TAMPA -- The treasure hunters at Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. think a Mediterranean shipwreck holds hundreds of millions of dollars in coins that were meant for the Duke of Earl in 1693.
Or, it might just turn out to be an empty, rotted hull under 2,000 feet of water off the coast of Malta. Finding out for sure may cost millions of dollars.
Executives of the Tampa company say they have convincing evidence that the wreck holds a sunken fortune. They're even talking of building a tourist attraction in Tampa to showcase their discoveries.
"It's the best shipwreck project I have seen in my 12 years in the business," said John Morris, president of Odyssey. "I really believe this could be it."
If the treasure is there, Odyssey's cost to find and salvage it could run as high as $3.6-million.
Odyssey will team with the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence to find and salvage the ship, code-named "Cambridge." Using a sensitive sonar system, the vessel Seahawk will hunt a 100-square-mile area starting July 1. Using 16 recovered logs from other ships that survived the same 17th-century storm, Morris and his team think they can pinpoint the ship's last position.
If successful, the team will send down a remotely operated vehicle to photograph the wreck. As part of the company's deal with the British and their Royal Naval Museum, Odyssey must carefully preserve any artifacts it finds from the wreck before stirring up the site to hunt for coins.
The treasure-hunting business is among the riskiest in the world. While hunts for ships like the Central America off the North Carolina coast have revealed hundreds of millions in recovered gold, some companies have gone under after failing to find anything. Their investors' money has gone down with them.
Odyssey contends that this wreck could be rich in history as well as treasure. The loot that is thought to be on board was meant as a British payoff to the Duke of Earl for his efforts in fighting France. When the money never arrived, the Duke switched sides and fought for the French.
Morris and partner Greg Stemm found old records they think prove Britain's leaders authorized the payment and had the coins loaded on the ship. The ship appears to be in water deep enough to have prevented previous salvage operations, Stemm said.
Odyssey has the money to make the project happen, Stemm said, because it has sold artifacts found in previous operations and has sold investment shares in the new dive.
If the coins are there, it could take two years to recover all of them. The wreck could provide up to a decade of research for archaeologists.
As for their plans to market the discoveries, Norris and Stemm said they are encouraged by the success of the Titanic movie and the well-attended exhibit of the ship's artifacts that closed last weekend in St. Petersburg.
"What if they were selling some of the Titanic items?" Norris said. "They could sell anything related to the Titanic now. So we'd have a great opportunity to market the coins from the Cambridge."
To reduce its exposure in an intrinsically risky business, Odyssey charters the boats and equipment needed to bring treasure to the surface. The vessel to be used next month comes from Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology of Tampa.
Norris was Seahawk's president until 1994, when a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation over possible manipulation of Seahawk's stock forced Norris and Stemm to resign.
The investigation found both men innocent, though their defense cost the two more than $1-million, Stemm said. The two founded Odyssey after leaving Seahawk, which also continues to hunt for treasure.
© 1998, St. Peterburg Times