kenb
Bronze Member
Fourth voyage in hunt for gold
A arimtime entrepreneur - and 50 friends - is steaming for the Auckland Islands for a fourth attempt to find gold from a ship that sank 142 years ago.
The General Grant foundered on the remote sub-Antarctic islands on May 14 1866, along with its cargo of gold.
The group left Bluff on Friday, led by Bill Day, of Wellington, who has tried to find the wreck of the General Grant three times.
Over 20 other salvage attempts have been made since 1866.
Mr Day said the trip was as much about showing friends and family the beauty of the islands and sub-Antarctic region as finding gold. "It's such a majestic place. Having said that, there are definitely a couple of sites I want to check out."
He hired a Russian icebreaker for the mission. "I didn't want to do it with a bunch of tourists."
Mr Day is accompanied by his wife Karen and sons Ben, 19, and Sam, 15.
"They have grown up with their dad obsessed with this thing."
Information about the wreck was confusing, possibly because wily shipwreck survivors gave misleading accounts while planning to salvage the gold themselves, he said.
Mr Day has swum the Auckland Islands coastline twice to spot likely shipwreck sites, but modern technology has also helped. "Who'd have thought a few years ago you could sit in Owhiro Bay with a trim latte, read newspapers from 1865 and look at the Auckland Islands on Google Earth?"
The General Grant had 2576 ounces (73kg) of gold on its manifest, worth around $2.4 million today.
kenb
A arimtime entrepreneur - and 50 friends - is steaming for the Auckland Islands for a fourth attempt to find gold from a ship that sank 142 years ago.
The General Grant foundered on the remote sub-Antarctic islands on May 14 1866, along with its cargo of gold.
The group left Bluff on Friday, led by Bill Day, of Wellington, who has tried to find the wreck of the General Grant three times.
Over 20 other salvage attempts have been made since 1866.
Mr Day said the trip was as much about showing friends and family the beauty of the islands and sub-Antarctic region as finding gold. "It's such a majestic place. Having said that, there are definitely a couple of sites I want to check out."
He hired a Russian icebreaker for the mission. "I didn't want to do it with a bunch of tourists."
Mr Day is accompanied by his wife Karen and sons Ben, 19, and Sam, 15.
"They have grown up with their dad obsessed with this thing."
Information about the wreck was confusing, possibly because wily shipwreck survivors gave misleading accounts while planning to salvage the gold themselves, he said.
Mr Day has swum the Auckland Islands coastline twice to spot likely shipwreck sites, but modern technology has also helped. "Who'd have thought a few years ago you could sit in Owhiro Bay with a trim latte, read newspapers from 1865 and look at the Auckland Islands on Google Earth?"
The General Grant had 2576 ounces (73kg) of gold on its manifest, worth around $2.4 million today.
kenb
