Legal Battle Rages Over Ownership of 'Greatest Sunken Treasure in History'

Over 10 years after its initial discovery, “the greatest sunken treasure in the history of humanity” still sits untouched at the bottom of the Caribbean Ocean as American treasure hunters, indigenous groups, and officials from Spain and Colombia battle over rightful ownership.

'I Still Think I'm Dreaming'

Roger Dooley, a maritime archaeologist from Miami, made the remarkable discovery on Thanksgiving Day 2015, putting an end to his 31-year pursuit. It was the San José, a Spanish galleon which sank in 1708 as it made the cross to Spain carrying gold, silver and emeralds. The total value of the ship and its loot is considered to be $5 billion or more. “I’m still thinking I’m dreaming,” Dooley told The New York Post earlier this week.

The San José sank early in the evening of June 8, 1708, after British commodore Charles Wager attacked the ship off the coast of Cartagena. Wagner recalled in his journals that the ship “blew up” and that “the heat of the blast came very hot upon us and several splinters of plank and timber came aboard us afire.” Of the 600 people aboard the San José, only about 12 survived.

“[It’s] the greatest sunken treasure in the history of humanity,” added Julian Sancton, who authored an account of the study, Neptune’s Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire, that’s in stores now. “It has to contend with such famous gilded troves as Tutankhamen’s tomb.”

Yet It's Still Unclear to Whom the Wreck Belongs

But the contents of the ship are still tied up in arbitration. The Court of Permanent Arbitration in The Hague had been expected to issue a ruling on the matter early this year, which would decide whether the ship should belong to a single American salvage company or if Dooley and his crew are entitled to a 45 percent share after Colombia declared the wreck and its contents “objects of cultural interest.”

Dooley, now 81, didn’t expect to ignite an international incident with the discovery. Spain has invoked sovereign immunity to stake claim on its lost naval vessels, no matter where in the world they’re discovered, and has made clear its opinion that the San José should not be moved from its “mass grave.” But Colombia wishes to stake claim on the vessel, too, contending that the wreck came to rest at the edge of the country’s territorial waters and smack in the middle of its “exclusive economic zone.” Colombia has already recovered a smattering of less-valuable items, such as coins and weapons, from the San José.

Sea Search Armada, an American company, contends that it first located the wreck in 1980 and therefore deserves a cut of the treasure. While a Colombian civil court ruled that the SSA is entitled to half of any treasure found within the ship, the ruling has rankled some who contend that there was never any wreck at the coordinates provided by SSA. Many believe the ship discovered by the SSA in 1980 was not the San José. At the same time, indigenous groups in Spain and Colombia argue that the treasure should be theirs, as it most certainly was taken through forced labor and should be treated as reparations.

'Rightful Owner Is Humanity Itself'

But Sancton is adamant that the treasure should belong to no single person. Rather, he suggests the proper course of action would be to inter the items in a museum for the public to see. “The Spanish treasure fleets were transporting the riches of an entire continent across oceans, laying the foundation of our globalized system of commerce and shaping the modern world,” he said. “The rightful owner of the ship is humanity itself.”