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 Replies: 23 / Views: 3,487 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
Wow each bar weighs 79.5 pounds each lol....
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4212 Posts |
I mentioned this post to my wife & a tennant this morning, the story was on the Today show today. I didn't see it, must have been new developments, But still....wow!
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Valued Member
United States
280 Posts |
That's about $40,000,000 worth of silver at current prices- wow!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
If I heard correctly on the radio this morning, the salvager company is to receive 80% of the bounty (booty)?
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Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
616 Posts |
Yes before starting the operation they negotiated a 80/20 split in their favor with the British government. But I assume the had to pay all their own expenses and take the risk they wouldn't find the ship so it probably isn't as one sided as it sounds.
Edited by starbuxinvestor
07/23/2013 1:32 pm
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Moderator
 Australia
16861 Posts |
I think they'd have been pretty sure they found the ship before talking to the British government about it. The uncertainty only lay in carrying out such a large salvage operation at those depths while staying on time and on budget. If they'd had to pay an entire crew for a couple of years, lost a couple of ROVs during the operation, and only had a couple of ingots to show for it, it would have been very expensive silver.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
616 Posts |
The ship was 3 miles down. My guess is if you confirm before (since they acknowledge Brittain to be the rightful owner) you would lose some your leverage. Their costs are the same either way. Only thing having a confirmed find does is make the owner greedy. The silver was found by the only publicly trade treasure hunting company. MyNot like you could hide and expedition like that. My guess conversation went something like this. We believe we know where to locate SS Gairsoppa, if we can and are able to salvage the cargo we would like 80% to cover our costs plus a profit. You gentlemen will get 20% for merely signing your name and taking zero risk.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
A bit of speculation on my part but I would say there is a good chance that some of the silver on board the SS Gairsoppa came from melted Morgan silver dollars. The Pittman Act of 1918 allowed for the melting of up to 350 million silver dollars and 270 million were eventually melted. The purpose of the Pitmann Act was to provide Britain with a large quantity of silver that they used to prop up the currency in India. The currency needed to be propped up because Germany was making a desperate attempt to attack Great Britain by undermining their colonial power in India, essentially opening an economic battlefront on Britain during the waning days of WWI. |
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Pillar of the Community
2087 Posts |
The reason being, that the bars will be melted down is... the silver from India was poorly refined at the time the bars were shipped. As a result "there's gold in them bars". That company will make a considerable profit from re-refining those bars. Odyssey Marine knows about the gold..when they first made the discovery in 2011 the gold content(0.04%) was reported.
It is unlikely that the silver is from Morgan dollars( because of the gold content)
Edited by austrokiwi
07/25/2013 01:21 am
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Valued Member
United States
307 Posts |
Perhaps this has something to do with the drop in Silver Prices last year?
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Valued Member
United States
62 Posts |
Are salvage operations negotiated with governments on a case-by-case basis then? Or is there some "statute of limitations" for old wrecks? Wouldn't anything in international waters be fair game?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
Quite the opposite, actually.
It's a rule of international law that property of a sovereign state is not alienated by lapse of time. So, if you dive a wreck in international waters & pull up something valuable which belonged to a government at the time it sank, the successor to that government can sue you for recovery. Spain has done exactly that to some folks who recovered treasure from Spanish wrecks without prior agreement.
On the other hand, if you're within the territorial waters of some other sovereign state, the treasure-trove laws of the latter may protect you.
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Valued Member
United States
62 Posts |
That's quite bizarre. It makes me wonder how many "secret" salvage operations happen.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2890 Posts |
Quote:
My guess conversation went something like this. We believe we know where to locate SS Gairsoppa, if we can and are able to salvage the cargo we would like 80% to cover our costs plus a profit. You gentlemen will get 20% for merely signing your name and taking zero risk Can you expand on what you mean by this? |
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Posted 07/23/2013 12:31 pm
