Two sunken British ships carrying millions of dollars of silver have been rediscovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration cofounded by former Premier David Saul.On Monday, the company announced that it had located the British Steam Ship Mantola, which was torpedoed off the Irish Coast in 1917 carrying an estimated 20 tons of silver.The value of the silver aboard the sunken vessel is estimated at around $18 million.Speaking about the discovery yesterday, Dr Saul said the company had been contracted by the British Department for Transport to locate and recover the contents of both the Mantola and the Gairsoppa, which was also sunk during the First World War.The Gairsoppa was identified last month around five miles underwater. That ship is believed to contain 240 tons of silver, estimated to be worth $200 million today.“Those two were both carrying silver ingots for war efforts when they were torpedoed by the Germans,” Dr Saul said.“The British Government put forward numerous contracts to get that silver back. They paid for them, after all.“We bid on these two. They were quite nearby each other, around 56km apart, both in deep water.”Dr Saul said the Mantola lies closer to the surface than the Gairsoppa, but is still more than a mile down.The Mantola was less than a year old when it was torpedoed. According to Odyssey, the ship was carrying 18 passengers and 165 crew members when it departed London for Calcutta on February 4, 1917.Four days later, the ship was sunk by a German submarine and sank.The Gairsoppa was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941 after it ran low on fuel and attempted to divert to Ireland. Only two crewman survived the attack.Dr Saul said that with the advancements in technology, the Bermuda Government should look to Bermuda’s waters as a possible source of income, with precious metals potentially reachable in the Island’s exclusive economic zone.“Recovering oil from our deep water is not an impossibility, or to find manganese nodules or underwater phosphates,” Dr Saul said. “New Zealand is looking into underwater phosphates.”