BusinessWeek – On Monday, a deep-water exploration ship lingered 160 miles off the coast of Charleston, S.C. The vessel is operated by Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMEX), a company with a unique business model: It recovers treasure from shipwrecked vessels.
Odyssey Marine hopes to retrieve an estimated $86 million in gold from the SS Central America, a steamship sunk during a hurricane in 1857 while it carried large amounts of gold from California. The publicly traded, Tampa-based company is entitled to a substantial percentage of the riches. Naturally, Odyssey Marine is promoting the possibility of a big score on its website.
