The gold and silver from which the coins were minted was stolen by the Spanish from the South American native people. Maybe their descendants should make a legal claim to the treasure.
Maybe if Spain pays Odyssey a $500,000,000 fee for rescuing the treasure they can call it even. Spain gets the treasure and the remains. Odyssey gets $500,000,000. I like a deal in which everybody wins.
Wheeee! A litiguous feeding frenzy. Get the popcorn!
The salvors should get it. They worked to find it, risked their capital, time, and safety to get it, and it should be theirs.
The Spanish had hundreds of years to go find it and get it if they really wanted it.
What really stinks about this is that the dreams of finding pirate treasure, etc. we had as kids would devolve into a nightmare of greedy governments and lawyers today.
The treasure should go to the Peruvian descendents of the Indian slaves who mined the precious metals under the whips of their Spanish masters.
Spain is being greedy and is full of s### here. Salvage law applies, a very arcane part of admiralty law. It is a mess and impossible to tell right now what the disposition will be, except that the salvagers will get something very significant out of this.
If I’m not mistaken Breck Girl Edwards hedge fund, Fortress Investments is the largest shareholder in Odyssey Marine. I also believe Johnny Boy stands to profit personally to the tune of about $50 Million if Odyssey can keep their hands on the loot.
“Culture Ministry Director General José Jiménez”
His name is.....Jose Jimenez.....
... we just haven't been to visit her in a very, very long time.
KISS SOME ISLAMIC BOOTIE
....from a guy in Nevada who can't stand SPANISH!!!!!!!!!!!
They should just go dump it back into the ocean.
It would be tempting for the Odyssey to simply say “We put it back where we found it, and destroyed all records of where it was found. If you want it .... go find it yourself.”
Tally Ho!
When did the laws of salvage change anyway?
I thought in the open sea it has always been and will always remain "finders keepers."
Well, the brave socialistic gov’t of Spain just paid, what, $1.2 million to the islamoscum pirates in Somalia...
Money that will be used to finance more terrorism, and kill more innocents, BTW...
So they want to replace that amount...and then some...and look “tough” at the same time.
Greedy spineless liberal pansies.
Naval and coin experts say they have proof that the treasure, now held in a warehouse in Florida, came from the Mercedes. The coins included gold doubloons, or pieces of eight, minted in 1803 in Lima, Peru, bearing the image of Spain’s King Carlos IV, ministry coin expert Carmen Marcos said.
If this is true and salvage laws do not apply, it wouldn’t matter if it were the Mercedes, the coins with the kings image on them prove they were Spanish. What’s the problem?
The US Navy asserts ownership to its lost vessels regardless
of passage of time under US and International law. Spain
is well within its rights to hold likewize, and a salvor would have an uphill battle in a US court. If the vessel is
a Spanish naval vessel, there is precedent to hold that it and its cargo remain the property of Spain.
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org12-7h.htm
Put a handfull of US troops to guard it..and invite the Spanish army to come get it!
I think Spain has undergone a few government changes since the early 1800’s. I wonder how that would affect this case if at all?