![]() ![]() Goold added that high-level Spanish and Colombian officials have started talking about the shipwreck. Such a ship may not be disturbed without the consent of the nation that owned it when it sank, he said. Goold said that while he can’t predict the outcome of this case, courts interpreting international law have ruled in the past that warships lost at sea, as the San Jose was, remain the property of the nation whose flag they were flying. Goold, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who has represented the government of Spain in similar legal contests about sunken treasure, noted that international law might lead to a different resolution. “All this precious cargo was taken away from the indigenous people.”īeeker said he “can’t see any way” that Colombia should be forced to give up the treasure to foreign interests.īut James A. The wealth aboard the San Jose resulted from the “conquest of the Americas,” Beeker said. It’s not unusual for the actual value of a treasure ship to be as much as 20 percent more than its declared value, he said. But human nature being what it is, Beeker thinks it probable that crewmen and passengers also smuggled aboard valuables-including gold and gems-that weren’t recorded on the manifest. The estimate is based on the ship’s manifest, a list of all the cargo it was carrying. Beeker says the treasure should not be allowed to leave Colombia.īeeker thinks the ship may contain even more than the Colombian president’s $1 billion estimate. Disputed ConquestĬharles Beeker, Director of the Center for Underwater Science at Indiana University, has worked with Colombian officials to develop their plans and regulations for managing shipwrecks in their territorial waters. The salvagers have said that they found the site of the ship more than 30 years ago, and has disputed the Colombian government’s claim that it owns the ship. ![]()
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