Spain could charge explorers

AUTHORITIES in Spain are looking into whether a US company can be charged with stealing Spanish heritage for excavating colonial-era treasure from a sunken British warship.

Odyssey Marine Exploration said on Friday it had discovered the ship — along with gold and silver coins worth an estimated $500 million (€370m) — somewhere in the Atlantic.

The treasure-hunting company would not say exactly where the ship was, citing security concerns, but said it was outside any country’s territorial waters.

Spain’s Culture Ministry said it thought the statement was “suspicious” after Odyssey had sought permission to explore Spanish waters for the wreck of a British ship.

Spain granted the company permission in January to search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in a 1694 storm off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for war against France. That permission was only for exploration, however, and did not extend to extraction.

Odyssey said it was attempting to recover the HMS Sussex under a deal with the British government — the first such public-private arrangement for an archaeological excavation of a sovereign warship.