€180m worth of Silver found off the Irish Coast

cherryghost

By a UK firm of course :P

A shipwreck containing 200 tonnes of silver worth about £150m has been found in the Atlantic - the largest haul of precious metal ever discovered at sea.


The SS Gairsoppa, a UK cargo ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, was found by US exploration firm Odyssey Marine.


The firm will retain 80% of the cargo's value under the terms of a contract with the Department for Transport.
Only one person from the 85-strong crew survived the torpedo attack as the ageing steamer tried to reach Ireland.
The vessel was on its way back to Britain from India when it ran low on fuel in stormy weather, and tried to divert to Galway harbour, but it was spotted and sunk by the German submarine.


'Robotic submarines' Three members of the crew survived in a lifeboat and reached the Cornish coast two weeks later, but two died trying to get ashore.
The wreck of the 412ft ship was found this summer nearly 4,700m below the North Atlantic, 300 miles off the Irish coast, but it was only confirmed as SS Gairsoppa last week.
Odyssey Marine's senior project manager, Andrew Craig, said: "We've accomplished the first phase of this project - the location and identification of the target shipwreck.

The operation to recover the bullion will begin in the second quarter of 2012, Odyssey says
"Now we're hard at work planning for the recovery phase.
"Given the orientation and condition of the shipwreck, we are extremely confident that our planned salvage operation will be well suited for the recovery of this silver cargo."


SS Gairsoppa settled upright on the seabed with its cargo holds open, which means remote-controlled robotic submarines should be able to retrieve the bullion.


Work would begin in the second quarter of 2012, Odyssey said.
The marine archaeology and exploration company said it was "highly unlikely" any human remains would be found, given the age and depth of the wreck.


Odyssey's chief marine archaeologist Neil Dobson said: "Even though records indicate that the lifeboats were launched before the ship sank, sadly most of her crew did not survive the long journey to shore.
"By finding this shipwreck and telling the story of its loss, we pay tribute to the brave merchant sailors who lost their lives."
The merchant ship belonged to the British India Steam Navigation Company, and was ordered into the merchant navy fleet at the outbreak of World War II.


A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: "The contract for the salvage of the SS Gairsoppa was awarded by competitive tender in accordance with government and departmental procedures.
"While we do not comment on the specifics of such commercial arrangements, Odyssey Marine Exploration were awarded the contract as they offered the best rate of return to HMG."

Awesome and quite remarkable that its been found. I think we should try scrape some silver off them :P

Surveyor11

I think we should try scrape some silver off them

Charge them a levy!!

k.p.h

http://www.all4humor.com/images/files/Scuba%20Dive.jpg

joshrogan

Not if I get there first!

Chuck Stone

People love shiney stuff.

SEPT 23 1989

If a government department was involved in this deal you just know its going to cost the taxpayer money

The Internet Explorer

A round of grog for me lads. A round of grog for everybody.

billymitchell

They took our jerbs :mad:

Rented Mule

cherryghost wrote: »

By a UK firm of course

The SS Gairsoppa, a UK cargo ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, was found by US exploration firm Odyssey Marine.

PseudoFamous

Eh, we have extended territorial waters, and I believe that anything discovered within the nation's limits is owned by the state. So the Merkins actually should have to hand it over due to it being in our territory.

120_Minutes

"the best rate of return to HMG"

nobody copped this? Her Majesty's Government

Paddy gets nothing, move along, nothing to see here.

squod

Bagsies

mikemac

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Eh, we have extended territorial waters, and I believe that anything discovered within the nation's limits is owned by the state. So the Merkins actually should have to hand it over due to it being in our territory.

Two hundred miles

The wreck was found three hundred miles off the coast

We get nothing :mad:

drdeadlift

Its 180m.Even if we received it would it benefit us much naa

dj jarvis

this does not make any sense !!! if its out side our territorial waters it sure as **** is outside the British waters !!!

if its in international waters then the US recovery company did not have to ask anyone
or offer a split on it

only thing i can think of is that because it was a merchant ship in a time of war the brits still have a claim to it - but other than that im stumped on why the britland government have anything 2 do with this

so does someone have a answer for me ?

fifth

Probably found it at 190 miles and dragged it out past the 300 mile mark before announcing their find.

PseudoFamous

mikemac wrote: »

Two hundred miles

The wreck was found three hundred miles off the coast

We get nothing :mad:

Two hundred nautical miles is the standard limit, we were one of the first countries offered extended limits, which I would imagine we took due to wanting resources.

mike65

180 million eh? Why 50 years ago that might have been enough to fix the country.

Diageio_Man

no doubt we'll be seeing this on discovery channel soon.

ringadingding

Diageio_Man wrote: »

no doubt we'll be seeing this on discovery channel soon.

*in discovery drama voice *
' when silver hunting goes WRONG'

ToddyDoody

<interest> Can i have some? Why not? </interest> (someone could find that funny)

holystungun9

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Two hundred nautical miles is the standard limit, we were one of the first countries offered extended limits, which I would imagine we took due to wanting resources.

Shame we didn't stick a toll out there while we were at it.

sdanseo

ToddyDoody wrote: »

<interest> Can i have some? Why not? </interest> (someone could find that funny)

Not really, but have a thank anyway for effort.

El Weirdo

dj jarvis wrote: »

this does not make any sense !!! if its out side our territorial waters it sure as **** is outside the British waters !!!

if its in international waters then the US recovery company did not have to ask anyone
or offer a split on it

only thing i can think of is that because it was a merchant ship in a time of war the brits still have a claim to it - but other than that im stumped on why the britland government have anything 2 do with this

so does someone have a answer for me ?

I was reading in another article that the same company have to pay the Spanish government back $500million for some gold that they recovered from a 19th century Spanish ship a few years ago.

I'd say they went looking for permission so they didn't get their fingers burnt again.

Victor

El Weirdo wrote: »

I was reading in another article that the same company have to pay the Spanish government back $500million for some gold that they recovered from a 19th century Spanish ship a few years ago.

I'd say they went looking for permission so they didn't get their fingers burnt again.

War ships, sunk during a war are treated as war graves and remain the property of the owning nation for ever.

Adrianno28

And I was planning on bringing my metal detector scuba diving this weekend.... Ultra expensive road tax and now this .... foiled again.... ooooh that Dept of Transport.

nice_very

"I dont know a lot about this, so let me call a buddy of mine who can tell us more"


on cam in the storeroom - " This could be worth a LOT of money, I loveeee shipwreck silver, I want this in my store"

Sponge Bob

Some silver removed from the Gairsoppa this week. They will head for a potentially more lucrative WW1 wreck next and will finish off by doing a dive to photograph the nearby HMS Courageous, a WW2 era Aircraft Carrier which sank with 500 lives lost in 1939 .

3DataModem

Insurance was paid at the time, so salvage falls into the hands of the state. Salvage company gets 80pc, UK gets 20pc.

clappyhappy

A friend of mine works with in a port, they recently had to store and secure a large amount of salvaged copper. This was being salvaged a couple of 100 miles off the west coast. He was saying that the company who bought the salvage ship also buy the salvage rights to anything recovered, a % is then given to HMS and the rest they keep. Seemingly there was 10's of millions of euro worth of copper found. The salvage company paid for all extra security and storage fees so a little was given to Irish economy.

galwayrush

mike65 wrote: »

180 million eh? Why 50 years ago that might have been enough to fix the country.

It'll still build some of the Galway by-pass, it was found off Galway, so we should get it..:D