VOC
Sr. Member
[h=3]Descendants of sunken treasure ship passengers fight Odyssey for ‘£1 million coin clump’ in Gib court[/h]by Dominique Searle
Gibraltar is to witness a new twist in the wake of the multimillion dollar battle between Spain and Odyssey Marine Exploration.
Descendants of passengers on Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, a Spanish vessel that was shot and sank off the Algarve in 1804, are saying they have a right to a possible £1 million stash of coins held locally.
Odyssey called the Mercedes ‘Black Swan’ and flew the bulk of the treasure away to Miami where, after a four year legal battle, it was released by the US courts and shipped back to Spain last month.
The US had decided that the vessel was indeed the Mercedes and that the Spanish state had full rights to the vessel and its contents under a Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. That argument was hotly contested by Odyssey as well as several South American countries and the descendants of people who had private cargo on board.
Last Thursday, acting for six descendants and in a ritual required by the courts, Daniel Feetham assisted by Chris Allen of Hassans walked into a bonded warehouse in the Port of Gibraltar and physically attached an Admiralty claim form to buckets of encrusted coins. These are estimated to be between 700 and 1,200 that were recovered from the cleaning out of Odysseys deep water equipment. This happen after the bulk of the find had been jetted out from Gibraltar airport one dawn to Florida in 2007.
With the coins, that have been held here since 2007, are some minor artefacts to which the descendants make no claim.
HM Customs Gibraltar blocked the Odyssey from taking these coins with them after the main haul had been taken, apparently disputing some of the formalities.
CLAIMANTS
The claim now made against Odyssey may seem as exotic as some of the claimants’ names – from Peru Adela Armida de Izcue, Flora Leonor Perales Calderon, Enriqueta Pita Duthurburu, Felipe Gregorio Voysest Zollner, Rafael Fernandez de Lavalle and, from Colombia, Mathilde Daireaux Kinsky de Guzman - but it will pose the question as to whether or not the Spanish Government will itself join in the action to claim what it has so far asserted is its property.
There were unconfirmed rumours during the Miami Court hearings that the US Government had not put obstacles ahead of Spain’s action in exchange for Spanish support for enhancement of US military interests in bases in mainland Spain including Rota.
Ironically the fact that most of the treasure is held by the Spanish government will mean that the small cache in Gibraltar is more rare and could hold a higher market for these unique coins minted in Peru from local gold and silver.
One of the key points being argued by the descendants is that although the vessel was flying the Spanish flag the commercial and private property on board, some 106,672 silver coins of the 600,000 gold and silver coins recovered by Odyssey, should not be caught by the sovereign immunity rule.
The point is argued that the Mercedes sank off Portugal in international waters and never made it to Spain or Spanish waters. The claimants want a ruling from Gibraltar’s Admiralty Court that the coins here are their property or that they have an equitable right to share in their value.
Gibraltar is to witness a new twist in the wake of the multimillion dollar battle between Spain and Odyssey Marine Exploration.
Descendants of passengers on Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, a Spanish vessel that was shot and sank off the Algarve in 1804, are saying they have a right to a possible £1 million stash of coins held locally.
Odyssey called the Mercedes ‘Black Swan’ and flew the bulk of the treasure away to Miami where, after a four year legal battle, it was released by the US courts and shipped back to Spain last month.
The US had decided that the vessel was indeed the Mercedes and that the Spanish state had full rights to the vessel and its contents under a Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. That argument was hotly contested by Odyssey as well as several South American countries and the descendants of people who had private cargo on board.
Last Thursday, acting for six descendants and in a ritual required by the courts, Daniel Feetham assisted by Chris Allen of Hassans walked into a bonded warehouse in the Port of Gibraltar and physically attached an Admiralty claim form to buckets of encrusted coins. These are estimated to be between 700 and 1,200 that were recovered from the cleaning out of Odysseys deep water equipment. This happen after the bulk of the find had been jetted out from Gibraltar airport one dawn to Florida in 2007.
With the coins, that have been held here since 2007, are some minor artefacts to which the descendants make no claim.
HM Customs Gibraltar blocked the Odyssey from taking these coins with them after the main haul had been taken, apparently disputing some of the formalities.
CLAIMANTS
The claim now made against Odyssey may seem as exotic as some of the claimants’ names – from Peru Adela Armida de Izcue, Flora Leonor Perales Calderon, Enriqueta Pita Duthurburu, Felipe Gregorio Voysest Zollner, Rafael Fernandez de Lavalle and, from Colombia, Mathilde Daireaux Kinsky de Guzman - but it will pose the question as to whether or not the Spanish Government will itself join in the action to claim what it has so far asserted is its property.
There were unconfirmed rumours during the Miami Court hearings that the US Government had not put obstacles ahead of Spain’s action in exchange for Spanish support for enhancement of US military interests in bases in mainland Spain including Rota.
Ironically the fact that most of the treasure is held by the Spanish government will mean that the small cache in Gibraltar is more rare and could hold a higher market for these unique coins minted in Peru from local gold and silver.
One of the key points being argued by the descendants is that although the vessel was flying the Spanish flag the commercial and private property on board, some 106,672 silver coins of the 600,000 gold and silver coins recovered by Odyssey, should not be caught by the sovereign immunity rule.
The point is argued that the Mercedes sank off Portugal in international waters and never made it to Spain or Spanish waters. The claimants want a ruling from Gibraltar’s Admiralty Court that the coins here are their property or that they have an equitable right to share in their value.
