THE EXPLORERS CLUB
PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER

Chapter Web Pages future Chapter events past Chapter meetings Chapter scholarships Chapter Web links Chapter honorees

We are now fully incorporated in the State of Delaware. We are officially the, Philadelphia Chapter of the Explorers Club, Inc. We are nonprofit. This will help us in a number of ways and protect us from possible liability problems and taxes. Thanks go to attorney and past Chair Peter Hess. NEWS FROM/ABOUT THE CHAPTER & MEMBERS CHAPTER OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVOLVEMENT From insights into Afghanistan or a look at some of the world's most spectacular caves to a chance to meet National Geographic's Boyd Matson, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Explorers Club offers a wide selection of exciting programs for the enjoyment of members and friends of exploration. Like any expedition, pulling it together is tremendously rewarding, but it takes dedication and effort from everyone on the team. If you'd like to be a part of the team that makes it happen, the chapter can always use helping hands. Volunteers are always welcome. To get involved, contact a chapter officer (for contact information click here) or call Peter Hess, chapter co-chair, at (302) 777-1715. *************** Peter Hess our chapter co-chair, diver and maritime attorney was a featured speaker on Saturday November 19, 2005 at a special scuba event that focused on underwater exploration, shipwrecks, and marine life at our club headquarters in Manhattan. Peter's particular expertise is in the legal battles over access, salvage rights and ownership of historic shipwrecks and sunken military aircraft. A veteran of 28 years of active wreck diving, he is the only diver to have explored each of these three famous shipwrecks in U.S. waters: the 1622 Spanish treasure galleon Atocha, the 1862 wreck of the USS Monitor, and the 1956 Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria. Peter is currently involved in securing exploration rights to the SS Aleutian which sank in 220 feet of water in 1929 near Kodiak Island. He is presently working with his Alaskan colleagues to turn the SS Aleutian into a technical diving destination and to develop scuba diving tourism in the pristine and unexplored waters around the Kodiak archipelago. *************** Dr. Baruch Blumberg FN'78, Nobel Lauriat 1976 was recently elected president of The American Philosophical Society, which sponsored Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery in 1804. The organization just announced a new program of research grants in support of graduate students, post-doctoral students, and junior and senior scientists and scholars undertaking field studies for their theses or other projects. Blumberg initiated development of the fund, which was established through the Stanford Ascherman/Baruch Blumberg Fund for Basic Science. *************** Dr. Ron "Pathfinder" Strickland FN'99 spent the summer 2005 promoting and exploring his proposed transcontinental trail, the Sea-to-Sea Route, which links existing long trails from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Andy Skurka MN'05, a New England Chapter member and Backpacker Magazine's Person of the Year for 2005, carried the Club flag the entire length of the trail, completing his epic journey in July. Strickland calls Skurka "a kind of a one-man Corps of Discovery 200 years after the exploits of Lewis & Clark." Dr. Strickland is seen snacking on a scorpion at a meeting of the Northwest Chapter in Seattle in June 2005. For an enlarged view of the tasty morsel click on the picture. Picture Credit: © Carl Skoog *************** Based on field work conducted in 2004, Dr. William Phoel FN'87, Vince Capone FN'89, J.M. Wells and Anna Macan developed a paper on "Scallop Dredging in the New York Bight: Substrate Changes and Associated Recovery Rates." They will present the paper at the Marine Technology Society's OCEANS 2005 Conference in Washington, D.C. Phoel's not-for-profit research company, Undersea Research Foundation International, Inc., in association with Bio-Amazonia Conservation International-Project Piaba, is conducting another research expedition into the Brazilian Amazon in January 2006. The objectives are to continue environmental studies in the area, investigate riverine resources and meet with local inhabitants to observe their customs. *************** Several chapter members are active in underwater exploration. Richie Kohler MN'04 is traveling the globe researching shipwrecks and other maritime mysteries as co-host of The History Channel's Deep Sea Detectives. Capt. Dan Crowell MN'99 captured footage of the U-853 off Rhode Island and high-density video of the U-701 off North Carolina as part of his World War II Underwater Expedition (see photo, click to enlarge). Peter Hess FN'88 negotiated an amicable resolution of litigation with the State of Alaska over salvage rights to the 1929 shipwreck SS Aleutian. Hess and Explorers Club members Josh Lewis MN'04 and Steve Lloyd MN'04 have been exploring and documenting the 400-foot-long steamship, which lies in 200 feet of water in Uyak Bay, off Kodiak Island, Alaska, since the wreck's discovery in 2002. Hess and Lloyd also searched the Aleutian's sister ship, SS Yukon, which wrecked off Cape Fairfield, Alaska, in 1946, but rough seas on the Gulf of Alaska hampered the search operations. *************** In May, Capt. Joel Fogel MN'73 returned from Mexico, where he climbed to the summit of El Nevado, an extinct volcano with an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet. El Nevado's active twin peak, El Fuego, exploded outside the city of Colima the day after Fogel's climb. *************** The PBS TV series History Detectives interviewed Robert McCracken Peck FN'83 for an episode about an early 19th-century expedition to the Rocky Mountains that involved a number of prominent naturalists and explorers from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Peck is curator of art and artifacts, librarian and senior fellow at the Academy. The expedition, led by Stephen H. Long, spent the winter of 1819-1820 at Engineer Cantonment along the Missouri River, near Council Bluffs. The campsite was recently discovered and is undergoing extensive archaeological excavation by the Nebraska State Historical Society. The episode on the Long Expedition is scheduled for broadcast on PBS on September 19. In the photo Robert Peck FN'83 (right) shows an historic Prairie Chicken specimen to "History Detectives" host Wes Crowan. The bird was collected in 1819 during the Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains and is now in the collection of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Click on the image for more chicken. *************** CONGRATULATIONS to Captain Joel Fogel, MN'73 who was unanimously elected our Philadelphia Chapter "Explorer of the Year" for 2004. Joel is also our chapter's Director of Environmental Affairs. At left we see Captain Joel atypically less his nautical attire while at right he is more uniformly dressed. To avoid eyestrain reading the plaque... click on its image. *************** Tracy Szela a student member from The University of Delaware (see image) whom the Chapter helped with funding (see scholarship item below) and in acquiring equipment sent back the images shown from the Antarctic. Her expedition was from 1 October to 10 December 2003 at McMurdo Station, the US base run by The National Science Foundation. Her advisor Dr. Adam Marsh, another graduate student, a post-doc and 2 undergraduates from other universities were also on the expedition. She and her advisor were the only two diving at a water temp of approximately 28 F. They dove through a hole cut into the ice. A dive hut over the spot kept them a little warmer. The dives were no deeper than about 60 feet and they had to stay within 150 feet of the dive hole for safety reasons. She wrote "that's okay when you have about 800 feet of visibility!" Further, after getting help from Chapter members to obtain a diving "dry suit," she wrote "Just thought I'd drop a line to let you know that the dry suit has been working wonderfully. I have gone out about 5 times so far and the way our schedule is going we are diving about 3-4 dives per week until mid-November. We went out on Monday to a site called Cinder Cones and two Weddell seals decided to join us in the water. It was great, this site is one of the few that are light enough to dive without lights. The sea ice hasn't left for about 3 years, probably due to the iceberg B-15, so it is very thick and the diving is dark. The average thickness is 12 feet. The diving is amazing. We have been able to collect urchins for our research readily at the 3 different sites we have right now. We are planning to drill a new hole in an area that hasn't been dove in about 3 years, that should be exciting. I have attached a couple pictures from inside the dive huts we use and one showing the hut at Cape Evans." Pictured is the dive hut on the Barnes Glacier and Tracy next to a hole through which she dove. A larger image can be seen by clicking on the one shown. Tracy will be describing her expedition to the Chapter in 2004. *************** At the November 13, 2002 meeting, the chapter named Harry C. Kahn II (MN '77) as its Explorer of the Year. We were saddened to learn that Harry passed away in May of 2003. An active club member and patron of exploration whose interests included marine sciences, anthropology and history, Kahn was involved in exploration for many decades. At the age of 80, he participated in an expedition to Ethiopia's remote Omo River Valley, where the team documented many of the early Christian churches carved out of the stone of the surrounding mountains. Kahn was recognized for his longstanding and generous support of The Explorers Club and the Philadelphia chapter. *************** CHAPTER IS SOLICITING NOMINATIONS FOR 2005 EXPLORER OF THE YEAR AWARD The chapter is currently seeking nominations for its 2005 Explorer of the Year award. Nominees should be: Members in good standing of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Explorers Club Currently or recently involved in active field exploration, and/or Active in service in support of the Philadelphia Chapter. Previous winners of the Philadelphia Chapter's Explorer of the Year award have included Art Bogan; Peter Joseph Capelotti, Ph.D., FN 93; David Concannon, Esq. FN 96; Jeff Mantel MN 95; Janice Harvis MN 96; Peter Hess, Esq., FN88; Steve Nagiewicz FN 95; and William Thomas, Ph.D., FN 89. To nominate a member for the 2003 award, contact any of the current chapter officers ( for contact information click here) or call Carol Aitken chapter chair, at 610-388-0587. *************** OFFICERS ARE EXPLORING EXPANSION OF CHAPTER SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM Your Chapter scholarship funds are hard at work supporting exploration. For the past several years, the Chapter has provided a $500 scholarship grant annually to a recipient involved in scientific field research consistent with the mission of The Explorers Club. Recently, the officers have discussed expanding this program, increasing both the amount and number of grants awarded each year. A committee is being formed to identify and review candidates, who could include graduate or post-graduate students or institutions who are conducting research or field-work related to, or who are actively advancing, exploration and/or the physical sciences. Money for the grants comes from the chapter's Stephen Chapman-Schroeder Scholarship Fund, which was established in memory of Stephen T. Chapman-Schroeder, of Villanova, a vice president of Wheat First Butcher Singer, who died suddenly in 1994 at the age of 47. An active member of the Explorers Club, Chapman-Schroeder served as chapter treasurer. A life-long advocate of the environment and student of ecology, he traveled the globe as a pilot, mountaineer and scuba diver and documented the effects of development on non-renewable resources. Past recipients have included the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary International Internship Program for ornithology; the North Carolina State Museum for a malacology expedition in China; and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, N.J. for marine mammal research. Chapter members and friends are welcome to submit nominations for ongoing consideration. For additional information, please contact any of the Chapter officers. *************** Bob Peck FN'83 took part in retracing Edward H. Harriman's 1899 expedition to Alaska and Siberia for a Ken Burns documentary. The film about the original expedition and the reenactment appeared on PBS. He gave a presentation about it at the Academy of Natural Sciences on March 13, 2002 and may be on our Chapter's fall agenda. More information is available at the Academy's Website http://www.acnatsci.org and at http://www.pbs.org/harriman. PBS broadcast it nation-wide and in the Philadelphia-Wilmington area (on WHYY channel 12) in June 2004. *************** What do you do after you have explored the Titanic? Eight members of The Explorers Club, all veterans of deep water exploration, including expeditions to the Titanic, Bismarck, I-52 and the Marianas Trench, have discovered the world's deepest wooden shipwreck, a merchant ship almost two hundred years old resting 4,818 meters, almost 16,000 feet, deep in the heart of the infamous Bermuda triangle. Curt Newport, widely known for locating and recovering Liberty Bell 7, the Gus Grissom Mercury spacecraft, announced this remarkable new find in Bermuda on July 10, 2001. Mike McDowell and Guy Zajonc of Deep Ocean Expeditions, Ltd. organized the expedition, known as Atlantic Sands 2001. The shipwreck was originally revealed by side-scan sonar in 1999. The wreck site was relocated and mapped on July 2nd by the P.P. Shirshov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences using the Mir 1 and Mir 2 deep submersibles launched from their mother ship, the R/V Akademik Keldysh. Participating in the dive of discovery were Newport and marine archeologist Jim Sinclair in Mir 1 piloted by Dr. Anatoly Sagalevitch and McDowell and Zajonc in Mir 2 piloted by Genya Chernaiev. Piloting on subsequent dives was Viktor Nischeta, accompanied by expedition members David Concannon (our chapter chair), Richard Garriott, Kelly Miller and Taylor Zajonc. Dr. Don Walsh, who holds the record for the world's deepest dive, also participated in the expedition and provided valuable advice of deep water geology and maritime history. High definition video cameras supplied by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution captured beautiful images of the site. The Mir subs are best known for their many dives on Titanic and their recent exploration of the World War II German battleship Bismarck. Those missions were also Deep Ocean Expedition projects. The expedition archeologist, Jim Sinclair, directed the collection, documentation and conservation of numerous artifacts. The items recovered include an intact hourglass, a sextant and an octant used for navigation, the ship's telescope, fabric samples, a man's boot, bottles and two flintlock pistols. Coins from various countries were found and place the date of the wreck around 1810. The main cargo of this unusual find was a hold full of coconuts. Sinclair noted, "She was a well equipped merchant vessel operating in a unique time in history. Given the range of navigational tools aboard she could sail the open Atlantic suggesting transatlantic trade. Her ports would most likely include England, the east coast of a young United States, Bermuda, the islands of the Caribbean and ports in Mexico, Central and South America. She probably delivered finished goods to the southern ports and was making her way north with coconuts when taken by a storm. Our dive team located pieces of the mast, including sail, just to the north of the wreck. From records in England, Bermuda and Charleston, South Carolina we may be able to identify the ship and her crew." David Concannon, past Chapter chair participated in the expedition as a submersible diver and legal advisor. According to Concannon, "Because of the rapidly evolving legal issues surrounding underwater cultural heritage, it was important for the expedition's members to understand the legal significance of their find as soon as it was discovered. All of the expedition's recovery operations were conducted in accordance with the best practical methods of marine archaeology, given the depth of the wreck, safety concerns and legal implications. This expedition conducted 21st century marine archaeology in the field while bureaucrats in Paris, many without any experience in underwater exploration, were arguing about who will control underwater cultural heritage." In the picture David holds club flag #132 in the Mir submersible. This flag is 52 years old and was carried on expeditions by club notables Bob Ballard, Silvia Earle, and past chapter chair - now club Executive Director Capt. Steve Nagiewicz. Curt Newport added, "This expedition has proven a concept. We can take state-of-the-art underwater technologies and explore historic losses in the deepest oceans of the world. And by visiting those cold, dark and mineral depleted environments we can voyage back in time to see these wonderfully preserved bits of history." Also benefiting from the expedition are sixteen oceanographic scientists from the P.P. Shirshov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dives collected samples of plant and animal life growing on the coconuts and wood recovered from the wreck. While the dive crews were resting and submersible batteries were being recharged, additional experiments were conducted throughout the various ocean depths and core samples were taken from the site for geological studies. But perhaps it is the dates of the various artifacts that do the best job of conveying the sense of the period in time in which this ship sailed. A small piece of newspaper printed in Jamaica in 1809 offers the sale of a plantation complete with slaves. There are coins dated before and after the American Revolution and one found on the 4th of July 2001, dated 1776. And then there are two French coins. One with the bust of Louis the XVI and another issued by the new French republic. All provide a fascinating glimpse into the past. *************** Capts. Steve Nagiewicz, Dan Crowell and John Moyer all chapter members have recently been featured on a revised documentary of the sinking of the Andrea Doria and Peter Gimbel's attempt to salvage the safe. The documentary runs monthly on the Discovery Channel. Program Title: "SS Andrea Doria. A Journey to Adventure." Capt. Steve sponsored several students membership with the MAST program (a Monmouth County High School-located at Sandy Hook, NJ which teaches students about marine topics) on Oceanographically Research. Their research projects are on-going for two years and have received recognition from the Press and the State of NJ. They are currently working on Junior and Senior Year Projects on Reef development, composition and bio-diversity study. The students develop a specific theory about reef development and work out the research program and implement them with on-site surveys (diving on the reefs to collect data). *************** Peter Hess Esq. is a director of The Explorers Club the Membership Vice-President and the club's Legal Advisor. He has been appointed as a United States representative to the United Nations UNESCO committee about shipwrecks. *************** Chapter Webmeister, yours truly, Bob Soberman published a book with co-author Maury Dubin on the nature of the "dark matter" that comprises 90+% of the universal mass. Recognition of this recently discovered mass impacts views about a host of subjects from the "Big Bang" to fusion and even global warming. More about the book including a sneak preview and ordering information can be found at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~soberman/ *************** Past Chapter Chair and current Treasurer David Concannon Esq. FN'96 is seen at the left atop the Mir 1 submersible. David wrote his story about the first dive to the Titanic in this century. It was published in "The Philadelphia Lawyer" in April and supposed to be in the summer 2001 issue of "The Explorers Journal." To read the full text of his story click on The Explorers Journal Article. To return here use the [back button] on your browser. David also wrote the foreword to the new "Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel." The book hit No. 4 on the NY Times best seller list in its second week of publication in April. David has been busy representing explorers over the controversy concerning diving the Titanic. He also sponsored the entire third grade class at Gladwyne Elementary School for student membership in the Explorers Club. This may be the first such class sponsored since the programs inception in 1998. David and Ken Kamler visited the school so that Ken would give his presentation about Mt. Everest to the children. *************** Capt. Joel Fogel, MN'73 the chapter's head of environmental affairs has acquired a double decker paddle wheel cruise boat named the Crystal Queen. It is available for charter. Call him at (609) 927-9448 or Email CrystalQueenTour@aol.com Capt. Joel presides over the volunteer environmental group WATERWATCH International. The group monitors marine mammal and waterfowl population migrations, water pollution and works with Federal, State and Municipal agencies on search and rescue operations. Executive Director of WaterWatch International, Captain Joel is sponsoring and promoting Wetland tours and birding tours in South Jersey. He has been nominated for the Governor's 'Pinnacle Award' for excellence in environment and community affairs for the State of New Jersey. Congratulations to the tireless supporter of environmental affairs for our chapter. Interested parties can reach Waterwatch at (609) 653 6301 of via email at FIDCO@hotmail.com. Website is www.waterwatchinternational.org. It is based in Somers Point, NJ