‘Holy grail’ shipwreck holding ‘£16billion of treasure’ to be hauled to the surface 300 years after Brits sank it
A SHIPWRECK with £16billion worth of treasure is set to be recovered from the sea 300 years after Brits sunk it.
Dubbed the “holy grail of shipwrecks” the legendary San Jose Galleon is finally due to be taken out of the Caribbean Sea.
The packed ship was the jewel in the crown of the Spanish Navy during the War of the Spanish Succession before being blown up by in 1708.
The actual location of the wreck is still a mystery but is believed to be off the coast in Cartagena, Colombia.
The countries government are the only people who know it’s actual spot on the sea floor.
Their president Gustavo Petro has recently ordered his administration to bring the San Jose out from the water as soon as possible so the treasure can be looked at.
Petro wants to bring the 62-gun, three-masted ship to the surface as soon as possible before his term ends in 2026, according to Minister of Culture Juan David Correa.
He told Bloomberg: “This is one of the priorities for the Petro administration.
“The president has told us to pick up the pace.”
Powder magazines onboard the San Jose took the souls of the 600 crew members onboard, before sinking itself and leaving a hoard of gold, silver and emeralds lost at sea to rust.
Historians honoured it with the title of the “holy grail” because it was carrying one of the largest amounts of treasure ever lost at sea.
The Colombian Navy sent a remotely operated vehicle in 2017 to a depth of 3,100ft to assess the notorious wreckage and give a glimpse into what was sitting onboard.
Incredible images showed gold pieces, cannons and perfectly preserved Chinese porcelain cups scattered across the San Jose.
Trinkets were seen twinkling under the light of the cameras as bronze cannons, swords, and clay vessels were spotted on the seafloor.
Due to this insane amount of riches sitting untouched a legal battle over who owns the treasure started.
The fiery row between Spain, Bolivia and Colombia sparked fury over who owned the precious booty with Spain claiming it as theirs as it’s on one of their ships.
Bolivia’s indigenous Qhara Qhara nation believes it’s theirs as they were forced to mine the precious metals by the Spanish.
But Colombia now considers the San Jose as part of its cultural heritage and as it was found in their territorial waters by them they want the great find all to themselves.
Another huge lawsuit over the true location of the treasure has been going on for years now.
In 1981, US company Glocca Morra claimed it discovered the lost treasure and gave Colombia its location in return for a big reward.
They were allegedly promised half of whatever was found and sold on but in 2015 Colombia announced they had found the wreck in a different spot and kept it quiet.
Glocca Morra — now called Sea Search Armada — started to sue the government as they still believe they found the right place and are just being left out of the hunt.
Under the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, the company are asking for either half of the treasures or $10billion, according to Bloomberg.
The lawsuit values the treasure at anywhere between $4-$20billion.
Colombian researchers apparently visited the coordinates shared by Sea Search Armada but couldn’t find any evidence of a shipwreck.
Earlier this year another huge hunt for lost treasure started.
Shipwreck hunters began scouring the bottom of the ocean for £4million worth of treasure that sank with a boat almost 150 years ago.
A devastating 325 people died as two boats collided and the precious loot was lost under the sea in the deadliest maritime disaster in the history of the western US.
Over the years as technology has improved, an increasing number of discoveries have been made on the ocean’s floor, from silver coins from the Viking era, to lost royal gems.
The San Jose sits alongside other expensive ruins such as The Black Swan Project and the Titanic.