It was a dark , meth - cold February . The merchant ship SS Gairsoppa was seek resort in Ireland when a Nazi U - boat sunk her . She was load with seven million ounces of silver gray . That ’s worth $ 202.74 million in today ’s dollars .
harmonise to the ship ’s manifest , she also comport 1700 tons of afternoon tea and a fair amount of pig iron . The Gairsoppa was on its way of life to Galway , Ireland , after leaving Convoy SL 64 because of low fuel . The convoy depart Freetown , Sierra Leone , on January 1941 . Almost all of its 30 ships and ten escort arrived to Liverpool on February 22 . Some of them had to sour to other port wine . Only the Gairsoppa was sink .
Being alone at ocean have in mind she was a good target for the Nazi sharks . A retentive - range German Focke - Wulf Fw 200 aeroplane find her at 08:00pm on February 16 , 1941 . About 14 hour later , the Kriegsmarine VIIB - class submarine U-101 commanded by Korvettenkapitän Ernst Mengersen spy her on the open ocean , 300 mi southwestward of Galway Bay .
Mengersen , who you could see in the photo above wear thin his Knight ’s Iron Cross , was one of the mavin in the squad of sea beast created by Admirals Raeder and Dönitz . He sunk almost 70,000 tons of ship , most of them British cargo ship . He also sunk the HMS Broadwater , a Royal Navy destroyer .
After making contact with the Gairsoppa , Mengersen submerged his 66.5 - meter - long U - gravy boat — carry 14 torpedoes and 26 mines — and fix to kill the unsuspecting British ship . The commander ordered attack on the Gairsoppa ’s starboard side , drop her in just 20 minutes . Most of the crew—88 sailors and officials , plus two gunners — died during the attack . As survivors of the initial barrage fire abandon the ship , Mengersen cut down them down with the uranium - boat ’s machine gunslinger . The only survivor was R.H. Ayres , the second officeholder , who reached the English coast 13 daylight after the flak .
Now , 70 years later , the treasure hunting watch at Odyssey Marine Exploration have institute the Gairsoppa almost intact 4700 meters under water .
According to Odyssey , the seven million ounce of silver is “ the largest known treasured metal shipment ever recover from the sea . ” They will keep 80 % , while the British authorities would grab 20 % of the full booty . They will embark on the recuperation in 2012 . The SS Gairsoppa had pinch stern direction which admit a unappeasable ambit on the top of the the skinny pack of cards . The binnacle housing the stark orbit of the SS Gairsoppa shinny in the lights of Odyssey ’s Remotely Operated Vehicle ( ROV ) during a visual inspection of the site just about 4,700 meters deep .
Odyssey ’s work party is also excited by the finding itself . As Odyssey ’s Principal Marine Archaeologist Neil Cunningham Dobson puts it :
Being the son of a merchant mariner who work for the same shipping line as the Gairsoppa ’s and as a former merchant gob myself , the visit to the site via ROV was in particular personal . By analyse the known configuration and research about the Gairsoppa and her final voyage and fastidiously exploring the wreck site to register each element and item , our squad of experts was able to positively discover the site as the Gairsoppa . Even though record indicate that the lifeboats were launch before the ship sank , sadly most of her crew did not live on the farseeing journey to shore . By find this shipwreck , and telling the story of its loss , we pay up testimonial to the fearless merchant sailors who lose their lives .
Indeed , it ’s exciting . Everything is exciting when there ’s seven million ounces of silver wait for you . [ Odyssey ]
you could keep up with Jesus Diaz the author of this spot , onTwitterorFacebook .
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