How 48 Tons of Silver Recovered From World War II shipwreck?

If you read history, you will find thousands of incidents that were somehow much more disastrous than that of 9/11 misfortune. But anxiety comes to an end to some extent when you either get answers to your questions or recover something out of the trash. According to the Latest reveals, it’s America to recover a huge lot of metals and jewels from a shipwreck that took place during the Second World War. The Ship SS Gairsoppa was a British Cargo Ship that sank three miles beneath the Atlantic off the coast of Ireland, loaded with Silver and Gold.

According to Odyssey Marine Exploration, which is responsible for the haul, this recovered treasure is of great value and the heaviest, yet deepest collection of Precious jewels that is estimated to have 1200 silver blocks, having a worth of 1.4 Million Troy ounces of Silver, which really is something that shouldn’t have been missed!

The Shipwreck : The History

In February 1941, while the World War II still going on, British Government was keen enough to support War Risk Insurance program and it was this unfortunate SS Gairsoppa that was on board with 48 tons of cargo and 83 crew members, with two gunners. These crew members were majorly the British and Indian Sailors and all of them died except one as the ship were being fired on by the Germans.

According to the insurance policy, calculated value of £325,000 was paid to the cargo owners by the government. It was now the British Government to take the initiative and gave a contract to Odyssey Company several years ago for the recovery, and the company has earned its credibility two days ago. The company is going to receive a 20% share in the value of the treasure been recovered.

The Recovery

 

The contract given to the Odyssey Company was not an easy one and took years to achieve success.

 

The CEO of Odyssey mentioned the project in the following words:

With the shipwreck lying approximately three miles below the surface of the North Atlantic, this was a complex operation.

Our capacity to conduct precision cuts and successfully complete the surgical removal of bullion from secure areas on the ship demonstrates our capabilities to undertake complicated tasks in the very deep ocean

This technology will be applicable to other modern shipwreck projects currently being scheduled as well as our deep ocean mineral exploration activities.

What Made It possible?

The company used sophisticated robotics that was controlled by a highly skilled team of pilots in locating the actual site. The success of the project is result of huge investments on machines, technology and robotics. Moreover, The British Government’s never ending support helped the company to explore more about what tactics might work to recover the shipwreck that was somewhere stuck 47000 meters deep.

 

The company considers it as the biggest success up till now and are determined to invest their 20% of share from the Haul recovered, in developing new technology to make such recovery projects quicker and efficient.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pPJcLfysQI&w=350&h=280]

 

 

All The Best,