POD DIVER RADIO: The Scubacast

The RMS Republic:

The Billion dollar Shipwreck of GOLD

The Backstory:

The RMS Republic was a White Star Line steam-powered ocean liner built in 1903. In early morning of 23 January 1909, while sailing from New York City to Gibraltar, the Republic was in a collision with SS Florida in 1909 in which she sank in 270 feet of water aprox 70 miles off of Martha's Vineyard.

At the time there where multiple reports that she was carrying gold and mixed coin worth $250,000 (in 1909 dollars) to be used as payroll for the US Navy's Great White Fleet. In addition to the US Navy coin-monies shipment, various sources reported on a much larger cargo, $3,000,000 in US gold Double Eagles. Among these, The Washington Post reported, "Three million dollars in gold coins lies in the rotting hulk of the White Star liner Republic, lost off Nantucket in January, 1909. Today, those coins would be worth a Billion Dollars.

Captain Martin Bayerle discovered the wreck of the RMS Republic in 1981 and in 1987 he launched a salvage effort. I was the video engineer on the documentary crew of that expedition. The expedition was successful in targeting and excavating their target area, but failed to locate the gold, however. " A perfect landing at the wrong airport…"

With new information all these years later, Captain Martin Bayerle finally thinks he knows where the gold is. With its current value, that cargo would be worth over a Billion Dollars. This is a story of shipwreck diving, history, international politics and a life long quest for treasure.

In the summer of 2022, Captain Martin Bayerle returns to the site of the RMS Republic and we will be there with him.

Technical Free-diving and shooting underwater scene for AVITAR 2. Interview with Kirk Krack of Performance Free-diving.

Kirk discusses the procedure, techniques, physics and physiology of technical free diving. Kirk also discusses how he used technical free to train actors for the underwater sequences in the new AVITAR Feature Film

Download past Free-diving episodes with Kirk Krack here:

1.We go "in-depth" and discuss the philology, history and mindset to succeed in the sport of Free-diving http://traffic.libsyn.com/poddiver/PD188.mp3

2.Intro to Free-diving with Kirk Krack https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/poddiver/PD018.mp3

Sep 11th 20th Anniversary Episode.

Joe and Arielle talk about their recollections from the events of that day. We would like all listeners to share their stories as well. Leave comments, send us an email or an audio file.