Fierce battle over the holy grail of shipwrecks

It has been thought of essentially the most helpful shipwreck on the planet.

A Spanish galleon, the San Jose, was sunk by the British off the coast of Colombia greater than 300 years in the past. It contained gold, silver and emeralds price billions of {dollars}.

But years after its discovery, debate continues over who owns the treasure and what must be performed with the wreckage.

It has been claimed by the Colombian and Spanish states, in addition to an American salvage firm and indigenous teams in South America. Court battles have taken place in Colombia and the US, and the case is now earlier than the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

The Colombian authorities says it needs to boost the stays of the ship and put them in a museum. Treasure hunters level to the business worth of the products being as excessive as $18bn (£13.bn).

But archaeologists say this wreck – and hundreds prefer it scattered around the globe – must be left the place it’s. Maritime historians remind us that the San José is a cemetery and must be revered as such: About 600 individuals drowned when the ship sank.

“It's a big mess, and I don't see any easy way out of it,” says historian Carla Rahn Phillips, who wrote a ebook about San Jose. “The Spanish state, the Colombian government, various indigenous groups, treasure hunters. I don't think there's any way that everyone can be satisfied.”

The San José sank in 1708 as it sailed from what is now Panama to the port city of Cartagena, Colombia. From there it was to cross the Atlantic to Spain, but the Spanish were at war with the British at the time, and a British warship intercepted it.

The British wanted to seize the ship and its treasure, but accidentally fired a cannonball into San José's powder magazines. Within minutes the ship exploded and sank.

The wreck lay on the seabed until the 1980s, when Gloca Mora, an American salvage company, said it had found it. It tried to convince the Colombians to form a partnership to raise the treasury and divide the proceeds, but the two sides could not agree on who should get what share, and fell into a legal battle.

In 2015, the Colombians said they had found the ship, independent of the information provided by the Americans, on a different part of the ocean floor. He has since argued that Gloucester Mora, now known as the Sea Search Armada, has no right to the ship or its treasure.

The Spanish state has staked its claim, arguing that San José and its cargo remain state property, and indigenous groups from Bolivia and Peru say they are entitled to at least a share of the loot.

They argue that it is not Spanish treasure because it was looted by the Spanish from mines in the Andes during the colonial period.

“That money came from the mines of Potosí in the Bolivian highlands,” says Samuel Flores, a representative of the Qahara Qahara people, one of the indigenous groups.

“This cargo belongs to our people – silver, gold – and we believe it should be raised from the seabed to prevent treasure hunters from looting it. How many years have passed? Three hundred years? “They owe us that debt.”

Colombians have released fascinating video of San Jose taken with a submersible camera. They show the prow of a wooden ship decorated with marine life, some bronze cannons scattered in the sand, and blue and white porcelain and gold coins glittering on the sea floor.

As part of its court case in The Hague, the Sea Search Armada began a study of the cargo. He estimates its value to be $7-18 billion.

“The treasure that sank with the ship included seven million pesos, 116 metal packing containers crammed with emeralds, 30 million gold cash,” says Rahim Moloo, a lawyer representing the Sea Search Armada. He described it as “the best treasure within the historical past of humanity.”

Others are less convinced.

“I try to avoid giving current estimates of anything,” says Ms. Rahn Phillips.

“If you're talking about gold and silver coins, do we now estimate based on the weight of the gold? Or do we look at how much collectors can pay for these gold coins?

“It's almost futile for me to try to come up with a number now. The estimates of treasure hunters, to me, they are ridiculous.”

While the San Jose is often described as the holy grail of shipwrecks, it is – according to the United Nations – one of approximately three million sunken shipwrecks on our ocean floor. There is often little clarity over who owns them, who has the right to search for them, and – if there is treasure onboard – who has the right to keep it.

The United Nations adopted it in 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea – It is often described as the “Constitution of the Oceans”, but it says little about shipwrecks. Because of that, the United Nations adopted a second set of rules in 2001 – UNESCO Convention on Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001.

It says a lot about the wreck, but many countries have refused to ratify it, fearing it would weaken their claim to wealth in their waters. For example, Colombia and the United States have not signed it.

“The legal framework right now is neither clear nor comprehensive,” says Michael Risvas, a lawyer on the University of Southampton within the UK. An knowledgeable in worldwide arbitration and maritime disputes, he says: “I'm afraid worldwide legislation doesn’t have clear solutions.”

For many archaeologists, wrecks like the San José should be left in peace and explored “in situ” on the ocean floor.

“If you just go down and take a lot of artifacts and bring them to the surface, you'll just have a pile of stuff. There is no story to tell,” says Mexican deep-sea diver Rodrigo Pacheco Ruiz, who has explored dozens of wrecks around the world.

“You can just count coins, you can count porcelain, but it's not like 'Why was this on the board?' Who was the owner? Where was it going?' – The human story behind it.”

Colombian marine archaeologist Juan Guillermo Martín, who has followed the San José case closely, agrees.

He says, “The treasure of the San José should stay on the backside of the ocean, together with the human stays of the 600 crew members who died there.” “The treasure is part of the archaeological context, and as such has no commercial value. Its value is completely scientific.”