Photo of the Day 282

Sunken Treasure Hunters, Atlantic Ocean, 1999

Photograph by Priit Vesilind

A small boat tows a Russian submersible during a 1995 expedition to find sunken gold. The mission sought to raise more than 2 tons (1.8 metric tons) of bullion from a Japanese submarine torpedoed by American forces off Africa's Atlantic coast during World War II. Disappointed treasure hunters recovered only some tin, brass, and an old shoe.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Last Dive," October 1999, National Geographic magazine)