Scuba Geek

Scuba Diving Treasure Hunters say there is more Treasure at Elba December 24, 2005

Posted by Andy Carroll in : News, WreckDiving , trackback

A group of diving enthusiasts who found sunken treasure in the sea off the island of Elba this year are convinced there is more and are preparing for a new expedition in 2006, says Ansa

The coins they found on their earlier scuba diving expedition will be displayed in an exhibition in Portoferraio, one of Elba’s ports.

Enrico Cappelletti, a writer and diving enthusiast who spearheaded the initiative after extensive research, thinks there is more treasure to find;

“We’ve done tests that showed there are more coins and jewels about a metre and a half under the seabed. According to the records, there should be at least 50,000 coins still to be found.” Capelletti said it had been impossible to retrieve all the treasure during the two-week mission in October because divers had spent much of their time clearing up the mess left by a gang of English plunderers five years ago .

The ‘English Plunderers’ were a team of scuba divers who had bought the details of the location of the Polluce, which sank in 1841, and had secretly visited the wreck and virtually destroyed it in the quest to find the treasure. The end result was they found around 2000 coins and a few jewels. They were arrested by detectives when they tried to sell the coins at an auction in London during 2000.

The Polluce is located about 5 miles out from Elba in a depth of over 10o mtrs. All the treasure found is the property of the Italian authorities.