THE UNKNOWN SALVOR REVEALED

Media reports about wrecks this man has found or recovered have described him variously as an anonymous London financier, the unknown salvor and the Originator. He's marshaled a high-tech operation to recover the lost treasures of history, spanning centuries and entire civilizations and covering most of the blue portion of the planet. And he's managed to keep this remarkable enterprise secret—until now.

To piece it all together, Bloomberg Businessweek investigated the financier's operations across 11 months, interviewing more than 40 current and former employees of his companies, as well as contractors, archaeologists, government officials, law enforcement officers and attorneys. Many of them requested anonymity, concerned about possible legal consequences from discussing what the financier considers his private business. The research also drew on corporate and legal filings, government records and satellite ship location data to confirm previously unreported expeditions.

The glitter of deep-sea treasure has lured adventurers since time immemorial, and most have ended up poorer instead of richer. There are about 3 million wrecks in the ocean, an unharvested bounty worth untold billions of dollars, but getting to them can be dangerous, difficult and ruinously expensive. Recently, though, advances in underwater technology have opened up swaths of the ocean floor to exploration. Beyond gems and cultural treasures are rare minerals, oil, gas, battery metals and creatures unknown to science—all outside the reach of any state regulator that might constrain an eager entrepreneur. In the deep-sea gold rush that's resulted, what matters most is getting there first.

Right now, the only ones with the resources to join in are corporate interests and wealthy individuals whose goals may or may not be aligned with the rest of humanity. The Originator is the most prolific of them all—the most successful shipwreck hunter in modern times, perhaps in all of history. His name is Anthony Clake, and he's a 43-year-old hedge fund executive who rarely leaves dry land.

The Financial Times reported in a story about the hedge fund that, in 2002, fresh from his studies at the University of Oxford, Clake developed a successful portfolio system that reviewed stock recommendations from 1,000 or so analysts to generate trading ideas. Those who've worked with him say his passion lay there—with technology and data. But he took a particular interest in shipwrecks, according to several people interviewed for this article who asked not to be identified, citing nondisclosure agreements. (A Marshall Wace spokesman says the investments were made in a personal capacity, unconnected to the hedge fund's business.)

 

In 2015-16 he ordered a half-dozen autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) from a Norwegian manufacturer. These free-swimming robots resemble bright orange torpedoes and can descend as far as 6,000 meters, without the risk of a disaster like the one that befell the Titan submersible, which imploded while diving to view the Titanic, killing all five passengers. Each would normally cost several million dollars, but Clake got a bargain because the offshore energy industry was in a slump and wasn't buying as many as usual, according to two people familiar with the deals.

Clake's innovation was to put all the AUVs on one ship and deploy them in formation like a bomber squadron, carpeting vast areas of seabed with sonar. Multiple AUVs could search more ground and get better-quality scans while reducing time spent at sea and the costs of fuel and labor. Clake and the other investors in his companies also acquired businesses in Louisiana and Texas whose employees had experience operating the robots for the oil and gas industry.

His employees and contractors describe him as a demanding boss who seemed to have access to almost unlimited funds.

In deciding where to start searching, Clake drew in part on records from Lloyd's of London, the shipping world's economic engine since the 18th century. His researchers discovered the insurance market was digitizing its records, including manifests, ship designs, letters and safety certificates—a compelling dataset, from a hedge fund analyst's perspective.

It wasn't long before his AUV squadron started finding targets, or hard returns in radar operator's jargon.

To make matters more confusing for anyone trying to keep track, Clake's crews sometimes moved material from a wreck to another location on the seafloor for later collection, a practice called wet storage. Such methods helped Clake keep his prospecting private from governments that might've seized the treasure, and from rivals who might've been tracking his ships via satellite. But the tactics weren't without risk. On one occasion a salvage expert who felt he'd been unfairly treated returned to a wet storage site without Clake's knowledge and helped himself to several tons of silver coins, according to several sources with firsthand knowledge of the incident. Clake's team was told the salvor had taken them to South Africa and smelted them into cups to disguise their origin.

To read the complete article, see:
LORD OF THE DEEP (https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-deep-sea-treasure-hunter-hedge-funds/)

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