Ship Leaves Spain Amid Treasure Tussle

The Ocean Alert leaves port after it was released by Spanish authorities in Algerciras, southern Spain, Wednesday, July 18, 2007. The ship, belonging to Florida's Odyssey Marine Exploration, was escorted into port on July 12 to have its holds searched. It left Spanish waters July 19, ending the latest round in an increasingly nasty dispute with that nation's government over the rights to a vast sunken treasure. A Spanish court ordered police to capture and search the Odyssey Explorer and Ocean Alert that recently announced it had found a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean laden with an estimated $500 million worth of Colonial-era treasure. (AP Photo/ EFE, A. Carrasco Ragel) (A. Carrasco Ragel - AP)

But two weeks after Odyssey made headlines with news of the "Black Swan" treasure, Spain filed a claim in federal court in Tampa and has tried to force the company to disclose more details. That could happen as early as Monday, when Odyssey's next court filing is due.

Culture Ministry spokeswoman Diana Lara said Thursday that Spain's next legal move will depend on what Odyssey reveals in court.

Even if another country or party is able to prove a claim to the shipwreck and its cargo, Odyssey said it would apply for a salvage award in U.S. federal court, which has jurisdiction over admiralty cases. In similar cases, salvage companies are usually awarded a large percentage of the recovery.

Some experts believe Odyssey found the wreck of the Merchant Royal, a British ship loaded with tons of Spanish coins that sank off the southwestern tip of England in 1641. The company received exclusive salvage rights to a wreck site in the area where the Merchant Royal is believed to have gone down.

But Spanish officials say circumstantial evidence indicates otherwise. Odyssey acknowledges operating near Spanish waters this year, searching for another undisclosed wreck in international waters with the full knowledge of the government, according to the affidavit.

In March, before the "Black Swan" story broke, Spanish officials gave Odyssey permission to resume its search for the wreck of a British vessel, the HMS Sussex, in the western Mediterranean Sea.

Despite Odyssey's emphatic statements to the contrary, some in Spain believe the "Black Swan" treasure came from the Sussex, which was leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean for a war against France in 1694 when it sank in a storm off Gibraltar.

Spanish media reported that Odyssey operated in the region in March, but Odyssey said it was there only to sink a prop treasure chest as a part of a contest promotion connected to Disney's movie, "Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End."

Stemm said the company typically uses Gibraltar, a British territory on the southern tip of Spain, as a base for any of its operations in that part of the world.