Mercury

[skizip]

Hi,

I'm a wildlife filmmaker who heard a story a few months ago about a Spanish ship that sank somewhere near Belize carrying a payload of entirely Mercury. I know that Mercury was used in extracting gold, so there has got to be at least some plausibility. Since mercury levels in the world's ocean are already always a problem for wildlife, finding such a ship could be a great treasure hunting/ environmental mystery sort of story.

Problem is, I don't know if this story is true. Or where to even begin researching. Any suggestions? Please feel free to email me.

Thanks,

Skip
[email protected]

 

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[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HOLA SKIZIP: Mercury was indeed used for recoveries, hence it was closely controled by the Crown. Since a certain unit of mercury would produce a certain amt of Au or Ag , it was simple to calculate what the taxes shoud be.

The Mercury originally came from the Almaden mines in Spain until deposits were found in the new world. This lends credence to your ship data.

The Chloride process for extacting Ag became popular and the govt also attempted to control the Chloride supplies for the same reason.

Tropical Tramp

 

[don Lupe]

skizip. the harbor bay of Ensenada BC Mexico is full of mercury, farmers harvesting seaweed for ferterlizer are shaking it off, kids play with it shinny coins, there is a cave at Punta Banda where mercury liquid prime leaks from the ceiling into the bay for hundreds-thousands of years, we here in the south have no problem with this.. you. why worry? for real treasure hunters, there were ship loads of platinum dumped off the coast in the gulf you write of, because conterfit coins were being passed with platinum contaminates for weight..The Spanish ships did the dumping..anybody for high-tech global satalite detecting? don lupe here.

 

[Goldendigger68]

Somewhere in Arizona there is several iron pipes containing mercury buried
somewhere in an Indian reservation(Apache I think) under some cliff's.
Worth $millions today, probably pipes rusted away and mercury sucked into
ground.
Mercury lost in sea would most likely sink all the way to sea floor and get
sucked into earths crust, no enviromental hazard.
By the way, While on subjuct of mercury, Fill a pyrex test tube about 1/4 full
of Mercury, heat it with a cigarette lighter for a few seconds with a rubber stopper
in open end of test tube, at the same time hold a flourescent light bulb in one hand
then turn lights off and shake the heated mercury filled pyrex test tube.
you should see flickers of light in the light bulb due to free electrons from mercury
vapor in the test tube. do this in a well ventillated area, mercury vapor is extremely dangerous!
heat till you just feel it boil. Mercury is used in mining to amalgamate gold in a retort
by the way, this too should be done with extreme caution, people have died from this!.

 

[hyderconsulting]

Mercury ballast in submarines.

I can't tell you where I read it for it was a long time ago but I remember a story about Mercury being used as ballast in German U-boats during one of the World Wars. Maybe someone else has heard the same story. Regards, Chris Hyder.

 

[Hoss KGC]

Yes, for a period of time, German u-boats used mercury for ballast. German u-boats came up into the Gulf of Mexico before the Japanese sucked the US into the war. There was very little press about it even though several were sank in the Gulf. I read that it was because the government didn't want to alarm US citizens. At any rate, there is one in Galveston bay that I've seen pictures of that divers take souvenirs from.

I bought a book on Padre Island that the author had advertised the last few copies of here on treasurenet several years ago. I called him and spoke with him on the phone. One of the things he told me was that he had located a perfectly intact German u-boat off the coast of Padre island. He said it was from the time period that used mercury. He contacted the government to see if they wanted to partner with him to recover the mercury because he said eventually it will deteriorate and leak out into the ocean. He said the government told him to get away from it and forget he ever saw it. They wanted nothing to do with it for some reason.

Anyway, that is a second hand story, I can't prove it myself but thought it was interesting.
Boattow