Colombia treasure-laden San Jose galleon ‘is found’

The ship was sunk after being outgunned by a British ship as it left in the Caribbean, according to a history of the San Jose published by Sea Search Armada, a marine salvaging company that claims it found the ship in 1981.

Santos said in a tweet Friday the details will be given at a news conference in the coastal city of Cartagena.

The ship’s cargo, originally collected in South American colonies, was meant to be transported to Spain to help King Philip V finance the war effort.

Treasure hunters had searched for the ship for decades, and although they found plenty of other wrecks, the San Jose’s final resting place had remained a mystery.

It said Colombia reneged on an agreement to share proceeds from the treasure, and a long series of lawsuits over ownership ensued.

“This has an enormous archeological value for Colombia and for all of humanity”, Santos said, announcing that a museum will be built in Cartagena to showcase the discovery.

The Spanish galleon was found “near Colombia’s Caribbean coast, in our waters, in an archaeological site that turned out to hold the flagship San Jose“.

But a battle over who owns the shipwreck between the Colombian government and SSA was resolved in 2011.

In the 1990s, Colombian courts ruled that the nation had the rights to everything considered “cultural patrimony” salvaged from the wreck, while the rest of the treasure should be split 50-50 with SSA.

Anything else would be halved between the U.S. salvage company SSA and Colombia. Ultrasound images had shown for the ship so far specially made bronze cannons, as well as weapons, ceramics and other artifacts.

The vessel was attacked by a British warship just outside Cartagena. “She immediately sank with all her riches”.

“The amount and type of the material leave no doubt of the identity” of the shipwreck, said Ernesto Montenegro, head of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.