Insider bid to salvage £16million worth of gold from 170-year-old shipwreck, while eerie images show the ship 180ft underwater

SHIPWRECK hunters hope to salvage £16million worth of gold from a ship lost in a storm over 169 years ago.

The rusting remains of The Westmoreland – packed with a stash of rare 19th-century whiskey and gold coins – remained undiscovered for over a century.

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It sank to the depths of Lake Michigan on December 17, 1854, tragically taking 17 souls with it.

The shipwreck’s location, 180 feet below the waters of Platte Bay, was only discovered in 2010 after 156 years.

Although filled with treasure, it is forbidden to salvage artifacts from the Great Lakes wrecks without a permit.

But talks are now underway to recover the loot from Westmoreland, according to shipwreck hunter Ross Richardson.

After incredibly tracking down the ship, he was keen to dive into the “Underwater Museum”.

The wreck expert said the Westmoreland was laden with “perfectly preserved relics” of historical and monetary value.

Ross stated, “We are in the early stages of discussing a salvage operation to recover the whiskey casks and possibly other artifacts.

“Westmoreland is an underwater museum filled with perfectly preserved relics from the 1850’s and it would be a good thing to preserve them for public display.

“She is one of the most intact and best preserved 1850s shipwrecks on the planet.”

He indicated that one regional distillery is “extremely keen” to salvage the precious casks of whiskey for tasting and sale.

“The genetic make-up of corn was very different in 1854 and may have had a different flavor than corn today,” Ross added.

Eerie underwater images of the shipwreck, captured by diver Chris Roxburgh, show decaying Westmoreland sitting upright at the bottom of the water.

She is immediately recognizable by the iconic “Hogging Arches” that run on either side of the ship.

The chilling snaps show the ship is largely intact despite being a prisoner of the seabed in icy waters for over 150 years.

Ross said he was only able to locate the wreck after “about a decade of research” and arming it with the latest sonar technology.

He said: “The area where the Westmoreland sank was not flat and smooth like most of the bottom of Lake Michigan.

“It was riddled with underwater sand dunes and cliffs, which made early search efforts very difficult.

“Around 2008 there was a breakthrough in side-scan sonar technology, and an affordable and capable sonar device was made available to the public.

“I was an early adopter of this technology, and it’s perfect for searching the area where the Westmoreland sank.

“Many searchers were in the right area, but lacked the right tools for the job.”

The Westmoreland was en route to Mackinac Island before sadly sinking – with about 280 casks of whiskey to stock soldiers along with winter supplies.

Ross said, “It made life very difficult for the Army when it didn’t arrive.”

The ship’s crew was en route to a fort guarding the confluence of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

The hoard of gold coins is believed to have been the troupe’s pay package – which could now be worth up to £16million.

Ross suspects the double-headed eagle pieces could be a hit with coin collectors and fetch a fortune at auction.

He continued, “The gold coins would be worth about a million dollars if we melted them down and sold them.

“The true value is the numismatic value of these coins, which could realistically be in excess of $20 million today.”

The salvage operation would focus on recovering the whiskey – but it will not be an easy task.

The shipwreck’s challenging location has left hunters scratching their heads as they struggle to determine the best route inside.

Ross said: “It’s a difficult dive as there is no rope or buoy attached to the vessel and it is almost 200 feet deep.

“The water temperature was freezing at 34F (1C). The gold and whiskey are deeper in the wreck, in the hold or in the cabins.

“And the deck has partially collapsed, so it’s difficult to get deeper into the ship.”

But he still hopes that the treasures of Westmoreland will one day surface again.

The shipwreck enthusiast added: “Eventually yes. But we are a long way, maybe decades, away from achieving that.

“Only time will tell if the Westmoreland will share her secrets with us.”

Although the ship’s struggle with the storm claimed 17 souls, the same number of people survived the incident.

Those who made it ashore reportedly faced a walk of about 40 miles to the nearest town.

Ross describes his search for the wreck in his book The Search for the Westmoreland.

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