Gold Rush The $4 Million Question

A gold rush shipwreck has been discovered after 150 years with a $5million (£4million) treasure trove.

The loot has been been found at the lesser of the body of water, shipwreck hunters merits.

The SS Pacific vanished beneath the waves in 1875 while sailing from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to San Francisco, in the US country of California.

At the time, the Cassiar Aureate Rush was sweeping northern BC, and the Pacific was loaded with some $180,000 (£ 148,000) of gold – an estimated $iv.88million (£4m) in today’s coin.

But she collided with the sailing ship, Orpheus, and sank with her entire cargo – and the loss of some 325 souls – south of Cape Flattery, Washington.

Information technology was the deadliest maritime disaster in the history of the western US.

Now Matthew McCauley and Jeff Hummel, two experts from the Northwest Shipwreck Brotherhood, believe they’ve found the lost send.

Philip Drew, the grouping's spokesperson, said: “The discovery was more of a slow realisation than an a-ha moment.

“The site required shut and repeated examination with side browse sonar lines and remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) dives to gather plenty data and evidence.

“Jeff Hummel and the team haven't had much fourth dimension to take a step back and relish the moment yet. The holidays will provide an opportunity for u.s.a. all to slow downwardly and celebrate.

“We're also very much continued to the stories of all those who perished on the fateful day in 1875 which tempers our commemoration of this discovery.

“And at that place's still years of hard work ahead to excavate the wreck, taking the appropriate care to recover and preserve artefacts.”

One of the telltale signs is the discovery of two round depressions in the seabed, a curt distance from the rest of the wreck.

These are thought to be the steamer’s paddle wheels.

Mr Drew said: “Historical accounts draw the Pacific partially breaking up at the surface, so we expected to find paddle wheels independent from the rest of the send.

“Sure enough, nosotros were able to image both paddle wheels with sonar and view the uncovered portion of them with the ROV in a nearby debris field.”

The team aren't making the precise location of the wreck public, though a judge has now granted exclusive salvage rights.

But they gave a rough location, saying it lies some 23 miles offshore at a depth of between 1,000 and 2,000ft.

The team hopes to open a museum dedicated to artefacts recovered from the wreck, though there volition be a window of time for descendants to assert ownership in court.

Mr Drew said: “For our region of the world – the west declension of the The states – the Pacific represents the virtually deadly maritime disaster in our history.

“We also believe the wreck is in an incredible country of preservation and and so we expect and promise that the artefacts we recover will take considerable historical significance.”

The Pacific was captained by Jefferson Davis Howell, who commanded a insubordinate gunboat in the US Civil War, and whose brother-in-constabulary, Jefferson Davis, was onetime Confederate President.

Simply two people survived the disaster; he was amongst the expressionless.

Others aboard included some of the aristocracy of the Pacific Northwest, gold miners going domicile for winter and 41 people identified only as “Chinamen”.

Since children didn’t pay to sail, they were probable undercounted, and a number of additional passengers had rushed aboard at the last moment without buying a ticket.

No man remains accept been detected at the wreck site yet, and its discoverers call back information technology’s unlikely any will exist, given the depth of the water and the strong currents in the area.

The Orpheus, which survived the initial standoff, had steered into the Pacific’s path after its second mate mistook her lights for those of the Greatcoat Flattery lighthouse.

She also wrecked afterward that night, though her crew made it ashore.