A Challenge

[Sea Hunter]

The intro to this forum states:

"We've only scratched the surface of what is still waiting to be discovered in our oceans and lakes.Billions are just sitting there waiting to be discovered. Use the Shipwreck Forum to discuss wrecks, and other underwater treasures, and the technologies used to recover them"

I have only just registered for the forums and I am curious as to the legitimacy of the above statement. Can someone please enlighten me as to the basis for making a statement such as "Billions are waiting to be discovered". It sounds like hype from someone who wants to sell underwater search equipment,which is not cheap to buy.

I know people who have lost A LOT OF MONEY searching for sunken treasure.

Wheres the proof that there are "billions just sitting there waiting to be discovered"


John

 

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[Sea Hunter]

Jim

Thanks for the welcome

No I don't think that every shipwreck has been salvaged, because not every shipwreck is worth salvaging, obviously.
What is you opinion about the billions just sitting there?

John

 

[Sea Hunter]

Gold Fever

Thanks for the welcome.

I can agree with you that in some cases millions of dollars have been found. But how many millions did they spend before they found millions?

John

 

[gldhntr]

just read through one of thomas p terrys treasure atlases regarding ships with ?known treasures or unknown treasures......every one of his books on a coastal state lists near billions for just one state....check out n.c or va.....the great lakes....any large river........i think billions is an extreme understatement............they even found two 1850 locomotives around no ship wreckage 7 miles off the coast of new jersey.....now if they are out there, wonder what else is............gldhntr

 

[Sea Hunter]

Gldhntr

Your statement billions is an understatement-had my jaw hitting the floor. I admire your optimism.
How much do you think the trains are worth? and how much do you think it would cost to salvage and sell them?

John

 

[gldhntr]

you got to figure that there are a very many people are afraid of looking like a fishing lure to big fish that can eat you.....also the money involved in a recovery effort, equipment needed, and a myriad of other reasons. no records of where they wrecked.... this is a good reason that alot of these wrecks are still like they were when they went down.....inland waterways usually there is no ''0'' visibility.........the trains are of a type of no known examples existing today...recovery of them would be priceless...........if you are serious about it i would do some serious research, save some serious money, and overcome every obstacle that comes your way...it will be worth it..............gldhntr

 

[chuckered]

I once read an article that over 80 per cent of the gold ever found is under the water

 

[ceolacanth]

Even though I am "in tune" and well aware of the fact that there is billions of dollars still waiting to be recovered in the form of sunken treasure, bullion, precious metal cargoes and artifacts, as Sea Hunter is questioning legitimacy of a statement ?I would ask that he take a closer look at the statement itself.

"We've only scratched the surface of what is still waiting to be discovered in our oceans and lakes.Billions are just sitting there waiting to be discovered. Use the Shipwreck Forum to discuss wrecks, and other underwater treasures, and the technologies used to recover them"

You will have to agree that if we totalled up alluvial diamonds, manganese and chrome nodules and gold extraction from seawater just to mention a few I am sure that even a pessimist like yourself can certainly see that the values of these commodities far exceed ?the figure of Billions that you appear to be having a hard time swallowing.

 

[CaribbeanDiver]

It sounds like you are more concerned (upset?) with the fact that it takes an investment to find the wrecks. ?Mel Fisher did not invest a fortune to find the Atocha, but he found 60 million in Emeralds before finding the motherload!

I found my first wreck my fifth day out with a metal detector and have been offered $100k for the artifacts (which I will not sell, they will be donated to a museum where they belong).

I believe very strongly that "Billions" is accurate. ?I also believe this is a great forum and to call it "hype to sell products" is just an insult.

And if you find your proof of the statement "billions just sitting there waiting to be discovered", a map with the location of, and manifest of, each ship sunk in this world, please send me a copy. ?I will pay postage.

And remember, this hobby/lifestyle is optional, if you are so worried about it, there are plenty of corporate jobs out there!

 

[da Hobo]

Sea Hunter, perhaps you are an English major or a literary critic . . . . I don't know. Few if any of us here are nor does it matter . . . . we are mainly hobbyists I would guess.

The statement -

"We've only scratched the surface of what is still waiting to be discovered in our oceans and lakes. Billions are just sitting there waiting to be discovered. Use the Shipwreck Forum to discuss wrecks, and other underwater treasures, and the technologies used to recover them"

is speculation and can be looked at in two (2) parts . . .

1) "We've only scratched the surface of what is still waiting to be discovered in our oceans and lakes." It does NOT say "sunken treasures and riches to blow ones minds!" The oceans and seas are filled with wealth! Ask any oil company!! Ask any fisherman!! Ask any one who has lost a ship at sea . . . whether it had treasure aboard or not, it had value to them!

1A) "Billions are just sitting there waiting to be discovered." What price would YOU put on the next North Sea oil field or the next Titanic??

2) "Use the Shipwreck Forum to discuss wrecks, and other underwater treasures, and the technologies used to recover them" AND, part two (2) . . . separately OR together with #1 above,, come join us dreamers and discuss wreaks, and OTHER underwater treasures . . . ." Myself, I was in the oil exploration business for 22+ years and find LOTS of interesting discussions at this forum and I occasionally post a few lines about images of sunken ships I have seen on recorders on multi-million dollar oil exploration vessels as we sailed across the oceans of the world looking for our Black Gold.

I'm no writer but THAT's how I read the intro to this link!

Cornelius, glad to see you got back home okay. Somedays that drink look lots more tempting than others. This may be one of them. Still enjoying your posts and information.

As Always . . .

da Hobo

 

[FISHEYE]

Sea Hunter,
welcome to the forum, Odyssey Marine Exploration's SS Republic shipwreck site has recovered 75 million in coins so far,that doesnt count what all the bottles and the rest of the artifacts are worth. the HMS sussex had on board when it sank 1 million pounds sterling to deliver to the duke of Savoy, an ally of Britain, to keep him from folding to French bribes. Today, those gold and silver coins are worth up to a billion dollars, making the Sussex potentially the most valuable shipwreck in the world.Odyssey has spent several million in the process of finding that wreck.seems to be well worth spending a few million to find a billion dont you think?

 

[Sea Hunter]

Hi Guys

Here is my response to some of the postings to my thread.

The title of this forum is "Shipwrecks" therefore, I am having a difficult time trying to figure out where Oil,magnesium nodules,alluvial diamonds and fish can be classed under shipwrecks??. that is stretching things to far!!-Surely they are resources not shipwrecks??.

I don't see this website as being just for hobbyists. I have already come across people offering their products and services for sale on this site. It is also for professionals
I am not trying to insult anyone by asking these questions-I am just trying to cut through what i think can be a lot of hype and BS that surrounds shipwreck salvage.As simple as that.

Thanks

 

[Indiana_Jonz]

Sea Hunter
Have you ever been a particpant of an under water salvage opertion? If not, may I recommend a dive with me sometime after hurricane season has concluded? I think, and this is just my opinion, that if you do not have the "bug", you soon will after you see what is laying on the bottom after 300-400 years of encapsulation. Once you contract the "bug" (which I predict you will), you will re-think your original question and formulate an opinion that basically parallels ours on this forum. Drop me an message and I will send you a few photos of "treasure" that I have not posted on this site in the past.
Take care and consider my offer.
INDY

 

[wreckdiver1715]

Sea Hunter, welcome to the Forum, and I hope that you find the answers to your questions here. While it may on the surface seem difficult to qualify the statement that there are billions just waiting to be discovered. The truth of the matter is that is very easy to qualify that statement through research.
While this is often a time consuming task, sitting in libraries and pouring over historical records, newspaper?s, micro fish, old books, anything that may provide you with the answer to the question in the back of your mind ?can I find this wreck in that vast ocean?. This is for sure the most difficult part of shipwreck hunting. However, it is the most successful way to actually discover a shipwreck, and the clues to its location.
So before you let go of the spring line, and start burning fuel aimlessly searching that big old ocean for that tiny little wreck, it helps to have a pretty good idea of where to start searching.
If shipwreck treasure hunting were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Good hunting!

Q

 

[gldhntr]

another test to see if it is for you,,, fishers gang in key west will, for a few thousand dollars, let you dive on one of their underwater banks, and let you keep what you bring up which, unless you don't like working a little, will be worth many, many times the amount you paid to dive.....you will also get to see the vast amount of treasure laying there just from one or two wrecks, then you can times that by say a guess of 100,000 other sunken treasure laden vessels,, probably alot more........and as for the natural resources in the water, if you can find it, bring it up, and its worth a little or a lot of money, or is just very old and unique, then it is treasure, and we are treasure hunters........the hobby/job takes a little money to do, but you have to put gas in your car to go to the office.. same difference, only with alot bigger rewards.............................gldhntr

 

[rgecy]

The title of this forum is "Shipwrecks" therefore, I am having a difficult time trying to figure out where Oil,magnesium nodules,alluvial diamonds and fish can be classed under shipwrecks??. that is stretching things to far!!-Surely they are resources not shipwrecks??.

I don't see this website as being just for hobbyists. I have already come across people offering their products and services for sale on this site. It is also for professionals.

SeaHunter,
Sounds to me like you are just looking for an excuse to defend your very distorted view of this Forum. Have a cup of coffee and read a while! Ask a few questions, other than A Challenge. This forum is for everyone to learn and share their experiences. Hobbyist or professionals! Or Professional Hobbyist as the case may be!

No one here has ever said you didn't have to spend some money to make money. Shipwreck and Treasure hunting is what you put into it. You could be swiming along a reef in Florida, Bahamas, or anywhere and stumble onto an undiscovered treasure laden wreck. Or you could spend countless hours researching a wreck and hours upon hours searching for it, never to find it! There are no gaurantees! But, there are certainly people who have proven there is treasure to be found.

I have a friend who is a great example. He discovered a wreck several years ago on his own with not more than a few thousand invested (beyond his boat and diving equipment). His wreck could be potentialy worth 1-2 billion dollars alone. He has estimated it will cost less than $1 million to completely salvage the wreck. $1 million to make $1-2 billion! I think that alone is justification!

Robert in SC

 

[cryptodave]

First, let me say I am not a water treasure hunter at all. I've done a few snorkeling expeditions, and one scuba expedition, and thats it. Don't care for it too much.
But, you can't possibly argue there are billions of dollars worth of treasure in the water. Lets see, how many roman and greek ships are still out there?
Nordic, English, Spanish, French? You seem to forget that those poor souls would take a leaky wooden boat ALL the way across the atlantic, heavy with gold and silver plundered from the new world.
There is also tons ships that have went down over the years that supposedly have treasure aboard, such as german and japenese treasure ships.
Lets move away from just gold and silver. Artifacts can fetch very handsome amounts at auctons or by private collectors.
The people who was salvaging the Titanic made millions by selling artifacts to collectors and museums before they got their hands smacked.
There is a group here in NC recovering what is believed to be Queen Anns Revenge (Blackbeard's flagship). Don't you think people would pay millions upon millions of dollars for a little piece of that history? I know they would, because they have offered.
The outerbanks of NC has more shipwreks that you can imagine, and they are finding more almost every other week. Pirate ships, civil war ships (how much do you think artifacts from the monitor would have fetched?), you name it, its out there. And don't just look at seas when you think shipwrecks. There are tons of treasure ships sunk in rivers (James River, Mississippi, Nile, etc, etc), and supposedly quite a bit of money to be found in the great lakes (not that you would ever get me to dip my toe in that water, let alone dive it). Dead Sea?

So, in closing... Tons of silver and gold still unaccounted for from raping the new world. Tons of booty unaccounted for from piracy. Tons of treasure unaccounted for from WWII. Tons of artifacts to be brought up and sold (I believe in museums, but some don't). Tons of other places underwater to look.
We have not even come close to exausting ourselves of the treasures of the deep. If someone can find a 4.5 million dollar only 5 made nickel in their backyard, don't you think there might have been a couple of nickels lost to the waters?

 

[da Hobo]

Nice post Robert but I suspect Sea Hunter doesn't want to hear that or at least believe it. First he comes in with an aggressive statement "A Challenge", and follows that up with an analysis of the structure and statement in the intro to the Shipwreaks link. And THEN he as much as ask for PROOF of an unknown!

No one can guarantee that one will ever find a shipwreak, sunken treasure, or hundreds, thousands, millions or BILLIONS of anything but the Fisher group hasn't done too bad and I actually have a close friend who last year was one of the navigators on the Odyssey Marine recovery ship and they didn't do so bad either. HOWEVER, if they had doubted the existence, IF they had NOT believed and looked . . . . they would never have found what they did. They had no guarantees, they only had their belief and lots of research and hard work on their side.

Somehow he seems to think we or someone is trying to sell him a treasure map or a stake in a sunken ship or the means to find either one and I have never seen anything of that nature at TN and IF I did I would smile, use my good common sense and enjoy the rest of the site. After all, I don't visit this site to "challenge" anyone.

Hobo

 

[EyeShine]

With such a strong opinion, I find it funny that you named yourself Sea Hunter

 

[Sea Hunter]

da hobo

I am not challenging anyone. I am questioning the statement "billions are just sitting there waiting to be discovered". I think it is sheer fantasy.

And I am trying to figure out if I am going to get usefull information from being involved in this forum or am I going to get someone trying to convince me that fish is a treasure worth salvaging from a ship wreck.

I will repeat, I am not challenging anyone I am challenging a statement. There is a crucial difference.

As a matter of interest was your navigator friend on % of the find or was he getting straight wages?