Posted on 07/13/2007 7:11:19 AM PDT by RDTF
The Spanish Civil Guard has intercepted a boat operated by a US company amid a row over treasure from a shipwreck. The guard had been ordered by a Spanish judge to seize the vessel as soon as it left the British colony of Gibraltar.
Gibraltar officials and Odyssey Marine Exploration, which owns the ship, said Spain had boarded the ship illegally as it was in international waters.
In May, Odyssey said it had found $500m (£253m) in coins from a 17th Century wreck somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
Madrid suspects the sunken galleon may either have been Spanish or have gone down in Spanish waters.
The salvaged booty, which included half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects, has already been flown back to the US.
'Threat of force'
After leaving Gibraltar, the Ocean Alert was picked up at about 0700 GMT on Thursday off Europa Point and sent to the Spanish port of Algeciras to be searched, the Civil Guard said.
The guard was investigating a possible "offence against Spanish historic heritage", it said in a statement.
Odyssey said the boarding was illegal and said the Civil Guard threatened to use force if Ocean Alert's captain did not follow orders. It said Spain had earlier promised the ship would be searched at sea.
"At this point, Odyssey is assuming that the action on the part of the Guardia Civil is a miscommunication between Spanish authorities," the Florida-based company said in a statement.
A spokesman for the governor of Gibraltar said the ship was in international waters at the time it was seized.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
ooops typo- date should read July 13, 2007
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Mexico has a more valid claim than Spain...........
Guardia Civil = Pirates of the Mediterranean
If there was a single coin from the salvage on the ship or an unredacted copy of the ship’s log, I will be surprised.
With all the public allegations that the Spanish were making concerning this salvage, the salvors would have to have been pretty careless to stray into Spanish waters, giving the Spanish an opportunity to board. In all likelihood the salvage vessel was in international waters.
Good old Spain. They’ll fight for money but not liberty. Some things NEVER change.
Arrrgghhh - hands off me booty, mate!
old habits die hard.. Spain is a nation of wimps and thieves. all they have today is based on the plundering of the new world. If they want to get technical about whose gold it is they need to look over this way.
We should keep it to pay for thier portion of the War Of Civilization they abandoned.
Absolutely correct...excellent post.
The problem is the “we”-—apparently the ship being held is a private entity not a public one. I’m not sure of the laws involved.
ODYSSEY VESSEL FORCED TO ALGECIRAS BY GUARDIA CIVIL
• Gib Govt says arrest could be illegal and joins UK insisting waters are international
Brian Reyes, Gibraltar Chronicle reporter, was on board Ocean Alert.
Odyssey Marine Exploration’s treasure hunting vessel Ocean Alert was boarded by Guardia Civil officers yesterday morning and taken to the port of Algeciras under threat of arrest.
The British and Gibraltar governments, together with the company, said the boarding took place in international waters and appeared to be illegal. Spain said it took place in Spanish waters under their jurisdiction.
Once in Algeciras the vessel was searched under an order from a La Linea court and the documents and possessions of those on board were seized for inspection.
The Panama-registered vessel left Gibraltar early yesterday morning having informed the Spanish authorities of its intended departure a day earlier.
The crew on the ship expected to be stopped and boarded, but they were not anticipating being taken into a Spanish port.
The Ocean Alert sailed from the Naval Base at 08.50 and was shadowed out of Gibraltar waters by a Guardia Civil patrol boat.
Three and half miles off Europa Point, the vessel was contacted by the Guardia Civil.
“You are in Spanish territorial waters,” a Guardia Civil officer said over the radio. “We are going to board your vessel.”
Sterling Vorus, master of the Ocean Alert, replied that his ship was in international waters.
The exchange went on for a few minutes with neither side shifting. The mood on the bridge of the Ocean Alert became increasingly tense.
Finally, with no other choice, Captain Vorus agreed to the boarding and spoke over the radio: “We are in international waters and you are boarding us without our consent.”
At around 10am and with the Rock in the distant background, a Guardia Civil patrol boat came alongside the Odyssey vessel and four officers jumped on board, heading straight to the bridge.
The boarding was closely monitored by a Spanish navy corvette and a Guardia Civil rigid-hull inflatable boat, which held position just a few hundred metres away.
The Guardia Civil officer in charge told Captain Vorus that he had an order from the Number Three court in La Linea requiring him to take the Ocean Alert into the port of Algeciras for an inspection by court officers.
The captain was advised that failure to comply would lead to his arrest.
Odyssey lawyer Marie Rogers, who was on board, said: “The master was not given an option. They came on board and that was it.”
Odyssey maintains that the boarding was illegal because as far as the company is concerned, it happened in international waters.
The company said that under international law the Guardia Civil officers could only on board if invited by the vessel or its flag state, adding that Odyssey would have willingly allowed them on the ship under those terms.
As late as yesterday evening diplomatic efforts had been underway to arrange just such an arrangement, known as a compliant boarding.
But the Guardia Civil’s insistence that the ship was in Spanish waters turned that expectation on its head.
Aladar Nesser, who is in charge of Odysseys International Business Development and was on board the vessel, said: “We made it clear to them that we were being illegally boarded in international waters under threat of force.”
Alongside in Algeciras, everyone on board the ship was asked to file off and was frisked as they stepped off the gangplank, though no one was arrested.
No one was exempt from the checks. Your correspondent had his laptop, camera and notebook confiscated. The Odyssey lawyer also had a work laptop filled with confidential client information confiscated.
All that material was sealed in evidence bags by judicial officers from the Guardia Civil and was still in their custody as this edition went to press.
Last night the ship remained alongside in Algeciras under guard by the Guardia Civil and all access was restricted.
The court order from La Linea includes allegations that Odyssey may have broken Spanish heritage laws. The claims cover a period dating back to 2001.
As this edition went to press, lawyers for the company were assessing the situation and preparing a course of action for the coming days.
The governments of the UK, the US and Gibraltar were also closely monitoring developments. Representatives of the Panamanian government had also been contacted.
Yesterday’s developments represent a marked escalation in a controversy that has raged for weeks since the company announced it had recovered a valuable treasure from an unidentified wreck - codenamed Black Swan - in the Atlantic.
Odyssey says the Black Swan was discovered in international waters but Spain is convinced it may have a right to a claim. There is also a suspicion in Madrid that the treasure trove may have been illegally recovered in Spanish waters, a claim Odyssey rejects.
There are several articles re this seizure at this link to the Gibraltar Chronicle
However, since Mexico has sent hordes of invaders north to plunder the United States, then we have the better claim.
Maybe Odyssey Marine Exploration needs to threaten to set off a bomb in a Spanish railroad sation or something. That sure brought about a quick surrender last time it was tried, didn't it?
John Edwards is an investor in the company that owns the boat.
We've seen how the Spanish wimp out when faced with the threat of force.
L
oooo... thanks for my new sig - do you mind?
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