Shipwreck salvager recovers 15,500 gold, silver coins
- On 12/11/2014
- In Treasure Hunting / Recoveries
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By Frik Els - Mining
Odyssey Marine Exploration announced Tuesday that it recovered recovered more than 15,500 silver and gold coins including Double Eagles, 45 gold ingots, gold dust, nuggets jewelry and other artifacts
from the SS Central America shipwreck site since April.
"While the exact value of the recovered Central America cargo will not be known until it is monetized, we know it is valued in the tens of millions of dollars and well in excess of the project costs,” said Mark
Gordon, Odyssey's chief executive officer.
The SS Central America wreck was discovered in 1988 at a depth of 7,200 feet and the Florida-based company said during the final month of the 2014 recovery season, the Odyssey Explorer performed a
161,000-square-meter, high-resolution video survey of the shipwreck and surrounding seabed.
An additional survey with Odyssey's new dual-head SeaBat 7125 deep tow survey system is currently underway and Odyssey will evaluate information and data gathered from the 2014 operations,
including these new surveys, "to determine future plans".
With one of the largest documented cargoes of gold ever lost at sea, the SS Central America contributed to the Panic of 1857
The Central America, carrying mainly mine workers and bosses returning east from the California gold rush was caught in a hurricane and sank on September 12, 1857 roughly 260 kilometres off the South
Carolina coast.
477 passengers, mostly miners and businessmen returning east from California with their personal possessions and fortunes in gold accumulated after years of prospecting during the Gold Rush were on board the steamship during her final voyage.
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