61 Tons Of Silver Found In Shipwreck Off Coast Of Ireland

The SS Gairsoppa, a 412-foot, steel, British cargo ship, went down during WWII after being shot by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland in February 1941. This month, a Florida-based salvage company Odessey went down in the depths of the water to discover its precious haul -- 61 tons of silver valued at $34 million, the CS Monitor reported. Under an agreement with United Kingdom Department of Transport, the company is allowed to keep 80 percent of its findings.

"This was an extremely complex recovery which was complicated by the sheer size and structure of the SS Gairsoppa as well as its depth nearly three miles below the surface of the North Atlantic," Greg Stemm, chief executive officer at Odessey, wrote in a news release. "To add to the complications, the remaining insured silver was stored in a small compartment that was very difficult to access."

The treasure is the largest to be recovered at the depth at which it was found, the Huffington Post reported. Odessey launched a mission to recover the precious metals known to be in the ship in 2012. The team recovered most of the metals in two dives. Odessey said it has now recovered 99 percent of the insured silver in the wreckage. The group discovered the whereabouts of the ship in 2011.

Odessey has had issues in the past, however, with keeping metals it's recovered. The same group found $500 million in gold and silver in the Black Swan ship, which sunk off the coast of Portugal during the Napoleanic Wars, in 2007. After legal proceedings in the U.S., the company was ordered to return the haul to Spain.

"It's a dramatic business," Odyssey's co-founder and chief executive Greg Stemm said.