What's under there?
The ocean floor is littered with long-sunken ships. Many had holds filled with valuable metals and other treasures. But until recently, it was too tricky and dangerous to do any serious searching in the planet’s deepest waters for sunken treasure. Now, however, a new generation of robots and cameras can do the sleuth-work and cargo retrieval while humans operate them from above.
The most recent finds are two British steamships, one of which was sunk by a German submarine in World War I, the other torpedoed during World War II. Both contain multiple tons of silver worth many millions of dollars. The cash-strapped British government has contracted with a Florida-based company to retrieve the silver in exchange for a cut of the profits. Read more details in the New York Times article here.
Although it would be difficult to locate the remains of more ancient vessels because the wooden frames would have long disintegrated, any metal treasures they contained can be found using the same methods. Ancient Roman coins…hammered gold necklaces…crowns….who knows what’s down there? It will be fascinating to see what comes up from the deep over the next few decades.
To find out more about the dangerous world of underwater treasure-hunting, check out the nonfiction page-turners Ship of Gold and Shadow Divers, which was reviewed on Armchair Adventurista here.
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Thanks for your comment, Liz! It is a fantastic book.
Ship of Gold is one of my favorite nonfiction books ever. So well written. This new technology sounds very exciting. Thank you for sharing!