Colombia’s authorities on Friday introduced an expedition to take away objects of “incalculable worth” from the wreck of the legendary San Jose galleon, which sank in 1708 whereas laden with gold, silver and emeralds estimated to be price billions of {dollars}. The 316-year-old wreck, usually referred to as the “holy grail” of shipwrecks, has been controversial, as a result of it’s each an archaeological and financial treasure.
Tradition Minister Juan David Correa instructed AFP that greater than eight years after the discovery of the wreck off Colombia’s coast, an underwater robotic can be despatched to get well a few of its bounty.
Between April and Might, the robotic would extract some objects from “the floor of the galleon” to see “how they materialize after they come out (of the water) and to know what we are able to do” to get well the remainder of the treasures, stated Correa.
The operation will price greater than $4.5 million and the robotic will work at a depth of 600 meters to take away objects reminiscent of ceramics, items of wooden and shells “with out modifying or damaging the wreck,” Correa instructed AFP aboard a big naval ship.
The placement of the expedition is being stored secret to guard what is taken into account one of many biggest archaeological finds in historical past from malicious treasure hunters.
The San Jose galleon was owned by the Spanish crown when it was sunk by the British navy close to Cartagena in 1708. Solely a handful of its 600-strong crew survived.
“It makes it very sensitive as a result of one shouldn’t be purported to intervene in struggle graves,” Justin Leidwanger, an archaeologist at Stanford College who research historical shipwrecks, told Live Science.
The ship had been heading again from the New World to the courtroom of King Philip V of Spain, laden with treasures reminiscent of chests of emeralds and a few 200 tons of gold cash.
Earlier than Colombia announced the discovery in 2015, it was lengthy wanted by treasure hunters.
“As if we had been in colonial instances”
The invention of the galleon sparked a tug-of-war over who will get custody of its bounty.
Spain insists that the bounty is theirs because it was aboard a Spanish ship, whereas Bolivia’s Qhara Qhara nation says it ought to get the treasures because the Spanish pressured the neighborhood’s folks to mine the dear metals.
Since Thursday, Spain’s ambassador to Colombia Joaquin de Aristegui, and representatives of Bolivia’s Indigenous folks have been collaborating in a symposium with consultants to debate one of the simplest ways to entry the treasure.
The federal government of leftist president Gustavo Petro, in energy since 2022, needs to make use of the nation’s personal assets to get well the wreck and guarantee it stays in Colombia.
De Aristegui stated he has directions to supply Colombia a “bilateral settlement” on the safety of the wreck.
Correa stated Bolivia’s Indigenous folks have expressed their willingness to work with Petro’s authorities.
The thought is “to cease contemplating that we’re coping with a treasure that we now have to combat for as if we had been in colonial instances, with the pirates who disputed these territories,” he added.
The expedition to start out recovering the shipwreck’s trove comes as a case is underway on the UN’s Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration between Colombia and the U.S.-based salvage firm Sea Search Armada — which claims it discovered the wreck first over 40 years in the past.
The corporate is demanding $10 billion {dollars}, half the wreck’s estimated worth in the present day.
In June 2022, Colombia stated {that a} remotely operated automobile reached 900 meters beneath the floor of the ocean, exhibiting new images of the wreckage.
The video confirmed the best-yet view of the treasure that was aboard the San Jose — together with gold ingots and cash, cannons made in Seville in 1655 and an intact Chinese language dinner service.
On the time, Reuters reported the remotely operated automobile additionally found two different shipwrecks within the space, together with a schooner considered from about two centuries in the past.
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