[Luso]

Como gosto de arqueologia subaquática, tenho vindo a seguir as venturas da empresa Odissey que estará a efectuar o resgate dos despojos de um navio inglês do Séc XVII chamado Sussex. No entanto, acabo de ler que esse navio poderá ser o Nuestra Senhora de Las Mercedes que jaz em águas portuguesas e que até a algum tempo atrás estaria sob a vigilância da Marinha Portuguesa. Alguém pode acrescentar alguma coisa?
Estaremos a ser roubados descaradamente?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 673731.ece


A Spanish warship threatened to open fire on American treasure hunters yesterday as they tried to flee Gibraltar in the battle for a haul of gold and silver coins estimated to be worth half a billion dollars.

Amid rough seas, The Times watched from aboard the Odyssey Explorer as Spanish Civil Guards made two unsuccessful attempts to board the ship minutes after it set sail. However, high waves and driving rain made the operation impossible, prompting them to force the ship to port instead.

“Under the threat of deadly force, we have had to turn the ship around and proceed to Algeciras,” Aladar Nesser, an official from Odyssey Marien Exploration, said as the ship was escorted to port. The company claimed the ship was in international waters outside Gibraltar when the Spanish cut her off with a Corvette warship, a police patrol boat and a high-powered dinghy. Spain claims those waters are within its territorial boundaries.

Spanish officers served notice that they were investigating Odyssey’s suspected plunder of underwater archaeological sites and confiscated millions of pounds worth of evidence, including computer hard drives and the company’s multimillion-dollar underwater robot. Sterling Vorus, the ship’s captain, was arrested for “grave disobedience” after refusing to let the police on board, and taken into custody.

The operation was the latest skirmish in an international fight over what could be the greatest underwater treasure yet discovered. The haul of 500,000 coins has pitted a pugnacious company owned by Bob Hope’s former public relations man against a Spanish Government enraged at what it views as modern-day piracy.

It has also set the archaeological community – which views Odyssey’s profit-driven scans of the ocean floor with suspicion – against commercial salvage firms, whose deep pockets and high-tech submersibles are making it possible to explore underwater wrecks like never before.

And it has reignited Spanish anger over ownership of the Rock of Gibraltar, the tiny British colony at the centre of a 300-year tug-of-war between two former maritime powers.

The fight over the mytery shipwreck began earlier this year when Odyssey secured the consent of the British and Spanish Governments to dig-up the HMS Sussex, an 80-gun warship lost off the coast of Gibraltar in 1694. Odyssey says the wreck may contain coins worth billions of dollars today. But instead of the Sussex, Odyssey announced in May that it had found a huge treasure in a different wreck at a site it codenamed Black Swan – and that it had already spirited it away to Tampa, Florida.

Odyssey says that it acted entirely legally and only after the Spanish Government refused to reach a deal over how to share any discoveries in area. It says that the wreck was in international waters, around 180 nautical miles west of Gibraltar, but it will not say exactly where, claiming that such information could lead to looting.

Spain suspects that the wreck at Black Swan is a Spanish galleon called Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by the British fleet off Portugal in 1804. Court papers show that at least some of the coins recovered are Spanish, leading officials to believe that Odyssey recovered a Spanish treasure from a Spanish ship – even if it was outside its territorial waters.

Madrid’s US lawyer James Goold accuses Odyssey of engaging in an illegal game of hide-and-seek and has filed suit against the company in Tampa seeking the return of the treasure, as well as making claims on two other wrecks found by Odyssey.

Spain also accuses Odyssey of acting in a deceptive manner by playing down the value of its find until it had been spirited to the US. In its original export licenses filed with the Government of Gibraltar, Odyssey described its cargo as “encrusted clumps of silver coins in a corroded condition”, valuing the coins at $2.5 million, or $5 apiece. By June, however, the company said the coins had been valued at up to $500 million, or $1,000 each, sending the company’s shares sharply higher.

Nick Bruyer, and expert who examined a sample of the coins, described the haul as “unprecedented”. “I don’t know of anything equal or comparable to it,” he said.

Odyssey, meanwhile, has sued Spain for financial losses caused by the detention of its other boat, the Ocean Alert, in an almost identical manoeuvre in July. It is also seeking compensation for losses caused by the “obstruction of its operations” while its ships were stuck in Gibraltar .

Under the principle of “finders keepers”, admiralty courts tend to award the bulk a treasure to those who raise it from the deep. But it is not always so. Spain has dug in its heels and any legal battle could be protracted.

Meanwhile, Odyssey officials say that an undisclosed portion of the treasure still lies in the deep, protected only by its silence.

[papatango]

Se o navio estiver nas nossas águas territoriais, então está em território nacional e é propriedade portuguesa.

Se o navio está nas águas da nossa Zona Económica Exclusiva, então creio que o país a que pertencia, pode reclamar a sua posse.

The company claimed the ship was in international waters outside Gibraltar when the Spanish cut her off with a Corvette warship, a police patrol boat and a high-powered dinghy. Spain claims those waters are within its territorial boundaries.

Quando se sai de Gibraltar, está-se inevitavelmente em águas territoriais espanholas, pelo que os espanhóis têm o direito de apresar o navio.

Pessoalmente acho que esses caçadores de tesouros devem ser sovados em praça pública, mas é só uma opinião pessoal  

[Luso]

Pelos vistos são cada vez mais as notícias (não em português) que referem a Nustra Señora de Las Mercedes. Alegadamente este navio está a cerca de 7-8 léguas ao largo de Faro, ou seja, entre  40-50 km da costa.
Fora das 12 milhas das águas territoriais mas dentro das 200 da ZEE.
- E ninguém diz nada sobre o que se passa...

[hellraiser]

Pelos vistos são cada vez mais as notícias (não em português) que referem a Nustra Señora de Las Mercedes. Alegadamente este navio está a cerca de 7-8 léguas ao largo de Faro, ou seja, entre  40-50 km da costa.
Fora das 12 milhas das águas territoriais mas dentro das 200 da ZEE.
- E ninguém diz nada sobre o que se passa...

Segundo a convenção de Montego Bay, ao limite de "Mar Territorial" de 12 milhas náuticas, poderá ser acrescentada uma "Zona Contigua" com uma extensão máxima de 12 Milhas náuticas, iniciando-se esta, no limite exterior do "Mar Territorial" (num total de 24 milhas náuticas), onde o estado pode e dever exercer o seu direito de policiamento e protecção a material de valor histórico ou arqueológico. Infelizmente desde a Lei nr 33/77, Portugal abdica de uma Zona Contigua, e consequentemente não se pode prevalecer dos poderes e faculdades previstas no art. 303 da lei nr 13/85, sobre a defesa de património cultural, fora das 12 milhas do Mar Territorial.

[hellraiser]

já agora, se nos poder manter, ao corrente dessa exploração arqueológica, seria porreiro!  

[Luso]

Não havendo novidades (que eu saiba) coloco um vídeo de um achado espantoso no Báltico: um possível navio holandês supostamente do Séc. XVII em excelente estado de conservação. Já são dois: este e o Vrau Maria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoxtfA8WNfg

[comanche]

Não havendo novidades (que eu saiba) coloco um vídeo de um achado espantoso no Báltico: um possível navio holandês supostamente do Séc. XVII em excelente estado de conservação. Já são dois: este e o Vrau Maria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoxtfA8WNfg

Espectacular! Até parece uma montagem.