Spain Culture News
Odyssey denies that Spain can prove recovered treasure came from a Spanish ship
By h.b. - Nov 18, 2008 - 8:27 AM
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The Odyssey treasure company from Tampa, Florida in the United States has denied the claims made by Spain over the origin of gold and silver which they recovered off the Spanish coast in 2007.
The boat containing the treasure, valued at 500 million dollars, had earlier been named by Odyssey as the ‘Black Swan’. They have now sent a report to the court in Tampa saying that the pieces recovered were from a wide area, and that there was no evidence of a ship, or as to whether the sinking had been caused by a storm, explosion or accident.
Gregory Stemm from Odyssey says that nothing recovered by them can be linked to the vessel which the Spanish Government claims to be the source of the treasure, ‘Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes’, part of the Spanish Armada, and which went down in 1804.
Stemm claims the treasure could have come from ‘any ship at the time’.
Odyssey vice president, Melinda MacConnel, told the press on Monday that there was no doubt that jurisdiction in the case corresponded to the courts of the United States.