One of the deepest treasure wreck ever found...
by Arthur Clark
Minted in Philadelphia at Saudi Arabia's request, a cargo of three million silver Saudi one-riyal coins was shipped to the oil port of Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, late in World War II. But the Liberty ship that was transporting them, the S. S. John Barry, never arrived. Torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Arabian Sea more than 185 kilometers (100 nautical miles) off Oman in August 1944, the John Barry sank in waters so deep that no one thought she could ever be reached... ...When the Barry went down, the riyal was worth 30 US cents. The ship's three-million-riyal cargo therefore had a face value of $900,000. The silver in each coin, about 10 grams (3/8 of an ounce), was worth 18 cents, so the coins' silver value was $540,000. Neither figure is anywhere near the $26 million that the Barry's captain and purser were quoted as saying the cargo was worth. Hart's cables about the sinking, secret when they were sent, don't mention any uncoined silver, but with time the rumor of sunken bullion became accepted as colorful fact... |
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