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Treasure boat seized

— PHOTO: AFP

The Ocean Alert.

Madrid: A U.S.-owned treasure hunting boat was stopped by Spanish police on Thursday and forced into port so it could be searched for evidence that it might be holding gold or silver coins recovered from shipwrecks. A Spanish judge has ordered that the vessel be searched for traces of the 5,00,000 silver coins that the owners, Odyssey Marine Exploration, say they legally recovered from a secret shipwreck site they code-named Black Swan. Politicians, media and the courts have insisted that the treasure may be Spanish. But the company, which flew the coins to United States via Gibraltar earlier this year, denies that the treasure was found in Spanish waters. The Spanish Government has appointed lawyers in the U. S. to pursue a claim for $500 million worth of gold and silver. It is one of the vessels recovering treasure from the HMS Sussex, which sank off Gibraltar in 1694. —

Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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