ODYSSEY MARINE EXPLORATION RECOVERS US$35 MILLION IN SILVER FROM SHIPWRECK

In July, Odyssey Marine Exploration hit a US$35 million jackpot. The marine salvage company pulled out about 61 tons of silver bullion from a 72-year-old shipwreck off the coast of the British Isles. The wreckage rests at a depth that is a kilometer deeper than the R.M.S Titanic. The ill-fated ship carrying the multi million dollar bounty was the British cargo ship SS Gairsoppa which was sunk in the thick of World War Two by a Nazi U-boat on February 1941.

Odyssey Marine Exploration claims that, so far, it has recovered 2792 silver ingots – which accounts for about 99 percent of the precious cargo in the SS Gairsoppa when it was sunk. The cargo includes 462 ingots of normal grade silver, three lots of .917 fine silver ingots, and one lot of .999 fine silver ingots. The stamps on the .999 fine silver ingots suggest that they were minted at the H.M. Mint which was based in Bombay, India.

According to the contract that Odyssey Marine Exploration negotiated with the U.K department for transport, the marine salvage company will get to keep a whopping 80 percent of the rescued silver.