S.S. REPUBLIC SALVAGE UPDATE Público Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 5, February 1, 2004, Article 19
S.S. REPUBLIC SALVAGE UPDATE
Dick Gaetano forwarded the following press release
from Odyssey Marine Exploration with a project update
on their SS Republic reclamation effort."Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a leader in the field
of deep ocean shipwreck exploration, continues to
excavate the SS Republic, a ship that sank in 1865 with
a large cargo of coins. To date, more than 17,000 coins,
with a total face value of $54,500 (approximately 14,230
silver and 2,950 gold coins) and over 750 other artifacts
have been recovered. The recovered coins represent
approximately 14% of the "$400,000 in specie" (face
value) historical records indicate was on board the Republic
when she sank.National Geographic Television and Film has been following
the expedition since the beginning. Principal photography was
completed last week for the program's planned television
broadcasts on Dateline NBC and "National Geographic
Ultimate Explorer" on MSNBC. The airdate will be
announced when it is confirmed."We're looking forward to sharing the Republic story with
television audiences worldwide via the National Geographic
cameras," stated Greg Stemm, Odyssey co-founder. "Our
focus now is the recovery of the coins. When that is
completed, we will continue the archaeological excavation
of other areas of the shipwreck.Once operations were recommenced in January, the new
systems for picking up and managing coins proved very
successful. Between January 13 and January 26, more
than 13,000 coins were recovered.The SS Republic was a side wheel steamer that sank in 1865
while en route from New York to New Orleans after battling
a hurricane for two days. Odyssey discovered the shipwreck
1,700 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean
approximately 100 miles off the Georgia coast. The
archaeological excavation of the shipwreck began in November
of 2003 and is continuing.Among the coins already retrieved are numerous gold eagles,
gold double eagles, silver half dollars and even some quarters,
nearly all dating between the 1840's and 1865. Unlike other
recently salvaged shipwrecks, a wide variety of dates and
mints have been noted in this find. Based on the pieces
recovered thus far that have been professionally conserved by
Numismatic Conservation Services (NCS) and graded and
encapsulated by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC),
this collection may already include several finest-known
examples of United States gold and silver coins from the
period. While excavation has already uncovered thousands
of coins, there is insufficient information at this point to predict
the total value of the shipwreck and its cargo."- 2004-02-01
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