When the British cargo ship SS Gairsoppa was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1941, it went down with a cargo of almost 3,000 silver ingots. After seven decades on the North Atlantic Ocean floor, about 480 km off the coast of Ireland, a salvage company has finally retrieved a vast majority of the long-lost silver.

Odyssey Marine Exploration has, over the last two months, recovered 1,574 silver ingots. Added to the 1,218 recovered during an operation last year, the company are said to have recovered 99% of the insured silver aboard the ship. Although some wartime reports suggest there was also some uninsured government silver aboard the Gairsoppa, Odyssey has not yet discovered any surprise precious metals.

With 61 tonnes of silver recovered from almost three miles below the surface, the salvage mission has broken records for the deepest, largest ocean recovery of precious metals. It’s not only a world record that Odyssey Marine Exploration will enjoy - as part of their salvaging contact with the UK Department for Transport, they will also get to keep 80% of the net value of the recovered silver. The recent haul has an estimated worth of €27 million, although given current silver prices that’s €2 million lower than the value of the smaller 2012 haul.

Odyssey CEO Gregg Stemm said of his company’s achievement "this was an extremely complex recovery which was complicated by the sheer size and structure of the SS Gairsoppa as well as its depth nearly three miles below the surface of the North Atlantic. To add to the complications, the remaining insured silver was stored in a small compartment that was very difficult to access.” The recovery team took advantage of depth-rated remotely operated vehicles (or ROVs) to carry out their operations.

Opportunistic pirates are out of luck, as the silver is now being stored securely in a UK facility.

(Photo: Odyssey Marine Exploration)