A British-led team of divers has recovered silver coins with a market value of £34 million from the wreck of the SS City of Cairo, which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1942.

The steamship was transporting its cargo of rupees from Bombay (known as Mumbai since 1995) to England in a bid to help fund the Second World War, when it was torpedoed 480 miles off the coast of St Helena.

The vessel’s final resting place was unknown until 2011, when it was spotted by a reconnaissance team. Backed by the UK Department for Transport, a subsequent mission was able to recover dozens of tonnes of silver from a depth of 5,150m, making it the deepest dive project of its kind.

Of the 311 passengers and crew on board, 305 made it to the lifeboats, where the U-boat captain directed them to the nearest land. Sadly, in the the two weeks it took for them to be rescued, a further 104 died.