More than 100 years ago, however, there was a near tragedy not too far away. In 1860, 100 miles (161km) off this shore, one of the world’s biggest steamer ships slowly began to fill with water. By sheer luck, the SS Connaught’s passengers were saved, but its haul – millions of dollars’ worth of gold coins – sank to the bottom of the ocean.

It’s because of this that a tall, neatly dressed Floridian has come to Gloucester to inspect his boat. Micah Eldred has pinned his hopes on finding the treasure of the Connaught. He is one of only a handful of people who knows exactly where the huge wreck lies – and he believes he’s figured out how to retrieve its bounty.

The deck of Eldred’s boat is crammed with equipment – winches, cables, even an underwater robot. Almost everything is in place for an expedition to bring that glittering gold out of the darkness. If Eldred and his team succeed, they will become some of treasure-hunting’s great pioneers.

This is a story about a new wave of salvagers, armed with high-tech sonar, navigational systems and robots, who are targeting lost troves of treasure lying on the ocean floor. As the cost of instruments has fallen in recent years, more and more adventurers have emerged, from billionaires to hobbyists.

But this is also a story about a very particular shipwreck. It concerns one of the most miraculous maritime rescues of all time, a hefty cargo of gold coins – and the hardy team now trying to take them back from the sea.

Eldred laughs about it. “Told us to come back when we have the gold,” he writes in an email remembering the incident. But the significance of that piece of broken china, with “Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company Limited” in ocean green lettering is not to be missed. It proved beyond doubt that the ship really was the SS Connaught.

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