Treasure hunter claims $3 billion find – but is it his? And is there really platinum on the sea bed?

A haul of wartime platinum has reportedly been found on the sea floor
off the Atlantic coast of US – but is this treasure really fair game?

Treasure hunter claims $3 billion find – but is it his? And is there
really platinum on the sea bed?
A haul of wartime platinum has reportedly been found on the sea floor
off the Atlantic coast of US – but is this treasure really fair game?

Sunken ship, though not the treasure ship in question. Photo credit:
The Gearys, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gearys/122852408/
A delight for any would-be Indiana Jones, Greg Brooks, a treasure
seeker from Maine, has announced the discovery of a WW2-era shipwreck
said to be filled with a cargo of platinum, gold and industrial
diamonds reportedly worth $3 billion (£1.9 billion).

Brooks, of research firm Sub Sea Research, claimed that the wreck
sitting 50 miles off the Atlantic coast is the SS Port Nicholson, a
British merchant ship sunk by the Nazis in 1942, in a torpedo attack
that killed six people. It is reported that the wreck was first
discovered in 2008, using sonar technology and remotely operated
vehicles, but was kept secret while Brooks tried to secure salvage
rights. The UK's Daily Telegraph reports that the rich cargo was
reportedly accompanied by two Soviet envoys who survived the German
attack, only to suffer a mysterious fate on US soil. It is also said
that the USSR reimbursed the US Government for the lost payment.

Doubts have, however, been expressed whether the wreck actually holds
platinum ingots. Brooks's claim appears to be based on a US Treasury
Department ledger which shows that platinum bars were on board as part
payment from the USSR to the US for war supplies under Roosevelt's
"Lend Lease" programme. Sub Sea Research has indicated that underwater
video footage revealed the existence of a platinum bar on board but no
treasure has yet been raised to verify the claim. A US attorney,
Anthony Shusta, reportedly acting for the UK government, is also on
record as saying that it is not clear that the ship ever carried
platinum and that initial research has indicated that the vessel
carried machinery and military stores.

Although ownership rights are as yet unsettled, Brooks has announced
his desire to claim any treasure and promising, "I'm going to get it,
one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water."
If confirmed, this haul would be one of the biggest treasure troves
found on the sea bed.

The vessel is (probably) not a military vessel and the UK government
does not automatically have title to the wreck or its contents. Given
its relative youth as a wreck and its situation off the US coast the
Port Nicholson, its contents will not be covered by UNESCO's
Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention. If and when its treasure is
raised, the already murky legal position of the Port Nicholson will
become even less clear. It must be assumed that the UK government
would challenge any claim to a $3 billion dollar haul if there are any
grounds on which it may do so.

It might be open to the UK government to broker a deal with Sub Sea
Research on the lines of its two-year contract with marine recovery
firm Odyssey Marine, salvor of the SS Gairsoppa, a vessel located in
September 2011, on the basis of which Brooks could have the lion's
share of the spoils. Brooks has, however, few reasons to compromise at
present.

In any salvage operation a delicate balance must be struck between the
need to reward, on one hand, the risks and costs incurred by a salvor
and the requirement, on the other, to safeguard cultural heritage for
future generations, particularly where, as here, a wreck is also a
gravesite. It has to be hoped that the actors in this chapter of the
Port Nicholson's story won't be blinded by the lure of a £3 billion
haul alone.