Stalin's Silver by John Beasant

Stalin's Silver: The Sinking of the USS John Barry

by John Beasant

Book Overview:

In the Arabian Sea: three torpedoes fired by German submariners aboard U-859 ram an American merchant ship, the USS John Barry. The 7200-ton surface vessel carries Saudi silver riyals worth $80 million, and another $300 million in silver bullion.

When the torpedoes strike, they tear the John Barry into two pieces, delivering the ship and her treasure to a watery grave 8500 feet below sea level.

For forty-five years the wreck lay inaccessible on the ocean floor.

But in 1989, Sheikh Ahmed Farid al Aulaqi acquired salvage rights and enlisted the help of the French International Maritime Institute and Jean Roux. Roux and his team would develop the technology and the technique to permit an operation of deep-sea recovery never before deemed possible.

In Stalin's Silver, John Beasant recreates the USS John Barry's fateful voyage and death-defying salvage.

With help from the mission's survivors, Beasant resolves, a fifty-year old mystery: Where was the merchant ship taking its precious cargo?

Review & Praise:

"With the help of survivors, John Beasant has Produced a detailed study of the politics behind the most valuable salvage operation in history"
—History Today (London)

"It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood Thriller: An Arab Prince and French Marine Archaeologist mount a high-tech salvage of $380 Million USD in Silver... The facts behind this $30,000/day salvage operation make for fascinating reading"
—Focus (London)

Book Summary:

The mystery of where an American merchant ship sank in 1944 after being hit by a German submarine torpedo lives on, as survivors help recreate the ship's last days and speculate as to the intended destination of the $300 million dollars in silver it carried.

About the Author

Journalist & Author: John Beasant

Born on a farm in Wiltshire, England, John Beasant began his expatriate life at an early age, when he was posted to Uganda in 1962 as a pioneer member of Britain's Voluntary Service Overseas.

Several years later, he took a job as press secretary for the Prime Minister of Fiji, and he remained in the South Sea Islands for over a decade, finally working as the Press and Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of Vanuatu. During the 1980 rebellion on the island of Santo, he negotiated and accepted the surrender of the rebels on behalf of the Vanuatu government, and was later awarded that country's state decoration.

John Beasant's service in small island states continued up until 1986, where he worked as Press Secretary to the President of the Maldives. Since 1987 he has worked in Arabia as a press secretary and journalist, and he currently lives in the Sultanate of Oman. Trapped in Makulla during the 1994 civil war in Yemen, when that southern port city fell to the North Yemen Army, he subsequently made a hazardous escape with a group of Bedouins across nearly 500 miles of desert, and over the legendary mountains of Hadrhamaut.

He is the author of The Santo Rebellion: An Imperial Reckoning and Orphans of Empire, a journey through Britain's former small island colonies.

Book Data:

ISBN-13: 9780312205904 | ISBN-10: 0312205902 | Author: John Beasant | Subjects: History, World War II, Military History, Nautical & US Naval Military History, Biography | Binding: Hardcover | Publisher: St Martins Press | Publication Date: 1999