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SOUTHERN SUN

 

The Sunda Shelf Archaeology project

Sonar image of the Japanese Destroyer “the Sagiri”

One of the gun turret base on the “Sagiri”  Borneo

The Sagiri’s Twin 4” cannons covered in corals and fish nets

A shot of inside the hull of the Sagiri

Miri Regatta 09

Southern Sun at anchor  west coast of Oz

Captain Hans Berekoven & Rose  his PA & Project Manager

Southern Sun has been based all this time in Miri a town in Sarawak and our children Tristan and

Hannah have since returned to Australia. Tristan has joined the Australian Air Force and Hannah is attending St Vincent’s College.

 

Capt Hans and I are making the most of our time here searching for a couple of world war II ships that were sunk off the coast of Borneo. This has been an interesting and fun time, especially as we have rediscovered the Japanese Destroyer the Sagiri a known wreck off Kuching. No one really knew  its identity until Hans and Theo dived her after recognizing the shape on the sonar. The torpedoes are still in the tubes! 

 

Miri also has a Regatta every year and we have participated in this, although sometimes hesitantly as we are hardly a racing boat. However last year much to our surprise and thanks to a very large handicap we WON our category around the buoys in Labuan.  Well Done I say!!!!

Capt. Hans Berekoven,  Eugan Berekoven  Casey  &  Theo

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With the help of our Local Member of Parliament we submitted a proposal to LIPI ( the Academy of Sciences that approve Foreign Research in Indonesia) This local Member had a mapping and survey agency of his own before going into politics and could see the potential of our project. It was an opportunity for both the Australian & Indonesian governments to work together on an important International project. The Local Member also knew that if anyone could do this we could as he had seen us develop tourism in a wool & timber region. In fact he had himself presented us with two of the three awards we had won for our work.

 

Due to Hans’s lifelong interest in Archaeology Sciences and Philosophy he had an intuitive sense that the Sunda Shelf had once been the seat of a great civilization. He had professed this to many and hoped that one day it would be proven. He also realized that the migration patterns as per current anthropology theories where out of date.  That India was the first post Ice Age civilization not Mesopotamia.

 

Then in 2002 a sunken city was found in the Bay of Cambay in  the state of Gujarat, north of Bombay. This City was 30km offshore and in 40m of water. Artifacts from this city have been carbon dated at 9,500 years and some going back as far as 13,000 years.

 http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/BadrinaryanB1.php?p=2

So we traveled  to India to the NIOT Institute in Chennai to see for ourselves.

We interviewed the persons involved and viewed all of the artifacts for ourselves.

It was early days for this project and a great deal more has to be done before this can be considered a proven find but we were encourages by what we saw.

 

Hans could no longer wait for someone else to “find it” he would have to go himself. Our Australian Embassy worked hard representing us to achieve permissions to survey the Sunda Shelf. After more than 2 years of lobbying we received the permissions to go ahead with the survey but with conditions. It was our intention to use our own vessel Southern Sun a 62ft motor sailor and a very economical vessel. We had accepted that we would have one security guard and one survey specialist on board at our expense but now the Indonesian Government wanted us to use their research vessel. Where as Southern Sun could pull a side scan sonar all day and use only 100 liters of fuel the fuel consumption of the research vessel was more like 3,000 liters per day.  LIPI also wanted to put about 20 crew on board….the cost projections were multiplying. 

 

In hindsight we should have excepted the Indonesian Governments conditions and lobbied for funding.

We did not personally have the funds to support such a large expedition and we knew that finding funding would be difficult and very time consuming.

 

So with some disappointment we sailed on to Sarawak Malaysian Borneo to do a sonar survey of the Rajang River Extension. This river ran along the Sunda Shelf during the last Ice Age curving to the north and emptying into the sea to the west of what is now referred to as the Laconia Shoals. We spent months sonar surveying this Paleo Channel but found nothing to indicate prehistoric human activity.

 

Now with renewed interest in our Sunda Shelf Archaeology Project due to the release of Prof. Arysio Santos book “Atlantis The Lost Continent Finally Found”  we felt it was time to up date this site. Prof  Santos has sadly passed away but his booked has been published and is being promoted by his friend  Frank Joseph Hoff.       http://www.atlan.org/

The Professor like us claims that the Sunda Shelf is the site for a prehistoric civilization. The Atlantis Civilization no less!

The Indonesians have shown enough interest to have signed a book deal with Mr. Hoff. The book is now being translated into Bahasa and due to be released some time in December 09.

 

This may trigger renewed interest in the Sunda Shelf Archaeology Project.

Hans and Frank plane to travel to Jakarta to meet with the Indonesian President.

We will keep you posted.