Hunt for £4billion UK shipwreck of the coast of Cornwall as new firm searches for gold
A shipwreck that has eluded hunters for centuries has received its latest challenger.
Treasure hunters searching for the £4billion "El Dorado of the Seas", a shipwreck residing in the UK's back garden, believe they will be the ones to complete a decades-old search for the long-lost loot.
The shipwreck of the Merchant Royal has lain almost undisturbed on the seabed off the coast of Cornwall since 1641.
When it sank, the 700-tonne ship was thought to be en route from the Caribbean and Spanish colonies, carrying a haul of gold and other precious metals alongside 80 seamen and passengers.
Numerous missions have tried to recover its haul - billions of pounds worth of gold and other precious metals - without success.
But one British company now believes it can finally dredge up the ships' contents with a year-long search off the Cornish coast.
Nigel Hodge, a former commercial fisherman and chief of Cornish marine exploration firm Multibeam Services, plans to use most of 2024 to find the wreck.
Multibeam Services will marshall its 11 divers - all of whom are experts in finding lost wrecks - to find the lost ship from next month.
Their focus, he told Metro.co.uk, will be on a 200 square mile stretch within the English Channel, in which Mr Hodge believes the Merchant Royal lies.
While he believes the wreck could be worth billions, he said his search is not a "gold rush", and the ship won't be easy to find.
Don't miss...
Meet the woman trying to unravel mystery of unexplored 'Pandora's box' shipwreck [EXCLUSIVE]
Greek island's most photographed location at risk of being washed away [INSIGHT]
Beautiful beach haunted by shipwreck just minutes from pretty seaside town [PICTURES]
He told Metro: "There’s thousands of shipwrecks down there and the Merchant Royal is just one of them.
"So we’ve got to literally pick through a lot of wrecks as we’re doing them and then identify them.
"It’s not straightforward. If it was straightforward, it would have been done."
His team is searching for answers rather than riches, as the time when people could make a fortune from wrecked ships is "well and truly gone".
Mr Hodge said that any precious cargo he discovers will become heritage artefacts, despite believing the haul could be worth up to £4billion.
He plans to use the latest technology to explore the seafloor, including £3.5million underwater vessels capable of travelling 6,000 metres below even the deepest search area and new sonar technology.
