Keith Jessop (10 May 1933 – 22 May 2010) was a British salvage diver and successful marine

treasure hunter Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. One of the most popular types of modern day treasure hunters are historic shipwreck salvors. These underwater treasure salvors try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with both ...

History

Early life

Born in

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford, n ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, as the son of a penniless

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

mill-worker. Jessop learned to deep-dive. With advances in technology, which allowed longer and deeper dives than ever could be imagined before, his dream of becoming a deep-sea salvager became a reality. Jessop became professionally trained in deep-sea diving and over several decades Jessop had unearthed hundreds of wrecks around the world making several million pounds from his discoveries.

Salvage operations

It was not, however, until 1981 that Jessop was involved in one of the greatest deep-sea salvage operations in history. One day in April 1981 Jessop's survey ship ''Dammtor'' began searching for the wreck of the cruiser HMS ''Edinburgh'' in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

of the coast of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The ship had been sunk in battle in 1942 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

while carrying payment for military equipment from

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

in Russia to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. His company, called Jessop Marine, won the contract for the salvage rights to the wreck of ''Edinburgh'' because his methods, involving complex cutting machinery and divers, were deemed more appropriate for a war grave, compared to the explosives-oriented methods of other companies. In late April 1981, the survey ship discovered the ship's final resting place at an approximate position of 72.00°N, 35.00°E, at a depth of within ten days of the start of the operation. Using specialist camera equipment, the ''Dammtor'' took detailed film of the wreck, which allowed Jessop and his divers to carefully plan the salvage operation. Later that year, on 30 August, the dive-support vessel ''Stephaniturm'' journeyed to the site, and salvage operations began in earnest. Leading the operation undersea, by mid-September of that year Jessop was able to salvage from the wreck over $100,000,000 in Russian

gold bullion A gold bar, also known as gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refining, refined metallic gold that can be shaped in various forms, produced under standardized conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record-keeping. Larger varietie ...

—431 bars out of 465—making him the greatest underwater treasurer in history. His autobiography '' Goldfinder'' written in 2001 tells the story of Jessop's life and the salvage of such underwater treasures as HMS ''Edinburgh''. Jessop's son Graham was also a successful deep-sea salvage diver having opened his own business.

Death

Jessop died in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 22 May 2010, at the age of 77.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jessop, Keith 1933 births 2010 deaths English underwater divers English archaeologists Treasure hunters Professional divers