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Russian Shipwreck Allegedly Carrying $130 Billion In Gold Has Been Rediscovered (popularmechanics.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Mechanics: A salvage company has located the remains of a Russian warship lost during the the Russo-Japanese War. The battle-damaged cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off the coast of Korea in 1905, reportedly carrying a cargo of gold worth an estimated $130 billion in today's dollars. An international consortium of companies plans to salvage the gold.
According to the Telegraph, the Donskoi was found less than a mile off the coast of Ulleung island, at a depth of 1,423 feet in the Sea of Japan. A submersible descended to the wreck and captured an image of the ship's name on the stern in the Cyrillic alphabet. The South Korean Shinil Group, which discovered the wreck, plans to recover the gold sometime later this year with help from companies in China, Canada, and the U.K. At the time of her sinking Donskoi was reportedly carrying 5,500 boxes of gold bars and 200 tons of gold coins with a street value today of $130 billion. That's more than twice Russia's 2017 defense budget, which was $61 billion. If the treasure does materialize, the Russian government will receive half of the recovered amount. The money that's not going to Russia will reportedly be invested in a railroad line linking North Korea, South Korea, and Russia. A small percentage (10%) will also be invested in tourism projects on Ulleungdo Island, including a museum dedicated to the vessel.
According to the Telegraph, the Donskoi was found less than a mile off the coast of Ulleung island, at a depth of 1,423 feet in the Sea of Japan. A submersible descended to the wreck and captured an image of the ship's name on the stern in the Cyrillic alphabet. The South Korean Shinil Group, which discovered the wreck, plans to recover the gold sometime later this year with help from companies in China, Canada, and the U.K. At the time of her sinking Donskoi was reportedly carrying 5,500 boxes of gold bars and 200 tons of gold coins with a street value today of $130 billion. That's more than twice Russia's 2017 defense budget, which was $61 billion. If the treasure does materialize, the Russian government will receive half of the recovered amount. The money that's not going to Russia will reportedly be invested in a railroad line linking North Korea, South Korea, and Russia. A small percentage (10%) will also be invested in tourism projects on Ulleungdo Island, including a museum dedicated to the vessel.
If the gold does exist and is recovered, what will so much gold coming onto the market do to the price of gold?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
There were 5,500 boxes of gold bars and 200 tons of gold coins. On a warship. During a war.
If the ship was actually carrying that much gold, it would have been discovered years ago. I'm pretty sure Russia would like to have it back and would have started searching in 1905. And from TFA: 'Although the Shinil Group claims it saw what it thinks was a “treasure box” among the wreckage, there appears to be no confirmation the Donskoi really was carrying the reported treasure'
The "battle" was far, far away from Russian and the location of the Russian fleet. The many ships Russian sent to would need to buy what they needed on the way.
The "war" did not work out the way Russian planed for and it had many reasons to "scuttle".
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
you wouldn't, and even if you did you would not leave it behind and scuttle it while the rest of the fleet steamed off. basically most sane historians believe it is just a myth/rumour and no evidence has ever been found to suggest there was ever gold on it. I guess though we will know for certain soon.
Yes, I couldn't read their site. Here is another article (or, for all I know, the same one).
Important points from that article: That the ship was carrying so much gold is debated. Allegedly there are some oddities about the company that says it found the ship.
Another article. This one says they intend to raise the ship, which seems decidedly odd, compared to just trying to raise the gold. I'm wondering if there was a translation error.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Yep. And I bet a lot of people would like to set his feet in concrete and send him to the bottom of the ocean also.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Re 'What I don't see is why Russia would let others keep half?"
To not be Spain. Better to get something on good terms than go full Spain in a court over a transfer of the treasure.
Any salvage company, other nations will then be happy to work with Russian on any new project in the future.
Should Russian need something around the other side of the world in the future a skilled salvage company will remember events like this.
A salvage company will contrast that with what Spain can do.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Some people still take ACs comments seriously ....
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
The Dmitrii Donskoi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... was old when facing new ships Japan was able to buy.
Re "abandoning ship" was not as simple as it sounds. Russia sent all its fleet. Nobody wanted to suggest just sending quality. The Russian navy had to do what it was told and had to send more old and slow ships.
New ships could do 18 knots others 15 knots.
A real mixture of Russian ships then confronted an advanced and ready Japan.
The Dmitrii Donskoi had to support other crews and try and escape. Then try and save its own crew.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
No, but he’s adamant that his Happy Cake Oven is down on that ship.
Quinn explained that it’s impossible - the ship went down a hundred years before he lost the oven. But Murph is having none of that.
#DeleteChrome
What I don't see is why Russia would let others keep half?
I mean, for one billion they could send navy ships there and say "no" and then what?
I think it may have something to do with international waters and salvage rights. It may also be an act of diplomacy on the part of the Koreans if the ship was in their waters. Despite having full salvage rights this way they still get a pay day and not piss Russia off, plus a railway, plus a way to ease relations with the other half of their country.
Sounds to me like a win for everyone - good on them.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Because of risk. Salvagers were looking for the ship because it was reported to be carrying a large sum of gold. It may have been. it may have been carrying a lesser sum of gold. It may not have been carrying any gold. The salvagers have only found the wreck of the warship, and by maritime law, couldn't act on it without Russia's permission. Additionally, because of the reported gold on board it's highly probable that the individuals who located the wreck did not give Russia the location of the wreck but just provided evidence that they had found it.
The only improvement to Russia's situation with regard to the ship is that they would know the wreck is intact. They still wouldn't know how much gold is on it or where the ship is located. Russia would need to fund expeditions to locate the wreck and the fund the salvage operation. This would all be done under the assumption of a payout worth $130bn. Russia did the right move. They get half the recovered salvage to a tune $65bn without having to pay anything and if the gold doesn't materialize or the take is considerably less than 130bn then Russia still comes out ahead.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
It's pretty straightforward to make gold from sea water. According to Nature, it currently costs about 5x the market value of the gold. On the other hand, you could likely get a bunch of other valuable things at the same time, so that might bring costs down a bit.
Gold's value is it's rarity. It has a bit of intrinsic value for certain industrial uses, but mostly it's because it's shiny.
Other than shininess
resistance to oxidation
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
To get an idea of just how big a pile of BS this story is, the Donskoi was a pre-dreadnaught armoured cruiser, with one tenth the displacement of an actual battleship (Iowa class), and less than a modern (Arleigh Burke) destroyer. The amount of gold in Fort Knox is about the same order of magnitude as what's claimed in the story (depending on how much you believe is in there and what it's currently worth per ounce and what the story is actually claming was on the Donskoi, handwaving a bit here to avoid a huge long debate and calling it "same order of magnitude").
So we have to believe that Imperial Russia loaded a Fort Knox' worth of gold that they didn't have into a (modern) destroyer-class ship, equipped it with early Tardis technology to handle the volume and mass involved, and sent it to the other side of the world, only to scuttle it when Japanese ships came near.
Someone's running a significant salvage scam here...
I can assure you that Putin and his government have no real long term vision beyond maybe a couple of years, so that's definitely not it.
I disagree with this assessment. I argue that countries like China, Russia, and North Korea tend to look more long term then our representatives, who seem to only care about the time between now and the next election cycle. Here in the U.S. we do have the Supreme Court Justices who I believe do consider the long term ramifications but you're selling these other countries short to assume they only care about the short term.
If you have not seen it, I recommend watching "Rules for Rulers" by CGPGray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It's based on a book, "The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics" https://www.amazon.com/Dictato...
These have helped me not get so angry at politics in general and has given me a much better understanding as to why different leaders do what they do.