Shipwreck searchers claim discovery of Civil War-era boat
Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa says it will bring up the steamship next month.
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published August 17, 2003
TAMPA - A Tampa company that scans the high seas for sunken treasure thinks it may have found some, a mere 100 miles off the Florida-Georgia coast.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said that a 210-foot steamship it recently discovered on the bottom of the Atlantic could be the SS Republic, a Civil War-era boat that sank en route to New Orleans in 1865 with a reported $400,000 in gold coins aboard.
Coin expert Donald Kagin told Odyssey that each $20 coin might have a retail value today of $6,000 to $9,000, the company said. Lower-denomination coins were less common in the 19th-century and could fetch an even higher price.
The ship's value could be more than the sum of its coins. Its background - it ferried mercenaries to Nicaragua and supplies to Mexico, served both the Confederate and Union navies, and fell prey to a raging hurricane - would pique the interest of historians, archaeologists and lovers of shipwreck lore. Public exhibitions could draw thousands.
"The story this shipwreck tells will certainly be one of the most colorful nautical tales in history," Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm said. "It knocked us out how precisely it matched the target we were looking for."
Buried about 1,600 feet beneath the ocean's surface, the ship is a lesson in the speculative nature of shipwreck identification and recovery.
Just a month ago, Odyssey trumpeted the discovery of an entirely different ship with "many characteristics that would be expected" of the Republic. Since then, however, the company found another shipwreck, roughly 10 to 15 miles away, that it said bears a far closer resemblance.
Stemm said the length and width of the more recent find are identical to the original manufacturer's specs for the Republic. So, too, are its two paddlewheels and boilers. By contrast, the hull of the wreck unveiled in July had nearly disintegrated, making it impossible to measure, and no paddlewheels were found in its vicinity.
Odyssey, which has several shipwreck projects going simultaneously, searched a 1,000-square-mile area over the past two years to find the Republic. It almost failed. Stemm said the wreck it discovered was located outside Odyssey's original search area. But "on the hunch that the hurricane-force winds may have had more of an influence on the Gulf Stream than we previously thought," the crew decided to extend the boundaries slightly.
Odyssey laid legal claim to the ship and its contents earlier this month. Stemm said he hopes to begin the excavation process in mid September with the help of a 251-foot ship and remotely operated vehicle the company recently purchased.
He won't say whether coins were already identified on the ship. "We don't want to fuel speculation one way or the other until we know exactly what we have," he said. Among the items he acknowledged finding were intact bottles filled with fruit.
Financing its search-and-recovery missions has proved almost as difficult for Odyssey as navigating them.
In fiscal year 2003, the company spent $2.6-million but didn't take in a penny. Because it has not yet reached the recovery stage on any of its shipwreck finds, it has nothing to sell or exhibit, and therefore no income.
Money was so tight that Odyssey skipped holding an annual shareholders meeting for five years, until 2002. The company said it was more cost-effective to let a small group of shareholders who held the majority of stock make decisions for the rest.
Money from the company's initial sale of stock to the public is long gone. It now raises funds from private investors such as Jim MacDougald, a St. Petersburg businessman who paid $3-million in 2001 to acquire a 36 percent stake. Another round of investors agreed to sink $5-million to $15-million into Odyssey earlier this month for the chance to earn a golden return.
But when MacDougald made his investment two years ago, he said it was anything but a rich man's lark.
"I don't do business for fun," he said. "I invested in this because it is potentially extremely successful."
