2017-08-12 Sat

All of our childhood stories have been about hunting mysteries and finding treasures. Imagine finding a treasure worth $44 million! That too under the sea!!

In ‘world’s deepest salvage operations’ a whopping 100-tons of silver coins were recovered. In 2011, a team led by British deep sea salvage expert, John Kingsford, tracked down the ship “SS City of Cairo” which was sunk by a Nazi U-boat south of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

The ship which was carrying 311 passengers, along with a cargo containing 100 tons of silver coins, was on its way from Bombay to England. The silver rupees were shipped to fund the UK’s WWII effort. The vessel’s vast treasure was presumed to be lost forever.

But the sea salvage experts spotted an unnatural object on radar. Using powerful sonar and robotics, most parts of the wrecked ship were recovered from the South Atlantic search area. The team was able to recover a huge portion of the £34 million worth of silver and the salvage operation was finally completed in September 2013.

The silver rupee coins have since been melted down and sold for an undisclosed sum. The profits went to HM Treasury, while a percentage of the sales were given to the salvagers.