By Carol Blair Vaughn

Last week, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos announced via Twitter that Colombia had found the Spanish galleon San Jose, which he called “the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity.”

Legend holds that the San Jose was sunk on June 8, 1708, in the Caribbean Sea near Cartagena, Colombia, with a treasure on board worth between 4 and 15 billion dollars.  The ship was the flagship of a Spanish armada of 15 ships which were sailing from Cartagena to Panama, when they came under attack by the British, and the San Jose was sunk with roughly 600 people aboard.  The armada was returning to Spain with tax revenues, gold and silver coins, and gems from the New World – most of it from the incredibly lucrative silver mines of Peru.  It sank near the Rosario Islands Archipelago.

The San Jose was a 1,066-ton, 3-decked ship, about 150 feet long, and armed with 64 guns for self-defense.  The loot they were defending was intended to be used by Spanish King Phillip V, to fund his War of Succession against the British.  Historians argue that the treasure had itself been stolen from the indigenous, miners, and settlers of the New World.

The real battle, however, appears to be over what will happen with the treasure of the San Jose now that it has been found in its watery grave.

There seem to be 3 legitimate contenders to the treasure trove:  the government of Colombia, in whose waters it was discovered; Spain, whose ship it was originally; and an American outfit called Sea Search Armada, who claims to have found the shipwreck originally in 1982.

This find has been described as possibly the most valuable treasure trove ever lost at sea.  Sea Search Armada (SSA), is an investment group of 100, which included the late actor Michael Landon, and convicted Nixon White House adviser John Ehrlichman, among other well-known Americans.  In 1979, SSA signed a deal with Colombia which gave them exclusive rights to search for the San Jose, and keep 50% of what they found.  In 1984, Colombian President Belisario Betancourt issued a decree reducing that amount to a 5% finder’s fee.  The investors of SSA were very rich, for a very short period of time.

The battle over ownership was supposedly resolved for once and for all by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling of 2011 which found that Colombia held all the rights to items deemed to be “national cultural patrimony.” Colombia’s President Santos has said he will build a new museum in Cartagena and the wreck is reported to fall within the United Nations definition of an Underwater Heritage Site.

Donilo Devies, a Colombian lawyer working for SSA , said he feels most of the cargo would not be considered Colombian patrimony because the San Jose was a Spanish ship, coming from Peru.  Devies says, “If anything, it is Peru’s cultural patrimony.”

Others feel that way too much attention is being paid to the financial worth of the find, and not enough to the unfortunate 600 people who perished.  Professor Justin Leidwanger of Stanford University’s Archeology Center said, “This is not only about raising a bunch of shiny coins.  It’s a discovery of extraordinary cultural and historical importance.”

President Santos has been cagey about exactly where the wreck lies on the ocean floor, but claims that the bronze cannons with dolphins etched on them are absolute proof of the find.  The ship is probably in about 800 feet of water with temperatures cold enough to preserve large parts of the ship, including fabric and human remains.  And of course, gold, silver, emeralds, and other jewels don’t break down underwater – but some of the stamps on coins may have worn off.

President Santos declared last week, “I am very pleased, as head of state, to inform you that without a doubt, we have found, 307 years after its sinking, the galleon San Jose.”

What a shame that the value of silver is down worldwide at the moment.  It should take a couple of years to recover the treasure, which might give the value a chance to go back up again.

An interesting fact about the value of the San Jose, is that the famous Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote in his 1985 Love in the Time of Colera, that the San Jose went down with 500 million pesos aboard, but when his novel was translated into English, the amount was erroneously translated as 500 Billion pesos.

They would have needed a much bigger boat!

About the Author

Carol Blair Vaughn holds a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts and is a retired college professor from Washington, D.C. She inherited her love for Latin America from her father, the former U.S. Ambassador
to Colombia, Panama, and Director of the Peace Corps, Jack Vaughn. Carol writes for the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR) and for an English language club in the southern region of Costa Rica. In the past, Carol served as Editor in Chief of What’s on Tap magazine.