Former Premier David Saul says his company’s massive silver haul offers excellent prospects for shareholders.Speaking to The Royal Gazette yesterday, Dr Saul said Odyssey Marine Exploration was “thrilled” to recover the silver worth an estimated $38 million.Odyssey, of which Dr Saul is a founder and director, this week recovered an initial 48 tons of silver from a Second World War shipwreck deep in the Atlantic“I think you will have already read that the amount thus raised is only 20 percent of what we expect is there,” Dr Saul said. “Wwe left the ship with hundreds of ingots sitting on the deck for our return ... We had to leave the ingots there, on pallets, as we were scheduled to come into port for a crew change- which is scheduled every 28 days.“We are, naturally, thrilled that all the technology worked. We were working at over 14,000 feet, which makes this the deepest hall of such a cargo ever performed. Remember, Bermuda is only 12,000 feet from the bottom. We were picking up relatively small items from almost a half mile further than that depth!”Dr Saul noted that legally, the silver belongs to the British Government.“Odyssey simply has a ‘salvage contract’ to recover UK 'property',” Dr Saul said. “We are not yet certain how the final payment will be made. It could be a bank draft, or some combination of silver and a cheque.“Odyssey has recovered only 20 percent of what is on board up to the moment. However, with silver around $30 an ounce, the prospects for the shareholders of Odyssey, (which is listed on the NASDAQ stockmarket, are excellent, either way.”Dr Saul flew to England last week to meet the ship carrying his company’s treasure haul.Odyssey said it retrieved 1,203 silver bars, or about 1.4 million ounces of the metal, from the SS Gairsoppa, a 412-foot British cargo ship that sank after being torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1941. It was found last year three miles beneath the Atlantic.