Current:Home > StocksColombia says it will try to retrieve treasures from "holy grail" of shipwrecks, which may hold cargo worth billions -Capitatum
Colombia says it will try to retrieve treasures from "holy grail" of shipwrecks, which may hold cargo worth billions
Charles Langston View
Date:2025-04-06 11:06:23
The Colombian government said Thursday it will try to raise objects from the 1708 shipwreck of the galleon San Jose, which is believed to contain a cargo worth billions of dollars. The 315-year-old wreck, often called the "holy grail" of shipwrecks, has been controversial, because it is both an archaeological and economic treasure.
Culture Minister Juan David Correa said the first attempts will be made between April and May, depending on ocean conditions in the Caribbean. He pledged it would be a scientific expedition.
"This is an archaeological wreck, not a treasure," Correa said following a meeting with President Gustavo Petro. "This is an opportunity for us to become a country at the forefront of underwater archaeological research."
But the ship is believed to hold 11 million gold and silver coins, emeralds and other precious cargo from Spanish-controlled colonies, which could be worth billions of dollars if ever recovered.
"The sums of wealth are invaluable, and the responsibility of the protégés has already been extracted, contributing to the history of Colombia, the Caribbean and the world," Vice President and top diplomat Marta Lucia Ramirez said in a previous statement.
Correa said the material extracted from the wreck, probably by robotic or submersible craft, would be taken aboard a navy ship for analysis. Based on the results, a second effort might be scheduled.
Legal and diplomatic disputes
The San Jose galleon sank in battle with British ships more than 300 years ago.
Only a few of the San Jose's 600-member crew survived the wreck.
"It makes it very touchy because one is not supposed to intervene in war graves," Justin Leidwanger, an archaeologist at Stanford University who studies ancient shipwrecks, told Live Science in 2015. "Can you pluck treasure off the seabed without disturbing a war grave? I doubt you can. But these are the sort of discussions that will be had."
It was located in 2015 but has been mired in legal and diplomatic disputes.
In 2018, the Colombia government abandoned plans to excavate the wreck, amid disputes with a private firm that claims some salvage rights based on a 1980s agreement with Colombian government.
In 2018, the United Nations cultural agency called on Colombia not to commercially exploit the wreck.
A UNESCO experts' body protecting underwater cultural heritage sent a letter to Colombia expressing concern that recovering the treasure for sale rather than for its historical value "would cause the irretrievable loss of significant heritage."
"Allowing the commercial exploitation of Colombia's cultural heritage goes against the best scientific standards and international ethical principles as laid down especially in the UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention," the letter said.
Colombia has not signed the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which would subject it to international standards and require it to inform UNESCO of its plans for the wreck.
The wreck was discovered three years ago with the help of an international team of experts and autonomous underwater vehicles, and its exact location is a state secret. The ship sank somewhere in the wide area off Colombia's Baru peninsula, south of Cartagena, in the Caribbean Sea.
The ship has been the subject of a legal battle in the U.S., Colombia and Spain over who owns the rights to the sunken treasure.
Video shows treasure that was aboard the San Jose
The three-decked San Jose was reportedly 150 feet long, with a beam of 45 feet and armed with 64 guns.
Colombia has said that researchers found bronze cannons that are in good condition, along with ceramic and porcelain vases and personal weapons.
The researchers say that the specifications of the cannons leave no doubt that the wreck is that of the San Jose.
Last year, Colombia said that a remotely operated vehicle reached 900 meters below the surface of the ocean, showing new images of the wreckage.
La Armada Nacional reveló precisas imágenes de video en alta definición del Galeón San JoséQueremos compartir que, gracias a los equipos tecnológicos y las labores de nuestra Armada de Colombia, pudimos llegar a un nivel de precisión, nunca antes visto, del Galeón San José, manteniendo intacto y protegiendo, de cara a una posterior extracción, este patrimonio de la humanidad 🇨🇴
Posted by Iván Duque on Monday, June 6, 2022
The video shows the best-yet view of the treasure that was aboard the San Jose — including gold ingots and coins, cannons made in Seville in 1655 and an intact Chinese dinner service.
At the time, Reuters reported the remotely operated vehicle also discovered two other shipwrecks in the area, including a schooner thought to be from about two centuries ago.
- In:
- Shipwreck
- Colombia
veryGood! (92741)
Related
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Retirements mount in Congress: Some are frustrated by chaos, and others seek new careers — or rest
- 'No words': Julia Roberts' shares touching throwback photo as twins turn 19 years old
- It's peak shopping — and shoplifting — season. Cops are stepping up antitheft tactics
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Retirements mount in Congress: Some are frustrated by chaos, and others seek new careers — or rest
- Meet 'Samba': The vape-sniffing K9 dog in Florida schools used to crack down on vaping
- Novelist Tim Dorsey, who mixed comedy and murder in his Serge A. Storms stories, dies at 62
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- The death of a Florida official at Ron DeSantis' office went undetected for 24 minutes
Ranking
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- U.S. gas prices have fallen or remained steady for 10 weeks straight. Here’s why
- Activist who acknowledged helping flip police car during 2020 protest sentenced to 1 year in prison
- Myanmar and China conduct naval drills together as fighting surges in border area
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- 5-year-old girl, man swept out by California wave identified as granddaughter, grandfather
- Indiana man gets community corrections for burning down re-creation of George Rogers Clark cabin
- Host of upcoming COP28 climate summit UAE planned to use talks to make oil deals, BBC reports
Recommendation
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ready to campaign for Harris-Walz after losing out for spot on the ticket
WWE Hall of Famer Tammy ‘Sunny’ Sytch sentenced to 17 years in prison for fatal DUI crash
More than half a million people left New York in 2022. Here's where they resettled.
Red Lobster's 'Endless Shrimp' deal surpassed expectations, cost company millions
Travis Hunter, the 2
Trump loses bid to subpoena Jan. 6 committee material
Alaska landslide survivor says force of impact threw her around ‘like a piece of weightless popcorn’
Young man gets life sentence for Canada massage parlor murder that court declared act of terrorism