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

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

treasure hunter Treasure hunter is the physical search for treasure. For example, treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market for antiquities. The practice of treasure ...

History

Early life

Born in

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a 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 city centre, north-west of Bi ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, as the son of a penniless

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

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 ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

in the

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

of the coast of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

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

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

while carrying payment for military equipment from

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') i ...

in Russia to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. 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 called gold bullion or gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping. Larger gold bars that are produced ...

—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 Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan ...

is 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 primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

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