Final Passage

FINAL PASSAGE
For anyone who has seen Pirates of the Caribbean or read Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Treasure Island, the lure of lost treasure ships laden with gold, silver, precious jewels, and
priceless antiquities will take them back to the colonial period of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, when Spanish and Portuguese explorers conquered the Americas and
sailed back to Europe with their bounty. If it’s big treasure you’re after, however, you might
turn your attention to the lost treasure ships of the twentieth century. Between the two world
wars, luxury liners, armored warships, merchant vessels, and freighters carried more than 700
tons of gold from war-torn Europe to safe havens in North America. Many, like the RMS Titanic,
RMS Lusitania, and HMS Edinburgh, met with enemy attack or natural catastrophe and sank
to the bottom of the sea. To this day, few treasure ships have ever been recovered.
Of the estimated three million shipwrecks scattered over the ocean floor, only the
most commercially attractive ones have captured the attention of treasure hunters and
salvors. The most legendary is the RMS Titanic. On April 14, 1915, the 882-foot, 46,392-ton
luxury liner collided with an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton,
England, to New York City. Of the 2,223 people on board, 1,517 died in the tragedy. Lost but
not forgotten, the Titanic and its treasures began to attract potential salvors in the 1960s, but
it was not until the 1980s that Texas millionaire Jack Grimm undertook three separate
expeditions, only to find no trace of the ship’s remains.
On September 1, 1985, a French-American project located the Titanic, and in 1987,

with the use of the submersible Nautile, salvors recovered an abundance of artifacts. A total
of 5,500 objects were brought up from the wreck, including personal belongings of the
passengers and crew, memorabilia, collectibles, porcelain, furniture, fixtures, ship parts, and
miscellaneous articles of more value to historians, archaeologists, and museum visitors than
to fortune seekers. Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, the largest display of recovered artifacts
from the ship, is on permanent display at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to
more than 300 objects, the exhibit features stories of the passengers and a full-scale
reproduction of the liner’s Grand Staircase. Other expeditions, a few of which are listed in the
table below, have been more rewarding than the discovery of the Titanic.
As adventure some as it may seem, the hunt for treasure ships has always faced major
challenges. Until the 1950s, treasure hunters had difficulty locating shipwrecks that lay
thousands of meters deep in dark and dangerous waters. At the turn of the century, failure
often resulted from the hit-and-miss process of dragging wire nets and lines from two or more
ships across the seafloor until they caught on something. In 1918, the joint English-French
Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (ASDIC) located enemy submarines by
sending out sound pulses through the water. This revolutionary technique was used to locate
the Lusitania, which sank off the coast of Ireland after a German U-boat attack on May 7, 1915.
Echo-sounding evolved by the 1960s into sonar, which became a standard feature of marine
navigation. In addition to side-scan sonar, searchers can now employ sub-bottom profilers to
image objects buried beneath layers of sediment. Modern satellite global positioning systems
(GPS) can accurately determine the location of a lost ship in an area as small as 500 square
miles.
Once a ship has been located, divers are sent to access the wreck, but their safety and
success depend on suitable equipment. Pioneer divers had to wear heavy canvas suits, a
copper helmet, lead boots weighing 40 pounds each, and lead weights of 16 pounds to
counteract buoyancy. They could safely reach a maximum depth of only 200 feet. The time
they could spend under water and the speed at which they could surface without suffering
from the “bends” were severely limited. In the 1940s, renowned French oceanographer
Jacques Cousteau and associate Émile Gagnan developed the Aqua-Lung, or oxygen tank. This
improvement in diver safety and mobility made diving more popular and treasure hunting
more feasible.
Cousteau also contributed to the development of saturation diving, which allowed

divers to live and work from a protected sea habitat. Using a small manned submarine called
a submersible, divers are able to withstand external pressure at depths up to 20,000 feet and
to work under water for up to three days. Originally developed for scientific and military
purposes, submersibles are equipped with robotic arms to recover objects and to investigate
areas of a wreck that would otherwise pose physical peril to divers.
Although advanced technology has made it easier for treasure hunters to find, access,
investigate, and even raise sunken ships, there is no guarantee of success. A ship of interest
can lie amid other wrecks, making it impossible to detect or distinguish. With the passage of
time, sand and mud cover wreckage and the forces of nature erode and decompose steel,
iron, wood, and other materials. Rugged, shifting terrain, as well as adverse marine and
weather conditions, increase the risks of disaster to search crews.
The exact nature and value of a ship’s cargo is often subject to a great deal of
speculation. Since records were not always kept, particularly in wartime, the details of a ship’s
cargo could be anybody’s guess. Even if treasure hunters have deep-enough pockets and a
broad time horizon to go on their quest, they have a good chance of ending up with no legal
claim to their booty. Laws governing the ownership of shipwrecks and their contents and the
right of salvage are complex, and no international agreements exist. Opponents of commercial
salvage condemn these attempts as the desecration of graves, while some archaeologists
argue that these sites should be preserved in their virgin state.
Despite the many obstacles, there are adventurers who cannot resist the lure of lost
treasure. It is the sea, however, that remains in possession of these doomed vessels, and the
sea is reluctant to give them up.
FINAL QUESTIONS
1. What period is mentioned when Spanish and Portuguese explorers conquered the
Americas?
2. Which famous luxury liner collided with an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage?
3. What technology was used in 1918 to locate enemy submarines?
4. Who developed the Aqua-Lung, making diving more popular?
5. Where is Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition permanently displayed?
6. What type of ships carried gold from Europe to North America between the two
world wars?
7. What was the maximum depth pioneer divers could safely reach?
8. What did the French-American project achieve on September 1, 1985?
9. What are some of the objects recovered from the Titanic and brought up in 1987?
10. What makes modern satellite GPS useful for locating shipwrecks?
Respectfully yours, good job!

1. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
2. The RMS Titanic.
3. The joint English-French Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee

(ASDIC) used sound pulses.
4. Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan.
5. The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
6. Luxury liners, armored warships, merchant vessels, and freighters.
7. Only 200 feet.
8. They located the Titanic.
9. Personal belongings of the passengers and crew, memorabilia, collectibles,

porcelain, furniture, fixtures, ship parts, and miscellaneous articles.
10. It can accurately determine the location of a lost ship in an area as small as
500 square miles.

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FINAL PASSAGE

On September 1, 1985, a French-American project located the Titanic, and in 1987,

Cousteau also contributed to the development of saturation diving, which allowed

Respectfully yours, good job!

2. The RMS Titanic.

3. The joint English-French Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee

4. Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan.

5. The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

6. Luxury liners, armored warships, merchant vessels, and freighters.

7. Only 200 feet.

8. They located the Titanic.

9. Personal belongings of the passengers and crew, memorabilia, collectibles,

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