COLOMBIA ASSERTS ITS CLAIM TO TREASURE
Move over Mel Fisher and Davy Jones. Here we go again with a world-class fight over who owns the rights to the “gold doubloons and pieces of eight” that have been located on a fabled shipwreck.
This legal battle pits treasure hunters including the government of Colombia, Spain, Bolivian Indigenous groups and a U.S. salvage company. The rights to the sunken treasure are almost as murky as the water in which it is submerged since the location of the shipwreck has been kept secret. It is certain it is situated somewhere in the Caribbean Sea.
At stake is the future of a shipwreck that has been dubbed the “holy grail” of such wrecks by experts. The Spanish galleon San José was a 64-gun, three-masted warship that was part of the Spanish Armada de la Guardia de la Carrera de las Indias. The ship was launched in 1698 and met its unfortunate end in 1708 when it was sunk in a battle off Barú Island known as Wager’s Action, fought just south of Cartagena, Colombia by a British squadron commanded by Charles Wager during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Spanish fleet was defeated in this “action.” The San José likely had about 600 men onboard.
The governor of Cartagena had warned the Spanish fleet of the danger of leaving port at that time, however, fleet commander José Fernández de Santillán was also concerned about the approaching hurricane season. The fleet’s escort in Havana would only wait so long, then would have sailed for Spain without Santillán’s treasure ships.
The fleet to which the San José belonged consisted of 14 merchant ships, a light armed hulk, and two additional warships, these being the 64-gun San Joaquín and the 44-gun Santa Cruz. The San José allegedly carried 7 to 11 million pesos in gold and silver coins. The San Joaquín was carrying 5 million and the Santa Cruz was carrying some smaller amount. The value of this booty (which also includes emeralds) is estimated to be more than $20 billion today.
The 1701 to 1714 conflict was fought for control of the Spanish empire primarily between the Bourbon and Hapsburg dynasties following the death of Charles II of Spain. Charles died in late 1700 but had no direct heirs. Charles had named his great nephew, Philip the Duke of Anjou, as his successor in his will. The duke was a grandson of King Louis XIV of France, a Bourbon. This succession was quickly challenged by the Austrian Habsburg Archduke Charles.
The ultimate outcome was that the Duke of Anjou was crowned as Philip V of Spain, but was by agreement also removed from the succession to the French throne. Through
Could a probate court have undervalued the wealth of a prominent German mayor when he died in 1675? Why are we questioning this value almost 350 years later?
It appears Wettin Mayor Johann Dondorf may have salted away more than the 2,500 silver talers and 500 gold ducats, the courts ruled he had at the time of his death. The recent discovery of 285 silver coins encountered in a trench as workers installed a new sewer line at a farmstead appears to prove this to be true.
Wettin is a municipality in Wettin-Löbejün in the Saale District of Saxony-Anhalt. The municipality is situated on the River Saale, just north of Halle. The rulers of the Wettin dynasty were electors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Johann Dondorf lived in the house where the hoard was discovered at the time to which the find had been dated. Dondorf was a wealthy merchant who invested in agriculture, viticulture, and brewing. He also served as mayor of Wettin during the 1660s. Wettin has been described as an “extremely wealthy brewing town during and after the Thirty Years’ War.”
The coins were found about 50 centimeters under the ground near the gate leading to the central courtyard of the farmstead previously occupied by Dondorf. The farm building