Spanish Military On Way To Recover Booty

Feb 20, 2012 by James

The Spanish are sending over several C-130 Hercules transport planes to collect the largest discovery of treasure in history. The Civil Guard said that the planes and several agents would be leaving within hours for Florida to secure the coins and other items that an American deep sea exploration group discovered and fought desperately to keep. The Spanish galleon was discovered in the waters off of Portugal and Spain has claimed that they never relinquished ownership of the ship.

Last week a Federal judge ordered Odyssey Marine Exploration, based in Tampa, to give the Spanish access to the 17 tons worth of treasure and ending a legal battle that ensued between the company and the Spanish government when the ship was discovered in 2007. The ship, Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, was allegedly sunk by British warships in the  Atlantic ocean off the Straits of Gibraltar after a trip to South America. International treaties generally protect the ships cargo if it was sunk in a military engagement but Odyssey claimed that the ship was on a commercial trade journey and not on official business for the Spanish. The Spanish claimed that they never surrendered claim to the ship and thus everything inside was theirs even though Odyssey spent well over $2 million looking for it, recovering the goods and storing it.

The best part, or worst if you’re Odyssey, is that no one will be making money off of the potential sale. That’s because the Spanish courts have already deemed the loot as a national heritage and as such must stay inside the country and be displayed in one or more Spanish museums. Typically companies who recover such cargo are entitled to roughly a 10% finders fee, but it looks as if Odyssey isn’t even getting a slap on the back. Hopefully they pocketed a few of the 594,000 coins.

 Sources:

Associated Press