71 tons of platinum

goingbroke

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A shipwreck hunter says he has found the wreck of a World War II merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Cod with a load of platinum now valued at $3 billion — perhaps the richest hoard ever discovered at the bottom of the sea.

Greg Brooks of Sub Sea Research, in Gorham, Maine, said a wreck in 700 feet of water 50 miles offshore is that of the Port Nicholson, a British vessel sunk in 1942. He said he and his crew positively identified the hull number using an underwater camera.

Salvage operations should begin this month or in early March aboard a 220-foot vessel called Sea Hunter with the assistance of a remotely operated underwater vessel, he said.

"I'm going to get it, one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water," Brooks said.

Brooks said the Port Nicholson was going from Nova Scotia to New York and carrying 71 tons of platinum when it was torpedoed. The platinum was intended as payment from the Soviet Union to the United States, he said.

A federal court judge has granted him the salvage rights, he said.

Brooks has been in the shipwreck business for nearly 20 years, with his previous biggest find being from a pirate ship near Puerto Rico.

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secondrepublic

very interesting. but I seriously doubt the finder gets to keep all (or even most) of it. article says this was Soviet payment to US during WWII for war material, which means the government probably has a strong claim over most or all of it.

OPA

I find it difficult to believe that they placed that much Platinum on an old vintage clunker of a Merchant Ship.

SS Port Nicholson

More detailed story below

Link about the shipwreck

Timbuk3

Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing !!!

DrBuster

Cool if true, want to see it pan out.

pf70collector

Conspiracy theory. The Russians torpedoed their own merchant ship loaded with who knows what. They find nada. Why didn't the Russians try to salvage this vessel even today if it had that much platinum. Did Russia ever pay off the loan?

ricko

Interesting... will be fun to follow this story... Cheers, RickO

Spooly

<< <i>Conspiracy theory. The Russians torpedoed their own merchant ship loaded with who knows what. They find nada. Why didn't the Russians try to salvage this vessel even today if it had that much platinum. Did Russia ever pay off the loan? >>

derryb

I suspect the lawsuits for ownership will not surface until the platinum reaches the surface.

streeter

<< <i>Conspiracy theory. The Russians torpedoed their own merchant ship loaded with who knows what. They find nada. Why didn't the Russians try to salvage this vessel even today if it had that much platinum. Did Russia ever pay off the loan? >>



this

vibr0nic

Coincidentally, this story popped up today..

A similar result is to be expected, no?

Baley

Conspiracy theory. The Russians torpedoed their own merchant ship loaded with who knows what. They find nada. Why didn't the Russians try to salvage this vessel even today if it had that much platinum. Did Russia ever pay off the loan?


Very first thing I thought of, too. Was this shipment insured? if so, the insurer who payed off may have a claim, IF in fact the metal is there.

Weiss

I think I remember them finding it several years ago, when they had irrefutable proof and the tons of platinum would be surfacing shortly.

I don't know much about salvage. But let me get this straight:

$2.5 billion dollars worth of Pt (not to mention the other commodities on the ship).
A reasonably good idea of where the ship was prior to being found.
Its loss is well within living memory.
Relative close proximity to the shore--2, maybe 3 miles (Titanic, by comparison, is 400 miles from shore)
Depth of maybe 700 feet (Titanic, by comparison, is 12,467 feet deep)

I dunno. It's a great story and I'll definitely be watching it. If the quantities are accurate and can be retrieved, it would represent about 4 months worth of global Pt production. That could certainly impact prices.

But 3 or 4 years since locating it and they've been trying to raise $$ all the while--but not a single ounce of Pt retrieved because at 33 pounds each and 4 bars to a box, the boxes are too heavy?

It seems, pardon the pun, fishy.