Colombian scientists recover treasure from 300-year-old Spanish shipwreck

Scientists in Colombia have recovered gold and bronze coins, a porcelain cup and a cannon from a Spanish warship that sank three centuries ago.

They are the first artifacts to be salvaged from a vessel called the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks.” The Spanish galleon San José sank in 1708 after it was attacked by an English navy fleet in the Caribbean Sea, authorities said Thursday.

The ship was attacked during the War of the Spanish Succession -- which began in 1701 --and was carrying large amounts of precious metals and jewels from Spanish colonies in Latin America back to King Philip V of Spain.

Colombian researchers found the galleon in 2015. It is believed to hold 11 million gold and silver coins, emeralds and other treasures from Spanish-controlled colonies in the 18th century and could be worth billions of dollars.

In a study published in the journal Antiquity, researchers said the “hand-struck, irregularly shaped” coins, were found in the wreck’s stern. Known as cobs or macuquinas, the money was minted in Lima, Peru, in 1707 and bears markings linking it to the Spanish Empire’s Tierra Firme fleet.

Its exact location remains a government secret, but officials said it was at a depth of approximately 2,000 feet.

In a statement, Colombia’s culture ministry said that the coins, cannon and porcelain cup will “undergo a conservation process” at a lab.

“This historic event demonstrates the strengthening of the Colombian State’s technical, professional, and technological capabilities to protect and promote Underwater Cultural Heritage, as part of Colombian identity and history,” Yannai Kadamani Fonrodona, Colombia’s Minister of Cultures, Arts, and Knowledge, said in a statement.

The recovery is part of a scientific investigation that the government authorized last year to study the wreckage and the causes of the sinking. Colombian researchers located the galleon in 2015, leading to legal and diplomatic disputes.

The treasures are at the center of a legal dispute between the Colombian government and Sea-Search Armada (SSA), a U.S.-based marine salvaging company.

Colombian officials claim that they discovered the San José with assistance from international scientists. However, SSA, formerly known as Glocca Morra, claims to have found the shipwreck during the early 1980s.

The company has filed a claim in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, arguing that it is entitled to approximately $10 billion -- which is approximately half of the treasure’s estimated value.

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