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Even fewer people know that in the
early 1960s he was a
part of one of the most unique sunken treasure
discoveries in history – The Treasure of the
Great Reef.
In 1962, Clarke was stricken with
polio and spent the rest of his life living with the
debilitating effects of post polio syndrome.
In 1963 he joined diving partner Mike
Wilson as he and a small team of divers recovered
thousands of silver rupees Wilson and two American
consulate boys, Bob Kriegel and Mark Smith, had
discovered on Great Basses Reef off the southern tip of
Sri Lanka. Most of the coins were still in the
shape of the bags that had once carried them; clumps
weighing 26 to 30 pounds, with nearly 1,000 coins in
each.
The water gave Clarke the freedom
that he had lost on land due to the polio. And the
experience of recovering sunken treasure from the ocean
floor fired his pen.
In 1964 and '65 he wrote the books
Treasure of the Great Reef and Indian Ocean
Treasure recounting the adventure of recovering the
sunken treasure. But he never donned another set
of SCUBA tanks.
The memory of the glittering silver
rupees recovered from Great Basses Reef slowly faded
into history.
And as the years passed, Clarke found
himself increasingly bound to walking aides and
wheelchairs.
Then in 1992, renowned treasure
hunter
Capt. Carl Fismer (star of the new hit HD TV
series
Treasure Divers) acquired a hoard of silver rupees
from retired Smithsonian curator Mendel Peterson.
Fismer then teamed up with adventure photo-journalist
and video producer Robert Lewis Knecht and together they
traveled to Sri Lanka to visit Clarke and hear the story
of the Treasure of the Great Reef first hand.
Clarke was ecstatic to recount the
adventure on video. But nothing had prepared
Fismer of Knecht for the surprise they were about to
get.
In 1991, Knecht had produced the
documentary Where Wheelchairs Are Not Allowed,
about how members of the Houston Disabled SCUBA Divers
Association had overcome tremendous odds to break the
bonds of their wheelchairs and discover the freedom of
SCUBA diving. Clarke had seen the program and had
been so inspired by it that he joined Fismer and Knecht
on a dive off Colombo, Sri Lanka, to over 100 feet.
Later, back on board the boat, he
excitedly recounted the dive and, perhaps sensing his
mortality, told the camera: "If I never do another dive
again, this will be a good way to go out."
That was his last dive...
Arthur C. Clarke: before 2001
recounts the exciting discovery of the Treasure of the
Great Reef, now known as The Taj Mahal Sunken
Treasure, with never before seen photos and footage
of the treasure recovery, and interviews with the
treasure discoverers, Mark Smith and Bob Kriegel.
Robert Hoge, curator of the American Numismatic
Association, makes a special appearance discussing the
origins and rarity of the silver rupees. And, of
course, Capt.
Fismer accompanies Clarke on a magical dive off Sri
Lanka.
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