Project - Bimco Management of a deep sea survey vessel ‘John Lethbridge’ working out of South Africa

whilst recovering bulk of 100-ton treasure from wreck of British wartime steamboat SS City of Cairo at

depth of 17,000 feet

British salvage boat recovers treasure from wreck

of SS City of Cairo

British salvage boat breaks world undersea salvage record by

recovering bulk of 100-ton treasure from wreck of British wartime

steamboat SS City of Cairo at depth of 17,000 feet – some 4,500 feet

deeper than the Titanic

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

F.BASSEMAYOUSSE

A British-led team has broken the world underwater salvage record after recovering almost 50 million

dollars (£34 million) worth of silver coins from the wreck of a British steamship 17,000 feet under the sea, it

emerged on Tuesday.

The SS City of Cairo

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 with 100 tons of silver coins on board housed in 2,000 rectangular black

boxes.

The U-68 struck the slow-moving steamship with one torpedo but waited a further 20 minutes before

inflicting the coup de grace, thus allowing all but six of the ship's 302 passengers and crew to escape on to

lifeboats.

A coin showing the head of Britain's King Edward VII

The German captain, Karl-Friedrich Merten, then approached the lifeboats and famously told the survivors

in perfect English: "Goodnight, sorry for sinking you."

It took three weeks before the bulk of the crew were rescued, by which time 104 people on board the

lifeboats had died.

The ship's vast treasure in silver rupees belonging to the UK Treasury was thought lost forever.

Part of the haul being raised to the surface

However, a team led by Briton John Kingsford, a search and salvage veteran, managed to track down the

elusive cargo using a powerful survey and salvage vessel equipped with sonar and robotics.

Under contract to the UK Ministry of Transport, underwater company Deep Ocean Search (DOS), was

authorised to recover several tens of tons of the coins.

"Our research came up with the usual contradictions between the positions given by the submarine and that

from the ship's officers," said the company.

Workers carefully handle the precious find

Miraculously, the team, which included 20 French oceanographers, finally pinpointed the stricken craft

"broken in two and buried deep in the sea floor silt" at a depth of 5,150 metres (17,000 feet).

Recovery at this depth is a "world record", DOS said. By comparison, the Titanic rests at a depth of 3,800m,

or 12,500 feet.

"This project was groundbreaking, and may usher in a new era of deep sea operations," said Taylor Zajon,

an underwater search expert who has a blog called Expedition Writer.

A Victorian era Rupee dated 1889

Maeva Onde, among the oceanographers on board the ship SV John Lethbridge, said the search submarine

met with success on its first dive. "After two hours of underwater descent, the robot transmitted the first

images of the wreck. It was incredible," she told Le Figaro.

Its identity was confirmed when the robot uncovered coins stamped with the Crown. "The emotion was

tangible on the boat and when we brought the first coins up, it was even more intense," she said.

However, it was not plain sailing from there, as the extreme depth caused "serious difficulties" in recovering

the bulk of the treasure, the team said. "The combination of pressure, temperature, repeated dives at this

depth and other issues resulted in multiple breakdowns of systems such as we had not experienced before

when working in 3000-4000m depths," it said.

British monarchs Queen Victoria and Edward VII are shown

The recovery took place in late 2013, but has only just come to public attention.

"We were happy to have fulfilled our mission but at the same time we feel deep respect for those

shipwrecked," said Maeva Onde.

They left a memorial plaque on the sea bed at the end of their search. It read: "We came here with respect."