PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A shipwreck hunter says he has found the wreck of a World War II merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Cod with a load of platinum now valued at $3 billion perhaps the richest hoard ever discovered at the bottom of the sea. Greg Brooks of Sub Sea Research, in Gorham, Maine, said a wreck in 700 feet of water 50 miles offshore is that of the Port Nicholson, a British vessel sunk in 1942. He said he and his crew positively identified the hull number using an underwater camera. Salvage operations should begin this month or in early March aboard a 220-foot vessel called Sea Hunter with the assistance of a remotely operated underwater vessel, he said. "I'm going to get it, one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water," Brooks said. Brooks said the Port Nicholson was going from Nova Scotia to New York and carrying 71 tons of platinum when it was torpedoed. The platinum was intended as payment from the Soviet Union to the United States, he said. A federal court judge has granted him the salvage rights, he said. Brooks has been in the shipwreck business for nearly 20 years, with his previous biggest find being from a pirate ship near Puerto Rico. has anyone seen this yet ? it will be interesting to see what comes of it.
I'd really like some verification of that amount, it seems a bit crazy. 71 tons is about 2 million oz, which is 1/3 of annual production today. 2 million ounces is about what was produced per year back in the late 1970s/early 1980s. So I'm supposed to believe that a single ship was carrying what was at the time years of production worth? During World War II??? If that ship was really carrying that much platinum I will eat my entire stash of PT.
They could have accumulated it over a number of years and shipped it as one of payment for something. =D. It didn't have to be mined the same year that it was shipped. Slam
I don't doubt that the Soviets could have had years of world production stockpiled at the time, what makes no sense is that anyone would have loaded a single ship with that much platinum while German U-boats were patrolling the eastern seaboard of America. Countries weren't taking any risks moving physical bullion around at the time, they were just moving stuff from one NYC vault to another. If they really wanted to move that much PT it would have made a lot more sense to move it from Halifax to NYC by rail. The Brits seem to think that the ship was only loaded with machine parts. We'll see how the market reacts to this "news".
If it's all sold on the market, expect too see platinum drop further ... Maybe hold out investing in pt for the moment...
Possibly, although on the other side of the coin the following could prove bullish for platinum (in addition to the out of whack plat/gold ratio etc...) http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/south-african-mine-fires-13-203635765.html
Articles on this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4623348...asure-hunter-claims-have-found-billion-wreck/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...ond-World-War-British-steamer-discovered.html http://www.smh.com.au/executive-sty...billion-haul-on-war-wreck-20120203-1qw8f.html Good luck to him if it is - various governments will have their paws out though I suspect he will only get around 10% if it's all true - though 10% of $3 billion ain't to shabby.
