The billion-dollar "holy grail" shipwreck

Dubbed the "holy grail" of shipwrecks, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1708 off the shore of Cartagena, Colombia has been at the centrepiece of several costly and lengthy legal battles.

Carrying an estimated $20 billion (£16bn) of gold, silver, emeralds, and other gems, ownership of the San Jose has been hotly contested for decades. And as the Colombian government finally begins to recover the sunken treasure, arguments around its ownership are becoming increasingly heated.

Read on to find out what happened to the San Jose and discover who's in the frame to claim the staggering fortune onboard...

All dollar amounts in US dollars

The launch of the San Jose

First launched in 1698, historians have suggested the San Jose was always intended to carry valuable goods. Why? Because the galleon's second deck, which was kitted out with an array of weapons and ammo, was dedicated to defending the ship.

In 1701, the vessel was drafted into military operations during the War of the Spanish Succession, a 13-year conflict sparked by the death of the childless Spanish monarch, King Charles II (pictured).

Lost treasure

Part of a treasure fleet of Spanish ships, the San Jose had been anchored off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia and was loaded with riches to help fund the war in Spain. In 1708, four British ships closed in on the fleet and a battle began. While its sister ship, the San Joaquín, managed to escape, the San Jose didn’t survive the attack. Nearly 600 crew members died during the battle, which would later become known as Wager’s Action.

However, the British Navy did not celebrate the sinking of the enemy ship. The San Jose’s cargo comprised 11 million gold and silver coins, precious jewels, and other treasures, collectively estimated to be worth as much as $20 billion (£16bn) today. Not only a loss for Spain, the British squadron involved had been ordered to capture the ship and bring its contents back to fill British coffers. Instead, it was lost to the sea, with the captains in charge court-martialled for failing to seize the ship's enormous treasure.

Discoveries and disagreements

The lore of the San Jose has lived on for more than 300 years, and the ghostly galleon is often referred to as the "holy grail" of shipwrecks.

In 1981, a US-based salvage company, now known as Sea Search Armada, claimed it had found the wreck. It entered an agreement with the Colombian government to share any proceeds, 35% and 65% respectively, and recover the ship.

The deal soured in 1984 when the Colombian legislature (pictured) created a law to ensure the republic received all the proceeds of the San Jose shipwreck. This effectively cut out the salvage company’s share and instead paid a 5% finder’s fee – said to be taxed at 45%.

Another battle for the San Jose began, this time in court...

Discovered again

In the years that followed, Sea Search Armada unsuccessfully challenged the law in both Colombian and US courts, with the last case thrown out in 2011. Apart from the salvage firm itself, no one knew if the ship had actually been found...

That is until December 2015, when then-president Juan Manuel Santos (pictured) announced to the world that Colombia’s navy had located the shipwreck, in a new location. "This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity," he proclaimed at the time of the discovery.

The San Jose confirmed

Working with non-profit deep sea explorers Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), a team of researchers and engineers found the ship around 2,000ft (600m) under the sea. It was discovered by an autonomous underwater vehicle, which was used to survey the location of the wreckage and take photographs.

Distinctive markings on the San Jose’s cannons were the giveaway clue that they had found the "holy grail" of shipwrecks.

Wreckage revealed

The discovery revealed numerous artefacts from the ship, including tea cups (pictured), strewn across the ocean floor, offering a wealth of cultural and historical significance.

This suggested that the treasure wouldn't be far away, and both the media and the general public were captivated. The Colombian government withheld information about the exact location of the shipwreck, deeming it a state secret to protect the site from looters.

In addition, in 2013 (two years before the discovery), the nation enacted a law declaring all sunken ships found in its waters to be national heritage – with as many as 1,200 wrecks within its jurisdiction, including the San Jose.

Ownership called into question

But neither the law nor the news of the discovery has done anything to simplify the question of the sunken treasure's ownership.

Spain has mounted its own legal battle, arguing that as it owned the San Jose when it sunk 300 years earlier, it rightfully owns the wreckage.

The Qhara Qhara nation, an indigenous group from Bolivia, has also made their claim on the San Jose’s treasure, stating the Spanish used their ancestors as slaves to extract much of the ship’s cargo.

UNESCO intervenes

Faced with costs of around $70 million (£55m) to retrieve the San Jose from its watery grave off the coast of Cartagena, the Colombian government attempted to auction off artefacts in advance of the recovery to help pay for the operations.

In 2018, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) stepped in, calling on Colombia to avoid commercially exploiting the San Jose for fear of causing the loss of "significant heritage".

Other UNESCO experts reported "a constant disregard of best archaeological standards" regarding the recovery of the ship and its contents.

Salvaging the ship

Despite continued disputes over ownership and UNESCO’s concerns, Colombia's then-president Ivan Duque issued a decree in early 2022 that invited companies to register their interest in salvaging the San Jose wreck and established rules for handling any items recovered.

However, Duque made it clear that anything and everything relating to the ship strictly belonged to Colombia. The decree classifies the ship and its contents as "archaeological, cultural and historical heritage", with all items to be displayed in a museum in Cartagena.

Treasure revealed

In June 2022, the Colombian government released new photos from the wreckage. These included the first publicly available evidence of the legendary billion-dollar treasure, in the form of gold coins on the seabed (pictured).

Officials have reported many items are so well preserved that the original manufacturing inscriptions can still be read, even after spending three centuries under the water.

New leadership

Elected in 2022, Colombia's current president, Gustavo Petro, is just as keen as his predecessor to keep hold of the San Jose. He announced in late 2023 that government agencies would seek partnerships with private sector firms to salvage the shipwreck, with bidding scheduled to start earlier this year.

The decision has been opposed by a range of scientific, archaeological, historical preservation, and cultural communities, while other experts have queried whether the $20 billion (£16m) estimate for the San Jose's treasure might be inflated.

Extraction begins

President Petro hopes to have the San Jose on land by the end of his first term in 2026. In February, the Colombian government revealed plans for a new expedition to recover items from the vessel.

Next spring, a Colombian naval ship will launch a robot capable of extracting ceramics, wood, and other materials, an operation estimated to cost more than $4.5 million (£3.6m). The aim is to see how these items will survive retrieval, as well as better understand how more of the shipwreck could be recovered.

It's not about the treasure

However, officials are trying to change the narrative around the fast-tracked recovery mission and the possibility of unearthing $20 billion (£16bn) worth of treasure.

Juan David Correa, Colombia's Minister of Culture, said the items recovered would be of "great cultural importance that can give us an account of our colonial past", with assurances the process would be done as professionally as possible while accommodating the president's urgency.

Alhena Caicedo (pictured right), director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, told reporters: "We aren’t thinking about treasure. We’re thinking about how to access the historical and archaeological information at the site."

Who will claim the holy grail?

However, all assurances aside, the retrieval operation raises numerous questions about the ongoing disputes over ownership of the San Jose and its contents.

Sea Search Armada, the salvage firm that first claimed to have found the wreckage all those years ago, has taken its case against Colombia to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague and is seeking $10 billion (£7.9bn).

Spain, meanwhile, has signalled it may be open to a bilateral agreement with the Colombian government when it comes to protecting the San Jose. The Bolivian Indigenous groups have also said they're willing to work with the government, asking for only a few pieces from the ship to be returned for spiritual purposes. So watch this space...

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