By BC Cook
LAST week we discussed an incident in 1942 when Americans and Filipinos dumped millions of dollars’ worth of gold and silver into Manila Bay to prevent its capture by the Japanese. After transferring what they could to an American submarine the remainder was bagged and crated, then dumped in turbulent water over a hundred feet deep. The Japanese knew of the operation and spent considerable time and effort recovering the loot, but took possession of only a fraction of what was down there. So, what happened to the rest?
In accounts of Japanese recovery efforts only silver is spoken of. Apparently, the Japanese were unable to recover any gold, if they even knew about it. So where is the gold now? Did someone else bring it up? Is it still on the bottom? Since gold is worth considerably more than silver it is the real treasure.
At the end of the war the American navy attempted to salvage the gold and silver using new underwater metal detectors. They were somewhat successful but have never disclosed how much they found, and have not indicated whether they recovered gold, silver or both.
In 1947 two Americans received a contract from the Philippines government to salvage more of the loot and managed to bring up another 2.5 million dollars’ worth. But again, they only mentioned silver pesos, no gold.
There is another, more mysterious account from 1947. A well-organized group of U.S. Navy veterans trained in hardhat deep-sea diving worked the site and recovered about 300,000 silver coins and close to 60 gold bars: the first mention of gold. Even more mysteriously, the ship carrying the salvaged goods apparently sank in a storm and took the gold and silver back to the bottom of the sea, its second trip to a watery grave in five years. Of course, no one can confirm this and no one seems to know where the ship went down or even identify it or anyone who sailed on the doomed vessel.
Over the years there have been numerous attempts by the governments of the Philippines and the United States to salvage more of the treasure. It is estimated that they have recovered another eight million pesos or so. Plenty of treasure hunters and adventurers have tried their luck in the bay but it is very risky. The diving is difficult and getting caught means stiff fines and prison sentences. Manila Bay pesos, both authentic and bogus, show up on auction websites or among coin dealers from time to time.
Taking all of these stories into account, there may be several million pesos still at the bottom of Manila Bay. By now it would be so scattered and buried as to be beyond recovery but that does not mean you could not find a piece. For me, the real story is what happened to the gold, but on that subject no one is talking.
Dr. BC Cook taught history for 30 years and is a director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.
