Battle royal over sunken treasure

From the BBC:

An international row is brewing between the Spanish Government and an American sea salvage company over what could be the most valuable shipwreck ever.

The salvage firm Sub Sea Research believes it has found what remains of the 64-cannon French ship, Notre Dame de Deliverance, which sank in a fierce storm 60 kilometres (40 miles) off Florida's Key West in 1755.

The merchant vessel was chartered by Spain to carry treasures extracted from mines in Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

Its cargo of gold bullion, gems, coins and silver is worth an estimated $3bn. . .

The Sub Sea Research has produced an incomplete inventory of what was believed to be on board of the Notre Dame de Deliverance when it left the Cuban port of Havana.

The cargo included:
- 437 kilogram of gold bullion in 17 chests,
- more than 15,000 gold coins
- 153 golden snuff boxes
- six chests of gems
- more than 1,000,000 silver pieces
- 14 kg of sliver ore
- six pairs of diamond earrings
- a diamond ring

"It was one of the richest ships ever lost," one of the owners of the company, Greg Brooks, told the Miami Daily Business Review.

The Deliverance's glimmering cargo is approximately 10 times larger than that found in 2000 on the galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, from which about $400m in treasure was retrieved.

Posted by David on January 7, 2003 6:04 PM