Shipwreck 17 tons of Silver stirs claims

by Russell Ray on 3 Jun 2007 The enormous sunken treasure recently retrieved by a Tampa-based deep-sea exploration and salvage company may belong to Great Britain; although Odyssey Marine Exploration thinks its claim is solid.

A London newspaper reported that the British government thinks the 17 tons of gold and silver coins recovered and transported to the United States by Odyssey may have come from the Merchant Royal, an English cargo ship that sank off England's southwest coast in 1641. Historians say the Merchant Royal took on water and sank while transporting coins from Spain to Belgium to pay the Spanish army stationed there.

Odyssey, which won't reveal the location of the shipwreck, said Monday in a news release that it 'bears the characteristics of one shipwreck in particular' but didn't name the ship. The company said it does anticipate a legitimate claim for the treasure, which may be worth $500 million.

Odyssey told a federal judge in Tampa in September that it had discovered a shipwreck off the southwestern tip of England, about 40 miles from Land's End near the English Channel. The judge recently granted the company ownership of the shipwreck site.

The recovery was made beyond the territorial waters of any country and in accordance with international salvage law, Odyssey has said since it first disclosed its discovery Friday.

If Britain steps up to claim the treasure, the vast majority still would be awarded to Odyssey under international law, the publicly traded company says in its written statement.

'The big issue is where was the treasure discovered and what government has the applicable say,' said maritime lawyer Steve Yerrid of Tampa.

A country's territorial boundary typically extends five to 12 miles offshore, and economic zones normally extend 200 miles, said Dave Jourdan, founder of Nauticos, a deep-sea exploration company based in Maine. Economic zones protect fishing, drilling and other commercial interests.

'It's not meant to control cultural resources,' Jourdan said.

Odyssey likely will face a number of legal claims for the treasure.
'When there's gold involved, everybody comes out and wants a piece of it,' Jourdan said.

Mike Williamson of Williamson & Associates, a deep-sea exploration company in Seattle, questions the way Odyssey salvaged the coins and artifacts. 'You don't just pick stuff off the bottom of the ocean and run away to another country,' Williamson said. 'This is so out of the norm. I don't understand how they can get away with it.'

Spain, which granted Odyssey permission to explore for a shipwreck known as the HMS Sussex in the Mediterranean Sea, said it is suspicious of Odyssey's discovery.

Spain said it will claim the treasure if it was hauled from Spanish waters.

Odyssey said Monday that the shipwreck discovery announced last week is not the HMS Sussex. The shipwreck code-named Black Swan 'was not found in waters anywhere near the shipwreck believed to the HMS Sussex.’