The San Jose – The Holy Grail of Sunken Treasures (1708) – $17 billion. One of the most precious shipwrecks in the world, the site of which remained unknown for over three centuries, was revealed in photographs by the Colombian army.
SS Waratah: The SS Waratah is known as "Australia's Titanic." A passenger cargo ship built to travel between Europe and Australia, it disappeared shortly after steaming off from the city of Durban in present-day South Africa in 1909. The entire liner, which was carrying 211 passengers and crew, has never been found.
Looking for treasure? there are an estimated three million undiscovered shipwrecks; We've detailed four of the most valuable – with billions of pounds just waiting there.
At the time of its sinking, Central America SS carried gold then valued at approximately US$8 million (2019 equivalent is US$550 million, assuming a gold value of $1,528.40 per troy ounce).
Merchant Royal // 1641
The most lucrative wreck recovered to date was the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon carrying so much gold that it took two months to load the riches evenly before the ship set sail in 1622.
The ship was loaded with an estimated $17 billion worth of gold, silver and jewels when it sank in 1708, and its wreck was only discovered in 2015. The navy used a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to examine the wreck; its precise location is being kept a secret to deter treasure hunters.
The Whydah sank in 1717 carrying hundreds of thousands of gold coins and other artifacts. It is the only pirate treasure ever found. More is still being found at the wreck site off the coast of Cape Cod. The Whydah sank in 1717 carrying hundreds of thousands of gold coins and other artifacts.
The Abandoned Shipwreck Act, passed in 1987 to protect historical shipwrecks from treasure hunters, gives U.S. states ownership title of all shipwrecks found within U.S. territorial waters up to three miles from the coastline.
According to estimates by the US National Oceanic Service, the gold from the depths of the oceans is so diluted that there is only one gram of this precious yellow metal for every 100 million metric tons of water.
Perhaps the best-known missing Navy ship, the steel-hulled Cyclops vanished with 306 men onboard en route to Baltimore from Brazil in March 1918. Theories abound on what happened to the 542-foot-long steamship, which was carrying manganese to make munitions. Some think the Germans sank it.
The Extremely Ancient Dokos Shipwreck
Among them, the Dokos wreck is thought to be the oldest shipwreck found to date. It dates before c. 2200 BCE, judging by the pottery cargo it carried. It was discovered by Peter in 1975 at a depth of fifteen to thirty meters near the Greek island of Dokos.
The USS Destroyer Escort Samuel B. Roberts, sunk by the Japanese Navy in a battle in the Philippine Sea in 1944, was discovered at a depth of 22,523 feet, making it the deepest shipwreck ever found.
It is estimated that there are over three million shipwrecks worldwide! Less than 1% of these wrecks have actually been explored. Some wrecks are actively being looked for, including the Bonhomme Richard, but many are found by accident. The Dokos shipwreck is the oldest known wreck, dated to 2700-2200 BC.
ABOUT STAR OF INDIA
Star of India is the world's oldest active sailing vessel. She is also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still afloat. She was launched as the fully-rigged ship Euterpe at Ramsey Shipyard on the Isle of Man in 1863. Euterpe began her working life with two near-disastrous voyages to India.
Naturally, the fortuitous party who discovered the loot wants it considered abandoned and thus “finders-keepers.” Finding hidden treasure in the home you own is usually yours to keep under the law.
How Much Treasure is Down There? The short answer, Sean Fisher says, is $60 billion. Fisher is a shipwreck hunter at Mel Fisher's Treasures in Key West (Sean is Mel's grandson), and he gives this figure based on his company's historical research.
The Batavia wreck site is located in the Wallabi group of the Houtman Abrolhos, a series of low reefs and islands lying about 65 kilometres off the Western Australian coast.
Though many have tried, the lost treasure of Blackbeard remains unfound to this day. Legend has it that while his death occurred in North Carolina, his spirit has returned to protect that which he holds most dear.
The hunt for San José
For centuries, the sunken horde of gold, silver, and emeralds passed into legend, the “holy grail of shipwrecks.” Lying in about 3,000 feet of water, it was inaccessible until submersible technology matured in the 20th century.
Discovered off the coast of Wellfleet, MA, the Whydah Gally is the world's only authenticated pirate ship. Learn more about its fascinating history.
In 2020, a team of shipwreck divers explored the Westmoreland, a 19th-century ship that sunk in Lake Michigan in 1854 — and found whiskey and gold coins worth millions of dollars.
If you were hoping make your fortune mining the sea, consider this: Gold in the ocean is so dilute that its concentration is very small. One study found there is only about one gram of gold for every 100 million metric tons of ocean water in the Atlantic and north Pacific.
The best estimates currently available suggest that around 208,874 tonnes of gold has been mined throughout history, of which around two-thirds has been mined since 1950. And since gold is virtually indestructible, this means that almost all of this metal is still around in one form or another.