These are the World's Richest Shipwrecks

finding lost sunken treasure seems like it's only something that is in the most Fantastical of movies or the forever elusive goal of the five season History Channel show but in reality finding sunken ships is of high priority for Many Nations and companies and especially in the last 50 years or improved technology and shipwreck locating techniques have led to several historic discoveries and it's no secret why these companies are willing to pour Millions into these hunts over hundreds of years of piracy and Naval Warfare so many ships have been sunk while carrying Precious Cargo and never

recovered that they've left Untold riches sitting at the bottom of the ocean chests full of gold silver jewels and invaluable historical artifacts So today we're going to bring you the richest shipwrecks ever discovered some of which still haven't been recovered if you fancy a bit of a [Music] swim the HMS Sussex was a British warship launched in the year 16 93 intended to be the pride of the royal Navy and the flagship of Admiral sanis wheeler soon after her completion she embarked on a mission of immense importance delivering payment to soldiers that were fighting against

France in the 9 years war upon departing from Portsmouth Sussex was armed with 80 guns and was escorting a fleet of 48 other warships and 166 Merchant ships representing both the military and financial prowess of the British Empire the fleet's destination was the Mediterranean and so after a brief arrest in Cadiz the more than 200 ships began crossing the straight of dealta when disaster struck there a storm of immense proportions met the fleet smashing the ships with wind and Tall waves in a melstrom that seemed to have no end on the morning of the storm's

Third Day the Sask sank killing all but two of the 500 crew on board including the Admiral because there were basically no Witnesses left the exact reason for the ship's failure in Sinking hasn't been determined but there are speculations that the number of guns was too high for the ship's size leading futur ation of the ship to add a third Armament deck to more evenly distribute the weight the kar 6 was only one of 12 ships to sink in the storm with casualties totaling around 1,200 the event remains one of the Royal Navy's worst disasters

in history but this isn't the only reason it is still so widely known after all these years the payment that Sussex was carrying in a cargo consisted of an estimated 10 tons of gold coins meaning that because the Shipwreck has never been found somewhere around $650 Million worth of treasure is just sitting at the bottom of the Mediterranean in 2001 an American company called Odyssey Marine Expedition claimed to have found the ship's final resting place and began negotiating a deal with the UK on how to split the proceeds from such a lucrative find but excavations

of the ship were delayed due to widespread complaints from the archaeological Community about how would set a dangerous precedent for a private company to ransack historical shipwrecks Around the World Odyssey eventually got around this but Spanish authorities stepped in and stopped any further work before it could begin as it was technically in there territorial Waters to this day what is suspected to be the Sussex is still sitting there untouched with millions of dollars worth of gold calmly resting at the bottom of the Mediterranean Odyssey Marine Expedition may have been blocked from diving down and recovering

the treasure in the HMS Sussex but while that whole debacle was going down the ambitious company was already in the process of Excavating a second shipwreck this second wreck was a ship of Unknown Origin referred to only by the mission's nickname of the Black Swan project in the early 2000s Odyssey announced that they'd recovered most of the treasure from this wreckage which amounted to around $500 million worth of gold and other precious metals many of which were highly unique and likely uncirculated this sent the archaeological Community into a frenzy to figure out which ship it

was that they had found and many speculated that it was the merchant Royal an English merchant ship that disappeared Without a Trace back in 1641 however markings on the ship's wood were too w TN down to be of any help in identifying the origin the recovery of the treasure and its analysis became heavily publicized even getting an entire Discovery Channel documentary series and though many of the details are still a bit secretive it's believed that the entire operation took several years and millions of dollars worth of equipment and Manpower but things went South for Odyssey

very quickly the Spanish government claimed that deeper analysis of the coins had revealed that the ship was the Spanish vessel nestra Sonora dasas Mercedes who had been sunk by the British Navy off off the coast of Portugal in 1804 the case turned into a legal nightmare with Odyssey claiming International water salvaging rights Spain claiming full ownership of the wreckage and even Peru chiming in with a claim to the gold since it had been discovered that several of the coins were minted in Lemur in 2009 two separate us courts ruled in favor of Spain's legal claim

and when odyssey's appeals failed to gain any traction they were forced to give up the treasure in 2012 to C130 Hercules Transport Aircraft from the Spanish Air Force arrived in Florida and picked up the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of treasure at which point Odyssey even petitioned the US Supreme Court to intervene but they declined leaving the 14.5 tons of gold and silver coins to head back to Spain much of the treasure to this day is on display in museums but the controversy still hasn't ended in 2015 a US District Court ordered Odyssey Marine

expeditions to pay the Spanish government a million dollars for legal abuse stating Odyssey knew at all times that Spain given the information pertinent to identification possessed the historical information and the expertise to identify immed mediately whether the wreck in question was a Spanish vessel Odyssey fired back with leaked documents indicating that the US state department had been involved in assisting Spain in their half of the case in exchange for the return of a private Citizen's artwork but the US government declined to comment on this wider gy was a transport ship commissioned in the early 1700s

funded by a member of parliament s Humphrey Morris a man widely known as the foremost London slave mergent of his day indeed he was even named after the kingdom of WI a region in West Africa that was one of the most prolific Slave exporters at the time in 1716 wider Galley embarked on a maiden voyage traveling down the West African Coast before stopping in Benin and loading up a large shipment destined for the new world she was packed with 500 slaves gold and ivory all of which was intended to be sold in the Caribbean for

goods that would then be shipped back to England the trip across the Atlantic went smoothly and everything brought from Africa was traded for sugar rum Ginger and more however in February 1717 at the beginning of the return trip to Europe wider Galley was attacked by Pirates while passing near Cuba after a 3-day chase the two pirate ships captured the wider Galley without a fight and though they did steal the ship they paid her Captain today's equivalent of $3,000 as a gesture of Goodwill for not violently resisting the Pirates were led by Black Sam Bellamy who

turned wide a galley into his new flagship as a newly Christen pirate ship she was fitted with extra cannons and had her interior renovated crew was quickly put together made partly of bames men and former Sailors on The Wider Galley who accepted the employment offer of switching sides after the capture over the next few months wider galy engaged in typical hooligan pirate Behavior under a new captain ending up off the coast of Massachusetts carrying booty that had been raided from more than 50 ships along the way BBY famously didn't enjoy harming others in fact he

often returned ships after stealing their cargo without killing anyone on board but this chaotic lifestyle would soon meet its end when a thick dark fog rolled in the ships in bames Fleet lost sight of each other before the weather shifted into a violent storm with gale force winds after being tossed back and forth for about 20 minutes a wi gal who was pulled dangerously close to shore struck a sandbar and overturned sinking shortly after her Treasures getting spilled all along the coast line the location of this slave transporter turned pirate ship remained a mystery for

over 200 years until it was discovered in 1984 by American Explorer Barry Clifford who in true treasure hunting fashion found the site using an authentic 1717 map of the recx side drawn up by a salvage who had found it the day after it sank since its Discovery more than 200,000 individual pieces of the ship have been uncovered including chests full of gold silver and ivory as well as historic jewels and human remains in total is estimated that the ship's cargo is worth around $400 million but Clifford hasn't made much profit from the find instead he's

remained committed to his promise to share the findings with the public and nearly all of the recovered artifacts are now displayed in museums and local Learning Centers for all to see San Jose was a gallion of the formidable Spanish arm AR launched in the year 1698 for a decade it served reliably as part of the Spanish treasure Fleet a group of ships whose job it was to transport riches and resources from Colonial territories back to Spain this was especially important during the creation of San Jose as Spain was embroiled in the war of Spanish succession

at the time in 1708 San Jose embarked on what would ultimately be her final voyage sing with 14 Merchant ships and escorted by three warships as they departed from Colombia they were warned of a British Naval presence nearby but decided to continue regardless this would be a fatal mistake as the Spanish Fleet encountered said British ships near the island of baru battle erupted the next day as the ships approached each other with cannon fire being exchanged for several hours the British Squadron consisting of four ships decided to Target the largest Spanish ships knowing that they

carried the most resources and so San Jose was surrounded and bombarded after 90 minutes of fierce combat San Jose suddenly exploded and began falling under the waves almost immediately of the 600 crew on board only 11 survived pulled out of the water as the ocean swallowed up their ship and the precious cargo they had been carrying the British would emerge victorious in the battle and would even capture one of the other treasure ships Santa Cruz but she only carried a mere fraction of the treasure held on the San Jose San Jose was carrying Gold Silver

and emeralds from South America today estimated to be worth $4 billion making it one of the most valuable shipwrecks on the entire planet after being lost for 300 years IR of the San Jose was miraculously located in 2015 by the Colombian Navy although allegedly it had already been found 30 years earlier by ug guested an American treasure hunting Corporation who had failed to come to an agreement with Colombia about how to split the proceeds regardless by 2015 the news was out that San Jose had been found discovered using autonomous underwater Vehicles whose photos of the

rck helped investigators identify San Jose's unique bronze cannons that have been engraved with dolphins as of 2024 the government of Colombia plans to recover the treasure and is current currently in the process of surveying the Shipwreck using underwater drones in the early 1600s the Spanish Empire was at its peak presence in the Americas and was investing vast amounts of resources into finding and extracting the Treasures of the new world to achieve this goal they needed the best Navy money could buy and were constantly adding new ships to their inventory in 1620 nestra seora de ATA

was launched in Havana Cuba large heavily armed gallion that was designed to serve as the rear guard of her Fleet because of her size and strength in 1622 she was chosen to carry a large load of precious Goods back to Spain which would be loaded onto the ship in Panama City this treasure consisted of riches from all over Central and South America including emeralds from Columbia silver from Mexico and Bolivia Venezuelan pearls and Peruvian gold not to mention tobacco and huge numbers of local artifacts and valuable crafted Goods such as cannons and smaller Firearms overall

the treasure loaded into the atoa is estimated to be worth today's equivalent of up to $5500 million and was so large that it took nearly 2 months just to load it all onto the ship and properly record every piece the gold weighed in at around 40 tons and the emeralds at about 71 unfortunately this delay would not be the last after Ron Ving with the rest of the fleet back in Havana more issues delayed the departure even further until finally 6 weeks behind schedule the 28 ship Fleet departed from Cuba on just the second day

of the journey back to Europe the Convoy began encountering Fierce winds in the Florida straight and were soon in the midst of a powerful hurricane the Hurrican devastated the fleet sinking the majority of the ships including the atoa the few surviving vessels made their way back home and reported the incident to the Spanish Crown who immediately organized a salvaging mission hoping to recover some of the Endless riches that were lying on the seaf Flor just 56 ft below the surface unfortunately this proved a bit too deep for salvaging techniques at the time which included lowering

a slave inside of a brass diving bell down to the wreckage where they would grab a single item and return it to the surface process so lethal that the death of slaves was regarded as an expected business expense this brutal technique allowed the Spaniards to salvage most of the treasures from the Santa margarit which had sunk in shallower waters but left the aoha just Out Of Reach a return party the following year arrived more prepared but another hurricane made the site difficult to locate and soon the Shipwreck was completely lost it wouldn't be until the

20th century that it would be found Again by American treasure Hunters Mel Fischer and Finley Rickard along with some diving subcontractors all working under the joint venture of treasure Salva Inc treasure Salva searched the seabed for 16 whole years before finding the shipwreck in 1975 with much of its treasure easily retrievable as with seemingly all shipwrecks in this video soon after the announcement litigation ensued when the State of Florida claimed the wreck of the atoa and tried to force treasure salvor to hand over 25% of the treasure the case ended up being ruled in salvo's

favor by the Supreme Court after eight years of legal battles in 2014 Guinness World Records granted the atoa the title of the richest shipwreck to ever be recovered but despite the this it's believed that we still haven't recovered all of the treasure in fact the part of the ship known as the stern Castle has never been found and was likely where the most valuable gold Trinkets and the highest quality muo emeralds were being held in a hint of the treasures still awaiting Discovery in 2011 divers from Treasure Salos found an emerald ring far from the

Shipwreck estimated alone to be worth [Music] $500,000 our last treasure filled shipwreck comes from the year 1852 when the SS Central America was launched by the United States this steamship transported passengers and goods between the US Eastern Seaboard and Central America hence its name that would only operate for around 5 years before its career came to an abrupt end on September the 3rd 1857 the ship was docked in Panama and loaded with so much gold that its equivalent in 2024 would be around $750 million most of which have been recovered in California during the Gold

Rush once she was fully Laden s Central America began heading north with a destination of New York City or when the ship was suddenly struck with a category 2 hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas the ship was unable to withstand the forces of the hurricane the heavy winds tore throw masts took away all steering functionality and damaged the hall so badly she began taking on water after a day or so in the storm the boiler failed and the crew inverted their flag as a distress call to nearby ships but no one was close

enough to see them during the calm of the storm the crew and all of the passengers desperately tried to bail out as much much water as possible but it was futile and before the boiler could be fixed the second wave of the storm arrived tossing the ship back and forth on the high waves and threatening to capsize it at any moment on the second day two ships spotted the SS Central America and were able to rescue about 100 passengers mostly women and children before the ship sank about 50 more people were rescued from the water

after the sinking but in total 425 lives were lost and the ship was lost to the Sea The Wreck of the SS Central America wouldn't be found until 1988 when the Columbus America Discovery group of Ohio located the ship using an ROV or remotely operated vehicle after verifying the discovery a second ROV was designed specifically with the capabilities of retrieving the gold which it did recovering an estimated $150 Million worth at the time including one single gold ingot which weighed £80 and was sold for $8 million the legal issues that ensued after this discovery were

quite different from the rest of the ship brecks that we've discussed today because this wasn't treasure that had been looted from Colonial territories or lost in an battle many centuries ago this was gold that it only ever belonged to a single country the United States unfortunately it belongs to many different companies in the US companies that had filed for insurance claims for the asset losses all the way back when the disaster occurred in total 39 insurance companies filed lawsuits claiming that they had the rights to the gold because they paid Insurance damages almost 150 years

prior in the end 92% of the gold was awarded to the treasure finding team but the leader of this treasure hunting firm Tommy Gregory Thompson didn't exactly use his Newfound wealth as he probably should have in 2005 he was sued by several former business partners who showed that they had invested millions of dollars into the treasure finding in recovery and hadn't received their share of the goods from Thompson who it turns out had allegedly stashed away millions in an offshore bank account in the Cook Islands Thompson went into hiding in 2012 but was found in

2015 by US Marshals extradited back to Ohio and forced to pay nearly 50 million dollars in Damages to various former partners [Music]