Quest to Find Sunken Ship Laden with Treasure Worth £4 Billion Begins
The wreck of the Merchant Royal, a 17th-century English ship laden with 4 billion pounds of treasure, has never been found despite centuries of searching.
A UK company equipped with new technology believes they can locate the shipwreck.
The Merchant Royal, nicknamed "El Dorado of the Seas" for its vast riches, sank off the coast of Cornwall in 1641.
It is estimated to be carrying billions of pounds worth of gold and silver, per news sources.
Multibeam Services, a company specialising in finding lost wrecks, will spend all of 2024 searching a 200-square-mile area of the English Channel.
They will use unmanned underwater vessels and advanced sonar technology in their search.
Company leader Nigel Hodge emphasises the historical significance of the find and says any treasure discovered will be treated as heritage artifacts.
The search is expected to be challenging due to the dangerous waters where the ship went down.
He also stated that there are thousands of shipwrecks down there, and the Merchant Royal is just one of them, which means they have to go through many wrecks.
He added that it is not a straightforward or simple task; otherwise, it would have been done till now.
Situated in Redruth and employing multiple former fishermen, Nigel Hodge is confident that his company is poised for success where others have faltered.
The shipwreck occurred on September 23, 1641, as the vessel was en route to Dartmouth.
Before sinking, the ship stopped in the Spanish port of Cadiz for repairs and to load additional cargo on its return journey from Mexico and the Caribbean.