The richest shipwreck ever holds around $18 billion in treasure.
When the San José first set sail in 1698, it probably wasn’t expecting to be making headlines three centuries later. The 64-gun galleon belonging to the Spanish navy sank in 1708’s Battle of Barú, but that wasn’t the end of its story. Long known as the “holy grail” of shipwrecks, the San José met its watery end off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia, with 200 tons of gold and emeralds aboard. It’s presumed to be worth as much as $18 billion, which explains why several different entities have laid claim to the shipwreck since its discovery in the 1980s.
That includes Spain (who launched it), Colombia (near whose coast it now resides), the American salvage company that found it, and Indigenous groups in South America whose people originally mined the treasure in Bolivia. Court battles over the riches have been held in Colombia, the United States, and even the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. The case is unlikely to be settled anytime soon, with at least one expert, Colombian maritime archaeologist Juan Guillermo Martín, suggesting a novel solution: Leave the San José and its treasure undisturbed at the bottom of the ocean.
