SPAIN:A Spanish warship forced a US treasure-hunting vessel back into port at gunpoint yesterday as it tried to leave Gibraltar, in the latest episode in a battle over what is claimed to be the world's largest recovery of treasure from the sea.
The Odyssey Explorer, a 250ft salvage vessel, was trying to leave Gibraltar, where it had been effectively blockaded for three months after Spain claimed a share of millions of dollars worth of gold and silver coins it had recovered.
After setting sail, it was approached by a Spanish navy gunboat and civil guard patrol ship once it passed the three-mile buffer zone that surrounds Gibraltar and forced to turn round and head for the Spanish port of Algeciras. "We were forced at gunpoint to come to Algeciras," said Ali Nessar, a company representative on the boat.
Following a stand-off, the boat was boarded and searched for information that Spanish authorities hope could lead to the site of the treasure. The ship's captain, Sterling Vorus, was arrested for disobeying orders and was facing a night in jail.
The row centres on Odyssey Marine Exploration, run by Greg Stemm, the world's leading underwater treasure-hunter. His company trawls the ocean's floors looking for sunken treasure, which it then sells to collectors.
Founded in 1994, its first major success came with the recovery of $75 million worth of booty from the SS Republic, which sank off the coast of Florida in 1865.
In May Odyssey took away what it later claimed were $500 million worth of silver and gold coins found in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean.
Spanish media reports suggest the coins were recovered from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, which sank off Portugal in 1804 after a battle with British warships. Down with it went more than a million silver coins.
The treasure has entered into Spanish lore as the world's greatest sunken booty; the idea that it might have been whisked away has incensed politicians and journalists.