The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 10, March 3, 2002, Article 4

ANOTHER UNDERSEA COIN TREASURE?

  A report last week indicates that another undersea coin
  treasure may have been discovered.  From a February
  24,  2002 article in the New York Times states:

  "In 1694, as England and its allies battled French
  expansionism for a fifth year, H.M.S. Sussex led
  a large fleet into the Mediterranean to prosecute
  the war. It also had a secret mission, documents
  show. The flagship, a new British warship of 80
  guns and 500 men, appears to have carried a small
  fortune in treasure to buy the loyalty of the Duke of
  Savoy, a shaky ally.

  But a violent storm hit the flotilla near the Strait of
  Gibraltar and the Sussex went down. All but two
  men died. The treasure ? apparently gold and
  silver coins in theory worth up to $4 billion today ?
  was never recovered.

  Now, three centuries later, a team of entrepreneurs and
  archaeologists working with the British government says
  it has probably discovered the Sussex in the depths of
  the Mediterranean.  A half mile down, the team's robot
  has examined a large mound rich in cannons, anchors
  and solidified masses of artifacts, and its mechanical arm
  has gingerly lifted a few to the surface.

  The identification of the tantalizing heap is not final, but
  the circumstantial evidence is strong.  When asked
  about the wreck, the British Defense Ministry said in a
  statement that the recovered artifacts "lead us to
  believe that those items came from a British sovereign
  vessel, most probably the wreck of H.M.S. Sussex."

  Here are links to the original article, and web pages of
  interest:

  
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/24/international/europe/24SHIP.html

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,658149,00.html
  http://shipwreck.net/

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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