San Jose: Shipwreck with £16bn of treasure on board identified - fuelling international row over who owns it

​​​​​​​The San Jose was lost for centuries, its £16bn treasure trove of gold and emeralds swallowed up by the Caribbean Sea. Not any more.
Researchers say they have identified the "world's richest shipwreck", a discovery likely to fuel an international row over which country owns the 300-year-old galleon.
The San Jose was sailing in 1708 as the flagship of a treasure fleet, made up of three Spanish warships and 14 merchant vessels, when it was sunk after an attack by the Royal Navy off the coast of Colombia.
Powder magazines on board the ship detonated during the battle, destroying the vessel and sending almost all of its 600-man crew to the bottom, along with her hoard of gold, silver, and emeralds.
More than three centuries later, a wreck believed to be the San Jose was discovered in 2015 at a depth of 600 metres in the Caribbean Sea.
To determine whether the ship was indeed the San Jose, the Colombian navy used an unmanned, remotely operated underwater vehicle to survey the wreck non-invasively.
Sonar images identified bronze cannons, weapons, ceramics and other artefacts among its cargo - but the real interest was the gold.
A number of coins on the sea floor have been revealed in high-resolution pictures, according to research published in the journal Antiquity on Tuesday.
"Coins are crucial artefacts for dating and understanding material culture, particularly in shipwreck contexts", says lead researcher Daniela Vargas Ariza.
"Hand-struck, irregularly shaped coins - known as cobs in English and macuquinas in Spanish - served as the primary currency in the Americas for more than two centuries."
By analysing features on the coins, such as the Jerusalem Cross, researchers have been able to gain an understanding of the ship's function and the events surrounding its sinking.
"This case study highlights the value of coins as key chronological markers in the identification of shipwrecks," Ms Vargas Ariza adds.
While the coins may still be 600 metres below the waves, the identification of the wreck as the San Jose is likely to add fuel to an ongoing international row over who owns the treasure.
Who owns the San Jose?
Spain, which owned the San Jose back in 1708 when it sank, considers it a state ship; its remains are classified as an underwater graveyard and cannot be commercially exploited.
Colombia, in whose waters the wreck is located, has suggested that Spain renounce its claim in its favour, a move that some worry could set a dangerous precedent.
Colombian law favours treasure hunters.
Lawyer Jose Maria Lancho, an expert in underwater heritage, said: "If Spain, in this case, renounces its sovereign immunity, there will be no state or treasure-hunting company that does not invoke this precedent."
Mr Lancho has filed a request to Spain and UNESCO on behalf of three South American indigenous communities, asking them to declare the San Jose "common and shared heritage" from which they too should benefit.
The Killakas, Carangas and Chichas peoples estimate that their ancestors, often working in slave-like conditions, extracted the metals that make up around half of the ship's cargo from mines in what is now Bolivia, then under Spanish control, which were then transported north to Cartagena.
"Our native communities consider any act of intervention and unilateral appropriation of the galleon, without consulting us directly and without expressly and effectively considering its common and shared character, to be an act of plunder and neo-colonialism," the indigenous communities said in the letters sent to UNESCO and Spain last year.

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2 days ago

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Inside the world of the shipwreck hunters (and the treasures yet to be found)

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Tales of heroic failure Jones stressed that the history of wreck hunting is littered with such tales of heroic failure. 'In 1986 Danish wreck hunter, Aage Jensen, found the wreck of the German submarine U-534, sunk by the RAF of the Danish island of Anholt in 1945.' Many believed she was carrying Nazi gold to South America.' But when they finally got her up, although there was a guide to South America, there was no Nazi gold. Instead they found 200 condoms!' He says that, 'U-534 is actually a wonderful historic find. It contained an enigma machine and an enigma decoded messages informing the crew that Hitler was dead.' The submarine became a museum in Birkenhead and a new visitor centre is planned for 2026. Jones also notes that 'treasure hunters can also forget that many of these wrecks are war graves'. 'The HMS Edinburgh, sunk by a German U-boat in 1942, went down with a crew of 58 and 465 gold bars, intended as payment from Russia to America for war equipment,' he added. British diver and treasure hunter Keith Jessop found it in 1981 – with $36 (£26.8) million going to the Russians and the other $36 million split between him and his secret investors. But Jones points out the headlines were all about the money and not the deceased sailors. 'Although people focus on the treasure, there is often more money to be made from the history,' says Jones. He points out that the Tudor navy's Mary Rose, raised from the seabed in 1982 – with an estimated 60 million viewers watching TV coverage – now makes over £3 million per year as a tourist attraction. 'In the long term, history can pay more than chests full of treasure,' he says. 'The same goes for good, liveable wrecks. If you really wanted a return on your investment you wouldn't gamble on salvage operations. You'd buy an interesting old ship, sink it on a pretty reef and start a local dive centre!' 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The Independent

4 days ago

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British engineer died on £50m superyacht in Caribbean after being electrocuted during repair work

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