In December 1940, the ship began its last voyage in Calcutta , India, loaded with a cargo that consisted of pig iron, tea and silver, among other things. The ship joined a slow convoy in Freetown , Sierra Leone on January 31 . The convoy got caught in a heavy storm, the Gairsoppa had to leave the unit due to lack of coal and set course for Galway , Western Ireland. On February 17, 1941, the ship was hit by a torpedo from the German submarine U 101 . Under the machine gun fire of the submarine, 83 crew members and two gunners left the sinking ship. Only the second officer Richard Hamilton Ayres reached the coast after 13 days in a lifeboat.
Wreckage
On September 26, 2011, the treasure hunt company Odyssey Marine Exploration announced to the public that they had made the largest underwater treasure find ever. In international waters 300 miles (480 km) off Ireland at a depth of 4,700 meters, the wreck of the Gairsoppa was located with a remote-controlled submarine. According to a contemporary report, the British cargo ship sunk by the Germans in 1941 during World War II is said to have up to 198 tons of silver bars on board as the most valuable cargo, currently worth an estimated 36 million US dollars . In 2010, the treasure hunt company won the right from the British government to salvage the ship and to keep 80 percent of the treasure. 20 percent go to the British crown. In 2013, Odyssey Marine Exploration retrieved a further 1,574 silver bars worth around 26 million euros from the wreck and thus completed the recovery of the treasure. Except for 25, all of the 2817 silver bars originally loaded were recovered.
