17 Billion Dollar Colombia Shipwreck to be Recovered

A Colombian Shipwreck Worth $17 Billion is to Be Recovered: ‘It is the most valuable treasure’ in the ‘history of humanity’. The vessel carried 200 tons of silver and emeralds, 11 million gold coins and porcelain pottery, Colombian Navy divers have said. The San José, was sunk by British warships in 1708.  Colombian authorities with several agencies will begin the recovery of this 316-year-old shipwreck, a 150-foot-long Spanish galleon ship, nearly a decade after it was first discovered.  The Spanish galleon ship, which sank off the coast near the port city of Cartagena in 1708, will be recovered in a partnership with the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge; the National Navy’s General Maritime Directorate and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.  With a cargo full of treasure, the 150-foot-long, 64-gun, three-masted ship sank with 600 men aboard. Only 11 individuals survived the incident.  Spain, the United States, Bolivian indigenous groups and Colombia have all claimed rights to the shipwreck in past years.  But in 2011, a U.S. court determined that the ship was the property of the Colombian state.  In 2015, then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spoke about the discovery, telling attendees, “This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity.”  Since it was sunk by British warships some 316 years ago, the vessel has been remarkably untouched, officials said. “So far, the entire discovery of the Galeón San José Asset of Cultural Interest and its archaeological evidence have been deposited without any variation, other than that produced by the marine dynamics themselves (currents and fauna), with no evidence of external interventions,” Colombian officials said in the release.  The Colombian government will invest $1,073,646 (17,962 million pesos) in the recovery, officials noted.