Strategies for Reserving Search Areas

What we are doing has never been done before… We know from history over 3 million ships have sunk world wide and many thousands along the Gulf Stream, a major trade route for centuries. It is not a question of if they sank, that is history, but rather, where they sank.

We have chosen an area along the Gulf Stream that we consider to be one of the richest if not the richest areas to find sunken ships in the world.

Here are some strategies for staking Claims. Have you a better idea?

The “Cover all the Bases” (Mathematical) Strategy

Not all wrecks will have huge treasures. The larger the Search Area, the greater the chance there could be multiple wrecks lying there, adding up to the total from which 5% is figured. Because they are larger though, the more people share in what is found.

Because we cannot know exactly where targets will be found, we choose this strategy to maximize the coverage of the search matrix for the money spent.

The smaller the claim, the greater your percentage of what we may find. But the lesser the odds that targets of value will be found.

Purchase all 10 sizes in one quarter and the corresponding Additional Claims, would give coverage of 1/4th of the total search area, an eighth, 16th, 32nd, 64th, 128th, 256th, 512th and a 1024th, all for about  $ 150.00.

If one picked different 1 hectare Search Area and all the larger Search Areas that overlap it, baring a strong intuition to do otherwise, it would be best to choose one in another quarter of the matrix.

Correspondingly, if one picked a one or two more Search Areas, they should be in the one or two other quarters.

If one picked all 4 quarters with the 9 smaller ones in each quarter, one would have the whole matrix search area covered, with all the 1/4ers half of the 1/8ths and a quarter of all 1/16ths etc. This would cost 400 Euro. We may find multiple wrecks. If this is the case it is not like a lottery where there is only one “winner”. Each of our successful finds would produce a share of what we find for everyone in the corresponding Search Areas. Everyone can get something.

Bad Weather Strategies

The Hurricane Strategy

Flotas sailed were twice a year, before the hurricane season and after. Quite often if not always left late for various reasons. The effect was that they left during the hurricane season not before it.

Although the exact location of the search area will be kept secret, we can say this much:

The Matrix straddles the Gulf Stream with the top representing North. In this area the current is about 80 km wide. As our search area is 100 km wide, we have overlapped our search area because we felt that hurricanes and storms could easily blow the ships out of the current.

Most often hurricanes would come from the Southeast and move North along the current or on to the Northwest. But just this mid June, a near hurricane came from the Southwest, across Florida.

The winds in these cyclonic storms rotate in a counter clockwise motion, with the strongest winds coming from the leading edge of the storm. This is because one adds the speed of the spinning hurricane winds plus the surface speed the storm is moving across the ocean.

Correspondingly, the trailing edge for the storm is not as severe as the movement of the storm is subtracted from the storm winds as it moves away.

One could conclude that a passing hurricane would first blow the ships to the Northwest outside of the current with the maximum wind speeds of the storm coming first. Then they would be hit by lesser winds from the West.

Could the ships already damaged by the first winds then be blown East back to the middle of the Current or beyond?

Keep in mind that these ships were always overloaded so are subject to bad weather.

What do you think: are most wrecks more in the eastern (right) part of the matrix, in the middle or maybe north?

The “Norther” Strategy

In the Fall and Winter and Spring months, cold fronts move South from the continental United States in huge bands of high winds that hit like a wall day or night. Because they come from the North, the winds can blow from the North or from the West.

If the winds come from the north they blow directly against the flow of the Gulf Stream, causing waves to build like “haystacks”, with steep and confused seas, (waves coming from all directions): a real test of seamanship both then and now.

The Leaky Ship Strategy

There were numerous reports of ships simply sinking from springing a leak. As the ships sailed on a flota or convoy, passengers were picked up but since the ships were so full, cargo went down with the sinking ship.

Did these ships sink in the middle of the Gulf Stream, where they were taking advantage of the full force of the current?