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A shipwreck containing nearly 220 tons of silver worth at least $200 million was located by divers nearly 3 miles beneath the surface of the North Atlantic on Monday, and if recovered, would be the largest known precious metal cargo ever taken from the sea.
The SS Gairsoppa, a British vessel with a cargo of seven million ounces of silver, was torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War II around 300 miles off the coast of Ireland in international waters.
Only one person aboard the ship, which had a crew of 85, survived the attack.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, a U.S. exploration company, said it located the sunken ship; it will keep 80 percent of the cargo under terms of a contract with the U.K. Department of Transport.
“We’ve accomplished the first phase of this project -- the location and identification of the target shipwreck," said Andrew Craig, Odyssey Senior Project Manager in press release. “And now we’re hard at work planning for the recovery phase.”
"Given the orientation and condition of the shipwreck, we are extremely confident that our planned salvage operation will be well suited for the recovery of this silver cargo," he added.
The company said work on actually recovering the silver would start in the spring. If the crew is able to successfully finish the job, it would be the deepest recovery operation in history.