a note to be found was in Denmark in 1934.

The bottle found on Wedge Island was found "mostly exposed without any form of cork or closure, and was about a quarter full of damp sand", and the bottle appeared to have lain "buried or mostly buried", partially filled with damp sand, Dr Anderson added.

Sand dunes in the area are quite mobile during storm events and heavy rain, so the bottle could have been subject to "cyclical periods of exposure" which could have led to the cork in the bottle drying out and becoming dislodged, "while the tightly rolled paper along with a quantity of sand remained inside preserved".

"The narrow 7mm bore of the bottle opening and thick glass would have assisted to buffer and preserve the paper from the effects of full exposure to the elements, providing a protective microenvironment favourable to the paper's long-term preservation," the report added.

The Illman family have loaned the find to the Western Australian Museum for the next two years, and it will be on display to the public from Wednesday.

WA Minister for Culture and the Arts David Templeman said he was "delighted" with the loan, adding: "It is truly an impressive find and thanks to the wonderful international and interdisciplinary cooperation of science and research, it can now also be shared with the world."

Writing online, Mrs Illman described the find as "the most remarkable event in my life".

"To think that this bottle has not been touched for nearly 132 years and is in perfect condition, despite the elements, beggars belief. I'm still shaking."

Reporting by the BBC's Helier Cheung.

You can read a pdf of  the complete scientific report  HERE