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Spain convinced it will win the Odyssey treasure case, claiming the identity of the ship concerned is now known
By h.b. - May 8, 2008 - 5:47 PM
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Spain has confirmed that the sunken vessel on which the United States Odyssey Marine Exploration company found a massive hoard of treasure, including silver coins worth an estimated 500 million dollars, is in fact the Spanish galleon ‘Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes’ which went down of the Portuguese Algarve coast in 1804 with the loss of 200 sailors and their families.
Lawyer James Goold, who is representing the Spanish State in the on-going court case in Tampa, Florida, against Odyssey, confirmed the identity of the vessel at a press conference today in the Ministry for Culture in Madrid. General Director of Fine Arts, José Jiménez said that the action of Odyssey in the case had been ‘moral and legally unacceptable’. He said that historical reason and legal sufficiency were on the side of the Spanish state, given that the boat belonged to the Spanish Armada. He said that he had the moral conviction that Spain would win the case.
Now the ‘Mercedes’ had been indentified, the lawyer James Goold claimed the vessel is protected by the principle of sovereign immunity, which he said was an absolutely clear judicial principal in the United States and worldwide, which is applied to all ships, be they in national or international waters.
He said that Odyssey has been shown to be directly at the scene of the crime which, given the high number of victims could be considered as a marine cemetery, adding that the case was of the same historical importance as the battle of Pearl Harbor, which led to the United States participation in the second world war.
Earlier this week, Gregg Stemm from Odyssey said he hoped to collaborate with the Spanish Government to solve the dispute. He continued to question the Spanish nationality and identity of the boat, and blamed the Spanish media for the dispute over the 17 tons of gold and silver.
He said the Spanish Government still had to prove in court that all the material found is theirs and had not been abandoned, but whatever happened his lawyers were convinced that Odyssey would receive a ‘generous prize’ for making the rescue.
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