The Marmot’s Hole

Some of you may recall 4 years ago, when the failing Dong-ah Construction company let it be known that they were engaged in the project of salvaging a Russian ship named the Dmitry Donskoi that had been sunk during the Russo-Japanese war.

The share price of Dong-ah shot up 70%, until trading of its shares was suspended a week later. At the time

Dong Ah declined to comment, though the company admits it has been searching for the treasure with the Korea Ocean Research Institute. The story is “totally unfounded,” says head of research Yoo Hai Soo. “We think we have found one small piece of the ship. That is it.”

Despite my initial interest (I love stories of lost treasure!) I had to give up, as I could find no further information, except the story of a Russian Naval officer, who poo-pooed (sp?) the idea soundly:

Sergei Klimovsky, scientific secretary of the Central Naval Museum in St Petersburg, said it was out of the question that the Dmitry Donskoi was carrying gold bars when it went down on May 28, 1905, in the Russian-Japanese War. …
“We view this report from South Korea as utter nonsense. It is out of the question that it had gold bars in its hold as it was Russia’s practice to send gold to the Far East on special rail cars,” Klimovsky said by telephone.
“If they found anything, it could be the box for the officers’ money supply.”

If Klimovsky’s last supposition is true, it would seem that they have found somewhat less than the rumoured $125 billion.

Nevertheless, my excitement was piqued once again when today, the Korea Times (yes still read it folks - mainly for Doonesbury, Prof. Lankov’s column and the hope that there may be the odd interesting letter) carried an article covering almost 1/3 of the obligatory “Roh’s visit to Russia” fluff-page, entitled “Rumors Fly Over Sunken Russian Treasure Ship”. Deja vu! Where have I heard that before?

Despite the sensationalist headline, the only rumors flying were old ones. No news there. Although there has apparently been some progress on four years ago:

The investigation team last year released reports suggesting the ship could be Russian warship the Dmitri Donskoi from Tsarist times, which sank off Ullung Island during the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War. The announcement came after a joint investigation using state-of-the-art equipment including side scan-sonar and an ROV, or unmanned submarine.

There had been some speculation that Putin and Roh might discuss the issue of ownership during their summit meeting, although Blue House quickly nipped this in the bud:

Chong Wa Dae officials said last week that the subject is not very likely to be brought up during the summit between the two leaders.
“It?????s not even clear whether the sunken ship is the Dimitri Donskoi, and we?????re also not sure whether there really is any gold and treasures,?????????? a government official said. “It?????s a very sensitive issue concerning both countries, so we?????re not in a hurry to decide who will claim ownership of the vessel believed to be lying on the ocean floor,?????????? the official added. “If it turns out to be the Donskoi, the South Korean government has to go through very complicated negotiations with Russian counterparts.??????????

So we still don’t know if it is the Donskoi, and if it is, we don’t know if it is carrying gold. Even if that is the case, we don’t yet know who owns it because:

[W]eak international law on such issues, according to legal experts. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea does not deal with the ownership of sunken vessels in foreign territories, which means the countries involved have to negotiate to resolve the dispute.

Could make for some fun negotiations.