As an island nation we have a deep love for the seas around us, but do we think about what lies beneath these seas? There over 17,000 shipwrecks recorded in Irish waters. ‘Documentary on One: Sunken Treasures’ highlights the historical significance and heritage of the thousands of shipwrecks that lie off the coast of Ireland. It brings to life the stories, people, artifacts and heritage intrinsic to these shipwrecks. It also documents how modern technology has opened up the deep ocean beds for exploration and made diving for buried treasure no longer the story of fairy tales.

We follow the deep-sea exploration of Waterford man, Eoin McGarry, as he dives to the Crescent City shipwreck off the coast of Cork, in search for sunken treasure and untold stories.

The steam ship the SS Crescent City was built in Liverpool in 1870 for the Liverpool and Mississippi Steamship Company. She derived her name from the old name for New Orleans, and she was built to transport goods from the two great ports of New Orleans and Liverpool. Crescent City set sail in 1871 from New Orleans - on the return leg of her maiden voyage. On board there was 41 crew and 4 passengers. She carried with her general cargo and two tons of silver, which was made up of Mexican silver coins and forty boxes of silver bars.

Having crossed the Atlantic, a journey which took over two weeks, she encountered treacherous weather conditions and sunk off Galley Head in Cork. Miraculously the crew and passengers made it safely to shore. Over the last 142 years some of her silver has been salvaged. But lying beneath the water of Dhulligh Rock still lies over €100,000 worth of silver coins.

In ‘Documentary on One: Sunken Treasures’, we bring the listener on a journey to the bottom of the sea and illuminate the wealth of our maritime history.

‘Documentary on One: Sunken Treasures’ is a Curious Broadcast production funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Narrated by Patricia Baker

Produced by Patricia Baker, John Gough and Myra Hayes of Curious Broadcast Productions

Production Supervision by Sarah Blake

Sound Supervision by Mark McGrath

First broadcast 30th November 2013

'Documentary on One is the home of Irish radio documentaries and the largest library of documentary podcasts available anywhere in the world. We tell stories in sound, mostly Irish ones, and each documentary tells its own story'



