ar below the surface of the Caribbean Sea at an undisclosed location off the coast of Colombia lies the San José, a shipwreck full of fabulous wealth that is becoming the center–point of a massive international legal battle, one testing the limits of undersea law.
The Spanish treasure galleon sank in a fierce battle in 1708, taking with it 600 souls and perhaps $20 billion in gold, silver and jewels to the seabed. The discovery of the treasure wreck went unknown to the world until Colombia announced in 2015 it had discovered the San José and intended to claim its treasure. "This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity,” said then–Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
But what the San José is legally remains an open question, one that could determine who claims its treasures. Amid the almost dizzying legal morass is a wide range of claimants:
- Glocca Morra: A private U.S. salvage company named Sea Search Armada (since renamed Glocca Morra) declared it had found the San José in the early 1980s under license from Colombia, who then reneged on the recovery contract, sparking lawsuits in the U.S. that were eventually dismissed. “The Complaint in this case reads like the marriage between a Patrick O'Brian glorious–age–of–sail novel and a John Buchan potboiler of international intrigue,” wrote a U.S. judge in a 2011 court opinion on the matter.
- Colombia: Colombia rejected a 2007 ruling by its own Supreme Court in favor of Sea Search Armada and later insisted it had discovered the wreck on its own (with the help of an American non–profit) and it claimed the San José as entirely belonging to Colombia as a cultural treasure in its waters. It’s currently battling with Glocca Morra over the wreck before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
- Spain: Also before the PCA, Spain is claiming the ship as a military vessel and is hence state property under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (or UNCLOS, to which Colombia and the U.S. are notably not signatories) and has asked UNESCO to get involved.
- Indigenous peoples: The indigenous Caranga, Chicha, and Killaka peoples in Bolivia insist they have a claim to the treasure because it was extracted through their ancestors’ forced labor. They’re asking Spain and UNESCO to declare the galleon as “common and shared heritage.” Descendants of enslaved Africans who also were forced to mine the treasure are reportedly also making a claim, although Diplomatic Courier wasn’t able to independently confirm this.
The fight over the San José highlights the murky nature of international undersea law over who owns what underwater and what they can do with it, when it comes to ancient wrecks and treasure with cross–competing claimants.
While the dispute could be simplified if all state parties were signatories of UNCLOS, there are self–interested reasons states have refrained. The U.S. has consistently refused to ratify the convention, claiming it would impinge on its sovereignty. Colombia, for its part, recently won a long–running legal fight with Nicaragua over maritime boundary lines, during which its non–membership of UNCLOS was a consideration.
But UNCLOS is no silver bullet for these kinds of disputes. The convention doesn’t provide a clear mechanism for resolving salvor’s rights, a problem that could require some sort of rights–assigning committee or perhaps a multilateral convention. To truly settle these claims, these must also include a legal pathway for indigenous people to make the case that natural and cultural resources are theirs.
Such legal process clarity, if achieved in the end, would be the real treasure of the San José.
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The chaotic legal battle for the ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’
Painting by Samuel Scott (1702–1772), depicting the explosive moment that sank the San José amid a Spanish–British sea battle in 1708. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
December 2, 2024
Perhaps $20 billion of treasure, not to mention an incomparable cultural treasure, is on the line in the fight over who can claim the San José shipwreck in the Caribbean, writes Jeremy Fugleberg.
F
ar below the surface of the Caribbean Sea at an undisclosed location off the coast of Colombia lies the San José, a shipwreck full of fabulous wealth that is becoming the center–point of a massive international legal battle, one testing the limits of undersea law.
The Spanish treasure galleon sank in a fierce battle in 1708, taking with it 600 souls and perhaps $20 billion in gold, silver and jewels to the seabed. The discovery of the treasure wreck went unknown to the world until Colombia announced in 2015 it had discovered the San José and intended to claim its treasure. "This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity,” said then–Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
But what the San José is legally remains an open question, one that could determine who claims its treasures. Amid the almost dizzying legal morass is a wide range of claimants:
- Glocca Morra: A private U.S. salvage company named Sea Search Armada (since renamed Glocca Morra) declared it had found the San José in the early 1980s under license from Colombia, who then reneged on the recovery contract, sparking lawsuits in the U.S. that were eventually dismissed. “The Complaint in this case reads like the marriage between a Patrick O'Brian glorious–age–of–sail novel and a John Buchan potboiler of international intrigue,” wrote a U.S. judge in a 2011 court opinion on the matter.
- Colombia: Colombia rejected a 2007 ruling by its own Supreme Court in favor of Sea Search Armada and later insisted it had discovered the wreck on its own (with the help of an American non–profit) and it claimed the San José as entirely belonging to Colombia as a cultural treasure in its waters. It’s currently battling with Glocca Morra over the wreck before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
- Spain: Also before the PCA, Spain is claiming the ship as a military vessel and is hence state property under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (or UNCLOS, to which Colombia and the U.S. are notably not signatories) and has asked UNESCO to get involved.
- Indigenous peoples: The indigenous Caranga, Chicha, and Killaka peoples in Bolivia insist they have a claim to the treasure because it was extracted through their ancestors’ forced labor. They’re asking Spain and UNESCO to declare the galleon as “common and shared heritage.” Descendants of enslaved Africans who also were forced to mine the treasure are reportedly also making a claim, although Diplomatic Courier wasn’t able to independently confirm this.
The fight over the San José highlights the murky nature of international undersea law over who owns what underwater and what they can do with it, when it comes to ancient wrecks and treasure with cross–competing claimants.
While the dispute could be simplified if all state parties were signatories of UNCLOS, there are self–interested reasons states have refrained. The U.S. has consistently refused to ratify the convention, claiming it would impinge on its sovereignty. Colombia, for its part, recently won a long–running legal fight with Nicaragua over maritime boundary lines, during which its non–membership of UNCLOS was a consideration.
But UNCLOS is no silver bullet for these kinds of disputes. The convention doesn’t provide a clear mechanism for resolving salvor’s rights, a problem that could require some sort of rights–assigning committee or perhaps a multilateral convention. To truly settle these claims, these must also include a legal pathway for indigenous people to make the case that natural and cultural resources are theirs.
Such legal process clarity, if achieved in the end, would be the real treasure of the San José.
