Sunk by its own weight in gold
Wave goodbye ... last moments of HMS Sussex captured on canvas
By TIM SPANTON
March 31, 2007
THE SUN
EXPERTS are planning to salvage more than £2BILLION of gold and silver from the wreck of a British warship that sank 300 years ago.
HMS Sussex was on her first major voyage – formally escorting a trading fleet but secretly laden with TEN TONS of gold earmarked for bribes – when she sailed into a storm off Gibraltar in 1694 which claimed all but two of her 500-man crew.
Now the rescue of the fabulous treasures could make her the richest wreck ever recovered.
THE battle to salvage HMS Sussex’s amazing bounty began in 1997 when the wreck was discovered by American treasure hunters.
Gold ... treasure map
Click picture to enlarge
It has since taken ten years to clear the technical and political hurdles standing in the way of bringing the riches to the surface.
At first the ship’s depth — at 2,500ft — made recovery almost impossible. Advances in technology should have allowed the project to begin last year but archaeologists raised objections.
Permission to go ahead was finally given this month by the Spanish authorities, within whose waters the wreck of the Sussex lies.
Now the first stash of gold coins is expected to be brought to the surface within weeks.
US salvage firm Odyssey Marine Exploration have made a deal with the ship’s legal owners, the British government.
The finders will receive 80 per cent of first £23million of treasure recovered, half of the rest up to £255million and 40 per cent of any more.
The Odyssey team surveyed 400 square miles of the Mediterranean seabed with sonar detectors and unmanned submarines in their search for HMS Sussex.
More than £2million has so far been spent on the project and the final bill could top £20million.
Odyssey’s leaders are confident the wreck they have pinpointed is the Sussex. Robot cameras show the ship is in remarkably good condition, with many of its 80 guns clearly visible.
Sea if we can find it ... the Odyssey team launch
a robot probe to search for HMS Sussex
Now a 6.3-ton submersible robot with an arm fitted with suction cups will recover as much of the gold and silver as possible.
The course of the Sussex’s fate was set in 1688 when King Louis XIV of France sent his army across the Rhine to capture the German town of Philippsburg.
The town surrendered within weeks and was followed by other cities.
But Louis had misjudged the larger picture.
Alarmed by his success, a grand alliance against him was formed that included Britain, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the Italian duchy of Savoy as well as the German-based Holy Roman Empire.
In 1690, Louis’s navy won control of the English Channel by defeating an Anglo-Dutch fleet off Beachy Head in Sussex.
In response, Britain’s King William III ordered the building of a state-of-the-art 80-gun warship with a 500-man crew — named HMS Sussex as a reminder of our defeat in the Channel.
She was made Admiral Sir Francis Wheeler’s flagship when she set sail from Portsmouth for Italy on December 27, 1693.
Her valuable cargo was destined for the Duke of Savoy and was to help him hire mercenaries to fight Louis, thus diverting French troops from the northern front.
Jack-pot ... clay vessels are among the Sussex's cargo on the sea bed
Wheeler’s ships reached Gibraltar in late February 1694, but on March 1 the fleet was caught in a storm.
Water entered through the Sussex’s gun ports and — overloaded to the point where she lost her natural buoyancy — she sank with the loss of 498 lives.
The end result was the Duke was left without his promised funds, so he changed sides to support Louis. This allowed the French to step up pressure in the north, making fresh gains in German-speaking Alsace and Lorraine.
Peace was finally signed in 1697, giving Louis Alsace and much of Lorraine.
The regions would be fought over and change hands many times over the next 250 years.
They were annexed by the German Kaiser in 1871 and again in 1940 by Hitler — despite by then having a largely French-speaking population.
They were last returned to France in 1945.
The sinking of HMS Sussex had helped to create the most bitterly disputed tract of land in Europe — and the effects were felt for more than two centuries.
thesun.co.uk
Wave goodbye ... last moments of HMS Sussex captured on canvas
March 31, 2007
THE SUN
EXPERTS are planning to salvage more than £2BILLION of gold and silver from the wreck of a British warship that sank 300 years ago.
HMS Sussex was on her first major voyage – formally escorting a trading fleet but secretly laden with TEN TONS of gold earmarked for bribes – when she sailed into a storm off Gibraltar in 1694 which claimed all but two of her 500-man crew.
Now the rescue of the fabulous treasures could make her the richest wreck ever recovered.
THE battle to salvage HMS Sussex’s amazing bounty began in 1997 when the wreck was discovered by American treasure hunters.
Gold ... treasure map
Click picture to enlarge
It has since taken ten years to clear the technical and political hurdles standing in the way of bringing the riches to the surface.
At first the ship’s depth — at 2,500ft — made recovery almost impossible. Advances in technology should have allowed the project to begin last year but archaeologists raised objections.
Permission to go ahead was finally given this month by the Spanish authorities, within whose waters the wreck of the Sussex lies.
Now the first stash of gold coins is expected to be brought to the surface within weeks.
US salvage firm Odyssey Marine Exploration have made a deal with the ship’s legal owners, the British government.
The finders will receive 80 per cent of first £23million of treasure recovered, half of the rest up to £255million and 40 per cent of any more.
The Odyssey team surveyed 400 square miles of the Mediterranean seabed with sonar detectors and unmanned submarines in their search for HMS Sussex.
More than £2million has so far been spent on the project and the final bill could top £20million.
Odyssey’s leaders are confident the wreck they have pinpointed is the Sussex. Robot cameras show the ship is in remarkably good condition, with many of its 80 guns clearly visible.
Sea if we can find it ... the Odyssey team launch
a robot probe to search for HMS Sussex
Now a 6.3-ton submersible robot with an arm fitted with suction cups will recover as much of the gold and silver as possible.
The course of the Sussex’s fate was set in 1688 when King Louis XIV of France sent his army across the Rhine to capture the German town of Philippsburg.
The town surrendered within weeks and was followed by other cities.
But Louis had misjudged the larger picture.
Alarmed by his success, a grand alliance against him was formed that included Britain, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the Italian duchy of Savoy as well as the German-based Holy Roman Empire.
In 1690, Louis’s navy won control of the English Channel by defeating an Anglo-Dutch fleet off Beachy Head in Sussex.
In response, Britain’s King William III ordered the building of a state-of-the-art 80-gun warship with a 500-man crew — named HMS Sussex as a reminder of our defeat in the Channel.
She was made Admiral Sir Francis Wheeler’s flagship when she set sail from Portsmouth for Italy on December 27, 1693.
Her valuable cargo was destined for the Duke of Savoy and was to help him hire mercenaries to fight Louis, thus diverting French troops from the northern front.
Jack-pot ... clay vessels are among the Sussex's cargo on the sea bed
Wheeler’s ships reached Gibraltar in late February 1694, but on March 1 the fleet was caught in a storm.
Water entered through the Sussex’s gun ports and — overloaded to the point where she lost her natural buoyancy — she sank with the loss of 498 lives.
The end result was the Duke was left without his promised funds, so he changed sides to support Louis. This allowed the French to step up pressure in the north, making fresh gains in German-speaking Alsace and Lorraine.
Peace was finally signed in 1697, giving Louis Alsace and much of Lorraine.
The regions would be fought over and change hands many times over the next 250 years.
They were annexed by the German Kaiser in 1871 and again in 1940 by Hitler — despite by then having a largely French-speaking population.
They were last returned to France in 1945.
The sinking of HMS Sussex had helped to create the most bitterly disputed tract of land in Europe — and the effects were felt for more than two centuries.
thesun.co.uk
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