WORLDS LARGEST SUNKEN TREASURE

[garimpo 2,295]

Colombia possibly discovers world's largest sunken treasure

CARTAGENA, Colombia – President Juan Manual Santos on Saturday hailed the discovery of a Spanish galleon that went down off the South American nation's coast more than 300 years ago with what may be the world's largest sunken treasure.

At a news conference in this colonial port city, Santos said the exact location of the galleon San Jose, and how it was discovered with the help of an international team of experts, was a state secret that he'd personally safeguard. The ship sank somewhere in the wide area off Colombia's Baru peninsula, south of Cartagena.

While no humans have yet to reach the wreckage site, autonomous underwater vehicles had gone there and brought back photos of dolphin-stamped bronze cannons in a well-preserved state that leave no doubt to the ship's identity, the government said.

The discovery is the latest chapter in a saga that began three centuries ago, on June 8, 1708, when the galleon ship with 600 people aboard sank as it was trying to outrun a fleet of British warships. It is believed to have been carrying 11 million gold coins and jewels from then Spanish-controlled colonies that could be worth billions of dollars if ever recovered.

The ship, which maritime experts consider the holy grail of Spanish colonial shipwrecks, has also been the subject of a legal battle in the U.S., Colombia and Spain over who owns the rights to the sunken treasure.

In 1982, Sea Search Armada, a salvage company owned by U.S. investors including the late actor Michael Landon and convicted Nixon White House adviser John Ehrlichman, announced it had found the San Jose's resting place 700 feet below the water's surface.

Two years later, Colombia's government overturned well-established maritime law that gives 50 percent to whoever locates a shipwreck, slashing Sea Search's take to a 5 percent "finder's fee."

A lawsuit by the American investors in a federal court in Washington was dismissed in 2011 and the ruling was affirmed on appeal two years later. Colombia's Supreme Court has ordered the ship to be recovered before the international dispute over the fortune can be settled.

[Hoser John 1,240]

Quick grab and run before more I wanna come outta the woodwork......this is the mother of'm all according to YAHOO story earlier-John

[Gold Nuggets 43]

When it comes down to finding and recovering treasure......money, power and greed seems to always get involved and NO ONE is willing to play nice. It takes a lot of effort and time to locate treasures, so a 5% finders fee is practically nothing in the large run.

[Swampstomper Al 1,336]

When it comes down to finding and recovering treasure......money, power and greed seems to always get involved and NO ONE is willing to play nice. It takes a lot of effort and time to locate treasures, so a 5% finders fee is practically nothing in the large run.

I totally agree..! Five percent is a joke regardless how much (or little) treasure is recovered..

Sea Search Armada put in all the work.. It's very bad case precident allowing Colombia's gov't

to get away with altering long standing International maritime law in the name of greed only..

Swamp

[Au Seeker 3,156]

Even if they reimbursed all expenses incurred in finding the treasure, 5% doesn't pay the finder very much in the big picture, but just a 5% finder's fee is crazy the finder would be deeply in debt from the venture!