The Colombian government launched an underwater expedition on Thursday to explore the Spanish galleon San José.
The wreck’s treasures are estimated at $20 billion.
An American maritime salvage company claims responsibility for the discovery, while Spain claims sovereignty over the wreck.
Its discovery, in 2015, shook the world of archaeology. The Colombian government then announced the discovery of the galleon San José in the waters off the port city of Cartagena. The aptly named “Holy Grail of shipwrecks” contained thousands of gold coins among its buried riches.
This Thursday, the Colombian authorities launched a major underwater expedition to explore these treasures in detail. The San José sank on June 8, 1708 with nearly 600 people on board, during a battle with British ships during the War of the Spanish Succession. It is estimated that the buried wealth represents up to 20 billion dollars.
“Protected archaeological zone”
The first leg of the expedition will focus on photographing the ship using remote sensors.”non-intrusive“, indicated the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH). It previously declared the discovery site “protected archaeological zone” national for “preserve its scientific and archaeological value”.
The results of this research are expected to pave the way for further exploration, including the recovery of artifacts and archaeological treasures from the wreck.
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Colombia: discovering the wreck of the San José, the treasure of the Caribbean
Two countries and an American company claim it
Problem: this unprecedented loot has been, for nine years, at the heart of a controversy of international dimension. Colombia indeed claims to have updated the San Jose for the first time in 2015 with the help of international scientists. However, this version of the facts is contested by a maritime salvage company based in the United States, Sea Search-Armada (SSA), which claims to have discovered the wreck in the early 1980s.
The SSA has been engaged in a legal battle with the Colombian government before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organization. The American company claims half of the estimated value of the wreck’s treasure, around $10 billion.
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But another country also claims its rights to the famous wreck. Spain claimed sovereignty over the ship, arguing that it had sailed under its flag more than 300 years ago. In 2019, the Spanish government reiterated its position by calling San Jose a “ship of state”while considering his remains as a “underwater tomb” with the aim of preventing any future commercial exploitation.
