Re: Odyssey's Latest Shipwreck Find Yields over 500,000 Silver and Gold Coins

The plot thickens;

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Costa del Sol News

Controversy grows over location of underwater treasure
Julián Méndez

Satellite tracking of the Odyssey Explorer in the Gibraltar Straits
heightens looting suspicions
The vessel was detected at the same coordinates as the shipwreck of
the ?Sussex?

The Odyssey Explorer, a deep sea trawler converted for underwater
exploration by the American treasure hunting firm Odyssey Marine
Exploration Inc., spent the best part of the winter in the Straits of
Gibraltar, according to satellite location controls carried out by
private individuals, suspicious of the firm?s intentions.

Spanish citizen Pipe Sarmiento used the AISlive tracking service,
developed to help control piracy, to confirm the position of the
Odyssey Explorer, which, he maintains, remained at the spot where the
firm claims it found the shipwrecked HMS Sussex, between March 1st and
17th. The Sussex went down in 1693 with its load of gold and silver
that was meant to buy the support of the Duke of Savoy in the war
waged by the League of Habsburg against the France of Louis XIV.

Odyssey Marine Exploration recently announced the discovery of 500,000
gold coins recovered from an undisclosed shipwreck at an undisclosed
location in the Atlantic Ocean with the help of their ROV underwater
robot. Pictures were released of the boxes of coins being loaded onto
a plane. The firm claims that the shipwreck in question, code-named
the ?Black Swan?, was not the HMS Sussex and was located beyond the
territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of Spain or any other
country. Nevertheless they have not revealed what shipwreck they have
found because ?we are not sure ourselves?.

Nevertheless if the treasure, estimated to be worth 371 million euros,
was found at the point revealed by the satellite, the treasure hunters
would have been working in Spanish waters and thus subjected in theory
to the strict controls exercised by the Spanish authorities in the
area to avoid drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

The Spanish Minister for Culture, Carmen Calvo, announced on Monday
that the Government would take action if it was found that the
treasure was taken from waters under Spanish jurisdiction. The British
Government has also shown an ?interest? in knowing the name of the
shipwreck and its exact location.

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The Odyssey explorer team have a number of vessels, I really doubt
they are stupid enough to have their AIS data stream going when they
are near a wreck.

There is also a dispute on what 'Spanish waters' might be as they
probably claim my bathwater is theirs, and in any event I believe
the property recovered belongs to the owner of the wreck not the
territory claiming the waters.

This one is set to roll on for a while ...
--
Jim Watt
http://www.gibnet.com
.

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