Colombia discovers what may be the world’s largest sunken treasure

Commodore Charles Wager, in command of four British ships including HMS Expedition, attacked the fleet off the island of Baru.

“This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity”, declared President Juan Manuel Santos, speaking from the port city of Cartagena, close to where experts made the find. In a news conference on Saturday, Santos said the government would build a museum to display the findings, with sonar images so far showing cannons, arms, ceramics and other artifacts, according to Reuters.

The treasure on board could be worth billions of dollars.

When the San Jose set sail from South America in 1708 she was carrying riches destined for King Philip V’s war chest as he fought Britain in the War of Succession. “Tomorrow we will provide details at a press conference from Cartagena”, he said.

“The Colombian government will continue its investigative process of exploring, of protecting submerged cultural patrimony”.

The discovery is the latest chapter in a saga that began three centuries ago on June 8 1708, when the galleon with 600 people aboard sank as it was trying to outrun a fleet of British warships.

This is the first look at a sunken Spanish galleon that is thought to be holding as much as £1 BILLION of treasure. In 1981, SSA said it had located the general area where the galleon went down.

But Colombia broke an 1984 agreement to give the US salvagers 35% of the treasure and prevent the Americans from salvaging the shipwreck at the bottom of the sea, the USA firm contended.

Reporting from the Colombian capital Bogota, Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti said the San Jose was believed to be “the holy grail of a shipwreck”, with a trove that is “valued somewhere between $4bn to $17bn”.

The government later reversed its agreement and said any proceeds would belong exclusively to Colombia, prompting a lawsuit from SSA. SSA and Colombia had agreed to a division of any findings until the country passed a law giving itself all rights to the treasure.