Seoul, July 21: A South Korean company has claimed that it has discovered a huge Russian ship which is rumoured to have massive stock of gold on board. The ship was discovered at the bottom of the ocean and it has been more than a century since the ship sank, said a report in CNN. 

The ship is a first class cruiser and weights around 5,800-ton, known as Dmitri Donskoii. The name of the company which announced the "rediscovery" of the ship is Shinil Group and it did so this week. According to the company, the ship had first set sail in the year 1885.

The ship is believed to have sunk during the 1905 Battle of Tsushima. It is said that the place of sinking of the skip is between the present day sea of South Korea and Japan. The incident took place when the Russo-Japanese War was underway.

The report mentioned that since the sinking of the ship, numerous attempts were made to get to the remains of the ship so as to know and confirm about the presence of the treasure rumoured to be in the ship.

According to the popular belief, the ship is said to have drowned with vast amount of gold coins on board. The treasure and the money belonged to Russia and was part of their war fund. Attempts were made in the year 2000 by the now defunct company, Donga Construction, to retrieve the treasure, but to no avail.

Shinil Group was quoted by CNN saying that the worth of the ship is close to US Dollar $ 1 billion, but the value and quantity of gold on-board the ship is not clear.

The company, in a public statement said that the amour located on the hull's side is "well preserved" and that the machine guns are in their respective places. It also added that the company was planning to register the ship and bring it back from the depth of the ocean.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 21, 2018 07:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).