Shipwreck Discovery May Yield Rich Cargo

AP ^ | 8.16.2003 | MITCH STACY

[RedBloodedAmerican]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Explorers believe they have found the sunken remains of an 1860s steamer that could yield the richest cargo ever recovered from a shipwreck: thousands of gold coins worth as much as $180 million.

The S.S. Republic was carrying 59 passengers and 20,000 $20 gold coins from New York to New Orleans when it sank in a hurricane off Savannah, Ga., on Oct. 25, 1865, according to newspaper accounts and other historical records.

All the passengers boarded life boats and got off alive, but the coins - intended to help pay for reconstruction of the South after the Civil War - went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with the Republic. An expert has estimated they would be worth $120 million to $180 million today.

After searching for 12 years, Greg Stemm and John Morris of Odyssey Marine Explorations Inc. said Saturday that they found the wreck last month in 1,700 feet of water about 100 miles southeast of Savannah.

Documentation and excavation of the site using remotely operated robotic equipment is set to begin next month. Stemm said the Tampa-based company recently bought a 250-foot ship and a special robotic "remotely operated vehicle" to carry out the project.

"It's almost like having a hand down there," Stemm said of the apparatus. "You can literally feel the pressure when you're picking things up and moving them around."

Because the wreck is so far out in international waters, the company doesn't need a permit to begin work at the site. It has, though, been granted federal "admiralty arrest" of the site to make it illegal for others to lay claim to it.

Odyssey crews combed 1,500 square miles of ocean using a robotic vehicle, sonar and magnetometer technology to before finding the wreck they believe is the Republic, a side-wheel steamer that had once served in the Union fleet.

"After all the years of searching for this particular shipwreck, finally finding it with just an incredible team of folks, it's just an indescribable feeling," Stemm said.

Odyssey, a publicly traded company founded in the mid-1990s, has a number of shipwreck search projects in various stages. Stemm and Morris have performed only one other deep-water excavation, that of a Spanish wreck in the Dry Tortugas that yielded about $5 million in gold and thousands of artifacts.

The company made headlines recently when it entered a historic partnership with the British government to excavate the wreck of the HMS Sussex, which sank in 1694 off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for a war against France and its leader, Louis XIV.

Historians believe the 157-foot warship was carrying nine tons of gold coins aimed at buying the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France. The Sussex's cargo could be more valuable than the Republic's, but Odyssey will have to share it with England: The company will get 80 percent of the first $45 million and about 50 percent of the proceeds thereafter.

The company had planned to begin work on the Sussex next month but the Republic project will now take priority. The search crew of about 20 will expand to around 70 when the work begins.

"Its proximity to the U.S., the location of our equipment and the comparative weather windows between the Mediterranean and Atlantic make the choice to do the S.S. Republic project prior to the Sussex an easy one," Morris said.

Donald H. Kagin, author of "Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States," estimated that the $20 gold coins aboard the Republic would fetch between $6,000 and $9,000 each, based on the sale of coins from previous shipwrecks.

"That value would depend on the ultimate quality of the specimens, but if their condition proves to be comparable to other shipwreck coins from the period, it would make this the most valuable documented cargo ever recovered from a shipwreck," Kagin said in a company press release.

The richest haul previously came from the wreck of the S.S. Central America, which sank in a hurricane off the North Carolina coast in 1857 carrying a vast treasure of California gold.

That wreck surrendered about $100 million in gold in 1987, including the largest known ingot from the California Gold Rush, a 10-inch-long brick that sold for a reported $7 million.

The excavation of the Republic is expected to take a few months and cost the company anywhere from $1 million to $3 million.

---

On the Net:

Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.: http://www.shipwreck.net

[RedBloodedAmerican]

This is a photo of the painting "Tennessee 1860" by Clements Drew, an oil on canvas showing the S.S. Tennessee before it was renamed the S.S. Republic. Tampa-based explorers believe they have found the sunken remains of the steamer off the Georgia coast which could yield the richest cargo ever recovered from a shipwreck. The S.S. Republic was carrying 59 passengers and a load of gold coins from New York to New Orleans when it sank in a hurricane off Savannah, Ga., on Oct. 25, 1865, according to newspaper accounts and other historical records. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, ho)

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Maybe now ya'll will get tha indoor plumbing you've wanted so bad.

[Amelia]

You know, it's not the money, it's the thrill of the chase! ;-)

[ChewedGum]

But the money helps after you spent yourself broke chasing! (If I were rich, I would chase things like this...sounds very fun.)

Gum

[RightWhale]

the coins - intended to help pay for reconstruction of the South

Better late than never.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Ouch! Well, now we can get new voting booths!

[LibKill]

Better late than never.

That's exactly my argument for nuking Berlin.

And some folks call me crazy, and other names. Fegh!

[azhenfud]

Bump

[RedBloodedAmerican]

LOL! Thanks for the laugh!

[Amelia]

(If I were rich, I would chase things like this...sounds very fun.)

It does sound like fun! I wonder if I got scuba certification, would they let me help? ;-)

[DannyTN]

Maybe now ya'll will get tha indoor plumbing you've wanted so bad.

And give up moonlight strolls? I was just thinking of a new pen for the coon dogs.

[DannyTN]

On the other hand, we might just load up on shotgun shells and go down to 'bama and take a stand with Judge Moore.

[ChemistCat]

I don't want your lonely mansion with a tear in every room
All I want's the love you promised, beneath a halo moon
But you think I should--

Ah, nevermind, okay, I'll take the gold. ;-) You can keep the silver thread, though.

[Mortimer Snavely]

180 million dollars worth of gold 1,700 feet down a hundred miles off the coast? I think they'll go broke salvaging, but I'm sure they'll enjoy every minute of it if they don't kill themselves.

[Amelia]

Dang, now I'm gonna be singing that song all night.

I'm gonna sing it LOUD, too...my family will HATE you. ;-)

[DannyTN]

Well don't forget the Bellamy brother's response to that song...

"What you need's a sugar daddy
Diamond rings and a brand new caddie
Little things to help a girl make it through
What you need are satin pillows
Ribbons flowin' down like willows
What you need is me to love you

[ChemistCat]

Sorry!

[stainlessbanner]

Treasure ping!

[thatdewd]

...thousands of gold coins worth as much as $180 million...intended to help pay for reconstruction of the South after the Civil War

Just wait until the reparations crowd hears about this.

[SCDogPapa]

Thanks for the ping Stainless. My it's a small world. I was just reading about the find on Netscape.