The Wrecks of Homebush Bay

The Wrecks of Homebush Bay

SS Ayrfield
SS Ayrfield (originally launched as SS Corrimal) was a steel-hulled, single screw, steam collier of 1140 tonnes and 79.1m in length. It was built in the UK in 1911 and registered at Sydney in 1912. It was purchased by the Commonwealth Government and used to transport supplies to American troops stationed in the Pacific region during WWII.
In 1950, it was sold to Bitumen and Oil Refineries Australia Pty Ltd and in 1951 sold to the Miller Steamship Company Ltd and renamed Ayrfield. Under the Miller flag, it operated as a collier between Newcastle and Miller’s terminal in Blackwattle Bay. Here is a description of the collier entering Blackwattle Bay:
As a teenager I went to sea on the Ayrfield, one of R. W. Miller’s colliers. It took great skill by the helmsman to steer the ship through the opening of the Glebe Island swing bridge in the darkness of night.
The ship had to have a reasonable speed to negotiate the opening as there was only a few metres clearance on either side. As we swung to port to berth in Blackwattle Bay, the vessel would slow ready to berth, and if the tide was low with a full cargo on board, the hull would scrape the muddy bottom. Skipper Ron Archer would carry out this manoeuvre effortlessly.” 1
The registration of Ayrfield was cancelled on 6 October 1972 and the old collier sent to Homebush Bay for breaking-up. The hull is located near the mouth of Haslams Creek with the bow pointing towards the shore.

                                   

Meroe Pyramids

These Nubian pyramids are strange and unique, even by pyramid standards

Cultures and Civilizations , Lost Tribes, Incredible Ruins

                      

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Slowly being reclaimed by the sands of time (literally), the pyramids of Meroë hold the fragile footprints a mysterious and long-forgotten civilization.
Meroë was an ancient city in the Kushite Kingdom, and the sheer number of its still-standing pyramids indicate that it was a massive city, once bustling with traders and everyday inhabitants. (And, most obviously, a booming tradition of masonry.)
Archaeologists have identified that the numerous pyramid structures are very clearly in the Nubian style. The structures' sharp angles and relatively narrow footprints carry all the hallmarks the former Kushite Kingdom, meaning Meroë was a pinnacle location in one of history's greatest and least well-understood civilizations.
The kingdom stretched throughout this region in ancient times. But now, little more than the dusty pyramids that stand solemnly in the desert remains of the city, and by proxy of the Kushites it belonged to. But with more than 200 of them to mark the location, they are quite enough to astound visitors and historians alike.

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Edward Scissorhands Fossil Found : Discovery News

Edward Scissorhands Fossil Found

May 20, 2013 01:57 PM ET // by Rossella Lorenzi

An Edward Scissorhands-like fossil has emerged from a national park in Canada, British researchers reported.
Found in the valley of the Stanley Glacier, in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, the newly discovered species features the body structure of a 505 million-year-old sea creature with scissor-like claws.
“When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands,” David Legg, who made the discovery while working on his Ph.D. at Imperial College London, said in a statement.
Legg, who detailed the finding in the Journal of Palaeontology, decided to name the new species Kooteninchela deppi (pronounced Koo-ten-ee-che-la depp-eye) in honor of Johnny Depp’s starring role in the 1990 cult movie.
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Directed by Tim Burton, the movie was about an artificial man named Edward, built by an inventor who died before giving him hands. This meant he was left with a set of blades in the place of fingers.
“Even the genus name, Kootenichela, includes the reference to this film as ‘chela’ is Latin for claws or scissors. In truth, I am also a bit of a Depp fan,” Legg said.
An ancestor to lobsters and scorpions, Kooteninchela deppi roamed the sea about 270 million years before dinosaurs actually began to appear.
Less than two inches long with an elongate, multi-segmented body and millipede-like legs, the creature boasted large compound eyes similar to that of a fly. These eyes were located on top of movable stalks called peduncles, helping the creature to more easily search for food and look out for predators.

Over half a billion years ago, the cost of British Columbia in Canada was located much closer to the equator and the sea temperature would have been much warmer than it is today.
Living in very shallow seas among wild sponges, the tiny creature — a hunter or scavenger — used its multiple legs to scuttle along the sea floor. According to Legg, its large Edward Scissorhands-like claws and the long spines that enhanced them helped to grab prey or scour the sea floor for creatures hiding there.
Belonging to a group called the “great-appendage” arthropods, or megacheirans, in reference to the enlarged pincer-like frontal claws that they share, Kooteninchela deppi is helping researchers to understand more about life on Earth during the Cambrian period, when nearly all modern animal types emerged.
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Indeed, the “great-appendage” arthropods are early ancestors to everything from scorpions and millipedes to insects and crabs.
“The prawns covered in mayonnaise in your sandwich, the spider climbing up your wall and even the fly that has been banging into your window and annoyingly flying into your face are all descendants of Kooteninchela deppi,” Legg said.
He added that current estimates indicate there are more than one million known insects and potentially 10 million more yet to be categorized.
“It potentially means that Kooteninchela deppi has a huge family tree,” he said.
Images: 1.The Kootenichela deppi fossil and Edward Scissorhands. Credit: Imperial College London; Wikimedia Commons. 2. Kootenichela deppi reconstruction. Credit: Imperial College London.

Edward Scissorhands Fossil Found : Discovery News#mkcpgn=rssnws1