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Divers Find $50 Million Treasure From A Boat The Nazis Sunk

by Gillian Fuller
Deep Ocean Search

You know that awesome feeling when you find money on the ground?

Imagine that feeling, multiplied by about 50 million. That's how one group of British treasure hunters must have felt after recovering a fortune of 70-year-old sunken silver.

Though the recovery actually happened in 2013, news of it has only recently been made public.

According to reports, the treasure -- a whopping $50 million worth of silver Indian rupees -- was being transported from Bombay to England aboard the SS City of Cairo in 1942.

About 480 miles off the coast of St. Helena, Nazis torpedoed the ship. It sunk, carrying with it the 100 tons of silver coins.

An underwater recovery team called Deep Ocean Search finally managed to retrieve the treasure, which had settled at a depth of approximately 17,000 feet.

Because India was under British rule at the time of the ship's sinking, the money technically belongs to the UK Treasury.

British officials knew the treasure was there, but until now, it proved impossible to reach; at such depths, even the most advanced equipment fails.

Though they did experience some trouble, the team ultimately was able to recover the fortune -- and it's the stuff of legends.

Check out some photos of the treasure retrieval below.

The team hauled up thousands of pounds of rusted silver coins.

The treasure had settled at a depth of 17,000 feet -- about 4,500 feet deeper than the Titanic.

First, they sent a submarine down to examine the sunken SS City of Cairo.

Super-advanced sonar helped them locate the ship, which Nazis had sunk in 1942.

The ship -- and treasure -- was approximately 480 miles off of the coast of a small island in the Atlantic Ocean.

Much of the silver had rusted, thanks to the salt water.

This is the boat of the search team that found the ship.

All in all, they recovered $50 million worth of coins.

All of the coins are property of the UK Treasury.

Citations: Treasure hunters find SS City of Cairo with 34 Million in silver coins sunk by nazis (Daily Mail)