In 1941, Britain was at full stretch and the import and export of raw materials was vital to meet the demands of the war effort. The Merchant Navy’s involvement in the war has been described as being the longest, largest and most complex naval battle in history, lasting 6 years, involving 100 convoy battles and 1000 single ship encounters covering thousands of square miles of ocean. On the last day of January, 1941, the SS Gairsoppa - built in Jarrow and launched in 1919 - left Calcutta for Liverpool as part of Convoy SL-64, loaded with pig-iron, tea, and other cargo.

On Febuary 9th the convoy came under devastating attack from German u-boats and The Luftwaffe. The SS Gairsoppa became seperated from the rest of the convoy and, weighed down by her cargo, headed for the safety of Galway on the west coast of Ireland.

On 17th February the Gairsoppa came under attack from U-Boat 101, taking a direct hit from one of four torpedoes - destroying the ships communication masts and sinking the Gairsoppa within twenty minutes.

Only Second Officer Mr. Richard Hamilton Ayres made it to land alive.

The Gairsoppa sank to a depth of 4700 metres, taking its entire contents with it - including a very important secret...surrounded by regular Merchant Navy ships and with an unsuspicious manifest, The Gairsoppa was on a secret, classified mission: the "pig-iron" carried by the Gairsoppa was actually pure silver bars destined for The Royal Mint to help pay for the war effort.

In January 2010, US company Odyssey Marine Exploration were awarded the contract to find and salvage the silver lost with the SS Gairsoppa - they successfully recovered 100 tonnes of silver.

This is the same silver used to create the Gairsoppa Silver Bar.