14 DAY TRIAL // Every once in a while, exploring shipwrecks pays off, and it pays off quite well. Thus, media reports say that a company that is in the business of deep-ocean exploration has recently got its hands on 60 pounds (about 27 kilograms) of gold originating from a vessel that sunk in 1857.
Information shared with the public says that Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., as this company is named, has successfully recovered five gold bars and two gold coins from the remains of the SS Central America.
This ship now rests at the bottom of the ocean, in the waters off the coast of South Carolina in the United States, where it ended up after being hit by a strong hurricane in said year, Live Science tells us.
According to the folks with the Columbus-America Discovery Group, who first stumbled upon the ship's remains back in 1988, the vessel sits some 7,200 feet (roughly 2,200 meters) below the surface, and at a distance of 160 miles (257 kilometers) from the shoreline.
At the time it got caught up in the hurricane and more-or-less willingly embarked on a joyride towards the seafloor, the SS Central America was carrying about 30,000 pounds (approximately 13,600 kilograms) of gold.
Otherwise put, perhaps it might not be such a bad idea if folks with Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. were to toss the two coins they have recently recovered from its wreck into a wishing well and pray that sometime in the near future they will come across the bulk of the treasure.
In a recent interview with the press, the deep-ocean exploration company explained that Recovery Limited Partnership, i.e. the shipwreck's legal owner, gave it permission to continue exploring the SS Central America's remains.
The end goal is to try and recover the rest of the treasure believed to be resting in these waters off South Carolina's coastline. Seeing how gold has until now been pulled out of the ocean only from about 5% of the estimated shipwreck site, there is little doubt that there is plenty of work left to be done.
Specialists working with Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. and Recovery Limited Partnership explain that, for the time being, they are unable to put a price tag on the SS Central America's gold cargo.
This is because too little is known about the quality, quantity, and form of the precious metal the ship was carrying at the time it had its run-in with the hurricane. “The ultimate value of the recovery can only be determined once the total quantity, quality and form of the recovered gold is known,” the exploration company explains.