Page 11 - ArubaToday
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WORLD NEWS A11
Monday 7 December 2015
16
Colombia finds what may be world’s largest sunken treasure
PEDRO MENDOZA could be worth billions of
dollars if ever recovered.
JOSHUA GOODMAN The ship, which maritime
experts consider the holy
Associated Press grail of Spanish colonial
shipwrecks, has also been
CARTAGENA, Colombia the subject of a legal bat-
tle in the U.S., Colombia
(AP) — President Juan and Spain over who owns
the rights to the sunken
Manual Santos on Satur- treasure.
In 1982, Sea Search Arma-
day hailed the discovery da, a salvage company
owned by U.S. investors
of a Spanish galleon that including the late actor
Michael Landon and con-
went down off the South victed Nixon White House
adviser John Ehrlichman,
American nation’s coast announced it had found
the San Jose’s resting
more than 300 years ago place 700 feet below the
water’s surface.
with what may be the Two years later, Colom-
bia’s government over-
world’s largest sunken trea- turned well-established
maritime law that gives
sure. 50 percent to whoever lo-
cates a shipwreck, slashing
At a news conference in Sea Search’s take to a 5
percent “finder’s fee.”
this colonial port city, San- A lawsuit by the Ameri-
can investors in a federal
tos said the exact location court in Washington was
dismissed in 2011 and the
of the galleon San Jose, ruling was affirmed on ap-
peal two years later. Co-
and how it was discovered
with the help of an interna-
tional team of experts, was
a state secret that he’d
personally safeguard. The
ship sank somewhere in
the wide area off Colom-
bia’s Baru peninsula, south Ernesto Montenegro, Director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History of Colom-
bia, talks to the media while he shows a picture of remains of the Galleon San Jose during a
of Cartagena. press conference in Cartagena, Colombia, Saturday, Dec.5, 2015. Colombia’s President Juan
Manuel Santos announced the discovery of the remains of the Galleon San Jose, a Spanish boat
While no humans have yet eighteenth century empire that sank in the Caribbean Sea loaded with gold.
to reach the wreckage (AP Photo/ Pedro Mendoza)
site, autonomous under-
water vehicles had gone
there and brought back lombia’s Supreme Court Santos didn’t mention any 27 in a never-before refer-
has ordered the ship to be salvage company’s claim enced location through
photos of dolphin-stamped recovered before the inter- during his presentation, but the use of new meteoro-
national dispute over the the government said the logical and underwater
bronze cannons in a well- fortune can be settled. ship had been found Nov. mapping studies. q
preserved state that leave
no doubt to the ship’s iden-
tity, the government said.
The discovery is the latest
chapter in a saga that be- Tullow Oil set to get exploration license in Guyana
gan three centuries ago,
on June 8, 1708, when GEORGETOWN, Guyana found large quantities of leum industry. Officials said cessions being developed
(AP) — Guyana’s Govern- oil and gas in May. Firm of- Saturday that Tullow will by Exxon and Repsol of
the galleon ship with 600 ment Information Agency ficials met in the past week partner with a smaller firm Spain, officials said. In 2012,
says British petroleum gi- with Guyanese President they did not identify for the safety and environmental
people aboard sank as it ant Tullow Oil PLC will be David Granger and other exploratory work once the concerns forced Tullow to
awarded an exploration government leaders to dis- license is approved in the abandon an offshore well it
was trying to outrun a fleet license near an offshore cuss how to develop the coming weeks. Tullow will was developing with Repsol
basin where Exxon Mobil country’s fledgling petro- explore an area near con- and CGX Energy of Canada.q
of British warships. It is be-
lieved to have been car-
rying 11 million gold coins
and jewels from then Span-
ish-controlled colonies that
