2,300 Gold Coins --- Gold-laden shipwreck will be raised next week
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=854394
Gold-laden shipwreck will be raised next week
1 October 2008
The operation is costing R100,000 a day
A gold-laden, 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck discovered
by chance off Namibia will be salvaged by the end of next
week.
This is according to the ministry of culture in
Lisbon, Portugal.
A team of archaeologists from Portugal, the United States
and Zimbabwe are working to raise the wreck before
October 10 - the deadline set by Namibian government
officials owing to huge costs involved.
Last week, the Namibian culture ministry said the rescue
operation was costing some 100,000 Namibian dollars
(R100,000) per day.
All that is keeping the wreck intact is an artificial
sand wall created by mine workers with bulldozers to push
back the sea for diamond dredging.
However, the Portuguese government said that its
"fundamental interest" is "to guarantee the complete
protection" of the ship and the adjacent sea-bed's
remaining cargo.
The ship was found in April during the diamond
dredging operation.
It contained over 2,300 gold coins weighing some 21
kilograms, six bronze cannons, silver, several tonnes
of copper, huge elephant tusks and a variety of
weapons - all tugged out of the sand.
Experts believe more treasure will be found under its
resting place when the salvage operation is complete.
The statement said the rescue work should have been
finished by October 2, but recent bad weather would
now delay completion until October 10.
"The relics will be rescued by the expected date for
the end of the operations," a spokesman for the
Portuguese ministry of culture told AFP.
The abundance of objects unearthed where the ship ran
aground along Namibia's notorious Skeleton coast,
where hundreds of vessels were wrecked over the
centuries, has amazed even hardened experts.
Under international maritime laws, a wreck and its
treasures belong to the country where they were
found, and the initial haul of coins is now locked
in the vaults of the Bank of Namibia in Windhoek.
The government said it plans at some point to mount
an exhibition of the findings and later erect a
special museum in Oranjemund to house the incredible
collection.
...
tony cooper
<nos...@nospam.com> wrote:
>FROM:
>http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=854394
>
>Gold-laden shipwreck will be raised next week
>
>1 October 2008
>The operation is costing R100,000 a day
>
>A gold-laden, 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck discovered
>by chance off Namibia will be salvaged by the end of next
>week.
>
How long will it be before we start receiving email from some Nambian
official who would like to spirit some of this gold out of the country
and has picked us - as reputable, God-fearing, people - to receive 40%
of the value if we furnish our fax number, bank account number, and
social security number?
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
