Ninety years ago the Kantava found itself in the center of a severe storm.
The ship’s boiler blew up and the vessel went under. According to the law of the sea a sunken ship becomes state property only after spending a hundred years on the sea bottom.
Since the tragedy happened less than a century ago, the ship’s remains are still up for grabs.
“That’s why we declared our find… We want to find the ship’s owner so that he can decide what to do with the vessel and its cargo, which can be of great value,” said Mikko Simola, one of divers who discovered the Kantava.
A treasure ship… With its cargo of copper now worth around 1 million euros, the Kantava fully merits the description.
“What also fascinates us is that the Kantava copper may contain gold because back in the day they did not know how to separate gold from copper,” Simola added.
The copper on board the sunken ship may contain dozens, even hundreds of kilograms of gold.
Even though the names of the people who owned the ship are known, its cargo could have belonged to someone else.
“Right now we have found no documents pointing to the owners of the ship’s cargo,” marine archeologist Marcus Lindholm told Yle.
