A professional gold prospector scuba diving off Anglesey in north Wales has come up with the biggest gold nugget ever found in Britain.
Vince Thurkettle, 60, spotted the 23-carat nugget while diving in 5m of water, some 40m from the wreck of the Victorian steam-clipper Royal Charter. The egg-sized find weighed in at 97g – the second biggest found in Britain weighed 59g and came to light more than 200 years ago.
The new discovery was made in 2012 but Thurkettle, who had been hoping only to find gold flakes, kept quiet about it while he continued his search. Now, assured that no more gold remains in the area, he has gone public.
He had already notified the Receiver of Wreck, so the gold is now Crown property.
The gold would have been aboard Royal Charter when she sank in a storm in Dulas Bay on Anglesey’s north-east coast on 26 October, 1859. The fast ship had sailed from Australia for Liverpool carrying mainly passengers, including many gold-miners with their finds brought along as personal possessions and cargo – worth an estimated £120 million at today’s prices.
As many as 450 passengers and crew are believed to have died in the sinking, making it the most disastrous off the coast of Wales. Some 200 vessels are thought to have sunk in the same storm.
Thurkettle told reporters that he was diving on a sunny day when he saw the gold gleaming in a crevice, magnified by the water. He had been surprised by how heavy it felt when he picked it up.
A treasure-hunter since his early 20s and a full-time prospector since 2005, he has searched for gold in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, but names his favourite locations as Ireland and the UK. He learnt to dive with ScotSAC in the early 1990s, and had been patiently searching the waters off the village of Moelfre for seven years before making his find.
Now the gold nugget is expected to go on display in a museum – and Thurkettle will receive a finder’s fee.
12-May-16
