8. Empress of Ireland
Current Estimated Value: Over $1 million*
The Year Was Lost: 1914
Discovered in 1914
With almost a thousand people losing their lives in the collision between the Norwegian Storstad and the Canadian Empress of Ireland, it is regarded as one of the deadliest maritime accidents in Canadian history. Although the precise causes of the collision remain somewhat mysterious, it is generally agreed that the thick fog caused the two ships to collide.
Ireland’s Empress ©Jim Gibson/Alamy
After the ship sank, rescue operations got underway very soon because the wreckage was still visible from the surface and had not submerged more than 130 feet. The rescue team found 25 silver bars on their first visits; these bars are now worth well over $1 million. Over the course of the following several years, more rescue teams were dispatched to the wreck, and in 1999 it was formally designated as a site of archeological and historical significance for Canada.
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