An incredible hoard of around 100,000 gold coins and other artefacts are to be retrieved from a sunken vessel in the English Channel.
The HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Sir John Balchem, went down with all hands during a storm in the Channel in 1744.
The Victory was believed to have been carrying gold coins from Lisbon to Portugal, reports the St Petersburg Times.
Deep-sea treasure excavator Odyssey Marine Exploration has reached an agreement with the British Government that will see them work together to retrieve the haul.
Odyssey and the Government have yet to make a formal agreement on how the Victory coins will be divided - although they have already made a profit-sharing arrangement for artefacts on another wreck, the HMS Sussex.
As an act of goodwill, Odyssey has donated two cannons from the wreck, and a portion of its salvage fee, to the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth.
Admiral Balchem's Victory was a predecessor to Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship of the same name. Nelson's Victory led the British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
