SS Gairsoppa The SS " Gairsoppa " was a British steam merchant ship built in Jarrow and launched in 1919 . After a long civilian career , she saw service during the Second World War . The name Gairsoppa was given in honour of the stunning waterfalls in Karnataka , India . She sailed with several convoys , before joining Convoy SL 64 . Running low on fuel , she left the convoy and headed for Galway , Ireland , until in 1941 a German U - boat torpedo ed and sank her . The wreck of the " Gairsoppa " was located in 2011 , and it was announced that an operation to recover its cargo of silver bullion , with an estimated value of £150 million , would begin in 2012 . On 18 July 2012 Odyssey Marine Exploration , of Tampa , Florida , reported that it had recovered 48 tons of silver , making this probably " the deepest , largest precious metal recovery in history " . Description . " Gairsoppa " was long , with a beam of . She had a depth of and a draught of . She was propelled by a 517 nhp triple expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller . The engine was built by Palmers . It had cylinders of , and diameter by stroke . It could propel the ship at . Career . Ordered by the British Shipping Controller as SS " War Roebuck " from Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of Jarrow , she was taken over during construction by the British - India Steam Navigation Company , and completed as SS " Gairsoppa . " " Gairsoppa " was completed in November 1919 . Her port of registry was Glasgow . She was allocated the United Kingdom Official Number 141924 . On 29 April 1930 , she ran aground at Fulta Point , India . She was refloated undamaged later that day . " Gairsoppa " used the Code Letters GCZB from 1934 . Sinking . Attached to convoy SL - 64 under master Gerald Hyland , she was returning from India to Britain in 1941 with a cargo of silver ingots , pig iron and tea . She joined the 8 knot convoy in Freetown , Sierra Leone , but while in a heavy storm and running low on coal off the coast of the neutral Republic of Ireland , " Gairsoppa " split off from the convoy and set course for Galway harbour at a reduced speed of 5 knots . A German Focke - Wulf Fw 200 aircraft circled her at 08 : 00 on 16 February , and at 22 . 30 , U - 101 under the command of Ernst Mengersen , spotted her . Torpedoed on the starboard side in No . 2 hold , she sank within 20 minutes ( Note : German logbooks kept in German time state she sank at 00 . 08 hours on February 17 , 1941 ) . Her last reported position was , southwest of Galway Bay . The wreck lies below the surface . It was thought that three lifeboats launched , but only one in the charge of the second officer , R . H . Ayres , with four Europeans and two Lascar s on board , made it away ; the rest of the crew was lost . By the 13th day only the second officer , the radio officer , and one seaman gunner remained alive . Ayres and his boat reached the Cornish coast two weeks later at Caerthillian Cove in the parish of Landewednack . The boat capsized before the Lizard lifeboat could reach them , and only the second officer was pulled from the sea alive . Two of the men aboard , Robert Frederick Hampshire ( Radio Officer ) , and an un - named Indian seaman , died trying to get ashore . They are buried at St Wynwallow ' s , Church Cove , Landewednack . Ayres was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire ( MBE ) for his attempts to rescue his fellow sailors ; he lived until 1992 . Memorial . Eleven crew members are commemorated on the 51st panel of the Tower Hill Memorial . Seventy lascars are commemorated on the Chittagong War Memorial . Recovery . In 1989 , the British government invited tenders to salvage the cargo and received just one , from Deepwater Recovery and Exploration Ltd . After a further tender in January 2010 , the government awarded a US company , Odyssey Marine Exploration , a two - year contract to find and salvage the 7 , 000 , 000 ounces of silver , which when the ship was lost was worth £600 , 000 ( $ 1 . 8 million US - $ million in 2018 ) , but hundreds of times that original amount now . On September 26 , 2011 , Florida - based Odyssey Marine Exploration confirmed the identity and location of the " Gairsoppa " after less than two months of searching . The wreck of the ship was found on the sea floor at a depth of nearly off the coast of Ireland . Footage of the wreck of the " Gairsoppa " was provided by the Odyssey Marine Exploration company on September 26 , 2011 and published at the NYTimes . com Odyssey Marine later reported that its recovery effort in 2012 yielded 1 , 218 silver ingots weighing approximately 1 . 4 million ounces , and that a further recovery effort had commenced operations on May 29 , 2013 . Odyssey Marine believes the site contains a residual 1 , 599 insured silver ingots and an unknown , possibly substantial , amount of uninsured silver . Odyssey will retain 80 % of the value of any recovered cargo , with the remainder going to HM Treasury . On July 23 , 2013 it was reported that a total of 61 tons of silver bullion had been recovered from the wreckage , with an estimated value of £137 million ( $ 210 million US ) .