Argentum Exploration Ltd v The Silver and All Persons claiming to be interested in and/or to have rights in respect of, the Silver (The "SS Tilawa") – QBD (Admlty Ct) (Sir Nigel Teare) [2020] EWHC 3434 (Admlty) – 16 December 2020

Admiralty – State immunity – Claimant claiming ownership of silver bars salvaged from vessel sunk in 1942 – Republic of South Africa asserting ownership of silver bars and claiming sovereign immunity – Whether claim should be struck out

The claimant was a UK company formed in 2012 for the purpose of locating and salving valuable shipwrecks lying at depths which up until then had precluded salvage. It claimed to have salved silver bars from the wreck of SS Tilawa which was sunk in the Indian Ocean in November 1942 by Japanese torpedoes. The current value of the silver bars was said to be US$43 million.