SS Gairsoppa: WWII Shipwreck Unveils $170 Million Worth of Silver (VIDEO)
One lucky company has just finished the process of recovering the shipwreck from a boat that originally sunk in 1941. What makes this boat special, however, is the $70 million worth of silver that the boat was carrying in two.
The SS Gairsoppa was shipwrecked about 300 miles off the Ireland coast it was beneath more than 15,000 feet of water when discovered by the world's best-known deep-sea recovery team, Odyssey Marine Exploration (OME). But despite the massive amount of work to uncover the ship, the payout was worth it. Aboard the decaying ship team members discovered 100 tons of silver last year-- one of the biggest discoveries ever of a precious metal on a long lost ship.
Sunk in 1941 by a German U-boat, the British Cargo ship did not see the best of World War II. But when discovered, the 412-foot ship was still sitting upright, according to the Daily Mail.
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The total amount of silver on the ship was not revealed until this month, after the team finished the recovery process. Initial totals were only about $36 million. In a recent interview, Mark Gordon, president and chief operating officer of Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., said he was a former diver who was inspired one day to start a company dedicated to pulling up shipwrecks. The total discovery of goods on the ship was valued at around $75 million, Gordon told Bloomberg.
The British government contracted the company, but OME will still receive 80 percent of the profits found aboard the ship.
"Interestingly, the standard deal is 90/10 percent," Gordon explained when asked about the huge profit. "So really, it's a very good deal."
The SS Gairsoppa was struck in February of 1941 after the ship captain decided that he was too low on coal to reach his actual destination. The ship was carrying 84 crew members at the time but only one was able to survive.
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