MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rescuers find gold cargo in South Atlantic sunken vessel

The powerful C-Sailor involved in the official rescue operation

The 9.6 tons of gold and silver which the Chilean trawler Polar Mist was transporting are in the vessel’s hold in waters 80 metres deep and some 40 kilometres offshore southern Patagonia, according to sources close to the rescue operation and reported in the Argentine press

The following phase is to define what technology will allow the divers reach that depth and rescue the cargo valued in almost 22 million US dollars and which was lost almost five months ago in mysterious circumstances.

Although the insurance company that contracted a Dutch company which specializes in this kind of operations has not confirmed the discovery, the fact is that Phases I and II of the task apparently have been completed: locating the “Polar Mist” and secondly confirming the precious metals are still at the bottom of the sea.

The contracted vessel C-Sailor flagged in Vanuatu with a crew of forty has been involved in the operation for a week and on several operations had to turn back because of bad weather conditions which impeded launching the robotic submersible to effectively prove the existence of the vessel and its valuable cargo.

“The next step much depends on the equipment the divers can use to minimize distance, save energy and have a greater manoeuvring capacity” said the sources.

“Polar Mist” a trawler converted into an armoured transport was carrying 9.6 tons of gold and silver belonging to the Cerro Vanguardia and Minera Tritton companies mining in the province of Santa Cruz, when under still unsolved circumstances and approaching the western access of the Magellan Strait was abandoned and later sunk.

Apparently the “golden bridge” has been going of for several years and nothing had ever happened. The metals were taken from Santa Cruz to Punta Arenas, from there flown to Santiago de Chile and later to Switzerland.

But last January 15 “Polar Mist” on entering the Magellan channel came across a powerful storm and the captain ordered the vessel to take shelter closer to the Argentine coast. After 24 hours of enduring the storm the “Polar Mist” called for help and was rescued by a helicopter from the Argentine Coast Guard.

The trawler was left adrift but a day later was found by the Argentine Coast Guard being pulled by the Chilean tug “Beagle”.

The “Beagle” was ordered to head to Punta Loyola in Santa Cruz but “Polar Mist” never made it, she went down on January 18, allegedly also in the midst of a storm. That is the official version from the Chilean tug.

Pictures taken of the vessel and included in the judicial investigation in Argentina show her adrift with engines running, apparently with no major breakdown and under a beautiful blue sky and relatively calm waters