By Tim Binnall
A team of divers will soon descend upon a sunken Nazi steamer ship that they suspect could contain the legendary lost Amber Room. The intriguing vessel was discovered off the coast of Poland last autumn and determined to be a sizeable craft known as the Karlsruhe, which hastily fled East Prussia in 1945 as the chaotic close of World War II. The city from which it departed, Konigsberg, was the last location where the famed Amber Room, an ornate set of gold and amber panels pilfered from a Russian palace by the Nazis, was last seen. These details have led some researchers to suspect that the downed ship just might be the final resting place of the lost treasure.
Their theory was seemingly strengthened when a subsequent dive in December led to the discovery of several chests which sported "special rubber seals" indicating that they may have been used to transport precious cargo. And now, it would seem that we may get some answers as to what the steamer ship contained as, later this month, a team of divers will reportedly visit the vessel for a ten-day-long examination of the site. While searches for lost Nazi treasure, specifically the Amber Room, have repeatedly come up short, there is reason to believe that perhaps this time might be different. Giving hope to the expedition is the newly-revealed insight that divers previously studying the wreckage actually spotted "picture frames and rotting canvases" within the downed ship.
Another tantalizing detail is that some of the crates sported handles suggesting that they may have originated from museums. The plan for the forthcoming series of dive at the Karlsruhe is to document all of the materials found at the site and, should something of value be discovered, the Polish government will then launch their own state-sponsored dive to further investigate. Complicating matters is that the German government, by virtue of its citizens having died on the ship, could declare the site a sea grave, which would put an immediate halt to any examination of the site. As of now, no such stance has been taken and the dive appears to be set to commence later this month when it just may solve the mystery of the Amber Room once and for all.