article_snippet.sent: SS City of Cairo was long assumed that the vessel's cargo, belonging to the UK Treasury, would be lost forever such was the complexity of the task facing salvage experts.
article_snippet.sent: A spokesman for DOS said: 'This was to be a difficult search as the water depth would exceed 5,000m, the weather, swell and currents were known to be challenging and the presumed site was some 1,000 miles from the nearest land in the foothills of the mid-Atlantic ridge.'
article_snippet.sent: But the team suffered 'serious' problems trying to recover the bulk of the hoard because of the depths involved.
article_snippet.sent: The spokesman for DOS said: 'the team quickly found that operating at this depth caused serious technical difficulties which were new to us and which had to be resolved, quickly. '
article_snippet.sent: The combination of pressure, temperature, repeated dives at this depth and other issues resulted in multiple breakdowns of systems such as us had not experienced before when working in 3000m to 4000m depths.'
highlights_snippet.sent: 100 tons of rupees belonging to the UK Treasury thought to be lost forever .
  