The Colombian government announced Friday an expedition to recover items of “incalculable value” from the wreck of the legendary San Jose galleon, which sank in 1708 loaded with gold, silver and emeralds estimated to be worth billions of dollars. The 316-year-old wreck, often called the “holy grail” of all shipwrecks, is controversial because it is both an archaeological and economic treasure.
Culture Minister Juan David Correa told AFP that more than eight years after the wreck was discovered off the Colombian coast, an underwater robot would be sent to recover some of its loot.
Between April and May, the robot retrieved some items from the “surface of the galleon” to see “how they materialize when they come out (of the water) and to understand what we can do” about the rest to recover the treasures. Correa said.
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The operation will cost more than $4.5 million and the robot will work at a depth of 600 meters to remove items such as ceramics, pieces of wood and shells “without altering or damaging the wreckage,” Correa said AFP on board a large naval vessel.
The location of the expedition is kept secret to protect one of the greatest archaeological finds in history from malicious treasure hunters.
The galleon “San Jose” was the property of the Spanish Crown when it was sunk by the British Navy near Cartagena in 1708. Only a handful of her 600-man crew survived.
The Spanish San Jose Galleon sank in 1708 after a battle with the British in the Caribbean. Samuel Scott
“That makes it very sensitive because you can't interfere with war graves,” Justin Leidwanger, an archaeologist at Stanford University who studies ancient shipwrecks, told LiveScience.
The ship had returned from the New World to the court of King Philip V of Spain, loaded with treasures such as chests full of emeralds and around 200 tons of gold coins.
Before Colombia announced the find in 2015, it had long been sought after by treasure hunters.
“As if we were in colonial times”
The galleon's discovery sparked a tug-of-war over who would get custody of its loot.
Spain insists the bounty is theirs because it was aboard a Spanish ship, while the Qhara-Qhara nation in Bolivia says it should receive the treasure because the Spanish forced the community's population to mine the precious metals.
Colombian Rear Admiral Herman Ricardo Leon (l) and Colombian Director of the Anthropological and Historical Institute Alhena Caicido hold a press conference at the Naval Museum in Cartagena, Colombia, on February 23, 2024. LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images
The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro, in power since 2022, wants to use the country's own resources to recover the wreck and ensure it stays in Colombia.
The idea is to “stop thinking about the fact that we are dealing with a treasure that we have to fight for as if we were in colonial times, with the pirates who claimed these territories,” said Culture Minister Correa.
Spanish Ambassador to Colombia Joaquin de Aristegui said he had instructions to offer Colombia a “bilateral agreement” to protect the wreck.
Bolivia's indigenous population has expressed its willingness to cooperate with Petro's government and has now demanded the return of only some parts of the ship.
“Not only for symbolic reasons, but above all for spiritual reasons,” local leader Samuel Flores told AFP. “We just want our ancestors to live in peace.”
The expedition to recover the shipwreck comes as a case before the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration between Colombia and the US-based salvage company Sea Search Armada, which claims to have first found the wreck over 40 years ago .
The company is asking for $10 billion, half the wreck's estimated value today.
In June 2022, Colombia said a remotely operated vehicle reached 900 meters below the ocean's surface and showed new images of the wreckage.
The video showed the best look yet at the treasure found aboard the San Jose – including gold bars and coins, cannons made in Seville in 1655 and an intact Chinese dinner service.
Gold coins found in centuries-old shipwrecks off Colombia
At the time, Portal reported that the remotely operated vehicle also discovered two other shipwrecks in the area, including a schooner believed to be about two centuries old.