Posted on 05/18/2015 6:26:51 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Shipwreck Could Hold Thousands of Litres of Rum
• Sunken British warship the Lord Clive could hold “treasure worth millions”, including “vast stocks” of 250-year-old rum which will be recovered later this year.
The wreck, which sunk off the coast of Uruguay, was discovered in 2004, but the Uruguyan government has only given permission for its recovery this year.
Salvage of the ship, which was sunk by Spanish cannons in 1763, will require cranes, excavators and around 80 workers and is expected to begin within two months.
The ship, which was constructed in Hull for the Royal Navy and was previously named HMS Kingston, was bought in 1762 by the East India Company for use in a military campaign in Spain, but sunk during its crusade.
After peace was declared, Spanish mariners left the area, but not before destroying the city wall and dumping the rocks on the vessel so it could not re-float.
Veteran Argentinian explorer Rubén Collado found the ship, and is now raising funds for the recovery.
The contents of the ship are unknown, as is whether the wreckage has been looted, but Collado believes it will still contain the gold coins, thousands of litres of rum, 64 bronze cannons and booty the crew had earlier seized from another ship.
When asked to value the contents of the ship, Collado told The Guardian: “You can’t really make a valuation. The canons should be US $64m altogether. The coins are worth US $5,000 to US $6,000 each and there are 100,000 of them, so just do the math.”
"Drink up!"
“The contents of the ship are unknown”
So that’s where my Drunken Red Snapper came from!!!
But why is the rum gone?
Crusade?
When I drank, Rum was my choice.
Pingeroo...
Ping to your list.
Alcoholic fish?
Probably just the cheap rum they used to give sailors for their daily ration.
Thanks D.
w, s...ping....
I never have stopped drinking it. As I sit here in my rum induced semi-coma I would like to put my name as a potential purchaser of a bit of this wonderful treasure. Whom do I contact?
Arrrrh!!
Wouldn’t it have to be in really cold water for the rum to be preserved?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum
Aha! Nobody expects the Crusades....in 1762
Does anyone remember a movie about a ship full of whiskey running aground on one of the Western Scottish Outer Hebrides?
If I remember right the locals ended up with it all.
I would think that if the water is deep enough the temperature could remain 60 F or lower ... the rum may then have continued to age if in sealed tight bottles. But ... if the rum is in oak barrels I’m sure they would have rotted after all of this time.
I’d be more interested in an 18th Century shipwreck full of Madeira
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