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World's Biggest Ever Maritime Treasure Trove Found
• US treasure hunters bring up huge haul of silver and gold coins from secret location
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By
Urban Cowgirl, contributing editor
Wednesday,
30 May, 2007
In May 2007 a Florida-based treasure hunting company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, announced to a stunned world that it had recovered gold and silver coins, worth an estimated $500 million ($NZ 680 million), from a colonial-era shipwreck, code-named The Black Swan, at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean off the Cornish Coast of England.
This led British newspapers to speculate that the Black Swan was the Merchant Royal, which sank just off the south-western coast of England in 1641, in an area where Odyssey has recently been diving.
The Spanish government however suspected the treasure might not be from the Atlantic at all but from another wrecked Spanish vessel in the Gibraltar straits.
Odyssey also has a permit from the British and Spanish governments to explore the wreck of the HMS Sussex , a British flagship which sank in a storm in 1694, off the coast of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Western end of the Mediterranean.
The Gibraltar straits are packed with shipping routes and could have been used by Spanish galleons taking gold and silver to the Spanish Netherlands or even by the Spanish Armada as it sailed to attack England in 1588.
The 80-cannon Sussex was on a secret mission to northern Italy, to deliver a massive cargo of gold and silver coins to the Duke of Savoy in return for fighting France, when it sank off Gibraltar in 1694. The duke eventually changed sides, which historians speculate was because he failed to receive the British payment and instead gave in to French bribes.
Last week Gibraltar's government said Odyssey's latest find had nothing to do with the Sussex. However Ministry of Defence personnel in Gibraltar said an Odyssey ship had berthed in Gibraltar's naval dock the week before the announcement and a specially chartered American Airlines plane landed in the British colony before loading cargo and flying to Tampa, Florida, where Odyssey is headquartered.
Spain's Culture Minister Carmen Calvo called the discovery "suspicious". He said his nation only granted Odyssey permission for exploration not recovery in the Gibraltar Straits and would claim the trove if it turns out to be Spanish or was removed from Spanish waters.
"Both taking (treasure) from Spanish waters or a Spanish vessel that sunk outside Spanish waters would be illegal," a spokeswoman for the ministry said. "The Culture Ministry reported the suspicion of possible criminal plundering and we alerted the civil guard (police) who are investigating."
On 31 May the Spanish government formally announced it planned to sue Odyssey Marine Exploration through the American courts.
Odyssey claimed it knew nothing of a Spanish investigation and said that at no point did its recovery mission come within Spanish jurisdiction - a point it would be happy to prove. "The recovery was conducted in conformity with Salvage Law and the Law of the Sea Convention, beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country," the company said in a statement.
"We do not believe that the recovery is subject to sovereign immunity by any nation pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention. "The coins were brought to the United States with a "valid export license granted by the country from which they were exported, and imported legally pursuant to US law," it said.
Odyssey said it would announce the identity of the shipwreck only after it had been confirmed by research and would release more details of the coins once they had all been documented.
<If this "country" was Gibraltar, it is worth noting that it is not a country but a British protectorate and defence base and is the subject of a long standng dispute over its territorial ownership between the British and Spanish governments: Ed>.
Background
Odyssey Marine Exploration is the only publicly quoted maritime recovery operation and has invested heavily in the latest robotic technology to find sea bed wrecks. The company has posted losses in recent years and by the start of 2007 was in urgent need of a major find to satisfy its investors. The company has defended the secrecy around the site of the latest find and the artefacts, to protect both its own commercial interests and the archaeology at the site.
Odyssey stated definitively Monday that its code named Black Swan project that yielded the riches was not the Sussex wreck in the Mediterranean. In the UK there has been speculation that the Black Swan wreck is that of the Merchant Royal which divers have been seeking for centuries.
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 . 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.
The site where the company claims to have found the wreck of The "Black Swan" is outside any country's territorial waters and beyond the legal jurisdiction of any country. However the Scilly Isles lie in the Atlantic on the Western Approaches to the English channel, around 30 miles south west of the English coast, and if the find was in the Islands' waters this could change matters.
Odyssey claimed that their find was valid and they have abided by international law, however experts in maritime law say their find is subject to any other claimants coming foward. Richard Larn, co-author of Shipwreck Index of the British Isles, said: "When this kind of situation arises, every body comes out of the woodwork".
Odyssey remained tight-lipped over whether the source of the treasure is The Merchant Royal in the Atlantic. " The 'Black Swan' bears characteristics of one shipwreck in particular, but some of the evidence gathered to date is inconsistent with our research, so we want to be sure of the identity before we announce it," the company said in a statement.
The Spanish may still have a claim even if the cargo is from The Merchant Royal as its cargo belonged to Spain. Then again the ship was English owned and insured with Lloyds of London who may also have a claim against the wreck.
Odyssey appeared to acknowledge the possibility of other claimants with its statement: " "We do believe that most shipwrecks that we recover, including The 'Black Swan,' will likely result in claims by other parties. 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."
Meanwhile the find has coincided with the cinematic release of the latest film in the "Pirates of the Caribbean III- At World's End," series and Odyssey's founder is in talks with the Disney film studio about movie rights.
"We are overwhelmed by the worldwide interest in this project, and it reinforces our belief that shipwreck exploration hits a nerve with the public. I wasn't prepared for the response," Greg Stemm said from Los Angeles, where he was meeting with Disney representatives about possible TV and movie projects.
Now read the original story: 18.05.07
US deep-sea treasure hunters have made a record haul of half a million silver and gold coins from a 17th century shipwreck in the Western Approaches to Land's End off the English Coast.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, of Tampa, Florida, announced that they had retrieved 17 tonnes of silver coins from a shipwreck, off the Cornish coast. The find is the largest of its kind, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The mammoth haul was salvaged using a tethered underwater robot. Odyssey, which used the code name Black Swan, said it expected the wreck to become one of the "most publicised in history".
" It is believed that this recovery constitutes the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a historical shipwreck site," the company said in a statement. "The finds include over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tonnes, hundreds of gold coins, as well as worked gold items". Odyssey is set to return to the same spot to recover more coins and artifacts.
"The remarkable condition of most of the first 6,000 silver coins conserved has been a pleasant surprise, and the gold coins are almost all dazzling mint state specimens," said Greg Stemm, Odyssey's chief executive officer. "We are excited by the wide range of dates, origins and varieties of the coins, and we believe that the collecting community will be thrilled when they see the quality and diversity of the collection."
An expert consulted by the company recommended offering the silver coins at retail prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to 4,000 dollars each, depending on the condition, date and origin. "The gold coins are estimated to bring substantially higher numbers," the company said.
Odyssey said the coins and other artifacts were found on a "colonial" period shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean, but maintained a shroud of secrecy over the exact location, citing security and legal reasons. However there is speculation that this is the wreck of The Merchant Royal, which sank off the Scilly Islands, off the Western end of the English coast in 1641 laden with bullion from Mexico. Salvage hunters have been searching for the wreck for centuries.
Carrying a crew of 80 under the command of Capt. John Limbrey, The Merchant Royal, owned by a group of London merchants, reportedly had "£300,000 in silver, £100,000 in gold and as much again in jewel" in its hold. But it was taking on water as it reached the Western Approaches (shipping lanes off the Cornish coast) and sank in heavy weather. The loss to the Treasury and the nation was so great that Parliament had to be interrupted to break the news.
Earlier this week, a US court granted Odyssey ownership of the contents of a sunken ship located 100 meters (330 feet) below the surface and 64 kilometers (40 miles) off Land's End, near the English Channel. Searching for deep wrecks has become more possible since the development of underwater robots. The wreck is believed to be that of the Merchant Royal.
Alison Kentuck, Britain's deputy receiver of wrecks, said the evidence pointed to The 'Black Swan', being the Merchant Royal. Ms Kentuck said the find was outside British Territorial waters but Odyssey had kept her department informed of the project "in the Western Approaches". (British Territorial Waters normally extend around 12 miles off the coast although there are exceptions for outlying islands where the waters usually extend around 3 miles. The British Scilly Isles lie around 30 miles off the western end of Cornwall on the mainland in the Western Approaches.)
However it is difficult to be sure of the exact position where The Merchant Royal, went down, in an area notorious for shipwrecks, as it was out of sight of land. Odyssey is being tight-lipped about the ship's location and possible identification.
"We have some interesting evidence that tends to point to a specific shipwreck, but we do not intend to discuss this publicly until we have had a chance to review contemporary records and conduct extensive analysis of the artifacts and coins that have been recovered to date," Odyssey said.
"Our research suggests that there were a number of colonial period shipwrecks that were lost in the area where this site is located, so we are being very cautious about speculating as to the possible identity of the shipwreck," said John Morris, Odyssey's co-founder.
Under salvage law Odyssey could get up to 90 per cent of the haul although this may depend on whether other claimants come forward. The ship would have been insured by Lloyds of London and it maybe that Lloyds has a claim on the salvage value. No doubt their lawyers will be watching the news carefully.
The news is timely for Odyssey, the only publicly traded company of its kind. The company salvaged more than 50,000 coins and other artifacts from the wreck of The SS Republic, off Savannah, Georgia in 2003, with a retail value of over 75 million dollars. It took the company 12 years to locate that site. Odyssey posted losses in 2005 and 2006 while using its expensive, state-of-the-art ships and deep-water robotic equipment to hunt for the next mother lode.
On this occasion, Greg Stemm the co-founder of Odyssey said, " Rather than a shout of glee it is more being able to exhale for the first time in a long time". Its shares rose by 60% on the news.
The company is also involved in the search for the HMS Sussex, an 80-gun warship that sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Gibraltar in 1694. Britain and Spain reached agreement in March to have Odyssey conduct the search. The Sussex was believed to be carrying 9 tons of gold to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally, an amount worth as much as $250 million pounds today. Odyssey has agreed to share any finds here with the British government.
The richest ever shipwreck haul was yielded by the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. Treasure-hunting pioneer Mel Fisher found it in 1985, retrieving a reported $400 million in coins and other loot.
Other treasure wrecks waiting to be discovered include that of the San Jose which sank off Colombia in 1708 in a battle with an English squadron during the Spanish war of Succession.
The San Jose was reputedly carrying 2 tons of platinum, 116 chests of emeralds, and the personal wealth of the Viceroy of Peu. She sank in 1,000 feet of water and it is only relatively recently with the design of the new submersible robots that it has been possible to investigate the site of early deep wrecks.
The cargo of Las Cinque Chagas, a Portuguese merchant ship returnng from the East Indies in 1594, which was sunk in the Azores, again by the English, is estimated to be worth $1bn today.
The Admiral Nakhimov,went down in 1905 with much of the Russian fleet during the Russo-Japanese War. The ship was scuttled after being hit by a torpdeo in the straits between Korea and Japan carrying the fleet's pay: 5,500 boxes of gold coins, 48 gold ingots and 16 platinum ingots.
In 1782 the Grosvenorwas wrecked 700 miles north-east of Cape Town - the richest British East Indiaman ever lost - carrying 2.6 million gold coins, 1,400 gold ingots, 19 chests of gems and a jewel encrusted gold peacock throne from India.
Marine archaeologists are concerned that with such rich pickings the unscrupulous will scramble to salvage wrecks which may lead to valuable historical records being lost.
Odyssey have been at pains to point out the quality of their salvage operation. "We have treated this site with kid gloves and the archaeological work done by our team out there is unsurpassed. We are thoroughly documenting and recording the site, which we believe will have immense historical significance."
A spokesman said that the site was of huge historical importance because of the insight it would offer into seafaring and the social life of the period when the ship sank.
The company said it was discussing film, television and book rights. "We anticipate that the 'Black Swan will prove to be one of the most widely publicized shipwrecks in history, and we are selecting media partners that can contribute to telling the story of this amazing project."
The Naked Reader 2007
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