Sunken Treasure Found: 61 Tons of Silver Recovered

     Shipwrecks and sunken treasure...sounds like a pirate movie, right?  But Odyssey Marine Exploration, a company that finds and recovers precious cargo from the bottom of the ocean, makes a business of hunting lost treasure.  This month they have recovered over 61 tons of silver bullion from the wreck of a cargo ship that lies 15,420 feet below sea level in the North Atlantic Ocean.  Valued at over $36 million the silver has been at the bottom of the ocean for 70 years.

     The wreck is the SS Gairsoppa, a 412-foot steel-hulled British merchant ship sunk 300 miles off the coast of Ireland in February 1941 by torpedoes fired by a German U-boat.  Since the British government had insured the cargo under the War Risk Insurance program, it paid the owners for the lost silver and then became the owners of the wrecked cargo.  According to its contract with the British government, Odyssey will retain 80 percent of the cargo's value.

     Odyssey located the ship in September 2011 and has recovered a total of 2,792 silver ingots, or 110 tons, from the site since 2012 including the 1,574 ingots in the most recent recovery.  Each ingot weighs about 1,100 ounces. 
     With the shipwreck lying approximately 3 miles below the surface of the North Atlantic, the recovery was a complicated process.  Odyssey's find is reportedly the deepest, largest precious metal recovery ever.