golden ear

Chapter 305 Salvage inside story
"I'm curious about the salvage process of the first sunken ship in the Odyssey. Can Mr. Greg tell us about it?"

"Hahaha, it's amazing to talk about that experience!" Greg was asked about the thing he was most proud of, and excitedly said: "The story of the Republic is like this. At that time, the American Civil War had just ended, and the Republic was full of cargo and coins. From New York, ready to go to New Orleans to support the post-war reconstruction of New Orleans."

"The 210-foot-long ship in the steam age unfortunately encountered a rare hurricane five days after sailing out of New York and sank into the icy seabed. Reports at the time said that the property on the Republic exceeded $5 in gold. Silver coins. More than 40 years later, their value has far exceeded the face value of the year, and a $130 gold coin has a market value ranging from $10 to $3000."

"But it's very difficult to find the location of the wreck. A ship like the Republic, which has been battered by wind and waves, breaks up during the sinking process and hits the bottom of the sea at 100 miles an hour, so it is a mess and the hull is scattered. All over the sea."

Greg had a headache and said: "Since we knew its story in 1992, the two of us have been working hard with it, analyzing its shipwreck passage in detail from the literature, and using computers to simulate the ship's line and speed back then. In the end, the ship sank. The wreckage is locked within 1500 miles, and combing through such a large area of ​​seafloor with sonar alone would be an enormous amount of work."

At this time, Wu Tianyuan lamented how powerful his supernatural ability is, and he can find it just by looking for it.

"In 2003, the Odyssey company finally managed to find the Republic 100 miles off the coast of Georgia. The gold and silver coins salvaged were sold for 7500 million U.S. dollars, and our initial investment cost was only 200 million yuan. I made a lot of money. Up to now, both of us have put a salvaged gold coin in our wallets as a souvenir, not too expensive, just 1 US dollars, and keep it as a permanent souvenir.”

Greg looked at Wu Tianyuan enviously and said: "I heard that Mr. Wu is a miracle worker and has a natural intuition for treasures. We are all shocked by the treasures you discovered. Hey, if we ordinary people want to find a clue , is really difficult!"

"In order to increase the possibility of discovering valuable shipwrecks, Odyssey Company has adopted many methods. The first step is that company staff will carefully sort out the voyage records of the United States and other countries. In European libraries, special personnel are also hired to study this information."

"We even recruited a group of professional "chattors" along the Mediterranean coast. Their job is to chat with fishermen by the sea, especially fishermen who have caught some unusual things in their fishing nets. The company also set up a sky-high reward for fishermen. Once the fishermen provide If the clue can really find the treasure of the sunken ship, Odyssey will reward him with 50 US dollars."

"A few years ago, when a historian was sorting out the files of French spies, he found such a record. In 1694, a British warship sank in the western Mediterranean Sea. The name of this warship was "Sussex" ", it is said that the ship was loaded with 9 tons of gold at the time, and it was used by the United Kingdom to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy and launch a war against the French King Louis XIV."

"Historians told us this news, Odyssey told the British government, the two reached an agreement shortly after, Odyssey is responsible for the search and salvage of the wreck, once the property of the Sussex is found, Odyssey will share the proceeds equally with the British government."

"After years of research and exploration, we believe that we have found the sinking site of the Sussex, but we have not been able to salvage it. Because the sunken ship is located in the waters under the jurisdiction of the Andalusia region of Spain, in order to protect their country's underwater culture The legacy has not allowed Odyssey to carry out the salvage work."

"It wasn't until March this year that the Spanish government reached an agreement with the British government. According to the agreement, the two countries will jointly search for the cargo on the British shipwreck, the Royal Navy Sussex. Spain will send a team of archaeologists to participate in underwater archaeology throughout the process. and salvage work, and if the wreck is confirmed to be the Sussex, it will recognize the hull and cargo on board as British property under international law."

Old Qiao also mentioned this rumor to Wu Tianyuan. According to relevant historical records, the Sussex was carrying [-] million pounds of gold coins when it sank.It is preliminarily estimated that the current value of these ancient coins is at least [-] billion U.S. dollars, and may even reach [-] billion U.S. dollars.

"The wreck of the Sussex is buried half a mile deep on the seabed, which is a depth that is difficult to reach for seabed salvage. Historically, due to technical limitations, it has been impossible to find and salvage the sunken ship. Now there is no technical obstacle. This is A key reason why the Sussex may see the light of day."

"The company's plan to fully salvage the Sussex has been confirmed, and an exploration team will be sent again this spring. According to the analysis, the location of the coin pile should be at the bottom of the sunken ship. In the next step, deep-water divers will dive into the seabed many times to try to get the coins under the seabed. The deeply buried fragments were exhumed and analyzed to further determine if it was the Sussex."

"Our goal is not just to unearth money, but also to explore from an archaeological point of view. If it is confirmed that the wreck is the Sussex, then the history of Europe at the turn of the [-]th and [-]th centuries will be enriched."

"Even the British government is currently showing great importance to this salvage. The Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying that the wreck of the sunken ship led them to believe that it was from a British shipwreck, and it was very likely that it was the Sussex sent by the royal family." wreckage."

Greg said with deep disdain: "The official excuse is always so high-sounding. What if it's an empty ship with no treasure? Can the British Empire take it so seriously?"

"Both we and the British government hope to obtain this treasure alone. Since the ship did not sink in British waters, this treasure should belong to the company that salvaged the water. The British side made it clear that the salvage company has proved that it is the British warship Sussex All property on board should belong to the British royal family. Public opinion believes that this is the intention of the British Ministry of Defense’s statement.”

"The international seabed archaeological community currently has no uniform allocation regulations. In the past, an unwritten way to deal with such disputes was that if it was found on the high seas, whoever found it would own it. In the sea area of ​​​​a country, it is handled on a case-by-case basis. In the past, there have been cases where the treasure hunters monopolize the treasure and the country gets all the treasure.”

"This time as a compromise, our company proposed to the British government that we keep most of the coins and other treasures on board, but hand over the valuable cultural relics to the UK. But the greedy Brits objected to this and shamelessly proposed that the treasures should belong to the UK first. It is owned by the royal family. However, the British side will pay the company according to the expenses invested by the Odyssey company in the exploration and salvage of the Sussex."

Greg said indignantly: "You must know that we have invested [-] million US dollars in exploration costs, but what we hope to get is far from [-] million US dollars. The British side must pay for the risk of exploration and the reward for successful salvage. It is not yet [-]% It has already caused disputes to confirm that the ship is the Sussex, and after it comes out of the water, it is estimated that there will inevitably be a dispute over money."

(End of this chapter)