Posted on 11/06/2023 9:02:18 AM PST by SJackson
Colombia is hoping to expedite its mission to recover a three-century-old sunken treasure worth as much as $20 billion as the ownership of the fortune lies in legal limbo amid an ongoing court battle.
President Gustavo Petro ordered his administration to exhume the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks” — the Spanish galleon San José — from the floor of the Caribbean Sea as soon as possible, the country’s minister of culture told Bloomberg last week.
Petro wants to bring the 62-gun, three-masted ship to the surface before his term is up in 2026 and has requested a public-private partnership be formed to see it through, Minister of Culture Juan David Correa told the outlet Wednesday.
“This is one of the priorities for the Petro administration,” he said. “The president has told us to pick up the pace.”
But mystery surrounds the ownership of the massive trove of gold, silver and emeralds estimated to be worth anywhere between $4 billion and $20 billion, according to a lawsuit.
The crux of the issue appears to revolve around who is believed to have found it.
The San José galleon — with 600 crew members onboard — sank some 2,000 feet on June 8, 1708, during a battle against the British in the War of the Spanish Succession.
It remained a thing of legend for years as its exact location was unknown.
Then in 1981, the US company Glocca Morra claimed it discovered the lost treasure and turned over its coordinates to Colombia with the promise it would receive half the fortune when recovered.
Years later, in 2015, Colombia’s then-President Juan Manuel Santos said the country’s navy found the San José wreck at a different location on the sea floor.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
ping
100 feet away?.............
The old different location trick! :)
Thanks SJackson.
[snip] The San José galleon — with 600 crew members onboard — sank some 2,000 feet on June 8, 1708, during a battle against the British in the War of the Spanish Succession... in 1981, the US company Glocca Morra claimed it discovered the lost treasure and turned over its coordinates to Colombia with the promise it would receive half the fortune when recovered... in 2015, Colombia's then-President Juan Manuel Santos said the country's navy found the San José wreck at a different location on the sea floor. [/snip]
What a surprise, gov't fraud.
Just how big was this"galleon"..?
A little clarification is needed, methinks....
Whatever works. Reminds me of the early days of mining in the US where to raise money mines/prospects were sold in feet. Disputes over a few feet made many western lawyers and investors rich.
since the English sunk it it should be THEIRS ! spoils of war folks.
The Santa Clara, a replica of CC’s Nina, seems ridiculously small considering the number of crew it carried, but it was the Age of Sail, and they had to run the riggin’ and suchlike, and needed hands on deck 24 hours a day. And any vessel going into harm’s way also needed fighting men.
600 crew members???? That was what i was thinking. Thats too much for even a warship, and what is a warship hauling that much gold for? Something is out of whack there.
600, even including soldiers would be high. Probably would be high for a troop transport. Other old articles and wiki use the 600 number which is probably what the author used. But it was a treasure ship, returning I presume. Hard to imagine a bolstered crew, 100-150 could man it, at the cost of leaving treasure and/or cannon behind. Some soldiers needed for possible boarding, but I wouldn’t think that many. Doesn’t matter that much, but I suspect there are documents showing the number in Spain.
Better yet let King Charles and Felipe VI fight for it. It would be a great pay for view.
It’s a 62-gun ship with 3 masts, so it’s one of the big ones, and big galleons could apparently have 400-1000 crew members, if they were going into combat. Probably includes both sailors and marines.
“what is a warship hauling that much gold for?”
Well, you wouldn’t transport gold on a lightly defended vessel, or you might as well just hand that gold over to the first pirate you saw.
For anyone interested, there are more pictures at the Daily Mail. Same video but more stills.
I’m sure the FBI will be along any moment to plunder the gold in the middle of the night...
Watched a series last year titled “La Fortuna.” It’s a 2021 TV series based on a graphic novel. Stanley Tucci played the fortune hunter who stole the gold from a shipwreck off the shore of Spain. The series is basically about the fight by Spain to gain possession of the ship that was sunk by the British, and the millions of dollars of treasure on it. The series focuses on the court battles between Tucci’s character, and the government of Spain. I liked it. Never read the graphic novel.
or one could go with: "would you believe...",
That would appear to be the ship.
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