Edmonds01a.JPG
Shipwrecks at Edmonds Underwater Park. (Image courtesy Scott Boyd)

Could sunken treasure be a fix for Washington budget woes?

BY Chris Sullivan  on October 12, 2011 @ 2:57 am (Updated: 6:16 am - 10/12/11 )

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You might have heard about this earlier in the week. American treasure hunting company Odyssey Marine Exploration recently found two British ships full of silver that were sunk by the Germans.

The company was hired by the British government, and it turns out the Brits are actively trying to find a bunch of treasure ships they lost at sea as a way to boost their budgets.

Is that an answer to Washington's budget problems?

The silver haul from those two ships alone could be over $200 million. While no ships were torpedoed off the Washington Coast, hundreds of them have gone down in bad weather over the last 200 years. A lot of them near the Columbia River on the Southwest Coast, and an even bigger number of them off the Northwest tip of state.

"The boats would miss the Tatoosh Lighthouse, and they would keep sailing north," says local dive expert Scott Boyd. "They would pile up on the rocks on southwest Vancouver Island. There are hundreds and hundreds of wrecks up there."

Boyd, who is with NW Wreck Dives has been diving wrecks around Puget Sound and the world for about ten years.

He's written the book on where to go and what to see, whether it's on the bottom of Lake Washington or in Elliott Bay or in Puget Sound.

Boyd said there is one gold ship out there that has had hunters searching the Northwest coast for years.

The Pacific went down in 1875. It was a gold rush ship heading from British Columbian to San Francisco. There were several hundred people on board. Only one survived.

"As is typical with treasure hunting," Boyd said. "The size of the treasure grows with the age." Some estimates put the haul at $40 million, though the only confirmed gold on board was $80,000 in the safe.

Most of the wrecks off the Washington Coast were full of lumber and furs. So the chances of cashing in here, Boyd said, are slim.

"You start talking around the world, and there are some very famous ships that have gone down with large cargoes of gold that have never been discovered. They're there but not up here."

And even if there were, he said, the chances of finding one and making money on the find aren't very good.

"My understanding of most treasure hunting ventures is that they never actually make any money. I know the search for the Pacific, several companies have spent millions and millions of dollars, and I'm not sure there's millions of dollars to be gained."

I checked with the governor's office, the office of financial management,and department of revenue, and none of them said the state has looked at treasure hunting as a novel way to fix the budget.

Watch shipwreck hunt video:

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (14)


  • Add A Comment

  • Country_Dog wrote...
    Awesome Idea
    October 12, 2011 5:28 am
    Perhaps we can hire another 100 state-employees with guaranteed pensions to comb our beaches with metal detectors looking for nickels and quarters that people dropped in the sand, or require movie theaters to search their seat cushions and floors for loose change and tax it at 100%.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    Another quick fix
    October 12, 2011 5:53 am
    How about with this, a substainable spending/budget. STOP sending this to the next generation on this and that quick fixes. This type of deal should be a small one time perc, NOT a part of the regular budget fix. Can you wash. people be responsible ????? Thats like draining your house equity when the market is high, then complain, I did not know better, its their fault.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Jason wrote...
    Solution??
    October 12, 2011 6:19 am
    The solution to the state budget problem is to stop spending money you don't have. There really needs to be a cleaning in Olympia.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    I sincerely, and I do mean sincerely,
    October 12, 2011 7:12 am
    hope this idea was not thought up by someone paid with my tax dollars. Stupidity is endemic in government and we all accept that. This is in the realm of crackhead fantasy. How's about cut spending and focus on CORE FUNCTIONS?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • MarinerDaddy wrote...
    So this...............
    October 12, 2011 8:15 am
    is what our state government has come to. Just spend, spend, spend and hope to hit the lottery to pay for everything.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • jpetro wrote...
    D B
    October 12, 2011 8:21 am
    Cooper
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    I thought that the Decriminalize Weed bunch
    October 12, 2011 8:38 am
    thought selling weed would cure the states money problems!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • artimus wrote...
    hnuh, take your pill - your knee is jerking again
    October 12, 2011 10:15 am
    Hey genius, (And I quote) "I checked with the governor's office, the office of financial management,and department of revenue, and none of them said the state has looked at treasure hunting as a novel way to fix the budget." Unbundle your little girly panties, Hnuh. Nothing to get self-righteous about here. You can shelve your chronic chest beating and incredibly tiresome rap until the next (non)story comes along...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • newsguysully wrote...
    Hey artimus
    October 12, 2011 10:28 am
    From the newsroom. Please keep the comments about the story. If you didn't understand the point of the story, don't resort to personal attacks. It's okay to have fun with news. Relax.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • artimus wrote...
    newsguy
    October 12, 2011 11:30 am
    Your comments regarding personal attacks are duly noted. I'll conduct myself with greater decorum in the future. As I seem to temporarily have the ear of someone in a position of authority perhaps I can make the following suggestion. Can you kindly pass along my request to make a change to the process that MYNW uses when appending comments to an 'ongoing story'? When a new story is written about an ongoing topic MYNW seems to append all past comments to the story rather than starting fresh. For example, let’s say Amanda Knox arrives back in Seattle and MYNW writes a piece about the event. The comments following the piece often (always?) date back to the start of the story. It makes it arduous to wade through the past comments to get to the current comments. I'm doing a poor job of explaining the issue so please feel free to follow up if I haven't been clear. I’ve seen other commenters make the same request but no one from MYNW ever seems to respond. Perhaps it’s a limitation of your systems or maybe there’s just no one tasked with being concerned about such things. If there is someone you can think of that would be interested in the feedback I’d be grateful if you’d pass it along. Thanks!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }