The Galleon San Jose

The Galleon San Jose was built in 1696. This Spanish ship was lost in 1708 during a sea battle with the English. It was believed to have been sunk by explosion.

On November 20, 2015, this ship was found in the Caribbean sea along with it's treasure of gold, silver and emeralds with approximately 600 people on board when it sank. The discovered treasure is said to be worth $3-17billion.

The full story
San José, is estimated to be worth about USD$1 billion (£662m) today,[2][3] based on the speculation that it had up to 11 million 4-doubloons (11 million 8 escudos gold coins) and many silver coins on board at the time of its sinking,[3] similar to its surviving sister ship, San Joaquín. The silver and gold were mined from the mines of Potosí, Peru.[4] San José is called the "Holy Grail of Shipwrecks".[3]

A group of investors from the United States called Glocca Mora Co. operating under the name 'Sea Search Armada' (SSA) claim to have found the ship off the coast of Colombia in 1981, but Colombia refused to sign a 65%/35% share offer and refused SSA permission to conduct full salvage operations at the shipwreck site.[3][5] The Colombian parliament then passed a law giving the state the right to all of the treasure, leaving SSA with a 5% finder's fee, which was to be taxed at 45%. SSA sued Colombia in its own courts in 1989.[3] In July 2007 the Supreme Court of Colombia concluded that any treasure recovered would be split equally between the Colombian government and the explorers. Sea Search Armada subsequently sued in United States courts, but the case was dismissed twice, in 2011 and 2015 on technical grounds, and the galleon declared the property of the Colombian state.[4][6][3] The Colombian government declined to verify that the galleon was at the coordinates stated in the case.[3]

On 27 November 2015, the galleon San José was found by the Colombian Navy though the discovery was not announced by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, until 5 December.[6][7][8][9][10] The discovery was made using a REMUS 6000 autonomous underwater vehicle.[11] From the dive photographs, experts[who?] identified San José by her bronze cannons engraved with dolphins. Colombia has claimed the galleon as part of its submerged patrimony, thus it is constitutionally obligated to protect and preserve the ship and all its sunken contents. The Government of Colombia has classified the information regarding the location of the galleon as a state secret.[12]

Conservation
The Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, a government agency ascribed to the Ministry of Culture, is in charge of overseeing all archeological sites in Colombia.[13] The director of the ICANH, Ernesto Montenegro, has stated that soil, and sea depth studies are being carried out in order examine the methods of extraction of the ship's contents.[14] The Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, has also stated that a museum will be constructed in Cartagena to host some of the contents of the galleon.[15]

On 16 December 2015, the Office of the Inspector General of Colombia requested that the State, and the rest of the parties involved, be responsible for keeping thorough archives regarding the exploration and intervention of the galleon, requesting that the archives be turned in to the Ministry of Culture which is the governmental entity responsible of the underwater cultural heritage. The Inspector General also requested that a representative sum of the coins, ingots, and gemstones, which are not considered to be cultural patrimony under the concept of repetition, must be given to the central bank, Banco de la República, for preservation.[16]

The Minister of Culture, Mariana Garcés Córdoba, stated that 2016 will be "a year of exploration, not extraction".[17] According to the Minister, Colombia sees the discovery as a project of investigation that implies the creation of laboratories that will include the entailment of specialist from different work areas, in order to properly study the shipwreck and its contents.[18]

References:
1.Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Gómez, Santiago. "El Galeón San José y la batalla de Barú.".
Todo A Babor. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c "Spain says it has rights to Colombian treasure ship". BBC News. December 8, 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Spilman, Rick (February 29, 2012). "Galleon San Jose, the 'Holy Grail of Ship Wrecks'". The Old Salt Blog. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Martinez, Michael; Prifti, Alba (5 December 2015). "Colombia says it found Spanish galleon; U.S. firm claims half of treasure". CNN News. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
5.Jump up ^ Drye, William (18 December 2015). "Battle Begins Over World's Richest Shipwreck". National Geographic. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
6.^ Jump up to: a b "Spanish galleon with rumoured £1bn treasure hoard found, says Colombia's president". The Guardian. Reuters. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
7.Jump up ^ Henderson, Emma (5 December 2015). "San Jose galleon shipwreck with £1 billion treasure found off Colombia, says President Juan Manuel Santos". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
8.Jump up ^ "Colombia treasure-laden San Jose galleon 'is found'". BBC News. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
9.Jump up ^ Jenkins, Lin (6 December 2015). "Spanish galleon may contain biggest treasure haul ever found on seabed". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
10.Jump up ^ Drye, William (9 December 2015). "Treasure on Sunken Spanish Galleon Could Be Biggest Ever". National Geographic. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
11.Jump up ^ "Hallazgo del Galeón San José - 5 de diciembre de 2015". Presidency of Colombia. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
12.Jump up ^ ""Holy grail" of shipwrecks found off Colombia". CBS News. The Associated Press. 6 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
13.Jump up ^ "El Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia tiene las siguientes funciones y objetivos". ICANH. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
14.Jump up ^ "Cartagena tendrá museo para preservar piezas del galeón San José: Santos". El País (in Spanish). 5 December 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
15.Jump up ^ "Construirán museo para exhibir restos de Galeón San José". Portafolio.co (in Spanish). Reuters. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
16.Jump up ^ "Procuraduría General de la Nación reitera aspectos que debe tener en cuenta el Estado colombiano para la administración de riquezas como las del Galeón San José". Office of the Inspector General of Colombia. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
17.Jump up ^ "La ruta que navegará Colombia con el galeón San José en 2016". vanguardia.com. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
18.Jump up ^ "Colombia investigará este 2016 hallazgos del galeón San José...". Reporte24.co. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
San José 1708
El Galeón San José y la batalla de Barú (Spanish)