Flash!
Treasure lies in briny deep
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
BURNTISLAND, Scotland - Before an executioner's axe separated King Charles I from his head in 1649, another catastrophe befell the monarch near this ancient Scottish port.
On July 10, 1633, a ferry carrying some of the most valuable treasures of Charles' court sand in a sudden storm after sailing from Burntisland across the Firth of forth, the estruary separating Edingurgh form the land to the north.
The king's entire collection of banqueting silver went down o the ferry Blessing of Burntisland. So, apparently, did gifts presented to him by Scots noblemen.
For 361 years the treasure has rested on the bottom of the eight-kilometre-wide Firth of Forth, about 30 metres (100 feet) down and about 1.5 km offshore. Until three years ago, no one even knew it was there.
But now an ambitious project is under way to recover a treasure that Scottish archeologist Howard Murray describes as "Britain's Tutankhamen" - equivalent in importance to the treasure-laden tomb of the Egyptian pharoh that was discovered in 1922.
Philippa Glanvill, curator of metalwork, silver, and jewelry at Victoria and Albert Museum in London, said: "If this treasure is found, it will be without parallel in terms of discovery of a very obscure period of English decorative art. We know very little of the court art of Charles I. This could be a capsule of the most refined decorative art of a court that was noted for its taste."
A group of Scots who uncovered the story of the shipwreck through a painstaking piece of historical detective work have enlisted Barry Clifford, 48, an experienced American treasure hunter, to help them find the treasure with the use of modern technology.
Clifford gained fame among shipwreck enthusiasts in 1984 when he recovered the pirate ship Whydah off Cape Cod, Mass. After raids on 52 other ships, the Whydah carried a cargo whose value is estimated at $400 million US, and Clifford brought it all to the surface.
He said he hoped Charles' ship could be found as early as this summer.
"If not, we'll come back next year," he said. "The wreck is there, and we will find it."
The silver plate alone was valued in Charles' time at 100,000 pounds, the equivalent today of about $17 million Cdn. But the historical value of the ship and its cargo is impossible to calculate, experts say.