kenb
Bronze Member
Poking for lost treasure
To look for silver in the Kill, they use a stick
Thursday, September 13, 2007
BY JOHN HOLL
Star-Ledger Staff
About 5 feet below the small boat, in the murky waters of the Arthur Kill, may lie a fortune in century-old silver bars.
Yet all some modern-day treasure hunters can do is poke the depths, using a metal rod with a nail attached to the end, in hopes of hitting an object and retrieving a silver sample that will tell them where to go into the water.
It was 1903 when a barge listed in the Arthur Kill while carrying nearly 8,000 silver bars belonging to the Guggenheim family. The precious cargo spilled over the side. Most of the bars were recovered, but it is believed about 1,400 of them -- worth $6,000 to $7,000 each -- are still scattered on the bottom of the busy shipping channel.
Aqua Survey, a Hunterdon County company that specializes in environmental research, is on the hunt for the remaining bars. Since the spring of 2006, it has used advanced technology to map the waters, and it believes it is close to a find. It even has petitioned a federal judge for scavenger rights.
A five-member team was out last week in a small boat in the harbor's Story's Flats, just north of the Outerbridge Crossing and south of the Arthur Kill landfill on Staten Island. They probed the murky bottom, usually coming up with thick mud and sediment aptly nicknamed "black mayonnaise."
Ken Hayes, president of the Kingwood-based company, said they do not fancy themselves treasure hunters but rather scientists with curiosity.
POKING AROUND
Their operation is both high-tech and low-tech.
The team has used advanced global positioning software, electromagnets and sonar equipment to locate about 270 potential targets. The software is designed to locate silver but not iron, making the search easier -- "though we could also just find a car battery," Hayes said as he piloted a motorboat on the relatively calm water last week.
After the use of the Global Positioning System to get to a target area, the low-tech method took over. Using a long pole with a mason nail on the tip, four men took turns at poking around, hoping to strike something hard.
Visiting different spots throughout the morning, the crew grew excited while probing the third location. One of them landed the nail on something hard, and they feverishly worked to hammer the pole down.
When the pole was lifted to the surface, no silver bar accompanied it, but the nail was bent -- a good sign. It was unscrewed from the pole and isolated, to be analyzed at a lab for traces of silver.
Hayes and others believe the bars weigh about 75 pounds each and are about 75 percent pure silver.
ON THE TRAIL
The bars were being transported from the Port of New York to the Guggenheims' smelting facility in Perth Amboy on the night of Sept. 27, 1903, when nearly 300 tons of cargo toppled into the water.
The cargo landed in one spot and was raised to the surface within several days, but the theory among scientists and history buffs is that in the moments before the large drop, the ship began to tilt and some bars slid off, leaving a trail.
Some have tried to locate the silver, and none has been successful.
If Hayes' map is correct in showing silver bars below, historians will be "be able to better understand what happened that night," he said.
Hayes said the whole experience has been slow and methodical.
"There might be some 'Eureka' moments, but most of it is regular scientific work," he said. But he added: "Sometimes it's neat to unravel history."
The mission has been dedicated to the memory of David Bright of Raritan Township, a colleague who died last year while diving off the wreckage of the Andrea Doria, the luxury ship that crashed and sank off the coast of Massachusetts in 1956.
If Hayes is successful, he says, he would sell or auction many of the bars. But while hoping to find them all -- which could range in price from $10 million to $20 million, depending on the collector's market -- Hayes said he would settle for two bars. One for himself and the other to be returned to Mexico.
Hayes visited the Tampico, the region of Mexico where the bars originated, and, after speaking with government officials, was surprised to find that none had been left behind, not even as a museum display.
"I think they deserve one," he said.
kenb
To look for silver in the Kill, they use a stick
Thursday, September 13, 2007
BY JOHN HOLL
Star-Ledger Staff
About 5 feet below the small boat, in the murky waters of the Arthur Kill, may lie a fortune in century-old silver bars.
Yet all some modern-day treasure hunters can do is poke the depths, using a metal rod with a nail attached to the end, in hopes of hitting an object and retrieving a silver sample that will tell them where to go into the water.
It was 1903 when a barge listed in the Arthur Kill while carrying nearly 8,000 silver bars belonging to the Guggenheim family. The precious cargo spilled over the side. Most of the bars were recovered, but it is believed about 1,400 of them -- worth $6,000 to $7,000 each -- are still scattered on the bottom of the busy shipping channel.
Aqua Survey, a Hunterdon County company that specializes in environmental research, is on the hunt for the remaining bars. Since the spring of 2006, it has used advanced technology to map the waters, and it believes it is close to a find. It even has petitioned a federal judge for scavenger rights.
A five-member team was out last week in a small boat in the harbor's Story's Flats, just north of the Outerbridge Crossing and south of the Arthur Kill landfill on Staten Island. They probed the murky bottom, usually coming up with thick mud and sediment aptly nicknamed "black mayonnaise."
Ken Hayes, president of the Kingwood-based company, said they do not fancy themselves treasure hunters but rather scientists with curiosity.
POKING AROUND
Their operation is both high-tech and low-tech.
The team has used advanced global positioning software, electromagnets and sonar equipment to locate about 270 potential targets. The software is designed to locate silver but not iron, making the search easier -- "though we could also just find a car battery," Hayes said as he piloted a motorboat on the relatively calm water last week.
After the use of the Global Positioning System to get to a target area, the low-tech method took over. Using a long pole with a mason nail on the tip, four men took turns at poking around, hoping to strike something hard.
Visiting different spots throughout the morning, the crew grew excited while probing the third location. One of them landed the nail on something hard, and they feverishly worked to hammer the pole down.
When the pole was lifted to the surface, no silver bar accompanied it, but the nail was bent -- a good sign. It was unscrewed from the pole and isolated, to be analyzed at a lab for traces of silver.
Hayes and others believe the bars weigh about 75 pounds each and are about 75 percent pure silver.
ON THE TRAIL
The bars were being transported from the Port of New York to the Guggenheims' smelting facility in Perth Amboy on the night of Sept. 27, 1903, when nearly 300 tons of cargo toppled into the water.
The cargo landed in one spot and was raised to the surface within several days, but the theory among scientists and history buffs is that in the moments before the large drop, the ship began to tilt and some bars slid off, leaving a trail.
Some have tried to locate the silver, and none has been successful.
If Hayes' map is correct in showing silver bars below, historians will be "be able to better understand what happened that night," he said.
Hayes said the whole experience has been slow and methodical.
"There might be some 'Eureka' moments, but most of it is regular scientific work," he said. But he added: "Sometimes it's neat to unravel history."
The mission has been dedicated to the memory of David Bright of Raritan Township, a colleague who died last year while diving off the wreckage of the Andrea Doria, the luxury ship that crashed and sank off the coast of Massachusetts in 1956.
If Hayes is successful, he says, he would sell or auction many of the bars. But while hoping to find them all -- which could range in price from $10 million to $20 million, depending on the collector's market -- Hayes said he would settle for two bars. One for himself and the other to be returned to Mexico.
Hayes visited the Tampico, the region of Mexico where the bars originated, and, after speaking with government officials, was surprised to find that none had been left behind, not even as a museum display.
"I think they deserve one," he said.
kenb
