back to 1622 the treasure laden Nuestra Senora de Atocha, (Our Lady of Atocha), was hit by a hurricane and sank in 55 feet of water, of the 265 people on board, only five - three sailors and two slaves survived - by clinging on to the stump of her mast, a month later a second hurricane blew through, further destroying the wreck, for the next 60 years Spanish salvages searched n vain for the galleon, but they never found a trace,
fast forward to 1969, when Mel Fisher found the wreck, it was not any old wreck, it contained $450million in silver coins, gold coins - many in near mint condition, exquisite jewellery sets with precious stones, gold chains, disks, a variety of armaments and even seeds, which later sprouted, they then faced a legal wrangle with the U.S. Government claimed title to the wreck, Florida state officials seized many of the items the Fisher crew had retrieved, but after eight years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Fisher's favour, the latest find was likely owned by a member of the clergy, the chain has 55 links, an enamelled gold cross and a two-sided engraved religious medallion featuring the Virgin Mary and a chalice, shipwreck experts have tentatively valued the piece at around $250,000,
now here is a thought, many years ago explorers were taking from various cultures around the world works of art, I am thinking say the Elgin Marbles, which although obtained legally, (Lord Elgin had obtained a controversial permission from the Ottoman authorities to remove pieces from the Acropolis), the original owners, the peoples of Greece want them returned, also perhaps many of the artifacts that were taken from Egypt amongst others, which leads me to wonder under that logic when will Spain and Portugal give back all of the gold, silver and gems, at to days values of course, back to the peoples of the Americas they took it from? just a thought.
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