THE CANADIAN TEAM SALVAGING THE WRECK OF A RUSSIAN WARSHIP THAT MAY CONTAIN $133B WORTH OF GOLD.
Cruiser may have been carrying gold
It took a couple days of scouring the ocean floor, but a team of Canadian explorers with a Vancouver-based firm has helped discover a longlost Russian navy ship, sunk 113 years ago, and, according to the rumours, with billions of dollars of gold aboard.
The Shinil Group in South Korea announced that over the weekend it had found the Dmitrii Donskoi, a czaristera Russian cruiser scuttled following the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 during the Russio-Japanese War.
Phil Nuytten, the founder and president of Nuytco Research Ltd., said his team has plenty of experience diving to wrecks, from the Lusitania — sunk by a German Uboat off Ireland in the First World War — to the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior in 1975.
It only took two days for his five-person team to discover the wreck, but that was because the international team of experts from Britain, South Korea and Canada already had a relatively good idea of where she had gone down, Nuytten said.
The ship was, in the end, a little more than a kilometre off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo; the stern at a depth of 380 metres and the bow at 430 metres. Two Deep Worker submersibles — which Nuytten invented and patented — with a diving depth of around 600 metres found the Dmitrii Donskoi. With 360-degree sonar on the subs, Nuytten said, they could see for about 500 metres in any direction.
“It didn’t take us very long to spot this big bump on the sea floor and say ‘Aha, that’s the target, let’s go see what it is,’” Nuytten said. “The two subs were working on the wreck and one of the pilots went around what now turns out to be the front, and there was the nameplate.”
Nuytten’s crew is now doing a survey of the ship, using lasers and high-definition video. Video released by Shinil Group shows guns, the ship’s wheel and anchor, all heavily encrusted after a century on the seabed.
“The body of the ship was severely damaged by shelling, with its stern almost broken, and yet the ship’s deck and sides are well preserved,” Shinil Group said in a statement.
The ship was built in St. Petersburg in 1883, all 5,800 tons of her, operating a coal engine and full sails. All the masts are broken on the sunken ship, Shinil Group said. Before she was scuttled, the Dmitrii Donskoi avoided the attacking Japanese force, but was intercepted as she returned to Vladivostok.
The Daily Telegraph says 60 out of the crew of 591 were killed, and another 120 injured. Captain Ivan Lebedev dropped anchor, and ordered the crew to alight on the island of Ulleungdo. They scuttled the ship the next morning, May 29, 1905 — and the crew were captured by the Japanese.
Rumours have long swirled about a legendary cargo: billions of dollars worth of gold, the funds for the Russian fleet. The reports say there were some 5,500 boxes, containing gold coins and bars, aboard Dmitrii Donskoi that would now be worth $170 billion.
The team that discovered the Dmitrii Donskoi hasn’t found gold, but they have found what look metal boxes. The company says it hopes to raise the ship in October or November. If there’s treasure found, half of it will go to the Russian government, and 10 per cent of what’s left will be invested in tourism on Ulleungdo Island.