Comments on: Odyssey’s Black Swan Named Sunken Coin Treasure Lands in Spain

By: Dustin

Dustin — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 15:51:03 +0000

I was wondering is there is any informaition of the ship that was carring this load when suken?

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 08:43:43 +0000

Spain robbed odyssey, plain and simple.
1. odyssey researched, found, recovered, and preserved the treasure. spain did nothing.
2. the treasure was found in international waters, nullifying spain’s “sovereignty”. Further, the treasure was originally robbed from the people of peru by spain (it just happened to get sunk in transit). the treasure was laying on the bottom of the ocean for two hundred years, lost to history, what happened to basic common sense regarding salvage?
3. After the treasure was recovered, spain offered nothing for recovery, transport, conservation, or storage expenses. spain just demanded 100% of the treasure back.
4. after winning in US court (which was obviously rigged by the state department, read wikileaks cablegate), spain demanded that odyssey pay $1 million in lawyer fees (in addition to delivering 100% of the treasure) to spain!
5. spain constantly harassed odyssey ships in international waters. spain did nothing less than piracy by forcing the odyssey ship captain to Spanish port, and detaining the ship and crew. forcing the odyssey ships at gun point to be forcibly searched? nothing short of piracy by spain. odyssey should have ignored spainish demands, and just kept going (they were after all in international waters), and they had done nothing wrong.
6. For future reference, now when ever a salvage group discovers treasure that spain could even remotely claim, it will be sold on the grey market or melted down. Now, no sane salvage recovery group will ever treat spainish treasure with respect, it will most likely just get melted down, and spain will ultimately lose the “cultural heritage”.
7. Spain acted like a bunch of childish greedy thugs, (why not give odyssey a “finders fee”?, or even a small reimbursement for recovery expenses?), no wonder spain is bankrupt. I have ultimately lost a LOT of respect for spain after reading about all of this, and will NEVER travel to spain on tourism, buy anything “made in spain” and I really have a very low opinion of spain’s government now. And to think the U.S. gives aid to spain? I sure dont want my tax dollars going to help support that government!

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:56:02 +0000

Really LI? You want to talk about looting? So the US didn’t take land from the native americans? The uk didn’t pillage spanish ships? All of Europe didn’t take from Africa, the America’s etc. at what point in history do we stop? The odyssey should have contacted the Spanish government and struck a deal before pulling the find up to the surface, the Spanish wouldn’t have had a choice but to pay the odyssey since they don’t have the means to do it themselves, unfortunately the odyssey skipped a few steps and got screwed. Shit happens

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:46:34 +0000

Actually rob, Spanish banks haven’t been rescued and spain has the largest bank in Europe. It is national heritage. They should have made a deal with the Spanish government before taking it out of the water. I’m sure then they would have gotten paid

By: Robert W Steinberg

Robert W Steinberg — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 16:54:39 +0000

No matter how the Spanish and American governments want to skew this, the facts speak for themselves. The identity of the ship was never confirmed therefore the treasure belongs to the Odyssey. The best we can hope for is that all Spanish ships falter in International waters and have to agree to Lloyd’s Open Forum and then we stick it up their behind. This is a theft clear and simple. The Spanish Government broke the law, the U.S. Government condoned it thus making themselves a party to aiding and abetting in a theft.

By: Ll

Ll — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:18:47 +0000

The Spanish looted the gold and silver from Central and South America, and they have the balls to claim their “historical heritage” was damaged?! What about the Incan’s heritage?

I hope every salvage vessel that finds Spanish treasure in the future melts it all down. Destroy their “heritage”. Destroy the evidence.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:55:29 +0000

This was and remains a travesty! Shame on the US Government and all those who participated in this gross legal deception. Where has the the legal & moral reward for being an honest business enterprise gone? God Bless the Odyssey and their employees and all who practice Honesty and Integrity, for our government and foreign governments will not!

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 01:45:44 +0000

I can not understand if the treasure was found in international waters, the manifest etc and that the Odyssey found it and did all the work and got royally screwed. Shame on the US state dept and your back door deals ! i guess the next piece of equipment installed on the ship will be a smelter

By: Tristan

Tristan — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 09:13:19 +0000

maybe the odyssey team should think twice before messing with other countries property, just because it’s a shipwreck does not mean that it’s just up for grabs, not all countries have the same laws as the us, plus the us will want rights to there own shipwrecks. the oddssey team is 100% for profit any ways so who gives a shit, boo hoo hoo

By: R.J.

R.J. — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:37:07 +0000

I am deeply saddened that the hard-working crew of the Odyssey spent five months stranded away from their families, the Captain was arrested, their rights were clearly violated by the Spanish Naval officers, and their clearly rightful claim to treasure found aboard a ship in international waters carrying the cargo of many merchants (not a commissioned ship which would invoke the sovereign exception) was stolen from them by a pirate nation.

Shame on you Spain !!! and shame on the backroom politics from the U.S. as well !!!