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To: Red Badger

Probably HMS Sussex, 80 guns 2d rate ship of the line, lost in 1694.

From http://www.treasurelore.com/florida/treasure_news3.htm

The American ship, belonging to the Florida-based Odyssey Marine exploration company, has been scanning the sea bed off Gibraltar for almost a decade. The 400 square miles of Mediterranean sea bed have turned up what appear to be dozens of ancient and modern wrecks, including some believed to date back 2,000 years to Phoenician and Roman times. But one wreck in particular, lying some 2,500ft (760 metres) down and with the cannons still clearly visible to robot cameras despatched by the company, is thought most likely to be the HMS Sussex. The 80-gun warship, supposedly laden with gold and silver, had been on a secret mission to ensure the support of the Duke of Savoy in the war of the League of Augsburg against Louis XIV of France.

Admiral Sir Francis Wheeler, with HMS Sussex as his flagship, had led a fleet of some 80 vessels to the mouth of the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. “Historical records suggest a million pounds sterling was destined for Savoy,” Odyssey Marine says. “Other court records show that just as Wheeler’s fleet was assembling to sail for the Mediterranean, a million pounds was being collected at the exchequer ... and that an order was sent to the exchequer to issue ‘a million pounds in money for the use of the fleet’.”

In mid-February 1694, after a stop-off in Gibraltar, the Sussex found itself caught in a terrible storm. Admiral Wheeler eventually agreed to cut down the main mast to increase its stability. But, according to the two Muslim sailors who were the only survivors from the crew, the mast smashed to pieces while the vessel drifted, took on water and, eventually, plunged to the bottom of the ocean. Some 560 Sussex crew members were among the 1,253 sailors to die that night. Admiral Wheeler’s body, dressed in his night-shirt, was discovered later by Spanish fishermen.

The HMS Sussex has long been a treasure hunter’s dream. Odyssey Marine, which recovered more than $75m (£38m) of gold and silver coins from the wreck of the SS Republic off Georgia in 2003, began its hunt for the Sussex in 1997. In what was hailed as a ground-breaking agreement between a government and a treasure-hunting company, the UK has signed a deal with Odyssey Marine Exploration to allow it to seek out the Sussex.

Under the terms of the deal, any treasure discovered will be divided between the government and the company. The Spanish government initially tried to block the search, but Spain now agrees that - if it can be proved that this is the Sussex - the cargo belongs to Britain.


29 posted on 05/18/2007 8:44:08 AM PDT by centurion316 (Democrats - Supporting Al Qaida Worldwide)
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To: centurion316
But, according to the two Muslim sailors who were the only survivors from the crew, the mast smashed to pieces while the vessel drifted, took on water and, eventually, plunged to the bottom of the ocean. Some 560 Sussex crew members were among the 1,253 sailors to die that night.

Al-Queerda operatives, no doubt........

32 posted on 05/18/2007 8:53:31 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
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To: centurion316
"But, according to the two Muslim sailors who were the only survivors from the crew, the mast smashed to pieces while the vessel drifted, took on water and, eventually, plunged to the bottom of the ocean."

Jihaded crew?

54 posted on 05/18/2007 5:30:49 PM PDT by azhenfud (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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