The Spanish navy yesterday seized an American treasure-hunting ship which is suspected of stealing £250 million worth of gold and silver from a sunken Spanish galleon.

A navy corvette blocked the path of the Odyssey Explorer after it left the safety of Gibraltar and threatened to open fire when the captain refused to let them board.

The warship, flanked by vessels from the Spanish Civil Guard, escorted the boat to the Spanish port of Algeciras so police could search it.

Speaking on the bridge of the 250ft Odyssey Explorer as the corvette loomed off the starboard bow, Captain Sterling Vorus told The Daily Telegraph: “I have no choice but to comply with the Spanish who have said I must turn around or face the threat of deadly force.”

After a four-hour stand off in port in which the captain refused to allow Civil Guards aboard, a dozen officers erected a gangplank and boarded the ship. (more…)

The interception of the treasure-hunt ship off the coast of Gibraltar is the latest broadside in a tense battle between a US-based salvage company and the Kingdom of Spain over an unidentified shipwreck and the ownership of its rich haul of gold and silver coins.

On Tuesday, patrol boats from Spain’s maritime police intercepted the 76m Odyssey Explorer, owned by underwater salvage firm Odyssey Marine International, three miles off the coast of Gibraltar. It was escorted to the Spanish port of Algeciras.

Spain’s Civil Guard has been keeping a close eye on the company’s vessel since a Spanish judge ordered that it be detained and searched if it left port in Gibraltar.

The company says its recovery vessel has been effectively blockaded since the ruling in June. Spain believes it could provide clues to the identity and location of the wreck that yielded half-a-million colonial era silver and gold coins.

It suspects that a Spanish galleon is being secretly plundered - or that the wreck lies in Spanish waters.

Odyssey Marine Explorations - which became the most famous deep water treasure hunting company when it announced the discovery last May - says it is keeping the location of the wreck secret, to protect the site from looters.

All it is saying is that the wreck - codenamed Black Swan - is somewhere in the Atlantic.

Manhattan, New York – Everyone at R.M. Smythe & Co., Inc., (http://www.smytheonline.com) is going to have a very busy week starting October 29th 2007 in what can only be described as a frenzied whirlwind of auctions. They will offer a exciting suite of four consecutive sales to include; coins and artifacts from the 1784 shipwreck of the El Cazador on Oct. 30th; paper money & stock certificate on Oct. 31st at 11AM EDT; obsolete notes from the Schingoethe collection on Oct. 31st at 6pm EDT and a mail-bid / live Internet auction of paper and ephemera on November 1st at 11AM EDT. All of the auctions will be held at the R. M. Smythe auction gallery in Manhattan.

The one week, four auction, whirlwind of over 5500 lots includes a historically fascinating mix of items. Among the more noteworthy offerings are artifacts and rare coins recovered from the ship El Cazador (The Hunter). On January 11, 1784 El Cazador left from Vera Cruz for New Orleans, and the then Spanish Louisiana with 450,000 freshly minted coins in its hold. The task was to shore up the local economy by retiring discredited Spanish currency, issued some 20 years earlier. The Ship, her crew, and the treasure she was carrying disappeared without a trace. Smythe & Co. is offering 43 lots recovered from the wreck of the El Cazador in their Oct. 30th auction. Some of the more interesting items include:

Lot# 1616 - 18th Century Spanish Bronze Breech Loaded Cannon. Typical form, 39 1/2” in length. Bourbon arms of Charles III on top of barrel. Breach fired cannon with breech block present. Minor damage to pindle. Nice surfaces with only traces of verdigris. One of only 40 cannons that were reported on the El Cazador. The fact that the breech block is present is simply amazing. Cannon weighs 200+ pounds. (more…)

A thousand-year-old Viking treasure trove has been dug up in a garden in Sweden, archaeologists report. The hoard of silver coins from Europe, central Asia, and the Middle East was unearthed earlier this month by a gardener tending his vegetable patch on the Baltic island of Gotland.

So far 69 coins dating from the late 900s and early 1000s have been found, said archaeologist Dan Carlsson of Gotland University. The find contains rare early Viking money and foreign currency from present-day England, Germany, Ireland, Iraq, and Uzbekistan.

Along with a similar cache recently discovered in England, the new find paints a picture of Vikings trading and looting their way across Europe and beyond.

MADRID: Odyssey Marine Exploration, the U.S. treasure hunter, has acknowledged that it recovered more than 11,000 Spanish gold and silver coins as part of its much-publicized haul from a shipwreck whose ownership is being challenged by Spain, court papers show.

Britain has given Spain copies of two export licenses that Odyssey officials filed with the Gibraltar government detailing the booty it shipped out to the United States on two private transport planes. The treasure was flown to New York on April 10 and May 14.

The Spanish government filed the export licenses late Wednesday with U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, where Spain is challenging Odyssey’s petitions to exclusive salvage rights on three shipwreck sites that the company said it discovered this year in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Besides the 10,800 silver and 203 gold coins, Odyssey told the Gibraltar customs authorities that it also brought to the surface three gold boxes; copper, tin and bronze ingots; a cannonball; and a bronze pulley wheel.

It estimated the value of the trove at $1.49 million. (more…)