[ggandibazz]

If my calculations are correct, thats roughly 1.4 million troy ounces

An American company has made what is being called the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metals from a shipwreck.

The Tampa, Fla.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. announced Wednesday that it had recovered 48 tons of silver bullion from the SS Gairsoppa, a sunken British cargo ship in three miles of water off the coast of Ireland. Between the Gairsoppa, torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War II, and the SS Mantola, sunk by a German submarine during World War I, Odyssey said in a press release that about 240 tons of silver may be recovered by the end of the operation.

The recovery is being made under a contract awarded by the U.K. government, which will keep 20 percent of the cargo's value, estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars. The Gairsoppa became U.K. property after the government paid the owners of the ship an insurance sum of £325,000 in 1941. Records indicate the silver was valued at £600,000 in 1941.

The initial recovery of 48 tons consists of 1,203 silver bars and has been transported to a secure facility in the United Kingdom, according to the company.

"With the shipwreck lying approximately three miles below the surface of the North Atlantic, this was a complex operation," Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm said in Odyssey's release.

Odyssey contracted JBR Recovery Ltd., a European silver recovery and precious metal processing company, to assist in refining and monetizing the recovered silver.

The Gairsoppa and Mantola shipwrecks were discovered in 2011, and Odyssey conducted reconnaissance dives at both sites in March and April 2012. Recovery operations began in late May. http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ry?id=16806534

[TheLucyLee]

Bet the government takes it all.

[Junrlaeh]

48 tons of phys.......

[wmhardware]

he U.K. government, which will keep 20 percent of the cargo's value I'd be happy with that.

[Zdmlscid]

£600,000 in 1941 equates to ~$108 million US dollars in 2012, using gold as the yardstick (i.e. $35 in 1941; $1588 today). Divided into 240 metric tons of silver equates to $14 per ounce, half of today's spot price. Silver was rather cheap in 1941 as it were.

[pirinosa]

You never see them diving for paper money.............

[FEti0TUI]

I wonder who was moving so much physical in 1941?

[Roker]

£600,000 in 1941 equates to ~$108 million US dollars in 2012, using gold as the yardstick (i.e. $35 in 1941; $1588 today). Divided into 240 metric tons of silver equates to $14 per ounce, half of today's spot price. Silver was rather cheap in 1941 as it were.

Great analysis, but I would say it's not that silver was cheap back then, it was that, in silver price, goods were more expensive. And that makes sense considering the means of production for consumer goods has been greatly improved in the decades since.

[gambleingsites]

I wonder who was moving so much physical in 1941?

good question, prolly wartime theft of jews sending it to some safe locale. I mean REALLY? who would be moving bullion by boat in uboat infested waters , unless it was on the downlow.

[tearidrusydet]

I wonder who was moving so much physical in 1941?

Venezuala?

[RCQDnMp5]

A £23m payday: U.S. company recovers 48 tons of silver from British wartime shipwreck off Irish coast

• SS Gairsoppa was hit by torpedo from a German U-boat in 1941
• Wreck lies300 miles off Ireland's coast 15,420 feet down
• Heaviest and deepest recovery of metals from a shipwreck ever made
• Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc under contract by British government
• They will get to keep 80 per cent of the haul after expenses

By Daniel Miller
UPDATED: 16:04 GMT, 19 July 2012

• Comments (14)
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A US deep-sea exploration company says it has recovered about 48 tons of silver from a British cargo ship that was sunk by a torpedo during World War II.
The haul comes from the SS Gairsoppa, which was hit by a torpedo from a German U-boat about 300 miles off Ireland's coast in 1941. It now sits 15,420 feet deep.
Salvage firm Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc said it's the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metals from a shipwreck ever made.

Booty: Salvage workers inspect silver bars as they are recovered from the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa torpedoed in a German U-boat attack 300 miles off the south-west coast of Ireland



Doomed: On February 17, 1941, a single torpedo sank the SS Gairsoppa. All but one of her 85 crewmen were lost


Haul: Forty-eight tons of silver bullion has been recovered from the SS Gairsoppa and returned to the British Government but salvage firm Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc will keep 80% after expenses

So far, workers have brought up more than 1,200 silver bars, or about 1.4 million troy ounces. As of mid-day Wednesday, it was worth about £23.7 million (about $37 million).

The company is under contract by the British government and will get to keep 80 per cent of the haul after expenses.
SS Gairsoppa was steaming home from India in 1941 while in the service of the Ministry of War Transport when she was torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat.
She sank in icy seas more than three miles deep about 300 miles south west of Ireland. Only one of her 84 crew survived.
The 412-ft steamship is sitting upright on the seabed, with its holds open.






Raised from the depths: A sonar image of the SS Gairsoppa on the bottom of the sea



Eerie: A ladder leads down to the cargo hold on the SS Gairsoppa as it lies on the sea bed 300 miles south of Galway



Uncovered: An intact toilet sits on the bridge deck of the SS Gairsoppa


Treasure hunter: The RV Odyssey Explorer, bristling with high-tech equipment, which went looking for and found the wreck of the Gairsoppa


Pick-up: Odyssey crew used remotely operated vehicles to get to the wreck and unload its precious cargo

The ship, recognisable by the red-and-black paintwork of the British-India Steam Navigation Company and the torpedo hole in its side, was sailing in a convoy from Calcutta in 1941.
Buffeted by high winds and running low on coal, the captain decided he would not make it to Liverpool and broke from the convoy to head for Galway.
A single torpedo from U-101 sank her in 20 minutes, on February 17, 1941. Three lifeboats were launched, but only Second Officer Richard Ayres made it to land, reaching the Cornish coast after 13 days.
Well preserved: A brass part of the Gairsoppa is in remarkably good condition


In an earlier statement Odyssey said the UK government was ‘desperately looking for new sources of income’ and was urging it to find more British wrecks.

It was also investigating HMS Sussex, lost off Gibraltar with 10 tons of gold in 1694, and HMS Victory, a precursor to Nelson’s flagship.
In 2008 a U.S. judge ordered the firm to hand back gold and silver coins worth £300million to Spain, which said the treasure was taken from a frigate that sank in 1804.
Odyssey said the wreck’s identity was unclear and had been found in international waters.

[RCQDnMp5]

A U-boat attack, sunken treasure and one of the most awesome survival stories of the war

By Annabel Venning
Heroic: Second Officer Richard Ayres, the only survivor of the SS Gairsoppa

During World War II, Britain, cut off from occupied Europe, was utterly dependent on supplies reaching her by sea.
But Hitler was determined to force Britain to her knees by cutting off these supplies. He ordered his U-boat captains to hunt down and destroy Allied shipping.
In February 1941 alone, 38 British ships were sunk.

Many of the ships were old and heavily laden, so they could travel no faster than eight knots, making them an easy target for U-boats.
The Gairsoppa, with its heavy load of almost 7,000 tonnes which included the silver, as well as iron and tea, was forced to burn more and more fuel to maintain her speed in the stormy seas as they journeyed north.
Fearing that he did not have enough fuel to make it to Liverpool, her skipper, Captain Gerald Hyland, asked permission to break away from the convoy and make instead for Galway on Ireland’s south-west coast, and on February 14, 1941, the Gairsoppa left the convoy.
The U-101, captained by Ernst Mengersen, headed towards the Gairsoppa, hoping to make a ‘kill’, and at 2230 hours a massive explosion blew apart the ship’s Number Two hold. Such was the impact of the single torpedo that the foremast snapped and crashed to the deck, taking with it the radio antennae, so the crew were unable even to send a distress signal.
They were alone and sinking fast. As fire and smoke ripped through the Gairsoppa, Captain Hyland gave the order to abandon ship and the men made for the lifeboats.
Then bullets ripped through the darkness, forcing them to
throw themselves down.
The U-boat surfaced and sprayed the deck with machine-gun fire. Some of the bullets cut through the ropes of one lifeboat, sending it crashing into the sea. Dozens of men leapt overboard and swam towards it, including Second Officer Richard Ayres.
They began pushing away from the stricken vessel to avoid being sucked down as it sank, and had to paddle frantically to get clear of the spinning propellers.
Somehow they pulled away and watched as just a hundred yards from them, the Gairsoppa disappeared under the waves, within 20 minutes of being hit. Of the other two lifeboats there was no sign. They were alone in icy seas, hundreds of miles from land.


There were 31 men in the lifeboat: eight Europeans and 23 Indian seamen — known as Lascars — who immediately began suffering badly from the cold, so they were given all the blankets and some canvas for shelter.

(File picture) Old and heavily laden ships like the Gairsoppa made easy targets for the deadly German U-boats

The only man skilled at sailing a small boat, was 31-year-old Richard Ayres who immediately took command and set sail eastwards, steering with an oar because the rudder had been lost.
Their food supplies consisted of some tins of condensed milk and dry biscuit, so hard it could barely be swallowed. Ayres resisted the crew’s pleas for extra water rations to soften the biscuit, because they were desperately short of water.
Each man was limited to half a pint of water a day and half a pint a night. But the Lascars began drinking salt water, which made them go mad and fight each other.
Soon, men began dying. Then, on the eighth day, water ran out.
There was no sign of land and little chance of rescue: no one knew their fate or whereabouts.
Men become delirious and ‘had barely enough hope and heart to carry on,’ according to Ayres. A couple of rain showers gave some relief from the thirst that burned their throats, but in the cold air, their hands and fingers became swollen with frostbite, making it impossible to grip the oars.
Over the next few days, their strength and spirit ebbed away.
Gaping: The torpedo hole in the SS Gairsoppa, where the U-boat Captain's log reported the ship was struck

But Ayres, determined, fit and strong, was resolved to save the lives of the remaining men.
He sailed the little boat through towering waves and fierce gales, snatching little sleep as only he, the Gairsoppa’s radio officer, 18-year-old Robert Hampshire, and a gunner named Norman Thomas, 20, from Chatham, Kent, had the strength left to man the rudder.
Then, 13 days after the sinking, with only seven men surviving, many barely clinging to life, one man croaked out the word they all longed to hear: ‘Land’.
At first the others thought it was just a cloud, but then they made out a lighthouse. It was the Lizard lighthouse on the southernmost tip of Cornwall, 300 miles from where the Gairsoppa had sunk.
Ayres began sailing towards a rocky cove. Just as they were nearing its entrance, a huge wave smashed onto the small boat, capsizing it. In their weakened state, all but three of the men drowned — so near yet so far from safety.
Another wave righted the boat and Ayres managed to drag himself, Hampshire and Thomas on board, only for another breaker to capsize them again.
They clung to the keel, but as more waves crashed violently over them they lost their grip.
Hampshire was washed to his death, but Ayres and Thomas made it onto nearby rocks. Then another icy wave knocked Thomas backwards, drowning him just yards from safety.
Exhausted and alone, Ayres felt ‘the fight for life was not worthwhile’. Then, as he surrendered himself to his fate, he heard voices urging him not to give up.
Three young girls, Betty Driver, Olive Martin and her sister, evacuees from Tottenham in London, had been walking along the cliffs when they spotted the boat flip over in the stormy seas below.
One ran across the fields to fetch help from a nearby farm. The other two raced down to the beach and shouted to the men, begging them to keep swimming.
Eventually, the first girl returned with a coastguard named Brian Richards, who threw Ayres a rope and pulled him ashore.
The bodies of Hampshire, Thomas and two Lascars were recovered and buried in a nearby cemetery. It later transpired that the place where Ayres had come ashore, at Caerthillian Cove, was just a few miles from his home.
He was awarded an MBE in recognition of his heroic efforts to keep fellow survivors alive, as well as a War Medal for bravery at sea.
Ayres returned to sea just nine months later, and spoke little about it after the war, during his years in the Royal Naval Reserve.
He died in 1992. But the citation on his MBE will forever celebrate the extraordinary efforts of this brave man: ‘It was only the cruelty of the sea that robbed him of the fruits of his labour.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ish-coast.html

[CreativeSuiteDown]

according to the numbers, those bars should be right at 80 lbs Each

[RCQDnMp5]

according to the numbers, those bars should be right at 80 lbs Each

or 36 kg or roughly over 1000oz bars mmmmmmmmmm

straight into the London vaults to stem the tide.