Florida Treasure Salvage boat boarded at sea, treasure confiscated

wreckdiver1715

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It has been some time since I have sat down and put pen to paper on this subject matter, save a rant from time to time on TreasureWorks FORUMS or on my facebook account. The last time was back in February of 2013 when I penned an article on my blog titled “Treasure Hunters – v – Archaeologists”.

Back then I supported the efforts of some professional Treasure Hunters who were working alongside Archaeologists and in cooperation with the Governments who had possible historic and reachable treasure within their political boarders, as the best way forward for the rescue of long lost shipwrecks from the ravages of the sea.

Just the year prior, Odyssey Marine was forced to hand over to the Kingdom of Spain some $500 Million in treasure they had recovered in International Waters, in what seemed at the time to be an arbitrary and capricious decision by the US Supreme Court, not to stay a lower court ruling awarding the treasure to Spain. This precedent setting case basically pumped out centuries of International Shipwreck Salvage Law with the bilge water.

That plot thickened with the release via WikiLeaks of a State Department Cable to the Kingdom of Spain where the US State Department promised support to Spain in the Odyssey Marine case in a quid pro quo exchange for Spain’s support in efforts to recover a painting from a French Museum that was taken by the Nazi’s during WWII, from relatives of a wealthy family, and presumably a Clinton campaign contributor now residing in the US. While the Kingdom of Spain ended up with the Odyssey Marine Treasure, the painting is still hanging in a French Museum.

This time it’s not the State Department in cahoots with a foreign government, for their own misguided political ends, all too eager to sacrifice the hard work and considerable expense of truly archaeological conscious treasure salvors. No, this time it’s the United Nations coming to the rescue of the Kingdom of Spain (more about Spain in a later blog), and the Panama Institute of National Culture.

A local Panamanian Company, Investigaciones Marinas del Istmo (IMDI), located in Panama City, Panama, thought like I did, that the best way to proceed with a shipwreck recovery in Panamas waters was to bring together a team of experienced professional shipwreck salvors and internationally known professional marine archaeologists, and then to negotiate a good and decent contract with the Government.

The San Jose sank on June 17, 1631, off the archipelago of the Pearl Islands some 100km south of Panama City and was discovered in 2002, and IMDI put their plan into action. By 2003 they had a contract with the Government of Panama and Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INAC) to recover shipwreck artifacts in a total of 9 different zones in the waters of Panama, some to the north in the Caribbean side, and some to the south on the Pacific side including the site where the San Jose went down.

According to the terms of the contract IMDI keeps 65% and the Government of Panama gets 35%, plus any historically significant artifacts that are recovered.

Coincidently, also in 2003, Panama was the first nation to ratify the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This convention prohibits any commercial salvage of historically significant shipwrecks. However, IMDI’s contract predates the ratification of the UNESCO convention, and has been upheld by the Court of Supreme Justice of Panama.

Since the signing of the contract between IMDI and the Government of Panama, the two parties have had two formal divisions of artifacts, with each and every artifact being identified, tagged, properly preserved and cataloged, listed in the Panamanian State data base, properly assessed and valued and properly divided and documented with the Panamanian State and IMDI.

Earlier this year, the acting director of INAC requested that UNESCO send down a team to examine the state of conservation of the shipwreck San José. The UNESCO Mission arrived in July of this year. Three representatives of UNESCO evaluated the actions carried out during the work of recovery, identification, preservation and cataloging of artifacts from the galleon. That team also proposed a management plan for the conservation of the galleon and property from foundering, another term for making sure that the artifacts don’t go on the open market or into private collections.

SanJose treasure.jpg

Also in July of this year one of the partners with IMDI, a Mexican national, went to a local bank to remove 3000 Colonial Coins from a safe deposit box that IMDI received from the earlier division between the company and the Government of Panama. He placed the coins in a suit case. As he and a friend put the suit case of coins into the trunk of his car outside a local Mall, agents from the National Customs Authority, who obviously had the pair under surveillance approached the two men and ordered them to open the suit case. The agents seized the coins, and according to the director of Heritage of the National Institute of Culture, Wilhelm Openness, the commercial firm must inform the authorities when you move the treasure, and in this case it was not. "There are regulations that must be met," he said. Although the government of Panama received their share of the artifacts during the same two division and transferred ownership to IMDI for their share.

This regulation pertains to artifacts that have not been through the division process with the proper resolution to transfer ownership.
Saturio Segarra, of IMDI stressed that permits granted to them by the authorities and that these coins are owned by the company. "The company had the right to dispose of their currencies. In fact, when the funding partners reached the country, the company decided to make an inventory of them for verification, so it was decided to remove them from the bank for this purpose, "specified Segarra. "We have provided the necessary evidence to show that these coins are ours," said the company official. Also he questioned the work arrangements carried out by UNESCO.

In August Capt. Dan Porter returned to Panama with me on a flight from Atlanta, and we had the opportunity to discuss the situation with the contract and the Government, and more specifically the interference of UNESCO at the behest of the new administration and acting director at INAC.

Dan was returning to pick up his boat the Sea Reaper III, docked at the Port of Manzanillo, on the Caribbean side of Panama and head to the northern Caribbean and eventually back to his home port in Florida. Dan and his crew have been working for IMDI for a number of years and he also skippers the Blue Water Rose that is moored at the Balboa Yacht Club at the mouth of the Panama Canal here on the Pacific side of Panama.

Dan Porter.jpg

At the beginning of October, INAC announced that they had terminated the contract with IMDI which had technically expired on August 28, 2015, and though they had an option to extend the contract according to the new managing director of INAC, Juan Francisco Guerrero. He made reference to the Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), whose function is to ensure the preservation of underwater heritage and fight against commercial exploitation and the pillage of wrecks.

On the 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] of October, while leaving one of the hangers here at the Panama Pacifico Airport (formally Howard Air Force Base), to go have lunch, I ran into a team of about 12 to 15 people sporting t-shirts with UNESCO printed on the front, headed out to conduct a survey the wreck of the San Jose.

That same afternoon I received a call from Dan who was now back in Florida. I had been hearing rumors from another Treasure Hunting friend up in Florida that Dan’s Boat the Sea Reaper III had been boarded by the Coast Guard when they entered US waters. I don’t usually put much stock in second hand rumors, and in any case it’s not unusual for the Coast Guard to check boats entering US waters in search of the tones of drugs that head into the US every day but since I had Dan on the phone, I just had to ask. He said that they had been boarded by Homeland Security and they asked if he had any treasure aboard. Dan said yes, he had artifacts he legally obtained in permitted areas on his return. Dan said they only wanted to see the treasure recovered from Panama. Dan showed them the coins along with all the necessary resolutions and releases by the Panamanian Government. The agents told him that they received orders to confiscate all the treasure from Panama. They were also told that Dan was smuggling major treasure and caring illegal aliens.

On the 31[SUP]st[/SUP] of October, the headlines read “UNESCO recognizes commitment of Panama to preserve heritage”. The Director General of the UNESCO, Irina Bokova, stressed that Panama is committed to the global development agenda, and is ahead of the countries of the region in Development Goals.

Bokova's statements came at a meeting with Panamas Vice President and Foreign Minister, Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado. At this meeting, the Vice-President expressed her satisfaction with the visit of a mission in Panama by UNESCO, during this week, which it is verifying the conditions under which lies the Galleon San Jose, Underwater World Heritage Site. In turn, she was pleased that Panamanian NGOs were recognized with the UNESCO-Hamdan prize.

So there you have it, UNESCO, is pulling Panamas strings, and is making the Galleon San Jose a World Heritage Site, giving money to the Government in the way of loans in yet another quid pro quo arrangement that snatches the hard earned and legally owned treasure from the treasure hunters. It is truly a sad day for the treasure salvage industry, and I have to say that at least for the time being, it represents the end of legal shipwreck salvage in these waters.

And they call us Pirates.
 

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Honest Samuel

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The lesson to be learn, get a great lawyer before you go searching for sunken treasures in foreign seas. Do not trust foreign government officials. Come to think about it, many of us do not trust, our town, cities, county, state and let us not forget our federal officials.
 

Salvor6

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Another lesson to be learned- if you find a Spanish galleon wreck, go ahead and salvage whatever you can without telling the authorities. They will just take it away from you.
 

Vox veritas

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Boys, it seems incredible. You don't know that for everything related to galleons and treasure lies behind "black hand"?
 

doc-d

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Who are the biggest criminals……..ladrones con corbatas (thieves with ties)…..
 

Booty Salvage

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I was involved in this project and it's not right what happened.
 

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G.I.B.

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A lot of hard work rapidly undone so easily. I'm sorry to hear that it turned out so poorly.

What you described is, unfortunately, daily governmental business.
 

clv

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The only difference between an archaeologist and a treasure hunter is the type of permit.
 

Vox veritas

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As it happens in Uruguay to Ruben Collado and the frigate "Nuestra Señora de Loreto". Government authorization, all perfect, money spent, but the ship was declared a National Heritage. Permit canceled, etc. etc. Collado sued the state and won several million.
 

AUVnav

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Another lesson to be learned- if you find a Spanish galleon wreck, go ahead and salvage whatever you can without telling the authorities.

Brilliant statement...one which supports UNESCO and Spain in their actions.

Just the year prior, Odyssey Marine was forced to hand over to the Kingdom of Spain some $500 Million in treasure they had recovered in International Waters, in what seemed at the time to be an arbitrary and capricious decision by the US Supreme Court, not to stay a lower court ruling awarding the treasure to Spain. This precedent setting case basically pumped out centuries of International Shipwreck Salvage Law with the bilge water.

This statement is not supported by the facts.
First off, Odyssey asked permission to recover the Mercedes, and was denied.
Second, as we have seen, the wrecksite is not in International Waters, as was long suspected by many.
Third, again, as we have now seen, Spain recorded significant ship timbers at the location, as well as evidence of using metal blades to scrape the coins into piles, hardly the description "there is no evidence of a shipwreck site" and proper archaeology.
Fourth. Cannon make it very easy to identify a vessel, and Odyssey left all of them on the bottom.

Add all of the facts up, and one can see exactly why the Courts ruled the way they did, and it was a well deserved Contempt of Court charge.
 

VOC

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AUVnav

Have you ever wondered why OMEX did not just steal and run and sell on the black market from an African state like real pirates or criminals would have done ?

Don't believe in Spanish propaganda.
 

Jolly Mon

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Another lesson to be learned- if you find a Spanish galleon wreck, go ahead and salvage whatever you can without telling the authorities. They will just take it away from you.

IMO, the next private salvor to find a financially valuable Spanish galleon in U.S. waters will stand by and watch it taken away if he attempts legal salvage. The mechanisms are in place. No proof of vessel identity will be necessary...simply an assertion of ownership on the part of Spain. Any ship that sailed or potentially sailed under the Spanish flota system will qualify as a sunken military craft under the definitions of the SMCA. The new permitting guidelines allow the DON to issue research permits to foreign nations under the slimmest of pretences and this will trump any recovery permits issued under the law of finds.
 

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ARC

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IMO, the next private salvor to find a financially valuable Spanish galleon in U.S. waters will stand by and watch it taken away if he attempts legal salvage. The mechanisms are in place. No proof of vessel identity will be necessary...simply an assertion of ownership on the part of Spain. Any ship that sailed or potentially sailed under the Spanish flota system will qualify as a sunken military craft under the definitions of the SMCA. The new permitting guidelines allow the DON to issue research permits to foreign nations under the slimmest of pretences and this will trump any recovery permits issued under the law of finds.

It will be a sad day in America if we allow that to happen.
IF it is in our waters... It is OUR heritage... NOT theirs.
No ship that came to rest in our waters should be "claimed" by anyone...
Nothing should ever be "taken" from America by ANY way by ANY country.

Spain sold their exploited / pillaged heritage here... Period.

If Americans lie down like a doormat for Spain to wipe their feet on... Sheesh...
To think... after all the troubles that America in its infancy went through with acquisition...
To allow them to NOW come back and "claim" ANYTHING after pissing on it and claiming it "worthless" land "void" of real value...

Our forefathers would roll over in their graves.

PS> The Aztec descendants should "claim" Spanish gold before Spain does.
PSS> Spain should get what we give them... and they should thank us... Financially in a percentage.
 

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Jason in Enid

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What are you calling "lie down like a doormat"? When politicians make back-room deals and then fed agents show up with guns and threats of prison if you dont turn over the goods. Are you advocating resistance? to the point of prison or to the point of death? What does that solve?
 

ARC

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What are you calling "lie down like a doormat"? When politicians make back-room deals and then fed agents show up with guns and threats of prison if you dont turn over the goods. Are you advocating resistance? to the point of prison or to the point of death? What does that solve?

I am not for breaking any laws... EVEN if I don't agree with it.
Resistance... yes in the form of numbers against and of legal counsel... and in no other way.

Why would you think of such "extremes" ?
This is not the dark ages :P
 

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Jason in Enid

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I am not for breaking any laws... EVEN if I don't agree with it.
Resistance... yes in the form of numbers against and of legal counsel... and in no other way.

Why would you think of such "extremes" ?
This is not the dark ages :P

I'm just trying to figure out what you are talking about. You say we are laying like door mats, but you don't advocate breaking laws. How can you "resist" after your work has been taken from you at the point of a gun? What do you call "extreme"? That is already happening
 

Black Duck

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IMO, the next private salvor to find a financially valuable Spanish galleon in U.S. waters will stand by and watch it taken away if he attempts legal salvage. The mechanisms are in place. No proof of vessel identity will be necessary...simply an assertion of ownership on the part of Spain. Any ship that sailed or potentially sailed under the Spanish flota system will qualify as a sunken military craft under the definitions of the SMCA. The new permitting guidelines allow the DON to issue research permits to foreign nations under the slimmest of pretences and this will trump any recovery permits issued under the law of finds.

Jolly Man

Why are you making incorrect statements " Burden of Proof is the key here" Guy you have no idea what you are talking about "Read the Rules"

Any one that has had a contract taking from them " is because it was not ratified" or a ship wreck because "it was military, built by the Gov" you are missing the whole point here

Please just state the facts

Global Marine Exploration, Inc. Home of GME, GME Deep and Anchor Research & Salvage - Part 1
Bobby
 

Dr. Syn

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To me it appears that the governments have a good thing going. Pretty simple, have some lower government official(s) make agreements with a salvor.
Make sure it's all conserved and documented, of course the salvor pays for that. Then once the majority is removed have a higher government official or one of their lackeys come in and say sorry it's "historical" and the salvor gets nothing, and the government gets it all.

What a deal! Government spends next to nothing and reaps millions and millions of booty. Now that's a Pirate in action.

Not a mention by the government that, as has been stated, that the treasure in many cases was stolen from other parties prior to having been loaded on their ships.
 

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