A British ship sunk in World War I with some 200,000 ounces of silver, worth $US19 million ($19.5 million) at today's prices, has been located in the North Atlantic, a treasure-hunting firm says.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said it found the wreckage of the SS Mantola, which sank on February 9, 1917 after being torpedoed by a German submarine, and would begin recovery operations next year.
The Florida company said it discovered the shipwreck about 2500 metres beneath the surface and just 160km from the SS Gairsoppa, believed to be the most valuable shipwreck ever, with some $US210 million in silver.
The firm said it has an agreement with the British government allowing it to keep 80 per cent of the value of anything recovered from the wrecks. It said the British Ministry of War Transport paid an insurance claim in 1917 of £110,000 for silver that was on board the Mantola when it sank.
"This sum would equate to more than 600,000 ounces of silver based on silver prices in 1917," the company said on Monday.
"The incremental costs to search for the Mantola were low, as this was a contingency project in the event that our team successfully completed the Gairsoppa search early," said Mark Gordon, Odyssey's president and chief operating officer.
"We are planning to conduct the recovery expedition in conjunction with the Gairsoppa recovery, which will also make the operation very cost efficient."
Odyssey said last month it had located the SS Gairsoppa, torpedoed by a German U-boat in World War II.
The Gairsoppa was carrying more than 200 tonnes of silver when it sank in 1941 in the North Atlantic some 490km off the Irish coast.
Valued then at £600,000, the silver today is worth about $US210 million, which would make it history's largest recovery of precious metals lost at sea, Odyssey said.
In May 2007, it announced it had found half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects from a ship they codenamed the Black Swan, which went down in 1804 in the Atlantic off the Strait of Gibraltar. The find is being contested by Spain, which claims the trove.
UNESCO estimates there are some three million shipwrecks worldwide, with billions of dollars in sunken treasures and priceless knowledge that can be recovered from the depths of the ocean, including vast amounts of naturally occurring copper, silver, gold and zinc deposits waiting to be discovered.
AFP