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. Now, a UK company equipped with new technology believes they can finally locate the elusive shipwreck, according to The Metro.
The Merchant Royal, nicknamed "El Dorado of the Seas" for its rumoured vast riches, sank off the coast of Cornwall in 1641. It is estimated to be carrying billions of pounds worth of gold and silver, as per the news report.
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 be using unmanned underwater vessels and advanced sonar technology in their search.
While the potential financial reward is immense, the company leader, Nigel Hodge, emphasises the historical significance of the find. He says any discovered treasure will be treated as heritage artifacts.
It's 'not a gold rush' though, Nigel told Metro.co.uk, even though he believes the wreck could be worth billions.
The search is expected to be challenging due to the dangerous waters where the ship went down.
Mr Nigel says that the search will be difficult, though, with the stretch of water where it sank notoriously dangerous.
"There are thousands of shipwrecks down there, and the Merchant Royal is just one of them," he said. "So we've got to literally pick through a lot of wrecks as we're doing them and then identify them. It's not straightforward. If it were straightforward, it would have been done."
Located in Redruth and employing multiple former fishermen, Nigel Hodge is confident that his company is poised for success where others have faltered. This is due to their intimate familiarity with local waters and advancements in technology.
The shipwreck occurred on September 23, 1641, as the vessel was en route to Dartmouth. Prior to its sinking, the ship had made a stop in the Spanish port of Cadiz for repairs and to load additional cargo on its return journey from Mexico and the Caribbean.
