Seabed Worker salvaged $38 million in silver

She has searched the deep seas for silver and scoured the ocean floor for the infamous Air France flight that crashed off Brazil.

Now the Seabed Worker is coming to Bermuda.

This multi purpose support vessel will call in to Penno’s Wharf today to pick up 20 technicians and experts from across the world before she sets off on her next adventure.

In May 2010 this ship was dispatched to the South Atlantic to search for the recorders from Air France flight 447 which crashed into the sea with the loss of 216 passengers and 12 crew.

Three Remus ‘robot submarines’ were launched from the vessel to comb the seabed for flight data and equipment.

While just last year the ship helped salvage more than 48 tonnes of silver bullion, worth around $38 million, from the SS Gairsoppa.

Gairsoppa was torpedoed by German submarines during the Second World War off the coast of Ireland.

Shipwreck

By July the Seabed Worker’s crew had helped bring up 1,203 silver bars from the wreck that was resting three miles under the sea.

The British merchant ship’s cargo is the heaviest and deepest precious metal cargo ever retrieved from a shipwreck.

The salvage operation was organized by former Bermuda Premier, David Saul’s, firm Odyssey Marine Exploration.

The project was also later televised on the Discovery Channel.

The Seabed Worker is owned and operated by Swire Seabed AS, which is located in Bergen, Norway.

This incredible ship is due into St George’s at 7:30am today to pick up new crew.

Elsewhere this week the BBC Montana has brought in metal pilings from Houston that will be used in the Heritage Wharf project.

The ship arrived at the Commercial Berth in Dockyard on Tuesday and is expected to be with us until March 1.

While the car carrier, Azalea Ace, is scheduled to arrive into Hamilton tomorrow morning with the latest batch of Japanese cars.

Finally the Bermuda Islander is still running behind time because of bad weather in the Atlantic and is now expected to arrive in the capital on Saturday.