I hope those three guys were working on commission.

September 23

1122. The Concordat of Worms. Nominally a resolution of a power struggle between the Pope, Calixtus II, and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, the resolution reached actually had far reaching consequences in the division of authority over bishops and other members of the Church within nations, raised the Pope above being subject to secular authority, and eventually undermined the concept of the divine right of kings. Prior to the Concordat, Holy Roman Emperors had taken the position thta it was their right to be involved, heavily or exclusively, in the appointment of bishops, etc. and the selection of the Pope.

1641. The Merchant Royal sinks off Land's End, Cornwall, carrying at least 100,000 pounds of gold, which would be worth $1 billion in today's money, making it one of the, if not THE, most valuable shipwreck ever. The remains of the ship have never been found.

1780. British Major John Andre is arrested as a spy, and his arrest results in the discovery that Benedict Arnold has changed sides.

1806. Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Northwest.

1889. Nintendo is founded, to produce and market a popular card game. Later it will achieve greater fame with different types of games.

1941. The first gas chamber experiments are performed at Auschwitz.

sure would be nice to happen across that ship right about now..


and DAYUM Nintendo is old.

Let's go find that ship. Who's in with me?

Count me in.

Okay, two. Since I can't swim, we'll probably need more, but we're off to a good start.

It must be really deep water (or really vague evidence of the location where the ship went down) if the $1 billion prize hasn't been enough to attract someone who could find it. Maybe the people on the ship just sailed it away and spread the rumor that it had sunk.

I'll join ya but I am only available on weekends. I have to keep my regular job until we find the thing.

They've searched for it. In fact, they found a ship that had quite alot of bullion while looking for the Merchant Royal, but subsequently determined that it was almost certainly a different ship that they had found. As the ship that they found had almost $500 million in gold and silver, they presumably weren't too distraught.

There was a special on the Discovery Channel about the search for lost ships in the English Channel, including the Merchant Royal, in 2009 -- "Treasure Quest".

I was at the Missouri Headwaters park in Montana a few weeks ago. Neat place.

Those guys had balls.

My wife is thinking of switching jobs. Maybe she can cover weekday shifts and come home for weekends, and you can cover for her.

She can't swim so she'll need to man the boat or something. She has no direction sense at all, however, and has never manned a boat, so I'd suggest you drop anchor while she's in charge topside.

Oh, and she gets seasick, so bring a barf bag.

I'm not sure how fast it gets deep from Land's End, but it seems like there'd be some kind of shelf for a while. But then again, I have very little experience with deep-sea treasure hunting.

I like the idea of sailing it away, though. What are the odds of being found in that era? But if it's gold, I guess you'd have to go somewhere that values gold or otherwise you're just in the South Pacific with a bunch of shiny rock.

I'm thinking we have an opening for her in Ballast.

Brass ones.

I have tremendous respect for those early explorers, whether Lewis & Clark on land, or all the famous ones at sea.

Anyone who is willing to go someplace on nothing more than a "where are we going?" *points* "that way". :eek:

There were a number of survivors of the wreck. There's some question, apparently, about whether some/all of the gold was taken off the ship before it sank.

But with survivors, you'd think they'd know pretty much exactly where the ship was. :shrug: