Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has travelled the seas and oceans on ships. Vessels of countless description have been utilized for transport, trade, exploration, piracy and war. A great many of them were lost at sea due to faulty navigation, human conflict, and above all, severe weather. UNESCO estimates that there are more than 3,000,000 shipwrecks in the waters of this planet from all eras. Many of these time capsules carried enormous amounts of treasure, particularly European ships from the Colonial period which lasted from the late 1400s to the mid-1800s. Larger Asian trading vessels and some more modern warships from the 19th and 20th Century also held extremely valuable commodity cargoes. 

 

Although crude salvage techniques have always been employed on shallow wrecks, the majority of the cargo on sunken vessels was deemed lost forever until the mid 20th Century when the invention of the aqualung exposed the underwater world through scuba diving. Since that time, there has been a steady advance of undersea commercial technology so that it is now possible to locate and salvage virtually any shipwreck regardless of its location or depth. Yet the vast majority of these treasure troves still lie in their watery graves waiting to be discovered .....

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Still more treasures await buried on land. Metal and void detecting machinery is steadily improving and has uncovered thousands of tombs, small caches and other treasure troves worldwide. Daily news is filled with reports of these finds. However, these devices are still not viable for locating deeper targets. The most valuable hidden hoards are the result of the accumulation of wartime plunder. Many such large caches buried by looters during wartime could not be recovered for various reasons. These tend to be in very well-concealed repositories requiring extensive knowledge and research to locate. Quite a few successful recoveries of these stolen riches have been documented but the majority of lost wartime loot is still out there. Recently, new technologies involving the use of satellite photography as well as improvements of old detection practices are greatly diminishing risks in this field. Opportunity awaits ....