Shipwreck silver.

The 300 ft S.S. Gairsoppa was launched in 1919 by the British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd. of London, a company that got its start transporting mail between Calcutta and Rangoon. As World War II unfolded the United Kingdom enlisted the ship to help out with the war effort. Towards the beginning of the war (December of 1940), the ship was loaded full of supplies which included pig iron, tea and over 7 million ounces of silver in the form of ingots. Today the value of its cargo has been estimated at £150,000,000 and is believed to be one of the richest of any sunken vessel.

On its trip from Calcutta to Britain the ship began to run low on fuel. It was forced to set a new course on the most direct route to port. As the ship headed towards the British Isles it was spotted by German aircraft which then relayed its position to a U-Boat which was in the area. The Gairsoppa was hit by a torpedo and later sunk on February 17, 1941, approximately 300 miles off the coast of Galway. Gairsoppa lay at a depth of some 2.9 miles (deeper even than the Titanic) on the bottom of the Atlantic for more than 70 years until it was finally recovered.

In 2010 the British Government sought out the help of Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration to help locate the ship and try to recover the 110+ tons of precious silver. They succeeded in 2012 and ended up recovering nearly all of the sunken silver. After the success of their recovery the company decided to commemorate the ship and its rich history by producing a number of silver bars and coins minted with actual silver from the recovery. This is one of those coins.

Camera Sony RX100: Processed with Nikon Capture NX2.