Lorraine Williamson
More than 300 years after it sank during a naval clash, the Spanish galleon San José has resurfaced — at least in global headlines. The long-lost vessel, which went down off the coast of present-day Colombia in 1708, has become the centre of a complex international dispute involving governments, private companies, and even indigenous communities.
The wreck is believed to hold one of the most valuable cargoes ever lost at sea: gold, silver, and emeralds now estimated to be worth between €17 and €18 billion. But who owns this extraordinary treasure remains fiercely contested.
New technology confirms the identity
The San José’s rediscovery dates back to 2015, when Colombian authorities located the wreck near the Baru Peninsula. However, it is only now — thanks to advances in underwater exploration — that scientists have definitively linked the wreck to the famous galleon.
Using unmanned submersibles equipped with cameras and 3D scanning technology, researchers examined coins scattered on the seabed. These coins feature clear markers tying them to the Spanish crown: the Jerusalem Cross and the heraldic emblems of Castile and León. Some bear mint stamps from Lima, Peru, and are dated 1707 — the year before the ship met its fate during battle with the British Royal Navy.
The legal battle for ownership intensifies
The confirmation of the ship’s identity has reignited the legal and diplomatic battle over who holds the rights to the treasure. For Spain, the San José is part of its national heritage. Citing the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, Spanish officials argue that the wreck belongs to the country under whose flag it sailed.
Colombia, however, asserts jurisdiction because the wreck lies within its territorial waters. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced plans to recover the treasure and display it publicly by 2026.
Adding further complication is the involvement of private and historical claimants. American salvage company Glocca Morra, which says it discovered the wreck decades earlier in 1981, claims a share of the find. Meanwhile, Bolivia’s Qhara Qhara indigenous group argues that their ancestors were forced to mine much of the treasure during the Spanish colonial era, giving them a moral claim to restitution.
A powerful symbol of Spain’s colonial history
The San José was one of the largest ships in Spain’s treasure fleet, tasked with transporting the riches of South America back to Europe. Its sinking marked not just the loss of enormous wealth, but also a blow to Spain’s maritime dominance during the early 18th century.
The gold coins and jewels recovered so far highlight the scale of Spain’s extractive colonial economy, built on the forced labour of indigenous and enslaved peoples across Latin America. For historians, the San José offers rare physical evidence of this fraught period of global expansion and exploitation.
Historical significance meets modern geopolitics
While its cargo is undeniably valuable, the San José has become far more than a shipwreck. The case now sits at the intersection of maritime law, international diplomacy, indigenous rights and post-colonial reckoning.
Negotiations are ongoing, but no resolution appears imminent. The wreck’s enormous financial value only raises the stakes. Meanwhile, for archaeologists and historians, the site offers an unprecedented opportunity to study early 18th-century naval construction, trade routes, and Spain’s global empire at its peak.
The San José’s fate may ultimately be decided not underwater, but in international courtrooms and diplomatic chambers. But whatever the outcome, the ship remains a potent symbol — both of unimaginable wealth lost to the sea, and of unresolved questions surrounding colonial legacies.
Historic shipwrek uncovered during excavation in central Barcelona
Sources: wikipedia.org, nationalgeographic