Judge rules treasure-hunters must return sunken booty to Spain

but spain has been harassing the odyssey people for years several times since the 90s they pulled up with their patrol boats to odyssey company's ships as soon as they left Gibraltar and ordered them to make for a spanish port to be searched for spanish artifacts under threat of force. the uk has stated many times that spain had no right to do this because these ships were in international waters.. and they have been specifically hunting for two british shipd that were full of gold but spain said that they considered these ships which sank off coast of Gibraltar are in spanish territory and that odyssey company must use spanish people to make sure they arent plundering spanish historical sites. the ship that is currently the source of the lawsuit was blown to bits because apparently british got a lucky shot and hit the powder magazine. scattering cargo over wide area these coins were recovered from sea floor not a shipwreck because the ship was apparently completely destroyed so spain they cant say for sure that the gold and silver come from any particular ship . they are just greedy if the treasure hunters had discovered the 2 british ships they would seize that gold too because they that greedy'

reply to post by proteus33


The issue is that the ship that this treasure comes from has not positivly been identified. The Spanish say its one ship the Salvagers say its another. An additional detail is that the military ship the Spanish say this wreck is was carrying civilan cargo including the gold and silver. The Salvagers say that by maritime law this makes it a civilian vessel. There apparently is a specific clause that covers this in maritime law.

Spain is clearly over reaching here and has resorted to very heavy handed tactics and intimidation in this case. Its clearly a case of the government trying to step in after the work was done and take the gold for its own treasury. This case will get appealed and its not over.

I would find a new spot and drop it back into the ocean and tell Spain to go find it themselves. See how much they want it then?

I do not get the problem here to be honest. The company didn't have the necessary paperwork to salvage the gear that was off the coast of Spain / Portugal and then took goods that were Spanish from the sea floor. Simple theft there i am afraid. And i have to say it is a total joke the way the company reacted, saying the US govt had ripped off its shareholders!

So, according to them then, anyone can rock up off the US coast, bring up the goodies (that would be american) and then try and sell them back to the US? Personally, i think such actions would provoke outcry in the USA..........so what is the difference here?

I understand why the ship still belong to the original country/owner... Imagine this: lets sink this ship and "rescue" the content/cargo and claim it is our because we found it.... This logic can be dangerous.