The San Jose was bound for Spain carrying precious gold, silver, gems and jewelry taken from South American shores when it was sunk by the British in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
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Santos didn’t mention any salvage company’s claim during his presentation, but said the ship had been found November 27 in a never-before referenced location through the use of new meteorological and underwater mapping studies. On June 8th, 1708 it was attacked off the coast of Cartagena by a British squadron led by Admiral Charles Wager, who wanted to steal the gold.
SSA claims it found the underwater site of San Jose in 1981, and the Colombian government has since tried “to illegally confiscate SSA’s finds”. Colombia’s Supreme Court has ordered the ship to be recovered before the worldwide dispute over the fortune can be settled.
The remains of a Spanish ship thought to have copious amounts of treasure onboard have been discovered off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, according to President Juan Manuel Santos. It said a team of worldwide experts, the country’s navy and archaeology experts found the wreck last week.
Treasure hunters had searched for the ship for decades, described by maritime experts as the holy grail of Spanish colonial shipwrecks.
In the 1990s, Colombian courts ruled that the nation had the rights to everything considered “cultural patrimony” salvaged from the wreck, while e the rest of the treasure should be split 50-50 with Sea Search Armada.
The San Jose has always been the source of fascination and popular legends, and even figures in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera”.
Archaeological excavation and scientific tests on the wreck would continue to ensure it could be properly preserved, Mr Santos said.
The fight over San Jose’s sunken treasure is one of many global disagreements regarding the home of ancient artifacts.
“The government may have been the one to find it but this really just reconfirms what we told them in 1982”, Danilo Devis, SSA spokesperson told The Associated Press. But regardless of how much work is left for Colombian researchers, SSA says they would be no where without the United States agency’s help.
Sonar images have revealed bronze cannon made specifically for the ship, arms, ceramics and other artefacts, said the president.
Only a handful of the ship’s crew of 600 survived when the San Jose sank.
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“I believe the ship’s side blew out, for she caused a sea that came in our ports”, he wrote.
