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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| $3B WWII Shipwreck Located off of Cape Cod |
| 2012-01-30 |
| Sub Sea Research LLC, a Portland Maine based company located the worlds richest shipwreck, a WWII British Freighter carrying a secret cargo of 71 tons of Platinum sunk by a German U-Boat in June, 1942. SSR first discovered the Port Nicholson in 600-800 feet of water off Cape Cod in 2008. In 2009 SSR obtained legal recognition from the US Courts as the legal owner and salvager of the ship. The Port Nicholson and four other ships were being escorted by six military ships in a convoy from Halifax to New York. She is documented to be carrying ~1,707,000 troy ounces of platinum. It may also contain $165M of copper, zinc and war stores. Greg Brooks, one of two SSR founders, said his team has already recovered several identifying and critical artifacts. He has verified that “it is without a doubt the Port Nicholson”. Lend Lease payment from the Soviets. Interesting article. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #21 There is a hangar @ NAS JAX that is only half a hangar; the other half is off the JAX beach thanks to U-Boats. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2012-01-30 22:55 |
| #20 My father served aboard USS Kitkun Bay until Japanese Admiral Kurita shot it out from under him. Bastard |
| Posted by: badanov 2012-01-30 22:01 |
| #19 Drumbeat |
| Posted by: tu3031 2012-01-30 21:30 |
| #18 By Moose's figure the total is...$3,323,687,537. Add the copper, zinc and "war stores", about 3.5 billion. Be interesting to see how much the lawyers will make off of this one. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2012-01-30 21:21 |
| #17 There were many, many German U-boats off of the East Coast in WWII. Wilmington became the primary building port. It is a tactical area to say the least. |
| Posted by: newc 2012-01-30 21:12 |
| #16 My late friend was a crewman on an asphalt tanker. The Germans regularly sunk ships in the mouth of the Mississippi River. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2012-01-30 21:11 |
| #15 My granddad was some kind of civil guard - charged with enforcing local blackout. I used his old blackout drapes for years - fantastic insulation of big glass sliding doors during '70's energy crunch. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-01-30 19:44 |
| #14 My dad was engine room officer in merchant marinesbut didn't get to sea until late 43/44, when the worst had passed. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-01-30 19:41 |
| #13 Found a hint about the damage the Kriegsmarine did along the East Coast up to June 1942: It was not until May, 1942, that the convoys departing from the US East Coast were in convoys escorted by US Destroyers. For some reason, the American authorities remained a very stubborn attitude about not mandating that ships travel in convoys as the British transports had done. In all, around 40 U-boats participated in [the Kriegsmarine's Operation] Drumbeat. The pickings were good and by June [1942], over 400 ships had been sunk and 2,000,000 tons of war material went to the bottom of the ocean along with 5000 men. [Operation]Drumbeat was very cost effective, only seven U-boats were lost. Had the Germans focused on the refineries at Aruba, which provide 75% of the aviation fuel Canada and the US used, by destroying it, the ramifications would have been detrimental. However, only two subs arrived there and shelled it causing fire but that was about it. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-30 19:32 |
| #12 #9 -- Still no excuse for the failure to mandate coastal blackouts on 8 Dec 1941. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-30 19:21 |
| #11 Those pipelines are still in use. Anguper, not only are they still in use, but they were built, with government permission and encouragement, without going through all the legal hoops to get eminent domain clearance etc. of essential land tracts with owners who were 'less patriotic' than the pipeline companies' budgets could work with. Lawsuits after the war made for some very wealthy former landowners. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-01-30 18:53 |
| #10 Smells rather SCAMMY. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-01-30 18:27 |
| #9 Apparently US admirals of that time were asleep at the wheel. The Port Nicholson was under escort; a U-boat sunk it anyway. As to the lack of plans at the start of hostilities: Keep in mind the political and military situation at the start of the war. The USN was a tad short of ships and personnel at the time. What assets there were, were being used in the North Atlantic. It took a while to press auxiliary ships into coastal and ASW patrolling and to train crews for the mission. Due to the Depression, the railroads were stretched to their limits. There was no additional capacity to ship oil or cargo. It also took a while to convince coastal merchant marine captains to agree to run in convoys along the coast. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-01-30 18:26 |
| #8 The story raises questions. Why didn't they drive? Why put so much valuable material in a single ship? Was it in a single large block of material? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-30 18:06 |
| #7 At the initiation of open hostilities the Navy didn't have any real plans to protect shipping on the East Coast. Apparently US admirals of that time were asleep at the wheel. I read that, in addition, blackouts of coastal cities were delayed for a while. U-boats would surface at night & easily spot merchant ships silhouetted against the artificial lighting. For a time, it was possible to read newspapers at night along East Coast beaches by the light of burning oil tankers. The US built oil pipelines as an emergency measure to bring Texas oil to the northeast, out of reach of the U-boats. Those pipelines are still in use. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-30 18:02 |
| #6 Incredible story. Somehow I don't think they will have a problem finding investors... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-01-30 17:31 |
| #5 At the initiation of open hostilities the Navy didn't have any real plans to protect shipping on the East Coast. The U-Boats had a 'holiday' sinking ships all along the coast. The preferred method was to surface and use a deck gun to preserve the number of torpedoes. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2012-01-30 17:30 |
| #4 Today's closing price for platinum is $1,605 a troy ounce. There are 29,166.6667 troy ounces in a short ton (2,000 lbs). |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-01-30 17:23 |
| #3 If you go to the Delaware beaches you can still see the concentric concrete towers that we used to watch for German U-boats. That is within 11 miles of shore. |
| Posted by: Shulet Grugum3726 2012-01-30 17:19 |
| #2 Correction - Cape Cod |
| Posted by: Chenter Barnsmell9450 2012-01-30 17:13 |
| #1 Did not know ships were being sunk right off Cape Code by the Gertmans. |
| Posted by: Chenter Barnsmell9450 2012-01-30 17:12 |