He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 203

< Value of Treasure >

Opening the hotel room, Tae-oh asked with surprised eyes,

“Professor Pareto! What brings you here at this hour?”

“I’m glad you were in your room!”

Gaetano Pareto was a marine scholar from a university in the Naples region, whom Tae-oh had met after searching for three weeks.

Professor Pareto possessed a wealth of historical materials from the time of the Kingdom of Naples, gathered during his research on past warships and merchant ships.

Tae-oh had sponsored Professor Pareto with a considerable amount of research funds, requesting an investigation into the passenger records of ships that departed from the port of the Kingdom of Naples for England on May 3 and May 8, 1797.

Professor Pareto, entering the room, explained the reason for his urgent visit before he could even catch his breath.

“I finally found the passenger records of the Kingdom of Naples warship from May 3, 1797, and the passenger records of the Naples merchant ship from May 8 in the data archive! As soon as I found the data, I was so happy that I rushed over here. Haha.”

Tae-oh was greatly pleased with the news he had been waiting for.

“Wow! Really? I really didn’t expect you to find it this quickly.”

Tae-oh had been searching through the records of the time for the past month, but he was almost giving up because he had not achieved any significant results.

“You can say that again. I was worried that I might have thrown it away, thinking it was unnecessary while converting paper documents into digital documents, but I was very lucky to still have it stored in the warehouse.

If Mr. Hyun hadn’t given me the specific year and date, it would have been difficult to find.”

Tae-oh specified the boarding dates of May 3 and May 8, 1797, to Professor Pareto, and it seemed that he was able to find the list quickly thanks to that.

In fact, it was only a few months ago for Tae-oh, and he clearly remembered the boarding date because May 8 is Parents’ Day in Korea.

Click-

Professor Pareto took out a copy of the data from his bag and handed it to Tae-oh.

“Here, take a look.”

In the late 18th century, it was common practice in England to keep relatively detailed records of passengers on ships traveling long distances, such as warships or merchant ships.

This included passenger lists and lists of goods.

However, the records of the Kingdom of Naples were relatively poor, and there was little data stored until now.

But fortunately, Tae-oh’s records remained on both the Naples warship and the Naples merchant ship.

Turning over the data he handed over, the list of passengers on the Naples merchant ship was listed.

And at the very bottom, the surname ‘Sanderson’ was clearly visible.

“As you said, the surname ‘Sanderson’ was found in two places. One was on the passenger list of the Naples warship on May 3, and the other was on the passenger list of a merchant ship trading a few days later on May 8.

However, the warship had both the surname and name, ‘Count Theo Sanderson,’ but the merchant ship only had the surname ‘Sanderson’.”

Tae-oh remembered it clearly.

At the time, when he was trying to board the warship of the Kingdom of Naples, he recorded everything, including his surname, name, and title, but when he hurriedly boarded the merchant ship a few days later, he simply listed his surname.

Tae-oh nodded.

“Yes, that’s very accurate! That’s exactly the data I was looking for. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Oh, no. You gave me so much research funding, and I’m so glad that you found the data you wanted.”

Professor Pareto sighed in relief and asked Tae-oh.

“By the way… isn’t the May 3 data the historical warship that Duke Theo Sanderson was last on before he disappeared in the Mediterranean?

Then ‘Sanderson’ on the merchant ship that left five days later wouldn’t be Duke Theo Sanderson, would it?

But why are you trying so hard to find this data? It’s just a regular merchant ship, so it doesn’t seem historically important.”

“It’s necessary to prove something.”

“Yes? Prove what?”

“It’s a personal matter, so it’s difficult to say.”

“Ah… yes.”

Professor Pareto seemed to be roughly guessing that Tae-oh was a person who had a great interest in the study of Duke Sanderson or treasure ships.

*

Tae-oh, who obtained the necessary data from Professor Pareto, immediately searched for and contacted a Portuguese history marine expert.

And after explaining the situation, he asked for an investigation into the 1797 observation log data of São Miguel Island.

A week later.

The long-awaited email arrived, and Tae-oh flew to Portugal the next day.

◈ Lisbon, Portugal

“This is the observed marine log near São Miguel Island between May 25 and May 30, 1797, which you requested.”

Tae-oh asked back while receiving the data.

“Is this the record of May 28, 1797, that you replied to in the email?”

“Yes, that’s right. It is the São Miguel marine observation log at the time that a merchant ship swept away by a storm on the 28th disappeared.

It was not easy to find the record because it was just a regular merchant ship, not a warship, but fortunately, the record of the sinking of the merchant ship observed from the port of São Miguel Island remained quite clear.

It seems that they were carefully observing the approaching merchant ship being swept away by a very unusual typhoon on a very clear day at the time.”

The received data contained detailed records of the time of the storm and the shape and size of the swept-away ship.

According to the contents of the record, the sinking time and shape of the merchant ship Tae-oh was on almost matched.

Tae-oh looked closely at the contents of the observation log and smiled satisfactorily.

“Yes. Thank you for your hard work. I think that’s exactly the data I was looking for. Thank you very much.”

“No. You gave me too much money as a reward, so I should be more grateful.”

◈ Ten days later. Vice President’s Office, ODEX, a British treasure exploration and salvage company.

Greg Taylor, vice president of ODEX, asked Tae-oh again.

“So. Are you saying that the ship that Theo Sanderson was on and sank was not a Naples warship and did not sink in the Mediterranean?”

“That’s right. Duke Theo Sanderson was heading to England from the Kingdom of Naples on May 8, 1797, on a merchant ship trading with his gifts.”

The vice president asked again with an incredulous expression.

“Isn’t it almost undisputed among many experts that Duke Sanderson was defeated by Napoleon and sank in the Mediterranean on his way back on a Naples warship?”

“Originally, he was going to return on a warship of the Kingdom of Naples on May 3, 1797. It is also true that the warship sank. But something happened and he delayed it, and after receiving an urgent letter from England again, he went to England on a regular merchant ship loaded with treasures five days later.

Duke Sanderson’s name remained on the warship’s passenger list, and the wrong information was recorded because the warship happened to sink around the same time.”

The vice president pondered for a moment, then shook his head with his hand on his chin.

“A warship and a merchant ship that departed from Naples around the same time sank… The content you said is very different from what I knew, so I’m embarrassed.

Duke Theo Sanderson was not on a warship of the Kingdom of Naples, but on a merchant ship, so where did he sink?”

“An island in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Tae-oh took out a few documents from his bag and handed them over.

“First of all, let’s look at the evidence related to boarding.”

“······?”

Tak-

Tae-oh placed the boarding records of the Kingdom of Naples at the time and the observation log of São Miguel Island on the desk.

“As you can see here, ‘Theo Sanderson’ is clearly recorded on the passenger list of the warship of the Kingdom of Naples on May 3, which we commonly know. And this warship sinks in the Mediterranean a few days later.

But if you look at the passenger list of the general merchant ship on May 8, just five days later, you can see that the name ‘Sanderson’ is also listed.”

Vice President Greg looked at the names and dates marked by Tae-oh.

As he said, the surname ‘Sanderson’ was clearly written on the passenger list of May 8.

Most of the names on the merchant ship’s list were in the Neapolitan format, and the English surname was the only ‘Sanderson’.

“And there is a 1797 observation record that a merchant ship that almost matches this merchant ship sank in a storm on an island in the Atlantic Ocean about 20 days later. This is it.”

“So, it seems that the merchant ship that Sanderson was on did not go to the northeast of the Atlantic Ocean?”

“Yes. It’s west of the Atlantic.”

“There are more than one or two islands in the Atlantic Ocean, so which island is it? Where is the source of this observation log?”

“I can’t tell you until the contract is signed.”

“Well, that’s fine. But I don’t know. Even if Duke Sanderson was on the merchant ship on May 8, there is no evidence that it was the ship that was swept away by the storm in the Atlantic Ocean. It cannot be specified by the observation log alone. Furthermore, how can you be sure that ‘Sanderson’ on the Naples merchant ship list is ‘Duke Theo Sanderson’? It could just be the same surname…”

Tae-oh looked at the vice president and asked.

“Did you see the list of Duke Theo Sanderson’s huge treasures a while ago?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“In fact, that amount cannot be fully loaded due to the structure of the warship at the time. The warship would be filled with a lot of food and various weapons. But he wouldn’t have loaded only some of the precious treasures.”

“······.”

In fact, the amount of items that Tae-oh could load on the warship at the time was about the gifts he received from the Kingdom of Naples.

It was impossible to load many gifts received from the Republic of Venice and surrounding kingdoms due to insufficient space and weight.

“So, scholars claim that it was forcibly loaded on the warship and sank while passing through the Strait of Gibraltar for that reason, right?”

“No. It wasn’t that much. Don’t you know even after seeing the gift list released last month? It’s an amount that can never be loaded on a Naples warship.

I cannot disclose all the information I have personally investigated, but it seems that Duke Sanderson chartered a merchant ship that could load a large amount of treasures received from the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice at once and departed from the Kingdom of Naples.”

The vice president tilted his head and asked.

“Then, if you take that merchant ship and go straight to the northeast of the Atlantic Ocean to England, why did you go far to the west of the Atlantic Ocean without a special purpose and get into trouble? That doesn’t make sense, does it?”

“It seems that he met a pirate ship while passing through the Strait of Gibraltar at the time and deliberately turned around to avoid it.”

“Pirate ship?”

“Yes. At the time, the ship was loaded with a lot of treasures, and he avoided it because he thought the pirates were aiming for these treasures. In addition, it seems that he went back there even if it took time to solve the problem with the merchant ship at the time.”

The vice president, who was deeply troubled, asked as if to confirm.

“…Do you really have the observation log of the Naples merchant ship that Sanderson was on sinking?”

“Yes. If you agree to the salvage operation and sign the contract, I will show you the data.”

“······.”

The vice president was gradually falling for Tae-oh’s plausible explanation.

However, once a exploration is decided and excavation actually begins, it costs more money than imagined.

If it is a treasure ship worth more than $30 billion as announced recently, even if it is a warship, a certain amount of profit can be guaranteed through a contract with Italy.

However, the possibility of actually discovering Duke Sanderson’s treasure ship, which has not been found even its traces, seemed extremely low.

Tae-oh, who read the vice president’s conflicting feelings, took the lead.

“I don’t have time. If you don’t give me an answer within 3 days, I will go to another salvage company. I know that ODEX is the world’s best treasure exploration company, but I can’t just wait. I hope you don’t make a foolish decision to miss the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Greg, the vice president, opened his mouth after pondering for a while.

“We need time to review the data and information you have shown us now. 3 days is too short, so please give us a week.”

Tae-oh nodded.

“Okay. Then I’ll wait a week. If there is no contact, I will assume that you have refused.”

* * *

5 days later.

ODEX contacted us to sign a contract.

Along with the news that the ODEX archaeological team’s analysis revealed that all of Tae-oh’s grounds were true.

Tae-oh signed the contract and disclosed all the data, including the São Miguel Island observation log, and after completing all the fact-checking work of the archaeological team, he began a full-scale salvage plan.

In the meantime, ODEX’s legal team spent two months traveling to Italy, England, and Portugal to complete the treasure excavation agreement under the best conditions.

◈ 5 months later, the waters near São Miguel Island, Portugal.

Large exploration ships and several small ships were stopped in the sea with São Miguel Island visible in the distance.

Many people were going back and forth over the exploration ship, busy preparing for the exploration.

Tae-oh, who was looking around with binoculars, said to the exploration team leader with emphasis.

“Team leader Allen! Seeing a small island in front of the island, it seems that this location is correct. When we meet a big storm here and sink, we should calculate which direction the ship went and look at it.”

It had been over 200 years, but it was still a vivid event for Tae-oh, which he had experienced just a few months ago.

The exploration team leader immediately instructed the analysis team to calculate the movement of the ship in the storm and the flow of 200 years to predict the location.

As soon as the results came out, a large-scale underwater exploration of the predicted area began.

Various radars, underwater cameras, and underwater drones were mobilized, and a large number of Portuguese professional divers familiar with the geography of the sea near São Miguel Island were also deployed.

As the exploration progressed, on the 22nd day.

– Jjijik- There is! There’s something!

An urgent radio came from the headquarters exploration ship.

Something was finally discovered.

“Several brackets used in old wooden boats have been found!”

As the wreckage of ships was found here and there under the sea, the atmosphere at the exploration site was heating up.

The exploration team leader shouted in an excited voice.

“Stop working on other sectors right now and tell everyone to gather here! And put in all the equipment and divers!”

“Yes! Team leader!”

Not long after, the merchant ship of the Kingdom of Naples, which had been sleeping deep in the sea, was captured by an underwater camera.

The merchant ship, with its large mast broken and stuck on the bottom, was well preserved for a long time without being greatly swept away by the currents thanks to the heavy treasures it was fully loaded with.

As the ship was salvaged by a large crane and treasures were revealed to the world one by one, news around the world made a fuss every day.

People were surprised by the amount of treasure sleeping under the sea and by its astronomical value.

The total value of the treasure ship due to the excavation and auction of treasures over several months far exceeded the initially expected $30 billion, reaching $40 billion (about 52 trillion won).

This was largely due to the fact that works by famous art artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were sealed in wax-sealed lead boxes, so their condition was very good.

These works aroused a heated response even before they were released on the auction market, and as soon as they were released on the market, they were sold in an instant at enormous prices.

When all the disposal of treasures and works of art was over, the settlement between the Italian government and ODEX began in earnest.

As a result of the settlement, about 46 trillion won, 90% of the enormous profit of 52 trillion won in Korean currency, went to the British treasure exploration company ODEX.

This was because it was recognized as a complete merchant ship without even a cannon.

And a huge amount of money, about 23 trillion won, half of the profit ODEX received, went into Tae-oh’s hands.