Odyssey Marine Article...

Whoo Hoo!!!

Odyssey Marine finds Balchin's HMS Victory shipwreck; shares up
02.02.09, 11:53 AM

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Shares of Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc shot up more than 32 percent, after the Florida-based treasure-hunting firm said it discovered the shipwreck of Admiral Sir John Balchin's British warship HMS Victory, lost in 1744.

The British Royal Navy warship has a bronze cannon, and research indicates a substantial amount of gold and silver was aboard, the company said in a statement.

However, Odyssey Marine did not specify the value of its find in the press release. Calls to the company seeking comment were not immediately returned.

The company said it is cooperating with the UK's Ministry of Defence (MOD) on the project, and the terms of the collaboration between the two parties are being negotiated.

Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the Spanish government, after it recovered a shipwreck with gold and silver coins in 2007 and flew the haul -- estimated by some to be worth $500 million -- back to the United States.

The Spanish government claims that the shipwreck was a Spanish warship, and it is the rightful owner of the wreck and precious cargo.

Shares of the deep-ocean shipwreck exploration company rose to a high of $5.23, but later pared their gains to trade up 33 cents at $4.28 Monday morning on Nasdaq.
 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!
In July of 1744, HMS Victory was dispatched under the command of one of the country’s most esteemed admirals, Sir John Balchin who had served the Royal Navy with distinction for nearly 60 years, sailing the waters of the West Indies, the Baltic, Mediterranean and English Channel on 13 different warships.

The recently retired Balchin was abruptly called back into active naval service to rescue a Mediterranean victualling convoy blockaded down the River Tagus at Lisbon by the notorious Brest fleet of de Rochambeau. If these vital supplies failed to reach the Mediterranean fleet, England was at risk of losing the War of the Austrian Succession. Arriving at the Tagus River in late August, Balchin’s Victory successfully liberated the convoy, and immediately escorted it to Gibraltar. The French squadron of 12 ships retreated to Cadiz with the Victory in hot pursuit, blocking the Brest fleet in port.

During the course of her voyage, the Victory reportedly anchored off Lisbon, the bullion capital of Europe and the Mediterranean world, where she was loaded with a commercial cargo of gold. It is believed that here Balchin engaged in the accepted practice of carrying specie back to England. This is further confirmed by the financial newspaper Amsterdamsche Courant of November 18/19 1744, which describes Balchin’s flagship as carrying a huge sum of money when she foundered: “People will have it that on board of the Victory was a sum of 400,000 pounds (1744 face value) sterling that it had brought from Lisbon for our merchants.” Based on contemporary accounts of coinage being shipped from Lisbon at the time, this cargo most likely consisted of gold coins. If gold, this would equate to approximately 100,000, 1 oz. gold coins weighing approximately 4 tons. Additional research indicates that the Victory was also transporting large quantities of both silver and gold coins plundered from enemy prize ships captured by Balchin’s fleet.

On her return home, as Balchin’s Victory sailed through the Western Approaches to the English Channel in early October she was caught in a violent storm and separated from the rest of the fleet. Despite damage to several other ships, all of the sails safely reached England, with the sole exception to the flagship. On October 5, 1744, HMS Victory, Britain’s premier first-rate warship—the most powerful ship in the world—was lost with all hands aboard; approximately 900 sailors, plus a complement of marines and 50 volunteers drawn from the noblest families of England, perished in the disaster, including the Admiral Sir John Balchin.
 

Odyssey report on the Victory, fantastic photos and very informative, Its a shame they didn't put the same effort into the Mercedes.
Check out Fig 32 next to the cannons, look like coins and even some cobs !
http://www.shipwreck.net/ click on the HMS Victory. then go to Now on Line.
Cheers, Ossy
 

Greg Stemm: We have been working on the Atlas mapping project in the English Channel for four years now. We are searching an area of about 5,000 square miles (12,950 square kilometers), and in the course we have turned up a total of 273 shipwrecks, including some previously unidentified U-Boats -- and the HMS Victory.

Stemm: They do not have any evidence. During our work in the English Channel, we investigated 25 shipwreck sites. We took only very few artifacts and delivered them to the British government. We do not talk about marine archaeology, we practice it. Excavating a wreck like the HMS Victory costs $30 million. No government is willing to spend that kind of money -- even less so in a recession.

Alot of money, 5,000 square miles, does that mean they mapped possibly other companies Arrest sites in that area? Is that allowed as long as they do not intrude on the arrested site?
 

sabre15 said:
Alot of money, 5,000 square miles, does that mean they mapped possibly other companies Arrest sites in that area? Is that allowed as long as they do not intrude on the arrested site?
Click to expand...

Yep!

Pretty interesting, they say they have found some new U-boats as well.
 

I have been in the UK for the last week or so, and have seen the reaction there to Odyssey's discovery of the Victory. I think there will be a public outcry if the British Government allow Odyssey to salvage this Man o' War, with its more than 1,100 dead British mariners.

Mariner
 

I doubt it. The pink one on the left is a tiger paw shell. The grey one at the end of the wood is a sand dollar. There are also some round stones there.
 

I wonder if England will pay odyssey for the find, $30,000,000 is alot of money that a shareholder would not like to see spent on something they cannot recover.
 

sabre15 said:
I wonder if England will pay odyssey for the find, $30,000,000 is alot of money that a shareholder would not like to see spent on something they cannot recover.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know what England's budget for expenditure on Museum's and Archeology would be?
$30,000,000 may be a fair price, I think they would recoup their costs very quickly with admissions
to a Museum plus the Tourism dollars that go with over seas visitors.
It's not every day you find a 100 gun war ship, the question would be will $30,000,000 keep odyssey
happy for recovery only?
Ossy
 

Odyssey may have no choice, breaking even at 30 Million or whatever is better than a big fat 0!
 

For what it is worth, my bet is that the British Government will find a way of allowing Odyssey to salvage the Victory. If they don't, then the chances are that somebody else will find the wreck and loot it, and I don't think that the Government will want to take that chance. There will be an outcry from parts of the British public, and pressure from UNESCO, so there will have to be quite a few rules applied to the recovery, but I think that the Government will stress the benefits of all the knowledge that will come from it.

Mariner
 

Mariner... That's true, the location is probably not so secret. I know it from following the Explorer on AIS Live, and if I know the location then I'm sure others do also.
 

I guess I am just saying that if the British Government doesnt give some incentive for profit then organizations such as Odyssey may not be as forthright the next time or may avoid such discoveries altogether. I dont have any stake in this or care either way.....just thought I would add that ;D
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

JW Fisher Proton 3 Mag for sale

⬅️ Previous Thread

La Galga?

Next Thread ➡️

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 4 (members: 0, guests: 4)
Steve's Detector Rods

Latest Discussions

Back
Top