Latest news with #BenSaunders
Fox News
a day ago
- General
- Fox News
Schoolboy spots American Revolution warship on beach after storm uncovers 230-year-old wreck
A long-lost warship connected to the American Revolution has resurfaced off a Scottish island, courtesy of a well-timed storm — and it tells "a fascinating story," those involved said. The wreckage was first spotted by a schoolboy in Feb. 2024. He noticed the ruins after a storm swept away sand on a beach in Sanday, one of Scotland's remote Orkney Islands. After over a year of research by historians and local residents, Wessex Archaeology recently identified it as the Earl of Chatham, an 18th-century warship. The group shared the news in a Facebook post and on its website. Pictures show the wooden ribs of the ship poking out of the dunes, still miraculously well-preserved 230 years later. The ship was built in Chichester, England, in 1749. It traveled widely across the Atlantic, from Canada to Greenland. The vessel was used as a convoy escort by the British during the American Revolution before it was sold off to whale hunters in 1784, the reports noted. Whale oil, an essential source of fuel during the Industrial Revolution, was coveted at the time. In 1788, the ship met its end during a period of bad weather near Sanday – but all 56 crew members survived. "Quite a few people are really getting interested in it and becoming experts." Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, told The Associated Press (AP) the identification required a process of elimination. "You remove ones that are Northern European as opposed to British, you remove wrecks that are too small or operating out of the north of England and you really are down to two or three … and Earl of Chatham is the last one left," he said. The Sanday community, made up of 500 people, was thrilled about the discovery. The island has been the site of around 270 shipwrecks since the 1400s. Local farmers quickly got involved in the archaeological efforts. They used their tractors and trailers to haul roughly 12 tons of oak timbers off the beach. "I would regard it as a lucky ship, which is a strange thing to say about a ship that's wrecked." Sylvia Thorne, one of the island's community researchers, called the endeavor "really good fun." "It was such a good feeling about the community – everybody pulling together to get it back," she said. "Quite a few people are really getting interested in it and becoming experts." With the community effort, Saunders said he regarded the ship as "lucky," along with the fact that no crew members died. "I would regard it as a lucky ship, which is a strange thing to say about a ship that's wrecked," Saunders said. "I think if it had been found in many other places, it wouldn't necessarily have had that community drive, that desire to recover and study that material, and also the community spirit to do it." "Incredible. Great job," commented a reader about the research efforts on the group's Facebook page.
Metro
2 days ago
- General
- Metro
Archaeologists discover 250-year-old shipwreck on remote island
Hiyah Zaidi Published July 24, 2025 3:55pm Link is copied Comments A 250-year-old shipwreck was discovered on the island of Sanday, Orkney, after a school boy uncovered the ribs of the wooden ship poking through the dunes of a remote Scottish beach. This discovery resulted in a team of archaeologists, scientists, and local historians uncovering the vessel's long-lost history. And now, after dedicated research, an answer to its story has emerged (Picture: Wessex Archaeology/PA Wire) Researchers have revealed that the wreck is likely to be the Earl of Chatham, which is an 18th-century warship from the American War of Independence. After the war, the ship had a second life hunting whales in the Arctic, but met a stormy demise in the 'cradle of shipwrecks' in 1788 (Picture: AP) Ben Saunders (pictured), senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, said: 'It is thanks to our dedicated team of community researchers and the evidence they have gathered means we have been able to identify the Sanday Wreck with a reasonable degree of confidence. Throughout this project, we have learned so much about the wreck, but also about the community in Sanday in the 1780s. Sanday was infamous for shipwrecks at the time, called 'the cradle of shipwrecks in Scotland', but the community was equally well-known for its hospitality, as it looked after sailors who fell afoul of the area's stormy seas' (Picture: Historic Environment Scotland/PA Wire) The wreck was first discovered in February 2024, after a storm swept away sand that was covering it. It sparked the interest of the island, which is home to around 500 people, and around 270 shipwrecks have been recorded around the 20-square-mile island since the 15th century. Looking at the age of the timber through wood rings revealed that the ship came from southern England in the middle of the 18th century, when record keeping started to begin thoroughly (Picture: Wessex Archaeology/PA Wire) Further research revealed that before it had a life as the Earl of Chatham, it was the HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy frigate which was built in Chichester in 1749. It had a massive military career, where it helped Britain control Canada from France during the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec in the 1750s. In the 1770s, it served as a convoy escort during Britain's failed effort to hold onto its American colonies. But in 1784, it was sold off and renamed, becoming a whaling ship, hunting the huge mammals in the Arctic waters off Greenland (Picture: Orkney Islands Council/PA Wire) But in 1788, while the ship was heading out on a whaling trip, it was wrecked in bad weather off Sanday. Turning old Royal Navy ships into whaling ships was common, as their build allowed them to withstand the icy conditions of British whaling routes. The Earl of Chatham completed four seasons in the Arctic before meeting its end in the Bay of Lopness in March 1788. It carried 56 sailors on board at the time, but they all survived (Picture: Orkney Islands Council/PA Wire) Now, the timbers are being preserved in a freshwater tank at the Sanday Heritage Centre, where they will stay for around two years. Keeping the timbers in a tank helps prevent them from decaying, because as soon as they are removed from the sea they start to dry out and break down (Picture: Historic Environment Scotland/PA Wire)
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Hair loss is hard but being bald is fantastic - no one told us that before we launched'
Three friends recently held a free beer giveaway for bald people at a brewery next to their warehouse in Birmingham. The trio, who are also bald and set up skincare business Bld Bro, even saw one punter turn up having shaved his head in a bid to sample their limited edition brew. 'That was a win,' says co-founder Tariq Kazemi. Strong brand loyalty and multi-million pound gains had already been made after first conceiving the idea in 2020. Bld Bro soft launched two years later with 1,000 tubes of a fast-absorbing gel that tackles three main skincare concerns of bald people — shine, UV protection and moisturisation. In June, Bld Bro mustered a record month with over 8,000 orders and revenues of £315,000. Overall, the start-up has accrued £2.6m ($3.5m) in revenue in the last 12 months and believe they can hit £25m within the next three years as a global product. Read More: 'I pitched my car finance idea to my mother-in-law and she got it straight away' 'As three bald guys, we were just sick and tired of the narrative in society that bald is bad,' says Kazemi. 'That if you lose your hair, there's something's going wrong with you and you need to treat and prevent it. 'We came to understand that the process of hair loss is difficult, but being bald is fantastic and no one had told us that.' Now in their early forties, Ben Saunders, described as a "creative genius", and Richard Boazman, a property businessman and band manager in his youth, had grown up in South Birmingham together. Meanwhile, Kazemi had known Boazman for 20 years after meeting at Aberystwyth University. In 2020, the trio's journey formed when Kazemi was told by Boazman that Saunders wanted to set up a brand that championed baldness. The statistics are telling, with 70% of bald people more likely to obtain skin cancers and around 6.5 million men affected by hair loss in the UK alone. Read More: 'Our £30m success is due to mums making sure our children's food looked great' E-commerce specialist Kazemi had been fed up of watching the TV advertisement fad of former cricketers promoting hair transplants and had previously taken hair loss medication Propecia for 10 years. 'I bought into the hype and thought I shouldn't lose my hair,' he adds. 'That's why there's a $7.8bn industry built around the fears and anxieties of young men.' For three years, the trio worked for free alongside their day jobs and each plunged £25,000 of savings into the business. Hiring a team of chemists with a clear brief of an absorbing gel with sun protector, the two-year process took in around 100 iterations. Initially they grew an Instagram community during COVID to talk about the mental health impacts and stigma of balding. But once the trio quickly sold the first 1,000 batch of their day gel, they reinvested and raised a small pre-seed round of £350,000 to be able to launch properly last year. Kazemi recalls: 'When we started, we said, 'Worst case scenario, we've just kitted ourselves out with a really nice product for life. If it doesn't sell, at least we love it.'' Read More: 'We sold a hand cream every 36 seconds after appearing on This Morning Tasmanian-born Kazemi says there have been plenty of shared characteristics with his fellow founders. 'There are so many ways to create something and none is correct, it's just the way you get there,' he says of a business that grew by 850% through 2024. 'I think two things are overconfidence and grit, so it's like you've got to believe it. 'You obviously go through your moments of doubt as a founder, not just in products but in all facets of life. But all of us really believed in the project so much and we believed in the message." Behind the brand: Tariq Kazemi on… Messaging We did an email campaign where co-founder Ben took a picture of his dad's head. It looked like a war zone, covered in lesions and marks, as he is from a generation that wasn't educated on UV protection and left his head out there for the elements. I think we're educating on that sense of the need for skincare and for UV protection. We're making this skincare predominantly for ourselves. As three bald men, we wouldn't want to produce anything that we wouldn't use ourselves. And secondly, we believe in the message so much because we wish that, when we were in our twenties, there was a Bld Bro that was championing bald pride. Read more: 'I returned to my old office to sell ties after being made redundant' 'In our workplace, we look for passionate, slightly unhinged mountain climbers' Britain's 'king of billboards' who sold his business for £1bnError in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Hair loss is hard but being bald is fantastic - no one told us that before we launched'
Three friends recently held a free beer giveaway for bald people at a brewery next to their warehouse in Birmingham. The trio, who are also bald and set up skincare business Bld Bro, even saw one punter turn up having shaved his head in a bid to sample their limited edition brew. 'That was a win,' says co-founder Tariq Kazemi. Strong brand loyalty and multi-million pound gains had already been made after first conceiving the idea in 2020. Bld Bro soft launched two years later with 1,000 tubes of a fast-absorbing gel that tackles three main skincare concerns of bald people — shine, UV protection and moisturisation. In June, Bld Bro mustered a record month with over 8,000 orders and revenues of £315,000. Overall, the start-up has accrued £2.6m ($3.5m) in revenue in the last 12 months and believe they can hit £25m within the next three years as a global product. Read More: 'I pitched my car finance idea to my mother-in-law and she got it straight away' 'As three bald guys, we were just sick and tired of the narrative in society that bald is bad,' says Kazemi. 'That if you lose your hair, there's something's going wrong with you and you need to treat and prevent it. 'We came to understand that the process of hair loss is difficult, but being bald is fantastic and no one had told us that.' Now in their early forties, Ben Saunders, described as a "creative genius", and Richard Boazman, a property businessman and band manager in his youth, had grown up in South Birmingham together. Meanwhile, Kazemi had known Boazman for 20 years after meeting at Aberystwyth University. In 2020, the trio's journey formed when Kazemi was told by Boazman that Saunders wanted to set up a brand that championed baldness. The statistics are telling, with 70% of bald people more likely to obtain skin cancers and around 6.5 million men affected by hair loss in the UK alone. Read More: 'Our £30m success is due to mums making sure our children's food looked great' E-commerce specialist Kazemi had been fed up of watching the TV advertisement fad of former cricketers promoting hair transplants and had previously taken hair loss medication Propecia for 10 years. 'I bought into the hype and thought I shouldn't lose my hair,' he adds. 'That's why there's a $7.8bn industry built around the fears and anxieties of young men.' For three years, the trio worked for free alongside their day jobs and each plunged £25,000 of savings into the business. Hiring a team of chemists with a clear brief of an absorbing gel with sun protector, the two-year process took in around 100 iterations. Initially they grew an Instagram community during COVID to talk about the mental health impacts and stigma of balding. But once the trio quickly sold the first 1,000 batch of their day gel, they reinvested and raised a small pre-seed round of £350,000 to be able to launch properly last year. Kazemi recalls: 'When we started, we said, 'Worst case scenario, we've just kitted ourselves out with a really nice product for life. If it doesn't sell, at least we love it.'' Read More: 'We sold a hand cream every 36 seconds after appearing on This Morning Tasmanian-born Kazemi says there have been plenty of shared characteristics with his fellow founders. 'There are so many ways to create something and none is correct, it's just the way you get there,' he says of a business that grew by 850% through 2024. 'I think two things are overconfidence and grit, so it's like you've got to believe it. 'You obviously go through your moments of doubt as a founder, not just in products but in all facets of life. But all of us really believed in the project so much and we believed in the message." Behind the brand: Tariq Kazemi on… Messaging We did an email campaign where co-founder Ben took a picture of his dad's head. It looked like a war zone, covered in lesions and marks, as he is from a generation that wasn't educated on UV protection and left his head out there for the elements. I think we're educating on that sense of the need for skincare and for UV protection. We're making this skincare predominantly for ourselves. As three bald men, we wouldn't want to produce anything that we wouldn't use ourselves. And secondly, we believe in the message so much because we wish that, when we were in our twenties, there was a Bld Bro that was championing bald pride. Read more: 'I returned to my old office to sell ties after being made redundant' 'In our workplace, we look for passionate, slightly unhinged mountain climbers' Britain's 'king of billboards' who sold his business for £1bnSign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
6 days ago
- General
- Time of India
250-year-old warship discovered on remote Scottish island; what we know so far
In a remarkable discovery sparked by a schoolboy's curiosity, the remains of a centuries-old wooden ship have surfaced on the remote shores of Sanday, Orkney. As per the BBC reports, a sizable portion of a remarkably well-preserved shipwreck, believed to be several centuries old, has washed up on a beach in Orkney. The structure features large wooden pegs securing the timbers—a construction technique known to have been widely used since the 16th century. The wreck, reportedly, was first spotted in February 2024, after a storm swept away layers of sand, has now been identified to be likely the Earl of Chatham —a former Royal Navy vessel turned Arctic whaler that met its end in 1788. What initially appeared as just wooden ribs jutting out of the dunes quickly caught the attention of archaeologists, scientists, and local historians. Months of dedicated research and dendrochronological analysis—tree ring dating of the timbers—revealed that the ship was constructed from wood sourced in southern England in the mid-18th century. Combined with community-led archival work, this evidence has led experts to conclude that the wreck is most likely the Earl of Chatham . In this image provided by Wessex Archaeology, the Sanday Wreck timbers are seen before being placed in a freshwater tank at the Sanday Heritage Centre, on Orkney, Sept 23, 2024. (Fionn McArthur/Wessex Archaeology via AP) Before its final chapter as a whaling vessel, the ship had an illustrious military past. Originally commissioned as the HMS Hind , a sixth-rate 24-gun frigate built in Chichester in 1749, it played a significant role in British naval campaigns during the 1750s. It saw action during the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec, helping Britain gain control of parts of Canada from the French. During the 1770s, it also served as a convoy escort amid the American Revolutionary War. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Indonesia: New Container Houses (Prices May Surprise You) Container House | Search ads Search Now Undo Read more: Ever wondered what the world would be like without men? Try this island In 1784, following its decommissioning from the Royal Navy, the Hind was sold, renamed the Earl of Chatham , and refitted for whaling in the Arctic waters off Greenland. Its robust naval design made it ideal for enduring the harsh conditions of the British whaling routes. The ship completed four successful Arctic seasons before a powerful storm drove it aground in the Bay of Lopness, Sanday, in March 1788. Despite the wreck, all 56 crew members survived the incident. Sanday, often called 'the cradle of shipwrecks in Scotland,' has a long history of maritime incidents, with over 270 recorded wrecks around its 20-square-mile coastline. However, the island has also been known for its hospitality, something senior marine archaeologist Ben Saunders of Wessex Archaeology highlighted during the project. 'Now that we have this knowledge about the wreck and how it came to rest in Sanday, the next step is is very much to explore what the community here would like to see happen," he said. 'The community was well-known for looking after sailors who fell afoul of the area's stormy seas.' Read more: 7 Indian cities and their coolest local bazaars to explore Today, the remains of the ship are being carefully preserved in a freshwater tank at the Sanday Heritage Centre, funded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund. This conservation method prevents the ancient timbers from decaying, as they begin to deteriorate rapidly once exposed to air. Clive Struver, chair of the Sanday Development Trust, called the project 'hugely exciting,' and emphasized that the next step would be to involve the local community in deciding how to share the story and legacy of the Earl of Chatham . From a child's beachside discovery to a full-scale archaeological revelation, the Earl of Chatham not only serves as a window into 18th-century maritime life, but also a powerful reminder of Sanday's enduring connection to the sea.
