In May 2007, Odyssey announced the discovery of the “Black Swan,” a Colonial period site located in the Atlantic Ocean. Yielding over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts, it is believed that this recovery constitutes the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a deep-ocean site.
Odyssey Marine Exploration has completed an extensive pre-disturbance archaeological survey of the “Black Swan” site, including recording over 14,000 digital still images which were used to create a photomosaic of the site. During the preliminary excavation, the recovery of artifacts was accomplished under the supervision of qualified archaeologists and followed rigorous archaeological protocols using advanced robotic technology.
The coins and artifacts were brought into the United States with a valid export license, and imported legally pursuant to US Law. Odyssey brought the recovered items under the jurisdiction of the US Federal Court by filing an Admiralty arrest action. This procedure allows any legitimate claimant with an interest in the property to make a claim.
Money brings madness
what a find !!
Piggy-sahn!
Gold greed must be something, don’t have it myself, but being the only real money 2 centuries ago, the love of money expresses it quite distinctly. You can’t eat a piece of eight, but I suspect somebody would have tried too, to get it. The professionalism of the crew is impressive, and I for one think they most definitely deserve to make a profit on the treasure, they earned it. Finders keepers. I don’t know how that squares with the Royal Law. If the Oddessey takes a loss monetarily it is quite unjust. They earned it.
I turns out that a couple of months ago the treasure was ordered to be returned to spain. The Odyssey clearly had the legal right to own the treasure, but politicians from Washington didn’t want to make Spain cry so they influenced the courts.
I must agree with mr Meoff. US and European musea are filled with Peruvian artefacts and gold. It is a shame that the People of Peru were first enslaved by the Spanjards and had to distract the gold from the mines under extreme conditions from 1532 until 1821. Only one hundred years later the European and US musea began stealing from them again, with the pretext of archealogical finds, like all the items found in machu pichu, which were in Yale University. Luckily Mr Dodd from Yale was inteligent and is going to return these items to Peru. So should the finds of the Nuestra Senora de las mercedes. Tourists go to Peru to see the beuaty of the Peruvian Gold. Tourist don`t go to the the US/EU to view stolen Gold. See the difference 🙂
I say give the whole booty to the Peruvians, who’s ancestors slaved mining the metal for the greedy ass Spaniards at that time!
Wikipedia is your friend my friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan_Project
what a piece of shit documentary I spent 40+ minutes watching this shit and in end they leave you hanging wtf
Those coins are huge!
Watch out for Captain Jack Sparrow…he may want his treasure back and I hear that he’s a lot tougher than any Spanish sailor…good luck, boys…it’s one hell of a tale and one to truly treasure…