Deep seas, adventure, mystery, suspense and a battle over who owns a sunken treasure… they are the trappings of an action-adventure blockbuster that could make hundreds of millions. But this is no movie plot. The treasure is real — possibly worth some $500 million — and a battle over its ownership wages on, but now at another level.
500 million Colonial-era gold and silver coins belonged to the sunken Spanish warship Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes and should be returned to Spain, a U.S. judge said this week.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, a deep-sea treasure-hunting firm based in Tampa, Florida, discovered the shipwrecked treasure in international waters about 100 miles west of the Straits of Gibraltar — a site Odyssey code-named "Black Swan." Soon after the March 2007 discovery, Spain laid claim to the 17-ton coin hoard, demanding its return and sparking a near two-year legal battle. A page in that battle has been turned. Read the rest of this entry »
The Odyssey discovery of the "Black Swan" 17-ton gold and and silver coin treasure, its recovery and legal battle with Spain over it will air Thursday, April 2, on the Discovery Channel’s "Treasure Quest."
The episode is likely to be the most fascinating of the season, and on Tuesday, excellent background and a preview of what to expect was provided by the TODAY show.
In May 2007, Florida-based deep-sea shipwreck exploration firm Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered the discovered treasure trove at a site the company code-named the "Black Swan." Soon after, a legal battle erupted in Federal court over the ownership of the Colonial-era coins. Read the rest of this entry »
News is abound with Odyssey Marine Exploration’s claim to have discovered HMS Victory, the legendary British warship that disappeared in the English Channel following a 1744 storm.
Odyssey, a deep-sea exploration and treasure-hunting firm, announced their findings last Monday in London. The warship may have been carrying up to 100,000 gold coins weighing four tons before it sank to the sea-floor.
"The money is not as important as the cultural and historical significance of the discovery," Greg Stemm, chief executive officer of Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration said.
"HMS Victory was the mightiest vessel of the 18th Century and the eclectic mix of guns we found on the site will prove essential in further refining our understanding of naval weaponry used during the era."
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Admiral Sir John Balchin’s British warship HMS Victory has been discovered in the English Channel where it fell victim to a 1744 storm, Florida-based deep-ocean shipwreck firm Odyssey Marine Exploration said Monday.
Among other artifacts, accounts say the ship may have carried 100,000 gold coins weighing up to four tons. Odyssey has not specified a value of any items found, saying only its research "indicates that Balchin’s Victory sank with a substantial amount of gold and silver specie aboard."
The legendary warship was the biggest in the world during its day, and mysteriously disappeared with its complement of more than 900 sailors in October 1744.
The HMS Victory shipwreck site was found in May 2008. Odyssey retrieved a brass cannon on the ocean floor and was able to positively identify that it came from the warship, according to a company statement. Read the rest of this entry »
Odyssey Marine Exploration has discovered two more shipwrecks in the north Atlantic Ocean, the company announced this week. The Florida-based underwater salvage company filed admiralty claims for exclusive salvage rights in Tampa federal court Wednesday and released a public statement Friday.
According to Odyssey, the two shipwrecks are steel-hulled, and as yet unidentified. The company said the sites are believed to contain "valuable cargo," that is "beyond the territorial waters or contiguous zone of any sovereign nation" and over 300 miles from the entrance to the English Channel.
Court documents indicate one site is 400 meters below water while the other is 600 meters under, with both resting some 100 miles of the southwest coast of Ireland.
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The Republic of Peru on Tuesday entered the legal fray between Odyssey Marine Exploration and Spain over a 17-ton booty of Colonial-era silver and gold coins discovered at a shipwreck site Odyssey code-named the "Black Swan."
That legal dispute started back in May of 2007 after Odyssey — a Florida based treasure hunting, and deep-sea exploration firm — hauled up over 500,000 silver and gold coins from a 17th-century shipwreck site found on the Atlantic sea floor.
Spain contends the treasure is a part of their country’s cultural heritage and should be returned. Odyssey has said the treasure was found in international waters, and legally retrieved.
The legal battle over the treasure is now pending in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo in Tampa, Florida.
Although not proven, the coin treasure may have come from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish 34-gun frigate that left Peru and was close to home before it was sunk by the British fleet in 1804.
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Tampa treasure hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration filed their second 2008 results with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Odyssey reported a decrease of $.6 million in revenue for 2008 that was mostly due to fewer coins sold.
The company provided updates on shipwreck projects, including the 17-ton gold and silver coin find from "Black Swan," the HMS Sussex with a potential cargo of coins, and the high value targets in their "Atlas" Search Project.
Odyssey indicated taping has already begun for the 11-episode primetime TV series for Discovery Channel scheduled to air in early 2009.
Financially, Odyssey’s second quarter revenue fell to $1.1 million compared to $1.7 million in the same period of 2007. The company also reported a net loss of $5.4 million in the second quarter compared with a $6.3 million loss in Q2 of 2007.
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Mark Gordon, President and Chief Operating Officer of Florida based treasure-hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration, sat down with FOX Business to discuss Odyssey’s finding of over 590,000 shipwrecked, Colonial-era gold and silver coins.
The company discovered the 17-ton coin hoard in May of 2007 and has been battling Spain — in Florida court and through airways — over its ownership ever since.
Although Odyssey has not placed a value to the coins that came from the site the firm code named "Black Swan", others have… to the tune of $500,000,000. That’s 500 with a big "M".
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The Association of Peruvian Consumers and Users (ASPEC) requested the Peru government to join the legal battle between Odyssey Marine Exploration and Spain over the sunken treasure trove of silver and gold coins discovered last year.
Ownership of the 17-ton treasure found by Odyssey in May of 2007 is worth several hundred million, and has been hotly contested.
With the possibility the treasure came from the Mercedes, a Spanish 34-gun frigate that left Peru and was close to home before it was sunk by the British fleet in 1804, ASPEC believes the coins were made with Peruvian metals and minted in Lima.
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Florida-based treasure hunting, deep-sea exploration firm Odyssey Marine Exploration is back in court this morning at 9:30 a.m. (ET) with Spain. The legal battle over 17-tons of silver and gold Colonial-era coins continues in U.S. Federal court before Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo.
The coin treasure trove was recovered by Odyssey in May of 2007, and resulting legal disputes with Spain over ownership have resulted since.
Court fillings reveal that the conclusive identity of the sunken ship site, Odyssey code-named the “Black Swan,” could not yet be made. But they also suggest a possible linkage to Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas, a Spanish vessel that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1804.
Since, Spain’s attorney Jim Goold has went as far as stating Odyssey’s recovery of the treasure was “immoral and illegal,” and provided an analogy of someone taking personal effects from the pockets of those who died in the U.S.S Arizona at Pearl Harbor — essentially grave-robbing the honored dead.
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