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PCEC searches for hidden treasure

Life begins at 40

Hospital boasts best hearing center

PCEC searches for hidden treasure

Master of Ceremonies Judith Edmonds started the regular Sunday meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club at the Amari’s Henry J. Beans Restaurant on Sunday, April 26 when she welcomed everyone to the meeting.

PCEC member Judith Edmonds, MC for the day, introduces Robert Schwab to talk of treasure hunting.
After the usual announcements, she introduced our speaker, Robert W. Schwab, III. Robert is a graduate of Williams College and the American Graduate School of International Management. He spent 7 years in Viet Nam as a counter insurgency specialist. An expert in international affairs, he has engaged in a number of sensitive international issues, primarily in Asia. Robert is a vice president of Historical Research and Project Evaluation for UnderSea Recovery Corporation. He has participated in the recovery of the treasure from the historic shipwreck Atocha and in the expedition that located the wreck of the USS Somers (the basis for a Herman Melville novel). He is engaged in ongoing historic shipwreck research in the Philippines and divides his time between there and Thailand.
Robert said he wanted to discuss treasure hunting, but from a business perspective; because it is a business. He said that today, without a business and sufficient capital, it is not economically viable to hunt for sunken treasure ships. Primarily, to be successful, one must have specialized equipment to detect non ferrous metals such as gold and silver. Such equipment is costly as it has no other economic use except for treasure hunting. Additionally, much of the underwater searching done today is with remotely operated vehicles.
In searching for sunken treasure, he said one should first determine if it was a real ship with a cargo of treasure aboard. Good information on this is rarely found in published sources. Instead, one must search archival records, which provide a limited amount of information (ship’s name, wrecked or not, cargo it was carrying, etc.). Generally this involves retaining the services of a specialist in conducting such research. He also mentioned that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of shipwrecks that will never be located because they were lost before adequate records were kept. One of the first countries to keep records was Portugal, which also established specific routes for their treasure ships. But, much of their archival records were destroyed during one of their wars. Another source is insurance companies such as Lloyds of London.

Robert W. Schwab, III, vice president of Historical Research and Project Evaluation for UnderSea Recovery Corporation, shares his occupation of treasure hunting with the particularly attentive PCEC members and visitors. Rob said these days treasure hunting is much less romantic; with a lot of time spent with lawyers, accountants and governments.
As with any business, Robert said, one needs a business plan to attract investors. Further, the first few years of a planned search will involve extensive dealings with lawyers and accountants; not sailing off in adventurous search of a shipwreck. This, he said, is because in today’s world, you must identify any parties that might lay claim to the ship. For example, if the ship and/or cargo was owned by a sovereign nation, under the law, they have a claim on it no matter where it sunk.
Although Spain could lay claim to many wrecks of their former treasure ships, in the past Spain did not exercise this right. However, Robert explained that this changed when archeologists got involved with the recovery of a shipwreck off the coast of the US State of Virginia. The group that found the wreck had, as was customary, obtained a permit from the State. An archeologist group, whose canons are that no shipwreck should be disturbed even by them, approached Spain to encourage Spain to lay claim to the wreck. However, Robert said Spain was reluctant to so because of the cost of litigation. The archeological group then approached the US State Department claiming that treasure hunters would disturb the wreck causing damage to its archeological worth. The US State Department agreed and on behalf of Spain funded the cost of litigation. The result was that Virginia and the hunters lost the case, as the courts ruled in favor of Spain. Since then, Robert said it has become necessary to identify and negotiate an agreement with any party that can lay claim to the ship and/or its cargo.
Robert said once you are dealing with a government, they will involve their bureaucracies that have a say over archeological discoveries and environmental issues. Consequently, one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is archeological objections about disturbing the wreck.
However, Robert said some countries have agreed to allow treasure hunters to salvage the shipwreck after giving archeological interests a specified time period to examine the shipwreck for its archeological value. Robert also pointed out that once an agreement is reached and the search begins, the government will have its archeological, environmental, and security representatives on board the search vessel. This is done to ensure the agreement is followed to the letter. Further, these representatives have the authority to stop the recovery efforts for the slightest deviation from the agreement.
In answering questions from the audience, Robert mentioned that when a treasure is located and retrieved, care must be taken with disposition. For example, if a large amount of silver or gold coins were recovered and dumped on the market all at one time, it would decrease their value because of the greater supply.
In response to another question about silver dissolving over a long period in salt water, Robert said that this was not a major problem. He explained that most silver coins were packed tightly together. As a result, the deterioration in the outer layer of coins caused them to fuse together, which acted as a seal preventing damage to the inner layers of coin. He also mentioned that even for deteriorated coins, there was a process that would restore the embossing so long as some of it was still present on the surface.
Emcee Judith thanked Robert for an interesting and enlightening talk. She then updated everyone on upcoming events and called on Hawaii Bob to conduct the always informative and often humorous Open Forum where information is shared on living in Pattaya and Thailand.

Life begins at 40

Sitting on the piano stool is, from left, Ben Hansen, Anouk the birthday girl,
and her husband Peter van der Nulft, surrounded by close friends and
the Sea Breeze members.

Sue K
Dutch renowned pianist and choir leader of the Sea Breeze Choir of Pattaya, Ben Hansen pleasantly surprised his daughter Anouk with a musical 40th birthday party at his Jomtien residence.
Most of the guests, choir members and soloists sang for the birthday girl on Sunday April 26.
Songs from musicals and movies like Oliver, Oh, Kay!, Top Hat and Sweethearts of Sigma Chi, sounded through the room.
Ben concluded the evening with a song he composed for this special occasion: “When daughters turn forty”. An emotional and memorable end of the evening organized by a proud and dedicated father.

Hospital boasts best hearing center

Pramote Channgam
Bangkok Hospital Pattaya has opened what they believe to be the best hearing center in the Eastern Region to treat patients with hearing loss.

Prof Dr Suchitra Prasansuk, director of the Hearing Center.
Around 250 million people in the world have hearing defects. In Thailand, 13.6% of the population suffers from hearing loss, 9% of this hearing-impaired population are children.
The cause of hearing problems can also be passed down. Parents who have had hearing disabilities since they were born have a 50% chance of having hearing-impaired children.
On April 27 at the new Hearing Center on the third floor in Building B at Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, Tawit Chaisawangwong, chairman of the Pattaya City Council, chaired the official opening, attended by Dr. Pichit Kangwolkij, director of BHP, Honorable Dr Suchitra Prasansuk, director of the Hearing Center, and doctors.
Dr Suchitra said that hearing problems are rising in Thailand, especially in children. Three out of 1,000 people lose their hearing at birth.
This affects their general development, especially their speech. Lack of diagnosis and early treatment add to the problem.
Many people need to be treated due to bad habits of long telephone usage, listening to loud music and loud sounds at entertainment places which can impair hearing. Aggressive behavior also carries the risk of increasing hearing loss.
The Hearing Center has a team of physicians, medical specialists and cutting-edge technology that will help patients received treatment for various disorders such as sinus disease, allergies and chronic wounds to the neck.
The wide range services center provides are:
Measurement of hearing of sound at different frequencies (audiometry), ability to understand speech (speech discrimination score), separation of waste ends of nerves for hearing of the measurement labyrinth SISI Score (recruitment test), the separation of the nerves for hearing loss audio and the alertness of the brain (tone decay test).

Officials cut the ribbon to officially open the Hearing Center.

Also, detecting a special hearing position to extract trace disease (Bekesy Audiomerty), measuring hearing in the brain shaft (audiotory brainstem response), measuring balance to determine loss of balance (posturography), measuring balance of the brain and inner ear to see the response of the eyes, caloric test, electronicstramography and video nystagmography.
Also offered are rehabilitation therapy for balance training, installation of hearing aids and embedded artificial auditory nerve surgery in many cases of deafness.
For more information call 0-382-599-99, HotLine 1719 or go to http://www.bangkok pattayahospital.com.

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