From ancient Viking treasure to piles of gold, join me as I reveal to you 8 of the most amazing
treasures found underwater.
8.
The Cuerdale Hoard In 1840, some men were doing work near an
embankment near the Cuerdale River near Preston, England.
But as they were digging, they came across something that they didn't expect, a giant
lead box.
Inside this box was a horde of items from ancient Vikings.
8600 pieces to be exact!
Included in the hoard were silver coins, ingots, jewelry, and many other wonders of the Viking
World.
The Viking people never just settled in one area, they spread across the entire world,
or the world they could reach at least.
To that end, many of the items in the box were from various factions of Viking culture.
Naturally, there were many pieces from the tribes that lived in England, but others were
found in the box that was confirmed to be from Scandinavia, Italy, and Byzantium.
As for what happened to the Cuerdale Hoard as it was called after its discovery, the
mass of it was presented to Queen Victoria as a gift.
The value of the treasure is measured at $3.2 million, which was worth a lot back then.
Some of the pieces of the Hoard can be found in the British Museum.
7.
Belitung Shipwreck The Belitung Shipwreck occurred in 830 AD.
Specifically, this was an Arabian ship, one that was set to go from Africa to China, and
it did make it to China.
However, when it was set to return home, the ship was wildly off course for a reason that
no one understands.
And because of this, it ended up sinking off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia.
Fast forward to 1998, and the shipwreck was found in the Gelasa Strait, and only 51 feet
below the surface of the waters.
After the fishermen found it, they sold the location of the ship to a company so that
they could excavate it, and when they did, they found all sorts of wares from China,
ones that were incredibly valuable.
Some of the items found included: the largest Tang dynasty gold cup ever found, gold bowls,
green-splashed bowls from Iran, motifs from Central Asia and Persia, gilt-silver boxes,
gold dishes, and many valuable and expensive artifacts from various dynasties.
It's not even just the items themselves, but the number of them that were amazingly kept
on the ship.
Including 60,000 of "Dusun" storage jars.
When calculated all together, the Belitung Shipwreck is worth $90 million dollars.
6.
SS Gairsoppa Back in 1919, the people of England built
a steam merchant ship called the SS Gairsoppa.
And the ship was so good and long-lasting that it eventually made its way into service
during World War II.
It was given a mission to transport some silver to Ireland in 1941.
But, during its voyage, it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat.
Though the SS Gairsoppa tried to get away, it burned up all its fuel, and eventually
sank beneath the waves.
Then, 70 years later in 2011, the Odyssey Marine was dispatched to try and find the
wreckage of the ship, and sure enough, it did.
And intact was 40 tons of Silver that the SS Gairsoppa was transporting.
What's ironic about this isn't the find, but that the ship was given 200 tons of silver
to take to Ireland.
Which means that either the ocean took the silver away when it wrecked, or someone found
the silver first and no one talked about it.
Regardless, the 40 tons of silver was valued at $210 million dollars.
And now for number 5, but first be sure to subscribe to WL before you go!!
5.
The Atocha In 1622, a fleet of ships was set to leave
from Havana, Cuba and go straight to Spain.
This fleet was 28 ships strong, and they carried gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, and more from
various Central and South American countries.
They were meant to help support Spain during a rough time, but no sooner did they set sail
on September 4th than they ran into a hurricane.
Much of the fleet sank, including one of the prized vessels of the fleet, the Nuestra Señora
de Atocha, which was ironically one of the most heavily armed ships of the bunch.
But heavily armed doesn't mean you're ready for a hurricane bearing down on you.
Anyway, the legend of the ship, now commonly referred to as the Atocha, had spread, and
pieces of the shipwreck were found near Key West in Florida, so many set to explore the
waters to see what they could find.
Including a treasure hunter named Mel Fisher, who spent 16 years of his life trying to find
the ship.
And sure enough, he did in 1985.
His discovery was of the "mother lode" of the treasure, and its estimated value when
combined was that of $450 million dollars.
His discovery was so grand that he opened up a museum (that is still there today) where
you can find most of the treasure trove.
During the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the find, some of the pieces of the treasure
were sold off at auction.
4.
The Titanic On April 15th, 1912, the "unsinkable" ship
known as the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg.
This collision set off a series of events that led to the ship filling with water, breaking
in two, and causing the death of over 1500 people when all was said and done.
It was such a catastrophic event that no one actually believed it sank at first.
Many decades after, the ship itself, or more accurately its pieces, were sought out by
various parties.
This included the US military.
Finally, in 1985, a large section of the Titanic was found, unfortunately, the section they
discovered was found 12,000 feet below sea level.
Which meant that it would be impossible to recover the vast bulk of the ship.
However, when its location was leaked, many went down to the ship and brought up many
artifacts that were found in the vessel.
This has since been deterred because of UNESCO, who have labeled it a protected site via the
UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.
There are many who debate the actual value of the ship, especially since many claim that
the ship is worth more than the items that are within it.
The reason for this belief is because this was the largest active ocean liner to have
ever sunk.
Not to mention, it holds a special place in history.
Parts of the ship itself have been recovered, but not the hull of its halves.
Though it won't be raised to the surface now, if it had been, it would truly be priceless,
and no doubt would be displayed in a museum somewhere in the world.
Until then, many will just have to wonder what it would look like, and if they need
to remember what it did look like before the sinking, they can look up pictures or watch
the various documentaries about it.
Or the Oscar-winning film Titanic made by James Cameron.
3.
Caesarea Sunken Treasure In Caesarea National Park, Israel, some scuba
divers decided to go and explore the waters of the area.
When they did, they stumbled across a gold coin.
But at first, they didn't think it was real, but rather, a child's toy or something like
it.
However, as they kept exploring, they kept finding more and more gold coins.
So, they decided to take a look at the gold and found that they had some engravings on
them, meaning that not only were they real, they were official gold coins, which is very
important.
Knowing this, they went to the Israeli Antiquities Authority and got permission to look for even
more of these coins, and sure enough, they found over 2000 of these coins.
But what's key to note though is that this wasn't just a single batch of coins that had
been lost at sea.
Instead, it was a variety of coins from different points in times, sometimes even different
centuries.
And many of these coins were of different denominations.
Because of this wide variety of coins and their historical importance, it's actually
rather hard to put a price or value on them all.
To that end, this collection is dubbed "priceless".
2.
San Jose During the Spanish War of Succession, the
King of Spain needed a way to keep his money reserves full, as the war was dragging on
(it would last 13 years) and it was costing the country greatly.
So, he sent a massive galleon called the San Jose to South America to raid some of the
colonies that were there to help support the war.
On June 8th, 1708, the San Jose was sunk by a British ship, which was quite a feat given
that San Jose had 600 crew members and 62 guns on board.
Also on board though was a massive treasure trove of gold, silver, and emeralds from the
South America conquests.
What made this particular treasure trove a "must find" in the eyes of treasure seekers
is that the wealth that was upon this ship was apparently around $17 billion dollars.
Many years passed, until finally, in 2015, the San Jose was discovered off the coast
of Colombia, near Cartagena.
The Colombian Navy found it, and it had sunk 2000 feet below the surface of the ocean.
While not all the treasure has been found (or at the very least not publicly documented),
the discovery of the San Jose is a massive find.
Some even consider the San Jose the "Holy Grail Of Shipwrecks" because of its massive
value.
1.
Atlantis Though not an actual find, and debatably not
even a treasure, many scientists, historians, and more believe that there is an underwater
city that has treasures and technologies far more advanced than we have right now, and
the common name for this place is Atlantis.
Steeped in the mythology of many realms, many agree that Atlantis was a place of great wonder
and riches.
So much so that their wealth actually angered the gods themselves, and thus, they sank the
city as a warning to the people of Earth about what happens when you rise too high.
The irony here is that Plato's writing of Atlantis was meant to be more of a "footnote"
rather than an epic tale, but people latched onto it, and its legend changed and warped
as it went throughout the world, hence, why people believe it's a real thing today.
In truth, if such a city was truly found, it would be a massive achievement for the
person who found it.
And not so ironically, there have been many cities found underneath the waves, such as
Pavlopetri in Greece, or an ancient city near India in the Gulf of Cambay, or a mysterious
one that is in the waters of Cuba 2000 feet below sea level.
The point is, there is a precedent for cities being underwater, and some are said to be
the inspiration for Plato's tale of Atlantis.
But some still view finding Atlantis as the "ultimate treasure" of the waters of the world,
and so, they go and search for it.
Hoping to find the answer to one of the greatest legends in the world.
Thanks for watching!
What did you think of these amazing treasures found at sea?
Which one was your favorite?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time!