Europe Features

Spain suspects US treasure-hunters of looting shipwreck

By Sinikka Tarvainen May 21, 2007, 14:35 GMT

Madrid - Finding tons of silver and gold on board a centuries-old underwater shipwreck sounds like the stuff of movies, but US treasure-hunters claim to have made such a discovery. Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration says it has recovered more than 500,000 silver coins weighing over 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold and other artifacts from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean. In real life, however, treasure stories tend to get entangled in legal wrangles. The Spanish government suspects that the treasure belongs to Spain and that Odyssey committed a crime in taking it to the United States. The Culture Ministry has ordered police to investigate the case and to watch the Gibraltar water zone where it suspects the shipwreck could be located. Odyssey describes the treasure as the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a historical shipwreck site. Some of the silver coins could be worth 4,000 dollars (2,975 euros) each, and the gold coins even more, the company estimates. The entire treasure may have a value of half a billion dollars. The treasure would be so big it has left experts gasping, and many of them skeptical. Some suspect it could be only a publicity trick. Odyssey says it is not yet certain of the nationality and age of the wreck it calls The Black Swan. It has refused to disclose the location of the wreck, which still holds more artifacts, for what it describes as security reasons and an attempt to reduce media speculation. The company claims the treasure is beyond the territorial waters and legal jurisdiction of any country, but Spain finds the lack of information suspicious. It suspects the wreck could be Spanish or located in Spanish waters, in which case Spain would have a legal claim to it. The wreck does not appear to be that of the HMS Sussex, a British warship which sank in the Strait of Gibraltar in 1694. A pioneering private-public deal between Odyssey and the British government would allow the company to keep a part of the huge treasure of gold coins believed to be on board, if it was found. Spain authorized Odyssey to search for the Sussex off its coast, but not to extract any objects from the wreck. Some experts believe the wreck now found could be that of the 17th century British cargo ship Merchant Royal. Spanish waters are littered with hundreds of shipwrecks, and Spain is wary of treasure-hunters who could loot them for commercial purposes. Odyssey hurriedly flew unidentified goods from Gibraltar to New York, according to Spanish reports. The company says the treasure was shipped. It is now being kept at an undisclosed location, where experts are analyzing the coins. Odyssey is already preparing to sell the coins, stressing their wide range of dates, origins and varieties and their interest for collectors. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Treasure ManMay 21st, 2007 - 17:05:36

Spain claims that gold on the bottom of the sea that they didn't find belongs to them. Did a government minister really say this with a straing face? Truth is stranger than fiction again.

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Basic maritime law in one sentence:May 21st, 2007 - 17:48:31

Finders keepers losers weepers.

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Crooks and liarsMay 21st, 2007 - 19:38:56

American Crooks and Liars
1)Iraqs oil
2)Spanish treasure
What next?

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Sour grapes.May 22nd, 2007 - 04:43:31

More power to the treasure hunters. Forgotten or lost, then found and recovered through hard work and huge financial risk. Naysayers are all, and will always be...losers...trying to rain on others parades. Ignore them.

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Regalnon SenseMay 22nd, 2007 - 07:07:04

Why is it always the US who believe they can ignore international laws?

If a small Middle-Eastern state had found the treasure, the US would have bombed them to get it back (no matter who it belonged to).

Lets get this out in the open and give ownership to whoever is legally right.

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Scared EuropeanMay 22nd, 2007 - 08:58:15

I'm a European trying to find news things to blame the United States for. I don't know where the treasure in question is, but I'll post something saying the United States is breaking international law. Even though this is a private company and I have no idea who even owns the company or works for it. Heck it could Europeans working for an American company. I don't know and I don't care. Just bash America, that's my mission. Didn't the United States cause the Holocaust? Didn't the United States crucify Christ? Oops, the United States didn't even exist when Christ was crucified. I'll find some way around the facts to bash America. I'll ignore the fact that Spain doesn't even know where the wreck is and claims it. That's not important at all. Let just fabricate, obfuscate, and bash away.

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United StatesJun 1st, 2007 - 15:37:38

That's because just like any other world power in history, we want to rule the World! Good thing its still called International waters and not German waters..you bunch of ungratefuls! Jealousy solves nothing!

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These comments are GREAT!!Oct 18th, 2007 - 11:45:44

I haven't laughed this hard since the last episode of The Office. :-)
No matter what country you claim to be it's all about big corporations. It's sad we have found such a new form of discrimination that it has taken the heat of the evil corportions that own each of us.
Keep laughing, it makes life more fun.

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OgreMay 19th, 2008 - 12:32:23

Cripes... the Spanish lawyers are trying to compare this to robbing graves at the battlefields of Gettysburg or the USS Arizona. 1. Neither are outside the limits of national interest (I.E. International Waters), 2. Neither are covered under the rules of salvage which apply to ships lost at SEA (not to land based battlefields or ships lost at port and declared a monument by the Fed Govt.).
Let's see...where did this gold and silver come from??? Mostly Peru apparently. Maybe Peru should get in on this case and claim the gold and silver stolen from their natives by Spanish conquistadors?
As to the America bashing. Up yours. Next time Germany invades your country maybe we won't be there. Jerks.

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