Dowbrigade

The richest shipwreck in history has been sitting beneath
a half mile of ocean for 300 years. Greg Stemm is sending a robot down
to get it.

In 1694, an 80-gun British warship called the HMS Sussex set sail for
southern France loaded with as much as 3 million pounds sterling and
6 tons of gold. The bounty was intended for the Duke of Savoy, a bribe
to keep him allied with England in its war against Louis XIV.

Greg Stemm is a 21st-century treasure hunter who’s been
researching the Sussex for two decades, and late this summer, he’s planning
to send
a remote-operated vehicle,
or ROV, about the size of a Chevy Suburban down to get it.

By Jeffrey
M. O’Brien in Wired