Sunk with 400 bars of gold - The Sinking and Salvage of HMS Edinburgh
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
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Sources:
Corelli Barnett, Engage the Enemy
Glyn Prysor, Citizen Sailors
www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chr...
Ric Wharton, The Salvage of the Century
Picture/Video Credits:
www.artstation.com/artwork/4b...
Gold from the Deep - The Salvage of the Century • Gold from the Deep - T... 
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Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video!
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@@Crushnaut dont trust this ad if you ask any dr they will tell you they can’t diagnose you over the phone and you have to come in they can get in trouble doing that
HMS Edinburgh is in my port , with 64%wr she is in good hands :)
You've got to admit the sheer balls of the cruisers captain to take on 3 destroyers while severely damaged and actually put one out of action
Sitting out the fight when you have the largest guns while your escort is fighting against the odds to protect your ship would be crazy. What captain wouldn't try? If they did't they could of all or mostly have been sunk.
Balls the size of her namesake City.
Even so a destroyer is no match against a CL.
the cruiser:heavily damaged
also the cruiser:"heavy damage and against 3 destroyers,NO PROBLEM
@@michaeld.uchiha9084 Tell that to Taffy 3
It's rare that a ship's "afterlife" is as interesting as her years of service.
Can you even imagine the courage required to venture in an ocean like that, knowing other guys are out there to send you to the bottom. Absolutely incredible.
Deep ocean that is incredibly dark blue and freezing deadly cold! One can only imagine the fear the sailors had after the ship was damaged let alone before being attacked
Imagine the courage of the merchant marine sailor with no way to fight back. My father was one of those in the Pacific. He could have sat out the war in a state side job, but volunteered for the merchant marine service instead. These guys were the unsung heroes of the war, and they got no service benefits after the war.
Imagine how they seal the hatches when your hit . They don't tell you but navy seals water compartments meaning if your hit you have no way to get out of many parts of the ship ..
My father used to be an offshore saturation diver so a few of the divers here are old acquaintances of his (small community back in the 80s). A few points below:
-The divers were all given golden necklaces with little golden diving helmets fashioned on them as a thank you
-there was apparently a ceremony in Murmansk to return the Soviet share of the gold with a big lockbox with the gold in it, which was to be publicly opened. Except some sinister person superglued the lock shut, holding up the ceremony while they tried to get it open
-the 5 missing bars may not be on the ocean floor
I was thinking the whole time "Oh gee I wonder where the 5 missing bars went." I'd very much doubt they just left them behind :D
A lot of debris down there, you know? It took them weeks just to find the gold that was there. Might have "missed" a couple. Or they may have "fallen out" of the ship as it sunk. Maybe lost forever.
@@joelellis7035 Nothing is truly lost forever. It's just delayed for a long time. The Titanic wasn't found until 73 years after she sunk, and the Swedish crown jewel Vasa, wasn't raised until 333 years after she sunk outside the Swedish Harbor.
@@Arterexius finding a full sized ship is a little easier than finding a ft long bar on the ocean floor…
Just saying.
Also pretty sure it’s more like it’s “missing” or “tactically acquired”
@@Ephraim32 It is right now, but just because we don't have the tech to do it right now, doesn't mean it won't be possible. That was the point I tried to make.
Can you imagine the guys involved in the diving operation walk up to a bank and saying “I would like to make a deposit of 431 gold bars from 1941”
Oh don't mind the armed platoon behind me, it's just my security escort.
HMS Edinburgh: If I'm going down, I'm taking one of you with me
When your guns work and you're the biggest dog in the fight, you can't sit it out. Not even when you can only turn left like you were a NASCAR driver....
Cringe
@@mrwhips3623 what's cringe about this?
I am constantly surprised by the bravery of the men on these little ships always charging head-on into ships that outclass them. Massive respect for all the mariners out there.
To be fair, most of the crew would have no idea of the "bigger picture" of what was going on - they'd be busy at their stations in a turret or engine room etc. The Royal Navy had to ban its captains from ramming German ships, which they had a penchant for doing early in the war. The captain would win himself a VC and the RN would lose a ship and its crew.
For those wondering how the gold was split this is an abstract from a New York Times article in 13 October 1981: "45 percent - more than $36-million, at gold's current market price of about $450 an ounce - went to the British salvage company, Jessop Marine Recoveries Ltd. From that, the company will have to deduct an estimated $2 million in costs and then meet British Government levies amounting to more than 90 percent of its net profit.
The Governments divided the remainder on a basis that paralleled the original insurance obligations - a third to Britain, two-thirds to the Soviet Union."
Thanks for bringing facts to the comment section. Most people just spouting off conspiracies or random anti-government sentiments.
Am I misunderstanding the situation, or was that gold not going toward lend-lease war supplies for the USSR? I suppose my question is why did they get 2/3 of the money? Also, are the British government levies taxes on what the salvage company made?
Could you imagine going through the effort and all that and giving away 90% of your profits? I mean that's after paying for everything and all that. What you have you left when it's all said and done with books balanced; 90% was levied by government?
@@jonny-b4954 You still have a huge ROI. That's why they did it. They knew before hand how it was to be split.
I read the book (Goldfinder) years ago and Jessop screwed up big time. Instead of landing the gold in Norway and selling their share there it was taken straight back into UK waters. That expensive boo-boo was what attracted the 90% tax
With current gold prices, it is worth more than 300.000.000 US Dollars today
Gotta give them credit for the heroic return trickshot. The minesweepers charging in almost had me in tears. Damn legends.
Govt: We need divers to help recover our gold.
Divers: Cool, where is the wreck?
Govt: The um … *cough* The Arctic ocean *cough*
Divers: WHAT
And in Soviet waters.....
Divers: Its where???
@@enderw.1724
In 244m depth
Divers: Where?!
It wasn’t in the Arctic Ocean, it was damn close though.
I worked with one of the divers and one of the supervisors who dived on the Edinburgh when I worked as a commercial diver. Cutting into the hull was very risky as they had to cut into the bomb room with no idea if there were explosives behind where they were cutting with burning gear. Key hole cut, feel around make a slightly bigger hole feel around… hairy stuff.
Govt: And you have to cut into a bomb room of an active warship sank while carrying loads of explosive with it.
Divers: a bomb what?
UK Gov: "We found the gold!!"
Soviet Gov: "OUR gold comrade."
Yeah, having spent it already and not helping with the salvage, I didn't understand why they would get a share of it, other than being intimidating uncooperative bullies.
@@matehavlik4559 Sums up the behaviour of Russia too pretty well…
Well, no, it belong to the Brits as payment for material goods they sent to the Soviets.
Spanish Republicans who sent their gold to Moscow for safekeeping:
[deafening silence as they ceased to exist]
@@matehavlik4559 They're still the same. 2022
A work college told me the following story on this subject. His brother had been a diver on the North sea oil rigs and one of a small number who contracted to participated on this expedition. Retrieved gold was stored in a reinforced room that had a combination locked door. KGB security men took records of all gold bars as they landed on deck and escorted them to the secured storage room. On the trip back to Leningrad one of the divers thought it funny to superglue the lock tumblers. On arrival in Port the lock tumblers would not budge. All personnel on the ship were immediately taken into custody, questioned and taken to a KGB lockup. After entry into the room and after all the gold could be accounted for they were released. The divers had the costs of repairing the ship deducted form their percentage of the golds value. The divers not involved were not happy with the individual who had glued the locks.
Haha i made the same comment in my own post, but in a lot less detail. Cool to see the superglue story come up again!
Held one of the gold bars thanks to Rick Wharton of 2W. Magic story. A second dive after years later was carried out and further gold lifted.
And the 5 left? What's your theory? How heavy was it?
Yep. Watched the video.
so, you're saying that there are still 5 bars of gold down there 🤔?
ferb, i know what we are going to do today
No, the divers found a clever way to hide and Liberate the 5 bars, I think 5 is fair.
possible, but it could also be that they were swept away from the torpedo impacts.
I wonder if the 1942 crew took them discretely while leaving the ship?
Maybe they were previously stolen by the admiral or his crew?
@@yc2673 The Soviet system was incredibly corrupt, like all despotic regimes, so unless the Royal Navy counted the bars first then I would blame the USSR first.
Z24 and Z25 had 5.9-inch guns.
In the animation Z34 and Z36 are indicated.
HMS Amazon wasn‘t a Tribal but a prototype built in 1924.
Otherwise excellent. 👍
My grandfather did a couple of these runs when in the Merchant Navy, described in his log book as OHMS, as Chief Officer, Master, or 1st Mate.
I also have his Merchant Navy A/A Gunnery Course certificates, with handwritten notes on the back, detailing speeds and lead distances for Ju88, FW200 and others.
He survived the war, his last voyage was in 1954 as 1st Mate.
Saturation diving at 240+meters is my worst nightmare…. Those guys are unreal
Interesting that the Soviets got any, considering they had used it to purchase materiel from the British forty years earlier.
the soviets got a portion of it because they have already paid for the british lend-lease by the 1980s
The presentation in these videos is so fun
The Royal Navy has always made me proud to be British but hearing heroic stories like this only reaffirms how Proud I am to be British.🇬🇧🏴
Colonizer?
@@baguetteman8153 interesting how many of the once colonised countries inhabitants are now desperate to leave and seek refuge in Britain. And, due to the butterfly effect, without the past, including colonisation, no one alive today to try to virtue signal against it would be alive.
@@baguetteman8153 i hope you really aint french, or your one of the biggest hypocrites on this comment section...all that effort in making an account for one word, what a sad perfectic little life you must lead, "we want your homes, we want your jobs, we want your country" , greetings from allabambia...
@@baguetteman8153 thanks
so 5 divers kept 5 golds, fair salary :)
Or some clever sailor back in 1942...we will never know
I say they earned it
I'm wondering where the 5 bars went
Maybe it's still up for grabs.
The divers worked on 'no cure, no pay' contracts. They were due a reasonable % of what came up anyway
This man really has it in for the British atm 😂😂
Super great video! Held me spellbound. This is one of the best videos of its type I have seen both in terms of clarity of understanding (no irrelevant and distracting music!) narration and of combinations of graphics and old film footage. Well done.
The book 'Goldfinder' by Keith Jessop is well worth a read. it covers his involvement in the early years of UK scuba and commercial diving and culminates with him being part of the team that recovered the gold from HMS EDINBURGH.
It's a great read 👍
One of My Mates Dad's sailed PQ/QP. Came from Scottish Island farming stock and was unable to take part in killing the beasts, it upset Him and as an ominivore He was aware of the irony. But in Sept 39, realising He couldn't kill and couldn't be a conscientious objector He volunteered for The Merchant Navy. Was sunk twice in the North Atlantic, but always said that the thing that annoyed Him most wasn't the Germans doing their duty/job, but the fact that under merchant marine contract at the time as soon as the vessel sank you were unemployed, no wages! A huge Gentleman, sadly missed.
My wife's uncle Leading Stoker Hookings was one of the 57 who were killed on that fateful day. He survived the first torpedo attack to be killed in the second attack.
Another great video. Really interesting subject and one I wasn’t really familiar with. Keep up the good work!
Kudos to the divers recovering the gold. Kudos to this channel too. Another outstanding video.
Remarkable story. absolutely fascinating. Thank you for finding and sharing this good tale.
Wow! Thanks for this incredible video!
Keith Jessop a Yorkshire diver , salvage expert and ex royal marine commando pulled off this ground breaking salvage backin 1981 ….respect!!
One of your best videos ever! You set the “bar” really high…ok I’ll show myself out now
just discovered this channel have watched lots of them in two days. Great work.
Amazing video, as usual :)
It looks great!!
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
I look forward to part 2 when they describe the cooperative politics of this deal during the midst of rivalry during the Cold War.
There was lots of cooperation during the Cold War... which is why it was a cold war, not a hot one.
Fun fact, the British had more diplomatic meetings in West Berlin than the US and France combined (which is big if you know the split of Germany after WW2)
So although they weren't allies, and at the hight of the Cold War, it's still very useful to keep diplomacy alive, and I'm going to guess that why a portion of the gold was returned, as a sort of good faith deal
I got to say I enjoy your videos been watching them for over a year now.
Thank you for making this video my great grandfather was one of the 57 who died. For years, we thought it had just been shot and sunk, but now we know they died heroes. Thank you
Amazing job as usual, please cover the Sunda Strait Battle or The Sinking of the Exeter, very much appreciated...
Fun fact: the captain was a relative of the actress Helena Bonham-Carter
She's a baroness or in line to be one iirc
Interesting topic 👍
Thanks for uploading.
Fantastic video. Thank you.
Thank you helping me escape studying for my math exam :D
Thank you for the animation of how the wreck looks like
excellent work. thank you
Fantastic video, job well done with the respect they deserved, win win 👍
Great episode
One running engine, no rudder, most of her stern missing, a huge hole amidships and only local control of her guns and yet Edinburgh still managed to put up such a powerful fight she forced the German ships, who thought they were about to bag an easy victory, to retreat. That is a crew that knew how to fight their ship!
I remember reading that Edinburgh took so much ordinance, including gun-fire and depth charges to sink her that at one point it was debated whether to reboard her and it was the very last torpedo that finally did her in. That was a ships that took the meaning of "It'll take everything you've got" literally.
And yet despite four torpedoes and being held together by her deck plates and keel, she hadn't broken in half and is still in the one piece.
Edinburgh's story is an incredible one that deserves to be told more often than it is.
It is incredible that there were no incidents during the salvage; those conditions must've been extremely hazardous. A testament to the skill of the salvage team.
Incredibly interesting, great channel.
At 7:28 when you said "Metal fishes" I heard Messer Fisch. (Knife fish). So... from now on, I propose we call German torpedoes Messerfisch.
It's operation is closer to a tin-opener though....
Fantastic content
Great story. Well told
praise the algorithm
Agreed
And pass the views and likes
Great video
I remember when this happened. It was a big news story, very exciting!
It will soon be worth diving down for the remains 5 bars!
Way kuul channel Bro.
You're a master storyteller.
Good vid!
@historigraph I belive the value listed at 13:56 and at other points in the video might be a bit off, I've looked around and all the articles I have found say the following.
"The bullion value was £45 million in 1942 with a value of £173 million ($222 million) today." and that it was worth £80 million in 1981.
I'm not sure if you might have mixed up the value of their cut, £40 million, with the total value? Either way thanks for the great video as always! ❤️
Kip Punch?!
Silence is golden.
If you're wondering, Adm Stuart Bonham Carter is the 2nd cousin of Helena Bonham Carter's Dad
He was an unlucky Admiral. After two cruisers had been sunk under him, RN seamen began referring to their lifejackets as their 'Bonhams.'
Brave men and glad to see that respect for the sailors remaining in the depths was upheld ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️😃
I actually now want to retrieve the remaining gold bars now
Nice knife opening that Keeps package
I read Keith Jessop’s book on this, it’s amazing!
I’m in my 30s and I’m not losing my hair, but I still love your videos.
So good!!! 💜🙏🖖
Great vid. Knew the story but not the details. Thank you.
I think I'm going to swim out there next weekend and get those last five gold bars...
Interesting, I had never even heard of this ship
HMS Edinburgh doing the ol' Warspite spin
244 meters = 800 feet Very interesting story - I had never heard of this ...
Thank you
What a story! What a ship.
Are you familiar with the USS Central America and Tommy Thompson. I think the Central America sunk with 21 tons of gold in 1857. Tommy Thompson found it in the the 1980's and recovered over 3 tons of gold. More was recovered years later. Check out the book "Ship of Gold". A good companion book is "The World Rushed In".
another interesting naval history
“We could only get 93% of the gold, the rest is still down there I promise”
Interesting vid
Great stuff!! 5 bars still left 🤔🤔🤔
Moral of the story: There are still 5 ingots lying there.. :)
What a story!
I find it amazing or very lucky that the Soviets didn't just raid the wreckage during all those years.
They had the technology to send people to space yet couldn't or didn't want to dive to those depths...makes you think how dangerous deep sea exploration is (and this wasn't even a relatively deep area for ocean floor standards)
Very interesting
Five bars still down there and unaccounted for, _riiiiight_ ,..... 🤣
At least she took one of her murderers with her...RIP.
There's still 5 more bars lads. Let's get that bread!
So much bravery is seen again and again in naval battles. A mine sweeper v 2 German destroyers With 5 inch guns
Edinburgh saving the British destroyers…. Was there any record of what happened to cpt Faulkner? Was he reprimanded for loosing his ship?
One must think he'd cop it in the ear for losing the gold lol
According to the meet our alumni page of Melbourne Grammer school he recieved the distinguish service order for his actions on HMS Edinburgh. He was promoted to rear adrmial and made allied naval commander in chief in the final year of the war.
After the sinking he was appointed as Chief of Staff to a number of commanders, becoming a Commodore in November, 1943, and a Rear Admiral in July, 1949. He retired in 1952, and died in Taunton in 1969. He was born in Tasmania, by the way.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 to be fair cpt Faulkner deserved all the credit he received
Thanks guys 😊👍🏽
I held one of those goldbars in my hand. It was still deformed by the blast
Correction at 6:12
1936A class. 5 Single 5.9 inch guns.
Tribal class 4 Twin 4.7 inch guns.
The British weren't outgunned just outnumbered and they had superior torpedoes.
Tribals had three twin 4.7 inch guns by mid 1942. X mounting had been replaced by a twin 4 inch AA gun.
Interesting that the captain didn’t try to save the gold and put it on the other ship. You think if it was sinking slow enough they needed to sink it with a friendly torpedo they would have had enough time to get the gold, but maybe I’m missing something.
I'd guess that he didn't want to put his crew in unnecessary danger by staying any longer
The room containing the gold was already flooded
Also I think thats a lot easier said then done..
There are 5 bars still down there supposedly but I seriously doubt that by now
I'm more impressed with the fact that a rudderless ship with a huge hole in its side managed to take out a German destroyer. That's some extreme bravery!
Wow that's a lot of gold
The unluckiest maid of the Royal Navy
Churchill: OH NO MY GOLD
Random admiral: But sir, what about the cruiser and the crew?
Churchill: Not now damnit my gooooollllld
The gold was a payment from the USSR to the United States for aid. HMS Edinburgh was part of the escort of an Arctic convoy. It really isn't difficult to grasp if you try hard.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 it was -payment for British aid not US, Britain supplied about 35% of the supplies revived to the Russians during WW 2.
@@richardclarke3924 According to the sources I have read, the gold was a payment to the USA Treasury.
Would love to know what the split was between the salvaging crew and the governments (which did nothing to help)
Didn't you see the part about the destroyers and other escorts ships? That's all government work.
Edinburgh went down like a champion.
Please do a video on the Battle of Leyte Gulf 🙏🙏🙏