A sunken ship described as being the “Holy Grail of Shipwrecks” is set to be recovered by Colombia, even as claims as to who discovered the ship first are ongoing.
President Gustavo Petro instructed officials to exhume the 62-gun San Jose galleon, which contains roughly $20 billion in treasure, off the floor of the Caribbean Sea as soon as possible, Juan David Correa, the Minister of Culture confirmed to Bloomberg.
Petro reportedly wishes to have the shipwreck recovered before his term ends in 2026 and has asked for a private partnership in order to get the task accomplished.
“This is one of the priorities for the Petro administration,” Correa explained in a phone interview. “The president has told us to pick up the pace.”
This comes a year after the Colombian military released photos of the various treasures from the sunken ship.
$20 billion San José shipwreck to be exhumed in battle over sunken treasure https://t.co/RHaczIlufu pic.twitter.com/PxHSWKKg0l
— New York Post (@nypost) November 6, 2023
The Spanish galleon, along with its crew of 600 and a large amount of silver, gold, emeralds, and millions of pesos in gold and silver coins was sunk while in battle with the British on June 8, 1708. It has been estimated that the treasure is worth anywhere from $4 billion to $20 billion.
While in battle, the powder magazines on the San Jose detonated, leading to the ships sinking.
In 1981, a U.S. company called Glocca Morra came forward and claimed that it had discovered the wreckage of the San Jose and provided the Colombian government with the coordinates to the ship.
Years later in 2015, former President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the Colombian Navy had been working with another company and had discovered the shipwreck at another location. The coordinates of the shipwreck have remained a secret.
Now called the Sea Search Armada, the company formerly known as Glocca Mora claims that the Colombian government’s discovery in 2015 was part of the same debris field and is suing the Colombian government for $10 billion, or roughly half the estimated fortune, according to the outlet.
IJR reached out to the Colombian Navy for a statement but did not receive a response by the time of publication.