Hundreds of bars of silver rescued from WWII shipwreck
July 19th, 2012 - 7:59 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattNew York, July 19 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Several hundreds of bars of silver have been recovered from a wrecked World War II. The booty was recovered from the wreck of the ship off the coast of Ireland by Odyssey Marine Exploration.
The 48-ton haul belonged to the British government and was on board the ship SS Gairsoppa. The vessel was sunk in February 1941 by German torpedo. Out of the 85 people on board the vessel, only one person escaped from the wreckage.
The wreck was discovered last September and the mission to recover the bars started afterwards. At the current price of silver, the 1,203 bars of silver will cost £155 million.
Officials say the bars were used by the British Government as guarantee for the War Risk Insurance programme. The British government paid a total of £325,000 to the owners of the cargo ship after the wreck.
The chief executive of Odyssey, Greg Stemm, told reporters that, “Our capacity to conduct precision cuts and successfully complete the surgical removal of bullion from secure areas on the ship demonstrates our capabilities to undertake complicated tasks in the very deep ocean.”
The silver bars have since been moved to a secure location in the United Kingdom.
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Tags: 1941, booty, british government, bullion, cargo ship, chief executive, current price of silver, deep ocean, greg stemm, last september, odyssey marine exploration, precision cuts, price of silver, shipwreck, silver bars, ss, torpedo, war risk insurance, world war ii, wreckage