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WET & HOT NEWS ! > Treasure Hunting / recovery
Rich and valuable shipwreck cargoes sought or recovered commercially.Odyssey Marine 2009 financial results
The 10 Mar. 2010 at 05:13Treasure Hunting / recoveryFrom Yahoo Finance
For the full year 2009, Odyssey reported revenues of $4.3 million, compared to $4.1 million in 2008 while operating expenses decreased $6.4 million from $29.1 million in 2008 to $22.7 million in 2009.
The company reported a net loss of $18.6 million for the full year 2009, compared to a net loss of $24.8 million in 2008. The net loss per share for the full year 2009 was $0.33, compared to a net loss per share of $0.50 in 2008.
"We are pleased with the results of our 2009 operations, which despite some interesting challenges, saw some key strategic opportunities realized that I believe will have a profound effect on our business going forward. Several significant announcements made in late 2009 and early 2010 represent outstanding new opportunities for Odyssey, including the intention to syndicate multiple shipwreck projects with Robert Fraser & Partners that will mirror the structure of the "Enigma" project already executed.
Taking into account expected revenue from multiple sources including these syndicated projects, we believe our current cash position is sufficient to fund operating cash flows through 2010, barring unforeseen circumstances," said Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm.
"Also in 2009, we acquired a stake in a venture to pursue the exploration of deep-ocean gold and copper deposits. By providing our technical expertise and certain marine assets, we believe this will provide a lucrative future opportunity and is a natural extension to leverage our core competencies in deep-ocean exploration," stated Stemm.
"In 2010, Odyssey will remain focused on continuing to strengthen our relations with several governments to conduct shipwreck searches with no upfront cost to taxpayers while returning cultural heritage and economic value to the governments. In September 2009, the UK Government awarded Odyssey a salvage award for the two cannon recovered from HMS Victory, while discussions continue to determine future plans for the site.
The UK Government also awarded the exclusive salvage contract to Odyssey for the cargo of silver from the SS Gairsoppa," continued Stemm. "We have a very ambitious operational schedule planned for 2010, with seven separate projects planned, utilizing at least three ships as well as some outstanding new deep ocean assets we have just acquired. We also have some interesting new technology on the drawing board that will extend our capabilities to a depth of 6,000 meters."Spanish treasure galleon found
The 26 Feb. 2010 at 05:01Treasure Hunting / recovery
By Lamaur Stancil - TCPalm
It’s taken almost four centuries for someone to find the shipwrecked remains of a Spanish treasure galleon, and it’s just east of Indian River County.
Orlando-based treasure hunter Tom Gidus said he’s been examining the debris from the ship, which is more than 14 miles east of the barrier islands. Indialantic shipwreck historian Robert Marx said he reviewed pieces Gidus found and concluded they are from the ship known as the Espiritu Santo el Mayor, a 480-ton galleon that sank in a storm in 1626.
“A bronze cannon was found a number of years back and that is what led us to the area,” Gidus said.
Retrieving the pieces of the wreckage has become a long-term project, Gidus said. He’s dived and removed just a handful of loose pieces from the wreckage for identification purposes. Much of the rest is partially or fully submerged under the sand of the ocean basin, he said. His crew will use either an airlift or underwater handheld blowers to retrieve the ship’s belongings.
Marx said the ship took 1 million pesos worth of valuables and 250 crew members down with her in the storm. Other ships in the fleet were able to save 50 crew members, Marx wrote in a book called “New World Shipwrecks, 1492-1825: A Comprehensive Guide.” Gidus also said shoals in the vicinity of the site made ships susceptible to wrecking there.
As more pieces from the ship are recovered, Gidus said he eventually wants to have them displayed at museums. Gidus’ company, Gold Coast Explorations, found a pair of 19th century wrecks last year on Florida’s Gulf Coast.Magic of the Crystal Skull
The 22 Feb. 2010 at 04:00Treasure Hunting / recoveryBy John Christoper Fine - The Epoch Times
Ocean explorers in West Palm Beach found the treasure of Hernan Cortez. Long after the conqueror of Mexico’s death, his family was shipping some of his personal fortune back to Spain. The cargo contained Aztec crystal skulls. The ship was lost in a fire at sea. It burned to the water line then sank in deep water off Florida’s coast.
Diver, art expert, and undersea explorer Dr. Victor Benilous was contacted by a representative of the Cortez family and given information about the shipwreck. Benilous was well-known for his work on the oldest shipwreck in the Western hemisphere, found off Juno Beach. The information he was given was sparse. It contained a log entry from another captain who had reported seeing a fire out in the Atlantic 250 years ago.
With the use of world-renowned psychics, Dr. Benilous and his team of divers located the wreck. One of the psychics was taken aboard the dive vessel. This same psychic is used by U.S. military and police authorities to locate missing planes and people.
“Dive here,” the psychic said. Deep below the spot where the psychic said dive, not 10 feet from the place where the anchor was dropped, an Aztec crystal skull was recovered.
Power ? Special properties ? Healing and spiritual abilities ? Margaret Ann Lembo thinks so. Margaret is the affable owner of The Crystal Garden on North Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, Florida. The center conducts workshops and sells books, gifts, and jewelry. She invited Bill Homann from Indiana to speak at the Boynton Women’s Club and bring the famous Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull with him.
Bill Homann is a tall man with a moustache. His business card shows him in safari hat, in a tropical background, with the legend “A ‘Real Life’ Indiana Jones” printed beneath it.
He came to Boynton Beach with a PowerPoint presentation that showed F.A. Mitchell-Hedges and his daughter Anna during their exploration and digs in Central America. The vintage photographs depict the jungle around the Mayan city of Lubaantun, in Belize, where the crystal skull was found.
Margaret Ann Lembo’s introduction of “Bill’s intention of goodness and love,” preceded the lecture. Photographs from the 1920s showed Mitchell-Hedges and his daughter Anna on various expeditions, including fishing, a sport the explorer was fond of.
The crystal skull was found in 1924 inside a pyramid. “It is a perfectly made quartz crystal, anatomically correct for a Meso-American female, aged 25 to 29. The jaw and the top cranial part are the same crystal. It was one piece of crystal at one time. It is very hard to separate crystal. It’s brittle. The skull contains three prisms and two lenses built into the crystal skull. The only way you can do that is in zero gravity,” Homann explained.New rules could limit the hunt of sunken treasure off Florida's coast
The 15 Feb. 2010 at 03:21Treasure Hunting / recoveryBy Pamela V. Krol - NaplesNews.com
For years, sunken treasure off Florida’s coast has been a relative free-for-all for anyone with the time and ability to find it.
But proposed rules could make it harder for treasure hunters to collect the prized relics.
Some commercial salvers suggest the waters off of Florida contain more Colonial-era sunken treasure than any other place in the world, with a value estimated to be in the billions of dollars.Salvage companies estimate at least a million dollars worth of treasure is in the Naples/Fort Myers area alone and artifacts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars are salvaged in and around Southwest Florida, by both commercial and recreational divers, each year.
Treasure hunting has been legal in Florida since the 1960’s. Recently, however, groups of marine archaeologists are fighting to have the practice outlawed. Many in this camp consider treasure hunting to be little more than state-sanctioned looting of what they believe should be deemed historical sites. These groups are pushing for tougher laws and outright bans in many cases.
Over the past decade, marine archaeologists have successfully championed greater restrictions on Florida’s treasure hunting industry and have recently brought requests for modifications to the state’s rules governing the recovery of historical shipwrecks by private sector salvers.Their requests would limit salvage permits to a period of one year and narrow search areas to one mile. They would also mandate that an archeologist be on board the search vessel. The proposal would prohibit hunters from searching for treasure up to 500 yards offshore — the range that is considered the most treasure-rich because storms and hurricanes naturally wash shipwrecks toward the shore.
The rules could threaten the livelihoods of local treasure hunters, such as Captain Kym Ferrell, a Florida native who has been working aboard salvage vessels since he was 14.He and a small crew of three to four people choose search sites based on historical research, instinct and knowledge of the local waters. Ferrell said he’s found treasure near Naples but would not say where.
Sunken treasure adventure proves irresistible
The 02 Feb. 2010 at 04:11Treasure Hunting / recovery
By Tim Grobaty - Grubbco.com
Once, back in the early 1980s, a reporter friend of ours covered a meeting of stockholders who had invested in a treasure hunter, a world-famous guy who scoured the seafloors of the Caribbean and the Atlantic seeking sunken treasure. Our friend came back breathless, bug-eyed and sort of pea-green with greed telling us we had to invest in this guy's next expedition.
He told us tales of great wealth: Not only did the treasure hunter dole out to each investor a check with more zeros than a soccer tournament, but he also parceled out gimcracks from his last haul: doubloons, pieces o' eight, gold crosses encrusted with rubies and sapphires, the odd amphora.
Our friend said the modern plunderer of the deep was hot on the trail of the biggest discovery ever, and he (our friend) was good for $4,000 in stock for the treasure-hunter's next expedition; another friend of ours, all caught up in the ravenous quest for easy riches, plunked down a couple of thousand, too.
Now, what are you gonna do? In our case, we knew a sucker's game when we saw one. We also knew a ruby-encrusted cross when we saw one.Further, we envisioned staying far afield of this folly only to see, in a few months, our friends coming back from their stockholders meeting all swaddled in velvet and ermine like the archbloke of Canterbury or one of the lesser Medieval popes, spangled in jewels and drunk on mead, the juice from roasted capon legs glistening on their chins already a-wattle with wealth.
So, we put down a thousand. We called it insurance against the gloating of our stock-holding friends. Soon, we talked yet another friend — this was back in the days when we had a lot of friends and, apparently, tons of money — into putting up a grand or two by convincing him of the wisdom of buying, if nothing else, protection from the original two friends growing wealthy without us.
La mystérieuse et incroyable histoire du trésor du Pollux : Projet Santa Lucia
The 30 Jan. 2010 at 20:14Treasure Hunting / recovery
Beaucoup a été dit ou écrit sur l'histoire du trésor du Pollux et de sa tentative de récupération en 2000, mais bien peu sur l'histoire complète et la réalité des faits. Et surtout, l'ignorance de la majorité s'est rapidement transformée en nouvelles légendes qui laissent tout un chacun rêveur, pour ne pas dire amusé.
Cette fois, la vérité a enfin été mise à jour grâce à l'excellent documentaire sur le magazine télévisé Thalassa (FR3) du vendredi 29 janvier, "Les Chasseurs de Trésors", L’affaire du Polluce, un reportage de Régis Michel et Ettore Malanca de Pacifico Island Productions. Toutes les responsabilités ne sont pas là où les biens pensant le suggéraient !D'ailleurs, les histoires de naufrages commencent toujours par plus de questions que de réponses, celle incroyable du Pollux, en 1841, n'échappe en rien à cette règle fondamentale.
L'histoire de ce drame de la mer et des diverses tentatives de sauvetage sont les pièces maîtresses d’une chronique rocambolesque couvrant plus d’un siècle et demi, et mélange tragédie, mensonges, cupidité, passion et même politique. Digne des plus grands épisodes romanesques. Cette véritable histoire a défrayé les chroniques maritimes et judiciaires jusqu'à nos jours, et pourtant, épisode jusqu'alors parfaitement inconnu du grand public.
Une dépêche émanant du Consulat de France à Civitavecchia indique en 1841:« Le Pollux (sarde), capitaine Lazzolo, de Civitavecchia à Livourne avec 45 passagers, parti le 17 juin à 5 heures du soir s’est perdu en collision, près de l'île d'Elbe, à 11 heures du soir avec le Montegibello (napolitain), de 200 chevaux, venant de Livourne dans son premier voyage. Le Pollux a coulé à fond rapidement. Un seul passager, le capitaine napolitain Castagnola s’est noyé. Les passagers ont tout perdu et ont été conduits à Livourne. Le Pollux a coûté 450.000 Francs et désormais les passagers préfèrent voyager sur les bâtiments de guerre plus sûrs.
Parmi les passagers, se trouvait un capitaine de commerce napolitain dont le navire avait lui-aussi naufragé le mois dernier. Il se rendait à Marseille pour prendre un autre commandement.Ce malheureux marin, le seul qui a péri, était remonté à bord pour prendre des papiers dans sa chambre et a coulé avec le navire ainsi que deux cents colis et onze groups d’or et d’argent ». L'histoire du trésor englouti est né, avec toutes ces légendes...
En 1936, les opérateurs de la célèbre SORIMA (Società Ricuperi Marittimi) avait bien essayé de repérer l'épave, mais le mauvais temps les avait vite obligé à renoncer. Puis le Pollux fut oublié..
Ce n'est qu'en 1992 que la COMEX, par l'intermédiaire de son Président, Henri Germain Delauze, décide d'aller repérer l'épave grâce à l'épais dossier que j'avais patiemment réuni dans mes recherches en bibliothèques et autres dépôts d'archives dans toute l'Europe. Le site de l'épave est alors repéré avec le navire Minibex en moins d'une heure et quasiment identifié.
Pourtant, ce n'est pas le Pollux qui sera déclaré aux autorités maritimes, mais un autre bateau naufragé dans les parages... Cinq ans passèrent et notre contrat de collaboration devint caduque.
An 2000 : Je négocie un contrat avec un groupe d'Anglais qui créé une société à cette occasion et décide de récupérer le trésor du Pollux, à l'occasion de d'un autre contrat qu'ils avaient pu obtenir auprès des autorités anglaises pour la récupération d'une cargaison d'étain perdu par le Glenlogan lors de la Première Guerre Mondiale, coulé lui-aussi, dans les eaux italiennes !
Manipulations ? C'est sûr ! Mais comment les autorités de Toscane de l'époque ont pu laisser travailler un bateau de 50 mètres pendant plus d'un mois et à seulement quelques milles de leurs côtes, sans demander plus de précisions ??Un véritable trésor en pièces d'or et d'argent, bijoux, pierres précieuses et autres objets de grande valeur est remonté à la surface... Avec une benne-preneuse. Je suis alors pris aussi dans un tourbillon que rien ne peut arrêter; les anglais sont les maîtres d'œuvre et je ne peux que les suivre dans leur projet qui est aussi le mien à l'origine.
Le trésor remonté arrive ensuite à Londres pour être vendu aux enchères, mais un coup de téléphone anonyme averti les Carabinieri italiens, qui appellent Interpol à leur tour et Scotland Yard. Tout est saisi et sera rapidement envoyé au musée de Florence, en Italie.
Mais l'histoire est encore bien plus compliquée que cela, avec son épilogue en 2008, car un procès a lieu à Porto-Ferraio, île d'Elbe, à l'issu duquel les faits sont finalement prescrits par le juge en fonction.
Entre temps, un journaliste italien véreux "s'appropriera" l'histoire et la découverte du Pollux. Plusieurs expéditions officielles italiennes seront mises en place et encore plus d'objets précieux seront récupérés...
Aujourd'hui, cette saga est d'autant plus d'actualité, qu'un livre est désormais en préparation, ainsi qu'un film de fiction... Peut être le prochain James Bond !?
La suite au prochain épisode...
Les chasseurs de trésors
The 27 Jan. 2010 at 10:31Treasure Hunting / recovery
Thalassa - Le Magazine de la Mer
Hier, ils étaient pirates, flibustiers, contrebandiers. Aujourd’hui, ils sont chasseurs de trésors ! Thalassa vous fait découvrir l’univers de ces aventuriers modernes.
En mer, au cours des siècles, des milliers de navires ont fait naufrage sur toutes les routes commerciales du monde. Mais comment les retrouver ? Ce qui était difficilement réalisable il y a encore quelques dizaines d’années, est aujourd’hui possible : rechercher les épaves dans les archives, trouver leur position, les repérer sur place, puis les exploiter.
Ces progrès technologiques ont donné naissance à une nouvelle profession : chasseur de trésors !
Qui sont-ils alors, ces aventuriers des temps modernes ? Entre illégalité et légalité, Thalassa part à la découverte d’un monde fascinant où se mêlent la grande Histoire et les faits divers. Nous rencontrerons Luc Heymans, chasseur de trésors aux Philippines, nous vous dévoilerons les déboires de l’Italie qui veut récupérer un trésor volé par les Anglais, nous croiserons une mystérieuse société américaine de chercheurs de trésors dont les activités sont bien opaques, nous suivrons enfin la police maritime italienne dans sa traque contre les trafiquants d’amphores.
Au fond de l’eau, il y toujours des milliers d’épaves en attente d’être visitées… Alors, chasseurs de trésors, un métier d’avenir ?
Read more...Historic "Ship of Gold" Returns to Long Beach Expo
The 20 Jan. 2010 at 19:03Treasure Hunting / recovery
By Expos Unlimited - Collectors Universe
A decade after its first appearance, the precedent-setting "Ship of Gold" display showcasing California Gold Rush-era sunken treasure recovered from the 1857 shipwreck of the SS Central America again will dock in Long Beach, California."The ‘Ship of Gold’ exhibit is coming out of dry dock and returning to its first port of call, the Long Beach Expo," said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.
"The eye-opening display on the convention center floor is housed in a specially-constructed 40-foot long representation of the famous ship’s hull. This will be the first public appearance of the ‘Ship of Gold’ exhibit anywhere in the country in six years."US$30 Million Treasure Buried Under Sand Off Chile's Coast
The 13 Jan. 2010 at 00:02Treasure Hunting / recoveryBy Laura Burgoine - The Santiago Times
A shipwrecked vessel containing an estimated US$30 million of treasure may soon be resurfaced in Chile after more than two centuries in Davy Jones’ locker.
The National Monuments Council (NMC) is currently negotiating with private company Oriflama SA over the ownership rights of Spanish galleon “Our Lady of the good council and San Leopoldo,” which has been located under the sands of Playa La Trinchera in Curepto (Region VII).
Oriflama SA and local museums have been working towards recovering the ship and its treasure since 2001. But under the National Monuments Act No. 17,288, the remains of the Galleon are state property.
NMC executive secretary Oscar Acuna said the NMC is willing to award Oriflama SA 25 percent of the value of the treasure for their work, but that ultimately the galleon belongs to the state.
The ship’s treasure, which is believed to include gold coins, fine glassware, guns of war, furniture, and clothing decorated with gold and various jewels, cannot be officially valued until the ship’s remains are recovered from under the sand.
The project has already cost Oriflama SA US$1million, and by the time the resurfacing of the vessel is complete, costs are estimated at another US$15 million.
Oriflama SA CEO Hernan Couyoudijan said the company’s goal is to create a museum after completing the project. “We want to make a museum out of it. This would not only preserve some of history but potentially boost tourism in Curepto” he said.Courts curb bounty hunters seeking torpedoed liner's £15m bullion
The 13 Jan. 2010 at 09:25Treasure Hunting / recovery
By John Hooper - guardian.co.uk
The Italian government has stepped in to the hunt for €17m (£15m) worth of sunken treasure, spilled from the Italian liner Ancona, which a US firm is hoping to recover from the bed of the Mediterranean between Sicily and Sardinia.
The Ancona was carrying gold and silver when it sank on 7 November 1915 after being torpedoed by a German U-boat flying an Austro-Hungarian flag. Of 760 people on board, more than 200 perished when the giant transatlantic vessel went down.
A foreign ministry spokesman said tonight that lawyers in America had taken action in the US courts that meant neither the salvagers nor the government could take any initiative without first giving 45 days' notice to the other party.
A spokeswoman for Odyssey Marine Exploration, the Florida-based firm searching for the treasure, said it had filed a joint motion with the Italian government "preserving the administratively closed status of the case". She added: "There is no dispute between Odyssey and the Italian government."
The manifest of the first world war ship recorded its 12 trunks of gold, and shipment of silver bars. The bullion, entrusted to a civil servant, was thought to be intended for purchasing arms for Italy.Some Italian officials regard the vessel as now untouchable. Sebastiano Tusa, head of the government's marine heritage department on Sicily, told La Stampa: "It is a war cemetery that cannot be defiled by a company looking to make money. The only acceptable project might be a non-profit-making one for scientific and historical research, with the agreement of all the nations involved in the disaster."