Billion Dollar Wreck

[Chemanic]

Books confirmed? Books confirm nothing. Human beings confirm. Books once said the world was flat. I admire nobody more than Mel fisher but prior to discovering the Atocha, and afterwards, he faced great scrutiny.

"Although he knew there was a fortune to be retrieved, Fisher could not have known what his quest would cost him over the next seven years: nearly $5 million, an SEC investigation, accusations of fraud, a bitter fight with two greedy governments and four lives, including his eldest son's," (1978 Washington post excerpt )

I do not know bayerle beyond what I have seen on the show, but the fact is, that people who invest in ventures such as this know that it is a long shot at best.

I guess what disturbs me is that people speak of these ventures and the people involved as if they have some personal insight. If that is the case then please, share that. I would be very interested in what is really known . Hyperbole aside, who has really devoted the time and energy to best understand the Republic? Certainly not me. I simply came to this forum to find out how the diver had an out of air emergency, and thought this forum would be the best place to get the scuttlebutt.

 

[Jared0425]

The books that confirmed the valuable cargo on the Atocha came from Spanish logs and banks of that time period. Go to Fisher's website and the organization has a list of books dating back centuries. Fishers hunt for the Atocha was scrutinized because it ate up much of his wealth up unto the point he located the wreck. Then he was demonized by the press for being a wreck stripper and breaking a contract with the State of Florida due to his permit he filed years before when he thoughtbthe Atocha was in state waters... It wasn't.

The location of the Republic was known despite his claims he found it. If (and that's a mighty big if) the Republic was carrying such a valuable cargo, do you think that hard hat divers and wreckers in the ensuing decades would not have made salvage attempts? Now by the 1930's I would assume living memory would have faded out but nevertheless if there was treasure on the wreck it should be a hotspot like the Doria but it never was.

All us wreck hunters know one another through various people and organizations. Fisher, Wilbanks, Chatterton, Mr. HowardE above us, Gentile, and others have voiced their skepticism on this subject. I know firsthand how this guy must feel because we do the same thing, except we know that there isn't many valuables on the wrecks we locate.

Now the diving accident that was portrayed on the show, can't answer if it is real or not, but I would bet that it wasn't due to the facts my first post listed.

 

[Chemanic]

Please don't take my posts as argument. I get the feeling this is how it is portrayed. It should be noted that I know nothing about the history of the republic beyond what has been portrayed due to this show.
Perhaps someone would enlighten me on the previous salvage efforts and methods utilized.
Professional salvors can be divided into different classes. Money makers. Highly engineered. Opportunity hunters. There are all types out there. Perhaps previous efforts we're suspect?

 

[fishpicturesbybob]

It is a hard show to watch containing huge amounts of drama and very little actual diving which is the only thing of interest to me so I only watch recordings that I can fast forward to the diving elements and skip the rest. There is no way a single diver is getting into this wreck. They need real equipment to get inside this pile of junk and the cost to mount equipment to pull the wreck apart is very expensive and since the show is nothing but enertainment our chance of seeing gold is zero. My opinion is that the bends was just a dramatic element. It has gottem bad enouph now that I may not even skip forward to the diving elements it is best to skip this show.

 

[Doby45]

It has gottem bad enouph now that I may not even skip forward to the diving elements it is best to skip this show.

I concur. It is more of a "docu-drama" about his life than it is about a salvage operation. Of the hour long show they actually show about 5min worth of the salvage and the rest is just a bunch of crappy editing and producing.

 

[imagixx]

I could not agree more with you. I was telling my wife how crappy it is that EVERY shows does that now with the 3min recap of the last 5min every time they go to commercial break. Damn hour long shows only have 20min of actual content. I also fast forward through all the crap on this show regarding him and his old lady and the "killin" and all that.. I really like the Salvage Master on the show and he seems to me to be the only knowledgeable person on the boat. STILL can not figure out what happened with the second diver and his lack of ability to bail out to one of the two other gas options. And the whole "this is a secret ship wreck that the gubment knew about and kept it hush hush" is laughable. If the government knew about this wreck and it had the gold on it that he claims it does they would have sent the Navy Salvage team down for that junk 50yrs ago.

You should read my book The Tsar's Treasure, available on Amazon - which covers all of these issues, cargo secrecy, the research. And, we now have confirmed the US Navy monies cargo, $800,000 1909 value, professionally appraised at $200,000,000 today. We believe that there is a total Russian gold shipment of $25,000,000 1909 value. If you don't think the research in the book is enough, and you have serious player money, there's more. Thanx for the thoughts, and for watching.

 

[imagixx]

There is no gold on this wreck. It's been salvaged many times by several different expeditions, including a large commercial salvage company.

You are thinking of the SS Republic, a civil war era paddle wheeler off of Georgia worked by Odyssey. RMS Republic was NEVER worked (for a number of reasons), as proven by our several detailed surveys. You can see evidence of salvages on wrecks when they have been worked. No excavation exists and the wreck was pristine when I found her in 1981. Read my book The Tsar's Treasure upon which the research is based. We have now conformed the US Navy coin-money shipment, $800,000 (1909 value) nw professionally appraised at $200,000,000. We believe the total Russian shipment is $25,000,000 (1909 value). You can do the extrapolation. Thanx for the thought, and for watching.

 

[imagixx]

I finally watched the show and I was disappointed. The first thing about was this Marty guy who scammed investors out of millions for a wreck that many think doesn't hold any value. He destroys his marriage, attempts or succeeds in shooting his former friend along with harassing and bribing him. Then has the balls to scam people again with this show. Being a wreck hunter, I know the determination along with the money and skill to search for lost wrecks. I know 99% of them a worthless in monatery value but I have been bitten by the bug and will continue to hunt them. People like this guy gives us a bad name.

Secondly the diver getting "bent" is ridiculous. Any of us who has experience with a hard hat knows full well to switch to back gas with the valve on your right. He'll you can use the defogger blast to breath is necessary. When they supposedly sent the backup diver in, he was not geared up and how was he going to help the diver? I did not see another umbilical in his hand to switch out with the supposed blocked or unoperating umbilical. It also seemed funny that surface support was not going through a check list to find out what was wrong or to fast change banks. Then what the heck was the guy doing in a 280ft dive with no mixed gas experience at all? No salvage company I know would even consider doing that lest they get a massive lawsuit if something was to go wrong which apparently they did. This cannot be for real as many people who work in the industry who have seen the show are appalled at the way they are operating things. If the diver was in that bad of shape, I would assume that the boat rolling the cameras around the main salvage vessel would take him to the nearest land for medical treatment instead of him taking up the entire chamber for 70+ hours while another diver is "working" 300ft down an may need it for emergency.

Third, the wreck seems to be in worse shape than the depth charged and torpedoed Lusitania. The divers descend down to the wreck with nothing but a basket and a ROV. What work is going to be done on a wreck that is so badly collapsed that there is only 18 inches of space between decks and the supposed gold in near the bottom deck? I would be taking torches and explosives down to blow that thing wide open and them sending divers down to move debris out of the way or a clam bucket dredge to break through the decks like Odyssey.

Fourth and finally many know that this wreck has no billions in gold on it. Even the scam artist called it a rumor, so he decides to waste more money and time to hunt something that is not there. He failed in the 80's, wreck divers have probably dove the wreck numerous times after the discovery and pulled any loose artifacts off. I won't even start on the conspiracy part.

It's not that I do not appreciate a show that has something each one us does along with a quest for riches, but I find it insulting on how fake this show is just to get viewers to watch it. The History channel has sure went down the tubes in the last decade or so. Now what is absolutely awesome on that show is the wreck model. I want to build one!

The wreck was pristine when I found her in 1981, no depth charge damage, no wire dragging. Also, the professionals who have read my book The Tsar's Treasure (available on Amazon) would disagree with you. We have confirmed at least the US Navy money, $800,000 face value (1909), professionally appraised at $200,000,000 today, and we believe there is $25,000,000 in Russian gold aboard (1909 value). You can do the extrapolation to current value. I made my book available for critical examination. As for vetting my research, the US Department of Justices filed a claim for all the gold aboard the vessel "based on Mr. Bayerle's good-faith research." History Channel, too, vetted my research before putting on the show - not wanting to fall into another Oak Island fantasy/debacle.To quote Winston Churchill (President of the Board of Trade at the time and the decision maker to NOT hold an inquiry into the ship's loss), "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." But, thanx for the comment and for watching.

 

[imagixx]

The books that confirmed the valuable cargo on the Atocha came from Spanish logs and banks of that time period. Go to Fisher's website and the organization has a list of books dating back centuries. Fishers hunt for the Atocha was scrutinized because it ate up much of his wealth up unto the point he located the wreck. Then he was demonized by the press for being a wreck stripper and breaking a contract with the State of Florida due to his permit he filed years before when he thoughtbthe Atocha was in state waters... It wasn't.

The location of the Republic was known despite his claims he found it. If (and that's a mighty big if) the Republic was carrying such a valuable cargo, do you think that hard hat divers and wreckers in the ensuing decades would not have made salvage attempts? Now by the 1930's I would assume living memory would have faded out but nevertheless if there was treasure on the wreck it should be a hotspot like the Doria but it never was.

All us wreck hunters know one another through various people and organizations. Fisher, Wilbanks, Chatterton, Mr. HowardE above us, Gentile, and others have voiced their skepticism on this subject. I know firsthand how this guy must feel because we do the same thing, except we know that there isn't many valuables on the wrecks we locate.

Now the diving accident that was portrayed on the show, can't answer if it is real or not, but I would bet that it wasn't due to the facts my first post listed.

Try my book, The Tsar's Treasure (on Amazon). I specifically made the book available for critical examination. Then we can have an intelligent discussion. And we have recently confirmed the US Navy coin-money $800,000 (1909 value) shipment, professionally appraised at $200,000,000 today. Also, the details of RMS Republic's location were NOT known and concealed. That information is on my website Contradictory Locations | RMS - Republic But, thanx for the comment and for watching.

 

[imagixx]

The show Billion Dollar Wreck has terrible editing, it's almost too hard to watch with all the choppy cuts to so many events, murder, treasure, decompression illness, hanging dialogue. The episodes, like most all reality shows, overlap minutes redundant footage after each commercial break too, why do they do this? Do the producers think we forgot what we saw 2 minutes ago?

By the looks of the wreck from this show and other sources there would need to be a Herculean effort to move the crushed decks and debris to even get near the possible location of any gold. Assume you would need the capabilities of the US Navy's salvage technology or at least a commercial saturation dive team to make this at all possible. You will never get the job done on 30 minute dives with one diver. Just my observations. Thx

Yes, a Herculean effort will indeed be needed "to move the crushed decks and debris to even get near the possible location of any gold." We are planning this for 2018 with the appropriate tools. Thanx for the comment, and for watching.