Silver Bullion Found Undersea near Ireland Televised on KBS1 9PM News (27th September 2011)

KBS1 9PM News on 27th September 2011: Silver Bullion Found Undersea near Ireland

KBS1 9시 뉴스 (2011년 9월 27일): 아일랜드 인근 해저에서 은괴 발견

A US salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc said on 26th September 2011 it had found the sunken wreckage of a British cargo ship filled with silver in the Atlantic Ocean, where it was torpedoed by the Germans during the Second World War.

The wreckage of the SS Gairsoppa was found in international waters 300 miles off the coast of Ireland, at a depth of 15,510 feet, the Tampa, Florida, company said.

The Gairsoppa sank on 17th February 1941, after it was hit by a torpedo from a German U-Boat. Only one of the 85 men on board survived.

The 412-foot ship was carrying cargo for the British Ministry of War Transportation when it was sunk.

Its cargo included about 7 million ounces of silver, the company said in a statement, which would make it the largest known cargo of precious metal ever recovered from the sea.

Odyssey Marine was awarded a salvage contract by the British government in 2010. Under the contract, the company will retain 80 percent of the net salvaged value of the silver bullion.

The ship was located using sonar, and a remotely controlled vehicle was used to send pictures of the wreckage to the surface.

Recovery operations are expected to begin in the spring, the company said.

Odyssey Marine has been in a legal battle with Spain over 500,000 gold and silver coins it discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in 2007. Spain says the coins came from a Spanish ship that sank in 1804, Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes.

A US appeals court ruled last week that US courts had no jurisdiction in the case and it should be decided in Spain. Odyssey Marine is appealing.

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The SS Gairsoppa was a British steam merchant ship that saw service during the Second World War. She sailed with several convoys, before joining Convoy SL 64. Running low on fuel, she left the convoy and headed for Galway, Ireland, but was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. The wreck of the ship was located in 2011, and it was announced that an operation to recover its cargo of silver bullion, with an estimated value of £150 million, would begin in 2012.

Attached to convoy SL-64 under master Gerald Hyland, she was returning from India to Britain in 1941 with a cargo of silver ingots, pig iron and tea. Joining the 8 knot convoy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, while in a heavy storm and running low on coal off the coast of neutral Republic of Ireland, Gairsoppa split off from the convoy and set course for Galway harbour.

She was circled by a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 aircraft at 08:00 on 16th February, and at 22.30 was spotted by U-101, under the command of Ernst Mengersen. Torpedoed on the starboard side in No. 2 hold, she sank within 20 minutes (Note: German logbooks kept in German time state she sank at 00.08 hours on 17th February 1941). Her last reported position was 50°00'N 14°0'WCoordinates: 50°00'N 14°0'W, 300 miles (480 km) southwest of Galway Bay. The wreck lies at least 6,500 feet (2,000 m) below the surface.

It was thought that three lifeboats launched, but only that in charge of the second officer RH Ayres with four Europeans and two Lascars on board made it away; the rest of the crew was lost. Ayres and his boat reached the Cornish coast two weeks later at Caerthillian Cove. Two died trying to get ashore; they are buried at St. Wynwallow, Church Cove, Landewednack. Ayres was made an MBE for his attempts to rescue his fellow sailors, and lived until 1992.

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