Russian wreck carrying "$196 Billion" discovered

A South Korean salvage team has discovered the wreck of a Russian warship that was sunk in a naval battle 113 years ago and is believed to still contain 200 tons of gold bullion worth 150 trillion won, or $196 billion.The Russian Imperial Navy cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi was discovered at a depth of more than 1400 feet about 2km off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo.

A joint team made up of experts from South Korea, Britain and Canada discovered the wreck on Sunday and used two manned submersibles to capture footage of the vessel, with the company behind the discovery promising to use a percentage of the money to fund the construction of a railway line linking Russia and South Korea through North Korea.The video includes images of extensive damage to the vessel caused in an encounter with Japanese warships in May 1905, along with cannons and deck guns encrusted with marine growth, the anchor and the ship's wheel.

The identity of the 5800-ton warship was confirmed when the crew of one of the submersibles were able to read the name on the stern.

"The body of the ship was severely damaged by shelling, with its stern almost broken, and yet the ship's deck and sides are well preserved", the Seoul-based Shinil Group said in a statement.Launched in St Petersburg in August 1883, the Dmitrii Donskoi was designed as a commerce raider and fitted with both a full set of sails and a coal-fired engine. The ship spent most of its career operating in the Mediterranean and the Far East and was deployed to Imperial Russia's Second Pacific Squadron after the Japanese fleet destroyed the majority of Russia's naval power in the Far East in the opening salvoes of the 1904 Russo-Japanese War.

The squadron was intercepted by the Japanese fleet in May 1905 and decimated at the Battle of Tsushima. Assigned to protect the transport ships at the rear of the formation, the Dmitrii Donskoi managed to evade the attacking force, but was later intercepted steaming for the Russian port of Vladivostok.Around 60 of the 591 crew were killed and further 120 injured before Captain Ivan Lebedev anchored off the island of Ulleungdo and ordered his men ashore. The following morning, May 29, 1905, the ship was scuttled offshore and the crew were taken prisoner by Japanese landing parties. Captain Lebedev later died of his wounds.


There are reports that the Dmitrii Donskoi was carrying the fleet's funds and went down with 5500 boxes of gold bars and coins still in its holds to stop the Japanese seizing it. Shinil Group estimates the gold would have a value today of $196 billion.

The company says it is aiming to raise the ship in October or November. Half of any treasure found aboard the vessel would be handed over to the Russian government, the company said, while 10 per cent of the remainder will be invested in tourism projects on Ulleungdo Island, including a museum dedicated to the vessel.A portion of the rest of the treasure will be donated to joint projects to promote development in north-east Asia, the company said, such as a railway line from Russia to South Korea through North Korea.

Ka-chingggggggggggg

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12091274&ref=NZH_FBpage

This is utter drivel. Anyone who believes the Russian government would have (a) paid their naval crews in gold, (b) sent bullion by a dangerous seas route into a major naval battle, or (c) put all their Faberge eggs into one basket needs their head examining.

And what makes you think you know better than the salvage team who likely have numerous experts and historians on the matter on board?😂

You mean like the british sending Koh-I-noor by Royal Mail? The Spanish sending vast gold trains through british raiding territory, the Iraqis leaving billions in the middle of a war zone?
It’s hardly with out president.

And what makes you think you know better than the salvage team who likely have numerous experts and historians on the matter on board?😂

You fail to take into account the far safer, far, far faster, overland route, entirely on Russian territory, via the railway to Vladivostok.

When was the last time you knew a government to make rational choices?

This vessel, a cruiser, displaced under 6,000 tons. $196 billion in gold would weigh almost 5,000 tons (at $40,000 per kilogram).

Does it pass the sanity check?

I could not possibly say, aside from ones math skills being of dubious repute I am merely relaying what the NZH and by extension the salvage team are saying. It would also stand to reason that they might be somewhat better informed on the matter than someone on the other wise of the world speaking off the top of their head, no?

Journalists's research skills are often so lax that they are unable to know even half as much as someone speaking from their own knowledge of the matter from the far side of the world. This mob's estimate of the value of the gold is double what other papers have reported, for a start, which calls into question their ability to read copy.

Aside from my previous objections, what you are not being told is that this is the third time that the wreck has been 'discovered' since 2001. The first lot claimed there were 14,000 tons of gold (a preposterous 9% of all mined gold, apparently). On an 8,000 ship. Another red flag.

Its estimate of the value based on its claimed weight is out by a factor of 25 (200 tons being worth only $8 billion).

This story is one of ridiculous hope triumphing over reasonable expectation, and of the historians profiting (as they have from each 'discovery', by free marine surveys) from the gullibility of the greedy gamblers.

No, I suggest you start to analyse and think for yourself, avoid repeating silly claims and not trust this sort of nonsense, lest you appear to be a peddler of fake news.

1) sharing a news story is not ‘repeating silly claims’ the nzh is not like the dm

Every time you share something that is incorrect, whether the error is deliberate or accidental, you magnify the effect of the untruth.

Sharing a factually nonsensical story is repeating a silly claim ($196 billion!!!), whether or not you comment on it.

The standards of journalism exhibited here (research, checking and responsibility being singularly lacking) demonstrate that the NZH is very like the DM.

Except you haven’t shown a shred of proof that it is ‘untrue’ you have merely pontificated on your limited opinion on the matter.

Pray tell how exactly YOU are a more respectable source?