The Gold of the RMS Douro

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The Douro was a steamship built in 1865 in Scotland. As a cargo ship of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. (RMS), it could accommodate 313 passengers and a crew of 80, but was primarily intended to carry mail and newspapers. Its hold was also often filled with goods and precious cargoes of gold and diamonds.

This ocean liner had undertaken no less than 61 voyages for 17 years. It always sailed the South Atlantic seas and served the route between Buenos Aires, Argentina and Southampton, UK. It transited through Portugal, hence its name, borrowed from the Iberian river that links Spain to Porto. It never completed its 62nd voyage, as it sank on the last leg of its journey.

The ship left the port of Lisbon 1.5 hours late on 31rst March. To make up for the undue delay, it sailed at full speed towards England. On the evening of the 1st, on a full moon night, the Douro passed off Cape Finisterre.

The fourth officer of the ship spotted another ship about 3.7 km away. Thinking that the sailor on the bridge had also noticed him, he did not consider it necessary to inform him. What a critical error! At around 10.45 PM, the RMS Douro was hit on its starboard side by the Spanish Yrurac Bat. Within 30 minutes, the boats sank. The passengers were saved in extremis, but six members of the Douro’s crew died, including the captain and the first officer, who let themselves be carried away with their ship and the gold cargo. The survivors, rescued by the British steamer Hidalgo, were taken to La Coruña in Spain.

Another sad legacy of a shipwreck. But this one had gold on board.

Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 - 1922), Wednesday 5 April 1882, page 2 reported the sinking below.

Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 27 May 1882, page 1 gives the following more detailed account.

South Australian Weekly Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1881 - 1889), Saturday 10 June 1882, page 6 gives an even more detail account of the loss of Douro below.

To be continued......

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They say the apple never falls far away from the tree?

You could say the following story was a father and son Effort in researching shipwrecks. One would have to wait several years before the adventurous Thomas Pickford set out to find the wreck. In 1949, he wrote a few words on a piece of paper: “Douro, 1882, 53,000 pounds. Bay of Biscay.” He did some research and died without ever having found the Douro treasure.

Forty years later, his child, Nigel, stumbled upon his father’s note. He decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. Here a picture of Nigel below.

It took Ten years of research for him to collect all the useful information on the Douro treasure. He read all the newspapers from the time of the tragedy, researched the insurers and the shipping company, analyzed the statements of the survivors, made calculations and finally drew up a map with an exploration zone reduced to 240 km.

And this is where the adventure really began.


To be continued.......


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In 1992, he surrounded himself with the Swedish explorer Sverker Hallstrom, a specialist in sea wreck expeditions. Below

They are fitted with leading-edge equipment including a robot with sonar and a video camera. But they still don’t know where exactly the cargo ship is hidden in a 500-meters-deep sea.

Now 1992, he formed an association with Nigel Pickford,the author of the Atlas of Shipwrecks and Treasures. With Nigel looking after the research, Sverker could concentrate on the technology. Together they found two 15th Century ships wrecked in the South China Sea loaded with Thai porcelain and then came the biggest adventure of them all. The RMS Douro.

“People had been looking for the Douro for many years and he searched from June 1993 until January 1994, when he thought he had found it in 1200 feet of water. This was going to be seriously costly, so he had to find an investor. There was only one problem - he was not certain if the ship he had found really was the Douro!”

The wreck was in the region off Spain called the Costadel Morte (the death coast) and he sent his ROV’s down again to confirm the ship. It wasn’t the Douro!

Frantically he went exploring again and after 40 days of looking he eventually found it on the 4th of July 1995. Then it was time for the technology again, with Sverker having joined with a specially equipped vessel, the Deep Sea Worker, which by using a modified oil drilling rig could go the 1000 feet down and with hydraulic jaws scoop up the cargo.

It took him only three days to bring the bullion and gold coins to the surface and at the same time pay out $768,000 for the use of the special ship. Treasure seekers must be brave! Having found the hoard, Sverker next had to place the cargo under a type of bond for one year and one day, before it was legally his. “(Treasure hunting) is an exciting business, but more of the times it is not. You only get paid every two to three years.​

After months of searching for the cargo ship in 1993, but only got their hands on gold bars and coins in 1995. The Douro’s treasure was declared to the authorities and transferred to Jersey. The researchers had to wait a year and a day before the treasure was released so they could get their money back. The Douro treasure was entrusted to Spink and Son in London, owned by Christie’s, who proceeded to classify it. In the following months, the auction took place.

And what a treasure it was.

Coins was mainly gold sovereigns ranging in value between 1500 to 2000 euro.

What golden haul indeed.

To be continued.......


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Some coins was fused together. See picture below.

About 10,000 interesting gold pieces were sold. They are mainly English sovereigns dating from the nineteenth century. Many of them date back from the reign of Victoria and were minted in her effigy, in the mints of London, Melbourne and Sydney.

The total value is estimated at 10.3 million francs. Each sovereign is estimated at between 800 and 8,000 francs each. Those from Australia had been kept in the Lisbon bank and were to be sent to London, which explains their new condition and their high value. The Douro treasure was also composed of Brazilian gold coins dated from 1750 to 1830 and some Portuguese coins.

The sale of the treasure was a success. Now, numismatists from all over the world are looking for the most beautiful sovereigns from the Douro treasure. today many still traded open to all who collect coins.

With such a successful operation back then I wonder if today the same salvage operation was done today it would be mired in the courts?

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