The loss and recovery of the SS Egypt treasure. On 19 May 1922, the P&O ocean liner SS Egypt departed Tilbury, Essex, bound for Bombay. She was carrying 338 passengers and crew, alongside a massive, closely guarded state treasure destined for India: 5.5 tonnes of gold bars, 43 tonnes of silver bullion, and 165,979 gold sovereigns. The entire cargo was valued at over £1 million at the time. In modern value this is the equivalent of £73 million today ( $98 million ) however convert the gold and silver and we have a value of over £200 million ($300 million). The next day, as the liner entered the Celtic Sea near the French island of Ushant, a thick, impenetrable fog rolled in. Captain Collyer slowed the engines to a crawl, but the precaution was not enough. Out of the mist emerged the French steamship Seine, fitted with a reinforced bow built for ice-breaking. The Seine rammed directly into the Egypt's side. Just twenty minutes later, the grand liner slipped beneath the waves, taking 87 souls and her immense fortune down to a depth of 70 fathoms (roughly 420 feet or 128 metres). Because of the extreme depth—far beyond the reach of standard diving capabilities of the era—the wreck became known across the maritime world as "the impossible salvage". High Tech at Depth: The Sorima Salvage and Diving Physiology It took until 1930 for the pioneering Italian salvage company Sorima (Società Ricuperi Marittimi), led by the eccentric Commander Giovanni Quaglia, to finally locate the upright hull of the Egypt. To conquer the crushing pressure of 70 fathoms, Sorima's chief diver, Alberto Gianni, had to tear up the traditional diving rulebook and think outside of the box. The Atmospheric Breakthrough Traditional "hard-hat" rubber diving suits were entirely useless at this depth; the water pressure would instantly crush a diver's joints or render them completely immobile. Instead, Sorima utilised Gianni’s revolutionary invention: a rigid, steel atmospheric observation shell. There were some diving suits available that had been designed in Germany (Atmospheric Diving Suit ADS), like the famous Neufeldt and Kuhnke armoured suits or the Galeazzi suit. While the salvage company initially tried using these multi-jointed, armoured diving suits on the SS Egypt wreck in 1930, they found them virtually useless at 400 feet (120-130 meters). The immense water pressure locked the ball-bearing joints solid, meaning the diver couldn’t move their arms or legs to do any physical labour. What They Actually Used: The Torricelli Observation Chamber To successfully conquer the SS Egypt, Sorima pioneered a much simpler, highly effective approach: they stripped away the useless armoured arms and legs entirely. They produced an observation chamber in which the diver was bolted in and could communicate by telephone. The Physiology From a medical perspective, this capsule changed everything. Because the steel hull was entirely rigid, the interior remained at a constant, unpressurised 1 atmosphere (1 atm)—exactly like the air at sea level. Because the diver was not breathing compressed air under ambient deep-sea pressure, their body did not absorb excess nitrogen. The diver did wear a rudimentary oxygen rebreathing apparatus similar to that used in mines rescue which scrubbed the Carbon Dioxide which extended his bottom time because without it, he would gradually asphyxiate in his steel sealed coffin. No Decompression Sickness: The diver was entirely immune to "the bends" and nitrogen narcosis. They could be winched directly to the surface in minutes without needing hours of tedious, staged decompression. The Ultimate Trade-off: The diver had no mechanical arms or physical contact with the wreck. They were purely the "eyes" of the operation. Suspended in the pitch-black, murky depths, the diver relied entirely on a hardwired telephone headset to verbally direct the surface crew. He dictated precisely where to place heavy explosive charges to blast open the Egypt's multiple decks and guided the massive, mechanical clamshell grabs down into the exposed bullion room. Because of the poor visibility the capsule was suspended close to the wreck and the crane grabs which was a highly dangerous proposition as it could be entangled or damaged by falling debris. We can see how this system operated in the image below. Life Aboard the Artiglio The definitive contemporary accounts of this arduous, multi-season operation come from British journalist David Scott, who lived alongside the crew and published two classic books: 70 Fathoms Deep and The Egypt’s Gold. All of my shipboard images are taken out of these books which are now out of copyright. Scott originally sailed on the salvage ship Artiglio, which successfully found the wreck but at that time didn’t salvage it. This was an achievement in itself with the technology of the day and the chapter in Scott's book describing this is aptly called "needle in a haystack". Tragically, the original vessel was destroyed and 12 crew members were killed during a separate 1930 operation when a sunken munitions ship they were clearing unexpectedly detonated. A new salvage ship was immediately commissioned. Scott described life on board both vessels accurately, the duties of the crew and their different personalities and wrote about everyone from the steward to the Captain. As a consequence of his work 70 Fathoms Deep, the memory of these brave men is perpetuated. If you search Wikipedia today, it inaccurately labels the replacement ship as the Artiglio II. In reality, the highly superstitious Italian mariners absolutely refused to sail on a vessel bearing the suffix "II", viewing it as an invitation for a second disaster. The new ship was simply christened Artiglio. The salvage began in earnest but the dangers of diving and using high explosives were exacerbated by the very thing that sunk the SS Egypt – Fog! That area of the Celtic Sea is renowned for bad weather and fog and the Atriglio was anchored in the middle of a main trade route so the dangers below the water were amplified by the dangers above the water! As well as describing the voyages and the technology, Scott's writings provide a rare, human glimpse into the crew's daily life under the dark shadow of Mussolini’s fascist regime. Despite speaking no Italian initially (and the crew speaking no English), they bonded deeply through shared danger, humour, and a makeshift mix of French. Scott’s records reveal the stark realities the crew faced back home, including capped low minimum wages and a bizarre "bachelor tax" imposed by a narcissistic Italian government desperate to engineer population growth. Eventually the team broke into the bullion room in 1932 and the salvage began. Caught in the Act: Collecting the Coin, Not the Grade By 1935, Sorima’s crews had successfully recovered 98% of the bullion inside the strongroom. In addition to the bullion, hundreds of thousands of Indian Rupee banknotes were salvaged which was still legal tender and these were sorted and dried. Among the very first treasures hauled up in the mechanical grabs were thousands of gold sovereigns. This is one of them that I was fortunate to acquire recently. 1915 Great Britain Sovereign - SS Egypt Recovery Obverse: King George V Left-Facing Portrait Reverse: St. George Slays the Dragon (B.P. Mintmark) Grade: NGC XF Details (Cleaned) Pedigree: Official Board of Trade Presentation Issue 1 of 1000. Many coin collectors shy away from specimens slabbed by third-party grading services that carry a details; "Cleaned" label. For condition purists, it is a detractor. But for a history collector, it is a badge of authenticity. Through research compiled from period magazines and contemporary newspaper accounts, an extraordinary archival photograph from David Scott's The Egypt's Gold reveals the ultimate truth. The photograph shows the salvage leaders—the Capo, Quaglia, and Carli—huddled on the deck of the Artiglio, actively washing and cleaning the freshly recovered gold sovereigns in a basin of water straight out of the mechanical grab. The "cleaned" state of these coins isn’t the result of modern tampering by a coin dealer or collector; it is a literal step of the 1932 salvage process itself. It is history caught in the act, and there is a very high probability that this specific coin was sitting in that basin on the deck of the Artiglio. A Tale of Two Shipwrecks: Egypt vs. Central America To put the scale of the SS Egypt recovery into context, I’ve compared its treasure against the most famous American treasure wreck, the SS Central America (the "Ship of Gold"), which sank in a hurricane in 1857. Feature SS Egypt (Sunk 1922) SS Central America (Sunk 1857) Primary Cargo SS Egypt : Mixed: ~5.5 tonnes Gold, 43 tonnes Silver, 165,979 Sovereigns SS Central America ;Pure Gold: ~30,000 lbs (13.6 tonnes) of California Rush Bullion Depth of Wreck SS Egypt :70 Fathoms (128 metres / 420 feet) SS Central America: 1,200 Fathoms (2,200 metres / 7,200 feet) Salvage Era & Tech SS Egypt :1930s: Atmospheric Bell, Explosives, & Mechanical Grabs SS Central America: 1980s–2010s: Deep-sea Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) Value at Sinking SS Egypt: Over £1,054,000 sterling SS Central America: Approximately $8,000,000 USD Modern Bullion / Asset Value SS Egypt :Approx. £200+ million /$270 million (metal content) SS Central America: Estimated $100–$150 million recovered numismatic value While the SS Central America remains an unmitigated titan in terms of raw gold volume driven by the height of the California Gold Rush, the SS Egypt stands as a monumental testament to human grit—a successful commercial salvage executed manually at a depth never before attempted by mankind. The Board of Trade and the Final Chapter Following the loss of the liner in 1922, the British Board of Trade (BOT) launched an immediate, highly public formal inquiry in London. The investigation fiercely scrutinised navigation protocols in the fog, the layout of the lifeboats, and the conduct of the crew. When Sorima defied the sceptics and raised the treasure in the early 1930s, the Board of Trade stepped in to mark the historical triumph. The first 1,000 gold sovereigns pulled from the deep were officially selected to be preserved as commemorative historical pieces. It was considered that the treasure would be assimilated back into the global economy and a decision was made to preserve the history of the salvage. The Board of Trade commissioned a limited run of custom, dark leather presentation boxes embossed with the majestic gold foil BOT coat of arms, accompanied by a formal Certificate of Authenticity. The remaining bullion was divided between the insurers at Lloyd's and Sorima, who took a hard-earned 50% split to cover their massive operating risks. I know collectors who collect type sets and year sets of coins but the beauty of a shipwreck coin with provenance is that it is more than a coin in a grading slab, we know where it has been, how it was recovered and the history surrounding the coin, the people and the event. This one is a tangible piece of deep-sea engineering history, maritime law, and the sheer defiance of the divers of the Artiglio.
