How much to fund a lost sea treasure expedition?

Factual Questions
1

I’m not sure if this belongs in GQ or not. I’m sure someone will let me know if it’s in the wrong place.

So, I won the lottery (I didn’t), I’m now very, very rich and I have all kinds of people now approaching me for money. Some of them include people doing weird and wonderful expedition-type things. Some are looking for funding to find lost treasure at sea. Some need money for their dig in a far off desert (even in my pretend rich world I skim what I read).

Mr Hermit and I have already agreed that if we won enough money we would “fund an expedition of some kind”. We both think something at sea would fun.

How much, best guess, would something like this cost? Right now I don’t even own a bathing suit so that should tell you our level of “water smarts”. We don’t know what would be needed. A boat -yes, an in-charge-person - yes. Diving equipment, machines that go BING when they scan over important things on the bottom of the ocean…what else?

Additionally, how would you go about finding people to do this with?

2

A lot of money , read this book and find out how much

http://www.amazon.com/Ship-Gold-Deep-Blue-Sea/dp/0871134640

Here is what they found

SS Central America - Wikipedia

3

You will need to recruit some the vilest scum imaginable: lawyers! The legal issues of sunken treasure are very complex and basically every find of any monetary significance has set off lengthy legal battles. More than a few have ended with the finders bankrupted.

4

yes the people who found the ship I mentioned had to wage a long legal battle before the got to keep the treasure they found.

5

Well. That takes some of the fun out of it, that’s for sure.

Interesting though. I’d never thought about the legal aspect considering what could possibly be found.

Thanks.

6

Book I mentioned above is very good even if you are not looking to find treasure.

7

It isn’t just the lawyers you have to worry about. You could end up paying to fly an old chick out to help you find the biggest part of the prize she could just decide to be a bitch a sabotage the whole thing on a whim.

8

The question can’t be meaningfully answered without knowing what the expedition might be. A couple of quick examples.

Ships generally cost by the day. Is this a 6 month expedition to the Antarctic or a two week expedition to the Caribbean?

Something at say a depth of 20m or less is child’s play for divers, but looking for something a mile down will take remote vehicles etc.

As Multivac would say, there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer.

9

Watch Treasure Quest some time, as it’s not only a fascinating show (IMHO), but it goes into some of the thing that happen when you actually find treasure. One episode is about the Spanish basically blockading the recovery ship in port for several months, using strong arm tactics to try and swipe the treasure, and a media and legal battle to take it away. IIRC, the captain of the ship was actually imprisoned (I don’t recall what happened to him…doubt they could or did keep him long) and they put the crew through some nasty stuff as well.

-XT

10

Huh, maybe we’ll buy a puppy instead! :eek:

Mr Hermit’s other “let’s fund something” idea is to fund some kind of space flight. That actually sounds like it might be easier!
*
Edited to add: Thanks all for the replies, information and books/media to check out!*