Wrangle could sink treasure hunt

Old interesting news which appeared again on the Net !

By Peter Huck

On October 5, 1804, a flotilla of four treasure-laden Spanish frigates, homeward bound from Latin America, was intercepted by an equal number of British frigates off the Portuguese coast.

Although Spain was neutral, the British knew of a secret alliance with Napoleon, and intended to seize the bullion. The British ships closed with the Spanish, taking the Fama, Clara and Medea after a brisk action. But in a catastrophic blast the Nuestra Seora de las Mercedes went to the bottom when its magazine exploded.

Now in a closely-watched case being heard in Tampa, Florida, the Mercedes has re-emerged as Spain battles US salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which is said to have found the wreck and its contents, over ownership of the frigate's cargo. It is valued by some media estimates at a record US$500 million ($636 million).

The case dates to May 2007, when Odyssey announced it had found a "colonial-era shipwreck in an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean."

Code-named the "Black Swan" - a manoeuvre that obscured the ship's identity and drummed up publicity - Odyssey said the wreck has yielded 500,000 silver coins, several hundred gold ones and artefacts. The haul, flown to the US on chartered jets early last year, is officially valued at $3.99 million.

This figure quickly leapt to $500 million in media reports.

The treasure hunters found themselves assailed by critics. The company is accused of hyping the wreck's value to beat up its stock price and cash in, and also of vandalising a historical site and grave for 200 sailors.

And in a case involving colonial-era booty, both Odyssey and Spain are accused of robbing cultural patrimony.

Odyssey said the wreck lay "beyond the territorial waters" of any nation. Suspecting the salvagers may have desecrated a historical site, in May 2007 Spain laid legal claim to the treasure. Salvage efforts halted when Spanish gunboats, during a month's long cat-and-mouse game, ordered Odyssey vessels into Algeciras to be searched.

Attention then shifted to the US District Court in Tampa. Spain identified three ships as tentative Black Swans: the Merchant Royal, an English ship laden with Spanish bullion that floundered in 1641 off Cornwall; a liner sunk by a U-boat off Sardinia in 1915, but later identified as the Ancona, an Italian vessel; and the Mercedes.

In March, after persistent pressure from Spain to reveal the Black Swan's identity, Odyssey - which insisted it had to hide the wreck from looters - told the court "one vessel Odyssey has considered which may be related to the site is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas, a Spanish vessel which had been assigned to transport mail, private passengers and consignments of merchant goods and other cargoes at the time of its sinking in 1804."

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