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Robot sub finds 'holy grail of shipwrecks' with treasure worth billions
MSN ^ | 05/23/18

Posted on 05/23/2018 9:53:09 AM PDT by Simon Green

A more than 300-year-old Spanish shipwreck carrying treasure that might be worth up to $17 billion was discovered with the help of an underwater robot. It's called the Remus 6000 and it can dive nearly four miles and is loaded with sensors and cameras.

Bronze cannons confirmed "the holy grail of shipwrecks" had been found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. They are engraved with dolphins — a telltale sign they belong to the Spanish galleon San Jose, lost more than 300 years ago.

"I just sat there for about 10 minutes and smiled," said Jeff Kaeli, a research engineer with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Kaeli was alone in his bunk on the search vessel when he spotted the cannons.

"I'm not a marine archaeologist, but ... I know what a cannon looks like. So in that moment, I guess I was the only person in the world who knew we'd found the shipwreck," he said.

The exact location of the wreckage is still a secret, but it was discovered in November 2015 off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia. Its cargo of gold, silver, and emeralds could be worth as much as $17 billion.

The Remus 6000, operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, found the ship almost 2,000 feet below the surface. The underwater robot scanned the sea floor using long-range sonar then went back and took pictures of any objects that seemed out of the ordinary.

"You can take bigger risks with your technology and go to places where it wouldn't be safe or feasible to put a human being," Kaeli said.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1708; 1981; ageofsail; ancientnavigation; bolivia; cartagena; colombia; galleon; godsgravesglyphs; gold; johnehrlichman; navigation; piecesofeight; qharaqhara; sanjose; sanjosegalleon; seasearcharmada; spain; thewaytosanjose
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1 posted on 05/23/2018 9:53:09 AM PDT by Simon Green
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To: Simon Green
Always cool....

A piece of the action would be cool, too.

2 posted on 05/23/2018 9:56:42 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Simon Green

Aaargh! At the bottom of me Davey Jones locker eh?


3 posted on 05/23/2018 9:57:38 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Democracy: The cliff's edge of Marxism)
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To: Simon Green; SunkenCiv; BenLurkin

In 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, ...

Cue the governments trying to get their tax “fair share” off of the people actually recovering the treasures from this “unclaimed” wreck!


4 posted on 05/23/2018 9:57:51 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (The democrats' national goal: One world social-communism under one world religion: Atheistic Islam.)
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To: Simon Green
The exact location of the wreckage is still a secret, but it was discovered in November 2015 off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia. Its cargo of gold, silver, and emeralds could be worth as much as $17 billion.

I would think Columbian pirates would be quite interested.

5 posted on 05/23/2018 9:58:49 AM PDT by plain talk
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To: Simon Green

Maybe it wasn’t worth $17B back then, but I always wondered what the motivation was for the Spanish and other European monarchies was to load up all that treasure onto a sailing ship and send it out to sea. I guess in many cases it was to buy goods to bring back to Spain.


6 posted on 05/23/2018 9:59:24 AM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them)
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To: Robert A Cook PE
Cue the governments trying to get their tax “fair share” off of the people actually recovering the treasures from this “unclaimed” wreck!

From later in the article:

The wreck has been shrouded in secrecy because of lingering questions about who owns it.

Colombia and Spain both say it belongs to them. The researchers at Woods Hole say they are explorers, not treasure hunters, and are not involved in the ownership disputes.

7 posted on 05/23/2018 10:03:08 AM PDT by Simon Green ("Arm your daughter, sir, and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats.")
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To: Magnum44

No, the treasure was to bring back to Spain to fill Phillp’s coffers.


8 posted on 05/23/2018 10:04:24 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: Robert A Cook PE; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks Robert A Cook PE. Say what you want about those English Privateers and freelance pirates from everywhere, momma nature kept more gold out of Spanish hands than did the Jolly Roger. When I was in junior high (middle school, for those of a younger demographic) one of my classmates brought an interesting thing to social studies (the leftist perversion of history, when history was eliminated from curricula) -- some relative of hers was trying to raise money to recover sunken treasure, and we passed around the sample, a Spanish Real from 300-350 years before. Wonder what happened with that?

9 posted on 05/23/2018 10:06:21 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: Magnum44
I always wondered what the motivation was for the Spanish and other European monarchies was to load up all that treasure onto a sailing ship and send it out to sea.

Spain was at war in Europe for nearly the entire 16th century and beyond. That's very expensive.

10 posted on 05/23/2018 10:06:51 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Magnum44

[[ I guess in many cases it was to buy goods to bring back to Spain.]]

Nope=- it was to buy scratch off tickets


11 posted on 05/23/2018 10:08:46 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: AFreeBird

That makes sense... stolen or fleeced from Inca’s and Aztecs?


12 posted on 05/23/2018 10:08:56 AM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them)
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To: Magnum44
Maybe it wasn’t worth $17B back then, but I always wondered what the motivation was for the Spanish and other European monarchies was to load up all that treasure onto a sailing ship and send it out to sea. I guess in many cases it was to buy goods to bring back to Spain.

Back then, money was real gold and silver. If your country wanted to put more money into circulation, they had to find more gold and silver.

These ships weren't taking gold from Europe to the Americas, they were taking gold and silver from the New World and returning it to the Old World to increase the Old World's total wealth.

Unfortunately they didn't have the Weather Channel back then, so they didn't know when they were about to sail into a hurricane.

13 posted on 05/23/2018 10:08:59 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Simon Green

And now they’ll be tied up in court for 10 years. Never announce a big find until after you’ve landed the treasure.


14 posted on 05/23/2018 10:11:59 AM PDT by discostu (It's been so long, welcome back my friend, to the show, that never ends.)
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To: Simon Green
The exact location of the wreckage is still a secret

Not to the Chinese spy satellites.

15 posted on 05/23/2018 10:12:33 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Simon Green

Spain always lays claim to any found Spanish wreck regardless of where it’s found. They’ve succeeded a few times in getting their share.


16 posted on 05/23/2018 10:13:17 AM PDT by sheana
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To: Simon Green
Why announce this, when Spain will just sue to freeze it and claim the wreck again?

Just quietly sell the contents to an interested party.


17 posted on 05/23/2018 10:15:39 AM PDT by montag813
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To: Simon Green

So, that’s where I misplaced my ship. It’s mine. All mine!


18 posted on 05/23/2018 10:16:48 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Magnum44

More like the other way, they looted other cultures and sent the gold home.


19 posted on 05/23/2018 10:22:34 AM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: montag813

Agreed. I call BS.

He’s after funding and/or film rights.


20 posted on 05/23/2018 10:23:34 AM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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