IN the cold waters of the English Channel, a yellow submersible owned by Odyssey Marine Exploration, a Florida-based treasure hunting company, is sculling over the rusting cannons and encrusted timbers of two shipwrecks. Exactly what it has found and where remains a closely guarded secret, but some archaeologists speculate that one of the wrecks may be La Vierge Du Bon Port – possibly the richest French vessel ever lost at sea – which sank after being ambushed by English privateers off the coast of Guernsey in the Channel Islands on 9 July 1666.
The recovery of such a shipwreck could bring big…
