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Spain lays claim to £250m of treasure on shipwreck

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Published Date: 10 May 2008
By Harold Heckle
SPAIN yesterday launched its formal claim to a shipwreck that yielded treasure worth £250 million, saying it had proof the vessel was Spanish.
Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a US deep-sea exploration firm. They identified the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute as the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes – a Spanish warship sunk by the British na
vy south-west of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, based in Tampa, Florida, announced in May 2007 that it had discovered the wreck in the Atlantic. The so-called "Black Swan" treasure of 500,000 silver coins and other artefacts was valued at $500 million.

At the time, Odyssey said it did not know which ship it was, and flew the treasures back to Tampa.

The Spanish government filed evidence in a Tampa court to back its claim.

"We are talking about the remains of a Spanish navy vessel and the human remains of Spanish naval servicemen who died on board which have been illegally disturbed," the Spanish government's culture chief, Jose Jimenez, said.

Odyssey officials say there isn't enough evidence to prove the vessel is the Mercedes, mainly because there is no hull.





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  • Last Updated: 09 May 2008 10:00 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Guga II,

Rockall 10/05/2008 02:47:06
Give it back to the Aztecs and Incas, as it was stolen from them in the first place.
2

American,

10/05/2008 03:06:17
If spain wins it's claim, I hope the odyssey exployers just dump the treasures one piece at a time all over the oceans. Let spain take the time and money to find the pieces themselves.


3

Aranda,

Vienna 10/05/2008 07:52:54
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 has to return all the wealth it has looted to half of the world. You are simply a bunch of hypocrites.
4

oder,

Scotland 10/05/2008 08:41:32
3 Aranda,Vienna 10
have you ever heard of Pizarro and that other Cortes? and the conquistidores?


If you say that Spain has to give back the ship's money to Peru then the UK has to return all the wealth it has looted to half of the world.

Britain sends vast amounts of money to most of its ex- colonies and has being doing for some time and in some cases giving more than was taken.


there are I am sure international agreements/laws to deal with such matters! there are no rules preventing the Spanish from taking control of the wreck and preventing any further artifacts being removed.

and clearly your dislike for the English speaking world is showing!
5

,

10/05/2008 11:42:39
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
6

Dougie, Edinburgh,

10/05/2008 13:47:44
3 Aranda,Vienna
As for concentration camps, they were actually first used by the Spanish, in Cuba, even before the British used them in the Boer War.
7

Floridablanca,

Madrid 12/05/2008 08:57:18
16.May 11th,
2008
Aranda is perfectly right, the Spanish colonial record is much better than the English one. Did the English opened universities for the Indians in the XVI century as Spain did? Did the English passed laws to protect the Indians as Spain did in 1541? No, no other European colonial power did at the time. How many natives are left and in what conditions in Australia, the US or New Zeland? Who looted Africa in the XIX century from El Cairo to The Cape? Who destroyed the Chinese civilization to sell opium? Who destroyed the Mughal Empire in India?

And here comes another argument against Odssey and its advocators as posted by an American somewhere else:

“A warship belongs to the nation under which flag sailed ad infinitum unless the owner expressely renounces to this right. So vessels like USS Yorktown or USS Arizona belong to the US Navy forever although they are sunken. But following the pirate way of thinking showed by these guys perhaps some company could go and loot them, then auction the plundered goods to some wealthy magnates.

This is not “exploration”, this is a bunch of grave robbers destroying archaeological sites in the name of greed. And if the USA had to restore all the stolen property of the Native Northamericans they will end up back in Britain. Or did the land have no owner when George Washington and his friends settled there in their villas”. Well said, and not by a Spaniard with alleged vested interests.

By the way, Spain could give back the treasury to the Indians ( which ones, the Incas, the Aztecs, the many tribes they had subjugated or the previous ones whoever they were? when the US will give back all its territory to the native North American Indians ( who were subjects to no one… that is if there is any remaining in our days and not confined to reservations) and to Mexico( an independent country by the time the US stole a big part of its territory). done deal? if not the anglos should better shut up.

By the w

 

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