Archaeologica.org

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Authorities in Spain are looking into whether a U.S. company can be charged with stealing Spanish heritage for excavating colonial-era treasure from a sunken British warship.

Odyssey Marine Exploration said Friday it had discovered the ship -- along with gold and silver coins worth an estimated US$500 million -- somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

The treasure-hunting company would not say exactly where the ship was, citing security concerns, but said the site was outside any country's territorial waters.

Spain's Culture Ministry said it thought the statement was "suspicious," after Odyssey had sought permission to explore Spanish waters for the wreck of a British ship, according to the national news agency Efe.

Spain granted the company permission in January to search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in a 1694 storm off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for war against France.

That permission was only for exploration, however, and did not extend to extraction, the ministry said, according to Efe. Odyssey had previously been searching off the Spanish coast, but suspended operations there in 2005 after complaints from the Spanish government.

A chartered cargo jet recently landed in the U.S. to unload plastic containers packed with 500,000 coins -- expected to fetch an average of US$1,000 each from collectors and investors.

The Spanish Civil Guard, on request from the government, is investigating whether the company could be charged with theft of Spanish heritage if the haul came from a ship found in Spanish waters, Efe reported. Calls to the ministry on Sunday went unanswered.

Odyssey, based in Tampa, Florida, said it was attempting to recover the HMS Sussex under a deal with the British government -- the first such public-private arrangement for an archaeological excavation of a sovereign warship.

Historians believe the 157-foot (48-meter) warship was carrying 9 tons of gold coins to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France.

Odyssey had said it believed those coins also could fetch more than US$500 million.

Under the agreement with Britain, Odyssey would share any finds with the British government. The company would keep 80 percent of the first US$45 million reaped, and about 50 percent of proceeds thereafter.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europ ... index.html

Spain granted the company permission in January to search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in a 1694 storm off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for war against France.

British newspapers reported Saturday that shipping records and witnesses indicate Odyssey's ships were working in the area last year, likely looking for the Merchant Royal.

Historians say the Merchant Royal took on water and sank while transporting loot from Spain to Belgium to pay the Spanish army stationed there at the time.

The Daily Mail in London asserted that the Merchant Royal treasure was "stolen by Americans," who secretly spirited it back to the United States to keep Britain from making a claim.

Odyssey said Monday that its recovery conformed with salvage laws, the site was beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country and the coins were legally exported to the United States.

"We do believe that most shipwrecks that we recover, including the 'Black Swan,' will likely result in claims by other parties," the company said. "Many will be spurious claims, but we anticipate that there might be some legitimate ones as well. ... It is the opinion of our legal counsel that even if a claim is deemed to be legitimate by the courts, Odyssey should still receive title to a significant majority of the recovered goods."

"It's a very well established principle under Spanish, U.S. and international law that a government such as the kingdom of Spain has not abandoned its sunken ships or sunken property, and that a company like Odyssey Marine Exploration may not conduct recovery operations without authorization by the government," he said.

"The kingdom of Spain has not authorized any such operations by Odyssey, and by these legal actions it will see the return of any Spanish property Odyssey has recovered," Goold said of the claims filed Wednesday.

Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. co-founder Greg Stemm said Thursday the company was working on a statement in response to Spain's claims.

He has previously called Spain's legal threats "absurd" and said that Odyssey would notify all claimants once it conclusively determined the ship's identity.

kbs2244 wrote:This may get interesting.
There is no doubt that there may be TONS of gold at the bottom of the Atlantic from lost Spanish treasure ships on their way from the Caribbean to Spain. The amount of gold mined and sent back to the Old World, by the records, is hard to believe.
Does Spain still have a claim to them? Even in international waters and after centuries?