November 2009

SBD Dauntless

WW2 Warplane hauled from Lake Michigan

The Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber crashed into Lake Michigan in the 1940's.

The Dauntless was one of more than 100 military planes lost in Lake Michigan during World War II when naval pilots trained by landing on a pair of passenger liners turned into aircraft carriers, the Tribune reported.

A World War II-era bomber is to be put on display in a museum in New Orleans, salvage operators who raised the plane said.

Jude Cowell Portfolio

Welcome to the dreamy underwater world of American artist, Jude Cowell, who creates fantastic botanically drawn fish portraits to inspire the imagination. Her blending of “the real with the visionary” results in artwork that immediately takes one to the magical deep. Just eyeing one of these velvety beauties, one can almost feel the current brushing through one’s hair.

British destroyer HMS Volage.

Wreckage of British destroyer found

Forty-four sailors perished while another forty-two were injured in the incident. The two ships managed to make their way to the Greek island of Corfu for repairs. Nevertheless, the incident sparked off a diplomatic row at the time.

Then, three months ago, the wreckage of the HMS Volage was discovered in the Ionian Sea, but the discovery was only made public this month.

Sperm whale with baby
Sperm whale with baby

Sperm whales arrange for babysitters

Sperm whales are one of the deepest diving whales on the planet and make dives of more than 2000ft below the ocean's surface lasting up to an hour while they search for the squid they feed on.

The calves, however, cannot make these dives and have to remain at the surface. This leaves the calves vulnerable to killer whales which often follow pods of sperm whales to prey upon.

Researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, tracked two populations of sperm whales in the Caribbean and Sargasso seas to see what happened when mother whales dived for food.