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Date: | Mon, 2 Oct 2000 10:40:53 +0100 |
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The following news story was in today's Independent (UK newspaper). I
thought it would be of interest to the list. I've shamelessly broken any
number of copyright laws in the name of expediency by lifting this
directly off the web site:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/2000-10/castro021000.shtml
letters to the editor may be sent to: [log in to unmask]
Be sure to include a postal address.
Alasdair Brooks
Castro begins hunt for lost Spanish
gold
By Elaine Cole
2 October 2000
President Fidel Castro has given the
go-ahead for a hunt for
the world's largest treasure trove,
lost for centuries off the
treacherous Cuban coast. Scientists
believe there is more
gold on Spanish galleons sunk by the
island's coral reefs
than there is still to be mined.
Cuba has sold Rory Boyes-Varly, an
American internet
millionaire, a licence to search for
the gold. The Cuban-US
partners have enlisted a Briton, Gordon
Stove, who devised
technology that can identify any known
material lying hundreds
of feet underwater. Previously, radar
could locate the material
but not identify it.
Mr Stove's company, Radar World, based
in Gladsmuir, East
Lothian, will be paid £25,000 to
investigate the wrecks and
pinpoint gold. The communist but
cash-strapped Cuban
government has sold the exploration
rights but will take a
percentage of any treasure.
Mr Stove said: "It really is the stuff
of boyhood fantasies –
treasure chests full of gold coins,
pieces of eight, jewellery,
silver cutlery." He said he devised his
treasure-hunting
program while working for his father, a
research scientist,
during a summer vacation from
university. "This software is
like an electronic sniffer dog: it can
identify everything from
rare minerals to clothing."
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