MOD partners ship-wreck treasure hunters

Jon Lewes explores the details of the billion pound deal and the possible threat to our underwater cultural heritage

About a dozen miles oft' the coast of Gibraltar, 1,000 metres below the surface ofsome of the busiest ship ping lanes in the world, is thought to lie the wreck of HMS Swsstx once the flagship of one of Britain's fin est fleets. Twenty-three other ships from the fleet of eighty were sunk by the storm in which the Siisst'.r foundered together with many of the ships from the convoy of mer chantmen the fleet was protecting. Loss of life totalled more than 1,200, which included all of the crew of 500 of the Swsset,save two,and the Admiral of the fleet. Admiral Wheeler, whose body was later found washed up on the beach in Spain.

The tragedy took place when the fleet was a day out of Gibraltar sail ing for the Eastern Mediterranean early in the morning of the third day of the storm,February 19,1694.

Some three months earlier the Swsst'x had set sail with the fleet from her base at Spithead, heading south to take up station near Cadiz with orders to protect the Spanish 'Plate' fleet. It was the time of the Nine Years' War and at that time France was the enemy. Spain was an ally,so the British fleet gave pro tection to the Spanish ships return ing with precious cargos from the Phillipines and from the Americas, going on to deliver to the Mediter ranean ports.

The Shsscx had additional,secret, orders to pick up from Gibraltar a payment to deliver to the Duke of Savoy, a payment of gold as a pay off for the Duke's military support of Britain in the war against France. That payment consisted of coins and gold bullion to the value of one million pounds sterling, estimated to have a value today of some two billion pounds sterling, perhaps more.

That payment went to the bot tom,1,000 metres down,instead of being paid over to the Duke of Sa voy.He accepted instead a payment from the French for his support, thus changing the course of the war and of subsequent European his tory.

Now, more than 300 years later, while a salvage operator claims to have located ^e wreck and intends to recover the treasure, the argu ments continue as to whom,to what country, the lost treasure, if recov ered, will belong.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisa tion (Unesco) has calculated that there are some three million wrecked vessels in the world's seas and waterways with rights and ob ligations regarding salvage covered by international conventions — un der Customary International law UK authorities have jurisdiction over the wrecks of British ships wherever they might lie. On the basis of that law the UK govern ment has given permission to an American exploration company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, the company that carried out the sal vage of the Titanic, to salvage the Sussex with a partnership deal be ing made between Odyssey and the UK's Ministry of Defence. In the meantime,the regional government of Andalusia has claimed that Od yssey also needs permission from Spain to carry out exploration in Spanish waters and hassent out the Guardia Civil's coastal patrols to disrupt the salvage operation. The captain of the Odyssey's salvage vessel has recently been summoned to a court hearing in La Linea, but, after legal opinion was sought on the jurisdictions involved,the com pany instructed him that he did not need to make an appearance and to continue with the salvage opera tions.

In a statement Greg Stemm, cofounder of Odyssey, said: "We re spect international law and have continued the Sussex project based on the official communications that have taken place between the rel evant governments and transmitted to Odyssey. We believe that we are in good legal standing with all the competent governing authorities that have jurisdiction in this mat ter and wc intend to continue op erations on the shipwreck believed to be HMS Sussex. Wc are con cerned that a significant amount of false and misleading information has been furnished to the Spanish media. Nevertheless we are stead fast in our resolve to continue the Sussex excavation according to the approved project plan while at tempting to address all reasonable concerns by relevant authorities".

The deal that Odyssey has struck with the Ministry of Defence means that in return for financing and car rying out the salvage operation the company will get a share in the treasure — 80'/". of the first 45 mil lion pounds recovered, half of eve rything up to 500 million pounds and 40% of everything above that. Odyssey is quoted on the stock ex change and its shares have per formed well as a result of this agree ment.The UK government will fur ther benefit by undertaking joint marketing for the sale of artefacts recovered from the wreck,together with handing over exclusive rights to merchandise traded under the name HMS Su.sscx in return for a royalty.

"It is questionable, to say the least, whether a government agency responsible for selling off defence equipment should be in charge of such a sensitive heritage issue.

During the Odyssey's earlier search expeditions418 targets were located, many of which were mod ern shipwrecks or debris but sev eral have turned out to be ancient shipwreck sites including Phoenician and Roman sites over 2,000 years old. Some archaeolo gists have expressed doubt about the identity of the wreck, but Od yssey says it is confident that it has located the right wreck,a view sup ported in part, it says, by the fact that it is the only wreck with can ons. The canons are English, not Spanish or French,and another clue to the identity is the lack of olive oil jars on the wreck indicating that the wreck is not Spanish.The wreck is also "very close to the position where the Fleet Secretary reported in 1694 that the Sussex had foundered", says Odyssey. "It lies at great depth on a gently graded slope with a gen erally level seabed. The observed wreck mound measures 33 metres in length and 12 metres in width and is elevated six to seven metres above the surrounding seabed."

The salvage company has advised the British government the exact lati tude and longitude of the wreck but will not release the information publicly for " operational and se curity reasons." The com pany says it is concerned that other salvage opera tors may just go after the treasure with "grab buck ets" showing no concern for the cultural and intrin sic value of the artefacts and for that reason has not released the exact location of the wreck.

The salvage agreement is consid ered to be in full agreement with the Valetta Convention but archaeolo gists at the Council for British Ar chaeology have stated their concern that the "British government is giv ing legitimacy to a principle that is not widely accepted...the unique agreement between the salvage company and the Ministry of De fence,the first of its kind,could set a precedent for the looting of wrecks around the world....the sal vage company is clearly trying to be reasonable and responsible, but the same situation in the hands of less scrupulous people could end up with the looting of wrecks. The concern is not specifically about this case - it's the precedent it sets for others, especially cases that may not bo handled in such a suitable way."

The Council for British Archaeology is "an edu cational charity that pro motes knowledge,appre ciation and care of the his toric environment for present and future gen erations."

The Council believes that" instead of promot ing, and benefiting from, commercial treasurehunting under the guise of archeology, Britain should sign up to the Unesco Convention on Protection of the Under water Cultural Heritage and use the naval base at Gibraltar to develop and demonstrate ways in which governments might patrol and monitor their his toric wreck sites in international waters"

It goes on to say,"It is question able,to say the least,whether a government agency responsible for selling off defence equipment should be in charge of such a sensi tive heritage issue. If the Govern ment believes this deal is ethical, it should publish full details of the agreement and its policy in this matter."