The Laconia lost with one million ounces of silver.

[Crow]

Gidday all gather around pull up seat and grab your favorite brew. Old Crow has a treasure yarn for ya.

Towards the end of WW1 in 1917 The British liner "Laconia", 18099 tons, captain Irvine, belonging to the Cunard Steamship Company of Liverpool, was returning from New York to the United Kingdom, when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-50, on 25th February 1917, at 9 pm., some 160 miles NW. by W. of the Fastnet, south of Porcupine Bank.

The first torpedo struck the liner on the starboard side, just abaft the engine room, but did not sink her. Twenty minutes later a second torpedo exploded in the engine room, again on the starboard side, and the vessel sank at 10.20 pm.

The "Laconia" had 292 persons on board, of whom 34 were first class and 41 second class passengers. Six passengers and six members of the crew were killed.

It made head line news below..

"The grand cruise liner was among more than 140 Allied vessels sunk by the Germans in the first two months of 1917, but the attack had ramifications far beyond the loss of 13 lives and its valuable cargo.

Floyd Gibbons, a journalist on The Chicago Tribune, wrote: "The women got weaker and weaker, then waves came and washed them out of the boat. There were lifebelts on their bodies and they floated away, but I believe they were dead before they were washed overboard. The question being asked of the Americans on all sides is, 'Is it the casus belli ?'.

The article was used as evidence that Germany had committed an overt act of war against American citizens, and America joined the war five weeks after the sinking

To be continued.

Crow

 

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[Crow]

Amongst her general cargo, was an astonishing large amount of silver bullion in bars and coins:

Her manifest showed a cargo of general merchandise and 5.000 bags of mail insured for £ 6.446, some 2.029 tons of shells empty insured for £ 183.643, 852 silver bars insured for £ 128.000, 132 boxes of specie in fine silver insured for £ 53.452 (altogether, alleged some one million ounces of silver !)

Since 1985, several salvage companies have thought of recovering this large silver treasure, but in November 2008, Odyssey Marine Exploration, a Florida-based company, went into action and turned the "Laconia" into the source of a new transatlantic power struggle.

But perhaps the economics of recovery are the proverbial fly in the ointment. value of the alleged total amount of silver is about 28 million in today's prices. Was the alleged million onces of silver just rumor?

The wreck should lie in about 400 meters of water or 1.300 feet.

Crow

 

[Crow]

In March 2009, it was announced that the wreck of Laconia was located in November 2008 and claimed by Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a commercial archaeology company in Tampa, Florida.

She was found about 160 nautical miles (300 km) off of the coast of Ireland. "Britain claims it is the legitimate owner of the wrecks because, under a wartime insurance scheme, it paid the owners of the vessels when they sank, in effect making the remains the property of the taxpayer."

The search for the wreck was featured on an episode of Discovery Channel's Treasure Quest titled "The Silver Queen". Items salvaged were 852 bars of silver and 132 boxes of silver coins worth an estimated £3m. about 3856305.00 US Dollars. Far short of the claimed 28 million worth of silver?

The stark reality the salvage costs may have out stripped the financial return on the project? Just because there is treasure on a shipwreck doe not always make a recovery financially feasible.

One of the artifacts recovered during their investigation of the wreck happened to be the remains of a left shoe that likely belonged to one of the ship's female passengers.

Two of the killed passengers were American citizens, Mrs. Mary Hoy and her daughter, Miss Elizabeth Hoy, who were originally from Chicago.Did the shoe belong to one of them?

A potent reminder of the casualties of war.

Crow