The Colombian authorities stated Thursday it can attempt to elevate objects from the 1708 shipwreck of the galleon San Jose, which is believed to comprise a cargo price billions of {dollars}. The 315-year-old wreck, typically known 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 stated the primary makes an attempt shall be made between April and Could, relying on ocean situations within the Caribbean. Correa pledged it could be a scientific expedition.
“That is an archaeological wreck, not a treasure,” Correa stated following a gathering with President Gustavo Petro. “This is a chance for us to develop into a rustic on the forefront of underwater archaeological analysis.”
However the ship is believed to carry 11 million gold and silver cash, emeralds and different valuable cargo from Spanish-controlled colonies, which could possibly be price billions of {dollars} if ever recovered.
/ AP
“The sums of wealth are invaluable, and the duty of the protégés has already been extracted, contributing to the historical past of Colombia, the Caribbean and the world,” Vice President and prime diplomat Marta Lucia Ramirez stated in a earlier assertion final 12 months.
Correa stated the fabric extracted from the wreck, most likely by robotic or submersible craft, could be taken aboard a navy ship for evaluation. Primarily based on the outcomes, a second effort is likely to be scheduled.
Authorized and diplomatic disputes
The San Jose galleon sank in battle with British ships greater than 300 years in the past.
Only some of the San Jose’s 600-member crew survived the wreck.
“It makes it very sensitive as a result of one is just not purported to intervene in struggle graves,” Justin Leidwanger, an archaeologist at Stanford College who research historic shipwrecks, informed Stay Science in 2015. “Are you able to pluck treasure off the seabed with out disturbing a struggle grave? I doubt you possibly can. However these are the form of discussions that shall be had.”
Samuel Scott
It was positioned in 2015 however has been mired in authorized and diplomatic disputes.
In 2018, the Colombia authorities deserted plans to excavate the wreck, amid disputes with a personal agency that claims some salvage rights based mostly on a Eighties settlement with Colombian authorities.
In 2018, the United Nations cultural company known as on Colombia to not commercially exploit the wreck.
A UNESCO specialists’ physique defending underwater cultural heritage despatched a letter to Colombia expressing concern that recovering the treasure on the market fairly than for its historic worth “would trigger the irretrievable lack of important heritage.”
“Permitting the industrial exploitation of Colombia’s cultural heritage goes in opposition to the very best scientific requirements and worldwide moral rules as laid down particularly within the UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage Conference,” the letter stated.
Colombia has not signed the U.N. Conference on the Regulation of the Sea, which might topic it to worldwide requirements and require it to tell UNESCO of its plans for the wreck.
The wreck was found three years in the past with the assistance of a world group of specialists and autonomous underwater automobiles, and its actual location is a state secret. The ship sank someplace within the huge space off Colombia’s Baru peninsula, south of Cartagena, within the Caribbean Sea.
The ship has been the topic of a authorized battle within the U.S., Colombia and Spain over who owns the rights to the sunken treasure.
Video exhibits treasure that was aboard the San Jose
The three-decked San Jose was reportedly 150 ft lengthy, with a beam of 45 ft and armed with 64 weapons.
Colombia has stated that researchers discovered bronze cannons which can be in good situation, together with ceramic and porcelain vases and private weapons.
The researchers say that the specs of the cannons depart little question that the wreck is that of the San Jose.
Final 12 months, Colombia stated {that a} remotely operated automobile reached 900 meters beneath the floor of the ocean, displaying new photos of the wreckage.
The video exhibits 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 regarded as from about two centuries in the past.
