Claims made by a renowned treasure hunter over 40 years ago that a U-boat packed with Nazi gold lies sunken in the Caribbean are to be explored.
American explorer Roger Miklos said in 1981 that he had found a U-boat while working off the Turks and Caicos islands, although he never revealed the exact location.
It is claimed that Adolf Hitler ordered U-boats to smuggle looted gold, artwork and other valuables out of Germany, the Daily Star reports.
Renowned treasure hunter Miklos died in 2018, having said the sunken U-boat was one of nine cargo subs in the Turks and Caicos islands, according to History Channel UK.
U-boats wreaked havoc during World War II, particularly in the Battle of the Atlantic, but as well as sinking merchant ships with torpedoes as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean, they could also have been used as a stealth mode of transporting the Nazi's plundered goods from invaded countries.
Mr Miklos’ documents were handed over to diver and explorer Mike Fletcher, who searches for the U-boat in the History Channel US documentary, “History's Greatest Mysteries”, released in September.
Speaking in the show, Mr Fletcher said: “We do know that there are billions of dollars in looted personal possessions.
“Gold, all sorts of valuable material that went missing during the war.
“It certainly made sense that some of this could have been loaded on the U-boats to smuggle them out of Europe and into a safe haven.”
Mr Fletcher, who has 40 years’ experience as a shipwreck explorer, leads a small team in the search for the U-boat.
The group piece together the clues left by Mr Miklos after his death, including sketches and codes.
The evidence is all cryptic due to the late treasure hunter’s fears that one of his rivals would swoop in and steal his find.
Mr Miklos became renowned as a leading treasure hunter after a string of high-profile discoveries.
One of his most impressive finds was the ship, Atocha, lost 1622, which was carrying tens of millions of dollars worth of treasure.
His announcement 40 years ago that he had discovered one of Hitler’s lost U-boats sent the treasure hunting world into a frenzy.
At the time, Mr Miklos had been in the Turks and Caicos looking for the Pinta, a ship used by Columbus to travel to the New World in 1492.
After his crew’s magnetometer picked up a reading, Mr Miklos dived down to scan the ocean floor.
