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Vast treasure recovered from wreck of SS City of Cairo

Vast treasure recovered from wreck of SS City of Cairo

The City of Cairo salvage operation was completed in September 2013, but the salvagers, Deep Ocean Search, have only now been given permission by the British government to announce it.

 Treasure found on the shipwreck The SS City of Cairo found by Deep Ocean Search
Treasure found on the shipwreck The SS City of Cairo found by Deep Ocean Search

The SS City of Cairo was sunk by a German submarine 480 miles south of St. Helena on November 4 1942 en route from Bombay to England via Cape Town and Recife, Brazil, unescorted, in late 1942. with She carried 296 souls of which 136 were passengers and a mixed cargo that included 100 tons of silver coins housed in 2,000 rectangular black boxes belonging to the UK treasury.

Deep Ocean Search said in a news release that during the 2011 search it located an unnatural object on radar. A sub found the City of Cairo split into two parts, buried by silt.

Under wraps for years

BBC writes that the ship and its cargo was presumed lost until 2011, when a team led by British salvage expert John Kingsford located an unnatural object among the ridges and canyons of their South Atlantic search area. Under a contract with the UK government, underwater salvagers Deep Ocean Search (DOS) worked for several weeks searching a "jumbled up sea floor" twice the size of London, Mr Kingsford told the BBC.

"We weren't convinced at first," he said. "But you have to give your team their head if they say they've found something, so we looked." The object was indeed the City of Cairo, and the team recovered a "large percentage" of its £34 million treasure chest. "There was a lot a relief all round," Mr Kingsford said.

Under contract to the UK Ministry of Transport, DOS recovered several tens of tons of silver coins from a depth of (5,150 meters)

 

Sources
Deep Ocean Search
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