By Wendy Williams

THE Spanish are in a race to save their treasure from modern day pirates.

Following the ongoing controversy that surrounds the raising of the Spanish galleon ‘Black Swan’ by US exploration company Odyssey in 2007, the Spanish navy wants to make sure that next time they are first on the scene.

The ship, found off the coast of Spain, is believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes sunk by the English navy in 1804.

And who owns the rights to the valuable shipwreck and its 350 million euro booty in gold and silver coins, is still a matter for the courts.

Last year, a U.S. court ruled the loot belongs to Spain but the company has appealed and is still holding the treasure in the United States.

Now, the Spanish navy is searching for more wrecks off the coast in a bid to protect the country’s historical heritage from private salvagers.

Three Spanish navy vessels, including two minesweepers and 100 navy personnel are devoting two months to the project.

So far, they have found around 100 sites of possible shipwrecks and since the operation was launched on September 8, in the waters off Cadiz, they have investigated 15 of them.

At present their only discovery is an 18th-century anchor.

But Spain’s defence and culture minsters Carme Chacón and Ángeles González-Sinde, who went along for the ride, are keen to emphasise the serious nature of the operation.

Chacon said: “Where some see loot, we see our history. Where some look for gold, we find our heritage. Where others would seek to pillage, our calling is to conserve.”

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7 COMMENTS

  1. This is so stupid.

    Who has proven that the items recovered from the wreck site are from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes.

    Question:
    Stop and think, “If the ship in question that was found by the American company, Odyssey, really is a Spanish ship, where did the Spanish get all the cargo?

    Answer:
    By stealing from, raping, torturing and killing the native people of the Central and South American countries that the Spanish invaded. Read the history of the invaded countries and you will find that the Spanish, and others, were nothing more than pirates with insurmountable power over the native people. Sadly, also, the Spanish did much of their ruthless conquest in the name of the church.

    The Spanish should be the very last ones to benefit from recovery of such blood stained loot.

    BTW-Since the Spanish government is so strapped for money; perhaps they should dock their ships and overpaid “officials” instead of wasting the people’s tax money on high risk treasure hunting.

    Lois

  2. Lois is of course quite correct – those treasures were not Spain’s to begin with.

    What is even more funny is that the Spanish have had searches going on for many months, over numerous areas in Spanish waters, and all they’ve found so far is one rusty anchor lol. Best leave the treasure hunting to the pros.

  3. This is really interesting since it was not only thru Spain that massive gold was taken from the Americas and the world. It was thru France, Germany, England, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Norway,Finland, Russia etc etc. The interesting thing is that often the name of Spain shows in controversy because of the inquisition and the protestant movement which is questionable since in fact Washington DC is loaded like Rome with all types of occult symbols. It was some of my kin whom set up the defamation against Spain and it was also done thru England. These half Spanish and Half English families set themselves to get rich at the expense to have England and Spain and other nations fight each others while they would cleanse their hands in the false propaganda. During the same time people in England, France, Holland, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal were foolish enough not to do their home work and were sucked into the deception. It was gentile and Jewish deception. However if we read the bible we can also find that lands where the occult reign were to become lands of Israel which also included Judah whose house was also in Spain=Sephardim and some moved to England before the inquisition. What is really interesting is that the armada was launched by a man whom was also English but Spanish and their entire line including the present English Queen all descend from Sancha da Ayala. She is the progenitor of many noble families even here in the Americas. If anyone is going to be called a thief – Why not say that all the European powers ransacked the Americas just like many people here from our USA have also ransacked themselves. The wealth of most of Europe today has been taken from around the world and also much of our false wealth here in the USA. I say false wealth for what good is to say that we are wealthy when in fact the money for the Iraq and Afghanistan war came from China because our nation is bankrupted.

  4. What to say about so many indians killed by Englis in North America?. English authorities used to pay some money for each scalp of hunted indians.

    What about the slave trading made mainly for England.
    What about the opio war with a, in that time, weak China.
    WhAT about the behavior with the hindues. Once many hindues women got their hands maimed to avoid they can weave and compete with the english factories of clothes.

  5. Marcelo,
    your an even bigger chump than I thought.

    In 10 years the Spanish killed, worked to death and by desease over 45 million indigenous peoples in Central and South America. That’s far more than Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin put together.

    Destroyed all the wonderful works of art, especially those made of gold. Destroyed Montezuma’s amazing capitol city, which was an incredible engineering feat – turning a swamp into a healthy city – take a look at the smog bound hell hole that is Mexico city today.

    Murdered all the Aztec agrarian scientists whose knowledge was’nt equalled by Europeans until the 1930s.

    Your quite right about the English slavers who enslaved between 17-19 million Bantu from West Africa but Marcelo do you know who were their best customers – that’s right the Spanish who preferred to buy only children and women, the women of course to use for breeding – now you did learn this in school did’nt you Marcelo?

    Quite wrong about Hindu production – the English just closed the factories and transferred all ‘dhoti’ production to Blackburn in Lancashire.

    Unfortunately Marcelo it is precisely Spanish like you who hold your country back – you cannot admit you are wrong and that Marcelo is a sign of real weakness.

    You ought to take a look at the film – The First Charge of the Machette about how the slaves slaughtered the Spanish soldiers – like cutting down sugar cane.

    If the EEC does disintegrate and that is a real possibility because at the moment it is run soley for the benefit of the Germans and French – what kind of a future do you think Spain will have – this will also be a big problem for the UK.

    Virtually all your manufacturing, that is, what is left is in fact foreign owned, you actually have only wind turbine manufacture and that market is collapsing, the Danes have shut down most of their plants. So what exactly are you going to sell to pay your way.

    Desertification – within a few years there will be no more Rioja wine, no more wheat production – and still you go on creating golf courses. The West will have to accept a much lower standard of living and that means much less golfers will be able to visit Spain Marcelo!

    Would’nt it be good thing for Spain to admit to all the atrocities carried out over centuries and to return all the gold and silver you mass murdered to get hold of – in short Marcelo it would mean you had turned and confronted your past so that you may be able to confront all the horrendous problems that like a tsunami are rushing toward your country.

  6. Stuart, spain has not confronted or come to terms with the civil war so I hardly think it’s likely they will do the same for the conquistador period. I think Marcelo should be left alone or he might just go postal on the costas.

  7. The treasure doesn’t belong to Odyssey either — they are just stealing and looting what belongs to humanity and if it’s in Spanish waters, that international law of the sea determines it belongs to Spain. Instead of sneakily looting it, they should have tried to get a legal permit. Dorks!!!!

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