Spanish shipwreck treasure

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Level: Advanced

Objective: To discuss the recent result over the legal battle for treasure ownership

 

 

Словарный запас: Treasure, artefacts, to be bound for, wreck, galleon, protracted, sunken ships, last ditch attempt, minted, to fall on deaf ears, ruled out, ailing

 

“It’s a treasure almost beyond imagination. More than half a million silver coins and other artefacts were loaded onto these military planes bound for Spain; it’s thought the cargo is worth over half a billion dollars.

 

When a U.S. firm the Odyssey Marine Exploration discovered the wreck of a Spanish galleon off the coast of Portugal in 2007, it made headlines around the world. They hoped it would be the richest shipwreck haul in history. Instead it became a protracted legal battle over ownership of the galleon’s cargo; Spain claims the treasure as part of its cultural heritage and after five years in court they won. It took more than two centuries but now the coins, under heavy guard, have arrived back in Spain.

 

“We have during these five years total support from the U.S Navy. So the U.S. navy thinks like us in the sense that our sunken ships are these as I told you before, these ‘sacred places’, they are cemeteries, we don’t like that anybody goes there to touch them, so the U.S. Navy and us are on the same ship.”

 

The Peruvian government had made a last ditch attempt to prevent the coins from being sent back to Spain; they claimed they were mined, refined and minted in Peru when it was part of the Spanish empire, but their appeal fell on deaf ears. The Spanish government has reportedly ruled out the idea of selling the coins to pay off the country’s debt and help its ailing economy; instead they’ll be exhibited in museums across the country.

Andy Gallagher, AlJazeera, Florida.