Spain seizes treasure hunting company vessel

SPANISH Civil Guards heightened a battle over a £250 million (€369m) treasure of gold and silver coins from a shipwreck when they seized a vessel belonging to a Florida-based company.

The Ocean Alert was seized yesterday, three miles off the south-eastern coast and taken to the nearby port of Algeciras to be searched, the Civil Guard said.

The Civil Guard acted on an order of a Spanish judge who in June instructed police to seize two vessels of Tampa’s Odyssey Marine Exploration if they left the British colony of Gibraltar and entered Spanish waters.

Odyssey, a treasure hunting company, said it had found a Colonial-era shipwreck on May 18, and the coins have been flown to the US from Gibraltar.

In Britain, the find generated reports that Odyssey had salvaged the wreck of the long-sought British vessel Merchant Royal, which sank off England in 1641. Odyssey has not confirmed or denied these reports.

Spain filed claims last month in a US federal court over Odyssey’s find, arguing that if the shipwrecked vessel was Spanish or was removed from its waters, the treasure belongs to Spain.

Odyssey insists the shipwreck was outside any country’s territorial waters.