The hunt for treasure from the shipwrecked SS Central America could resume next summer, a report filed with Franklin County Common Pleas Court says.

The effort would be spearheaded by Ira O. Kane, the court-appointed receiver for Thompson's defunct partnership. And his plans are ambitious.

Kane asked the court last week to approve a plan to either recover the "down treasure" next summer or sell off the right to recover it.

"Based on credible historical evidence, our research experts have determined that there remain sufficient amounts of down treasure in the S.S. Central America and its debris field to justify a further recovery effort," Kane wrote in the report.

The experts, he wrote, believe the majority of the remaining treasure "will be comprised of gold coins and ingots."

The research experts that Kane has hired include Blue Water Recoveries Ltd., a British deep-sea-operations company specializing in locating historic shipwrecks; Robert D. Evans, Thompson's chief scientist; and Craig Mullen, a former Navy diver who directs deep-sea recovery efforts.

Mullen, of Key Largo, Fla., directed the recovery of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 and has recovered several large airplanes and shipwrecks from the ocean.

Kane said yesterday that the next step is to gather enough information to decide what's in the best interest of investors and make a recommendation to the court. The cost of recovering the treasure hasn't been determined, he said.

The report lists a timeline of proposed actions, including finding new investors by early next year and recovering the down treasure by next October.

"We haven't made any effort to solicit additional financing," Kane said yesterday. "At the end of the day, you need a certain type of investor who's not afraid of risk."

To read the complete article, see:Shipwreck treasure-recovery efforts could resume in 2014(www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/10/05/shipwreck-treasure-recovery-efforts-could-resume-in-2014.html)