First there was however thunderous announcements instead of details: “Without a doubt, no room for any doubt we have found the Galleon San José, 307 years after she has fallen”, Santos said at the press conference, which was transferred from the Caribbean naval base of Cartagena the Colombian State television.
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Indeed, the legal dispute is seemingly as dramatic as the sinking of San Jose itself, which was destroyed in 1708 by British warships thwarting Spain’s delivery of New World riches.
A team of worldwide experts, the Colombian navy and the country’s archaeology institute discovered the wreck last week near the island of Baru, the president said.
The San Jose was carrying gold, silver, gems and jewellery collected in the South American colonies to be shipped to Spain’s king to help finance his war of succession against the British when it was sunk in June 1708.
“This has an enormous archaeological value for Colombia and for all of humanity”, Santos said, announcing that a museum will be built in Cartagena to showcase the discovery.
While no humans have yet to reach the wreckage site, autonomous underwater vehicles had gone there and brought back photos of dolphin-stamped bronze cannons in a well-preserved state that leave no doubt to the ship’s identity, the government said. The supreme court ruled that Colombia held the rights to items deemed to be “national cultural patrimony”.
Santos said at a press conference in Cartagena, Colombia, that Colombian researchers, working with global investigators, found the Spanish galleon San Jose on November 27.
Sea Search Armada, a group of USA investors engaged in marine salvaging, claims it found the site of the San Jose in 1981 and contends the Colombia government has been trying “to illegally confiscate SSA’s finds”.
The government later reversed its agreement and said any proceeds would belong exclusively to Colombia, prompting a lawsuit from SSA.
The biggest find, and the most sought after, was the San Jose, Sanabria said.
“The government may have been the one to find it but this really just reconfirms what we told them in 1982”, he told The Associated Press from his home in Barranquilla, Colombia.
The San Jose, a Spanish treasure galleon, was sunk by the British 300 years ago.
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“I believe the ship’s side blew out, for she caused a sea that came in our ports”, he wrote.
