Treasure Ship's Half-billion-dollar Question: Who Owns the Treasure?

Treasure ship's half-billion-dollar question: Who owns it?

The Merchant Royal limped through the sea on Sept. 23, 1641, weighed down by tons of gold, silver and jewels, and sank. The ship, though privately owned by Britons, carried a load of treasure fresh from Spain's American mines.

In May 2007, Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration released footage of gold and silver coins it says came from a shipwreck. The company has been tight-lipped about the ship's identity...but British shipwreck historian Richard Larn, who maintains the seven-volume, nearly 50, 000-entry Lloyd's Shipwreck Index of the British Isles, said he's almost certain Odyssey has found the Royal.

With this recovery will come important questions. Who owns treasure? Spain, the country that mined the gold and silver? England, the country whose ship transported it? The descendants of the slaves who dug it out of mines? The captain of the ship? Or is it the company that found it - Odyssey?

These questions might be considered academic, until one realises that the value of the treasure could be over half a billion, and who knows, perhaps even much more than than given the uncertain values that people place on antique and vintage treasures.

That's a billion dollar question for you today!

Read the full report from the St Petersburg Times