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Spain Demands All Treasure Tampa Salvor Found On Ship
AP file photo
The government of Spain claims a Tampa-based company took treasure from a Spanish shipwreck without permission.
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Published: May 8, 2008
Updated: 05/08/2008 07:18 pm
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TAMPA - Spain claims it has evidence that the sunken treasure recovered last year by Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration was taken from a 19th century Spanish warship without consent of the Spanish government, according to papers filed today in U.S. District Court in Tampa.
Spain said the sunken treasure, 17 tons of colonial-era coins worth an estimated $500 million, was taken from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy south of Portugal in 1804. The Spanish government demanded that the treasure be returned to Spain.
Odyssey, a publicly held deep-sea exploration and salvage company, announced in May 2007 that it had recovered 500,000 gold and silver coins from an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean and flew the treasure to Tampa, claiming at the time it didn't know the identity of the sunken ship.
Shares of Odyssey fell 16 cents, or 3.35 percent, today to $4.62 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock is down 25 percent this year.
An Odyssey spokeswoman said the company wasn't expected to issue a response to Spain's claims tonight.
"We are still waiting on feedback from some board members," said Natja Igney.
An inspection of artifacts on the seabed floor where the treasure was found and an analysis of the artifacts and coins recovered by Odyssey show that the shipwreck is, without question, the Mercedes, Spain said in its latest court filing.
Spain said Odyssey did not have permission to disturb or salvage the shipwreck, the gravesite of hundreds of Spanish sailors.
"Odyssey was aware that Spanish navy vessels are the property of the Kingdom of Spain and may not be disturbed or subjected to salvage operations without the specific and express consent of the Kingdom of Spain," the Spanish government stated in the court filing.
Spain claims the entire treasure should be returned to Spain because naval vessels never cease to be the property of the nation that flagged them, regardless of where they lay.
James Goold, an attorney representing the Spanish government, told reporters in Madrid that Odyssey "secretly stripped a Spanish ship of coins and other artifacts and then tried to hide them by claiming that it did not know the identity of the ship."
Goold said U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo will now convene the two parties to review the case before deciding who gets to keep the treasure, now held in a warehouse somewhere in Tampa.
Goold said he expected Odyssey would keep "not a penny" of the salvage. Odyssey officials have said they believe the court will award them the majority of the treasure, as it was found by Odyssey.
Spain went to the U.S. federal court claiming ownership of the treasure if it turned out to be connected to the country's national heritage.
Goold said Spain's evidence — based on material provided by Odyssey under court order — proved the ship and cargo were definitely Spanish property.
The coins aboard the ship included gold doubloons or "pieces of eight" minted in 1803 in Lima, Peru, bearing the image of Spain's King Carlos IV, said ministry coin expert Carmen Marcos.
In its filing with the U.S. court, Spain said: "Analysis of location information from multiple sources confirms the location on the seabed from which Odyssey took coins and other artifacts is the site of Mercedes."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( BrassBowldotOrg ) on May 8, 2008 at 3:43 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I thought salvage rights allowed for this? The Spainish Government didn't get all bothered until they heard about the gold.
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Posted by ( Coast2Coast ) on May 8, 2008 at 3:45 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
If the Spanish government wanted it, they should have looked for it. My reply to them would be...treasure, what treasure!
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Posted by ( Garbanzo ) on May 8, 2008 at 3:54 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
If the Spanish government is soooo interested in getting the gold back to its owner, then we should suggest that it all be returned to the indiginous peoples of the Americas. What a bunch of thieving HYPOCRITES!! First, they kill for it and steal it, then they leave it at the bottom of the ocean for several centuries, and then, when someone works hard to recover the treasure, they step in claiming that it is "rightfully" theirs. It takes huge ones to have that kind of nerve!!!
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Posted by ( phil ) on May 8, 2008 at 3:57 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
It is appearant that the Spanish Gov. is not interested in the "remains" of those poor lost souls....Maritime salvage laws will prevail. And what treasure are they talking about?...if history is right...the "treasure" should be returned to the people who they STOLE IT FROM.....Like Peru, and other Central and South American countries...That should stire up a hornets nest!! LOL
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Posted by ( stinebrian ) on May 8, 2008 at 4 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I agree. If the Spanish want to claim "rights" to what they stole, then they should be ready to make reparations with the money with an immediate transfer to the country from which it was taken in the first place. Viva Las Hypocrites !!!!
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Posted by ( kimbo ) on May 8, 2008 at 4:08 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Finders Keepers...
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Posted by ( OP ) on May 8, 2008 at 4:12 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
...Losers Whiners
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Posted by ( Guy_LeDouche ) on May 8, 2008 at 4:26 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
"It belongs in a museum!"
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Posted by ( goodtimejim ) on May 8, 2008 at 4:50 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Finders keepers
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Posted by ( akagorilla ) on May 8, 2008 at 5:02 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Spain should pay for the treasure.
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Posted by ( cjtk322 ) on May 8, 2008 at 5:05 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
If it had been a US warship that the Spanish had found we'd all be screeming for them to give the gold back.
Everyone thinks that ship wrecks are finders keepers but the Uniteed States has a law that says that warships, even sunken ones belong the US forever.
Check it out, it's the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 (43 U.S. C. 2101-2106).
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Posted by ( ALLENALBY ) on May 8, 2008 at 5:42 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
It belongs to Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. The Spanish Government just wants to complain and cause OME problems. Odyssey has been around a long time and they know the ins and the outs.
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Posted by ( freedomfighter ) on May 8, 2008 at 6:08 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
salvage rights< finders keepers< To BAD Spain. go practice your soccer you need it.
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Posted by ( Jeke45 ) on May 8, 2008 at 6:10 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
This case will probably be settled in litigation before the International Court Of Justice, Brussels, Belgium. U.S. Federal law does not apply. International law and conventions do apply. The vessel was "found" in international waters; thus, in this type of cases, U.S. law does not apply.
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Posted by ( Old_FL_Crab ) on May 8, 2008 at 7:21 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Spain "Demands all..."
"DEMANDS"????
Bi+e me, send yer navy.
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Posted by ( fuzzedwardo ) on May 8, 2008 at 11:08 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
oh ye, chup ma pinga senior
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Posted by ( WenMark ) on May 9, 2008 at 5:20 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
OME filed papers with Spain notifying them that they were searching for treasure. Spain gave permisssion, but now that they found such a large haul they are like "oh wait, we need to keep that it's Spains" what a bunch of BS. Let OME do all the work then cry foul. Spain your pathetic in this case.
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Posted by ( Aranda ) on May 9, 2008 at 6:40 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
As expected, the angloamerican press is busy resurrecting the Black Legend against Spain in order to defend the acts of piracy of a company of robbers ( Oddysey). To start with, the Spanish colonial record is far more human - given the times, we are talking about the early modern Era- than the British one. The Spanish built towns, schools and universities for the Indians and passed laws to protect them. The British simply massacred them or reduced them to reservations ( concentration camps). If there has been ever a genocidal and robbers' Empire, that was the British Empire. If you say that Spain has to give back the ship's money to Peru then the UK and the US have to return all the wealth they has looted from half of the world. You are simply a bunch of hypocrites
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