Sunken Treasures & Pirates

The capt.  and his crew had been looting and killing in the Philippines for years and were on their way home to retire. His porcelain  jars  must be at least one meter high and one meter wide at the widest portion of the jar.  It was said there were many jars, all filled with gold and other valuables. During their final night on board that ship, they were traveling from Southern Philippines to XXXXXX. So when he came into the storm he was roughly 54 nautical miles from XXXXXX, assuming his ship speed was 4.5 nautical miles per hour.

The storms were fierce and it was raining heavily. Lightning  flashed non-stop and waves were so high that experienced captain knew he could never make it. He went down on his knees and begged for mercy. He promised if he and his crew were allowed to sail on safely, he would dump all those jars of treasures into the sea, and return home to take up theology and become a priest.

After all the jars went into the sea, the storms miraculously calmed down.  They reached shore the following day at dawn. And he went back to his country of origin. But two of the sailors stayed back for some years. It was not clear if they had tried to salvage the treasures. But the depth of the sea at that area was about one hundred meters.  No one could make it with modern equipment.  According the  Suluks from Southern Philippines, a diver, unaided could not reach more than fifteen meters. So it is sure that it was indeed impossible to retrieve those treasures one hundred years ago.

The capt. eventually became a Catholic Priest and returned to teach in North Borneo.  It was not sure where he went to after preaching in North Borneo.

How much of the find will go to the government, assuming the treasures are found now?

How much initial cost do you need to cough out to maintain a crew for twenty months, with rental of ship and other equipment?

To float a sunken treasure

Assuming the jars of treasures are still intake and in the ship, you may lower metal hooks to any suitable place on that ship, and then tie an empty jerry can at the upper end. Force this can below the water surface and fasten it securely. Then you lower the next jerry can and do the same procedure. You will definitely need hundreds of jerry cans but eventually the sunken ship would float and you can either drag it to shore or continue your work on site with the ship floated.

You may want to have ten rings welded around that main hook so that you can have extra ten ropes around the main hook.

This is, at the moment, the cheapest way of doing the job.