Ship Sunk by Nazis May Yield $240 Million in Silver, Biggest Take Ever
A ship sunk by a Nazi torpedo during WWII may yield $240 million in silver bars and coins, the biggest take ever from beneath the sea. Odyssey Marine Exploration, the U.S. company that will attempt the salvage of the S.S. Gairsoppa , says the wreck is just one of many whose recovery has been made possible by new technology, and made profitable by rising precious metal prices.Here's the 12-month chart for Odyssey Marine:
Gold and silver prices, hit hard last week, remain near historic highs. On Friday, gold suffered its biggest one-day loss in five years, dropping 5.8 percent to $1,637.50 an ounce. Silver fell 15 percent, posting its biggest one-day decline since 1987. It traded today around $31. These reduced values are still far above the levels needed to make salvage profitable.
"My guess is, we're not going to see much more degradation of precious metals prices, going forward," says Odyssey president Mark Gordon. He expects gold and silver prices to remain high, buoyed by investors' worries about the world economy.
Odyssey, working in partnership with the British government—owners of the torpedoed ship—hopes to salvage perhaps 240 tons of silver this spring. The New York Times reported details of the salvage operation.
The Gairsoppa, a merchant vessel steaming in from Calcutta to Liverpool, became separated in the North Atlantic from its protective convoy. As it tried to reach landfall in western Ireland, it was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in 1941....MORE
This is definitely not our type of deal but a fill of that gap would be hard to resist.
