Incredible shipwreck of the ‘Holy Grail’ ‘will be retrieved within DAYS’ to retrieve gold loot of ‘incalculable wealth’ after 300 years
THE MOTHER of all shipwrecks will finally be recovered, with salvage teams starting to remove artefacts in April.
The Spanish San Jose Galleon sank off the coast Colombian port of Cartagena in 1708, where it rested until 2015, unknown.
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His discovery has long been loaded legal disputes over ownership.
SpainColombia, Bolivian indigenous groups, and even the US have all claimed that the wreckage and its $16 billion treasure are their property.
Now, almost ten years after the discovery, the Colombian government has announced that they will finally put these tensions aside.
Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, revealed that work could start as early as April.
Caicedo added: ‘There is a persistent view that the galleon is a treasure trove. We want to turn the page on this.
“We don’t think about treasures. We are thinking about how we can access the historical and archaeological information at the site.”
Caicedo, like other historians, believes that the galleon could provide currently unknown information about the Spanish empire at its height – and its involvement in Latin America.
Caicedo says she hopes her team can eventually remove the shipwreck from the sea and display it in a museum.
“This is a huge challenge and it is not a project with many precedents. In a sense we are pioneers,” said Caicedo.
Very few ships have been recovered after being completely submerged, and none have ever been recovered from tropical waters.
Caicedo added: “The contents are very varied and we have no idea how the remains will react when they come into contact with oxygen.
“We don’t even know if it’s possible to get anything out of the water.”
Earlier this month, This was announced by Colombian Minister of Culture Juan David Correa that an underwater robot will be sent to extract objects around the ship to see “how they materialize as they come out.”
The project is expected to cost the government more than $4.5 million, in the hope it will help experts understand how to recover the rest of the wreckage.
It will be the largest, most expensive and most complex recovery mission completed underwater.
The state-of-the-art robot will work at a depth of 600 meters to extract materials “without modifying or damaging the wreck,” Correa said.
Although the robotic equipment will be submerged, it will be connected to a naval vessel that will use cameras to comprehensively record its every move.
Naval researcher Captain Alexandra Chadid explained that after three centuries of being submerged in the sea, most of the treasure has undergone physical and chemical changes.
The primary goal of the mission is therefore to determine how to prevent the objects from disintegrating when pulled from the water.
Back in 2017, the Colombian Navy sent a remotely operated vehicle to a depth of 900 meters to assess the wreckage and give a glimpse into what was on board.
Incredible images showed gold pieces, cannons and perfectly preserved Chinese porcelain cups scattered throughout the San Jose.
Trinkets were seen twinkling under the lights of the cameras while bronze cannons, swords and clay ships were spotted on the seabed.
Historians called it the ‘Holy Grail’ because it carried one of the largest amounts of treasure ever lost at sea.
The expedition to recover the fortune would begin between April and May, depending on weather conditions.
But the discovery of the legendary galleon faced intense legal claims above ownership.
Spain has maintained that the sunken treasure is their property as it was a Spanish ship.
While the indigenous people of Bolivia, Qhara Qhara, have said that they were forced to mine the treasures for the Spanish, and therefore it is rightfully theirs.
The American research agency Glocca Morra, now called Sea Search Armada, claims to have found the San Jose in 1981 and to have given the coordinates to the Colombians for half the bounty.
This was denied by former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who claimed that the navy had found the ship in a different location.
Colombia now considers the San Jose as part of its cultural heritage and as it was found by them in their territorial waters.
And the current president of Colombia, left Gustavo Petrohas followed the same line.
He has desperately tried to use the country’s own resources to recover the wreckage and ensure it remains in Colombia.
For Petro, the importance of the wreck trumps the treasure, and he hopes that countries will not fight for it as if they were still in colonial times.
It is thought that Joaquin de Aristegui, the Spanish ambassador to Colombia, will offer Petro a bilateral deal to protect the wreck.
Bolivia has also indicated its willingness to work with Petro’s government; they only ask for a few pieces of the ship.
Indigenous leader Samuel Flores said, “Not just because of the symbolic issue, but more because of the spiritual issue.
“We just want our ancestors to have peace.”
Meanwhile, Sea Search Armada is suing for half the treasure – estimated at an eye-watering $10 billion.
The actual location of the wreck is still unknown, but it is believed to be just off the coast of Colombia, in the Caribbean Sea.
Only the Colombian government knows the exact coordinates.
What happened to the San Jose Galleon?
The San Jose was part of a fleet that transported jewelry, precious metals and 11 million gold and silver coins from the Spanish colonies in South America.
The cargo was intended to help Spanish King Philip V finance his war against Great Britain.
But the British weren’t the only ones with their eyes on the galleons.
Frequent voyages on Spanish treasure ships had led to a golden age of piracy – during which marauders sank more than a thousand Spanish ships off the coast of Colombia during three centuries of colonial rule.
The 600-strong crew of the San José knew the voyage would be fraught with danger.
But they were barely 16 miles away when they were tracked down by the English
Commodore Charles Wager, commander of four British ships, including HMS Expedition.
Wager’s plan was to seize the San José, the largest ship in the fleet.
But before boarding could take place, something went terribly wrong and the San José exploded.
In his logbook, Wager described an explosion so intense that he could feel the heat from his own ship.
He wrote: ‘I believe the side of the ship blew out, for she caused a sea to come into our ports.
“She sank immediately with all her riches.”
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