Port Nicholson: the wreck at 3 billion dollars ...

American treasure hunters have announced that they have located the wreckage of a British freighter, loaded with a cargo of platinum valued at three billion dollars, which had been torpedoed during the Second World War, reports the Boston Globe.

Maine-based Sub Sea Research has spotted Port Nicholson lying on the ocean floor about 50 km from the city of Provincetown, the newspaper said.

Port Nicholson was on its way from Halifax, Canada, to New York when torpedoed on June 16, 1942 by submarine U-87. Four people were killed in the shipwreck, but 87 had been saved. Sub Sea Research had located the treasure in August 2008 using an underwater robot.

According to treasure seekers, at least 30 cases scattered throughout the wreck must contain ingots of platinum, a precious metal whose prices have risen exponentially since the early 2000s. “There is a strong possibility that there is also has about 10 tons of gold and maybe some industrial diamonds in the bottom, ”Greg Brooks, an official at Sub Sea Research, told the Boston Globe.