Grant Bayerle, a third-year West Virginia University law student, stood before the District Court of Massachusetts Wednesday along with his father, Martin Bayerle, in the longest running maritime law case in U.S. history.
The Bayerles own Martha's Vineyard Scuba Headquarters and discovered the White Star RMS Republic ocean liner in 1981.
The case, last filed July 19, 2005, asks the court to grant the Bayerles exclusive salvage rights of the shipwrecked vessel and to issue a preliminary injunction against interference by other opportunistic interlopers.
They were granted the rights in 2005 but are still fighting to figure out the amount of money they'll receive.
The ship contained gold destined for Europe and a treasure that experts say could be worth anywhere between $200 million to up to $2.4 billion dollars, said Brian Caudill, communications director for the WVU College of Law, in an e-mail.
This ship is a 585-foot ocean passenger liner that fell 270 feet to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1909 approximately 50 miles off the coast of Nantucket, Mass.
Six people died, but 1,500 passengers were rescued.
"My first thought was that this is big, really big, and I have actually gotten to the point now that I'm good at picking apart research based on facts," Grant said. "It brings me to the conclusion that there is a substantial amount of gold on board the ship."
It is the second largest ship to ever sink, with the Titanic surpassing it.
"It's exciting being a part of something on that big of a scale, and hopefully it will wind down and reach a conclusion here in a couple years," Grant said.
Capt. Martin Bayerle's last major effort to retrieve the gold took place in 1987, and he was close but not successful, Caudill's e-mail read.
"We ended up in the wrong part of the wreck, a mere 15-feet away from the ship's actual treasure chamber, the Republic's ‘Specie Room,'" Martin said through Caudill's e-mail.
However, Grant and his father plan to locate the gold this summer.
"We're very excited, and we actually think we'll be successful, because we found a guy in Great Britain that actually has the ship's plans where all the rooms are located," Grant said, "whose will surely help to make a safer salvage operation."
Grant and his father are not the only ones trying to gain rights to the ship.
Paribas Bank, one of the largest banks in Europe, filed a claim on the gold, along with the U.S. Government. But the Bayerles are still confident they will inherit a large sum of money.
"Were going to make them put up or shut up," Grant said.
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