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Sunken Treasure Worth $500 Million Found Off England
An anonymous reader writes "In a modern day (and underwater) version of Indiana Jones, the AP is reporting that Odyssey Marine Exploration has recovered an estimated $500 Million in colonial coins from a 400 year old shipwreck in the Atlantic. The exact location of the wreck is still undisclosed. Odyssey is a for-profit, publicly traded company. 'In seeking exclusive rights to that site, an Odyssey attorney told a federal judge last fall that the company likely had found the remains of a 17th-century merchant vessel that sank with valuable cargo aboard, about 40 miles off the southwestern tip of England. A judge granted those rights Wednesday. In keeping with the secretive nature of the project dubbed ''Black Swan,'' Odyssey also is not discussing details of the coins, such as their type, denomination or country of origin. Bruyer said he observed a wide variety of coins that probably were never circulated. He said the currency was in much better condition than artifacts yielded by most shipwrecks of a similar age. The coins -- mostly silver pieces -- could fetch several hundred to several thousand dollars each, with some possibly commanding much more, he said.'"
...that pirates are better than ninjas. You never get to read about ninja treasure found underwater !
If the wreck was 40 miles off the English coast, it should in English, or possibly French, territorial waters. So why ask a US judge?
Yeah you could follow them, but there are hundreds if not thousands of these modern day pirate types that go looking for lost treasures of pirates of old. So you'd still be taking a huge chance.
I'm willing to bet that anyone who spends enough money on gear and time to go tracking down treasures worth that much and finally finds one isn't about to share it with some noob that follows them around. Pirates and those that seek their lost treasure probably aren't the sharing type. Think pillage etc...
As far as where the treasure ends up in international seas, I'm sure these guys are fast at what they do and making a case against them will be hard. The crime scene is under several hundred feet of water. Probably most countries have more pressing issues to deal with when it comes to their naval fleets. Picking on pirates just doesn't seem to be worth the trouble. Its not like they're running drugs.
just mho though. ask my sister she's the one with the law degree.
Not that I have anything against pirates. ~wink~ I'm just more of a ninja type lady!
~WBGG~ "And I'm so sad like a good book I can't put this Day Back a sorta fairytale with you" ~Tori Amos
Apparently, the ZEUS ROV is used by Odyssey Marine Exploration in the search for artifacts. It weighs 7.3 tonnes (in air) and is 3.2 metres long, and it can operate down to depths of 2500 metres.
It was originally designed for the maintenance of deep-ocean fibre optic cables, and has manipulators and high-resolution video feeds that allow items to be handled with great precision
http://shipwreck.net/zeus/
Indiana Jones would've put that shit in a Museum, not paid dividends to his shareholders.
I see your point. Devil's advocate:
1- Is it better that it was never found at all?
2- Can you argue that it would have never been recovered by a museum etc
3- Money is always a good motivation for people to find things.
4- Are you sure they're going to 'destroy the evidence' to feed their greed?
So far it seems they've been pretty methodical and patient to go by the book. Perhaps we'll all be pleasantly surprised.
I'm not quite getting it. Leaving aside the difficulties of shooting, who would stand in for the evil Nazis? I suppose they could have the Taliban in scuba gear.
Well, why not the Nazis? They had U-boats after all. Maybe it could be a secret undersea Nazi base in the North Sea which survived the downfall of the Third Reich by remaining undetected, but which is located close enough to the shipwreck that its existence is jeopardized. Indiana Jones V: Indiana Jones und Das Boot!
Admiralty law, established by treaties that just about every country with a coastline are parties to.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
You, Sir, are a genius. Have you considered a Hollywood career? Combining 2 sequels into one movie - a masterstroke.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
a ship abandoned or sunk in international waters has no owners anyway
Unless it is a war grave. In that case, the ship is forever owned by the government of the country that it sailed for, or its internationally recognised sucessor, no matter whose waters the wreck is located in. HMS Hood is property of the UK government, despite her position in international waters. KM Bismarck is property of the German government (I don't know which Germany would have been considered owner between 1945 and 1990, but it doesn't matter: either one would have been "done the trick").
Linux user since early January 1992.
Recovery of such artifacts are covered by either national or international law depending on what kind of waters they are in.
Longstanding tradition has included a law of salvage and a law of finds. The law of salvage covers vessels in peril or goods lost that are still claimed by its owner. There is also a long tradition of ignoring the law of savage when nobody was around to enforce it. The law of finds covers vessels like this that have been abandoned by its owners. Such vessels become the property of the first person to start recovery attempts, although there are provisos when such discoveries are made in areas owned by others and would interfere with those others' rights (e.g. you can own treasure found on somebody else's property, but not necessarily if you have to dig it up).
The US and several other nations assert an exception for military wrecks; they claim that such wrecks remain the property of the flag country, even if sunken in territorial waters of other nations. Recovering artifacts from such ships is equivalen to boarding them.
Outside of those considerations, nations may regulate recovery activities in various zones of authority.
There are five legal navigational zones: inland waterways and lakes; territorial seas (12 mile limit); contiguous seas (24 mile limit); and the exclsuive economic zone (200 miles), and the high seas. Within the 12 mile limit, nations are sovereign. Within the twenty four mile limit, they may impose certain regulations, including retrieval of underwater artifacts of archaelogical or historical significance.
Outside the 24 mile limit, they may not regulate recovery of underwater artifacts AFAIK. The 200 mile EEZ only applies to natural resources.
So, given the apparent location of the wreck in question, the UK does not have authority to grant or deny ownership to anywone per se; but they can recognize title gained by private individuals under traditional international maritime law.
International conventions have been proposed to protect underwater culutral heritage -- human made artifacts and vessels that have been underwater for more than 100 years -- on the high seas. The conventions state that any archaeological wreck is to be managed with the benefit of humanity in mind; preferably preserved in situ, but otherwise disposed of in a way consistent with it being the common heritage of all humanity. These conventions have not been ratified by enough nations to be considered in force. The US is one of the nations which objects, primariliy because we claim sovereignty over military wrecks. I dont' doubt that the spirit of the new conventions are loathsome to the current administration's principles.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
An ounce of precious metal is going to be worth whatever the going rate for an ounce of precious metal is, plus any value it may have as an artifact. Given that being in the form of an antiquity is only going to increase the value of the metal, it generally doesn't make sense to melt down coins. In the case of silver, these days the going rate is only $13 an ounce, so the value is mostly coming from the the fact that they are old and rare, not that they are made of silver. Odyssey says they have 17 tons of coins, which sounds like a lot, but that's only 17 tons * 2200 lbs/ton *16 oz/lb * $13/oz = $7,779,200 worth of silver, which is 1.5% of what they say the haul is worth.
Supply and demand do dictate that bringing up 17 tons of colonial-era coins will decrease their rarity, which will tend to decrease their value. There are a few ways the company can offset this. First, they can control the flow of the coins onto the market so it doesn't end up flooded. If they sell just 5% of the coins per year for the next 20 years, or $25 million per year, the market will be able to absorb it much better than if they dump a half-billion on the market all at once. The other issue is, of course, that marketing. If the company can increase the demand for the coins by getting more people to look at rare coins either as a hobby or an investment, the value may not decrease that much, or could even increase.
Long term, Odyssey's biggest problem may be other wrecks. They plan on making this a business model, so they are looking at another wreck with half a billion worth of gold aboard, and looking into exploring several more wrecks, so they are going to keep bringing rare coins onto the market. And if that keeps making money, it will encourage copycat operations. Actually, Odyssey's business model isn't original either, the only difference between what they did, and the group who salvaged the Central America did, is that Odyssey had an IPO, whereas the Central America salvage company is not publicly traded. Ship of Gold and the Deep Blue Sea has a really excellent account of what went into the Central America salvage operation.